Review the different types of transaction fees, how they're processed, and if you can avoid them.
Some Squarespace plans include transaction fees for sales. You'll also need to pay a processing fee to the company that processes your credit card transactions. If you sell products, collect donations, or charge visitors for access to gated content, review this guide to understand which fee rates apply to you, how you’re charged, and how to view your fees per order.
For any transaction total above $0, you'll pay a payment processing fee per transaction, regardless of what you’re selling or your Squarespace billing plan
You'll need to connect a payment processing solution to sell on Squarespace.
When and how fees are collected
- Fees are collected immediately after a successful transaction.
- Payment processing fees, and transaction fees, are deducted from your payout total, unless you use Paypal.
- If you use PayPal as your payment processor, transaction fees are charged to the payment method on file with your PayPal account
- We don't create separate receipts for your Squarespace Commerce or Digital Products transaction fees.
- If a customer has both digital products and products in an order, you'll pay separate transaction fees for each. You can learn more in the “Transaction fees vs. processor fees” section below.
Transaction fees vs. processor fees
For sales collected through Squarespace, there are two possible fees to know about. The types of fees are collected differently:
- Transaction fee - A percentage of the total sale amount we collect per transaction, as your online store host. Depending on your Squarespace plan, you incur a transaction fee on each sale. The exact fee depends on your plan, and the type of products you’re selling--either Commerce products, digital products, or both.
- Processing fee - The fee your payment solution collects. Your payment solution is either Squarespace Payments, or a third-party solution like Stripe, PayPal, or Square. Third-party processing fees may be based on location and aren't controlled by Squarespace. To learn more, visit the Third-party payment-processing fees section of this guide.
Squarespace Payments
Squarespace Payments is a new native payment solution that’s fully integrated within the Squarespace platform. This simplifies accepting and managing payments on Squarespace.
Note: We’re rolling out Squarespace Payments in waves to all sites, so it may not be available for your site yet.
Squarespace Payments fees
Squarespace Payments charges a payment processing fee of 2.9% + 0.30¢ per transaction. Depending on your Squarespace plan, you may incur a transaction fee on each sale. We collect fees immediately upon a successful transaction. All fees, including any shipping fees, and Squarespace transaction fees, apply to the final order total.
The table below displays the fee structure if you use Squarespace Payments as your payment solution:
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Squarespace Commerce Fees for the sale of physical products, download products, service products, and donations, on Squarespace Commerce. |
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| Website billing plan |
Commerce transaction fee (per transaction) |
Squarespace Payments processing fee (per transaction) |
| Commerce Advanced | 0% | 2.9% + 0.30¢ |
| Commerce Basic | 0% | 2.9% + 0.30¢ |
| Website Business | 3% | 2.9% + 0.30¢ |
|
Digital Products Fees for the sale of Digital Products like Courses, Video Pages, and Member Sites. |
||
| Digital Products billing plan |
Transaction fee (per transaction) |
Squarespace Payments processing fee (per transaction) |
| Pro | 0% | 2.9% + 0.30¢ |
| Core | 3% | 2.9% + 0.30¢ |
| Starter | 7% | 2.9% + 0.30¢ |
| No Digital Products subscription | 9% | 2.9% + 0.30¢ |
Squarespace Commerce transaction fees
Fees for the sale of physical products, download products, service products, and donations, on Squarespace Commerce. To learn more about Squarespace Commerce, visit Getting started with Squarespace Commerce.
Transaction fees are listed below based on your Commerce plan:
|
Transaction fees (per transaction) |
Payment Solution fees (per transaction) |
||
| Website billing plan | Commerce transaction fee | Third-party processors (Stripe, Paypal, Square, etc.) |
Squarespace Payments |
| Commerce Advanced | 0% | Review third-party fees | 2.9% + 0.30¢ |
| Commerce Basic | 0% | Review third-party fees | 2.9% + 0.30¢ |
| Website Business | 3% | Review third-party fees | 2.9% + 0.30¢ |
Tip: To avoid Squarespace Commerce transaction fees, upgrade to a Commerce billing plan.
Commerce fees on Legacy plans
If you signed up for Squarespace before November 3, 2015, and haven’t moved into a current billing plan, the Squarespace Commerce transaction fee doesn’t apply to you.
If you signed up for Squarespace between November 3, 2015 and November 30, 2017, and haven’t moved into a current billing plan, the Squarespace Commerce transaction fee is:
- 3% on the Website Personal plan
- 2% on the Website Business plan
Digital products transaction fees
Fees for the sale of Digital Products like Courses, Video Pages, and Member Sites. To learn more about Digital products, visit Getting started with Digital Products.
