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How switching actually goes.
Ignore the export button. It produces a WordPress-shaped .xml that carries none of your design, so the honest route starts from the design file instead.
Export nothing. Open your Figma file.
Send the frame with the plugin.
Set breakpoints and SEO fields.
Point the domain at the new site.
Cancel Squarespace after the DNS moves.
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What the export does and does not carry
Squarespace exports one
.xmlfile, and it is built for WordPress rather than for you. Its own documentation lists what does not come: custom CSS and code, style settings, portfolio pages, index pages, cover pages, album pages, store pages and product blocks. It also states you cannot import that file into another Squarespace site.So the export is a content archive, not a design one. Your text and images survive; the thing you spent the weekend on does not. Anyone planning a migration around that button is planning a rebuild without knowing it.
Do the domain last
Build and preview the new site first, on the free plan, for as long as you like. Publish it, check it on a real phone, and only then point the domain. Squarespace gives a custom domain free for the first year on annual billing, so check whether the name is registered with them or with a registrar you control before you move — that changes who you ask to repoint it. Cancelling before the DNS has moved is how people take their own site down.
Budget for the rebuild honestly
If the original design lives in Figma, this is an afternoon. If the site was designed inside Squarespace, in its editor, against its template, then there is no file to send and you are rebuilding from screenshots. That is still worth doing for a six-page portfolio and is not worth doing for a forty-page content site — which is the same sentence as the one at the top of this page.
Siter.io compared with Squarespace · every figure checked 2026-09-03
Squarespace alternatives, for people who wanted to design the page themselves
Most people leaving Squarespace are not leaving a bad product. They are leaving a content platform because what they actually had was a designed page. Siter.io takes the Figma file and publishes it, from $7/mo billed yearly.
Start for free -> See the Figma plugin
The short answer.
Squarespace is a content and commerce platform that happens to look good. If the thing you are running is a blog, a shop, a membership or a booking calendar, no alternative on this page is an upgrade. If the thing you are running is six designed pages and a contact form, you are paying $19 a month for machinery you never switch on.
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Switch if…
The site is a portfolio, a studio site or a one-pager, the design already exists in Figma, and the template has been fighting you rather than helping you.
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Stay if…
Stay on Squarespace if the site is a content or commerce business - a blog you actually publish to, a store, memberships, courses or client invoicing - and you would rather have a template that survives client edits than pixel control of your own layout.
What each one costs to publish.
Squarespace has no free plan — every site begins on a 14-day trial. Its entry price is the one figure we can confirm in dollars from a US-facing page; the tiers above it are served regionally and we will not invent a number for them. The last plan change was announced 25 February 2025, when Basic, Core, Plus and Advanced began replacing Personal, Business and Commerce; sign-ups for the old plans closed in February 2026. No price rise is announced on any Squarespace page.
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Siter.io
Start
Free
Private previews only - no public publishing, 10 pages.
Solo
$7 /mo billed yearly · $8 monthly
1 published website, 10 pages, custom domain included.
Plus
$12 /mo billed yearly · $14 monthly
3 published websites, 50 pages, custom domain included.
Full plan list on pricing. Checked 2026-09-03.
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Squarespace
Trial
Free
There is no free plan. Every site starts on a 14-day trial, no credit card required.
Basic
$19 per month billed annually
Custom domain free for the first year on annual billing, up to 1,000 pages, blog and portfolio pages, 2 contributors, 30 minutes of video. No code injection, no JavaScript, 2% store transaction fee.
Core, Plus, Advanced
EUR 18-69 per month billed annually, EU price sheet
Adds code injection, unlimited contributors, a 0% store fee and more video storage. Squarespace serves its pricing page by region and states no USD figure for these tiers on a US-facing page, so the EU sheet is what we can verify.
From Squarespace’s own pricing page. Checked 2026-09-03.
Feature by feature.
