Squarespace vs WooCommerce Comparison 2026
Squarespace charges $19 a month paid annually and takes 2 percent of store sales and 7 percent of membership or digital content revenue on that plan, dropping to 0 and 5 percent only on the $29 Core tier. WooCommerce is free software with no platform fee and no revenue share stated anywhere, a plugin on a WordPress site whose real cost is hosting, $25 to $350 a month, and extensions from $29 to $299 a year each. Squarespace bundles design, hosting and a percentage of your sales. WooCommerce charges nothing on sales and puts the cost entirely on infrastructure you own.
Templates that look designed out of the box
A free store plugin that takes no cut at all
At a glance
- Only WooCommerce has a free tier.
Side by side
Squarespace | WooCommerce | |
|---|---|---|
| Starting price | From $19 | Free |
| Pricing model (they differ) | Paid subscription | Free |
| Free tier (they differ) | No | Yes |
| Billing | Annual only | Not stated |
| Free trial | 14 days | Not stated |
| API | Not stated |
Squarespace
Templates that look designed out of the box
Squarespace is the answer for a creator who wants a site that looks considered and never wants to think about it again. Templates are genuinely well made and the editor stops you breaking them. That constraint is also the ceiling, and its transaction fees on memberships and digital goods are high enough to matter on the cheaper plan.
Our note
The 7 percent membership fee on Basic is the thing people discover after launching. If memberships are more than a sideline, either budget for Core from the start or run them somewhere that does not take a cut.
WooCommerce
A free store plugin that takes no cut at all
WooCommerce turns a WordPress site into a shop and states plainly that it charges no platform fee and takes no share of sales. The software is free and open source; the money goes on hosting and on whichever extensions a shop actually needs. That makes the total cost a range rather than a number, and the range depends on traffic more than on features. Running it means owning the hosting, the updates and the security, which is the trade against a platform that does all three and bills monthly.
Why people weigh these two
- WooCommerce instead of Squarespace
- WooCommerce is a free store plugin that takes no cut, for a shop on WordPress rather than a hosted template.
- Squarespace instead of WooCommerce
- Squarespace looks designed out of the box and bills monthly for hosting and updates handled for you, at $19, the platform WooCommerce's owners are trading maintenance to avoid.
Which one should you pick
Choose Squarespace if a polished, hands-off site matters more than avoiding a percentage fee: templates hold together without a designer, and invoicing is included at no extra charge. Budget for Core at $29 a month if memberships or digital sales are a real part of the business, since Basic's 7 percent membership fee is the largest number on the page.
Choose WooCommerce if the site is already, or will be, on WordPress and paying zero platform fee matters more than convenience: the plugin costs nothing, and the comparison table states plainly that there is no additional fee for using a third-party payment provider either. It wins on arithmetic once sales are large enough that Squarespace's percentage would sting, and loses on every hour spent on hosting, updates and security that Squarespace would otherwise handle.
Common questions
- Which is cheaper, Squarespace or WooCommerce?
- It depends on sales volume and how much hosting costs. WooCommerce charges no platform fee at all, but hosting runs $25 to $350 a month depending on traffic. Squarespace's $19 or $29 monthly fee is predictable, but a 2 to 7 percent cut of sales and membership revenue is added on top.
- Does WooCommerce take any cut of a sale the way Squarespace does?
- No, its own comparison table lists the platform fee as $0 and the additional charge for a third-party payment provider as none. Squarespace takes 2 percent of store sales and 7 percent of membership and digital content revenue on its Basic plan.
- Who handles hosting, updates and security on each?
- Squarespace does, as part of the subscription, which is what a non-technical creator is paying for. WooCommerce puts that entirely on you, since it is self-hosted software, which is the trade for paying no percentage on sales.
- Which one is better for selling memberships specifically?
- WooCommerce, on pure economics, since it takes no cut regardless of revenue. Squarespace's 7 percent membership fee on Basic, or 5 percent on Core, is explicitly the number people discover after launching, so budget for it or run memberships somewhere that does not take a share.
Ratings are the average of reviews readers left. The facts are stated by each tool’s own listing and are not verified by CloutStack. How we make money.