How it works
How to calculate Squarespace ecommerce costs
Pick the right plan tier
Business ($23) lets you sell but charges a 3% transaction fee on top of payment processing. Basic Commerce ($27) eliminates that fee. Advanced Commerce ($49) adds subscriptions and abandoned cart recovery.
Enter revenue and orders
Both matter: revenue drives Squarespace's transaction fee (on Business plan) and Stripe/PayPal percentage fees. Orders drive the flat per-transaction fee from your payment processor.
Calculate the breakeven for upgrading
Business plan's 3% transaction fee means if you do $133+/mo in revenue, you break even upgrading to Basic Commerce ($4 plan difference covered by saved transaction fees). Almost every ecommerce store should skip Business and go straight to Basic Commerce.
Squarespace for ecommerce, the tradeoffs
Squarespace is the strongest design-first ecommerce platform. The tradeoffs vs Shopify are different.
Skip the Business plan for real ecommerce
Business plan's 3% transaction fee is expensive at any meaningful volume. At $1K/month revenue, the 3% fee costs $30/month, which is already more than the $4 upgrade to Basic Commerce. Always start at Basic Commerce minimum.
Only Stripe or PayPal
Squarespace restricts payment gateways to Stripe and PayPal. No Braintree, no Adyen, no regional options. For US/EU stores this is fine (same rates as Shopify Payments). For stores in markets where Stripe has limited coverage, this is a real constraint.
Best design templates in ecommerce
Squarespace's templates are the strongest in the platform market by a meaningful margin. For design-driven brands (fashion, lifestyle, premium goods), the template quality saves months of designer work vs customizing Shopify themes.
Limited depth for complex catalogs
Squarespace struggles with stores over 500 SKUs, complex variant structures, or multi-location inventory. Its search and filtering are basic. If your catalog is deep, Shopify or BigCommerce are better homes.
Reviews need a third-party app
Squarespace has no native review system. Merchants rely on integrations like WiserReview, Yotpo, or Reviews.io. WiserReview integrates cleanly with Squarespace's structured content blocks.
More free tools
All tools →FAQ
Questions, answered
3% on the Business plan ($23/mo). Zero on Basic Commerce ($27/mo) and Advanced Commerce ($49/mo). This is on top of payment processor fees (Stripe/PayPal at 2.9% + $0.30). Business plan is cheaper only if revenue is under ~$130/month.
Yes, those are the only two options. Squarespace Payments (powered by Stripe) and PayPal. Rates match standard Stripe/PayPal pricing (2.9% + $0.30). No other gateways are supported.
Basic Commerce ($27/mo) for most stores. Advanced Commerce ($49/mo) if you need subscriptions, abandoned cart recovery, or advanced discounting. Business ($23/mo) only for stores doing <$200/mo where the 3% transaction fee is minimal.
Yes. Squarespace exports product data as CSV. You'll need to migrate customer accounts, order history, and reviews manually or via a migration tool. Most serious stores above $500K annual revenue eventually move off Squarespace to Shopify for deeper feature support.
Squarespace Basic Commerce ($27) is competitive with Shopify Basic ($29/mo) and cheaper than Shopify ($79/mo) at equivalent feature levels. Wix Core ($29) is roughly equivalent. Squarespace wins on design, loses on depth of ecommerce features.
Add reviews to Squarespace
WiserReview collects reviews from your Squarespace customers and shows them on your store.
7-day free trial · from $6.75 a month, billed yearly