Squarespace vs Webflow (2026): Pricing, Store Fees and Which to Pick

Squarespace and Webflow will both give you a good-looking site with a working store, and that is where the similarity ends. One is a hosted builder that tries to take decisions off your plate. The other is a visual design tool that hands you the controls and expects you to know what to do with them.

I have been in ecommerce for 15+ years, and at Ecommerce Paradise I see platform choice as one of the first decisions anyone opening an online store has to make. If you are still working out what to sell, start with my guide on what high-ticket dropshipping is. The platform is the smaller decision, but it is one you pay for every month.

Everything below comes from Squarespace’s and Webflow’s own pricing pages and terms as I read them in October 2026, plus independent reviews and news coverage. I have not built a store on each platform for this article, so I say where a number comes from and where sources disagree. Prices change, so confirm anything that decides your purchase on the signup page. This is general information about software and fees, not legal or tax advice.

Disclosure: I may earn a commission if you sign up through my Squarespace link, at no extra cost to you. Webflow is the better tool for some builders, and I say where it wins.

Squarespace vs Webflow in One Minute

Squarespace is a hosted website builder built around designer templates and a drag-and-drop editor called Fluid Engine. TechRadar’s review, last updated in February 2026, ranks it among the easiest builders the site tested. Webflow is a visual development tool: you control layout at a much finer level and it publishes standards-based code, which is why it asks more of you.

Neither is a giant. W3Techs’ CMS usage report for October 2026 shows Squarespace on 2.4% of all websites (3.6% of sites with a known CMS) and Webflow on 0.8% (1.2%), against 40.1% for WordPress. Market share does not make a tool better, but it tells you both are hosted tools you rent, not a mass ecosystem you can lean on.

For a store, the practical split is easy to state. Squarespace lets every paid plan sell, with unlimited products, and its store transaction fee drops to 0% at $29 a month. Webflow separates site plans from ecommerce plans, and its transaction fee only reaches 0% at $74 a month. The rest of this article is about what that does to your bill and your time.

Ease of Use and Learning Curve

With Squarespace you pick a template, swap in your content and publish. If you want to find out whether the editor suits you, the Squarespace free trial costs nothing and, per Squarespace’s pricing page, needs no credit card. That is a low-risk way to spend an afternoon before you commit money.

The price of that simplicity is flexibility. TechRadar’s review lists several downsides: you cannot switch templates without rebuilding, there is no autosave, and there is no phone support. It also counts more than 180 templates, so the starting point is good even if the guardrails are tight.

Webflow lets you start free. Its Starter plan gives you a webflow.io address, 2 static pages, 1 GB of bandwidth and 50 form submissions, and you only need a paid site plan when you want a custom domain. That makes it easy to find out whether the tool clicks for you before spending anything.

Independent reviewers have long rated Webflow as the harder tool. Website Builder Expert’s Webflow vs Squarespace comparison scored ease of use at 4.4 out of 5 for Squarespace and 2.1 for Webflow, and pointed Webflow at “experienced designers who want more creative freedom.” That page was last updated in October 2023 and quotes old prices, so I use it only for the learning-curve point.

My advice is to build one real page on Webflow’s free plan before paying for anything. If the layout logic clicks, you have a powerful tool. If you are fighting it after a weekend, count your hours as part of the cost, because a store you never launch earns nothing.

Design Control and Templates

Squarespace gives every plan a CSS editor and a basic code block, and Core and above add an advanced code block and code injection for things like pixels and chat widgets. That covers most tweaks a store owner wants without touching the structure of a template. The structure stays opinionated, which is the point.

Webflow goes the other way. Its pricing page lists interactions built on GSAP, custom code, code components, and a fully custom shopping cart and checkout design on every ecommerce plan. Squarespace’s plan page lists checkout on your own domain, but I did not see an equivalent for redesigning the cart and checkout layout from scratch, so check that if checkout design matters to you.

