TL;DR: If you want your business website built for you, WebZum asks a few questions and builds a finished multi-page site in about five minutes, with the copy, photos and a visitor chatbot already on it. You see it free before you pay, then it’s $19/mo (Basic) or $34/mo (Professional, your own domain), month to month, with a 30-day money-back guarantee on every plan. Squarespace pricing in 2026 is $19, $29, $49 or $99 a month billed yearly, or $25, $39, $65 or $139 paid month to month. There’s no free plan, and monthly plans can’t be refunded (Squarespace, checked October 28, 2026).
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Disclosure: WebZum publishes this blog and makes a competing website builder. Squarespace prices and rules below come from Squarespace’s own pricing and help pages, linked inline.
Verified October 28, 2026. Prices are US list prices before tax and can change.
How much does Squarespace cost per month?
Squarespace has four website plans, and each has two prices: a lower one if you pay for the year up front, and a higher one if you pay monthly. Here’s what Squarespace’s pricing page showed on October 28, 2026 (Squarespace pricing):
| Squarespace plan | Billed yearly | Billed monthly | Online store fee | AI credits |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Basic | $19/mo ($228 a year) | $25/mo | 2% | 10, one time |
| Core | $29/mo ($348 a year) | $39/mo | 0% | 20 a month |
| Plus | $49/mo ($588 a year) | $65/mo | 0% | 40 a month |
| Advanced | $99/mo ($1,188 a year) | $139/mo | 0% | 120 a month |
Squarespace says paying annually saves “up to 36%.” The yearly price is one payment, so Basic is $228 on day one. There’s no free plan, only a 14-day free trial with no credit card required (same page).
What’s the difference between Squarespace Basic and Core?
Core is where most of the small-business tools start. Basic covers a site, a blog and a small shop, but the pricing page lists these as Core and up only:
- Announcement bar, which Squarespace describes as “great for announcing sales, promotions, or change to your hours.”
- Promotional pop-ups and the mobile information bar.
- Code injection, for things like a Meta Pixel or a live chat service.
- One free Google Workspace email account for the first year, plus Mailchimp and Zapier integrations.
Basic also charges a 2% fee on online store sales, on top of card processing, and allows two contributors (Squarespace pricing). Squarespace’s help center adds that Basic allows up to 1,000 pages and 30 minutes of video storage (Squarespace Help).
So if you run a salon or a bakery and want to post “closed Thanksgiving” across the top of the site, the cheapest plan that does it the built-in way is Core: $29/mo billed yearly, or $39/mo monthly.
What fees does Squarespace charge on top of the plan?
The plan is the base. Selling, scheduling, email and taxes can each add a line to the bill.
- Card processing. With Squarespace Payments, standard cards cost 2.9% + $0.30 on Basic and Core, 2.7% + $0.30 on Plus and 2.5% + $0.30 on Advanced. Premium cards like American Express are 3.2% + $0.30 on every plan (Squarespace pricing).
- Store transaction fee. 2% on Basic, 0% on Core and up. Courses and memberships carry their own fee: 7% on Basic, 5% on Core, 1% on Plus (same page).
- Automatic sales-tax calculation for your store is not on Basic. On Core it costs 0.15% per transaction, up to $0.99 (same page).
- Sales tax on your subscription. Squarespace collects it in a list of states and cities that includes Texas, New York, Pennsylvania, Washington State and Chicago, based on your billing address (Squarespace Help).
- Separate subscriptions. Squarespace lists Acuity Scheduling, Domains, Email Campaigns and Google Workspace as “separate Squarespace services” that “require their own subscriptions,” and each website needs its own plan (Squarespace Help).
Does Squarespace include online booking?
Not in the website plan. Booking is Acuity Scheduling, which Squarespace bought in 2019 and sells separately. The Starter plan is $16/mo billed yearly or $20/mo monthly for one bookable calendar, and the top plan is $55 or $69 (Acuity Scheduling by Squarespace). Squarespace’s help center says “your Acuity subscription is separate from your site subscription” (Squarespace Help).
Acuity is a good tool, and Squarespace’s own FAQ says you can “embed your Acuity scheduler in almost any website,” so it isn’t a reason on its own to pick Squarespace.
