Three plans, no free tier, and a big gap between annual and monthly billing. Here is what each plan costs and what the fees add.
We.Inc is free to start, no credit card. AI building from $20/mo.
Squarespace costs $12 a month (Basic), $17 a month (Core) or $25 a month (Advanced) when you pay for a year up front, or $19, $27 and $36 if you pay month to month. There is no free plan, only a 14-day free trial.
Basic charges a 2% fee on store sales; Core and Advanced charge no Squarespace fee on physical product sales. Card processing fees from the payment provider are extra on every plan.
| Basic | Core | Advanced | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Billed annually | $12/mo | $17/mo | $25/mo |
| Billed monthly | $19/mo | $27/mo | $36/mo |
| Fee on store sales | 2% | 0% | 0% |
| Fee on digital content and memberships | 7% | 5% | 0% |
| Contributors | Up to 2 | Unlimited | Unlimited |
| Video storage | 30 minutes | 5 hours | Unlimited |
| AI credits | 10, one time | 20 a month | 120 a month |
Prices checked September 2026 (September 25) on each vendor's own pricing page, in US dollars. Vendors change prices often, so confirm on their page before you buy.
Best for: Design-led sites for creatives, restaurants and small stores
Price: Basic $12, Core $17, Advanced $25 a month billed annually ($19, $27, $36 month to month). No free plan; 14-day free trial
Pros: Some of the most polished templates on the market; Stores, bookings and memberships built in; No store fee on physical sales from Core up; Free custom domain for the first year on annual plans
Cons: No free plan; Month-to-month billing costs up to about 58% more than annual; Fees on digital products and memberships until Advanced; Less layout freedom than Webflow or Framer
Best for: People who want to describe a site or web app in plain English and have AI build it
Price: Free plan: up to 3 template sites on a we.inc address, no AI. AI building from $20/mo (Starter, 250 credits). Pro $50/mo, Max $99/mo.
Pros: Describe what you want in chat and AI builds a full, editable site or app; Edit by clicking on the page, by asking in chat, or in a real code editor; Export the React and TypeScript code to GitHub, so you are never locked in; Unlimited sites on paid plans, custom domains from Starter
Cons: The free plan is templates only; AI building needs a paid plan; Newer platform with a smaller app marketplace than the big names; Store features are simpler than a dedicated ecommerce platform
A portfolio, restaurant or local service site that does not sell online: Basic on annual billing, $12 a month. A shop selling physical products: Core, $17 a month, because it removes the 2% store fee. Digital content, memberships or lots of video: Advanced, $25 a month. A short project or a trial run: monthly billing, accepting the higher price.
Basic is enough for a portfolio, a restaurant or a service business that does not sell online much. The 2% store fee is the main reason to move up: once you sell about $250 a month in products, Core's extra $5 a month (annual) costs less than the fee it removes.
Core is Squarespace's recommended plan and the one most small businesses end up on. Advanced makes sense only if you sell digital content or memberships at volume, need unlimited video, or want the lowest processing costs Squarespace offers.
Annual billing is the better deal if you are sure you will keep the site: Core is $204 a year billed annually versus $324 paid month to month. Monthly billing makes sense for a short project or while you decide. The first year of a custom domain is free only on annual plans.
Card processing (Stripe, PayPal or Squarespace Payments) is charged on top of the plan, and Squarespace says those rates vary by region. Automatic sales tax on Core and Advanced is charged per transaction. Email inboxes are a paid add-on, and the domain renews at the normal price after year one.
Plan fees only, using the prices checked on September 25, 2026 and assuming they stay the same at renewal (Squarespace has raised prices before, so treat later years as an estimate): Basic is $144 in year one and $432 over three years; Core is $204 and $612; Advanced is $300 and $900. Paying Core month to month costs $324 a year, or $972 over three years.
Not included, because they depend on you rather than on Squarespace's plan price: the domain renewal from year two, card processing on sales, email inboxes and any paid extensions. Put your own figures into our website cost calculator to get a total.
Prices only tell you half the story. The fairest way to judge Squarespace is to give it the same small job you would give any builder: a five-page website for a local service business (home, services, about, reviews and contact).
1. Build the service list with a price or short description for each service. 2. Add a quote request form and send yourself a test entry to check it arrives. 3. Connect a custom domain and confirm the site loads on it with a padlock. 4. Change one piece of content, such as a new service or opening hours, and time how long it takes. 5. Check the result on a phone.
Note which plan each step needed. That tells you the plan you will really pay for, which is often not the cheapest one advertised. When the site is live, run it through our free website grader to check search basics and speed.
Squarespace hosts your site on its own system. You can connect a domain bought elsewhere or transfer one in, and extensions add outside services. There is no export that lets you run the whole site on another host, so moving away later means rebuilding the pages somewhere else. That matters more for a site you expect to keep for years.
If you mainly want a good-looking site for a local business, you can publish a template site free on We.Inc, or pay $20 a month to have AI write the whole site from a description. Squarespace is still the better fit if you want its specific templates, built-in memberships or its commerce tools.
Where We.Inc fits: the free plan publishes up to 3 template sites on a we.inc address, with no AI and no custom domain, and needs no credit card. AI building, where you describe the site and it is written for you, starts at $20 a month (Starter, 250 credits); Pro is $50 and Max is $99.
We.Inc makes a competing website builder, so read this with that in mind. Every price on this page comes from the vendor's own pricing page on the date shown, with a link to it. We say where the other option is the better choice, and we do not publish scores for tests we have not run.
Squarespace is $12, $17 or $25 a month on annual billing, or $19, $27 or $36 month to month, for Basic, Core and Advanced. Prices were read on squarespace.com/pricing on September 25, 2026.
No. Squarespace offers a 14-day free trial, after which you need a paid plan to publish.
Basic takes 2% of store sales. Core and Advanced take no Squarespace fee on physical products. Digital content and memberships carry a 7% fee on Basic and 5% on Core. Card processing is charged separately by the payment provider.
A custom domain is free for the first year on annual plans. After that it renews at the normal domain price.
Basic on annual billing, at $12 a month, is the cheapest. Watch the 2% store fee if you plan to sell.
In plan fees alone, $432 on Basic, $612 on Core or $900 on Advanced with annual billing, at the prices checked September 25, 2026 and assuming no price change. Domain renewal after year one, payment processing and add-ons are extra.
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We.Inc is an AI-powered website builder you can resell under your own brand. Launch a branded client dashboard, bill on Stripe Connect, and deliver AI-generated websites in minutes. White-label plans start at $99 a month for 25 client sites, with a 7-day free trial and no per-site fees.