Squarespace is the most popular website builder with beautiful and modern templates that can also be personalized to your liking. While many users go for their premium themes or custom designs, some of the most valuable free Squarespace themes are well featured and aesthetically pleasing at no additional charges. Whether you are setting up a blog, portfolio, business, or e-commerce site, it is critical to get the theme right.

In this article, we are going to look at the free Squarespace themes, the vital features that they have to offer, customization options, and how they compare to the paid ones.

What Makes a Great Squarespace Theme?

Before we get to the list, here are some important points that define a great free squarespace themes:

• Visual Appeal:   A good theme should be clean and have a modern design that enhances user experience.
• Mobile Responsiveness: Template must adjust seamlessly across devices.
• Customization Options: Flexibility in colors, fonts, layouts, which allows easy personalization of the site.
• Speed & Performance: Fast-loading themes ensure a healthy SEO score and a good experience on the part of users.
• SEO-Friendly:  Built-in SEO tools help your site rank better in search engines.
• Easiest To Use: A theme should be intuitive enough to.

Best Free Squarespace Themes

Here now are some of the best free Squarespace themes that are really awesome to get started with:

1. Brine (Most Versatile)

Best For: Business, e-commerce, and personal brands

Brine is one of the most flexible as well as widely used free squarespace themes, providing so many features as well as options to customize it that it would serve nearly any type of website.

Key Features:

• Seems to include a realistic amount of layout options.
• Customizable fonts and colors.
• Parallax scrolling and background images.
• Advanced product merchandising- e-commerce.

2. Farro (Minimalistic Blog Theme)

Best For: Bloggers and Writers 

Farro best suits content creators who require a distraction-free reading experience. It has a plain and elegant-looking style designed to bring your content right up to the top.

Key Features include:

• Should have a clear and minimal design
• Different kinds of layouts for the featured post
• Social media integration
• Mobile-friendly design

3. Bailard (Best for Portfolios)

Best For: Photographers, artists, and designers.

Bailard is one of the most beautiful free squarespace themes that can be downloaded for free and best suited for showcasing work through visuals.

Key Features:

• Wide imagery, while relying on a grid-based layout
• Smooth transitions and animations
• Portfolio-friendly gallery features
• User-friendly customization in font and color

4. Paloma (Elegant Business Theme)

Best For: Small businesses and professionals

Paloma can be easily called an elegant and very professional-looking theme, especially designed for service businesses.

Key Features:

• Design that is simple yet elegant
• Call-to-action areas
• Integrating Contact Form
• Smooth scrolling navigation

5. Moksha (Creative Freelancer Theme)

Best For: Freelancers, agencies, and entrepreneurs

Moksha also provides a creative and dynamic layout for the freelancers to showcase their services creatively.

Key Features: 

• Layouts that are Unique in Grids
• Client Testimonials Section
• Responsive Design
• Multi-page Support

How to Select the Right Squarespace Theme

Choose the right theme. It should be specialized to what you specifically need. Here are a few ideas:

• Blogs, themes that highlight the content like Farro.
• Portfolios-Bailard. This excellent theme is visually situated.
• E-commerce, the best free theme would be Brine, given that it has various focused features regarding products.
• Business. Paloma has a clean and professional layout.

How to Install a Free Squarespace Theme

• Login to free squarespace themes, and the first thing you will find is your dashboard.
• From the menu, look and click on “Templates.”
• Browse through the themes available, and choose one you’ve found interesting.
• Then click on “Start with This Design” to install.
• Change up your theme with fonts, colors, and different layouts.

Can I sell on Squarespace for free?

When selling on Squarespace is concerned, it is not an option. Payment methods include Subscription. Squarespace themes have some powerful eCommerce tools, and it comes at a price. Here’s what you need to know:

Yes, selling from Squarespace themes does not come free. They do not have free plans for selling products. Use their 14-day free trial, after which you must subscribe to one of their pay plans to enable online sales.

Payment Processors & Payment Fees:

You can sell using payment processors such as Stripe, PayPal, and Square. These services charge their transaction fees, usually 2.9%+$0.30 per transaction.

