Squarespace alternatives: 7 options compared

Most people looking for a Squarespace alternative this year are reacting to the July 2026 price rise, and the right move depends on what your site actually does. For a portfolio, Framer. For writing and a newsletter, Ghost. For a shop, Shopify. For one simple landing page, Hostinger or WordPress.com cost far less. For the same all-in-one approach with more features, Wix. And for a service business that wants its site kept current without doing it, Firetend. Below: why people are leaving, seven alternatives grouped by need, and what each does better and worse than Squarespace.

Why people are leaving Squarespace

The 2026 price rise. In July 2026 Squarespace emailed customers about higher prices. PetaPixel compared the archived pricing pages: on annual billing, Basic went from $16 to $19 a month, Core from $23 to $29 and Plus from $39 to $49, while Advanced stayed at $99. On monthly billing, Core went from $36 to $39 and Plus from $56 to $65. Photographers and filmmakers on Threads, quoted in the same article, were openly asking where to move. One filmmaker described his site as a basic landing page for his film and video work and asked for "the next best plug and play solution".

Paying for features they don't use. PetaPixel quotes a Reddit user whose price had risen 61% since 2021 and who felt they were paying for AI features they "did not ask for". The common thread: people with simple sites feel they're funding a platform built for bigger ones. Squarespace also went private in October 2024, when Permira bought it for $7.2 billion, which the same article notes as context for the rises.

Leaving takes work. Squarespace's export only covers part of a site. According to Squarespace's help centre, it exports layout pages, galleries, text and image blocks and one blog. It does not export store, portfolio or index pages, product or video blocks, drafts, or any style settings and custom CSS. The export is in a WordPress format, so other platforms need the content copied over. Plan for a rebuild, with some content carried across.

None of this means Squarespace got worse to use. Its templates are still among the most polished, and if the new price is fine for what you get, staying is reasonable.

The short list

Alternative	Best for	From (as of November 2026)	Better than Squarespace	Worse than Squarespace
Framer	Portfolios and design-led sites	$10/mo billed yearly	Cheaper entry, faster to build, modern design	Smaller CMS, no store
Wix	All-in-one with more features	$17/mo billed yearly	More apps, scheduling, more layout freedom	Easier to make a messy site
Ghost	Writers and newsletters	$18/mo billed yearly	Newsletters and paid members built in, 0% fee	Not a general business site builder
Shopify	Selling products	$29/mo billed yearly	Store depth, apps, checkout	Weaker for content and portfolios
WordPress.com	A blog or simple site on a budget	$4/mo billed yearly	Price, portability	Less design polish out of the box
Hostinger Website Builder	One cheap landing page	$2.49/mo on a 48-month term	Price in the first term	Renews at $10.99/mo, fewer features
Firetend (our product)	A service business that wants the site kept current	$39/mo ($32 billed yearly)	Content kept current for you, downloadable files	No store, no own booking, no drag-and-drop

Squarespace for comparison: Basic $19 and Core $29 a month on annual billing (as of November 2026; Squarespace pricing shows prices in your local currency).

For photographers, designers and portfolios: Framer

Who it suits: the creatives PetaPixel was writing about: people whose site is mainly their work and a contact page.

Framer's Basic plan is $10 a month and Pro $30 a month billed yearly (as of November 2026). Basic includes a custom domain, 30 pages, 2 CMS collections and 50 GB of bandwidth. Extra editors cost $20 a month each; content-only editors $10.

Better than Squarespace: cheaper to start, fast to build in, and designs look current without much effort. Worse than Squarespace: no built-in store for selling prints, a smaller CMS on Basic, and you design more yourself rather than choosing a finished template. PetaPixel also points photographers to specialist platforms such as Format, SmugMug and Zenfolio, which include client galleries and print sales; if those matter, look at them too.

For the same all-in-one approach: Wix

Who it suits: people who like Squarespace's model (hosting, templates, tools in one place) but want more features.

Wix's Light plan is $17 a month and Core $29 a month billed yearly (as of November 2026), with scheduling, a store and payments from Core.

Better than Squarespace: a much larger app market, built-in scheduling for services, and freer layouts. Worse than Squarespace: that freedom makes it easier to end up with an inconsistent design, and Wix has its own history of renewal complaints (see Wix alternatives). It's also closed: Wix says its sites can't be hosted anywhere else. For a head-to-head, see Wix vs Squarespace.

