Square vs Squarespace: which should run your small business website?

The names are close but the companies are not related. Square is a payments and point-of-sale company whose plans include an online store builder. Squarespace is a website builder that also sells. Which one fits depends on whether you take most payments across a counter or online.

Counter first or website first?

Square vs Squarespace in one line: Square (the company at squareup.com) is a payments and point-of-sale business whose plans include an online store, while Squarespace is a website builder that also takes payments. They are not the same company. Choose Square if you sell across a counter, and Squarespace if your website is where customers decide to buy.

If you already take card payments in person, or plan to, Square's website builder makes sense because the online store shares your Square account. Square Free costs $0 a month per location, with online card payments at 3.3% plus 30 cents. Square Plus at $49 and Square Premium at $149 a month per location lower the online rate to 2.9% plus 30 cents and add features such as subscriptions, QR ordering and real-time shipping rates.

If the website itself is how customers find you, and in-person selling is occasional, Squarespace is the stronger site builder. Its US yearly plans are Basic $12, Core $17 and Advanced $25 a month, with a 2% store fee only on Basic.

For a business that wants a custom site and takes payments through Stripe, We.Inc builds the site from a description and runs a small store on your own Stripe account. AI building starts at $20 a month.

Square Online and Squarespace for small sellers

	Square Online	Squarespace	We.Inc
What you are buying	Payments and POS account with a website builder included	Website builder with selling included	AI-built React site with a Store panel
Monthly price	Free $0, Plus $49, Premium $149 per location	Basic $12, Core $17, Advanced $25, on yearly billing	$20 to $99 depending on plan
Online card rate	3.3% + 30¢ on Free; 2.9% + 30¢ on Plus and Premium	Squarespace Payments rates not quoted here; store fee 2% on Basic, 0% above	Your Stripe account's rates
In-person payments	2.6% + 15¢ Free, 2.5% + 15¢ Plus, 2.4% + 15¢ Premium	Not a focus of the plans page	No point of sale
Fulfilment	Pickup, local delivery and shipping on every plan	Shipping and tax services from Core	Shipping rates and orders list
Trial	30 days free on Plus and Premium	14 days free, no card	Free tier of three template sites, no AI

Prices as of October 2026 from each vendor's pricing page (linked in sources), US dollars; Square charges per location per month, Squarespace prices are per month on annual billing.

Pros and cons

Square Online

Best for: Cafes, restaurants and retailers that already use, or want, Square at the counter

Price: Square Free $0, Square Plus $49, Square Premium $149 a month per location, plus processing fees (October 2026)

Pros: A $0 plan that includes a website builder with SEO tools; Pickup, local delivery and shipping built in, with QR ordering on Plus; Online and in-person sales run through one Square account

Cons: Online card fee is 3.3% plus 30 cents on the free plan; Website customization is expanded only from the $49 Plus plan

Squarespace

Best for: Service businesses, creatives and brands whose website is the storefront

Price: Basic $12, Core $17, Advanced $25 a month, yearly billing, US prices (October 2026)

Pros: More design-led templates and content tools; 0% store fee from Core at $17 a month; Invoicing, memberships and digital content in the same plans

Cons: Not built around a physical point of sale; Digital content and memberships carry a 7% fee on Basic

We.Inc

Best for: Sellers who want a site designed around their business and payouts straight to Stripe

Price: Free plan: up to 3 template sites on a we.inc address, no AI. AI building from $20/mo (Starter, 250 credits). Pro $49/mo, Max $99/mo.

Pros: Store panel with variants, digital downloads, discount codes and shipping rates; Contact form submissions saved to a Contacts list across your sites; Code downloadable on every plan

Cons: No in-person point of sale; Store tools are simpler than a dedicated ecommerce platform

Square and Squarespace are different companies

Square is owned by Block, Inc. and is mainly a payments business: card readers, point of sale, payroll, banking and invoices, with a website builder offered in every plan. Squarespace, Inc. is a website company that has added payments, invoicing, scheduling and memberships around its builder.

That history explains the trade-off. Square's strength is everything that happens after a customer pays, especially in a physical shop. Squarespace's strength is the site visitors see before they decide to buy.