Both include AI tools tied to your plan. Squarespace lists 10 one-time credits on Basic and 20, 40 and 120 credits a month on Core, Plus and Advanced, while Webflow ties credits to the Workspace plan (200, 300 and 400 on Starter, Core and Growth).

What Each Platform Costs in 2026

All prices below are US dollars from each company’s pricing page in October 2026, before taxes. Local pricing and taxes can differ outside the US, and the monthly-billing figures come from each page’s monthly toggle, so confirm both at checkout. Annual billing means you pay for twelve months up front.

Squarespace Plans

Prices rose this year, which is why older articles disagree with this table. PetaPixel’s report on the July 2026 increase lists annual Basic moving from $16 to $19, Core from $23 to $29, and Plus from $39 to $49, with Advanced unchanged at $99. TechRadar’s February 2026 review still shows the older $16, $23 and $39 figures, so I treat the Squarespace plan page and PetaPixel as current.

Beyond the plan, annual billing includes a free domain for one year, and Squarespace says select plans include one Google Workspace mailbox free for the first year (check which plans on the signup page). Website Builder Expert’s Squarespace pricing page, updated August 28, 2026, puts domain renewal after that at about $20 a year and lists Email Campaigns as a paid extra starting around $8 a month. My own Squarespace pricing breakdown goes deeper on each tier.

Squarespace’s own FAQ says it occasionally runs promotions and shares them on its website or by email. I keep track of what is live in my Squarespace coupon guide, so I will not repeat codes here.

Webflow Site Plans

Webflow reshaped these plans this year as well. Per nocode.tech’s coverage, the old CMS and Business plans merged into Premium and Basic rose to $15 a month yearly. The same coverage says legacy plans are grandfathered until renewal, so any article still quoting a $23 CMS plan or a $39 Business plan is out of date.

Bandwidth is where Premium can grow expensive. Webflow’s pricing page lists add-ons from +50 GB at $20 a month on yearly billing ($30 monthly) up to +2.45 TB, and it says two consecutive months over your limit triggers an automatic plan upgrade. Squarespace, by contrast, states that there are no caps on bandwidth or storage.

Webflow Ecommerce and Workspace Plans

As I read the pricing page, an ecommerce plan is the site plan for that site, so you pay for it instead of Basic or Premium, not on top. It includes a custom domain, custom cart and checkout, Stripe, PayPal and Apple Pay support, automatic tax calculation and Google Shopping sync. Webflow’s own help center says you can switch a store to a Premium site plan, but checkout is then disabled, which fits that reading. Every ecommerce plan is marked as having unlimited sales volume on the pricing grid, and Webflow announced in 2023 that it removed sales caps, but confirm both at checkout.

Webflow also sells Workspace plans, and this is the second bill people miss. A free Starter Workspace includes one full seat and unlimited paid hosted sites, so a solo store owner does not need to pay for one. Core at $19 a month yearly ($28 monthly) adds more staging sites and code export, and Growth is $49 ($60 monthly).

Optional add-ons are priced separately: Analyze and Localize start at $9 a month, and Optimize starts at $299 a month, with prices scaling by sessions, locales or page views. Squarespace bundles basic analytics into every plan.

What the Numbers Mean in Practice

Here is my own arithmetic, not a quote from either company. For a simple site with no store, Squarespace Basic is $228 a year and Webflow Basic is $180. The catch is that Webflow’s Basic has no CMS, and a blog or collections need Premium at $300 (a store plan includes CMS items too), while Squarespace’s plan page lists no separate CMS tier.

For a store doing $5,000 a month across 20 orders, card processing at 2.9% + $0.30 is $151 on either platform (using Stripe’s standard US rate for Webflow). Squarespace Core then costs $29 + $151 = $180 a month. Webflow Standard costs $29 + $100 (its 2% fee) + $151 = $280, and Webflow Plus costs $74 + $151 = $225.

That makes the break-even between Webflow Standard and Plus about $2,250 a month in sales, because 2% of $2,250 is $45, which is the price gap. Above that, Plus is cheaper, so in practice a Webflow store belongs on Plus. At that point Webflow is $45 a month, or $540 a year, more than Squarespace Core for the same card volume.

