Getting started with your Squarespace website

Start a website trial, set up and design your site, and sign up for a subscription to make it live.

Last updated December 16, 2024

A Squarespace website subscription includes content hosting, professionally designed layouts, 24/7 support, and access to our user-friendly platform for creating beautiful websites and online stores.

We also offer tools for scheduling, registering custom domains, creating social content, and managing reservations for hospitality businesses. All of these are available as standalone features or as part of a Squarespace site.

To learn more about everything Squarespace offers, visit Everything you can do with Squarespace.

Tip

In addition to our guides and video tutorials, we offer two Getting Started with Squarespace webinars. In these sessions, we’ll walk you through template building with Squarespace Blueprint AI, navigating your site, domain and email options, preparing site content, building a homepage, and styling colors and fonts. Webinars typically last one hour, and you don’t need a Squarespace site or account to sign up.

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First steps

Every Squarespace site begins as a trial. This is a free two-week period where you can explore the platform, upload content, experiment with your design, and share your progress with friends and colleagues.

When you start a trial, you’ll select a template. Templates use demo content to showcase site features and give you an idea of how your site can be styled. You can remove the demo content and make the site your own by adding images and customizing colors and fonts.

When you’re ready to build your site, use the Pages panel in the Home menu to create new pages. Then you can add sections and rearrange your content to create custom layouts.

Can someone build my site for me?

Yes. While Squarespace is great for a DIY approach, many web designers specialize in building Squarespace sites for clients. To hire a Squarespace Expert, visit Squarespace Marketplace.

We're unable to mediate arrangements between Experts and clients. If you're building a site yourself, we're here to help.

Choosing a template

On the current Squarespace platform, version 7.1, all templates have the same features and style options. What you choose when you start your trial is a starting point, but it doesn't limit the designs or layouts you can create.

Explore the template store to find a design that fits your vision or, if you're on a computer, use Squarespace Blueprint to build your own template. We recommend paying more attention to the structure and style rather than its example content. The demo content is there for inspiration, but you can customize it to meet your needs.

Remember, if you decide you want to change the design of your site later, you can always rebuild it using pages, page sections, blocks, and style settings.

Creating your design

Choose from curated font and color themes to quickly update styles across your entire site.

For more help, visit Making style changes.

Signing up

You can choose from a range of billing plans to get your idea online, from a personal portfolio site to running an ecommerce business.

For more details on all of our plans, visit Choosing the right Squarespace plan.

Keep in mind:

When is my site live?

After signing up for paid service, your site is live whenever you set it as Public in your Site Availability settings. Until you’re ready to publish, you can keep your site private or add a site-wide password to only allow certain visitors.

What's included in a site subscription

A site subscription to Squarespace comes with access to our all-in-one content management system, or CMS. With a single subscription, you can create a website, host your content, register domains, sell products, and much more.

Every full Squarespace website subscription includes:

  • Site building tools - Use our drag-and-drop tools to add content, like text and images, and create a site without directly editing code. Start with any template to create pages and organize your site, then customize it to match your own style.
  • Content hosting - All Squarespace content is stored on our robust infrastructure. This ensures your site will load quickly and reliably from anywhere in the world.
  • Search engine optimization - Squarespace automatically generates sitemaps, uses clean HTML markup, and uses automatic tagging so search engines can index your content without plugins or extra fees.
  • Squarespace analytics - Explore your site’s analytics to understand traffic patterns, referral sources, and other key metrics. Connect with Google Analytics through our built-in integration to learn even more.
  • Responsive design for mobile viewing - Responsive design comes standard on every Squarespace site, ensuring your content looks great on any device.
  • 24/7 Customer Support - Our Advisors are available at any time, 365 days a year, to answer your questions.

You can add these other features on certain plans or with a separate subscription:

FAQ

Can I move my site to Squarespace from another platform?

Absolutely. If you already own your domain or have a site hosted by another provider, you can move to Squarespace using these options:

Because moving between website platforms can affect how search engines view your site, we recommend following these best practices to protect your search ranking during your transition.

Can I use Squarespace in my country?

Yes, Squarespace is based in the United States but is available internationally. We support changing your site and account language and you can create a multilingual site through our Weglot integration.

For details on our international commerce options, visit Supported countries and currencies for Squarespace Commerce and Tips for merchants outside the US.

We also offer registration for several country code TLDs (ccTLDs). To check if your country's TLD can be registered through Squarespace, visit our List of top-level domains (TLDs). If we don't currently offer your ccTLD, you can connect the domain if it's hosted by another provider.

Are Square and Squarespace the same company?

Square and Squarespace are different companies. Square is a payment processor that can accept payments online and on your mobile devices, whereas Squarespace offers a variety of tools to help you share your business, your creations, and your ideas online.

To contact Square, visit their help site. You can use Square with our products when connecting a payment processor for your online store, selling in person with Squarespace Point of Sale, or accepting Acuity payments in person.

Get help

In addition to our guides and video tutorials, we offer other resources to help you get the most out of your Squarespace site:

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  • Get help from our community

  • Get help from our community on advanced customizations.

  • Hire a Squarespace Expert

  • Stand out online with the help of an experienced designer or developer.

Getting started with your Squarespace website