Does Squarespace include a free domain?
For the first year, and only on yearly billing. Annual plans include “one (1) year of free domain registration,” and those domains “will renew at our standard rate, plus applicable taxes, after the first year” (Squarespace pricing). Renewals are charged 15 days before the renewal date (Squarespace Help). On monthly billing you buy the domain separately from the start.
Does Squarespace raise prices at renewal?
The list price itself doesn’t jump in year two, but discounts end and plan prices do change. Squarespace’s help center says “discounts apply to your first payment. Your next renewal is charged at full price.” It also says “plan prices change from time to time,” and if you get a price-increase email, you’ll pay the new price on your next renewal date (Squarespace Help).
If you signed up with a promo code, budget year two at the full price in the table above.
How do Squarespace AI credits work?
Credits pay for some of Squarespace’s AI tools, not all of them. The help center says credits are spent on AI Visibility (a tool that checks how your brand shows up in ChatGPT and Gemini) and Image Studio, while text AI tools “don’t cost AI credits” (Squarespace Help).
- Basic gets 10 starter credits, one time only. They “don’t roll over, and don’t renew monthly.”
- Core, Plus and Advanced add 20, 40 or 120 credits a month. Those don’t roll over either.
- You can buy credit packs, up to 400 credits at a time. They expire a year after purchase, and once you’ve used any of a pack, it can’t be refunded (same page).
Squarespace’s AI website builder gives you a multi-page starting point with copy and images that you finish in the drag-and-drop editor. It’s free to try, but “you need a paid Squarespace website plan to publish the site” (Squarespace AI Website Builder).
Can you get a refund from Squarespace?
Only on a yearly plan, and only in the first 14 days. Squarespace’s website refund policy says you can get “a full refund for annual website subscriptions canceled within 14 days of purchase.” It does not refund monthly plans, annual plans after 14 days, or renewal payments. If you used the free domain, “the cost of the domain is deducted from your refund” (Squarespace Help).
Email Campaigns plans are non-refundable, and a domain can only be canceled for a refund within five days of registering it (Squarespace Help; domain cancellation).
WebZum works differently: you see your finished site free before paying, and every plan, monthly included, has a 30-day money-back guarantee.
What do Squarespace’s upgrade features look like on WebZum?
On WebZum you ask for them in a chat box, and AI edits aren’t metered or capped by plan. Here’s what we saw on our own demo sites in October 2026. Golden Rye Bakery & Cafe, Mossback Plumbing, Copper Thimble Hair & Nail and Blue Mesa Auto Repair are WebZum demos, not customer sites.
- An announcement bar. On Golden Rye we typed “put the pie preorder thing up top so ppl actually see it.” The editor moved the Thanksgiving pie note into a full-width bar at the very top of the homepage after one click, in about 43 seconds.
- Holiday hours. On Mossback Plumbing, “We’re closed on Thanksgiving Day, Thursday Nov 26. Please add that to our hours.” added a closure line to the site in about 30 to 40 seconds.
- A price list fix. On Copper Thimble, one message moved a hair color service to the right heading and added a $40 blowout and a $55 spa pedicure. The list updated in about 20 seconds.
- A chatbot that answers visitors. Every WebZum site comes with one. On Blue Mesa, it gave the shop’s real Saturday hours in about 3 seconds and offered the tap-to-call number. Asked what a diagnosis costs, it didn’t guess a price; it pointed to the Services & Prices page and the phone.
- A whole site to start. Blue Mesa took about five minutes from the Build click (we measured roughly 298 seconds) to a finished site with a logo, copy, photos and its own page for each main service.
Squarespace sells you a well-made toolkit and you do the building. WebZum builds the site, writes it, shoots the AI photos and header video, and keeps editing it for you when you ask, on fast pages served from a content delivery network.
Squarespace vs WebZum: what does each cost over 36 months?