The things a designer publishing a portfolio actually runs into. Where a feature is gated, the cell names the tier it starts at rather than a price, for the reason above.
| Feature | Siter.io | Squarespace |
|---|---|---|
| Free plan that publishes a public site | No - the free plan builds and previews privately | No free plan at all - every site starts on a 14-day trial, no card required |
| Cheapest plan that publishes to your own domain | $7/mo billed yearly, $8 monthly | $19/mo billed annually, on Basic |
| Figma import | Yes, on every plan including free - one-way, no re-sync | None. A Figma design is rebuilt by hand inside the editor |
| CMS, collections or blog | No | Yes - a native blog with categories and tags, plus portfolio pages, from the cheapest plan up |
| E-commerce | No - listed as upcoming, with no date | Yes - products, subscriptions, memberships, courses and invoicing; 2% store transaction fee on Basic, 0% from Core up |
| Responsive control | Three fixed breakpoints | Two layouts, desktop and mobile. No tablet layout and no custom breakpoints |
| Custom code | Site-wide head code on paid plans, plus an on-canvas embed element | None on Basic - no code injection, no JavaScript or iframes in code blocks, no Developer Platform. Starts at Core |
| Animation | Yes - animations and interactions built on the canvas | Five site-wide presets with a slow, medium or fast speed control. No timeline, no scroll-scrub |
| Taking the design with you | HTML download on Pro only, and what the archive contains is not documented | A single .xml aimed at WordPress. Custom CSS and code, style settings, portfolio, index, cover, album and store pages are all excluded, and it cannot be imported into another Squarespace site |
| Pages included | 10 on Solo, 50 on Plus, unlimited on Pro | Up to 1,000 on Basic |
| Editors on the entry paid plan | 2 on Solo, extras $4 each | 2 contributors on Basic; unlimited from Core up |
| Custom domain | Yes, on paid plans, at no extra cost | Yes, and free for the first year on annual billing |
| Hosting and SSL | Yes, included on every plan | Yes, included, with DDoS protection |
| Support | Available on every plan | 24/7 human support |
Siter.io and Squarespace details checked on 2026-09-03 against www.squarespace.com, support.squarespace.com. Prices change; tell us if a cell is out of date.
Where Squarespace is genuinely better.
This is the list that decides it. If one of these is load-bearing for your site, close the tab and stay — you will not find it here, and a cheaper bill is no consolation for a missing blog.
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Templates that survive editing
Responsive behaviour, spacing and type scale are handled by the system. Hand a Squarespace site to a client who adds three paragraphs and a photo and the layout holds, which is exactly where a hand-positioned page breaks.
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A real CMS on every plan
A native blog with categories and tags, plus portfolio pages with project sub-pages and gallery layouts, from the cheapest plan up. Case-study portfolios and writing-led sites need collections that grow without a redesign.
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Commerce in the same bill
Unlimited products, subscriptions, memberships, courses, invoices, appointments and point of sale, with a 0% store transaction fee from Core up. Selling prints or a course needs no second platform.
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Fully managed, with support
Hosting, SSL and DDoS protection are included, and there is 24/7 human support. Siter.io has no published status page, so we make no reliability comparison at all.
Why designers look elsewhere.
None of these is a complaint about quality. They are the places where a template system and a designer want different things, and every one is sourced to Squarespace’s own documentation.
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You cannot take the design with you
Export is a single .xml file aimed at WordPress. Custom CSS and code, style settings, portfolio pages, index pages, cover pages, album pages, store pages and product blocks are all excluded, and Squarespace states you cannot import that export into another Squarespace site.
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Custom code is paywalled
On Basic there is no code injection, no JavaScript or iframes in code blocks, no Developer Platform and no third-party integrations. All of it needs Core or above, which is the tier whose USD price is not published on a US-facing page.
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Two layouts, five animations
Fluid Engine gives exactly two layouts, desktop and mobile, with no tablet layout and no custom breakpoints. Site-wide animation is five presets with a slow, medium or fast speed control - no timeline, no scroll-scrub.
