WordPress vs Squarespace in 2026: The Real Entry Price

Both of these products advertise an entry price that does not include the thing you chose them for.

WordPress.com's Personal plan is $4 a month and does not include its native SEO tools, which start at Premium at $8. Plugins, which are the reason most people say the word WordPress at all, start at Business at $25.

Squarespace's Basic plan is 11 euro a month and applies a 7 percent transaction fee to digital content and memberships, which is the highest platform cut of any mainstream builder.

So the honest comparison is not $4 against 11 euro. It is $8 or $25 against 11 or 17 euro, depending on what you actually need, and the answer changes completely between those pairs.

A website builder is software that publishes and hosts a site without you writing server code.

WordPress.com and Squarespace are the two most common answers for a creative who writes, and they are built on opposite philosophies: one is an open publishing system wrapped in hosting, the other is a closed design system that does everything for you.

Full disclosure: Framekit is our own website builder, so we compete with both. We have kept this comparison between WordPress.com and Squarespace and put our own position in one short marked section near the end. Every price and capability below was read from each vendor's own published pages in August 2026 and is linked where used.

How We Compared WordPress and Squarespace

We built the same site twice. It belongs to a writer and illustrator: twelve pages, a blog with sixty posts, an illustrated portfolio section, an about page, a contact form, and one product for sale, a $35 ebook.

One clarification before the numbers, because the word WordPress means two different products.

This comparison is about WordPress.com, the hosted service where somebody else runs the software for you, because that is the like-for-like against Squarespace.

Self-hosted WordPress, where you rent a server and install the software yourself, is a different decision with different costs and is not what we priced here.

Accounts were created fresh in August 2026 with no promotional code, on a European connection, which is why Squarespace served us euros and WordPress.com served us dollars. We print each in its own currency and do not convert, because a rate quoted today is wrong tomorrow.

Measured means we built it and used the control. Verified means we read it in the vendor's own pricing page or support documentation in August 2026 and are reporting it with a link. Community sentiment means users report it consistently and we did not reproduce it.

Judgements about how the two look and feel are labelled as ours.

We publish no speed figures and quote no third-party star ratings, because loading performance depends more on your images than your platform and the large review aggregators blocked automated access during this round.

In one lineone writer-illustrator site with twelve pages, a sixty-post blog, and a $35 ebook, built on both platforms with fresh August 2026 accounts.

The Two Ladders

Squarespace has no free plan at all, only a 14-day trial. WordPress.com has a free plan that runs advertising you do not control on pages you wrote, which for a professional site is disqualifying and costs $4 a month to fix.

The Two Gates That Decide the Price

In one lineeach platform hides its real entry price one tier above the advertised one, and they hide it in different places, so the cheaper product depends entirely on which gate you run into.

WordPress.com's gates are features. Its support documentation states that SEO tools, including customising SEO titles and descriptions, are available on the Premium, Business, and Commerce plans, and that free and Personal sites must upgrade to access them.

Separately, plugins are available on paid plans, and the plugin-enabled tier people mean when they say WordPress SEO is Business at $25 a month.

So a reader who chooses WordPress.com for its SEO ecosystem and budgets $4 has bought a version of WordPress without either the native tools or the plugins. The real entry price is $8 for editable titles and descriptions, or $25 for the ecosystem.

Squarespace's gate is a fee. Its pricing page shows a separate transaction fee on digital content and memberships, distinct from its physical store fee: 7 percent on Basic, 5 percent on Core, and 0 percent only on Advanced.

The physical store fee on the same plans is 2 percent, 0 percent, and 0 percent, which is why the digital number catches people.

On our $35 ebook, Basic keeps $2.45 and Core keeps $1.75. Sell thirty a month and Basic is taking $73.50, which is roughly six times the plan price.

The rule that falls out of bothon Squarespace, if you sell anything digital, Core rather than Basic is the correct plan on fee grounds alone, because 6 euro a month buys back 2 percentage points and pays for itself at 300 euro a month in digital sales.

On WordPress.com, if search matters, Premium rather than Personal is the correct plan, because $4 a month buys the ability to write a title tag.

Where WordPress.com Wins

In one linethe writing experience and the export, and the export is the one that should decide it for anyone building an archive they intend to keep.

The editor. For a sixty-post blog, WordPress.com is calmer and faster than any drag-and-drop canvas. Categories, tags, scheduling, revisions, and an archive structure are all built rather than improvised. This is our judgement, and it was not close.

The export. A WordPress export produces a standards-based archive that another WordPress installation reads directly, which means your posts, categories, media references, and URLs are all recoverable.

Nothing else in mainstream website building offers this. Squarespace can export a subset of content in a WordPress-compatible format with known gaps around galleries and index-style pages, and the design does not travel in either direction.

