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Squarespace alternatives, for people who wanted to design the page themselves

If what you have is a designed page, you are paying for a content platform you never use. Siter.io publishes your Figma file free at name.getsiter.com or on your own domain from $7/mo billed yearly.

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Siter.io compared with Squarespace · every figure checked

The short answer.

For a blog, a shop, a membership or bookings, no alternative here is an upgrade on Squarespace. For six designed pages and a contact form, you are paying $19 a month for machinery you never switch on.

  • Switch if…

    The site is a portfolio, studio site or one-pager, and you would rather draw it yourself, on Siter’s canvas or in Figma, than fight a template.

  • 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.

Feature by feature.

What a designer publishing a portfolio runs into. A gated feature names the tier it starts at, because Squarespace prices its upper tiers by region.

Feature Siter.io Squarespace
Free plan that publishes a public site Yes. 1 website at name.getsiter.com, with 3 pages, 1 form taking 10 submissions a month and the "Built with Siter.io" badge. No custom domain 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 A separate layout per breakpoint, placed by hand: Desktop 1200, Tablet 640 and Mobile 375 by default, plus any custom width Two layouts, desktop and mobile. No tablet layout and no custom breakpoints
Custom code Head code for the whole website and for each page, plus a Code element for embeds on the canvas 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, one page at a time: a ZIP with the page's HTML and its images, CSS and JavaScript, not a full-site export 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 3 on Free, 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: HTTPS is automatic on name.getsiter.com and on a custom domain 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.

What it costs to publish.

Squarespace has no free plan, only a 14-day trial, and only its entry price is confirmed in dollars from a US-facing page. Its 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.

Siter.io

  • Free

    Free

    1 website on name.getsiter.com, 3 pages.

  • Solo Entry plan

    $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 2026-10-08.

Squarespace

  • Trial

    Free

    There is no free plan. Every site starts on a 14-day trial, no credit card required.

  • Basic Entry plan

    $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.

Where Squarespace wins.

This list decides it. If one of these matters to your site, stay: a cheaper bill is no consolation for a missing blog.

  • Templates that survive editing

    Responsive behavior, 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.

  • 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.

  • 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.

  • Fully managed, with support

    Hosting, SSL and DDoS protection are included, and there is 24/7 human support. Siter.io publishes no uptime commitment, so we make no reliability comparison at all.

Why designers leave.

Not quality. These are the places where a template system and a designer want different things, each sourced to Squarespace’s own pages.

  • 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.

    Source: support.squarespace.com

  • 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.

    Source: support.squarespace.com

  • 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.

    Source: support.squarespace.com

  • 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.

    Source: support.squarespace.com

How switching goes.

Skip the export button: its WordPress-shaped .xml carries none of your design. Start from the design file instead.

  1. Export nothing. Open your Figma file.
  2. Send the frame with the plugin.
  3. Set breakpoints and SEO fields.
  4. Point the domain at the new site.
  5. Cancel Squarespace after the DNS moves.

What the export carries

Squarespace’s .xml leaves out custom CSS and code, style settings, portfolio, index, cover, album and store pages, and product blocks. It cannot be imported into another Squarespace site either, so it is a copy of your words, not your design.

Do the domain last

Publish the new site at its name.getsiter.com address first, free if it fits Free’s 3 pages, and check it on a phone. Then point the domain on a paid plan, checking whether Squarespace (free for the first year on annual billing) or your registrar holds it, and cancel only after the DNS moves.

Budget for the rebuild

From Figma, this is an afternoon. Designed inside Squarespace, it is a rebuild from screenshots: worth it for six pages, not for forty.

What you give up.

Siter.io is a much smaller product, and the gaps are not close. Read them before the domain moves.

  • No CMS, collections or blog. Squarespace has one on its cheapest plan; if you publish posts, this decides it against us.
  • No shop, memberships, courses or invoicing. Listed as upcoming, with no date. Squarespace does all four in one bill.
  • A blank canvas or your own design. That is the point if you design, and more work on day one than picking a template.
  • Free is small, and not your domain. Free publishes one website at name.getsiter.com with 3 pages, 1 form and our badge. It is a starting point, not a business site on its own domain.
  • Responsive is placed by hand. A separate layout for each breakpoint: Desktop 1200, Tablet 640 and Mobile 375 by default, plus any custom width you add. More control than Squarespace’s two layouts, less than fluid rules you write yourself.
  • Support is not 24/7. Squarespace advertises round-the-clock human support, and we do not.

In return: the Figma import on every plan, a design that arrives as you drew it, custom code on the entry paid plan instead of two tiers up, and hosting, SSL and a custom domain in the price.

Frequently asked.

More answers in the Help Center
What is the best Squarespace alternative?

If you need the content system, WordPress or Webflow, which we compare on our Webflow page. For a portfolio, studio site or launch page, a design-first tool costs less and has less to learn.

Is there a cheaper alternative to Squarespace?

Yes, Siter.io at from $7/mo billed yearly against $19 a month billed annually. But that $19 includes a blog, a portfolio system, a store with a 2% fee and 1,000 pages, so if you use two of those, stay.

Is Squarespace free?

No: every site starts on a 14-day trial with no card, then Basic at $19 a month billed annually. Siter.io’s free plan does publish, one small website at name.getsiter.com.

How much does Squarespace cost?

Basic is $19 a month billed annually, the only tier we quote in dollars. The Core, Plus and Advanced prices we read came from an EU price sheet, so check Squarespace’s pricing page from where you are.

Can I export my site from Squarespace?

Only as one .xml file aimed at WordPress, which leaves out custom CSS and code, style settings, portfolio, index, cover, album and store pages, and product blocks. It cannot go into another Squarespace site, so treat it as a copy of your words.

Can I use a Figma design in Squarespace?

Only by rebuilding it by hand, because there is no Figma import. For anyone who designs before they build, that is the biggest difference between the two.

Is Squarespace good for a portfolio?

It is good at the parts that repeat: project pages, galleries, a growing case-study collection. It is weaker at matching what you drew, since Fluid Engine gives two layouts and no custom breakpoints.

Also useful: Siter.io pricing in full and the Figma to HTML plugin.

Try it on the design
you already have.

Open the Figma plugin, send a frame across, and see what comes over.

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