Squarespace Review: Is It Worth Your Money? 2025 Updated

The eCommerce industry's explosion gives us opportunities to launch an online business in a trice. Hosted carts like Squarespace, for instance, can create a stunning and neat site after just a few clicks – but is it really worth it? Our Squarespace review will address the issue!

In the following lines, I will analyze intensively Squarespace functionalities and features as follows: 

• Pricing
• Design flexibility
• Ease of use
• eCommerce features
• Apps and add-ons
• SEO & marketing features
• AI tools
• Loading speed and hosting
• Security
• Support

Let's get the ball rolling!

---

Squarespace pros and cons

With that being said, what is Squarespace’s key strength (and weakness)? Before jumping into our detailed Squarespace review, let's take a closer look at its advantages and drawbacks to help you make an informed decision. Take a look at the table below, where I summarize all the advantages and disadvantages of Squarespace.

Pros

Overall, Squarespace is an excellent choice for beginners and non-technical users. Since the platform provides an intuitive drag-and-drop editor, you will find it easy to design and customize a website without needing web development skills.

Better yet, one of its standout features is the collection of visually appealing templates, which are modern, professionally designed, and fully responsive. This feature ensures that websites created with Squarespace maintain a polished and consistent look across different devices.

Most importantly, beyond aesthetics, Squarespace also offers a detailed and easy-to-understand analytics dashboard that provides insights into website performance, visitor traffic, and sales. We highly recommend this built-in analytics tool for businesses looking to track their growth without relying on third-party integrations. On top of all these benefits, Squarespace provides 24/7 customer support that ensures users can access assistance at any time, whether they need help with technical issues or general guidance on website management.

Cons

However, despite its strengths, Squarespace does have some limitations. For one, its section-based editor restricts drag-and-drop functionality to predefined areas, which can be frustrating for users who want complete freedom in designing their site. Additionally, while the platform is generally smooth, front-end edits can sometimes cause slow loading speeds, which may disrupt workflow.

Another significant drawback is the inability to switch templates once a website is built. Unlike other platforms that allow users to change their website’s theme without losing content, Squarespace requires manual adjustments; as a result, the redesign processes become more time-consuming.

---

Squarespace Review At A Glance

Below, I share my personal thoughts on Squarespace, followed by insights from other users who have tested the platform for their own needs.

My thoughts on Squarespace

After thoroughly evaluating Squarespace, I find it to be a highly polished and user-friendly platform that caters exceptionally well to individuals and businesses looking for a streamlined website-building experience. Its beautifully designed templates and intuitive drag-and-drop editor make it accessible even for those with no technical background. The inclusion of built-in analytics, SEO tools, and eCommerce functionality adds to its appeal, ensuring that users can manage their website and online store effectively without relying on third-party integrations.

Nevertheless, while Squarespace offers a strong foundation, its limitations may pose challenges for users with more advanced customization needs. The section-based editor, while structured, restricts design flexibility, and the inability to switch templates without manual adjustments can be an obstacle for those looking to refresh their website’s look. Additionally, I must say occasional slowdowns in the editing interface may affect the overall user experience.

Overall, Squarespace is a solid choice for creatives, entrepreneurs, and small business owners seeking a professional, visually appealing, and easy-to-manage website. However, users requiring deep customization, extensive third-party integrations, or greater design freedom may find other platforms better suited to their needs (I will return to these alternatives later).

Squarespace reviews from other customers

At the end of the day, my assessment still provides one perspective, so it's highly recommended to understand how other users experience Squarespace. To gain a broader view, I looked at feedback from reputable review platforms:

Lena. R (Founder on G2): 5/5

Squarespace is easy to use for someone who is not technical at all. The templates are awesome. It's easy to figure out things you get stuck on with all of the resources provided. It's so intuitive. I have two websites for different parts of my business – one eCommerce and one ‘normal' website – and I love how easy they both are to build and maintain.

Bradlc (Trustpilot): 4/5

Perfect? No. Solid and Worthwhile? Yes.

