Squarespace Features: Everything You Get (and Don't Get) on Each Plan

Squarespace markets itself as an all-in-one website builder for entrepreneurs and creatives. But what do you actually get? Here's a no-BS breakdown of every Squarespace feature worth knowing about-and the limitations nobody tells you upfront.

If you're still on the fence about whether Squarespace is right for you, check out our Squarespace reviews or compare it against alternatives in our Squarespace vs Wix and Squarespace vs WordPress guides.

Website Building Features

Let's start with what Squarespace does best: making websites look good.

Templates and Design

Squarespace gives you access to around 190 mobile-optimized templates across all plans. These aren't cheap-looking WordPress themes-they're genuinely well-designed templates that work for portfolios, restaurants, ecommerce stores, and service businesses.

The templates are organized into six main types and 18 categories ranging from entertainment to home décor. Every template is fully customizable with hundreds of features, and no coding or HTML knowledge is required. While you won't find exact replicas between older 7.0 templates and newer 7.1 templates, many share similar concepts and design elements.

Recent template additions include Fletcher, Sidney, Byron, Minoru, Achromatic, Looped, and Radian-all solid options depending on your aesthetic. Popular templates like Brine remain the most flexible multi-purpose option, while templates like Bedford and Bailard are classic starter templates perfect for brochure sites with bold header images and clear calls-to-action.

Here's what's included in the design toolkit:

The catch? Blog posts still use the classic editor-you can't use Fluid Engine on blog content. This limits design flexibility for content-heavy sites. Additionally, blog post descriptions, event descriptions, and product additional information sections don't support Fluid Engine.

The Fluid Engine Revolution

The Fluid Engine is Squarespace's drag-and-drop editor that replaced the older block system. Launched in July of the past few years, it represents a complete overhaul of how you build pages on Squarespace. Think of it as the operating system powering the sections on your pages.

Fluid Engine uses a grid-based system similar to design tools like Canva or Photoshop. This means you can drag content blocks anywhere on the page, resize them by dragging corners, overlap elements, and create truly custom layouts that weren't possible with the Classic Editor.

What Makes Fluid Engine Different

The Classic Editor forced you to work within rigid constraints-moving one block would disrupt five others. Fluid Engine eliminates that frustration with true drag-and-drop freedom. When you drag a block, a grid appears in the background (press G to keep it visible or hidden). You can place blocks anywhere on this grid, even overlapping other blocks.

Key Fluid Engine features include:

Fluid Engine Limitations

While Fluid Engine is powerful, it's not perfect. The editor isn't available on the Squarespace mobile app yet-you can edit block content in the app, but you can't add or rearrange blocks on Fluid Engine sections from your phone. For that, you need a computer.

Fluid Engine is only available on Squarespace 7.1 sites. If you're still using version 7.0, you won't get access to these features. Squarespace has no plans to add Fluid Engine to 7.0, so if you want these capabilities, you'll need to switch to 7.1.

Some users find the learning curve steeper than the Classic Editor. The freedom requires more design decisions-you need to manually configure layouts that were once automatic. However, most designers agree that once you master Fluid Engine, you can't imagine going back.

Blueprint AI and Design Intelligence

Squarespace launched Design Intelligence-a suite of AI-powered tools that generate personalized website designs and content based on your brand personality. Blueprint AI is the centerpiece: answer a few questions about your business, and it creates a starting website populated with curated imagery and copy.

Blueprint AI has been recently revamped to offer more sophisticated design recommendations. The system analyzes your business type, aesthetic preferences, and goals to generate a fully functional website in minutes. It's not perfect-you'll definitely want to customize the results-but it's a solid starting point that beats staring at a blank template.

Additional AI features include:

Is it perfect? No. The AI copywriting options are vague compared to dedicated tools like Shopify Magic or specialized AI copywriters. The generated text often needs significant editing to sound genuinely human and specific to your business. But the Brand Identity feature that stores your brand description helps maintain consistency across all AI-generated content.

Mobile App Features

Squarespace offers a mobile app for iOS and Android that lets you manage your website on the go. While it doesn't include every desktop feature, it's surprisingly capable for quick updates and business management.

What You Can Do in the Squarespace App

The app is designed for business owners who need to manage their sites while away from their computers. Here's what's available:

Mobile App Limitations

The app's biggest limitation is that you cannot add or rearrange blocks on Fluid Engine sections. You can edit existing block content, but page layout changes require a computer. This is a significant constraint if you need to make structural changes to your site.