Can you sell digital & physical products?

Yes! Squarespace themes let you sell:

• Physical products (clothing, accessories, home goodies, etc.)
• Digital products (ebooks, music, courses)
• Services & appointments (consulting, coaching, photography, etc.)
• Memberships & subscriptions (the Advanced Commerce plan only).

Getting Around the System to Sell for Free

If you want to sell on Squarespace themes  without paying for any eCommerce plan, here are some workarounds:

• Free link: Post your products on Squarespace, but process payments through PayPal, Venmo, or a direct bank transfer outside of Squarespace.
• Form for manual orders: Create an order form on a free Squarespace theme plan and accept payment through another means.
• Link to other platform: Use a free website plan and send customers to Shopify Lite ($9/month) or Etsy.

Is Squarespace No Longer Free?

Squarespace themes also don’t provide a completely free version plan. Free 14-day test drive option was available to prospective subscribers so that they can evaluate the site and go about creating a site before hitting that paywall.

What Has Happened to Free Plan?

Squarespace themes do not have a permanent free plan, nor has it allowed any user to publish a live website without a subscription. Its premium model is that users pay for hosting and functionality access at or post-trial, once it’s over.

What are the Prices of Squarespace Currently?

As of 2025, here are the paid plans that are currently available at Squarespace templates:

• Personal Plan-A basic offering that comes with only the essentials for a small website.
• Business Plan includes more advanced functionality, marketing, as well as analytic features.
• Commerce Basic- online store, limited selling tools
• Commerce Advanced commerce solutions.

Can you use Squarespace for free somehow?

• Free Trial: It still offers a 14-day free trial, but after that, users will have to pay to continue using it.
• Unpublished Websites: You may go about building your site’s pages during the trial, but subscription will be needed to go live.

Alternatives with Free Plans

If you are searching for a free website builder, then below are a few options:

• Wix (Has a free plan inclusive of ads)
• WordPress.com(The free version is limited)
• Weebly (Free plan with restrictions).

Does Squarespace pay you?

Users earn no compensation directly from Squarespace, however, many different forms of earning can be done on Squarespace.

Selling products or services: 

If you sell online or offer services, you can use Square’s e-commerce features for products, digital downloads, or memberships that you create. You earn money from any activity done directly with customers, as opposed to Squarespace.

Affiliate Program: 

Squarespace templates have an affiliate program, allowing you to earn commissions accrued from the sales created by simply promoting the platform. If a customer chooses to sign up via your referral link, you will earn a portion of the sale.

The Squarespace Affiliate Program provides commissions to the applicable signups of new customers. Payments are done through Impact, affiliated with an affiliate marketing network. The referred affiliates earn based on a successful referral, rather than an ad revenue stream.

Monetizing a Squarespace Website:

Having a blog or website on Squarespace templates means earning money through Ad networks (like Google Adsense), sponsored content, or affiliate marketing (third-party product promotions).

Website Design Services: 

If you have top-notch skills in designing professional websites, then you can offer clients Squarespace website building and charge them for their designs.

Subscription Content 

You can add paid memberships or subscriptions for exclusive materials to your site through Squarespace templates.

Donations 

For all non-profits, charities, or even content creators, Squarespace templates provide a donate button from which they can receive funds from those willing to support them financially.

Does Squarespace Pay in Money Directly? 

Not at all since users of Squarespace templates are given no amount per website open. Yet, with that being said, one way people can earn money from Squarespace is to sell things, join the affiliate program, advertise, or offer services.

Does Squarespace Delete a Website After the Trial Ends?

Squarespace avails 14 days beyond registration for prospective users to gain insight into its website-building features before moving into a paid plan. By the trial period, what then becomes of the websites of users who choose not to subscribe to one among Squarespace’s premium plans?

What Happens after the Trial Period of Squarespace?

The Site Goes Dormant

• At the end of a 14-day free trial, your website goes into dormancy by default, and it cannot be accessed by the public. The editor can not be accessed until payment is made.