I have four websites on Squarespace (including an ecomm shop) and have been on the platform for two years. I'm surprised by all of the one-star and negative reviews. Is it perfect? No. But no platform like this is perfect. However, I have had a few issues and none that were not fixable in some way. SEO is pretty good, and all four of my sites rank well and perform well on Google. Sure, there are a few annoying things I'd like to see change, but the platform regularly evolves, which is a plus in my books.

---

Squarespace Review: All Features Analysis

In case you are in a hurry, look at the table below and have a grasp of what I will discuss in this Squarespace eCommerce review.

Squarespace pricing (4/5)

Pricing is always one of the most important considerations for any online business. Fortunately, you really get what you pay for with Squarespace.

Currently, the platform offers 4 pricing plans: Personal, Business, Basic Commerce, and Advanced Commerce. Except for the Personal plan, the other three work well for online businesses.

Squarespace does not offer a free plan, yet you are still able to experience the platform with a 14-day free trial. Then, upgrade to any paid plan, and you will have access to amazing Squarespace features, such as unlimited bandwidth and storage. Your Squarespace website will also be mobile optimized and SSL enabled by default. What's more, it's possible to connect the Squarespace site to your custom domain.

If you plan to grow your online business for the long term, consider switching to the annual subscription. This option helps you save up to 30%. For instance, with the Basic Commerce plan, it costs $432 when you pay monthly but down to $324 for the annual option.

In the following lines, I will give out detailed Squarespace eCommerce reviews on every Squarespace pricing plan:

Design flexibility (4.5/5)

The main power core of Squarespace is right at the initial look. Generally, Squarespace templates are super professional, eye-catching with quality stock images, and a bit section-based. Some of them won a few Webby awards for the best design.

As of the writing, Squarespace offers 110 templates divided into 14 categories. Each of them fits your business or personal purpose, such as a photography portfolio or wedding-announcement website. Nevertheless, templates that are specifically designed and fully optimized for online stores are still in a limited range.

It's worth noting that since the Squarespace 7.1 version, templates are just variations of a “Family template” and share the same features and style options. What's more, it's not possible to change the template, but you can modify it thanks to the Page Section and Design Panel.

• Page Section: allows you to add as many sections as you want (content, block, gallery, etc) into your starting page and changes section style to fit your needs. However, the Page section is only available in certain templates.
• Design Panel: permits you to add and change fonts, colors, animations, etc., or make bulk changes to your site, giving your site a unique look.

You can even go the extra mile by going to the developer platform. This allows you to access template files behind your Squarespace website and edit them using HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. Since the Squarespace version 7.1, you can freely add as many elements as you want and make your site distinguishable from others.

Out of the box, Squarespace integrates with Unsplash and Getty. These integrations allow you to free images like Unsplash and paid (Getty) stock images from the huge libraries to your site.

Ease of use (4.5/5)

Following up with the Squarespace review, we'll move to discuss the Squarespace ease of use.

Since most people want to get rid of the “technical burden,” Squarespace aims for convenience and ease of use. The platform makes it super easy to start. All you need to do is go to Squarespace.com, pick a template that best fits your business, and click on ‘Start to Design.'

The editing system is quite straightforward. You can add texts, images, logos, and the appearance of your front store will be the same when you publish as it is when you modify.

Nonetheless, Squarespace website builder comes with a longer learning curve in comparison to other builders like Wix, Weebly, and Shopify. It's more section-based: you can’t drag and drop anything anywhere you want, and slows down a bit in the autosave mode. However, these help your website to be more structural and uncluttered.

eCommerce features (4/5)

Let's move on to the next part of this Squarespace review. Here, I take a look at all the outstanding features that Squarespace offers to boost your online business.

Inventory management

The Squarespace Inventory panel is quite easy to use. From here, you can control your inventory, find your item by search, add new products, edit stock levels, or bulk edit your product.

You can view products in two places: On their individual product pages and in the Inventory panel. The Inventory panel shows all products on your site, while a Products Page only displays the particular products added to that page.

Squarespace lets you import products from your existing Etsy, Shopify, or Big Cartel store via a .csv file. Nonetheless, customers, orders, and other pieces of data can also be imported manually. You can easily add a product picture, set prices, and description for your item. Squarespace allows you to add all kinds of products, from physical to digital products, services, or even gift cards.

