Is Squarespace Free? Everything You Should Know About the Squarespace Free Trial

From the how long the free trial lasts to pricing after that.

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Is Squarespace free? No. However, there is a Squarespace free trial, options to land discount codes, and some fairly affordable pricing packages once you launch a website. Not to mention, those interested in building a site with Squarespace have the opportunity to test all premium Squarespace features within the free trial, while also saving your customizations until you’re ready to publish the website.

Keep reading to learn all about the Squarespace free trial, from the features you receive to how long the free trial lasts.

Summary:

Is Squarespace free?

No, Squarespace isn’t free, but there is a Squarespace free trial that you can take advantage of for up to 21 days. Not only that, but you’re free to explore the entirety of Squarespace’s feature collection during that free trial.

After that, users can upgrade to a Business plan or even a Basic Commerce plan (some of which have zero transaction fees). And don’t worry, none of the customizations you make during the free trial get deleted after the trial lapses.

They limit most features after that, but the content and designs remainโ€”you simply have to type in a credit card to proceed with a premium plan and re-activate the website.

How Long Does the Squarespace Free Trial Last?

The Squarespace free trial lasts for an initial 14 days. As you’ll learn in the following sections, there are some ways to extend the free trial, or to even let the trial go past its deadline and still have access to your customizations.

How to Start the Squarespace Free Trial

To start a blog, small business website, or online store on a 14-day free trial, go to the Squarespace.com website. Click one of the Get Started buttons to begin creating an account, launching your Squarespace free trial, and building a store.

is Squarespace free? no but it has a free trial

They immediately ask you to choose a theme. Don’t worry, you can pick one now and always come back to change it.

pick a template

Next, create a Squarespace account by continuing with a third-party login or by using your email address.

sign up with an account

Name your site, then walk through the welcome guide.

is Squarespace free

After that, you’re sent to the Squarespace page builder with all functionality activated for the free trial. You don’t have to type in a credit card number or anything to run the free trial. They simply send you to the website builder, where you can find pages for design, commerce, and marketing. You can even see the trial countdown timer at the bottom, where it shows how much time you have left on your free trial, along with a button to Upgrade early if you want.

subscribe

What’s the Squarespace Pricing After the Free Trial?

Squarespace pricing starts at $14 per month for the Personal Plan and goes to $49 per month for the Advanced Commerce Plan. The lowest pricing is possible if you sign up for annual billing, so these numbers increase a bit if you opt for monthly billing.

the Squarespace pricing plans

You can read all about Squarespace pricing (and which Squarespace plans to pick) in our in-depth guide.

Can You Extend the Squarespace Free Trial?

Yes you can! After your trial time lapses, Squarespace prompts you to either sign up for a premium plan or continue using your free trial for an extra 7 days. We’ve tried to test if they offer even more time after that, but it seems like that’s where it ends. So, the total Squarespace free trial time goes to a total of 21 days.

That one email is the only way to extend your free trial from Squarespace.

How to Cancel Squarespace Free Trial?

There’s no need to cancel a free trial because you have put no credit card information down. That’s one of the best parts about the Squarespace free trial. Many competitors require you to insert personal and payment information in hopes you’ll forget about cancelling; that’s not the case with Squarespace.

We do, however, understand that people have concerns about companies holding their contact information. In that case, we suggest using an alias name and email address to launch your free trial (you can change these later if you plan on upgrading to a premium plan). If you’d rather use your own information for the account, Squarespace has a guide on how to delete your account entirely.

How Does Squarespace Free Trial Work?

We know Squarespace isn’t free, but you do receive a 14 (up to 21)-day free trial. But what else can you expect to receive from the trial? Do you have access to all the templates? Are some features restricted? And what kind of domain name do you get?