For writers and newsletters: Ghost

Who it suits: anyone whose Squarespace site is mostly a blog, a newsletter, or paid content.

Ghost(Pro) starts at $18 a month billed yearly for the Starter plan, and Publisher, which adds paid subscriptions, is $29 (as of November 2026). Ghost takes 0% of subscription revenue; payments go through your own Stripe account, which charges its own fees (Ghost vs WordPress). Ghost is also open source, so you can host it yourself.

Better than Squarespace: newsletters, members and paid subscriptions are the core of the product, not add-ons, and Squarespace's Basic plan takes 7% of digital content and membership sales (Squarespace Help). Worse than Squarespace: it's a publishing tool. Service pages, galleries and a shop are not its strength.

For selling products: Shopify

Who it suits: Squarespace users whose store is the business.

Shopify Basic is $29 a month paid yearly (as of November 2026; the pricing page shows local prices), with a 2% fee if you don't use Shopify Payments.

Better than Squarespace: inventory, shipping, apps and checkout built for scale. Worse than Squarespace: content pages and blogs are plainer, and app costs add up. If you sell a handful of products beside a portfolio, Squarespace Core (no transaction fee) may still be the simpler choice.

For a blog or simple site on a budget: WordPress.com

Who it suits: writers and small sites that want low cost and the option to move later.

WordPress.com plans start at $4 a month billed yearly for Personal and $8 for Premium (as of November 2026). Installing plugins needs a paid plan.

Better than Squarespace: much cheaper, and WordPress content moves between hosts easily. Squarespace's own export is in WordPress format, which makes this the smoothest move. Worse than Squarespace: themes need more work to look as polished, and the more plugins you add, the more upkeep. Our WordPress alternatives page covers that trade-off.

For one cheap landing page: Hostinger Website Builder

Who it suits: the "basic landing page" owner who wants the lowest bill.

Hostinger's builder is $2.49 a month on a 48-month term ($119.52 upfront), renewing at $10.99 a month (as of November 2026).

Better than Squarespace: a fraction of the price for four years. Worse than Squarespace: less refined templates, fewer tools, and a renewal price over four times the starting rate. Read the renewal line before you commit.

For a service business that wants the site kept current: Firetend (our product)

Who it suits: therapists, clinics, tutors, studios and firms on Squarespace whose site looks fine but hasn't changed since launch, and who would rather approve updates than write them.

Firetend reads your current Squarespace site for your services, locations, team and wording from the live site, so nothing is retyped and you don't need an export. With Keep my look, make it much better, the design agent keeps your colours, logo and feel and rebuilds every page. You see a design brief and a first look in about five minutes; the full build takes 15 to 40 minutes after you approve. After launch, the content agent proposes and writes articles, page refreshes and new service or location pages, using real keyword data for your market, and saves each to a draft for you to review. Plans start at $39 a month, or $32 billed yearly; the brief and first look are free.

Better than Squarespace: your site keeps getting new, useful content without you writing it, and you can download the whole project (Astro and Markdown) at any time and host it anywhere. Structured data, sitemap and /llms.txt are built into every site. Worse than Squarespace: no store, no booking system of its own (it embeds Calendly, Acuity, SimplyBook and the like), no member areas, no drag-and-drop editing, and fewer template choices because the design is made for you. Firetend doesn't set up redirects from your old URLs automatically, and we're a new, small company.

Firetend is the wrong choice if you're a photographer selling prints, run paid memberships, or want to design the site yourself. Framer, Ghost or a specialist photo platform fit better. If you just want the redesign, see AI website redesign.

Before you cancel

Export first, then cancel. Squarespace's export only works on a published, public site, and trial sites can't export (Squarespace Help). Save images and any store data separately.
List your URLs. Write down every page address. On the new site, keep the same addresses or set up 301 redirects, so search engines and old links find the new pages. See website redesign SEO.
Check what you'd really pay. A first-year discount can make a renewal look like a bigger jump than the list price change. Compare like for like.
Don't move just to save $3 a month. A rebuild costs time. If Squarespace does what you need, the price rise may be smaller than the cost of moving.