Is Squarespace worth it for a small business?

So what's going on with Squarespace right now?

Ok, if you've been online lately (it's July 2026), you'll have seen the posts all over social media that people are quitting Squarespace. Why? Like a lot of the platforms we use online for businesses - website builders, email marketing apps, customer management apps, productivity apps - prices are going up this year, sometimes significantly, and people are (understandably) rather upset.

Squarespace, with no warning, sent everyone an email that rates were going up and it amounted to about 26% annually. That's a number that seems pretty egregious at first glance. For the Core (Business) plan that meant it went from $276 a year to $348. So that seems like a big jump.

But if you break it down, it's $72 more a year or $6 more a month. Ok, so not a huge expense if you have some cash flow in your business. But emotionally, it seemed a massive jump if people didn't break it down. So yeah, lots of upset declarations on social media that people were cancelling their account asap. (Update: they dropped it to 20% or $55 more a year. Oooh, nice save there - not.)

If people have multiple sites, yeah, it can add up. And a lot of platforms have had similarly sized increases, $5 to $10 a month being pretty common. So if multiple services you use all jump their prices, your budget takes a hit. In this economy, it can mean considering whether you can cut back on some things.

Unfortunately, your website isn't really one of those things. If you have a business in 2026, you need to have a website. A Facebook page, Flodesk checkouts, Stan store, or whatever is hot right now, isn't enough.

People need to check you out, see what you do, what you stand for, how you can help them, well before they decide to buy from you. And the best place for that is still a website. No one wants to scroll your socials to see if you're a good fit to work with (especially as more people try to get off socials).

Best website platform for small businesses.

So to my initial question, is Squarespace worth using for a small business website? If you don't have a lot of logistical needs with a larger e-commerce store, then yes, I do think it's worth it and still the best option.

Why? Out of the various website builders I've used, it's been the easiest to manage and update a website without needing to learn a complicated system, or have to hire someone else to do it for you.

The learning curve is pretty small, there's a simple drag and drop interface to position everything on a page, there are code plugins that easily let you customize it well beyond the fairly extensive design controls you have, and it's quite good for SEO ranking and accessibility. Not all builders can say that.

There's also built in blogging, e-commerce, e-mail marketing, invoicing, scheduling and events, memberships and courses. Not all of it is maybe what I'd recommend (sometimes it's good to use separate more advanced apps for some things like your email marketing) but it does really bring a lot of what you need to run a business under one roof, which can be helpful.

The alternatives to Squarespace.

The competition?

• Wordpress isn't really a good choice if you're not tech inclined, there's regular upkeep and maintenance of the platform you have to do to keep it secure and your plugins working.

  Wordpress plugins aren't just bits of code you pop in, but individual apps essentially, that control things like your shopping cart, your security, your SEO, and they frequently clash and can stop working and break your site. Then you get the fun of trying to fix it or hiring someone to do so. So it's a time suck as well. Squarespace doesn't require any of that.

• Showit is built on the Wordpress platform, which is why it uses the Wordpress blog, and e-commerce plugins. It does give you a lot of design freedom, but it's structure has been chaotic and really poor for accessibility so keyboard navigation doesn't work properly. It's not been as good for SEO as Squarespace either.

  Now, apparently there's a big improvement for both coming, so we'll see how it stacks up after that. It's definitely not as good for simple e-commerce as Squarespace, as you have to pay for the top tier level with Showit, whereas Squarespace lets you sell on any pricing tier.

• Wix is pretty similar to Squarespace, in terms of being an all-in-one platform with e-commerce, blogging, events, courses etc.. The user interface isn't perhaps quite as simple and user friendly, and their site editor can be overwhelming. Squarespace really does have a much cleaner, simpler editor.

  It also doesn't have as much accessibility standards built in and you have to do more manual adjustments to fix that, and it doesn't perform as well there as Squarespace, though it's a little better than Showit. There's been plenty of complaints about much larger jumps in pricing, which is something to be aware of. As well, for those that want to take a moral stance, Wix is an Israeli company and firmly pro the Israeli government narrative. Take that as you will.