You Can Use Any of the Templates (And Change Them)

Beginner Squarespace users often wonder if you can pick any template with the Squarespace free trial. The answer to that is yes. You receive everything you need to build a Squarespace site, and that all starts with templates.

all templates come with

Since all Squarespace templates are free when you pay for a premium plan, the free trial also includes all of those templates for you to use. It doesn’t matter which category or industry you opt for. Some of the categories include:

  • Photography
  • Health and Beauty
  • Personal and CV
  • Fashion
  • Professional Services
  • Memberships
  • Blogs
  • Online Stores
  • Scheduling
  • One Page templates
  • Weddings
  • Real Estate
  • Much more

And as of this article, Squarespace has over 140 template designs. Furthermore, free trial users have the ability to fully customize the templates they decide on or completely swap out templates for new ones. There are no limits when it comes to templates, whereas a platform like Shopify actually charges for many of its templates.

Unlimited Access to Squarespace Features

all features come with the Squarespace free trial

From metrics to coupons, and SEO features to the site builder, Squarespace unlocks all of its features (and apps/integrations) during your free trial. That includes unlimited bandwidth for your site, an SSL certificate, ecommerce analytics, and promotional popups. Every ecommerce feature that comes with Squarespace gets included with the free trial.

A Note on the Premium Squarespace Features

However, you should know that the free trial also has every feature from the highest premium plan. Therefore, you’re working with an unrestricted site builder that may not have all the features once you decide to upgrade to a cheaper premium account. Squarespace subscriptions range from $14 to $49 per month, so opting for a $14 Personal Plan will strip you of some more advanced features you would get in the free trial (at least the ones in the Business, Commerce, and Advanced Commerce plans).

As a quick example, the Business plan includes a Professional Gmail account, CSS customization, and the ability to sell unlimited products through a Stripe payment processor, whereas the Personal plan doesn’t have those. The Personal plan is an excellent choice for many small businesses, but you should set your expectations when switching from the free trial, since some users may really enjoy something like the gift cards feature from the Business plan, or the checkout on your own domain from the Basic Commerce plan, but the Personal plan doesn’t offer those.

You Get a Custom (Technically Public) Squarespace Domain

Do you receive a custom domain with the free trial? Technically yes, but it’s a Squarespace subdomain, one that looks like this: testsite.squarespace.com. This comes for free when building a website, and you can technically hold on to this even when you pay for a premium plan. But that’s really only recommended for personal websites.

get a Squarespace domain name

You can, however, get a free domain (a real one, not a subdomain) for the first year if you sign up for an annual plan after your free trial. The free plan for your domain renews at the usual domain price when your ecommerce plan reaches the one year mark. This means you’ll eventually purchase a domain through the Squarespace website, but you can also buy one from third-party .com domain providers like GoDaddy, or even a previous website building platform like WordPress, Wix, or Weebly (if you bought a domain from one of those).

All Content Gets Saved (Even if You Don’t Finish Your Site During the Free Trial)

A big question people have about the Squarespace free trial is whether your customizations get saved after you run out of time on the free trial.

If the trial ends, you can still log into your account, but web design features are limited. However, every customization you made still remains! This way, you can always reactivate your site and begin where you left off. For example, you won’t be able to add products to an ecommerce store, or tap into the API, or create customer accounts, or set up abandoned cart recovery; but every page, blog post, and design edit you made is still saved.

You Can Publish Your Site at Any Time

publish a website after free trial

Are you ready to transfer from a free website to a premium one before the end of your free trial? That’s possible with the click of a button; there’s no need to contact customer support. You can sign up for a monthly or annual subscription any time during your free trial, which allows you to publish the site. Business owners can also log into an expired Squarespace workspace and publish by choosing one of the Squarespace pricing plans.

Your free website (with the subdomain from the free trial) is technically published as well, but publishing to a true domain name requires a premium account.

Are There Squarespace Discounts After the Free Trial?

Discount codes for Squarespace are all over the internet, and they usually range from 10% to 20% off your payment plan. Sometimes they come from bloggers, podcasters, or influencers, while other times you can find a steep discount right on the Squarespace homepage.

For example, at the time of this article, Squarespace has a 20% off code for all new blogs and ecommerce websites.

If you have any questions about our Squarespace review, or are still wondering “is Squarespace free?” leave us a comment in the section below.

Joe Warnimont

Joe Warnimont is a Chicago-based writer who focuses on eCommerce tools, WordPress, and social media. When not fishing or practicing yoga, he's collecting stamps at national parks (even though that's mainly for children). Check out Joe's portfolio to contact him and view past work.

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