Should you build your own Squarespace?
Hosted website builder for portfolios, businesses, blogs, and stores
A portfolio or marketing site is easy to build, but Squarespace's paid value is templates, editor, hosting, commerce/forms, domains, and support.
ENOriginal research content in English. Original prompt preserved in English.
Build me a personal website to replace Squarespace: portfolio, blog, and a contact form. Requirements:
- A static site built with Eleventy: home, about, a projects grid, and a blog.
Content is Markdown files in content/, front matter for title/date/tags.
- One layout system: a base template plus Nunjucks partials for header/footer/cards,
system font stack, responsive images via @11ty/eleventy-img. No CSS framework.
- Blog gets tag pages and an RSS feed generated at build time.
- Contact form POSTs to a tiny Express handler that emails me via SMTP creds in .env
and appends each message to data/messages.jsonl. Honeypot field for spam, no captcha.
- npm run build outputs dist/; npm run deploy rsyncs dist/ to my VPS, served by Caddy
with automatic HTTPS. Put the Caddyfile snippet in the README.
- No accounts, no telemetry, no CMS database. Content lives in git, edits are commits.
- Out of scope: a drag-and-drop editor, ecommerce, and switchable themes. I edit
Markdown and CSS directly, that is the trade.
- README: DNS records to set, Caddy snippet, SMTP setup for the form handler.The prompt opens pre-filled in your agent. Review it before running. · this prompt is generated from the build plan · improve it via PR
What would building your own look like?
Generate a static site from templates, add a small CMS, host it, and configure domain/forms.
What you will need
- static hosting
- domain/DNS
- CMS or Markdown
- form/email service
- template system
They pay because it removes design, hosting, and maintenance from the website project.
xtemplate quality
xeditor
xhosting
xecommerce/forms
xdomains/email workflows
xmobile-responsive polish
xsupport
Prefer something ready-made?
Odoo CommunityWebsite, blog, store, CRM and business apps in one enormous suite; elegance was not the design brief.Open source↗
WooCommerceWordPress pages, blogs, portfolios and a real store; no platform rent, plenty of plugin and server housekeeping.Open source↗
MicroweberDrag-and-drop pages, blogging and ecommerce without a licence bill; hosting and updates move in with you.Open source↗View all 4 alternatives to Squarespace →· Licença, instalação e limitações em cada alternativa.
How much does Squarespace cost?
- Monthly billing
- $25/mo$25/mo
- Per year
- $300/yr$300/yr
- Annual billing
- $228/yr24% cheaper than paying monthly
- On a Brazilian card, with 3.5% IOF
- R$131/moR$1,191/yr
Saved to My list. You will see a notice on this site when the price changes.
You complete the purchase on Squarespace’s site. Vibe Radar does not handle payments.
| Plan | Monthly | Annual (per month) | What is included |
|---|---|---|---|
| basic | $25/workspace≈ $25 | $19/workspace≈ $19 | 1 website, up to 1,000 pages, 2 contributors, unlimited products, 30 minutes video storage; 2% commerce fee and 7% digital-product fee |
| core | $36/workspace≈ $36 | $23/workspace≈ $23 | 1 website, up to 1,000 pages, unlimited contributors and products, 5 hours video storage; 0% commerce fee and 5% digital-product fee |
| plus | $56/workspace≈ $56 | $39/workspace≈ $39 | 1 website, up to 1,000 pages, unlimited contributors and products, 50 hours video storage; 0% commerce fee and 1% digital-product fee |
| advanced | $139/workspace≈ $139 | $99/workspace≈ $99 | 1 website, up to 1,000 pages, unlimited contributors, products and video storage; 0% commerce and digital-product fees |
Free tierno free tier; 14-day private website trial with no credit card, up to 5 contributors during the trial
Billing termsmonthly + annual; every website is a separate subscription and annual plans are billed upfront
Additional costsBasic adds a 2% commerce fee and 7% digital-product fee; Core adds 5% on digital products and Plus 1%, all on top of payment processing. Each site is billed separately; the free domain and one Core+ Google Workspace inbox last only the first year, while domains, extra email users, Acuity Scheduling and Email Campaigns renew separately.
verified 2026-10-20 · source ↗
Is it cheaper to build or buy Squarespace?
Adjust the numbers: hours to build, your hourly rate, running costs and the subscription price.
Over 24 months, subscribing is cheaper.
Starting hours estimated from the analysis (weekend). Does not price what you give up (support, integrations, security).
Can I rebuild Squarespace?
Kinda. The core of Squarespace is buildable in a weekend with the prompt on this page, but there are real gaps: template quality, editor. Read the honest list above before committing.
How much does Squarespace cost?
Squarespace costs about $25/mo (Basic, checked 10/20/2026), which is $228 per year.
What do I lose by replacing Squarespace?
Honestly: template quality; editor; hosting; ecommerce/forms; domains/email workflows; mobile-responsive polish; support. If any of those are load-bearing for you, keep paying.
Is there an open-source alternative to Squarespace?
Yes: Odoo Community (Website, blog, store, CRM and business apps in one enormous suite; elegance was not the design brief.) WooCommerce (WordPress pages, blogs, portfolios and a real store; no platform rent, plenty of plugin and server housekeeping.) Microweber (Drag-and-drop pages, blogging and ecommerce without a licence bill; hosting and updates move in with you.) All 4 curated free alternatives are at https://viberadar.si/squarespace/alternatives. The prompt is for when you want it exactly your way.