Payment gateways

Squarespace offers a limited amount of payment gateways, including Paypal, Stripe, and Square.

Although just a few methods, it does cover most of the customer's payment needs. Paypal and Stripe are both popular international payments that let customers pay with debit and credit cards (Visa, MasterCard, American Express, Discover (US) ) without creating or logging into an account. Additionally, Square allows merchants to use the Squarespace Point Of Sale to process in-person cash and card payments.

Performance analytics

Squarespace offers a decent range of reporting tools. The hosted solution brings you a real-time overview and detailed analytics of key factors such as visitors, orders, revenue, and so on.

Some of the best features of the analytics system of Squarespace include:

• Abandoned Cart: This function helps you to get insight into every abandoned cart and the success of your Abandoned Checkout Recovery email campaign.
• Traffic Source: See where visitors come from when they visit your site by channel. If you’re on the Commerce Basic or Advanced Plan, you can see how much revenue each channel – like social, email, and direct traffic – drives to your business.
• Activity Log: See a searchable list of every time a visitor accessed a URL on your site in the past seven days. Includes IP addresses.

Scheduling tools

Another highlight in our Squarespace review is the scheduling tools, which save you from spending too much time managing bookings. With just a few clicks, you can publicly share your availability so clients can book or reschedule appointments at their convenience. Plus, if you choose to link your account to Reserve with Google, your clients will be able to secure appointments straight from Google Search or Google Maps.

Some highlights worth mentioning:

• Clients can check your availability in real time and pay online in one smooth process.
• You’ll get instant notifications when new appointments come in. Everything syncs automatically with popular calendars like iCloud, Google, Office 364, and Outlook.
• Handling payments is a breeze, too. You may send invoices, accept deposits or full payments, and even offer packages, discounts, or subscriptions to draw in more clients – all within the same tool.

Client invoicing

With these invoicing tools, Squarespace makes it quite easy for you to get paid while still reinforcing the brand's image.

Specifically, you can send sleek, professional invoices that perfectly match your brand's style, allowing clients to pay quickly with just one click. Plus, the platform supports major payment options like debit and credit cards, Apple Pay, Afterpay, and more to help keep your customers happy during the checkout and boost conversion rates.

On another note, invoicing is just the beginning; Squarespace goes further to simplify client management as well. You can:

• Add an intake form right on your website to capture leads
• Manage client documents (proposals, estimates, contracts, etc.) in one place
• Store all submissions in Squarespace so you can jumpstart new projects directly from each lead.

Courses & Tutorials Creation

My Squarespace review team is quite impressed that Squarespace can help you turn your knowledge into a profitable venture. There is a wide range of tools that guide you from course creation to promotion and sales. Plus, you can also choose a layout that aligns with your brand and use drag-and-drop editors to fully customize everything!

Other benefits to keep in mind:

• Squarespace lets you build interactive lessons with videos and chapters, giving your students a structured and engaging path to monitor their progress.
• You have the flexibility to sell your courses either through lifetime access fees or subscription options.
• If you opt for Squarespace’s 0% transaction fee plan, you get to keep all your hard-earned profits as your business expands.

Apps and add-ons (3.5/5)

Besides the core functionality, Squarespace also adds a growing ecosystem of third-party apps and extensions. However, this seems to be a disadvantage compared to its competitors. Currently, there are only 30+  apps related to eCommerce and accounting available, including Shipping and Fulfillment, Finance, Inventory and Products, and Sales and Marketing.

SEO & Marketing features (4/5)

Another highlight in this Squarespace review is the SEO & marketing features. I have had quite a pleasant experience so far, though the platform can still do better regarding certain aspects:

Squarespace SEO Features

Search engine optimization, or SEO, is one of the most important elements when it comes to choosing a site builder. Especially since Squarespace doesn’t have a free plan like other hosted platform competitors, paying customers definitely expect more from their SEO tools.