• Webflow is not for non-techies, it has a huge learning curve and a lot of stuff has to be coded in. It certainly has advanced capabilities, but basically, you're going to need a developer to take advantage of any of them. It's definitely not recommended if you want to manage your site yourself.

  It's not quite as good as Squarespace for accessibility and that takes a lot more to manage too. It may be a few dollars cheaper per month than Squarespace, but way more of a headache to manage.

• Shopify is best for e-commerce sites, particularly if you need to manage more complex logistics, such as both local pickup and shipping, integrating wholesale with retail, inventory management etc. For more simple e-commerce, including digital products, but physical ones as well, Squarespace is still a good option and is continually making improvements. It's certainly easier to manage and set up.

  For a complex Shopify site, you're probably going to need development help. Design wise, you definitely don't have as much freedom and flexibility with Shopify, which is why it's not your best option for a service based or portfolio site and it's also more expensive than Squarespace. And the Shopify CEO is another insane tech bro.

• GoDaddy is a nightmare so just don't Go there. Between predatory pricing that lures you in with a cheap rate and extortionate renewals, to terrible customer service, a founder who likes to shoot elephants and a process to move your site away that will have you tearing your hair out, it's the last place you should be starting a website.

What about Canva?

If you've been looking on social media, you'll see plenty of people talking about vibe coding a site, for those who want to play with AI, as well as things like Canva being used for a basic site. And really, just don't go there.

Why? Canva is great for making social media graphics. That's what it's meant for. It's not meant for print graphics (good luck getting a properly formatted printed document) and it's also not meant for websites. It doesn't have a proper, multi-page structure (it's a one page builder), SEO control is limited, accessibility non-existent, no blogging or e-commerce, and so on. There are much better options (see above).

Why can’t I just vibe code my website?

You've had the fun of dealing with AI chatbots, maybe you've used ChatGPT, so you know how much massaging it takes to get good output from generative AI. Now add in all the stuff you probably don't know how to make the right prompts for, like security stuff, accessibility, SEO, site structure, site strategy, mobile responsiveness, that a website builder takes care of for you. And how are you going to maintain that afterwards?

Then there's the way most LLMs work where it doesn't tend to be an iterative process, it redoes things from scratch each prompt and it comes up with changes each time. Do you really want that frustration?

Now to the big elephant in the room, which a lot of people seem to exercising cognitive dissonance with (because if it helps me it must be good, ya?): generative AI and the data centres needed for them massively damage the environment. The bastards that own them cheap out on how they build them (while raking in billions) because they won't spend the money to make them energy self-sufficient and non polluting.

Sure, it's a great idea to suck up tons of fresh water, put out massive amounts of heat (you only thought it got hot in your city or county), put out maddening amounts of noise and like some, spew tons of noxious pollutants from burning fuel for the generators (like that asshole Musk's).

There's also the problem of genAI output making everything the same bland, boring, generic stuff because when you mix all the world's info together, you just get an average blend of garbage.

You lose the human creativity and genius that working with a real person brings, plus when you don't support creatives, not only do we lose the ability to support ourselves (ie we have no jobs, hello) but you deprive yourself (and the world) of our creativity and nothing new gets made. If this all sounds rather dystopian, well, it is. And yes, I am anti genAI if you hadn't guessed.

Why I think Squarespace is still the best platform to build your website on

So rant over, let's get back to the original question, why I think Squarespace is still your best option for a website. It's still the best option for ease of use and making it simple to keep your website up to date. You really don't have to hire a developer to update or maintain it like some other platforms.

It's also one of the best ones for accessibility and SEO. Pricing is still mid range to lower than several of it's major competitors. And it has a lot of built in functionality with e-commerce, blogs, portfolios/galleries, scheduling, courses etc. that make it easier to manage several things in your business in one place.

Now, if you don't have the time to build or redo your website yourself, there's lots of designers/developers like myself that work in Squarespace and would love to take care of that for you.

You can check out my custom web design services here. I also offer ongoing website maintenance, such as refreshing pages or updating it with new blog posts etc., if you also need to hand off that while working on your business takes priority. You can see what your options are for maintenance and upkeep services here.

If you have questions, send me an email or hit me up on Threads. If you want to discuss your website options, feel free to book a time with me on my contact page, for a no pressure consultation.