Squarespace ranks among the most highly regarded website builders that boast exceptional templates and further customization that straddles well with built-in e-commerce solutions. The primary query for a potential user is but an open question: Does Squarespace themes even have a free plan for website design? This writing thus presents the pricing of squarespace plans, the trial period, the perks of the paid plan, and an account of alternatives to the best website builders, free ones.
Is There a Squarespace Free Plan?
Unlike some website builders like Wix or WordPress.com, Squarespace plans do not offer any free plan for users. Instead, it has a 14-day trial period, wherein users can access and make themselves handy with some features the platform provides before deciding to subscribe to a paid plan:
Squarespace Free Trial: What’s Included?
The must-have type of access, for every element on offer, is the privilege throughout the whole of the free 14-day trial:
- Unlimited number of templates
- Drag-and-drop landing-page-based editor
- Blogging
- Limited e-commerce tool
- SEO tool
- Marketing tools
- 24/7 support
- Showcase your site before it goes live.
There will be some limitations though:
- Your site shall not be published until you have signed up for a paid plan.
- Custom domains cannot be used for trial sites.
- Payments that carry e-commerce duties are stopped at the door.
You must go for one of the paid plans just to be able to save your work before submitting your site to be published after 14 days.
Squarespace Pricing Plans
Nowhere will the world be crueler to any user dreaming of developing a squarespace plans website when the trial ends: the user has to buy one of the paid plans. There is a “Personal” plan that comes with four different subscription models offered by Squarespace templates.
1. Personal Plan (14 days) for $16 per Month or $23 per year, with one Free custom domain name (for the first year)
- Unlimited bandwidth & storage
- SSL security
- 24/7 customer support
- No e-commerce functionality.
2. Business Plan (14 days) for $23 per Month or $33 per year
- Everything in the Personal plan plus
- Professional Email on Google (one year)
- Website usage Reporting
- Full E-commerce Implementation
- 3% transaction fees on sales
3. Basic Commerce Plan (14 days) for $27 a Month or $36 per year
- No transaction fees
- Customer accounts
- Checkout on your domain
- E-commerce analytics
- Advanced merchandising features
4. Advanced Commerce Plan (14 days) for $49 a Month or $65 per year
- Covers Advanced Commerce Plan
- Abandon cart recovery
- Advanced functionality in shipping
- Sell subscription service
- Advanced discount promotions
Why Does Squarespace Not Offer a Free Plan?
The Basics squarespace plans stand as a more premium builder in the world and focuses on providing a high-end experience built with professional design, a better customer-service team, and inbuilt classes for different business, creative, and online store workers. Keeping this type of platform free and running on a minimal operating and hassle-free, ad-free payer structure.
Free Alternatives to Squarespace With Free Plans
If you are looking for websites with a free plan, then here are some alternatives:
1. Wix
- Free plan available with a Wix-branded domain.
- Drag-and-drop builder.
- Limited storage (500 MB).
- Ads displayed in your free site.
2. WordPress.com
- Free plan available with a WordPress subdomain
- Basic themes and plugins
- 1 GB of storage limit.
- Ads displayed on the website.
3. Weebly
- Free plan available with Weebly branding.
- Limited e-commerce functionality.
- Drag-and-drop builder.
- No custom domain.
4. Webflow
- Free-building & designing via this site.
- Subdomain hosting only.
- Great design tools.
- Very limited CMS functionality.
5. Google Sites
- Free with Google.
- Can’t do much of customization.
- Not much beneficial.
- No e-commerce features.
Should You Choose Squarespace Over Free Alternatives?
When to choose Squarespace?
1) You want to set up your website quickly.
2) You do not want to use any plugins for e-commerce.
3) It must be dedicated enough for support.
4) Your design, hosting, and security need to be taken care of in that single package.
When Not to Choose a Free Builder?
1) You are just experimenting on an idea without any cost upfront.
2) You don’t bother about ads.
3) You are looking at lightweight websites like the portfolio, blog, and personal use.
Does Squarespace backup your website?
Squarespace templates are a popular website-building platform with the most attractive and easy-to-use templates. As for backup, when users ask the question: “Does squarespace plans provide an automatic backup system to restore lost content due to accidental deletion, hacking, or other issues?”
Does Squarespace Automatically Back Up Your Website?
Squarespace templates don’t provide automatic backups where users can restore their entire websites to previous versions. However, the option has its other internal safety nets, like:
Version History for Pages & Blog Posts
Square has limited version history for pages and blog posts. Once you delete a text or make any change that you regret, you can immediately use the Undo button (Ctrl + Z or Command + Z) after making changes. But no long-term version history is available.
Automatic System-Level Backups
All sites are backed up by the squarespace plans for disaster recovery, and the company does not offer the option to restore your backup themselves. Rather, those internal backups are mainly for maintaining a backup of all sites internally by the company in case there is ever some massive failure across Squarespace templates.
Deleted Content Recovery
If you delete a page or blog entry or even a collection (like a portfolio or gallery), Squarespace themes will let you restore it within 30 days through your Trash in your website settings. After that, it is gone for good.
How to Back Up Squarespace Manually
Since Squarespace templates do not offer a backup option to users, here are some alternatives to manually backing up your website:
Export Your Content
Some content types (like blog posts and basic pages) can be exported as an XML file for WordPress. This export is quite limited, though, as it does not include images, products, or styling settings.
To export:
Settings > Advanced > Import/Export > Export.