In the following line of the Squarespace review, let’s see all the advantages that Squarespace SEO offers:

• Security: according to Google, the HSTS (HTTP Strict Transport Security) mode of Squarespace, which is a ranking signal, helps to improve the security of your site.
• Sitemap.xml file: a table of contents that will let search engines know what pages your site has. Squarespace automatically generates and links with your sitemap, which lists all the URLs and image information (name, publication date…) on your site with proper priority for perfect indexing.
• Built-in mobile optimization: Google considers this as an element to rank your page higher. Squarespace makes your content and template automatically resize based on the size of the browser window viewing your site.
• Uptime site loading: Google will penalize you if your site is down so many times. Squarespace is on top of the CMS Page Speed Performance Ranking Both Desktop And Mobile due to its great server system and AMP (creates lightweight versions of web pages to help them load faster on a mobile device).

Nevertheless, there is still room for improvement. For example, the Alt tag sometimes can be quite complicated since how you add alt text to an Image Block depends on the layout. Plus, the 301 and 302 redirect function is  not automatic like other platforms.

Squarespace marketing features 

As one of the leading website builders, Squarespace pays attention to both traditional marketing methods (such as email) and more modern approaches (social media and ads). Keep scrolling through our Squarespace review for more detail:

Email marketing

Squarespace email campaign allows you to craft email campaigns as per your wish. It also allows you to easily keep track of your campaign and make necessary adjustments by tracking email campaign analytics.

No need to worry about finding an email template for your campaign. You can choose one of the available email themes or create one from scratch.

Social integration

There’s no doubt that social media is a big part when it comes to marketing your business. With Squarespace, you can link your accounts with over 20 social platforms, including Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube. Sync with Dropbox for simple access to photo collections, or import content straight to your site from Instagram, Twitter, and more.

Additionally, you can encourage your customers to share your content more by enabling the ‘Share Button.' 

Creating Ads

Advertising might be one of the best ways to bring your business to customers around the world. Squarespace provides you with some of the best ways to make the best use of your Ads campaign with the integration of Instagram, Facebook Pixel, Facebook Dynamic Ads, and so on.

You can make your Instagram tag, track your campaign using Facebook Pixel, automatically create Ads for your product with Facebook Dynamic Ads, or place Ads on your site with Google AdSense. Moreover, you can even redeem your Google Ads credit when you spend a given amount and use this credit to create ads for your site.

AI Tools (3.5/5)

Since its release, Squarespace has introduced two key AI tools to speed up your store's design. One is Squarespace AI, which helps you create and edit text content. From our own experience, this tool can produce amazing results when given detailed and descriptive prompts, and it doesn't take that long for beginners to get used to them, either.

Text generation aside, Squarespace also incorporates the Squarespace Design Intelligence functionality to ensure the store's stylish yet professional look right from the start. Once you find a theme that matches your vision, feel free to adjust its colors, position, headers, and more using this AI tool until the end result aligns with the brand's aesthetic and message.

On the other hand, I do think there's still room for improvement. It would be great if Squarespace could offer AI functionalities for more complex tasks (such as sorting customers or managing account data), similar to Shopify Magic from Shopify.

Loading Speed and Hosting (3/5)

Another great highlight I want to mention in our Squarespace review is Squarespace's overall web performance. The platform provides a complete web performance package that includes website hosting in EVERY pricing plan (plus a free domain name). That's certainly great news for eCommerce store owners now that they no longer have to worry about separate hosting and domain services.

I am also impressed with Squarespace's loading speed, which is as fast as 0.7 seconds under normal conditions. Still, I must say that performance does vary, meaning the speeds might slow to around 9 seconds or even longer, especially if you're not using the latest version of Squarespace (version 7.1 at the time of writing).

Therefore, you must always keep your site updated to ensure the best performance. Of course, you may consider installing third-party apps to improve loading speed, but Squarespace's admittedly small extension store offers quite limited options to choose from.

Security (4.5/5)

Squarespace is inherently secure, all plans come with free SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) certificates. When it comes to payment, Squarespace also offers PCI-DSS compliance for all payment methods.

