Choose the best website builder for your business
The Cheat Sheet that shows you exactly which website builder to choose based on your needs with bonus on how to get free custom domain, free email hosting, and more.
Get the FREE cheat sheet
The Cheat Sheet that shows you exactly which website builder to choose based on your needs with bonus on how to get free custom domain, free email hosting, and more.
Get the FREE cheat sheet
By David Nge • Last Updated: February 19, 2024
My work is supported by affiliate commissions. Learn More
Let's figure out how much exactly the total yearly or monthly cost is to run a Squarespace blog.
The cost will largely depend on the type of blog you plan to set up since different setup requires a different Squarespace plan, which makes up the bulk of the cost (details below).
In short, we'll go over:
Later on, I'll share a discount code you can use for your Squarespace blog.
Let's dive right in!
3 things to know about Squarespace pricing when it comes to running a blog:
How much you're paying for a Squarespace subscription depends on the type of blog you plan to run.
There are only 3 types of blogs you should consider, and they are:
More details on each plan below.
Squarespace has an extensive catalog of templates you can use for your blog right out of the gate.
Whether it's a home recipe blog, a personal travel site, a newsletter, a school project, or an NGO news site, you can pick a Squarespace blog template off the shelves and immediately start publishing articles.
That's the main value proposition of Squarespace — it just works.
Note that you can freely customize any Squarespace template and layout thanks to their new drag-and-drop website editor. You just won't be able to add custom code (e.g., add tracking code or custom newsletter sign-up form) as you would on the Business plan.
Assuming you opt for the annual plan with a 30% savings and a custom domain (Cost $20/year — recommended). The yearly cost of running a personal blog on Squarespace is $212, or about $18 per month.
The Squarespace Business plan offers a few more features compared to the personal plan, such as:
Click here for a full list of Squarespace premium features.
It's slightly more complicated to estimate the cost of running a business blog on Squarespace.
That's because Squarespace offers add-ons that businesses tend to subscribe to, which adds to the overall cost.
For example:
As you can see, these costs add up.
But it's safe to assume that if you're running a business with a blog on Squarespace, the expected cost should be around $284 - $1200 a year, depending on the plugins you need.
Note: There are several third-party, alternative plugins (e.g., for email marketing, booking, and membership) that are more price competitive than Squarespace add-ons.
So you don't have to subscribe to them unless you prefer to save the headache and have everything managed under Squarespace
If you plan to sell anything on your Squarespace blog, you're better off getting the Commerce plan with 0% transaction fees. Otherwise, if you're on the business plan, Squarespace will charge you a 3% transaction fee on all sales.
As for whether you should choose the Basic Commerce or the Advanced Commerce plan, the most important feature on the Advanced plan is to sell subscriptions.
In short, choose the Basic Commerce unless you plan to sell subscriptions to products and services on a weekly or monthly basis and generate recurring revenue. More info on selling subscription products on Squarespace here.
The minimum cost to run a functional eCommerce store with a blog (with a custom domain) on Squarespace is $332 per year, or ~$28 per month. Again, that's assuming you opt for the annual plan.
Optional add-ons are available if you consider adding email marketing or selling digital products and courses. This would add at least $20 - $50 to the monthly cost.
So, you can expect to spend ~$350 to $1200 or more on your Squarespace online store.
I've highlighted a few of them above, but here's the recap of additional tools and add-ons you might need to run your Squarespace blog:
There are a few ways to get a custom domain with different Pros and Cons:
Email marketing is an area you can save since many email marketing companies offer a generous free plan. Although, I wouldn't write off Squarespace Email Campaigns just yet.
Squarespace Email Campaigns ($5 - $48 per month)
The biggest advantage to using Squarespace's native email marketing tool is the clean, crisp, mobile-responsive email template and beginner-friendly email editing tools that everyone loves Squarespace for.
Side bonus: The analytics that tracks your campaign performance play nicely with other analytics on your site.
If you prefer to save and use other free email marketing tools instead, then:
I wrote a detailed guide about Squarespace membership Areas and its alternatives, but in short:
We've covered quite a bit on all the related costs to run a Squarespace blog, but here're the tables to summarize them all.
Total Cost: $212/year
Total Cost: $284-$1200/year
Total Cost: $332-$1200/year
Squarespace isn't the cheapest website builder, but you can still save quite a bit by clicking the link below and use the discount code: MTW10 at the checkout pato save 10% off your bill.
Save 10% on your Squarespace blog with the discount code: MTW10
Yes, according to Squarespace, their website is hosted on the same server as everyone else's. And Squarespace is a top 1000 website worldwide with over 35 million monthly visits.
With that, your Squarespace site can certainly handle most traffic loads.
The only fee that Squarespace charges is the 3% transaction fee if you're selling products on the business plan.
If you're selling any product on Squarespace, I recommend going for the higher-priced Commerce plan with 0% transaction fees.
Note that even if you add affiliate links or run ads on your Squarespace site, they don't take a cut on any sales generated via those methods.
You can if you prefer to DIY your web hosting, backup, and web design.
If you're willing to spend the time learning to set up a Wordpress site, the actual startup cost is pretty low, as low as $30-$50 per year.
Here, I've written a detailed comparison between Wordpress, Squarespace, and other popular website builders.
David is the founder of MakingThatWebsite.com and started making websites for businesses back in 2014. He's a keen learner and wants to share his journey and knowledge with other business owners and freelancers. He launched MakingThatWebsite.com in 2021 to make website building more approachable and scalable for businesses.
Have a tutorial you want to learn? Leave a suggestion here.