Squarespace

Squarespace is a hosted website builder where you start from a designer template and edit it in the browser. It hosts the site and sells the domain, and its plans include built-in AI tools for generating content; its product range also covers online stores, scheduling and email campaigns. It lists an AI website builder among its products too.

The pricing page says it is free for 14 days and that paying annually saves up to 36%. There is no free plan to keep, so the trial is the way to test it. Among the AI website builders here, Squarespace sits on the design-led end, next to Framer.

On the pricing page we checked on November 1, 2026, Basic is $12 a month billed annually or $19 billed monthly, Core is $17 or $27, and Advanced is $25 or $36. The page marks Core as recommended. Annual plans include one year of free registration for a domain on the cheapest pricing tier.

The page does not list a different renewal price for the plans themselves. It does say that the free domain, and the free Google Workspace account offered with it, renew at the standard rate after the first year, so budget for those on top of the plan. On Basic, selling online products, services or donations carries a 2% transaction fee, and courses, memberships and digital content carry 7%; the page says upgrading lowers or removes those fees.

Squarespace's help article on exporting site content, last updated October 9, 2026, describes creating an .xml file of your content to import into WordPress. It warns that many features rely on Squarespace's own JavaScript and CSS, so some content does not export, and that you cannot export one Squarespace site and import it into another.

In practice that means the text and images can leave, but the design stays. If portability matters more than templates, compare it with Webflow in our Webflow vs Squarespace guide.

It suits portfolios, studios and small shops where the template look is the point and the owner wants one vendor for site, domain and store. The free trial is long enough to build a real draft before paying.

It is a weaker fit if you want a free plan to leave a site on, need a CMS with custom structure (see Webflow), or need to take the finished site elsewhere.