Customizing the Member Sites experience

Edit the member homepage, navigation, checkout, and more.

Last updated January 3, 2025

You can use Member Sites to build a set of member-only pages for different communities or topics you teach. Use this guide to learn how to customize the Member Sites experience for your members.

Customize member homepages

The member homepage is the landing page for a member site. Use this page to welcome your members and link out to the rest of the pages in that site. Links to a member site's homepage automatically appear in:

  • Membership purchase confirmation emails
  • Member site welcome emails
  • The Memberships section of a member’s customer account panel

The first page you add to a member site automatically becomes that site's homepage. To set another page as the member homepage:

  1. Open the Pages panel.
  2. Under Member Sites, locate the appropriate member site.
  3. Hover over the title for the page you want to set as your member homepage and click ... or the gear icon.
  4. In the page settings, scroll down and click Set as member homepage.
  5. Click Confirm in the pop-up, then click Close.
  6. Your new member homepage will have a house icon next to its title.

Note

Navigation links and pages within portfolio pages (version 7.1) or index pages (version 7.0) can't be set as the homepage.

If you delete the member homepage or remove it from its member site, the homepage changes. The first page listed under that member site in the Pages panel automatically becomes the homepage. If there aren’t any other pages, a 404 error appears for members when they try to access their members-only content.

Style member homepages

You can customize the page’s design using style tweaks in the Design panel. To learn more, visit Making style changes.

Customize member navigation

When a member logs in to their customer account, a new navigation menu appears, listing the gated pages in that member site. All of your member sites use the same style of navigation. It's not possible to set different styles of navigation for each member site.

How you change the navigation and the options available depends on your site’s version.

To change how your member site's navigation appears to visitors:

  1. Open the Pages panel.
  2. Scroll down to the Member Sites section.
  3. Click the-gear-icon beside Member Sites.
  4. In the pop-up, review your member site navigation options.

You can choose from the following member site navigation styles:

  • Replace main navigation - This is the default option. When members are logged in, the member navigation appears at the top of your site, replacing the main navigation of your public pages. The member navigation includes all member sites they have access to, and reveals all pages in each member site on hover. The main navigation links reappear after a member logs out of their customer account.
  • Show in the Customer Account panel - After a member logs into their customer account, the Sign in link in your main navigation changes to Account. Members can click this link to open the Customer Account panel and view all pages available in their member sites.
  • Don’t show navigation - Hide the member site page links from both the main navigation and Customer Account panel. If you choose this option, create a custom member navigation on the member site's homepage.

To change how your member site's navigation appears to visitors:

  1. Open the Member Sites panel.
  2. Click Member navigation.
  3. Choose where you want the member navigation to appear.
  4. Click Save.

You can choose from the following member site navigation styles:

  • Show in the Customer Account panel - This is the default option. After a member logs into their Customer Account, the Sign in link in your main navigation changes to Account. Members can click this link to open the Customer Account panel and view all pages available in their member sites.
  • Don’t show navigation - Hide the member site page links from both the main navigation and Customer Account panel. If you choose this option, create a custom member navigation on the member site's homepage.

Customize checkout

Create a custom checkout form for customers to complete when paying for a pricing plan. Use this form to collect information or comments from your customers and display your Terms of Service.

Keep in mind, the custom checkout form won't appear for free member sites, as members won't go through the checkout process when they sign up.

Note

You can only create a single custom checkout form for your site. If you sell products or services as well as pricing plans, the same form appears at checkout for customers, regardless of what they're purchasing.

Customize customer email notifications

Customize the following automatic email notifications sent to your members:

Learn more about all the email types members receive, and how to customize them in Customer email notifications.

Customize a paywall

When you add a member site to a pricing plan, the pages of the member site are gated behind a paywall. Visitors will see the paywall if they aren’t:

  • Logged into their customer account
  • A member of the member site’s pricing plan

To learn more about customizing and styling your paywalls, visit Paywalls and pricing plans.

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Customizing the Member Sites experience