Framer vs Squarespace: which is right for you in 2026?

The quick verdict

Pick Framer if you want a polished, design-led marketing or portfolio site for the least money. Basic is $10 a month billed yearly, there is a free plan to build on, and you get AI credits on every plan. The trade-offs: no native store, page and CMS caps, and the site can’t officially leave Framer (2 out of 10 on our exit score).

Pick Squarespace if you want one tidy bill for a business site that may sell something. It has a built-in store, unlimited contributors from the Core plan up, and a free Google Workspace inbox for the first year on Core. It costs more, starting at $19 a month billed yearly, and scores 5 out of 10 on exit.

Side by side

See our Framer review and our Squarespace review for every plan.

Cost over 3 years

The example: a service business with a 20-page site, a blog, a contact form, a .com domain and one business email inbox. All plans are billed yearly.

• Domain. Both include a free domain for the first year on yearly billing, and neither publishes its renewal price. For Squarespace we used the free year, then budgeted $18.48 a year (Namecheap’s .com renewal). For Framer we priced the domain at Namecheap from day one ($11.28, then $18.48 a year), because Framer doesn’t publish how its free domain transfers out.
• Email. Google Workspace Business Starter is $7 per user a month on the annual plan. Squarespace Core includes one Workspace account free for the first year. Squarespace doesn’t show the price after that, so we used Google’s own $7.
• Monthly billing. Squarespace Basic is $25 billed monthly and Core is $39. Framer’s pricing page showed only yearly prices when we checked.

For one person editing, Framer is the cheapest. Add two coworkers and the order flips. Two Framer Content Editors at $10 a month each add $720 over three years, for a total of $1,380.24. Squarespace Core already includes unlimited contributors, so it stays at $1,248.96.

If you sell online. Framer can’t, without a third-party checkout. On Squarespace, Basic charges a 2% transaction fee on store sales and Core charges 0%. Core costs $120 a year more than Basic, so it pays for itself once you sell more than $6,000 a year online. Card processing (2.9% + $0.30 on Basic and Core) applies either way.

Design and ease of use

Framer is a design-first visual builder. Designers get pixel-level control and fast publishing, and Framer runs hosting details for you: pre-rendering, image optimization, font subsetting and a global CDN (content delivery network). It supports custom code and React code components. Pro adds a staging environment with branching, so you can test changes before they go live.

Squarespace is template-led. You start from a designer-made template and adjust it, which keeps a non-designer’s site looking polished. Basic includes a CSS editor and a basic code block. JavaScript and the advanced code block need Core or higher.

The short version: Framer gives you more freedom, Squarespace gives you more guardrails. If nobody on your team designs, Squarespace’s templates are the safer start. If you have a designer, Framer lets them build exactly what they drew.

Store, blog and SEO

Store. Squarespace has a full built-in store. Store transaction fees are 2% on Basic and 0% on Core, Plus and Advanced. Selling digital content and memberships costs extra: 7% on Basic, 5% on Core, 1% on Plus and 0% on Advanced. Plus ($49 a month billed yearly) adds reserved cart and advanced merchandising. Framer lists no native store.

Blog. Squarespace has built-in blog pages with comments, and you can run more than one blog. Framer runs its blog from the CMS. Basic allows 2 collections and 1,000 items across 30 pages; Pro allows 10 collections, 2,500 items and 150 pages. For most small business blogs, both are enough.

Video. Squarespace caps video hosting by plan: 30 minutes on Basic, 5 hours on Core, 50 hours on Plus and unlimited on Advanced.

SEO. Squarespace has built-in SEO controls plus an AI SEO Scanner that suggests page titles, descriptions and image alt text. Framer pre-renders pages so search engines get finished HTML, and Pro includes site redirects, which you need when moving an older site’s URLs in.

AI features

Framer includes AI credits on every plan: 500 on Free, 1,000 a month on Basic and 3,000 a month on Pro, shared across the workspace. Its AI tools are named Design, Write, Organize, Analyze and Localize (AI translation of your site), and credits also power its Agents.

Squarespace has Blueprint AI, which builds a starting site from designer-made templates, and Beacon AI, a business assistant across the platform. Its AI composers write product descriptions, discounts and FAQs, and an AIO Scanner tracks mentions of your brand on AI platforms like ChatGPT. AI credits are tight on Basic: 10, one time. Core gets 20 a month, Plus 40 and Advanced 120.

Framer’s cheapest paid plan gets a monthly credit allowance, while Squarespace Basic gets 10 credits once. Squarespace’s AI leans toward running a business: selling, writing product copy and tracking visibility.

Leaving later

Our exit score rates how much of your site you can take with you, out of 10.

Framer. Framer’s help center says, “Framer does not offer HTML export for self-hosting.” CMS content can leave as CSV or JSON through plugins. Third-party plugins claim full-site exports, but they are unofficial.

Squarespace. Squarespace’s help center says the export is a WordPress-format XML file. It carries layout pages, one blog with its posts, text and image blocks, and gallery pages. It leaves behind store, portfolio and index pages, video and product blocks, drafts, styles and custom CSS. Images download one at a time, and uploaded videos can’t be exported. Products, orders and contacts do export as CSV files.

Domains move on both. On Squarespace, a newly registered domain is locked for 60 days, and the free-domain offer doesn’t follow it. Our guide to leaving your website builder walks through the move.

Who maintains it

Both are hosted platforms. They run the servers, security and software updates, so there are no plugins to patch. Your job is content, people and billing.

• Trying before you pay. Framer’s free plan lets you build and publish on a Framer subdomain for as long as you like. Squarespace gives a 14-day trial, then you need a paid plan to publish.
• Traffic. Framer Basic includes 50 GB of bandwidth a month and Pro 100 GB. You can go over for one month before Framer asks you to upgrade.
• Refunds. Framer refunds within 7 days of purchase (14 in the EU and Turkey), and a downgrade becomes account credit that can’t be refunded.
• Price changes. Framer’s 3.0 update retired its Scale plan and cut editor seats from $40 to $20. Squarespace’s pricing page doesn’t state a separate renewal price for its plans.

If a designer builds your Framer site, make sure the Framer account and the domain are in your name before launch. The same goes for a Squarespace site built by someone else.

Who should pick which

Pick Framer if you…

• Have a designer, or are one, and want full creative control
• Need a marketing, startup or portfolio site of up to 30 pages, or 150 on Pro
• Want the lowest price for a solo-edited site and a free plan to start
• Don’t sell products and accept that the site stays on Framer

Pick Squarespace if you…

• Want templates that keep the site looking good without a designer
• Sell products, memberships or digital content, now or later
• Have several people editing and want them included in the price
• Want products, orders and contacts to leave with you as CSV files

Neither one fits? Look at these

• Webflow if you want Framer-style design with a bigger CMS and a code export. See Webflow vs Framer.
• Wix if you want another all-in-one builder to weigh against Squarespace. See Squarespace vs Wix.
• Self-hosted WordPress if you want to own everything (10/10 on exit). See Squarespace vs WordPress.
• Building a portfolio? Our list of the best portfolio builders covers more options.

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