Squarespace alternatives: six honest options
Other hosted builders, a store platform, a publishing tool and self-hosted software: what each one is genuinely good at, what it costs, and what you can take with you if you leave. Written by the makers of one of them, which is why every entry lists real tradeoffs.
- Choose Squarespace if it is working; moving means rebuilding the design.
- Choose Wix if you want a lower price and a freer drag-and-drop editor.
- Choose Shopify if the store is the business.
- Choose WordPress if you need plugins, server-side code or the lowest starting cost.
- Choose Webflow if you have outgrown the templates and want real design control.
- Choose Total CMS if you want to own the site and take its design with you.
A note on who wrote this. We make Total CMS, one of the six. That is a conflict of interest, so we have marked our own entry, listed it last, given real reasons to choose the others, and priced everything from each vendor's own page.
First, the case for staying. Squarespace is very good at what it does. Its templates look professional with no designer, its commerce is serious, there is nothing to maintain, and support answers 24/7 on every plan. If it is working for you, nothing below is a reason to move.
People usually leave for one of four reasons:
- Cost. $19 to $99 a month billed annually, for as long as the site exists, and Basic takes 2% of store sales.
- A wall in the product. No server-side code of any kind, content limited to pages, blog posts, products and events, and two contributors on Basic.
- The store outgrew it. Squarespace commerce is good; a business built around its store may want a platform built around selling.
- Ownership. Squarespace's export leaves style settings, Custom CSS and several page types behind, so leaving means rebuilding the design.
Most of the alternatives fix one of these and not the others. Wix and Shopify are rentals too; WordPress and Total CMS are software you own, in exchange for arranging your own hosting. That trade is the bigger decision, and we have written it up on its own in hosted vs self-hosted.
At a glance
Six worth your time.
| Product | Price | Best for |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Wix | Free plan; paid plans about $17–$159/month, billed yearly | Small businesses who want drag-and-drop and a lower starting price |
| 2. Shopify | $29–$299/month billed yearly; Plus from $2,300/month | Businesses whose site is mostly a shop |
| 3. WordPress | Free (GPL) on your own hosting; WordPress.com $4–$45/month, billed yearly | Sites that need plugins, server-side code, or the lowest starting cost |
| 4. Webflow | $15/month (no CMS) / $25/month with a CMS, billed yearly, per site | Designers who have outgrown Squarespace's templates |
| 5. Ghost | Ghost(Pro) $18–$199/month billed yearly; free to self-host (MIT) | Writers and publishers whose site is mostly posts, newsletters and members |
| 6. Total CMS Ours | $195 Standard / $395 Pro, one-time per domain | Owners and builders who want to own the site and take the design with them |
The options
Each one, with its tradeoffs.
-
The easiest start of any of these, with a free plan to try it on.
wix.com, captured Strengths
- A free plan, so the whole site can be built before paying anything
- Drag-and-drop editing with a very large template library, and more freedom over placement than Squarespace's sections
- Hosting, security and updates are handled for you
- Online payments, e-commerce, and scheduling and services from the Core plan up
Tradeoffs
- Even less portable than Squarespace: Wix's own support article says a Wix site "needs to be hosted and operated on Wix's servers"
- So leaving means rebuilding, design and all
- The free plan has no custom domain and carries Wix branding
- Site collaborators are capped by plan: two on Light, five on Core, ten on Business
- A subscription for as long as the site exists
-
The platform to move to when the store is the business.
shopify.com, captured Strengths
- Built for selling, from the first product to very large catalogs, with Plus for the largest merchants
- Card rates fall as plans rise, from 2.9% + 30¢ online on Basic to 2.5% + 30¢ on Advanced
- Hosting, security and checkout are handled for you
- A low-cost start: a free trial, then $1 a month for the first three months on most plans
Tradeoffs
- A rental, like Squarespace: a subscription for as long as the store exists
- Basic is $29 a month billed yearly, the same as Squarespace's Core plan, which already takes 0% of store sales
- Using a payment provider other than Shopify Payments adds a fee: 2% on Basic, 1% on Grow and 0.6% on Advanced
- Built around the store, so a site that is mostly content is better served elsewhere
-
Free software you can host anywhere, or rent on WordPress.com.
wordpress.org, captured Strengths
- Free, GPL-licensed software. No license fee for any number of sites, and you can move it to another host whenever you like
- The largest directory of plugins and themes in the industry
- WooCommerce for e-commerce, free and open source
- Full server-side PHP, so memberships, custom logic and integrations are a plugin or a developer away
- Squarespace's export produces a WordPress file, so your pages and blog have a direct route in
- WordPress.com hosts it for you, with plugin installation on every paid plan
Tradeoffs
- On your own hosting, you own the maintenance: updates, backups, security and the PHP version
- Most of the risk is in what you add: 91% of 2025's ecosystem vulnerabilities were in plugins
- Needs a MySQL or MariaDB database
- Nothing matches Squarespace's templates without a designer or a premium theme
- WordPress.com's Free plan has no custom domain or plugins and shows ads, and its Personal and Premium plans take 8% and 4% of payments
-
The step up in design control, still hosted for you.
webflow.com, captured Strengths
- The best visual design tool there is, with real control over layout and CSS
- Excellent hosting on every tier: CDN, automatic SSL, DDoS protection and one-click backups
- Webflow University is the best free web-design education anywhere
- A capable read-and-write API and a first-party MCP server
Tradeoffs
- A real learning curve: it rewards knowing how CSS works
- Code export needs a paid Workspace plan on top of the Site plan, and leaves CMS content, forms processing, site search and e-commerce behind
- No server-side code in the site itself, and Logic and User Accounts were deprecated in December 2024
- The cheapest plan has no CMS; the CMS tier caps at 20,000 items
-
A publishing platform for blogs, newsletters and paid memberships.