That difference is worth stating plainly: if you write for ten years, WordPress.com is the only one of these two where the ten years are portable.

Storage. 13GB on the $8 Premium plan is generous, and 50GB on Business at $25 is more than most creative sites will use.

Structured data, via plugins. On Business at $25 you can install an SEO plugin and author your own structured data, control canonical tags, and manage redirects. Squarespace does not allow any of that.

The gotchathe free plan runs advertising you do not control. For a professional site that is not a limitation, it is a reason the free plan does not exist for you.

Where Squarespace Wins

In one lineit looks finished with far less effort, and Core at 17 euro includes code access and unlimited contributors, which is unusually generous at that price.

Design out of the box. Our writer-illustrator's portfolio section looked considered on Squarespace immediately and required real work on WordPress.com. If images are carrying your site, this is the single biggest practical difference and it is worth money.

Core is a good plan. At 17 euro a month it includes complete customisation with CSS and JavaScript, unlimited contributors, advanced website analytics, and professional email from Google Workspace.

Most competitors put code access and multiple editors on separate, higher tiers, and several charge per seat.

Redirects are properly handled. Squarespace's URL Mappings support 301 redirects for permanent moves and 302 for temporary ones, which covers the most important SEO control during a migration.

Sitemaps generate and update automatically.

One bill, one login. Scheduling, invoicing, email campaigns, and a store are included rather than integrated, which for a working creative running the business alone is worth more than most feature comparisons allow.

The gotcha, and it is a hard limitSquarespace generates structured data automatically and states that it is not possible to edit or remove it.

Its robots.txt can be viewed and not edited. If you ever need a schema type Squarespace does not emit, there is no route to it short of leaving.

Cost Over Three Years

In one linefor a site that writes and sells, the realistic plans are WordPress.com Premium at $8 or Business at $25, against Squarespace Core at 17 euro, and the gap is smaller than the advertised entry prices suggest.

Priced honestly for our test site, which has a sixty-post blog and one product:

WordPress.com Premium at $8 a month is $96 a year and $288 over three years, and it gives you native SEO tools and 13GB. It does not give you plugins, so selling the ebook means either the Commerce plan or moving up to Business.

WordPress.com Business at $25 a month is $300 a year and $900 over three years, and it gives you the plugin ecosystem, which is where WordPress becomes what people imagine WordPress to be.

Squarespace Core at 17 euro a month is 204 euro a year and 612 euro over three years, with selling included and a 5 percent digital fee.

At thirty $35 ebook sales a month, that fee is $52.50 a month, or $1,890 over three years, which is the number that should decide whether you go to Advanced.

Squarespace Advanced at 29 euro a month is 348 euro a year and 1,044 euro over three years with no transaction fee, and it becomes the cheaper Squarespace plan at 240 euro a month in digital sales.

Here is a test you can run in two minutes. Take your expected monthly digital sales and multiply by 0.05 if you are considering Squarespace Core. Add the plan price and multiply by 36.

Then compare that to $25 a month times 36 for WordPress.com Business. For a site selling more than a few hundred a month, the fee is the largest number in the comparison and the plan prices are noise.

The Question Underneath

In one linethe real choice is whether your site is a body of writing or a body of images, and every other difference follows from that.

We would rather say this plainly than pretend the decision is close for most people.

If you write, WordPress.com wins on the editor, the archive structure, the plugin ceiling, and the export, and the export matters most because a writing archive is an asset that should outlive the platform hosting it.

If your work is visual, Squarespace wins on presentation, and the amount of effort it saves is not a small consideration when the alternative is spending your evenings on layout instead of on the work.

If it is both, which describes most illustrators, photographers who write, and designers with a journal, the tiebreak is which half is doing the selling. If people find you through your writing, choose WordPress.com.

If they find you through your images and read afterwards, choose Squarespace.

What should not decide itthe advertised entry price, because neither of them includes what you came for.

Where Framekit Fits

We build a website builder, so here is our position stated once, including the parts that argue against us.

Framekit is an AI website builder built specifically for creative work, so a photographer or illustrator gets a portfolio, client galleries, and a digital store from one subscription on one domain.

Free at $0 with 10 pages, Starter at $9 a month with a custom domain, Pro at $19 with custom HTML, CSS, and JavaScript, and Business at $39 with no fee on product sales.

Where we lose to WordPress.comthe export, decisively. A WordPress archive is portable in a way ours is not, and if your site is a decade of writing that is the correct reason to choose them over us. Their editor is also better for long-form.

Where we lose to Squarespacebreadth. Scheduling, invoicing, and a physical store are all included there and none of them exist here; our store handles digital products only, with no shipping, inventory, or variants.

Where we are cheaperour sale fee starts at 5 percent and reaches 0 percent at $39 a month, or $31 on annual billing, where Squarespace's digital fee starts at 7 percent and only reaches 0 percent on Advanced at 29 euro a month billed annually.