Other limitations include:

Despite these limitations, the app is extremely useful for ecommerce store owners who need to monitor sales, fulfill orders, and respond to customers while on the go. The analytics widget on iOS lets you view website traffic at a glance from your home screen.

Ecommerce Features

Squarespace has been pushing hard into ecommerce. You can now sell on all four pricing plans, though features vary significantly by tier.

What You Can Sell

Squarespace handles digital products and subscriptions better than Shopify-it's geared toward creators selling courses, memberships, and downloadable content rather than massive product catalogs. If you're selling information products or creative services, Squarespace's commerce features are surprisingly robust.

Commerce Features by Plan

Here's where it gets confusing. Not all ecommerce features are available on every plan:

FeatureBasic ($16/mo)Core ($23/mo)Plus ($39/mo)Advanced ($99/mo)
Sell productsYesYesYesYes
Transaction fee2%0%0%0%
Customer accountsYesYesYesYes
Abandoned cart recoveryNoNoYesYes
SubscriptionsNoNoNoYes
Real-time carrier shippingNoYesYesYes
Advanced shipping rulesNoNoNoYes
Commerce APIsNoNoNoYes
Product waitlistsNoYesYesYes
Advanced discountsBasicYesYesYes

The 2% transaction fee on the Basic plan adds up quickly. If you're processing steady sales, the Core plan pays for itself by eliminating that fee. The Plus and Advanced plans primarily reduce payment processing fees and add advanced features like abandoned cart recovery and subscription management.

For the full pricing breakdown, see our Squarespace pricing guide.

Product Management and Inventory

Squarespace 7.1 lets you list up to 10,000 products per page or website (up from 200 in version 7.0) and 250 variants per product (up from 100). This is a massive improvement for stores with extensive catalogs.

Product pages on version 7.1 have new layout options that let you present products in the best light. You can nest categories under others to create hierarchical navigation, and mobile scrolling has been optimized for longer product descriptions.

Inventory tracking is automatic-when someone purchases a product, inventory decrements automatically. You can set stock alerts to notify you when products are running low. Product waitlists allow customers to sign up for notifications when out-of-stock items become available again.

However, inventory management for large catalogs (500+ products) isn't as robust as dedicated platforms like Shopify or BigCommerce. You'll find yourself missing advanced features like bulk editing, advanced filtering, or sophisticated inventory forecasting tools.

Payment Processing

Squarespace supports three main payment processors:

Understanding Payment Processing Fees

Payment processing fees are separate from transaction fees. Here's how they work:

Squarespace Payments/Stripe processing fees:

These fees are unavoidable-they go to the credit card networks and payment processors, not to Squarespace. Every ecommerce platform charges similar processing fees.

Squarespace Payments vs. Stripe

Squarespace Payments is built on Stripe's infrastructure but managed directly within your Squarespace dashboard. The main differences:

If you only run one Squarespace site and want simplified management, Squarespace Payments works well. If you manage multiple sales channels or want maximum flexibility, Stripe is the better choice.

Note: You cannot use both Squarespace Payments and Stripe simultaneously. If you enable Squarespace Payments, it replaces Stripe as your payment processor (though existing Stripe subscriptions continue processing through Stripe).

Point of Sale

Squarespace offers POS features through integration with Square. Connect a Square card reader to accept payments in person and keep your inventory synced with your online store. There's also Tap to Pay for contactless payments on iPhone and NFC-enabled Android phones.

The POS system works through the Squarespace mobile app. You can:

The limitation: POS is only available in the US. There's currently no alternative for businesses in other countries, which is a significant gap for international sellers.

Ecommerce Limitations

Here's where Squarespace falls short compared to Shopify or BigCommerce:

If you're planning to scale massively or sell internationally, Squarespace probably isn't your best choice. For a detailed comparison, check our Squarespace vs Shopify guide.

Blogging and Content Features

Squarespace has strong blogging roots, and it shows. The blogging features are legitimately good for content creators.

Blog Management

Scheduling posts is straightforward: create your post, click Draft, select Scheduled, pick your date and time, and you're done. Posts automatically publish at the scheduled time. This is perfect for maintaining a consistent publishing schedule even when you're busy or traveling.