Content Preservation

• It’s not that Squarespace will just go ahead and delete your website the second the trial period is over.
• Roughly 30 days are given to these kinds of websites and their content to keep pending the upgrade to a paid plan so that their users would have their work saved. 
• Therefore, during that time, those users cannot access and edit their sites until they pay for a premium plan.

Permanent Deletion

• If a user does not upgrade to a paid plan approximately 30 days after the expiration of the trial, Squarespace may delete the site from their servers permanently.
• This means all text, images, and customization will be lost and cannot be recovered.

What To Do To Avoid Deleting The Website?

Upgrade Before The Deadline Of Trial Period: For your website to remain active, upgrade to a paid plan before the trial period expires.

Export Your Content: If you are uncertain of your next step, keep important text, download images, or utilize Squarespace’s limited export feature for a limited set of content types.

Possible Trial Extension: In some cases, you may be able to get in contact with customer service and request an extension to your trial period.

Minimalistic Portfolio

Ideal for: Photographers, designers, artists, and freelancers

Description:

The sleek, minimalist design of this free Squarespace theme focuses on your work. Clean layout, bold typography, and really big image areas are just right for displaying your portfolio. The start page is a full-width banner, then a gallery of images in grid style, and finally an ‘About’ part to introduce yourself. The design is fully responsive to make your work look amazing on all devices.

Features:

• Grid-based portfolio layout
• Header image across screen
• Integrated blog section
• Fully customizable fonts and colors
• Mobile-compatible design

Elegant Blog

Perfect for: Bloggers, writers, and other content creators

Description:

Elegant Blog is a modern, aesthetically pleasing Squarespace theme for bloggers who wish to focus on readability and engagement. It indeed has all of that, coupled with a feature at the homepage to showcase posts, and a clean sidebar to contain categories for fast finding and browsing. This theme features a built-in newsletter signup and social media for the readers to make tracking easy.

Features:

• Minimal and distraction-free layout
• Featured post section
• Customizable sidebar for categories and tags
• Having integrated the newsletter and the signup
• SEO-optimized and mobile-friendly

Conclusion

Choosing the free Squarespace theme depends on what kind of goals your website has set, or what your taste is in the end. It does not matter whether you need a blog, portfolio, or business site, since all themes mentioned here give a perfect starting point without requiring any additional amount. Paid themes, on the other hand, would give you much more flexibility and possible unique designs.

Squarespace remains an excellent site builder, and if you choose the right free option on themes, you will lay down an amazing professional-looking site within no time at all.

FAQs

Can I use third-party plugins on free Squarespace templates?

You can attach third-party plugins for additional applications such as pop-ups, forms, and analytic purposes.

Are free templates from Squarespace mobile friendly?

All squarespace templates, free or otherwise, are completely responsive and mobile-optimized.

Do free Squarespace templates allow using video backgrounds?

Yes, to mention some, Brine, Wexley, and Pacific templates support video backgrounds.

Can I sell digital items using a free Squarespace template?

Yes, you can sell digital products using the eCommerce templates of Squarespace like Alameda, Paloma, and Hester.

What are some awesome free templates on Squarespace for restaurants?

The best free templates on Squarespace that you could use for restaurant websites are:

• Clarke (layout that emphasizes menus)
• Horizon (ideal to display food photography)
• Nolan (perfect for reservations and online order)

How do I download a free template on Squarespace?

Just head on over to the Squarespace Templates page, select the template you want, and click “Start with this design”.

Can I customize a free Squarespace template with custom CSS?

Sure, you can customize even more using your specific CSS code.

Is there any free external Squarespace template?

Although all the squarespace templates available on the official site are free, third-party developers may also have free templates, but they have to be installed manually.

What’s the best method for picking a free Squarespace template for my website?

Know what you want to use your website for (blog, store, portfolio, or business) and choose a theme that would be in line with that goal, then develop your design concept.

Can you help me regarding the customization of my free Squarespace theme?

You can find support through the Help Center by Squarespace, the forums, and even consultations with experts.