Squarespace costs more than the monthly figure on the advert. You pay for a plan that is cheaper only if you commit to a year, you may pay transaction fees if you sell on a lower tier, you usually pay separately for professional email, and you always pay in time if you build and run the site yourself. As of 2026 the UK plans (the old Personal, Business and Commerce names have been retired) sit around Basic £12 a month, Core £17, Plus £29 and Advanced £79 on annual billing. There is no free plan, only a 14-day trial. Check Squarespace’s site before you buy, because they change plans.
That is the short answer. The longer one is the three-year total, including the hours in the editor, set against a managed site at £99 setup and £29 a month, or £299 a year.
What do Squarespace’s 2026 UK plans cost?
Squarespace collapsed the old Personal / Business / Commerce ladder into a new set. Treat any article still quoting those names as out of date, including older posts on other blogs.
Approximate UK prices on annual billing in 2026:
- Basic, about £12 a month. A simple site. Fine for a thin brochure. Limited if you sell or need heavier features.
- Core, about £17 a month. The tier many small businesses actually land on.
- Plus, about £29 a month. More commerce and site power. Note that this already matches our monthly price before you have built anything.
- Advanced, about £79 a month. The top plan for serious selling and higher limits.
Pay monthly instead of annually and each figure rises. Squarespace is open about that. The number in the comparison table is still usually the annual one.
There is no free plan. You get 14 days to try it, then you pay or you lose the trial site. That is cleaner than Wix’s ad-supported free tier. It also means there is no “we will just stay on free” escape hatch.
Confirm current prices and what each tier includes on Squarespace’s own pricing page. This post is a 2026 snapshot, not a contract.
Why does the monthly price feel lower than the real cost?
Annual billing. The attractive per-month number assumes you pay for twelve months up front. If you want to go month to month while you “see how it goes”, you pay a premium for that flexibility.
The cheap plan is limited. Basic is not Core. Selling, extra commerce tools, or removing certain fees often means stepping up. The plan you compared to a designer’s quote may not be the plan you need in month four.
Transaction fees vary by tier. If you take payments, Squarespace can charge a percentage on each sale on lower plans, on top of the usual card-processing fee. Higher plans reduce or remove that platform fee. For a shop doing regular volume, the fee can dwarf the difference between Core and Plus. For a tradesperson who never sells a product online, it is irrelevant. Know which you are.
Domain in year one. Annual plans often include a custom domain for the first year. Years two and three are renewals. Cheap, easy to forget.
Email. A mailbox at your domain is typically a paired extra, not a line inside Basic. Budget for Microsoft 365 or Google Workspace if you want hello@yourbusiness.co.uk.
None of this is hidden in a legal sense. It is spread across several pages, which is how people under-budget.
How much should I add for selling on Squarespace?
If you do not sell, skip this section. If you do, do not skip it.
Card networks charge a processing fee whoever hosts you. That is not a Squarespace tax. The extra to watch is Squarespace’s own transaction fee on lower commerce-capable tiers. The exact percentage changes, which is why you should read their current table rather than a blog post. The pattern is stable: pay more for the plan, pay less per sale, or pay less for the plan and more per sale.
A rough way to think about it:
- Low volume, occasional products: the fee may be a nuisance, not a reason to change platform.
- Steady volume: multiply last year’s sales by the fee and compare that to the price of the next tier. Sometimes upgrading is cheaper than “saving” on the plan.
- Real shop, lots of SKUs, shipping rules, VAT: you may already be looking at Plus or Advanced, at which point the three-year plan cost is £1,044 or £2,844 before extras.
A hand-built shop is a quoted job with us, not the £99 one-page product. I will not pretend our standard site is a Squarespace Advanced replacement. For a local firm that only needs a page and a phone number, you are comparing the wrong tiers if you have Advanced in the basket.
How much is the time in the Squarespace editor worth?
Squarespace is prettier out of the box than most builders. That is its reputation and, often, true. Pretty is not the same as finished.
You still choose the template, write the words, crop the photos, fix the mobile view, connect the domain, and discover that a “simple” change moved three other things. Owners who picked Squarespace because it looked easier than Wix still report evenings lost to spacing, fonts and a checkout they did not fully understand.
