Plans & billing explained
A plain-English guide to Squarespace subscription plans, what each includes, how billing works, and where to manage your account.
- Difficulty
- Beginner
Squarespace runs on a subscription model. You pay a monthly or annual fee to keep your site active. This guide explains what the plans include, how billing works, and where to make changes.
Quick summary
Squarespace offers four current plans: Basic, Core, Plus, and Advanced. All plans include hosting, SSL, and the website builder, and you can sell on any of them. Higher plans add features like custom code and unlimited contributors, and charge lower sales fees. Manage your plan and billing in Settings > Billing.
Squarespace plan tiers
Squarespace offers multiple plans. Plans and prices change over time, so always check squarespace.com/pricing for current prices and the full feature list. As of September 2026, the current plans are:
| Plan category | Best for |
|---|---|
| Basic | Smaller sites with one or two people working on them: a simple website, portfolio, blog, or small online shop |
| Core | Bigger sites and teams: unlimited contributors, custom code, and built-in integrations such as Mailchimp and Zapier |
| Plus | Everything in Core, with lower payment processing fees and more video storage |
| Advanced | Larger online stores that process many orders, with the lowest fees and unlimited video storage |
Older sites may still be on a legacy plan: Personal, Business, Commerce Basic, or Commerce Advanced. You can stay on a legacy plan, but new sign-ups stopped in February 2026, and once you switch to a current plan you can't switch back.
Transaction fees
On the Basic plan, Squarespace charges a transaction fee on online store sales (in addition to payment processing fees). Core, Plus, and Advanced have no store transaction fee, and fees on digital content and memberships drop as you move up the plans. If you're selling regularly, Squarespace suggests considering Core or higher: depending on how much you sell, the lower fees can cover the cost of the bigger plan. Check squarespace.com/pricing for current rates.
Annual vs monthly billing
You can pay monthly or annually:
- Monthly — pay each month. You're not committed for a year, but it costs more over time.
- Annual — pay once a year. The average monthly cost is lower, and new annual plans can include a free custom domain for the first year. You're billed the full year upfront.
Most clients choose annual billing for the savings. To check your current billing cycle, open Settings > Billing, then click your website subscription under Subscriptions.
What's always included
Regardless of plan, every Squarespace subscription includes:
- Website hosting (your site stays online)
- SSL certificate (the padlock / HTTPS)
- Unlimited bandwidth
- The website builder and editor
- Access to Squarespace's template library
- Customer support from Squarespace (email is 24/7; live chat has set hours)
Upgrading or downgrading your plan
Only the site owner, or a contributor with Administrator or Billing permissions, can change the plan.
Go to Settings > Billing in your dashboard and click Subscriptions.
Click Website (or Squarespace, depending on your plan), then click Change under Subscription Plan.
Choose a new plan from the list, and pick a monthly or annual billing cycle.
Confirm and pay. If upgrading mid-cycle, you'll pay a prorated amount for the remaining days.
If you downgrade, you keep your current plan's features until the end of your billing cycle. Squarespace doesn't refund downgrades.
Cancelling a plan
Go to Settings > Billing.
Under Subscriptions, click your website plan and click Cancel subscription.
Review the cancellation details and follow the prompts to confirm. Squarespace may let you choose between keeping the site live until the end of your billing cycle, or ending it straight away with a refund if you're still within the refund window.
Cancelling removes your site
Once your subscription ends, your website goes offline and shows a "Website expired" message. You can reactivate it later, but if a site has been expired for more than 30 days, its content may be permanently deleted. Before cancelling, export any content you want to keep. Contact Chykalophia before cancelling if there's any chance you want to move the site to a different platform.
Updating your payment method
Go to Settings > Billing and open the Payment information panel to add or update a card.
Common questions
Can I try Squarespace before paying?
Yes. New websites start with a 14-day free trial, and you don't need a credit card to sign up. During the trial, your site is private: you can share it with chosen people using a password, but search engines can't see it. You need to subscribe to a paid plan to make your site public.
What happens to my site if my payment fails?
Your site becomes "past due". Squarespace emails you, shows a banner when you're logged in, and keeps retrying the charge. Your site stays visible to visitors for 15 days. If the charge still fails after that, the site expires and visitors see a "Website expired" message. Update your payment method promptly to avoid any downtime.
Does Squarespace offer refunds?
For website plans, Squarespace gives a full refund if you cancel an annual plan within 14 days of buying it. If that plan came with a free domain, the domain's cost is taken off the refund. Monthly plans, renewal payments, and annual plans cancelled after 14 days aren't refunded. To ask for a refund, contact Squarespace support using their refund request form.
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