What Squarespace Plan Should You Join?

ANSWER: IT DEPENDS

We get a LOT of questions from clients who simply want to know what to pay Squarespace... "What Squarespace plan should we join?"

Well, it simply comes down to that favorite subject you took in school... "Math" (yes, can you sense our sarcasm?).

A. ARE YOU SELLING NOTHING ON THE WEBSITE?

If NOTHING is being sold on the website then the choice is clear - you go with with the "Personal" tier on the Squarespace pricing structure at $144 for the year upfront ($12/month on average).

HOWEVER... now for the "somewhat" issue

THE CONS OF THE "PERSONAL" TIER

The "Personal" tier is extremely limiting to what Web Designers (like us) can do to make your website more interesting, special and unique. Here's why... Squarespace DOES NOT allow Web Designers (again, like us) to do any coding - NADA, NOTHING, NIL, ZILCH! That means we cannot create code to pre-roll video (a MUST for a better visitor experience) - we cannot animate text or graphics (so that text/images can slide in, roll in, wobble, etc.) which really elevates a site and makes it feel more ALIVE. For web designers to have the ability to create code in the back-end of the website you need to join the next tier up called "Business".

THE PRICE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN PLAIN & FANCY

The price difference between the "Personal" tier and "Business" tier is $72 if you pay for the year upfront to Squarespace. If you aren't selling anything then the question is, is it worth it to pay an extra $72 to elevate the website by allowing the web designer to add code? Well, think about your audience (website visitors), will a better website experience increase the odds of you achieving what your goal is for the website? For example, are you looking to gain subscribers for your newsletter/blog? Are you looking to have someone contact you who might be interested in potentially hiring you? Are you hoping that the visitors on your site will come to your event? If so, then the $72 is a justified additional expense (at least in our eyes).

CONCLUSION

If you aren't selling anything and you could care less about having your site feel more alive then go with the "Personal Tier" at $144 for the year. If you do not want to part ways with $144 right away you could pay $16 monthly for this tier, but just know you are paying $4 more per month on average which equates to $48 more for the year. Yes, you can start out paying monthly and switch to their yearly plan at $144 at any time. The same is true vice versa. You could pay for the year upfront and then switch your billing cycle to monthly at any time (they will prorate your credit card - which is nice).

B. ARE YOU SELLING PRODUCTS/SERVICES ON THE WEBSITE?

If you plan on selling products/services on the website then you need to at minimum subscribe to Squarespace's “Business” tier (this is the next tier after "Personal"). The "Business" tier is $216/year ($18/month on average).

The next tier after "Business" is "Basic Commerce" at $312/year ($26/month on average).

The BIG difference between these two tiers is that the “Business” tier takes an additional 3% from every sale you make (on top of normal credit card transaction fees). The "Basic Commerce" tier takes NOTHING ($0) on top of normal credit card transaction fees. So, the fun subject of math comes into play... if you are sensing sarcasm, you are.

THE MAGIC NUMBER

The price difference between the "Business" tier and the "Basic Commerce" tier is $96 (no this is NOT the "magic number", but it will lead us to it).

Knowing that $96 is the price difference is important because that additional 3% that Squarespace takes from every sale you make when you are under the "Business" tier will begin to add up (sometimes quickly).

The amount you would have to sell of your products/services on the website where the additional 3% comes to $96 is... drum-roll please... $3,200 (yes, this is the magic number!).

CONCLUSION

If you think you will sell more than $3,200 of products/services on your website in the next 12 months then you should absolutely go with the "Basic Commerce" tier at $312/year ($26/month on average). That's because for every dollar you you earn past $3,200 on your website would be throwing 3% of every sale down the toilet (or think of that money going towards buying Squarespace some fancy office furniture... again, sarcasm).

If you think you'll sell less than $3,200 worth of products/services on your website in the next 12 months then just go with the "Business" tier at $216/year.

C. NOT SURE HOW MUCH YOU WILL SELL?

If you aren't sure you will sell less than or more than $3,200 of your products/services on your website in the next 12 months then our recommendation is to start with the "Business" tier at $216/year ($18/month on average) and monitor your sales growth. After your first 3 months look at the dollar amount of you have sold on the website and project your sales growth for the following 3 months, 6 months and 9 months. If you see that your sales look to be on track to surpass that $3,200 magic number in the following 9 months then switch your plan to the next tier up ("Basic Commerce" at $312/year). The nice thing that Squarespace does is that when you switch to any other plan they will pro-rate it from your current plan.

D. ARE YOU A BIG BUSINESS SELLING PRODUCTS/SERVICES TO LOTS OF CUSTOMERS?

If you are a big business then you may want to go with Squarespace's next tier which is their highest ("Advanced Commerce" at $420/year).

The advantages to this tier over the "Basic Commerce" tier are you getting things like:

• Abandoned Cart Recovery: Send automated email reminders to customers who abandon the checkout process before completing their purchases.

• Gift Cards: Sell digital gift cards in your online store to expand your reach. Recipients can redeem these gift cards as payment in checkout.

• Sell Subscriptions: Sell subscriptions to products and services on a weekly or monthly basis and generate recurring revenue. Automatic recharging and payment retries make it easier to build customer loyalty.

• Advanced Shipping: Automatically calculate real-time rates for USPS, FedEx, and UPS. Control your shipping options at the ZIP Code level in the US and FSA level in Canada.

• Advanced Discounts: Offer discounts that automatically apply to qualifying orders in checkout or are limited in use, giving you full control over your store's promotions.

• APIs for Orders and Inventory: Build custom integrations for third-party systems that handle your order fulfillment, production logistics, and multi-channel inventory management.

• Limited Availability Labels: Increase urgency and encourage conversion by letting customers know the current inventory level of any product.

CONCLUSION

If any, or all, of the above is necessary for your business then welcome to the "Advanced Commerce" tier!

A SECRET THAT WILL SAVE YOU MONEY

Here's a little secret. We are considered Squarespace Website Design Specialists in the eyes of Squarespace. Squarespace offers their Website Design Specialists an incentive. They give a 20% discount off of the first year for all new Squarespace sites that we build sites. Squarespace says we can pocket this extra money or pass on the savings on to our clients. We choose the latter! Yay!