Is Squarespace Good? An Honest Take on What It Does Well (And Where It Falls Short)

Short answer: Yes, Squarespace is good—for the right use case. It's one of the best website builders available for small businesses, creatives, and anyone who wants a professional-looking site without touching code. But it's not for everyone, and there are real limitations you need to know about before signing up.

Let me break down exactly what Squarespace does well, where it struggles, and whether it's the right choice for your specific situation.

What Squarespace Actually Is (Quick Overview)

Squarespace is an all-in-one website builder that handles everything: hosting, design templates, domain registration, and even e-commerce functionality. You don't need to buy hosting separately or install software. Just pick a template, drag and drop your content, and publish.

This simplicity is the whole point. Squarespace is designed for people who don't want to deal with the technical complexity of WordPress or the learning curve of more flexible platforms.

Squarespace Pricing: What You'll Actually Pay

Squarespace has four pricing tiers. Here's what they cost when billed annually:

If you pay monthly instead of annually, expect to pay 25-40% more. For example, the Basic plan jumps to $25/month on monthly billing.

All annual plans include a free custom domain for the first year. After that, domains typically cost $10-20/year depending on the extension.

For a deeper breakdown, check out our Squarespace pricing guide and cost analysis.

What Squarespace Does Really Well

1. Templates Are Genuinely Beautiful

This is Squarespace's biggest strength. They offer around 180+ templates, and honestly, most of them look better than what you'd get from competitors. The designs are modern, clean, and professional-looking right out of the box.

Every template is fully responsive, so your site will look good on mobile without extra work. For photographers, artists, restaurants, and anyone where visual presentation matters, Squarespace templates are hard to beat.

2. It's Easy to Use (With a Learning Curve)

The editor is beginner-friendly, but "beginner-friendly" doesn't mean "instant." There's a slight learning curve to understand how the block-based editor works. Once you get it, though, adding content, rearranging sections, and customizing your design is straightforward.

Squarespace's Blueprint AI can also help you get started faster by suggesting layouts, color palettes, and fonts based on your business type.

3. All-in-One Platform (No Hosting Headaches)

Hosting, security, SSL certificates, backups, and updates are all handled automatically. You don't need to worry about server maintenance, plugin conflicts, or security patches. This is a major advantage over self-hosted WordPress.

Squarespace monitors their platform 24/7 and includes automatic backups, so your site stays online and your data is protected.

4. Decent Built-in E-commerce

You can sell products on any Squarespace plan—even the Basic tier. Features include product management, inventory tracking, checkout on your own domain, and customer accounts.

The Core plan and above remove Squarespace's transaction fees (you'll still pay standard payment processing fees of around 2.9% + $0.30 per transaction through Stripe or PayPal).

5. Useful Add-ons (For Extra Cost)

Squarespace has expanded beyond basic website building:

These integrate seamlessly with your site, which is convenient but can add up quickly.

Where Squarespace Falls Short

No platform is perfect. Here's where Squarespace struggles:

1. Limited Customization

This is the most common complaint. Over 35% of negative reviews mention customization limitations. While templates look great, you're somewhat locked into their structure. If you want a truly unique design or specific functionality that Squarespace doesn't offer, you'll hit walls.

You can add custom CSS and JavaScript on the Core plan and above, but Squarespace won't help you troubleshoot customizations, and their updates can break your custom code without warning.

2. Not Great for Large E-commerce

Squarespace e-commerce works fine for small stores, but has real limitations for serious sellers:

If you're building a serious e-commerce operation, Shopify or BigCommerce will serve you better. See our Squarespace vs Shopify comparison for details.

3. SEO Limitations

Squarespace includes basic SEO tools (meta titles, descriptions, alt text), but advanced SEO users will find it limiting. You can't customize sitemaps, have limited control over page priorities, and some users report slower page load times that can hurt rankings.

WordPress with the right plugins offers far more SEO control.

4. No Phone Support

Support is email and chat only—no phone. This can be frustrating when you have an urgent issue during a busy period. Response times vary, especially for complex problems.

5. No Free Plan

Unlike Wix, Squarespace has no free tier. There's a 14-day free trial, but you'll need to commit to a paid plan to launch your site. This isn't unreasonable, but it means more upfront commitment.

6. One Site Per Plan

Each Squarespace subscription covers one website. If you need multiple sites, you're paying for each one separately. This adds up fast for agencies or businesses with multiple brands.

Who Should Use Squarespace?

Squarespace is an excellent choice if you're:

Who Should Skip Squarespace?

Look elsewhere if you're:

For more alternatives, see our Squarespace alternatives guide, Squarespace vs Wix, Squarespace vs WordPress, and Squarespace vs Webflow comparisons.

The Verdict: Is Squarespace Good?

Yes, Squarespace is good—genuinely good—for what it's designed to do. If you want a beautiful, professional website without technical complexity, it delivers. The templates are legitimately better than most competitors, the platform is reliable, and you get a lot of functionality in one place.

But "good" depends on your needs. For large stores, advanced customization, or maximum SEO control, Squarespace isn't the answer. Know what you're getting into, and it'll serve you well.

Ready to Try Squarespace?

Squarespace offers a 14-day free trial—no credit card required. You can build your entire site and only pay when you're ready to publish.

Start your free Squarespace trial here →

Looking for a discount? Check out our Squarespace coupon codes and discount page for current deals. Also see our full Squarespace reviews and tutorial if you want to dive deeper.