Card fees on $3,000 of online orders

Suppose a bakery takes $3,000 a month online in 100 orders of $30. On Square Free at 3.3% plus 30 cents per payment, processing comes to about $129 a month with no plan fee. On Square Plus at 2.9% plus 30 cents, processing is about $117, but the plan costs $49, so Plus only pays off when you need its features or sell much more.

Squarespace adds no store fee from Core, and its Advanced plan promises its lowest processing fees, but we did not confirm Squarespace Payments' card rates for this page. Check them on Squarespace's payments page before you compare totals.

Square is the better choice when

You run a cafe, restaurant, market stall or shop with a counter, and want the menu or catalogue online with pickup and local delivery. You value a $0 starting plan more than design freedom. You want staff, inventory, payroll and banking from the same company. Businesses processing over $250,000 a year can ask Square about custom pricing on Square Pro.

Squarespace is the better choice when

Your customers find you online and judge you by the site: photographers, designers, consultants, studios and brands. You sell services, memberships or a modest product range, and you want a blog, scheduling and invoicing beside the shop. Core at $17 a month yearly covers most of that without a store fee.

Moving between Square Online and Squarespace

Squarespace's help center describes an export to a WordPress-format XML file covering layout pages, one blog, text and image blocks and gallery pages. Store pages and product blocks do not export, and trial sites cannot be exported, so a Squarespace store moving to Square means re-entering products in Square's catalogue.

We did not find Square's own documentation on exporting a Square Online site while preparing this page, so check Square's support center before relying on any export. In either direction, plan to rebuild the design and keep a list of current page addresses to recreate on the new site.

A move to We.Inc works the same way: paste the address of the site you own and ask it to rebuild an editable version with the same structure and content, keeping existing paths such as /menu and /shop, then add products in the Store panel.

What a Square or Squarespace website costs in a year

Squarespace, from its pricing page on October 26, 2026: Basic is $144 a year on yearly billing ($12 a month), Core $204 ($17) and Advanced $300 ($25). Paying month to month costs $19, $27 or $36 instead. Yearly plans include a free domain for the first year, and every plan starts with a 14-day free trial without a card.

Square, from the plan prices on this page (checked October 17, 2026): Square Free costs $0 a year in plan fees, Square Plus $588 and Square Premium $1,788 per location. Most of Square's cost is per payment rather than per month, so a shop with small online sales often pays less on Square Free, while a busy online store should add up its card fees on both before deciding.

Start from a template

Sources

Square: Online store plans and pricing (US) (2026-10-17)
Squarespace: Pricing (US) (2026-10-17)
Squarespace Help Center: Export your site content (2026-10-17)
Squarespace: Pricing (US), rechecked (2026-10-26)

Frequently asked questions

Is Square Online free?

Square Free costs $0 a month per location and includes a website builder with SEO tools, pickup, local delivery and shipping. You pay processing fees instead: 3.3% plus 30 cents for online payments and 2.6% plus 15 cents in person. Square Plus at $49 and Premium at $149 add features and lower the online rate.

Are Square and Squarespace the same company?

No. Square is part of Block, Inc., a payments and financial services company. Squarespace, Inc. is a separate website-building company. Their products overlap on online stores and invoicing, but they are unrelated businesses with different strengths.

Is Squarespace the same as Squareup?

No. Squareup.com is the web address of Square, the payments company owned by Block, Inc. Squarespace is a separate website builder at squarespace.com. People mix them up because of the names, but accounts, plans and support are completely separate, and a Square login does not work on Squarespace.

Which is better for a restaurant?

Usually Square, if you take orders in person too. Its plans include pickup, local delivery and, from Plus, QR code ordering, all tied to the same account as your point of sale. Squarespace suits a restaurant that mainly needs a handsome site with a menu and reservations link rather than integrated ordering.

Does Squarespace charge transaction fees?

On Basic, online store sales carry a 2% fee and digital content or memberships 7%. Core charges 0% on store sales and 5% on digital content; Advanced charges 0% on both. Payment processing fees apply separately.

Could We.Inc replace Square for my shop?

Only for the online part. We.Inc's Store panel takes payments through your own Stripe account and handles variants, shipping rates and discount codes, but it has no point of sale. If you sell across a counter, Square's in-person tools have no equivalent in We.Inc.

Build your own site

How we research, test and update this page: our editorial policy. We.Inc is our own product.