Squarespace vs WordPress: costs, upkeep and ownership for a business website

Squarespace sells a finished, hosted website with the design work mostly done. WordPress is free software you can run anywhere, or rent ready-hosted on WordPress.com. The real choice is between convenience and control, and this page shows what each one costs you.

Pick by how much of the website you want to own

Choose Squarespace if you want one company to handle hosting, security and design, and you are content to work inside its templates. Its US plans are Basic at $12, Core at $17 and Advanced at $25 a month when paid yearly, and there is a 14-day trial instead of a free tier.

Choose WordPress if you publish a lot, need a specific plugin, or want the freedom to move hosts at will. The software itself is a free download from WordPress.org. If you would rather not run a server, WordPress.com hosts it for you from $4 a month on yearly billing, with plugin installs available from its Personal plan upward.

A third route suits people who like the idea of owning their site's code but do not want to manage WordPress updates: We.Inc writes a React site from a plain description and lets you download the whole project. Its free tier is limited to three template sites with no AI, and AI building starts at $20 a month.

Squarespace, WordPress and We.Inc on cost, upkeep and leaving

	Squarespace	WordPress	We.Inc
Starting point	14-day trial, no card needed; no free plan	Free software from WordPress.org; WordPress.com also has a free plan with ads	No-cost tier with three template sites, AI not included
Paid plans (US, yearly)	Basic $12, Core $17, Advanced $25 a month	WordPress.com Personal $4, Premium $8, Business $25, Commerce $45 a month; self-hosting cost depends on your host	Starter $20, Pro $49, Max $99 a month
Plugins and extensions	Extensions marketplace; custom CSS and JavaScript from Core	Over 60,000 plugins on WordPress.com plans; any plugin when self-hosted	Smaller ecosystem; add third-party code through the chat or code editor
Store fees	2% on Basic, 0% from Core; 7%, 5% or 0% on digital content and memberships	WooCommerce plugin is free; payment processor fees apply	Payments go to your own Stripe account
Maintenance	Handled by Squarespace	Updates, backups and security are yours when self-hosted	Hosted for you
Export	XML file in WordPress format; store pages, video blocks and custom CSS stay behind	XML of posts, pages and comments; full-site moves with a migration plugin	Full project ZIP on every plan; GitHub push on Max

Prices as of October 2026 from each vendor's pricing page (linked in sources), US dollars per month on yearly billing, before tax.

Pros and cons

Squarespace

Best for: Owners who want a polished site and would rather never think about hosting or updates

Price: Basic $12, Core $17, Advanced $25 a month billed yearly (US list, October 2026); 14-day trial

Pros: Hosting, security and software updates are handled for you; Core removes the 2% online store fee and adds CSS and JavaScript customization; Invoicing, scheduling and memberships sit in the same account

Cons: The XML export covers only one blog and basic page content; No free plan once the trial ends

WordPress

Best for: Bloggers, publishers and businesses that need a specific feature or full control of hosting

Price: Software free from WordPress.org; WordPress.com Personal $4, Premium $8, Business $25, Commerce $45 a month billed yearly (October 2026)

Pros: Free, open-source software you can install on almost any host; Tens of thousands of plugins, including the free WooCommerce store plugin; Posts, pages and comments export to a standard XML file

Cons: Self-hosted sites need regular updates, backups and security care; Quality varies widely between themes and plugins

We.Inc

Best for: Anyone who wants WordPress-style ownership of the files without the plugin upkeep

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: Describe the site in chat, then refine it by clicking the page, chatting or editing code; Download the full React and TypeScript project on any plan and host it elsewhere; SEO panel covers titles, descriptions, sitemap, robots.txt and structured data

Cons: Far fewer add-ons than the WordPress plugin directory; AI building needs a paid plan; the free tier is templates only

Where the two really differ

Squarespace is a single product: templates, editor, hosting and checkout come from one company and work together. You cannot install arbitrary server software, but you also never patch anything. From Core upward you can add your own CSS and JavaScript, which covers most small tweaks.

WordPress is a platform others build on. The WordPress.org download asks for PHP 8.3 or newer and MySQL 8.0 or MariaDB 10.11 on your server, and from there you choose a theme and plugins. That flexibility is the reason many large publishers use it, and also the reason a neglected install can break or be compromised.

