Square vs Squarespace 2026: Costs, Templates, and More

Despite the similar names, when you compare website builders like Square and Squarespace, I found they offer two entirely different ecommerce solutions with unique features for your online store. Of the two, Squarespace is my top choice, given its easy-to-use editor and quality designs.

Of course, the builder you pick will depend on your website needs, so keep reading to learn more about which platform has the best pricing, quickest setup time, and more.

Square vs Squarespace: Quick Comparison

Here are the main differences between Square and Squarespace:

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		Overall rating	Today's best price	Free plan or free trial	AI website builder	Recommended for
Best for Beginners	Best for Small Budgets
Squarespace	Square Online
4.5	2.9
$19 $17.10 with code “WBE10”	($0 on Square Free) $49
14-day free trial	Free plan
check	close
Creatives, portfolios and service-based businesses	Businesses on a budget

Best for Pricing: Squarespace

Despite updating its pricing plans in February this year, Squarespace remains reasonably priced for website owners and businesses. With plans starting from $16 per month, Squarespace is better value for money than Square.

How Much Does Squarespace Cost?

• Squarespace’s pricing ranges from $16 to $99 per month (billed annually)
• There are four premium plans
• You can sell online with any Squarespace plan
• Test out the builder with the 14-day free trial
• Get 10% off with our code “WBE10”

How Much Does Square Cost?

• Square’s pricing ranges from $49 to $149 per month (billed annually)
• There are two premium plans
• Square has a free plan which lets you sell unlimited products 

The Winner

Squarespace’s plans are great value for money

With Squarespace, you have four strong ecommerce plans to choose from, offering essential features like unlimited items, various shipping options and payment types, and in-person selling via its POS.

Easiest to Use: Squarespace

I spent hours building a website with both Square and Squarespace to see what the onboarding and editing process is like. Based on my hands-on testing and our rigorous research process, Squarespace is the easiest website builder to use. Here are my thoughts:

Setting Up

Squarespace is ideal for beginners thanks to its AI website builder, known as Blueprint AI. The onboarding process directs you to use it (though you can pick from pre-designed templates instead if you want to) and the five-step process takes less then 10 minutes to complete. You’ll be asked to set your brand personality, decide on a color scheme and font type, and be given recommendations when designing your pages.

When I got started with Square, I found the onboarding process really quick and simple, though it lacks an AI builder. All I had to do was answer a few questions about my business needs before I was taken to a dashboard which detailed my next steps.

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My thoughts on AI website builders…

If the platform you’re interested in doesn’t offer an AI website builder in 2026, I’d consider that a red flag. Most major builders, including Squarespace, provide AI assistance when it comes to setting up and designing your website from scratch. This is ideal for beginners, since you don’t need any coding experience or need to spend hours learning the ropes to create something stylish. And, Squarespace’s Blueprint AI offers a collaborative process – you get a lot of say over design choices. The fact that Square has no AI builder and limited themes makes the whole set up process a lot more difficult.

Emma Ryan Lead Writer

Editing Your Website

Of the two, Squarespace’s drag-and-drop editor is more intuitive. With this style of editor, you can reorder, drag, and manipulate elements, such as a gallery or newsletter sign-up form. Watch out for Squarespace’s grid framework, though. This helps you align blocks easily, which is great for beginners, but you won’t be able to drop an element anywhere.

With Square, you’ll be asked to select a theme first before you can start editing your site. Unfortunately, Square’s editor is more restrictive than Squarespace. You can stack sections on top of one another to build your page, but the majority of editing is done in a sidebar rather than directly on the site. It’s much harder to move elements around, such as text boxes and images.

The Winner

Squarespace's setup process is beginner-friendly

Since Squarespace is the easiest website builder on the market, there’s no surprise that it’s the winner here thanks to its AI builder, intuitive interface, and drag-and-drop editor.

Best for Selling: Square

If you’re looking for an ecommerce website builder, both Square and Squarespace offer impressive plans and features to help you sell online. While Squarespace is a better option overall, Square’s sales tools are slightly superior.

Sell with Square

• Sell unlimited products
• Set up appointments to offer services
• Square POS (included with all plans)
• No native payment gateway, but offers most popular payment methods
• Offer discounts and coupons
• Provide gifting options
• Customers can create accounts
• Multiple shipping options
• Sell via Facebook and Instagram
• Manage multiple websites and locations
• Attach badges to products to share status
• Allow pre-orders
• Abandoned cart recovery
• Automatically request product reviews
• Schedule product updates, pricing changes, and sales

Sell with Squarespace

• Sell unlimited products
• Sell services with Acuity Scheduling
• Squarespace Payments
• Squarespace POS (partnered with Square)
• Create and sell gift cards
• Offer discounts
• Checkout on your domain
• Promote products via Facebook and Instagram
• Product status labels and notifications
• Connect with Printful to sell custom products
• Display products in Google Shopping
• Abandoned cart recovery

The Winner

Square's features cater to online and in-person businesses

Both builders provide the features and support you’ll need as an online business, but Square’s tools are slightly more impressive. And, if you’re looking to hybrid sell (online and in-person), then Square has the best equipment.

Best Website Features: Squarespace

Square’s target audience is businesses looking to sell products, so its standard website functionality falls short in comparison to Squarespace. Your website builder should provide the tools you need to boost your site’s visibility, reach out to loyal customers, and share important updates. Here’s what you can expect from both builders:

• SEO tools
• A free custom domain name for the first year (on any premium plan)
• Social media integration (primarily Facebook and Instagram)
• Email marketing tools
• Blogging capabilities

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Author's notes…

With regular Google algorithm updates and the changes being made to the search landscape (such as Google’s AI Mode), it’s more important than ever that you understand the SEO basics. If you don’t have a good understanding of how to optimize your site and its content, you risk falling behind the competition and missing out on prime positions in the SERPs. While you shouldn’t rely solely on organic traffic from Google, the search engine remains a dominant force that most of your visitors and customers use day-to-day.

