Websitero vs Squarespace
Squarespace makes handsome templates, and a template is exactly what you get — the same layout thousands of other businesses are using, rented monthly, arranged by you, and impossible to take with you when you leave. A custom site costs less over its life and does something a template cannot: it is built around how your customers actually decide to call you.
- 7-day money-back guarantee
- Code you own
- Live in hours
Point for point
Every claim here is something Squarespace publishes or that you can check in an afternoon. Nothing on this page is an opinion about them.
A template thousands of other businesses are also using — recognisably a Squarespace site, including to the competitor down the road who picked the same one.
Designed around your business from a blank page. Not a theme with your colours applied, and nobody else has it.
You. Choosing the template, writing every word, arranging every page, and doing it again each time something changes.
We do. You send a document and your photos; you review a finished site and say what to change.
The template decides the layout, so your phone number, your service area and your call to action go wherever the template put them.
The page is built around how your customers decide — phone number first for a trade people call in a hurry, quotes and proof where they change minds.
No. Content exports partially and the site does not export at all. Leaving means rebuilding from scratch, however many years you have paid in.
Yes. Standard code, your hosting, your repository. Nothing is held back and nothing needs our permission.
A subscription per site for as long as the site is up, plus the commerce and scheduling add-ons on top. It never converts into ownership.
One build fee and it is yours. Hosting is free and there is nothing further to pay.
Template pages carry the whole framework whether or not a given page uses it, which is why they are heavier than hand-built pages and slower on a phone.
Only what the page needs, and nothing else. Fast on a bad connection, which is where local customers are.
SEO fields you fill in yourself. The Google Business Profile that decides whether you show up in the map pack is not their job.
Handled on All-in and Pro — listing set up properly, pages written for your town and your trade.
Platform support for the platform. They cannot change your site for you.
24/7 chat with the developers who built your site. You describe the change, they make it.
Switching from Squarespace
It should look better, because it is designed for one business instead of for a hundred thousand. A template makes anyone's site look decent — and decent in exactly the same way as everyone else on that template, competitors included. A hand-coded site starts from what your business actually needs to say, which is why it can do things no template will: lead with a phone number for a trade whose customers are in a hurry, or put your service area where people are looking for it.
Yes — either in the files, since the code is standard and it is yours, or by messaging us and having it done for you within the day. Most owners find that faster than logging into an editor and rearranging blocks themselves, and it means the site does not slowly drift out of shape as it gets edited.
We rebuild from it, which is the only route off any builder. Send your existing pages, text and images as the document you would normally send us, and the new site is built from your real content rather than placeholder copy. Nothing you have written is wasted — what you leave behind is the template and the subscription.
Squarespace is cheaper for the first year and more expensive every year after, because a subscription per site has no end and our build is one payment with free hosting. Add the commerce or scheduling tier and it turns sooner. The difference at the end is not just the total — it is that one of them leaves you owning a website.
Other comparisons
Ready to put your business online?
Two ways to get there: send us a doc about your business and your photos and we'll hand-code it for you, or start from a complete kit and build it yourself.
Takes about two minutes. Backed by a 7-day money-back guarantee.
- 7 days to get your money back
- Live on your own domain
- Real code, yours to keep