Top 5 Must-See Squarespace Alternatives to Elevate Your Business in 2025

With a wide array of content management systems (CMS) and website builders available, selecting the right one for your business can be overwhelming.

If you’ve been searching on Google for the best platform to build your website, you’ve likely seen Squarespace ranking high in many lists — and it’s no surprise.

Squarespace is a popular choice for visually-driven brands, thanks to its sleek design templates. However, it does have some limitations when it comes to advanced functionality.

Whether you want full control over customization or prefer an easier setup process, there are numerous alternatives to Squarespace worth considering for your business needs.

To help you compare options, we’ve compiled a list of the five best alternatives:

Before delving into these alternatives, let’s first look at what makes Squarespace appealing, along with its advantages and drawbacks.

Let’s get started.

Squarespace functions as a straightforward CMS that combines website creation, hosting, domain registration, and online selling in a single platform. It is renowned for its beautiful, mobile-responsive templates, with over 100 options to choose from.

Each template is designed for easy modifications through Squarespace’s drag-and-drop editor, eliminating the need for coding skills to build a polished website. The platform also includes built-in SEO tools, numerous ready-to-use features, and analytics insights. Originally launched as a blogging platform, Squarespace provides robust tools for bloggers, such as managing publishing schedules, customizing contributor roles, and monitoring site traffic. If you have existing content on WordPress, Tumblr, or Blogger, you can also import it into Squarespace.

However, Squarespace may not be suitable for everyone. Its simplicity comes at the expense of flexibility, with only a limited set of extensions mainly focused on e-commerce functionalities. Plus, it tends to be more expensive than some alternatives.

Next, we’ll explore what makes Squarespace a good choice and where it falls short—so you can decide if it’s the right fit for your website.

Here are some of the key benefits of Squarespace:

Like any platform, Squarespace has its limitations, which are important to consider:

While Squarespace is a strong website builder, it might not be the perfect fit for every business. Different platforms offer unique features suited to various needs.

We’ve highlighted the most notable alternatives in the following sections to guide your decision-making process.

If you’re searching for a more comprehensive alternative to Squarespace, consider HubSpot CMS. This cloud-based platform combines the flexibility of WordPress with the ease of use of a website builder. It offers a fully integrated system that simplifies content management through a drag-and-drop editor, includes hosting services, and manages your website content effortlessly. Essentially, HubSpot CMS functions as a managed platform similar to Squarespace.

Unlike WordPress, which requires sorting through countless plugins to add basic features, HubSpot CMS comes with essential functionalities built-in. This includes security, SEO optimization, adaptive testing, native personalization, A/B testing tools, mobile-friendly themes, and multi-language content management. The standout feature, however, is its integration with HubSpot’s CRM, enabling seamless marketing and sales functionalities to improve lead conversion rates.

That said, HubSpot CMS can be more difficult to learn and costlier than Squarespace. So, if simplicity and affordability are your priorities, it may not be the best choice.

Pros of CMS Hub include its integration with sales and marketing tools, multilingual support, and robust security measures. Its downsides are higher costs and fewer theme and plugin options. Best suited for marketers, content creators, and IT teams, pricing begins at $300 per month for professional plans and can reach $900 for enterprise solutions.

Wix is a well-known website builder thanks to its user-friendly design and affordability. It provides web hosting, mobile optimization, hundreds of free and paid apps, and SEO tools. It’s quite similar to Squarespace in aesthetic appeal, offering sleek themes that are easy to customize. While both use drag-and-drop editors, Wix’s interface is generally more intuitive, making it easier for beginners to build their websites without coding experience. However, Wix uses absolute positioning, which means you’ll need to create two versions of your site to ensure mobile-friendliness. In contrast, Squarespace templates are already fully responsive for mobile devices.

Wix offers both free and paid premium plans, giving users flexibility based on their needs. The main advantages include its ease of use, basic SEO features, a wide variety of themes and apps, and automatic backup features. On the downside, limitations exist, such as restriction in sub-level navigation, a free tier supported by ads, and difficulty switching templates once your site is live.

Ideal for bloggers, small businesses, startups, creative professionals, and freelancers, Wix’s pricing starts at around $13 per month for basic plans, with options scaling up to $500 per month for enterprise packages.

WordPress.

Based on historical data from W3Techs, WordPress powers over a third of all websites on the internet. It remains the most widely used platform among various options like Squarespace.

Unlike Squarespace, which offers an all-in-one hosting and website builder, WordPress.org (not to be confused with WordPress.com) is an open-source content management system that requires you to arrange your own hosting service to get your site online.