Save Your Content Manually.
Copy and paste critical text-based content into a document (Google Docs, Word, Notepad).
Download images and store them in cloud storage (Google Drive, Dropbox, or an external hard drive).
Use Third-Party Backup Tools
There are a few third-party tools and services available for scraping or manually backing up websites so you can keep a record of your site’s content at various times. These take up more effort and won’t replicate your site correctly.
Duplicate Pages Before Major Edits
Before making significant changes, consider duplicating important pages.
Go to Pages > Click on the page to be duplicated > Click the settings icon (⚙) > Select Duplicate Page.
What Happens If Your Squarespace Is Deleted?
In case you deleted your site by mistake, you can retrieve it within 30 days. After that time, your site will probably be gone, along with all its data, for good.
Can you make unlimited websites on Squarespace?
Under a subscription, you cannot create as many websites as possible on Squarespace; instead, it works on a per-site subscription plan. Unlike WordPress, which has multi-site management options, Squarespace themes require every single website to have a separate paid plan. Nevertheless, all the other websites can be managed from the specific Squarespace account.
Squarespace Limits Websites
Know about managing multiple websites using Squarespace:
It Requires a Paid Plan for Every Site
It does not offer multi-site management on its platform like WordPress or Wix. Each website is via the paid plan, and clients have to pay separately for each site created.
No Cap to the Number of Websites Created
While there is no technical limit to the number of websites you can create under your account, monitoring and subscribing is paid for each.
The Circle Program of Squarespace
If you are a web designer or developer that creates many websites, then you have the option to join the Squarespace templates Circle Program, which allows you to take advantage of perks such as an extended trial period, much-needed extra support from the community, and other exclusive features.
Alternatives for Managing Multiple Projects
For instance, instead of developing another website, you can always use Squarespace’s subpages or different sections of a single website to display multiple projects.
Another way is to create multiple domains and redirect them to various pages within a single website.
Alternatives for Unlimited Websites
If you need a platform to host as many websites as you want for one subscription, then here are some examples:
WordPress (Self-hosted under a single-host plan).
Wix (All business plans allow multiple websites).
Webflow (Team plans allow for multiple projects).
TrendSphere – A Dynamic Pop Culture & Celebrity News Blog
Best For: Entertainment Journalists, Celebrity Bloggers, and Social Media Influencers
Description:
The trendy and newest in celebrity news, TV dramas, movies, and pop culture are beautifully designed for the user-friendly templates of the blog.
Bold Visually Buzz creation:
- Featured news slider
- Category splitters on Bollywood, Pakistani entertainment, music, and sport
- Social media to share content instantly
- SEO-friendly blog architecture makes your blog visible to many.
- A newsletter subscription area to engage with the audience
Why choose this template?
Gain structure with these entertainment feeds set up in such a way that your readers are given a smooth viewing and reading experience. Mobile-friendliness is there for optimal viewing across the devices.
TechPulse- A Fintech & Startup Insights Hub
Best For: Tech Bloggers, Startup Analysts, and Fintech Enthusiasts
Description:
TechPulse is a simple yet powerful website template made for disseminated information on FinTech innovations, StartUp disruptions, and Financial Technology trends.
Key features include:
- Clean professional design
- Designed with SEO-facilitated layout for fintech-ranking articles
- Interactive charts and infographics to represent trends
- Member only access for premium industry insights
- Call to action for newsletter subscription and fintech tool recommendations
Why choose this template?
The simplicity and the tuned content presentation of “TechPulse” make a great cord for anyone programming into fintech analysts and startup-making enthusiasts who are willing to put up an authority blog or online community.
Conclusion
To cut a long story short, squarespace plans have no free plan, yet it provides a free 14-day window for exploration of their premium features before one pays into a paid plan. Their course insists on Wix, WordPress.com, and Weebly being free. This choice obviously will depend on your criteria, budget, and long-term site objectives.
FAQs
Does Squarespace have any discounts?
Squarespace templates do provide discounts for annual billing, and sometimes even a promotion for new users.
Can I get an extension on my free Squarespace trial period?
Yes, you can request trial extension through Squarespace themes support.
Does Squarespace offer student discounts?
Yes, there is a 50 percent discount for students who authenticate their educational status.
Can I connect my custom domain within the free trial?
No, paid plans are required for connecting custom domains.
What are the features available in the trial?
The trial grants full access to tools for designing and templates, as well as folio-making specifications, while e-commerce checkout and third-party functions have restrictions.
Is Squarespace completely free for non-profit organizations?
Not exactly; however, there are discounts available, which the non-profits can apply for, through the partnership programs of Squarespace themes.
Does Squarespace have any money-back guarantee?
Squarespace offers a 14-day refund policy after purchasing a plan.
Can I create a store on the internet during the free trial period?
Yes, but you will not be able to use the checkout feature until you subscribe to an upgraded plan.
Does the free trial have some limitations?
Yes, features like e-commerce checkout, linking to a custom domain, and email marketing integrations are limited.
Can I migrate my website to another platform once my trial period is over?
Yes, but you will have to manually export the content and take care of moving your domain if you purchased it through Squarespace.
Is there a method besides a paid subscription to gain free access to Squarespace?
No, you need to take a paid plan so that your website will be running even after your trial period is over.
Can I downgrade my plan later?
Certainly, you may downgrade your plan to the lower plan anytime; however, it should be noted that your payment made will not be refunded.