Additionally, Squarespace also provides two-factor authentication, sometimes shortened to 2FA. This adds an extra layer of security to your account and website. Moreover, Verifying your account ownership will be applied whenever you contact Customer Support; this helps protect your privacy and content.

Support (4/5)

In general, Squarespace offers a great support system compared to other platforms. These include Knowledgebase, Email, live chat support, Webinar, Forum, Guides, and videos, plus a Developer Center.

The strength of Squarespace lies in supporting its detail. They always provide in-depth answers or articles on the knowledge page. One more plus is that their live chat is pretty responsive. Additionally, they even provide a Developer Center for those who have an advanced understanding of web design, CSS, and HTML… to create fully custom sites or build everything from scratch and integrate with third-party tools.

That said, there are still some Squarespace limitations. There is no phone support, long response time (especially at peak time), and live chat is not always available.

---

Should You Choose Squarespace?

To sum up this Squarespace review, here are our thoughts about this hosted platform. Overall, you should choose Squarespace if…

• You are looking for a website builder with stunning, professional templates that require minimal customization.
• You want an intuitive, drag-and-drop editor that does not require coding skills.
• You need an all-in-one platform with built-in tools for SEO, analytics, and eCommerce management.
• You prefer a mobile-optimized website with a dedicated mobile app for easy management on the go.
• You run a small to medium-sized business and need a structured, reliable solution for showcasing products or services.
• You value 24/7 customer support, even though phone support is not available.

Otherwise, consider other options if…

• You require extensive customization beyond what the section-based editor allows.
• You need a platform with more payment gateway options beyond Stripe and PayPal.
• You operate a large-scale business that requires advanced scalability and full control over design and functionality.
• You want to freely switch templates without manually redesigning your site.
• You rely heavily on third-party integrations and extensions, which are more limited on Squarespace compared to competitors like Shopify or WordPress.

---

My Testing Methodology

As experienced testers, I aimed to provide a comprehensive Squarespace review across all pricing plans. Hence, my team strictly followed these steps to guarantee the best results:

Step 1. Divide the team

First, I divided my team into four groups, each tasked with testing one of the four Squarespace pricing plans. Each group created a store for their chosen plan in order to fully explore the extent of its capabilities:

• For Personal Plan: A simple blog-focused site for a travel blogger
• For Business Plan: A portfolio + selling site for a freelance graphic designer
• For Commerce Basic Plan: An online bookstore selling physical and digital books
• For Commerce Advance Plan: A high-end fashion boutique with advanced eCommerce features.

Step 2. Key features cross-check

After building the websites, I carefully went through the list of key features discussed above for each respective plan. All groups documented their findings and cross-checked them with other groups to ensure consistency while also identifying significant differences among the plans, if any.

Step 3. Double-check with customer reviews

Finally, I reviewed customer feedback from trustworthy forums and online sources to validate my findings. The goal is to pinpoint any major contradictions between my observations and customer experiences; if there were any, I would re-test those areas to see whether I encountered similar issues.

---

What Are The Biggest Squarespace Competitors?

My Squarespace review above has touched on the platform's key strengths and areas of improvement. Now, you must be wondering, “Is there any other alternative available if Squarespace is not the best fit for my business?”

As of our writing, Wix and Shopify are often mentioned as Squarespace's main competitors. I must say Wix is more similar to Squarespace, as both focus on website-building features rather than eCommerce-exclusive ones. On the other hand, Shopify is the best option out of the three if you are looking for extensive eCommerce features and AI tools to improve the business workflow.

Let’s have a closer look at their differences:

For a closer look, check out our Wix vs Squarespace vs Shopify comparison.

---

Squarespace Review: FAQs

---

Squarespace Review: Final Words

I hope this Squarespace review can help you to decide whether you should open or migrate your site to Squarespace.

If you intend to perform a thorough Squarespace migration, I offer a great migration service that helps you transfer your data from the current eCommerce platform to a new one accurately and safely. LitExtension #1 eCommerce Migration Expert currently supports more than 140 shopping carts available in the market and has performed 280,000+ successful migrations.

Feel free to contact us for more information! Join our Facebook Community or browse our Retailer Blog to get more eCommerce tips and news.