Blog Display Options

Squarespace offers multiple blog layout styles that adapt to your content:

Templates like Skye and Rally are specifically designed for bloggers and digital magazines. Skye offers a clean, minimalist layout with full-bleed presentation of blog posts, text, and multimedia. The built-in infinite scroll guarantees continuous exploration for readers.

Content Blocks

Squarespace uses a block-based system for adding content. Available blocks include:

Each block is fully customizable with design options specific to its type. Image blocks can have aspect ratios adjusted, borders added, and hover effects applied. Text blocks support full rich text editing with custom fonts, colors, and alignment options.

Blog Limitations

The biggest limitation is that blog posts still use the Classic Editor-you can't use Fluid Engine on blog content. This means you have less layout flexibility for your posts compared to static pages. You're limited to the standard blog post format rather than the creative, grid-based layouts possible with Fluid Engine.

For content-heavy sites that rely on unique article layouts, this is frustrating. You can work around it by creating custom pages instead of blog posts, but then you lose automatic blog features like RSS feeds, post categories, and chronological organization.

SEO Features

Squarespace includes built-in SEO tools, though they're more basic than what you'd get with dedicated SEO plugins on WordPress.

What's Included

The SEO Checklist feature scans your site's metadata and alt text, then suggests improvements you can implement in seconds. It identifies pages missing meta descriptions, images without alt text, and other basic SEO issues. No SEO expertise required for the basics.

SEO Strengths

Squarespace excels at technical SEO fundamentals. Sites load fast thanks to optimized code and automatic image compression. The platform handles mobile responsiveness automatically, which is crucial since Google uses mobile-first indexing. SSL certificates are included and configured automatically-no technical setup required.

The URL structure is clean and logical. Page URLs are automatically generated from page titles, and you can customize them easily. When you change a URL, Squarespace prompts you to create a 301 redirect automatically, preventing broken links.

SEO Limitations

If you're serious about SEO, Squarespace's tools are adequate but not exceptional. Here's what's missing:

For advanced SEO, you'll need third-party tools or manual code injection. If you're building a content site where organic search is your primary traffic source, WordPress with dedicated SEO plugins might be a better choice.

Marketing and Analytics Features

Email Marketing

Squarespace Email Campaigns is a separate add-on (not included in website plans) that lets you send newsletters and promotional emails. It integrates with your site's contact list and product catalog.

Email Campaigns pricing:

The emails match your website's aesthetic automatically, creating a cohesive brand experience. You can create campaigns from scratch or use pre-designed templates. Product blocks let you showcase items directly in emails.

However, the automation features are fairly basic. You get simple automations like welcome emails and abandoned cart reminders, but nothing approaching the sophisticated automation workflows available in dedicated email platforms like ActiveCampaign or ConvertKit.

You can also integrate with third-party email tools like Mailchimp, AWeber, and others. For email marketing options, see our email marketing for small business guide. If you need more than 10,000 subscribers or want to explore better options, check out AWeber for powerful automation features.

Analytics

Built-in analytics cover the basics:

Advanced commerce analytics-like sales by product, average order value trends, and customer lifetime value-are only available on Commerce plans. You can export data to CSV for deeper analysis.

You can also integrate Google Analytics for deeper insights. Many Squarespace users run both simultaneously-using Squarespace's built-in analytics for quick checks and Google Analytics for comprehensive data analysis.

The mobile app includes analytics tools, making it easy to get a holistic overview of your online presence from anywhere. On iOS, you can add a widget to your home screen to view website traffic at a glance.

Social Media Integration

The Instagram integration is particularly strong. You can connect your Instagram account and display your feed directly on your website. Product tagging lets customers shop directly from your Instagram posts, streamlining the path from discovery to purchase.

Domain and Hosting Features

Every Squarespace plan includes:

Domain renewals run $20-70/year depending on the extension (.com vs .studio, etc.). While this is more expensive than some discount registrars, the price includes built-in privacy protection, DNS setup, and support-making it a simpler all-in-one experience.

Squarespace became one of the world's largest domain registrars after acquiring Google Domains. If you previously purchased your domain through Google Domains, your domain is now managed by Squarespace, and the transition was handled automatically.

The Domains Dashboard lets you manage DNS settings, email forwarding, and domain permissions from one place. You can:

For current pricing details and discounts, check our Squarespace cost breakdown or grab a Squarespace coupon.