Blogging and content

WordPress began as blogging software and it shows: categories, tags, comments, revisions and scheduled posts are part of the core. WordPress.com's plans all list unlimited pages, posts, users and visitors, with storage from 6 GB on Personal to 50 GB on Business.

Squarespace's blog is tidy and easy to style, and it is enough for most small businesses. The limit appears when you leave: Squarespace exports only one blog page per site, so a site with several blogs has to choose which one to keep.

Selling online on each

On Squarespace, Basic charges a 2% online store transaction fee and a 7% fee on digital content and memberships. Core drops the store fee to 0% and the digital fee to 5%, and adds shipping and tax tools. Advanced takes the digital fee to 0% and, in Squarespace's words, has its lowest payment processing fees.

WordPress sellers usually add WooCommerce, which is a free plugin. Its plugin page says store data can be exported and taken to another platform. You still pay your payment processor and your host, and paid extensions add up for larger stores. WordPress.com's Commerce plan at $45 a month is its store-focused tier.

Squarespace is the better pick when

You have a small business, a portfolio or a service site and you do not want a second job maintaining it. You value a consistent design more than an endless plugin list. You want invoices, scheduling and a modest store on one bill, and Core at $17 a month covers most of that.

WordPress is the better pick when

Content is the product, you already know which plugin you need, or you expect to change hosts or hand the site to a developer. It is also the cheaper way in: the software costs nothing and WordPress.com's Personal plan is $4 a month yearly. Budget time for updates if you host it yourself.

Moving from Squarespace to WordPress, or the other way

Squarespace's help center describes its export as an .xml file in WordPress format. It carries layout pages, one blog with its posts and up to 1,000 comments per post, text and image blocks, and gallery pages. Store pages, product blocks, video and audio blocks, drafts, style settings and custom CSS do not export, and you cannot export from a trial site.

Squarespace also warns that self-hosted WordPress may only link to your images rather than copy them, so those images break once the Squarespace site is cancelled. It suggests importing into WordPress.com, which copies images to its servers, or downloading them yourself. Going the other direction, WordPress.com exports posts, pages and comments to XML but leaves out the theme, customizations and plugins.

Whichever way you go, write down your current page addresses and keep them on the new site so search results and old links still land. If you would rather start fresh on We.Inc, paste the address of the site you own and ask it to rebuild an editable version with the same structure and content, keeping paths such as /about and /blog unchanged.

Start from a template

Sources

Squarespace: Pricing (US) (2026-10-17)
Squarespace Help Center: Export your site content (2026-10-17)
WordPress.com: Pricing (2026-10-17)
WordPress.com Support: Export your website's content (2026-10-17)
WordPress.org: Get WordPress (2026-10-17)
WordPress.org Plugin Directory: WooCommerce (2026-10-17)

Frequently asked questions

Is WordPress cheaper than Squarespace?

Usually. The WordPress software is free, and WordPress.com hosting starts at $4 a month on yearly billing, against $12 for Squarespace Basic. Self-hosting means paying a host, and premium themes or plugins can raise the total. Squarespace's price includes hosting, security and support, so compare the full bill, not just the plan line.

Can I move my Squarespace site to WordPress?

Partly. Squarespace exports an XML file meant for WordPress that includes layout pages, one blog, text, images and galleries. Store pages, products, video and audio blocks, custom CSS and style settings do not come across. Squarespace recommends importing into WordPress.com so your images are copied rather than linked.

Which is better for SEO?

Both can rank well. WordPress gives you more control through plugins and themes, which helps if you know what you are doing. Squarespace covers the basics without setup. Rankings depend far more on the quality of your pages than on the platform, so choose the tool you will keep publishing on.

Do I need a developer for WordPress?

Not for a simple site on WordPress.com, which hosts it and handles updates. A self-hosted site with many plugins benefits from someone who can update, back up and troubleshoot it. Squarespace needs no developer for normal use, though custom code is available from the Core plan.

Where does We.Inc fit between the two?

It sits between them. Like Squarespace it is hosted and needs no updates; like WordPress it lets you take the files with you, since the full React project downloads on any plan. It has a much smaller add-on ecosystem than WordPress, and its store is simpler than a dedicated ecommerce platform.

Build your own site

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