Emma Ryan Lead Writer

The Winner

Squarespace has better built-in features

Whether you need to link your website to your socials or send out weekly email campaigns, Squarespace has the features you need. Plus, Squarespace caters to a wider range of industries with its built-in tools.

Best AI Tools: Squarespace

Squarespace is one of the best AI website builders I’ve tested, whereas Square doesn’t even make our final list because of its limited number of AI tools. I’ve listed their key AI features below:

Square’s AI Tools 🔍

• Square AI (AI-powered assistant)
• AI menu generator
• AI-generated product backgrounds
• AI content creation
• AI setup support

Squarespace’s AI Tools 🔍

• AI website builder (Blueprint AI)
• AI content creation
• Brand identity support
• AI SEO tools
• AI image editing
• AI-generated proposals
• Business name generator
• Domain name generator

The Winner

Squarespace has a range of AI tools

Squarespace has a larger suite of AI tools and offers an AI website builder, which is really handy for beginners and businesses short on time. In comparison, Square’s AI offering is limited and its lack of AI builder puts it far behind other major builders on the market.

Best Templates: Squarespace

Squarespace’s designs and templates are unmatched. As of July 2025, Squarespace has 187 free and professional templates to choose from. Given my experience with other popular builders, such as Wix and Shopify, Squarespace’s templates are my favorite by far. They’re sleek, modern, and high-quality, plus I could filter the library by industry type to help me find the perfect fit.

In comparison, Square’s templates are known as “themes” and you can only access customizable themes on the Square Plus or Square Premium plan. The free plan sticks you with a standard blank template and limits your design options – I could choose from five layouts. And, unfortunately, there are only 29 customizable themes to choose from once you upgrade.

The Winner

Squarespace has over 200 free templates

Boasting an extensive template library, its own AI-powered template generator, and a multitude of design tools, Squarespace will leave you with a sleek online store that appeals to your customers.

Best for Support: Squarespace

Following our recent round of testing, Squarespace has the best customer support. Both builders provide 24/7 email, live chat (available during the weekdays), and online resources, such as guides and tutorials.

However, Square goes the extra mile with additional phone support as well. So, why isn’t it my winner here? I noticed it was particularly hard to get a clear answer or instructions when using the Square Support Center, whereas I had no trouble getting the right advice when using Squarespace’s Help Center. Plus, Squarespace’s live chat is more responsive.

The Winner

Squarespace offers 24/7 customer support

While Squarespace has fewer contact options than Square, the customer support is does offer is more responsive and better quality.

How We Test Website Builders

How do we determine which builder comes out on top? Our verdict is based on over 300 hours of website builder research, hands-on testing, and analysis. We carry out this research process regularly to maintain the accuracy of our findings, assessing each builder across six core categories.

Plus, I’ve spent time building websites with both builders in order to share valuable and relevant tips with you.

Do I Recommend Square or Squarespace?

Of the two platforms, Squarespace is the better choice overall. Not only is it one of the highest-rated builders we’ve tested this year, sitting just behind Wix in our top rankings, but Squarespace offers affordable plans, stunning templates, powerful sales features, and a beginner-friendly editor.

On the other hand, Square is a good option to explore if you’re looking to sell products online (or in-person) but don’t want to spend much money. If you’re still unsure, you can read our in-depth Squarespace review and Square review to help you make the right decision for you.

Written By

Emma Ryan

Emma is Deputy Editor of MVF’s B2B brands, specializing in website builders, ecommerce, marketing, and vibe coding. Emma combines her wealth of knowledge and years of hands-on testing with a passion for helping small businesses and website owners navigate the highs and lows of being online. Her work has been featured in Newsweek, Digiday, TechRound, and Industry Today.

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Reviewed By

Oliver Simpson Senior Research Executive

After three years of refining his skills in data analysis, Oliver transitioned to a role as a researcher to help understand reader preferences, decision making factors, pain points, and needs when it comes to building an online presence.

Oliver’s professional journey started out as a researcher in law enforcement, where he developed strong analytical abilities. He later moved into operations, which strengthened his understanding of quantitative data.

Now, Oliver blends his quantitative analysis skills with qualitative research to explore both audience preferences and product nuances.

In his three years at Website Builder Expert, Oliver has used his skills to provide up to date, unbiased insights into the products we review, to help ensure the best possible recommendations for readers. Oliver regularly assesses and iterates our website builder research methodology, staying on top of industry trends, digging into platform features and UX, and prioritizing areas that matter most to business owners. This provides web builder and ecommerce rankings you can trust.

In 2025 alone, Oliver’s conducted over 100 hours of data collection across website builder and ecommerce testing, and investigated 283 individual areas in the ecommerce methodology. He’s overseen 54 individual user tests of website builders, to assess how easy they are to use, and compiled the data into clear ratings for each builder.

You’ll find Oliver’s research referenced across all of our key pages; our content team use it to determine the ranking orders of pages such as the Best Website Builders of 2025, or comparisons like Wix vs Squarespace. We don’t decide who “wins” on personal preference; Oliver’s thorough research clearly outlines which platforms are best for different user needs.

Equipped with a UX design diploma, Oliver translates complex research findings into actionable insights that facilitate informed decision-making.

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