ghost.org, captured Strengths
- Built for publishing: a clean editor, email newsletters and paid memberships in one product
- Ghost takes 0% of paid subscriptions on Publisher and above; only the payment processor charges
- Open source under the MIT license, so it can be self-hosted for free
Tradeoffs
- A publishing tool rather than a general website builder; a site that is not mostly posts will fight it
- Starter does not include paid subscriptions and allows one staff user
- Self-hosting means a Node.js server on a VPS, not ordinary shared hosting
-
Total CMS
Ours — we make thisOwn the site and its design, on ordinary PHP hosting, with no database to run.
totalcms.co, captured Strengths
- You own it. The files are yours, on hosting you choose, and the site keeps running whether or not you keep paying anyone
- The design is portable. Twig templates, or pages from the visual builder you already use like Stacks, Pinegrow or Bootstrap Studio, so the design moves with you
- Full PHP on the server: form handling with real processing, access groups for logged-in areas, and Automations (Pro)
- Define the content types you actually need (custom schemas are Pro), not just pages, posts and products
- No database: content is files, so a backup is a copy of a folder
- One-time license per domain, with two years of updates included, and support direct from the developer
Tradeoffs
- Proprietary and paid; there is no free tier for a live site, only a 45-day trial. Local development on
localhostor a.testdomain is free, with every Pro feature. Squarespace has a 14-day free trial, and Wix a free plan - You arrange hosting and keep it updated yourself; nothing like Squarespace's 24/7 desk
- No template library: you bring the front end, hand-coded or from a visual tool
- No e-commerce, which Squarespace does very well
- The smallest ecosystem and talent pool on this page
How to choose
The longer answer.
Start with why you are leaving, then with what the site mostly is.
- If Squarespace is working, stay. Moving costs you a design rebuild and hands you work Squarespace currently does.
- If you want a lower price and more freedom in the editor, choose Wix. Know before you begin that a Wix site can only ever run on Wix.
- If the store is the business, choose Shopify. It is built for selling in a way no general website builder is.
- If you need plugins, server-side code or the lowest starting cost, choose WordPress, hosted yourself or on WordPress.com.
- If you have outgrown the templates and want real design control, choose Webflow, and expect a learning curve.
- If the site is mostly writing, newsletters and paid members, choose Ghost.
- If you want to own the site and take the design with you, on ordinary hosting, choose Total CMS. It needs someone comfortable building the front end, you or a designer.
Whatever you choose, plan the move as a redesign that brings the content along. Squarespace's export gives the new platform your pages and blog posts, not your design.
Questions
Common questions.
What is the best alternative to Squarespace?
It depends on why you are leaving. For a lower price and a freer editor, Wix. For a business built around its store, Shopify. For plugins and server-side code, WordPress. For more design control, Webflow. For a blog or newsletter with paid members, Ghost. To own the site and its design on ordinary hosting, Total CMS.
Is there a cheaper alternative to Squarespace?
Yes. Wix has a free plan, and WordPress.com starts at $4 a month billed yearly. Self-hosted WordPress is free software plus hosting at a few dollars a month. Total CMS is a one-time license per domain plus hosting. Squarespace runs $19 to $99 a month billed annually, but that price includes hosting, maintenance and 24/7 support, so count what you would be taking on.
Can I move my Squarespace site to another platform?
Your writing, mostly; your design, no. Squarespace's export produces a WordPress XML file with layout pages, one blog and its posts, and text and image blocks. Store, portfolio, index, album and calendar pages, additional blogs, audio, video and product blocks, drafts, style settings and Custom CSS stay behind. Products, orders and contacts export separately as CSV.
What is the best Squarespace alternative for an online store?
Shopify, if the store is the business. If you would rather own the software, WordPress with WooCommerce. Squarespace's own commerce is good, and from the Core plan up it takes 0% of store sales, so check that the move solves a real problem first. Total CMS has no e-commerce.
Should I leave Squarespace?
Probably not, if it is working for you. Switching means rebuilding the design and taking on work Squarespace absorbs. It is worth it when you have hit a specific wall: you need server-side logic, your content does not fit pages, posts and products, you want the site and its design somewhere you control, or the subscription is coming out of a client project's margin.
You make one of these. Why should I trust this page?
Exactly as far as you can check it. Every price and claim comes from each vendor's own pages, linked below; our entry is marked and listed last; and the guide recommends something else for most of the situations it covers. If you find something inaccurate, tell us and we will fix it.
Sources
Where these facts come from.
Checked . Software and pricing change, so check each product’s own site for their current details.
Prices and claims verified from each vendor's own site on 28 October 2026, except Webflow's prices, verified on 24 October 2026 because its pricing page would not load on the 28th:
- squarespace.com/pricing, Exporting your site and Adding custom code to your site
- wix.com/plans and Exporting or embedding your Wix site elsewhere
- shopify.com/pricing
- wordpress.com/pricing and Patchstack — State of WordPress Security in 2026
- webflow.com/pricing and How do I export my Webflow site code
- ghost.org/pricing and Ghost hosting requirements
- totalcms.co/pricing — our own
All product names and trademarks belong to their respective owners. We have no affiliation with Squarespace, Wix, Shopify, WordPress, Webflow or Ghost. If anything here is wrong or out of date, tell us and we will correct it.
Keep comparing
Head to head, or zoom out.
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Put it on your shortlist, then test it.
45 days, every Pro feature, no credit card. Install it next to the others and decide with a real site in front of you.