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vs Squarespace

Should you stay on Squarespace?
An honest answer for Australian businesses

Squarespace is the best-looking template library in this comparison — and for a photographer, a restaurant, a florist, or a boutique, that is often enough. If your brand is the product and a great template covers you, stay. When the business needs something the template cannot do, Squarespace becomes a ceiling. Here's where the line is.

Published 25 April 2026

Side by side

A site you keepSquarespace (Business)Squarespace (Commerce Advanced)
To get startedFrom $500, once$0$0
Monthly fee (AUD)~$20/mo hosting only~$35/mo~$100/mo
What you've paid after 5 years~$1,200 (hosting)~$2,100~$6,000
Cut of each saleStripe only (1.7% + 30c in AU)3% on top of StripeStripe only
Looks polished out of the boxBuilt for youExcellent, inside the templateExcellent, inside the template
When you need something the template can't doWe add itYou work around itYou work around it
Products with real options (size × material)YesVery limitedVery limited
Bookings, forms, tools talking to each otherYes — the tools you already useOnly what Squarespace plugs intoOnly what Squarespace plugs into
Feels fast on a phoneYesOften middlingOften middling
If you leave, the site keeps runningYesYou start againYou start again
When Business plan usually costs more—Around year 2Around 6 months

Squarespace’s gift is taste.

A photographer, a restaurant, a florist, a boutique — a lot of those businesses look better on Squarespace than they would after a cheap freelancer. The templates are curated. That work is real.

If your brand is the product and the template covers you, stay. This page is not here to talk you off a tool that fits.

The ceiling is the same as the gift. When the business needs something the template was not drawn to do, you start bending the week to fit the site.

Stay if this is you

  • People hire you with their eyes, and a great template is 90% of the job.
  • You’d rather trust their designers than write a brief.
  • You want it live this week.
  • Paying monthly feels better than paying once.

That’s a Squarespace business. Keep it.

Leave when the template is the boss

The thing you need isn’t a page. A customer who picks stone and size. A booking that has to hit your real calendar. A form that should open a job, not a notification you copy into a spreadsheet.

You’re working around the site. Extra steps, extra tools, extra “we’ll just email that.” The pretty shopfront is creating work out the back.

You’re paying a cut to look good. Commerce on the cheaper plan takes 3% on top of the card fee. Fine at the start. Loud once you’re actually selling.

Leaving means starting again. Same story as the other platforms. The look lives in their editor.

What you get instead

The same job Squarespace is good at — looking like you — without the ceiling. FORM3D had to feel like a serious contractor, not a template with a hard hat. Indigo Garlic had to feel like a farm you’d buy a gift from. GalaBags needed a look no catalogue would have offered.

You change the words and photos yourself. Hosting is a small monthly on an account in your name. If we part ways, it keeps running.

When the week needs more than a beautiful shopfront — a customer login, Stripe talking to the books — we add it to something you already keep. You don’t outgrow a template. You grow the site.

The money, simply

Business is about $35 a month — $2,100 over five years. Commerce Advanced is about $100 a month — $6,000 over five years — plus whatever cut you’re giving them.

A site you keep is $500–$3,000 once and about $20 a month to host. Against Business, the fees often catch up around year two. Against Commerce Advanced, around six months.

Already on Squarespace?

If the template still fits, stay. If you’ve started saying “Squarespace can’t really do that,” tell us how a job comes in. We’ll say if moving is worth it.

Real example

How this played out for FORM3D Structures

FORM3D Structures — Construction Website

How a concrete and formwork contractor can show big jobs properly — so builders take them seriously and know how to get in touch.

Read the full case study

Other builds worth a look:

Indigo Garlic

How a small-batch farm can tell the story, show the produce, and take orders — without renting a shop platform forever.

View project

GalaBags

How a sustainable bag brand can tell the story and take the order in the same visit — without a monthly shop fee.

View project
Common questions

Frequently asked

When is Squarespace actually the right choice?
Stay if your business is visual-first and a great template is most of what you need — photographer, restaurant, artist, florist, boutique. Stay if you'd rather trust their designers than brief someone. Stay if you want it live this week and you'd rather pay monthly than once. Squarespace earned that reputation. If you fit the template, it's a good product.
When does Squarespace stop being enough?
When what you need isn't in the template. A product a customer configures. A site with more structure than Home / About / Services / Contact. Bookings that have to land on your calendar, not theirs. A week where Stripe, the inbox, and the books need to talk. That's when a site built around you pays off.
Can a custom site look as good as a Squarespace template?
A careless custom site will not. Their best templates are genuinely polished. A good custom site matches that polish and then does the things a template structurally cannot — for a one-time cost that usually catches the monthly fees in one or two years. If looks are 100% of the job, Squarespace can win. If looks are 80% and the week is 20%, we do.
I've already got a Squarespace site. Is moving hard?
Not especially. We bring pages, posts, and shop data across. Photos come with them. Addresses can stay the same so Google doesn't lose you. Your domain stays yours. Most moves take 3–6 weeks depending on how much is there.
People say Squarespace is pretty good for SEO. True?
Fine at the basics — sitemap, titles, works on a phone. Weaker when you need to be found for competitive local work. The pages are often slower than they should be, and you can't shape the technical details that help Google understand a trade or a clinic. If people mostly search your name, it matters less.
Squarespace Commerce — any reason to switch?
For a simple shop — 10–50 products, no real options, standard checkout — probably not. For products a customer configures, deposits then a balance, bookings, or a shop that's going to grow past a quiet month — yes. A 3% cut on the Business plan adds up once you're past about $50k a year in sales.
Who have you actually built design-led sites for?
FORM3D — a concrete contractor that needed to look as serious as the pours. Indigo Garlic — a small-batch grower that had to feel premium, not supermarket. GalaBags — recycled ocean-plastic bags with a look no template would have landed on. Looking like you is the job, not a nice-to-have.
Is a custom site more expensive over 5 years?
Squarespace Business is about $2,100 over five years. Commerce Advanced is about $6,000. A site you keep is $500–$3,000 once plus about $240 a year to host — $1,700–$4,200 over five years, and you keep it. Against Business, we're often cheaper and you own it. Against Commerce Advanced, it's usually cheaper by year two.

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