Now a high-ticket example: 10 orders a month at $1,500, or $15,000. Standard processing is $438 on Core and Webflow, $408 on Squarespace Plus (2.7% + $0.30) and $378 on Advanced. Add the plan prices and you get $467 for Core, $457 for Plus and $477 for Advanced, so Plus edges Core by $10, and Advanced only beats Plus above roughly $25,000 a month. That assumes standard cards, because Squarespace’s page lists a higher 3.2% + $0.30 rate for American Express and some commercial cards on every plan.

Whichever one you choose, put the subscription on a business account in your company’s name, not your personal card. My business formation checklist covers setting that foundation up before you start paying for tools.

Ecommerce Fees, Payments and Limits

People mix up two separate charges. The first is the platform’s own store transaction fee, which is a percentage of every sale on top of everything else. The second is card processing, which you pay through Squarespace Payments, Stripe or PayPal no matter which platform you are on.

Transaction Fees and Processing

On Squarespace, the store transaction fee is 2% on Basic and 0% on Core, Plus and Advanced. Selling courses and memberships carries a separate fee: 7% on Basic, 5% on Core, 1% on Plus and 0% on Advanced. Squarespace Payments also lists a 1.5% international card surcharge, a 1.0% currency conversion fee, and ACH transfers in the US at 1.5% on Basic and 1.0% above, with a $250 minimum. Its automated tax calculation is a further per-calculation charge on Core and above (0.15% on Core, 0.10% on Plus and 0.05% on Advanced, capped at $0.99), which is easy to miss. Webflow’s grid lists automatic tax calculation on every ecommerce plan, and I did not see a separate charge for it there, so confirm that at checkout.

On Webflow, the pricing page says its transaction fee is charged in addition to Stripe or PayPal fees. Stripe’s own pricing page lists 2.9% + 30 cents for domestic cards, plus 1.5% for international cards and 1% when currency conversion applies. So a $1,500 order costs $43.80 in processing on Squarespace Core, and $73.80 on Webflow Standard once the $30 platform fee is added.

Squarespace Payments is not available everywhere. Squarespace’s FAQ lists the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom and ten EU countries, and says it supports Apple Pay, Klarna, Afterpay, ACH and major cards. If you live elsewhere, Stripe or PayPal are the alternatives, so check what your country allows before you build around either platform.

Features That Matter for Bigger Orders

If you sell expensive products, Squarespace’s Core plan and above list payment plans, which let customers pay over time with upfront deposits and installments. They also list discounts, Google Shopping, carrier-calculated shipping, shipping labels and Commerce APIs. Abandoned cart recovery and gift cards are listed on every plan, and the plan page names drop shipping among the categories its Extensions cover.

Webflow’s ecommerce grid lists a custom cart and checkout, custom shipping rules, Meta and Google Shopping sync, a Mailchimp connection and automatic tax calculation on all three plans. I did not see payment plans or abandoned cart recovery in that grid, which does not prove they are missing, so check before relying on either. For dropshipping, compare what your suppliers offer first, and my supplier guide lists the questions to ask a dealer about product feeds and order handling.

Catalog and Staff Limits

Squarespace says you can sell unlimited products and services on every plan, with 2 contributors on Basic and unlimited from Core. Webflow caps ecommerce items at 500, 5,000 and 15,000 by plan, and its pricing page says the count covers products, variants and categories. Its help center adds that a product can have up to 3 option sets and 50 variants, and that each variant counts toward your item limit.

Squarespace’s help center says a product can have up to six options and up to 250 variant combinations. That is a much higher ceiling than Webflow’s 50 variants, which matters if your products come in many size or finish combinations.

Content, SEO and Page Speed

Both platforms cover the SEO basics. TechRadar calls Squarespace’s search features superb, and its plan page lists SEO tools on every plan. Webflow’s ecommerce plans list 301 redirects, sitemap controls, schema markup support and Open Graph tags, plus an AI audit tool for SEO and answer-engine visibility.