The primary distinction lies in the level of control and customization: WordPress.org provides greater flexibility for selecting hosting providers, designing your website, and adding features. It presents many options at different price points, giving users more freedom but also requiring more setup effort.

While some may see outsourcing hosting as a drawback, others value the extensive customization capabilities. WordPress’s appeal is further amplified by its vast library of plugins for CRM, email marketing, live chat, and themes—all available for free. However, these advantages come with costs such as paying for hosting and optional premium plugins or themes.

Originally launched as a blogging platform, WordPress is perfect for blogs and content-rich outlets. But to operate it effectively, basic knowledge of HTML and CSS is helpful, and users are responsible for updates and security—unlike platforms like Wix or Squarespace that manage those aspects. This makes WordPress generally more complex to learn and manage.

Pros of WordPress include access to thousands of plugins and add-ons, e-commerce integration via WooCommerce, and complete control over your website. However, it being self-managed makes it susceptible to security threats due to its popularity, and working knowledge of coding is often necessary.

Ideal for bloggers, online stores, news sites, or large enterprises, WordPress’s main advantage is its high level of customizability and extensibility. Its main drawbacks are the requirement for self-management and the need for technical skills to maintain a secure and functional site. Pricing is free to start, but costs for hosting and premium features are typical considerations.

Shopify is regarded as a leading platform for e-commerce, designed specifically for online retail businesses. It hosts over a million shops worldwide, enabling the sale of physical products, digital goods, and services. Compared to Squarespace, Shopify offers more specialized features for online selling and is generally more user-friendly, thanks to its drag-and-drop interface.

Both platforms are managed solutions that simplify website creation for those without coding experience, though this limits some customization options. Shopify’s focus on ecommerce means it’s best suited for businesses that require checkout systems and online transaction capabilities, whereas Squarespace serves smaller firms with or without ecommerce needs.

With Shopify Payments, merchants can process credit card transactions directly on the platform to avoid extra fees. It also complies with PCI standards and supports 3D Secure, ensuring customer data security. The Shopify ecosystem provides additional benefits through a wide array of apps and integrations, making it a comprehensive choice for online retail.Finding qualified talent to develop on that platform can be challenging, whether you’re hiring freelancers or full-time staff. However, Shopify boasts a large community of developers and agencies experienced in working with it.

Some notable features of Shopify include:

On the downside, Shopify tends to be more expensive than alternatives like Wix or Squarespace, which may be a consideration for budget-conscious users.

Shopify’s advantages include:

However, it does have some drawbacks:

This platform is particularly suitable for e-commerce, bloggers, small retail stores, and small businesses.

Pricing begins at $29 per month for the basic plan, $79 for the mid-tier, and $299 per month for the premium level.

5. Weebly

Weebly is another hosted website builder especially suited for users with limited technical skills. Like Squarespace, it offers responsive themes, a drag-and-drop editor, and built-in e-commerce features. It also manages hosting and domain connections, reducing the technical hassle for users who prefer a managed platform.

While Weebly has fewer templates and extension options compared to Wix and Squarespace, it is well-suited for larger websites because it allows for unlimited navigation levels, is optimized for mobile devices, and offers improved editing tools. The platform also provides access to more apps than both Wix and Squarespace, giving users more flexibility. However, for comprehensive online store setups, Shopify remains the better choice.

All of Weebly’s free and paid plans include features like secure sockets layer (SSL) security, SEO tools, lead capture forms, and customer support. If you don’t require extensive customization or a content management system, Weebly is an excellent alternative to Squarespace. Be prepared for a slightly steeper learning curve compared to Squarespace.

Weebly’s advantages include:

Its disadvantages are limited e-commerce capabilities, no self-restore option for backups, and the free plan includes ads. It’s best suited for beginners, bloggers, freelancers, small businesses, and larger websites.

Pricing starts at just $6 per month for the basic plan and goes up to $26 per month for the Performance plan, billed annually.

Final thoughts: The 5 best Squarespace alternatives (2020 review)

In today’s digital landscape, establishing an online presence is crucial for business success. While Squarespace offers beautiful designs and ease of use, it can be limiting as your needs grow. Luckily, there are several strong alternatives that can match or surpass its features.

Options like Jimdo, Duda, and Webflow can provide more control, easier editing, or better pricing depending on your needs. Carefully evaluate which functionalities matter most to you, do thorough research, compare options, and start building a website with a suitable platform.

You don’t need to sacrifice key features to find a better solution. Choose a powerful, secure, and customizable alternative to Squarespace to help your business thrive online.