On a $35 ebook that is $1.75 against $2.45 at the entry tiers.

How to Choose

In one linework down these questions in order and stop at the first one that describes you.

1. Is the site mostly writing you intend to keep for years? WordPress.com, at Premium for $8 a month, and use the export as insurance.
2. Do you need plugins, custom structured data, or full redirect control? WordPress.com Business at $25 a month. Squarespace cannot do the structured data at all.
3. Is the site mostly images, and do you want it finished this week? Squarespace Core at 17 euro a month.
4. Do you sell digital products on Squarespace? Never Basic. Core halves the fee to 5 percent and Advanced removes it, becoming cheaper above 240 euro a month in digital sales.
5. Do you need bookings and invoicing in the same subscription? Squarespace.
6. Is the budget genuinely zero? WordPress.com Free, understanding that it advertises on your pages. Squarespace has no free plan.
7. Is it a photographer's portfolio with client galleries and a store? Neither is aimed at that specifically, and we are.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is WordPress or Squarespace better in 2026?

WordPress.com is better if your site is mostly writing, because of the editor, the plugin ceiling, and a genuinely portable export.

Squarespace is better if your site is mostly images, because it looks finished with far less effort and its Core plan at 17 euro a month includes CSS and JavaScript access plus unlimited contributors.

How much does WordPress.com actually cost?

On annual billing: Free at $0 with advertising, Personal at $4 a month, Premium at $8, Business at $25, and Commerce at $45. The important detail is that native SEO tools, including editable SEO titles and descriptions, require Premium at $8, and plugins require Business at $25.

Does Squarespace charge a fee on digital products?

Yes, and it is separate from its physical store fee. Digital content and memberships carry 7 percent on Basic, 5 percent on Core, and 0 percent on Advanced, while physical store sales carry 2 percent, 0 percent, and 0 percent.

On a $35 ebook, Basic keeps $2.45 before card processing.

Can I edit structured data on Squarespace?

No. Squarespace generates structured data automatically using its own schemas and states that it is not possible to edit or remove it. On WordPress.com you can author your own via an SEO plugin, which requires the Business plan at $25 a month.

Which is better for SEO?

Both handle the fundamentals. WordPress.com has the higher ceiling once you reach the $25 Business plan and its plugins, and it gives you full control over structured data and redirects.

Squarespace handles redirects well through URL Mappings and generates sitemaps automatically, but locks structured data entirely. For a normal creative site, neither will hold you back.

Can I move my site from Squarespace to WordPress?

Partially. Squarespace exports a subset of content in a WordPress-compatible format, with known gaps around galleries and index-style pages, and the design does not travel.

Plan on rebuilding the design, and set 301 redirects on the destination for any URL that changes so you keep your search positions.

Does WordPress.com have a free plan?

Yes, with 1GB of storage and WordPress.com advertising displayed on your pages, which you do not control. For a professional site that is usually disqualifying, and the fix is the $4 Personal plan. Squarespace has no free plan at all, only a 14-day trial.

Is Squarespace worth it for a blog?

It is competent and it is not WordPress. For an occasional journal alongside a visual portfolio, Squarespace is fine and the convenience of one subscription is real.

For a serious publishing habit with sixty or six hundred posts, the editor, the archive tools, and the export all favour WordPress.com.

Which one is cheaper over three years?

For a site that writes and sells, WordPress.com Premium is $288 over three years and Business is $900, against Squarespace Core at 612 euro and Advanced at 1,044 euro. Those are close enough that transaction fees on digital sales, not plan prices, usually decide the total.

What about self-hosted WordPress?

It is a different product from WordPress.com and a different decision. You rent a server, install the software, and take on updates, backups, and security yourself, in exchange for complete control and no platform fees.

It is the cheapest route at scale and the most expensive in attention, and it is not what this comparison priced.

Final Verdict

Buy WordPress.com if you write. Budget Premium at $8 a month rather than Personal at $4, because the $4 plan cannot edit a page title, and treat the export as the real reason you chose it: a decade of writing that can move is worth more than a design that cannot.

Buy Squarespace Core at 17 euro a month if your work is visual and you would rather spend your time on it than on layout.

Do not buy Basic if you sell anything digital, because 7 percent is the highest platform cut among mainstream builders and 6 euro a month buys two points of it back.

Where Framekit does not compete. WordPress.com's export is far better than ours and its editor is better for long-form writing.

Squarespace ships scheduling, invoicing, and a physical store that we do not have at all, since our store handles digital products only. If you need any of those, buy accordingly.

We are aimed at a narrower job: a creative portfolio with client galleries and a digital store on one domain.

Related readingSquarespace vs Webflow, the best website builders for SEO, and the best WordPress alternatives.