A reasonable launch effort is still 10 to 30 hours for a decent small site. After that, every seasonal update, every new service, every photo dump from the phone is more time. Two hours a month for three years is 72 hours. Plus a 20-hour build: 92 hours. At £40 an hour that is £3,680 of labour that never appears on a Squarespace invoice. If your working hour is worth more than £40, scale it up.
Oilfire Heating in Uckfield had already tried Squarespace, and Wix, before coming to us. The complaint was not that the templates were ugly. It was the hours in a drag-and-drop editor when he needed to be on oil boilers. Steve would rather invoice a breakdown than pad a section. Ruby’s Bakery and Sindall came from Wix, not Squarespace. Same lesson, different login screen: the editor was the expensive part.
How does Squarespace compare to Page Forge over three years?
Annual Squarespace billing, plan fees only, 36 months. Check their site.
Basic: £12 × 36 = £432.
Core: £17 × 36 = £612.
Plus: £29 × 36 = £1,044.
Advanced: £79 × 36 = £2,844.
Then domain renewals after year one, email, transaction fees if they apply, and your time. Monthly billing would raise every total.
Page Forge one-page site: £99 + (£29 × 36) = £1,143. Or £99 + (£299 × 3) = £996. Domain, UK hosting, SSL, six updates a year, support, and we do the building. SEO and GEO from £99 one-off. Multi-page and shop work quoted.
Plus at £1,044 over three years is already level with our monthly path on the subscription line, and that is before you have opened the editor. Core at £612 looks cheaper until you add a mailbox, two domain renewals, and 90 hours of your time. Advanced is a shop-grade spend. Compare it to a quoted shop, not to a one-page Hassocks site.
The product comparison, if you want it without the arithmetic, is on our Squarespace alternative page.
What happens if I leave Squarespace?
You take your copy, your images and your domain (if you control the registrar login). You leave the template and the platform features. A new site is a rebuild, not a magic export that keeps every animation.
Ranking survives a move when URLs are mapped and redirected, Search Console stays connected, and the new pages still answer the same searches with clear, fast content. Ranking dies when someone changes every address and hopes. We treat that as part of the job on move from Squarespace.
Google still cares about speed. ChatGPT and similar assistants still prefer a page that states the facts early and loads without a fight. A Squarespace site can do that if you keep it lean. Many do not, because the template invites extra sections. A hand-built page has a lower ceiling for accidental weight.
Is Squarespace worth it for a small business?
It is worth it if you like design-led templates, you will put in the hours, and the plan you need is still cheaper than the value of those hours. It is a strong DIY product. I am not going to pretend the sites look bad. A careful owner can publish something handsome.
It is poorer value if you picked it to “save money” and then spent a month of evenings, or if you are on Plus or Advanced for a site that is really a contact page with a gallery. At £29 a month for Plus you are already at our monthly price, and you are still the designer.
A Page Forge one-pager is the other end of that trade: we build it, we host it, we change it six times a year, you stay on the tools. If you need a large shop, say so and we quote. Do not force either product to be the other.
If you want a single figure and a site built for you, pricing is the honest list of what we include, and what we quote.
Frequently asked questions
Is Squarespace’s monthly price the real cost?
Not on its own. The lower prices usually need annual payment, higher tiers cost more, selling can add transaction fees on lower plans, email is typically extra, and your build time is unpaid. Add those and the true cost sits above the table.
Does Squarespace charge transaction fees?
On lower tiers it can charge a fee per sale on top of normal card processing. Higher-priced plans generally reduce or remove that platform fee. Check the current Squarespace table for the percentage that applies to the plan you are considering.
Is there a free Squarespace plan?
No. There is a 14-day trial. After that you pay or the trial ends. That is simpler than a free plan covered in ads, and it means you should have a budget before you start decorating a template.
Is a managed website cheaper than Squarespace?
On Basic or Core plan fees alone, Squarespace can be cheaper than £29 a month. Once you count Plus or Advanced, transaction fees, email, and the hours in the editor, a managed site at £99 plus £29 a month (or £299 a year) is often the lower real cost. Always cheaper in time. Not always cheaper in plan fees.
Can I move off Squarespace without losing rankings?
Yes, if redirects are set up and the new pages still deserve the queries. The risk is sloppy URL changes, not the act of leaving. A planned move is boring on purpose.
Does Squarespace include email and a domain forever?
A custom domain is often included for the first year on an annual plan, then you renew it. Email is typically a separate product. Hosting sits inside the plan. Read the checkout lines, not just the big number.