Scheduling and Appointments (Acuity)

Squarespace acquired Acuity Scheduling, and it's now available as both a separate subscription and an integrated feature depending on your plan. Features include:

Squarespace Scheduling (formerly Acuity) is available in three tiers:

All tiers allow you to receive payments. The streamlined interface makes it easy to contact clients, reschedule bookings, or initiate checkout directly from the appointment details page.

This is particularly valuable for service businesses-coaches, consultants, therapists, personal trainers, hair salons, massage therapists, and anyone else who sells time-based services. The integration with your Squarespace site means customers can book appointments directly from your website without leaving the page.

Bio Sites (Link in Bio)

Bio Sites is Squarespace's link-in-bio feature for social media profiles. It's separate from the main website plans and includes:

Bio Sites is part of Unfold, Squarespace's app for Instagram creators and storytellers. You can create a basic bio site for free, with paid plans available for premium features.

You can sell guides, digital downloads, and other digital products directly on your Bio Site-useful for creators who drive traffic from Instagram, TikTok, or other social platforms where you can only include one clickable link in your profile.

Member Areas and Gated Content

Member Areas lets you create members-only pages with subscription access. Useful for:

Member Areas pricing starts at $9/month as an add-on to your website plan, plus a transaction fee of 1-7% on payments received from members. Pricing plans for members can be recurring subscriptions or one-time payments. You can create multiple membership tiers to offer different access levels.

The feature is more elegant than Wix's membership solution but comes at an extra cost. Wix's membership features are technically free (included in higher-tier plans), though they're less flexible and closely tied to the Wix Bookings app.

For businesses focused on building a membership site or exclusive community, Member Areas provides a solid foundation. However, dedicated platforms like Memberful or Patreon offer more advanced community features if that's your primary business model.

Integrations and Extensions

Squarespace integrates with third-party services through Extensions:

The extension ecosystem is smaller than Shopify's app store (which has thousands of apps). You won't find integrations for:

If you need extensive third-party integrations or plan to sell across multiple channels (Amazon, eBay, Etsy, etc.), consider Shopify instead. Shopify's app ecosystem is far more extensive and includes apps for virtually every ecommerce need.

That said, Zapier integration opens up significant possibilities. Through Zapier, you can connect Squarespace to tools like Google Sheets, Airtable, Slack, CRM systems, and thousands of other applications-though this requires a Zapier subscription and some technical setup.

Custom Code Access

The Basic plan doesn't allow custom CSS or JavaScript. You need the Core plan or higher to:

Code injection is available in three locations:

The CSS editor provides image and font file storage for CSS assets. This gives you more control than the visual editor alone, though you'll need some coding knowledge to take advantage of it.

If you're planning any customization beyond what the visual editor offers, skip the Basic plan. Many businesses start with Basic and then realize they need to upgrade just to implement proper tracking codes for Google Ads or Facebook Ads-so factor this into your decision from the beginning.

Video Features and Hosting

Squarespace includes video hosting, which is rare among website builders. Here's what you get:

Video quality is good-Squarespace optimizes videos for web playback automatically. Videos are responsive and work well on mobile devices. You can add video backgrounds to sections, embed videos in pages, or create video galleries.

Squarespace Video Studio app (free with all plans) helps you create engaging videos that grow your audience and drive sales. This is essentially a mobile video editor optimized for creating content for your website and social media.

For creators who produce video content, this is a valuable feature. You don't need to pay for YouTube Premium to avoid ads, and you don't need to upload to Vimeo and pay their hosting fees. Videos stay on-brand and on your domain.

However, if you're creating a video-heavy site (like an online course platform or video blog), the 30-minute limit on Basic or 5-hour limit on Core/Plus might not be enough. You'll either need the Advanced plan or use external video hosting like YouTube or Vimeo.

Security Features

Squarespace takes security seriously. Every site includes:

For ecommerce sites, Squarespace Payments uses PCI compliance, risk monitoring on all payments, data encryption, and secure checkout. Customer payment information is never stored on your Squarespace site-it's handled by certified payment processors.

Squarespace also has a 24/7 support team available if you experience security issues. While no platform is 100% immune to security problems, Squarespace's managed approach means you don't have to worry about security patches, plugin vulnerabilities, or server maintenance-issues that plague self-hosted platforms like WordPress.