The Digital Products transaction fees are listed below based on your Digital Products plan:
|
Transaction fees (per transaction) |
Payment Solution fees (per transaction) |
||
| Digital Products billing plan | Digital Products transaction fee | Third-party processors (Stripe, Paypal, Square, etc.) |
Squarespace Payments |
| Pro | 0% | Review third-party fees | 2.9% + 0.30¢ |
| Core | 3% | Review third-party fees | 2.9% + 0.30¢ |
| Starter | 7% | Review third-party fees | 2.9% + 0.30¢ |
| No Digital Products subscription | 9% | Review third-party fees | 2.9% + 0.30¢ |
Tip: To avoid digital product transaction fees, upgrade to the Pro Digital Products plan.
Acuity Scheduling fees
You can use Acuity for booking appointments or classes. There are no transaction fees from Squarespace when your customer or client makes a payment for appointments. There's a transaction fee from your payment processor. To learn more, visit Connecting payment processors to Acuity.
Note: Squarespace Payments will be rolling out to users in the United States in the coming months and will launch in additional markets in 2024.
Third-party payment processing fees
If you use a third-party payment processor (Stripe, PayPal, etc. to process your credit card transactions, you'll pay a payment processing fee to that company (Stripe, PayPal, etc).
Stripe
Stripe’s processing fees vary by country. Visit Stripe’s documentation for details:
- United States
- United Kingdom
- Ireland
- Australia
- If you don’t see your country listed above, contact Stripe for help.
To review a breakdown of your Stripe fees per order, open the order in Stripe. Find the Fee line item in the Payment details section. Hover over the info icon next to the fee amount to review fee details. These details will vary depending on your website plan:
- Stripe processing fees - The amount reflects Stripe's processing fee
- Squarespace application fees - The amount reflects the Squarespace transaction fee
You can also download a .csv file by clicking View All Payments in Stripe. Look for these terms associated with Squarespace Commerce:
- Charge Fee - The transaction fee
- Charge Gross - The amount sent to Stripe before the fee
- Charge Net - The amount transferred to the merchant after the fee
To learn more, visit Stripe's documentation.
PayPal
- Fees may vary by location. Visit PayPal’s documentation for details. You can also contact PayPal for help.
- To review your Paypal fees, log into your PayPal Business account. In the Activity tab, transaction fees appear as a payment to Squarespace.
Square
- Square’s processing fees vary based on how the payment is made. Visit Square’s documentation to learn more.
- Square is available as a payment processor for Squarespace point of sale in the iOS Squarespace app only.
- To review the processing fees per order in Square, view transactions in your Square dashboard.
Afterpay or Clearpay
Afterpay's processing fee is 6% of the order total, plus $0.30. Clearpay's processing fee is 6% of the order total, plus £0.30. This fee includes Stripe's processing fee, as you need a Stripe account to accept Afterpay or Clearpay. For more eligibility and transaction fee details, visit Accepting Afterpay or Clearpay..
Afterpay and Clearpay processing fees appear in your Stripe dashboard.
Refunds
You can provide a full or partial refund to your customers. When you refund customer orders, refunds of processing fees vary between payment processors.
Squarespace Payments
If you’re subscribed to a Squarespace plan that involves transaction fees, the transaction fee is refunded to you. The payment processing fee isn't refundable.
Refunds come out of your Payments account balance, which is the total amount of payments you’ve received that day. If you don't have a balance when you initiate a refund, there will be a negative balance. Any future payments you receive are used to balance out the negative figure. In the absence of new payments, we’ll initiate a debit from your connected bank account to cover the negative balance
Stripe
Full refunds for product purchases include the Squarespace Commerce transaction fees and partial refunds include a prorated portion of the fees. The same is true of Digital Products transaction fees, should you issue a membership refund.
With both products and memberships, refunds don't include Stripe's processing fees.
Note: Refunding a donation won't refund the Stripe processing fee.
PayPal
Full refunds for product purchases include the Squarespace Commerce transaction fees and partial refunds include a prorated portion of the fees. The same is true of Digital Products transaction fees, should you issue a membership refund.
With both products and memberships, refunds don't include PayPal's processing fees.
Square
Full refunds include the Squarespace Commerce transaction fees and partial refunds include a prorated portion of the fees. Refunds include Square’s processing fees.
Afterpay or Clearpay
Full refunds for product purchases include the Squarespace Commerce transaction fees and partial refunds include a prorated portion of the fees. Refunds don't include Afterpay or Clearpay's processing fees.
Avoid transaction fees
- To avoid Squarespace Commerce transaction fees, upgrade to a Commerce billing plan.
- To avoid Digital Product transaction fees, upgrade to the Pro Digital Products plan.
- If you upgrade, we can't refund transaction fees for orders placed while you were on your previous plan.
- To learn more about all our plans, visit Choosing the right Squarespace plan.