Here’s the math at today’s US list prices: monthly price × 36. It leaves out tax, store fees, add-ons, and Squarespace domain renewals after year one.
| Plan | Who builds the site | Listed price | Our math | Cost over 36 months | Own domain | Refund |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ⭐ WebZum Basic | WebZum builds it, you edit by chat | $0 for the preview, then $19/mo | $19 × 36 | $684 | No (WebZum address) | 30 days, every plan |
| ⭐ WebZum Professional | WebZum builds it, you edit by chat | $0 for the preview, then $34/mo | $34 × 36 | $1,224 | Yes, included | 30 days, every plan |
| Squarespace Basic, yearly | You build it | $19/mo, $228 up front each year | $228 × 3 | $684, plus domain renewals in years 2 and 3 | Free year one | 14 days, minus domain |
| Squarespace Basic, monthly | You build it | $25/mo | $25 × 36 | $900, plus a domain | Buy separately | None |
| Squarespace Core, yearly | You build it | $29/mo, $348 up front each year | $348 × 3 | $1,044, plus domain renewals | Free year one | 14 days, minus domain |
| Squarespace Core, monthly | You build it | $39/mo | $39 × 36 | $1,404, plus a domain | Buy separately | None |
Sources: WebZum, Squarespace pricing, Squarespace refund policy (checked October 28, 2026).
If you need online booking, add Acuity to either column. On Squarespace it’s a separate subscription; on WebZum you can ask the editor to add an outside booking widget. Starter at $16/mo billed yearly is $576 over 36 months.
Squarespace Basic on a yearly plan is the cheapest sticker for a site on your own domain. But you pay a year at a time, you build and write it yourself, and the announcement bar and pop-ups wait for Core. WebZum Professional is $34 a month with no yearly lock-in, the domain included, the site already built, and a refund window that covers monthly plans too.
When should you pick Squarespace instead?
Pick Squarespace if you enjoy designing and want hands-on control of every layout, or if selling is the center of your business. Its built-in store, shipping labels, gift cards, courses and memberships go well past what a WebZum site does, and WebZum doesn’t have a native store or booking system of its own. Squarespace’s templates are also some of the best-looking in the business.
Pick WebZum if you mostly need customers to find you, trust you and call, and you’d rather review a finished site than build one.
How do I get a WebZum site?
- Go to webzum.com/free-website and type what your business does, or paste your Google link.
- Answer a few quick questions. The build takes about five minutes.
- Look through your free preview. Change anything by typing it into the chat box, like “add a page for gutter cleaning” or “we’re closed Thanksgiving, put that up top.”
- Pick Basic ($19/mo) or Professional ($34/mo, with your own domain) when you’re ready to keep it.
More reading: Wix vs Squarespace for a small business, WordPress vs Squarespace, what a small business website costs in 2026, a hidden-fees checklist for website builders, the cheapest website builders and what they really cost, and our side-by-side page, WebZum vs Squarespace.
FAQ
What is Squarespace pricing in 2026?
Basic is $19/mo, Core $29/mo, Plus $49/mo and Advanced $99/mo when billed yearly. Month to month, they’re $25, $39, $65 and $139. There’s no free plan, only a 14-day free trial (Squarespace, checked October 28, 2026).
Is Squarespace cheaper if you pay yearly?
Yes. Squarespace says annual billing saves up to 36%, and yearly plans include a free domain for the first year. You pay the whole year up front, and the refund window is 14 days (Squarespace Help).
Does Squarespace charge transaction fees?
On Basic, yes: 2% on online store sales, plus card processing from 2.9% + $0.30. Core and up have no store transaction fee, though card processing still applies (Squarespace).
Can I cancel Squarespace and get my money back?
You can cancel any time, but refunds only cover yearly website plans canceled within 14 days, minus the free domain if you used it. Monthly plans and renewals aren’t refunded (Squarespace Help).
Is Acuity Scheduling included in Squarespace?
No. Acuity is a separate subscription, from $16/mo billed yearly or $20/mo monthly for one calendar (Squarespace).
What’s a good alternative to Squarespace for a small business?
If you’d rather get a finished site than build one, try WebZum. It writes the copy, makes the photos and pages, and adds a visitor chatbot in about five minutes. Plans are $19/mo or $34/mo, month to month, with a 30-day money-back guarantee on every plan.
Curious what yours would look like? Get your free WebZum preview. It takes about five minutes.