Content is where Webflow pulls ahead for people who want structure. Its CMS lets you define collections and templates, and Premium allows up to 20,000 items across 40 collections. If you plan hundreds of buying guides or a directory-style catalog, that is a real strength, and it is the reason Webflow sits above the cheapest Squarespace plan for content-heavy sites.

Speed deserves some skepticism on both sides. Google’s Core Web Vitals guidance sets “good” targets at 2.5 seconds for Largest Contentful Paint, 200 milliseconds for Interaction to Next Paint and 0.1 for Cumulative Layout Shift, measured at the 75th percentile of page loads. Webflow says its hosting uses Cloudflare’s CDN, but I have not run speed tests on either platform and found no independent head-to-head, so test your own template before you commit.

Support, Upkeep, Trials and Refunds

Squarespace’s plan page promises 24/7 customer support on every plan. Its Help Center and TechRadar’s review give the detail: live chat on weekday hours (4 AM to 8 PM Eastern), email around the clock, and TechRadar notes there is no phone line. Webflow offers email support with a stated target of replying within 48 hours, plus a Help Center, Webflow University and a user community.

Both are hosted, so servers, SSL certificates and core software updates are the vendor’s job. What you add is still yours. The FTC’s Start with Security guide puts it plainly: “Outdated software undermines security. The solution is to update it regularly and implement third-party patches.” Embedded widgets, scripts and add-on apps fall in that bucket on either platform.

The trial and refund picture is closer than it first looks. Squarespace offers a 14-day free trial with no card, and its FAQ says you can cancel any time and keep service through the period you have paid for. Its terms of service say refunds are at its sole discretion or where legally required, but its help center spells out a full refund for annual website plans canceled within 14 days of purchase, with the cost of any free domain subtracted. Monthly plans and renewals are not refundable under that policy.

Webflow has no trial of paid plans that I could find, but its free Starter plan serves the same purpose. Its terms say annual plans are billed up front and are non-refundable, then defer to a separate refund policy. That policy says new site and Workspace plan purchases are fully refundable if you cancel and ask within 14 days, monthly or annual, while renewals, add-ons and seats are not. Its pricing FAQ adds that you otherwise pay the remainder of the term if you cancel, so ask within the window if you are going to ask at all.

Exporting Your Site and Lock-In

Webflow is more open than most hosted tools on one point: its pricing FAQ says paid Workspace plans let you export your site and host it anywhere, with no attribution required. The limits matter, though. The FAQ says dynamic content has to be exported collection by collection, while the plan grid says CMS items and pages cannot be exported as code, so test what you actually get. Forms stop working, and exported code cannot be re-imported into Webflow.

That means the free Starter Workspace does not give you the exit door. If portability is part of why you chose Webflow, budget the $19 a month yearly Core Workspace plan on top of your site plan, and test an export early rather than during a crisis. I did not verify Squarespace’s export options for this article, and TechRadar notes you cannot switch templates without rebuilding.

If you do outgrow either one, plan the move before you need it. I wrote a guide on switching from Squarespace to Shopify that covers redirects and product data, and the same habits apply when leaving any platform. Keep a copy of your product data and a list of every URL that earns traffic.

Who Should Choose Squarespace and Who Should Choose Webflow

Choose Squarespace If

You want a store online quickly, you are not a designer, and you would rather pay one predictable bill. Squarespace’s Core plan at $29 a month on annual billing gives you unlimited products, a 0% store fee and unlimited contributors. It also lists payment plans, which is useful when your average order is large.

It also suits you if brand look matters and you want strong defaults rather than a blank canvas. The trade is the fixed template system and fewer places to customize the checkout. If you are still choosing what to sell, my high-ticket niches list is worth reading before you build anything.

Choose Webflow If

You are a designer or developer, or you work with one, and you want pixel-level control, custom interactions and a real CMS. It also fits a content-heavy site where structure matters more than launch speed. Expect to pay for the privilege: a store that avoids the 2% fee starts at $74 a month yearly, and code export needs a paid Workspace plan.