Collaboration and Multi-User Features

Squarespace supports multiple contributors on your site, though the number varies by plan:

Contributors can have different permission levels:

This makes it easy to give your team, contractors, or clients appropriate access without compromising site security. A virtual assistant can fulfill orders without accessing your billing information. A content writer can publish blog posts without being able to change site design or settings.

Accessibility Features

Squarespace includes several features to make websites more accessible:

However, meeting full WCAG 2.1 AA compliance requires attention from site owners. You'll need to:

Squarespace provides the foundation for accessibility, but creating a fully accessible site requires intentional effort. This is true for any website builder-accessibility is a shared responsibility between the platform and the site owner.

What's Missing from Squarespace

No platform does everything. Here's what Squarespace doesn't have:

Support and Resources

Squarespace offers 24/7 customer support through:

Support quality is generally good-response times are fast, and support staff are knowledgeable. However, support can't help with custom code issues or advanced technical problems beyond the platform's built-in features.

If you need professional help building or customizing your site, Squarespace offers a "Hire an Expert" service that connects you with vetted Squarespace specialists. Typical Squarespace website design projects cost $2,500-$3,500, though prices vary based on complexity.

Squarespace vs. Competitors: Quick Comparison

Squarespace vs. WordPress

WordPress offers more customization and plugin options but requires technical maintenance. Plugin dependency means frequent updates to maintain functionality and security. WordPress sites require ongoing upkeep-updates to core platform, themes, and plugins. Without consistent maintenance, your site may face compatibility issues or become vulnerable to security attacks.

Squarespace is an all-in-one platform with user-friendly editor and built-in hosting. You don't need to manage plugins, security updates, or hosting. However, WordPress gives you more control and unlimited customization possibilities if you're willing to invest the time and technical resources.

Squarespace vs. Wix

Wix offers more design flexibility and features for power users, plus a free plan to get started. However, Squarespace's templates, ease of use, and polished UX make it the better choice for most people-especially creatives and service-based businesses. Squarespace sites tend to look more professional and cohesive out of the box.

Squarespace vs. Shopify

Shopify is purpose-built for ecommerce and offers superior inventory management, international selling features, and a massive app ecosystem. If selling products is your primary business, Shopify is usually the better choice. However, Shopify's content and blogging features are weaker than Squarespace, and its templates aren't as design-forward.

Squarespace is better for businesses where content and aesthetics matter as much as selling-content creators, coaches, consultants, photographers, and creative businesses that sell products as one component of a broader business model.

Pricing Transparency and Hidden Costs

Squarespace pricing is fairly straightforward, but there are some additional costs to consider:

Annual billing saves approximately 25-40% compared to monthly billing and includes the free domain for the first year. For most businesses, annual billing makes sense financially.

Trial and Money-Back Guarantee

Squarespace offers a 14-day free trial with no credit card required. This lets you build your entire site and test all features before committing to a paid plan. Some features (like connecting a custom domain or going live) require a paid plan.

After purchasing, you have 14 days to request a refund if you're not satisfied. This only applies to new purchases-not renewals or upgrades. Make sure to test thoroughly during the trial period so you're confident before purchasing.

Student and Nonprofit Discounts

Squarespace offers special pricing for eligible organizations:

These discounts don't apply to renewals-only the first payment-so plan accordingly.

Performance and Speed

Squarespace sites are generally fast. The platform handles optimization automatically:

However, site speed can vary based on how you build your site. Using massive uncompressed images, embedding too many external scripts, or creating overly complex pages will slow things down. Squarespace provides the foundation for speed, but site owners need to follow best practices.

Compared to unoptimized WordPress sites or bloated page builders, Squarespace performs well out of the box. Compared to speed-optimized custom sites or specialized ecommerce platforms, it's good but not exceptional.

Bottom Line: Who Should Use Squarespace?

Squarespace is excellent for:

Look elsewhere if you need:

Ready to try it? Start your Squarespace free trial and test the features yourself. You can also check if there's a Squarespace free trial extension or discount available before committing.

Need help getting started? Our complete Squarespace pricing guide breaks down every plan, and our cost analysis helps you budget for your site. If you're comparing alternatives, check our detailed comparisons: Squarespace vs Wix, Squarespace vs WordPress, and Squarespace vs Shopify.