How Much Does a Squarespace Website Cost in the UK? (2026, Real Numbers)

Every cost guide I could find for Squarespace is in dollars, written for an American audience, and vague about the only number people actually want: what a designer charges. I build Squarespace websites for UK businesses, I publish my prices, and I’ve quoted against enough agencies to know the bands. So here are the real figures.

Short answer: Squarespace itself costs £12 to £29 a month on the plans most small businesses use, billed annually. Building it yourself costs your time on top of that. A UK freelancer typically charges £1,500 to £6,000 for a professional build, agencies £5,000 to £15,000 (£8,000 to £20,000 in London), and my own bespoke builds start from £3,000, or from £150 a month with the build included. Everything below explains where you land in those ranges and why.

What Squarespace itself charges

The plan is the only unavoidable cost. For a brochure or service business site you’ll be on one of the two cheaper tiers; the pricier ones exist for shops with real volume.

• The plans run from £12 to £29 a month when you pay annually. Paying monthly costs more over the year, and the annual price includes a free custom domain for the first year.
• If a designer is involved, you need the plan with custom code. The cheapest tier doesn’t allow custom CSS or JavaScript, and almost every professional build uses some. Check the current comparison table before you buy; the plan names have changed more than once.
• If you sell online, check the transaction fee. The cheaper plans take a percentage of each sale on top of card processing; the commerce-focused plans don’t. Work out the break-even against your expected monthly sales rather than guessing.

Then the add-ons, all optional and all separate subscriptions:

• Domain renewal after the free first year: roughly £20 a year for a .co.uk or .com bought through Squarespace. If you already own your domain elsewhere, you just point it at Squarespace and keep paying your current registrar.
• Business email (Google Workspace) is charged per user per month. Budget it if you want hello@yourdomain rather than a Gmail address.
• Scheduling (Acuity) and Email Campaigns are separate monthly subscriptions. Neither is included in any site plan, which surprises people.
• Card processing on sales: the usual percentage plus pence per transaction, whichever payment provider you use.

Realistic running cost for a typical service business site, no shop: the plan plus a domain, call it £170 to £370 a year. Add email and scheduling if you need them. That’s it; there’s no hosting bill, no security plugin, no developer retainer to keep it alive.

What a designer charges in the UK

This is the part the dollar guides fudge. Here’s the UK market as I see it from inside it, quoting against these people every month.

• Do it yourself: £0 and a lot of evenings. Squarespace is genuinely the easiest platform to build on, and a template site is achievable in a weekend. What you can’t buy with time is design judgement, and that’s usually what separates a site that looks home-made from one that wins work.
• Newer freelancers: £500 to £1,500. Template customisation, your content dropped in, a working site. Fine for a first site; expect to replace it within two years.
• Experienced freelancers: £1,500 to £6,000. Most good independent Squarespace designers live here. You get a considered design, proper page structure, SEO basics done, and the person you spoke to is the person doing the work.
• Agencies: £5,000 to £15,000, and in London £8,000 to £20,000, for broadly the same site. You’re paying for the account manager, the office and the process, not a better website. Some of that is worth it if you need a big team on a complex project; for a small business site it rarely is.
• Me: bespoke builds from £3,000, fixed in writing before any work starts, with the site yours to keep. Or the Managed-For-You plan from £150 a month, which includes the build and then looks after the site for you. Both are on the pricing page, with a quote builder if you want a number for your own project today.

One thing to say plainly: I don’t charge VAT at the moment, so every price on this site is the full figure. Many agencies quote ex-VAT, which adds 20% to the number they first told you.

What pushes the price up (and what doesn’t)

Within any designer’s range, the same things move you towards the top of it:

• Page count. A six-page site is less work than a sixteen-page one. Most small businesses need fewer pages than they think.
• Content. If the words and photos are ready, the build is quicker. If the copy needs writing, that’s a separate job; my copywriting add-on exists because “we’ll send the text next week” is where projects stall.
• Branding. A logo, colours and fonts you already have keep the cost down. Starting from nothing adds a branding stage.
• Commerce and features. A shop, memberships, course content, bookings, multiple languages: each adds setup and testing time.
• Custom code. Anything Squarespace can’t do natively is built with CSS and JavaScript, and that’s charged as development time. It’s also where a cheap quote tends to fall apart later.
• Speed. Rush jobs cost more because they push other clients back. Book two months ahead if you can.

What doesn’t change the price much: which template you start from (good designers rarely use one as-is), and whether it’s a new site or a redesign of an existing one. Carrying content across and setting redirects is part of the job either way.

Three realistic UK budgets

A service business site (five to eight pages)

Home, about, services, pricing, contact, maybe a blog. Built yourself: the plan and a domain, around £200 a year, plus your evenings. With an experienced freelancer: £2,500 to £5,000 once, then the plan. With me: from £3,000 once and about £200 a year to Squarespace, or £150 a month all in, nothing up front.

A portfolio or personal brand (six to ten pages)

Work, about, a few case studies, press, a newsletter sign-up. Design matters more here than anywhere, so DIY is a riskier saving. Freelancer: £3,000 to £6,000. Agencies rarely take these on under £8,000. With me: from £3,000, and this is the kind of site where the branding and copy add-ons earn their keep.

A small online shop

Product pages, checkout, shipping, a couple of automations. You’ll be on a commerce-focused plan, so the Squarespace cost is higher, and the design work roughly doubles because every product template, the cart and the emails need doing. Freelancer: £4,000 to £8,000. Agencies: £10,000 and up. With me: quoted per project, from £3,000 for a small catalogue; use the quote builder for a figure.

Is paying for a Squarespace designer worth it?

Honestly, not always. If you’re pre-revenue or testing an idea, build it yourself on the cheapest plan and spend the money on the business. The moment the website is how customers decide whether to call you, the maths flips: a site that converts one extra enquiry a month pays for a £3,000 build inside the year for most service businesses. If you’re comparing Squarespace with the alternatives on cost, my Squarespace vs WordPress comparison covers the running costs honestly, and if you’d rather spread the build over the year, pay monthly websites explains what you should and shouldn’t accept in a monthly deal.

Frequently asked questions

How much is Squarespace per month in the UK?

£12 to £29 a month on the plans most small businesses use, billed annually, with the higher commerce tier above that for shops with real volume. Paying month to month costs more over the year.

Is Squarespace free?

There’s a free trial, usually 14 days, but no free plan. To publish a site on your own domain you need a paid plan.

How much does a Squarespace website designer cost in the UK?

Freelancers from a few hundred pounds up to around £6,000; agencies £5,000 to £15,000, more in London. I charge from £3,000 for a bespoke build or from £150 a month with the build included. If you want to compare designers before deciding, start with my list of the best Squarespace designers in the UK.

Do you charge VAT?

Not at the moment. Every price on this site is the full figure; there’s nothing added at invoice.

Is Squarespace cheaper than WordPress?

Month to month, a WordPress site on cheap hosting looks cheaper. Over a few years, once you add a premium theme, paid plugins, security, backups and the developer time to keep it all working, Squarespace usually comes out level or cheaper, with far less of your time spent on maintenance.

Can I pay for a Squarespace website monthly instead of up front?

Yes. My Managed-For-You plan is from £150 a month with no build fee: I design and build the site, host it on your own Squarespace account, and keep updating it for as long as you stay. If you ever want to leave, you keep the site.

Want a number for your own project rather than a range? The quote builder gives you one in two minutes, or send me a message and I’ll tell you honestly what it needs.

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