If you would rather have someone else do the building, that is a normal choice too. My team offers a done-for-you store build on Shopify. If you want to learn it yourself first, my free mini course covers the fundamentals.

Consider a Third Option

For the high-ticket stores I teach, neither is my usual starting point. I normally point people to Shopify, because it is built around selling rather than around websites, and I explain why in my best ecommerce platform for high-ticket dropshipping guide. If you want the Squarespace side of that choice, read my Squarespace vs Shopify comparison.

My Verdict: Squarespace vs Webflow in 2026

For most store owners reading this site, I would choose Squarespace. It is cheaper to start, every paid plan can sell, the store fee is 0% from $29 a month, and the free trial lets you test the editor with no card. The downsides are real: prices rose in 2026, templates are fixed once chosen, support has no phone line, and refunds only apply to annual plans within 14 days.

Webflow wins when design control or a large CMS is the whole point and you have the skills to use it. Its free plan is a generous way to try it, but a store that avoids the platform fee needs the $74 Plus plan, and an exit-ready setup needs a paid Workspace plan on top. Add the second bill, and the platform price gap over Squarespace is larger than the headline $15 versus $19 suggests.

So the deciding question is not which tool is more powerful. It is whether you will actually use that power, or whether you just need a good-looking store running this month. If you want a second opinion on your situation, my one-on-one coaching is built for exactly that.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is Squarespace or Webflow better for an online store?
It depends on your skills. At the time of writing, Squarespace is simpler and cheaper to run, with ecommerce on every paid plan and 0% store fees from $29 a month. Webflow offers more design control and a bigger CMS, but its store plans start at $29 with a 2% fee and only reach 0% at $74 a month.

Does Webflow charge transaction fees?
Yes on its Standard ecommerce plan, where the pricing page lists 2% on top of Stripe or PayPal processing fees. Plus and Advanced list 0%. For comparison, Squarespace lists 2% on Basic and 0% from Core.

Is Webflow harder to learn than Squarespace?
Yes, according to independent reviews. Website Builder Expert’s older comparison scored ease of use at 4.4 out of 5 for Squarespace and 2.1 for Webflow, and TechRadar ranks Squarespace among the easiest builders it tested. Try Webflow’s free plan before paying.

Can I try either one for free?
Yes, in different ways. Squarespace gives a 14-day trial with no credit card, and you can start the Squarespace trial from its plan page. Webflow has a free Starter plan with a webflow.io domain, though you need a paid site plan to use your own domain.

Which is better for SEO?
Both cover the essentials. TechRadar rates Squarespace’s SEO features highly, and Webflow’s ecommerce plans list 301 redirects, sitemap controls and schema markup support. Webflow’s CMS gives more control if you plan a large content library.

Related Articles

If you found this useful, these guides go deeper on related topics:

• Squarespace vs Shopify in 2026: Which Should You Actually Build On?
• Squarespace vs WordPress in 2026: Which Platform Fits Your Store?
• Best Squarespace Alternatives in 2026: 6 Platforms Compared
• Squarespace Review 2026: Is It Worth It for Ecommerce?
• Best Website Builders for Portfolios and Creatives in 2026

Trevor Fenner

Trevor Fenner is an ecommerce entrepreneur and the founder of Ecommerce Paradise, a platform focused on helping entrepreneurs build and scale profitable high-ticket ecommerce and dropshipping businesses. With over a decade of hands-on experience, Trevor specializes in high-ticket dropshipping strategy, niche and product selection, supplier recruiting and onboarding, Google & Bing Shopping ads, ecommerce SEO, and systems-driven automation and scaling. Through Ecommerce Paradise, he provides free education via in-depth guides like How to Start High-Ticket Dropshipping, advanced training through the High-Ticket Dropshipping Masterclass, and fully done-for-you turnkey ecommerce services for entrepreneurs who want a faster, more hands-off path to growth. Trevor is known for emphasizing sustainable, real-world ecommerce models over hype-driven tactics, helping store owners build scalable, sellable, and location-independent brands.

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