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No Figma path at all
There is no Figma import. A design made in Figma is rebuilt by hand inside Squarespace's editor, so the file you already approved is reference material rather than a starting point.
What you give up, stated plainly.
Siter.io is a much smaller product than Squarespace and the gaps are not close. Reading them now is cheaper than finding them after the domain has moved.
- No CMS, collections or blog. Squarespace gives you one on its cheapest plan. If you publish posts, this is the whole argument and it goes against us.
- No shop, memberships, courses or invoicing. Listed as upcoming, with no date. Squarespace does all four in the same bill.
- No templates to start from. About 16 templates inside the app, against a catalogue built to survive a client editing it. You are starting from your own design, which is the point, but it is also more work on day one.
- The free plan does not publish. The free plan builds and previews privately; publishing needs a paid plan. Squarespace has no free plan either, so neither product is free — but that means no honest page can call this one a free alternative, ours included.
- Responsive work is three fixed breakpoints. More control than Squarespace’s two layouts, and less than a fluid system with arbitrary breakpoints.
- Support is not 24/7. Squarespace advertises round-the-clock human support. We are not going to match that claim.
What you get for it: the Figma import on every plan including the free one, a design that arrives as you drew it rather than as a template permits, custom code on the entry paid plan instead of two tiers up, and hosting, SSL and a custom domain inside the price.
Frequently asked.
What is the best Squarespace alternative?
It splits on one question: do you need the content system. If you do, the honest answers are WordPress or Webflow, and we compare the latter on our Webflow page. If you do not — if what you have is a portfolio, a studio site or a launch page — then a design-first tool is both cheaper and less to learn, because you are no longer paying for a blog and a store you never open.
Is there a cheaper alternative to Squarespace?
Yes, and Siter.io is one of them at from $7/mo billed yearly against $19 a month billed annually. But compare what you actually use rather than the headline. Squarespace at $19 includes a blog, a portfolio system, a store with a 2% fee and 1,000 pages. If you use two of those, it is good value and you should stay.
Is Squarespace free?
No. Every site starts on a 14-day trial and no credit card is required to begin it. After that the cheapest plan that publishes is Basic at $19 a month billed annually. Siter.io has a free plan, but no - the free plan builds and previews privately; publishing needs a paid plan — so neither product will put a site of yours on a public URL for nothing.
How much does Squarespace cost?
Basic is $19 a month billed annually, and that is the only figure we will state in dollars. Squarespace serves its pricing page by region, and the Core, Plus and Advanced tiers we were able to read came back on an EU price sheet, so quoting them in USD would be us guessing at your currency. Check the ladder on their pricing page from where you actually are.
Can I export my site from Squarespace?
You can export a single .xml file aimed at WordPress. Squarespace’s own documentation excludes custom CSS and code, style settings, portfolio pages, index pages, cover pages, album pages, store pages and product blocks from it, and states you cannot import it into another Squarespace site. Treat it as a copy of your words, not of your website.
Can I use a Figma design in Squarespace?
Only by rebuilding it. There is no Figma import, so an approved design becomes reference material you work from by hand inside the editor. That is the single largest difference between the two products for anyone who designs before they build, and it is why this comparison exists at all.
Is Squarespace good for a portfolio?
It is good at the parts that repeat — project sub-pages, gallery layouts, a case-study collection that grows without a redesign. It is weaker at the part designers care about most, which is the page looking precisely like the thing you drew. Fluid Engine gives two layouts and no custom breakpoints, so a layout that depends on a specific arrangement is a negotiation rather than a decision.
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Try it on the design you already have.
Open the Figma plugin, send a frame across, and see what comes over. The free plan builds and previews as much as you like; publishing to your own domain starts at $7/mo billed yearly.
Get the plugin -> -
Start for free with Siter.io
Start for free ->