Are Squarespace templates free, and which ones are there?
Yes. Squarespace's templates are free, and none of them has a price. When I checked on November 3, 2026, the template gallery…
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How much does Squarespace cost?
Squarespace has four plans. With yearly billing they cost €12 to €69 a month plus VAT, or $14 to $80 in the US. If you pay month by month, they cost €17 to €79, or $20 to $92. There's no free plan. The free trial lasts 14 days. Basic, the cheapest plan, is enough for a simple website. If you sell online, Basic takes 2% of each sale. With yearly billing, Core is the cheaper plan once you sell more than €300 a month.
For my Squarespace review, I used the free trial to build a website with a small shop for a made-up pottery studio. The trial has ended, so this time I checked what that shop would cost me.
I checked the prices from Germany on November 3, 2026.
What each plan costs
| Plan | Billed yearly | Billed monthly | In the US | In the UK | Yearly billing saves |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Basic | €12a month, €144 a year | €17a month | $14a month billed yearly, $20 billed monthly | £10a month billed yearly, £15 billed monthly | 29% |
| Core | €18a month, €216 a year | €24a month | $21a month billed yearly, $28 billed monthly | £16a month billed yearly, £21 billed monthly | 25% |
| Plus | €32a month, €384 a year | €42a month | $37a month billed yearly, $49 billed monthly | £28a month billed yearly, £36 billed monthly | 23% |
| Advanced | €69a month, €828 a year | €79a month | $80a month billed yearly, $92 billed monthly | £60a month billed yearly, £68 billed monthly | 12% |
Squarespace sets its prices per country, so the US and the UK have their own amounts. With yearly billing you pay for the whole year at once. The pricing page says that this saves up to 36%. When I picked a plan in my account, Squarespace showed 29% for Basic and only 12% for Advanced.
From Germany, the pricing page showed me the prices without VAT on one visit and with 19% VAT on another. My account showed them with VAT. With VAT, Basic costs €14.28 a month with yearly billing and €20.23 with monthly billing.
According to Squarespace's help center, the tax depends on your billing address. In the US, some cities and states charge sales tax on the plan. If your business is registered for VAT, Squarespace may charge 0% VAT.
What the bigger plans add
All four plans come with the same free templates and the same editor. On Basic, two people can edit the site, and you get 10 AI credits one time.
Core is the plan for a business that sells. Squarespace takes no fee on shop sales, and any number of people can edit the site.
With yearly billing, Plus costs €14 a month more than Core, and its card fee is 1.7% instead of 2.0%. If you only count the card fee, Plus is cheaper than Core from about €4,700 in card sales a month.
The fees when you sell
| Plan | Fee on shop sales | Card payment | Digital products and memberships | Automated tax |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Basic | 2% | 2.0% + €0.25 | 7% | Not included |
| Core | None | 2.0% + €0.25 | 5% | 0.15% per order, up to €0.99 |
| Plus | None | 1.7% + €0.25 | 1% | 0.10% per order, up to €0.99 |
| Advanced | None | 1.5% + €0.25 | None | 0.05% per order, up to €0.99 |
With yearly billing, Core costs €6 a month more than Basic. That's what Basic's 2% fee comes to on €300 of sales a month. In the US, the difference is $7, so Core is cheaper from $350 in sales a month.
Card payments with Squarespace Payments have their own fee on all plans. Digital products and memberships, like videos or courses that people pay for, have a separate fee. Advanced is the only plan without it.
Automated tax means that Squarespace works out the tax for each order. Basic doesn't have it. You can also enter the tax rates yourself for free, which is what I did for the pottery shop.
What my pottery shop would cost
The pottery shop sells mugs and pottery classes, so I picked Core. With yearly billing, Core came to €257.04 for the whole year. At checkout that's €216 for the plan and €41.04 VAT. With monthly billing, Core costs €28.56 a month, or €342.72 over a year.
Squarespace's domain search showed pebblewickpottery.com at €9.09 for the first year, with a regular price of €20. With a yearly plan, the domain is free in the first year. You pay for it from the second year on. In the US, a .com renews for $20 a year, according to Squarespace's domain FAQ.
For a €32 mug paid by card, Squarespace Payments takes €0.89.
What the extras cost
| Extra | Price | What you get |
|---|---|---|
| Domain (.com) | €20 a year | Free in the first year with a yearly plan. |
| Google Workspace email | €8 a month or €81.60 a year per user | The Starter plan. One user is free in the first year on Core and the bigger plans. |
| Email Campaigns | From €8 a month | 500 emails a month. €13 for 5,000 and €18 for 10,000. |
| Acuity Scheduling | From €13 a month with yearly billing | Booking pages with one calendar. €14 with monthly billing. |
Email Campaigns is Squarespace's newsletter tool, and Acuity Scheduling is its booking tool. Both are separate subscriptions, in addition to the website plan. Squarespace showed me a banner with a code for 20% off Email Campaigns.
Renewals and refunds
Plans renew by themselves until you cancel. Squarespace emails you 15 days before a yearly plan renews. Monthly plans renew without a reminder, according to Squarespace's help center on renewals.
If you cancel a yearly plan within 14 days of buying it, you get your money back. If you got a free domain with it, Squarespace takes the domain's price off the refund. Monthly plans and renewals get no refund, according to the refund policy.
You can switch from monthly to yearly billing at any time. The switch happens right away, and Squarespace refunds the unused part of the month. A switch from yearly to monthly billing starts when the paid year ends.
What happened to Personal and Business?
Squarespace's older plans had other names, like Personal and Business. Since February 2026 you can't sign up for them, according to Squarespace's help center on legacy plans. If you still have one, you can stay on it as long as the plan is active. Many of these older plans cost less than the current ones. If you change the plan or let the site expire, you move to one of the current plans and can't go back.
How to pay less
Build the site on the free trial first. You don't need a card for it, and you only pay when you want to publish the site. I explained what the trial can and can't do in Is Squarespace free?
Squarespace's own promo code page offered the code GIMME10 for 10% off a first yearly website plan. Students get 50% off the first year of a yearly plan through Squarespace's partner Student Beans.
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