TL;DR: Squarespace vs WordPress comes down to a trade-off: Squarespace is simple but closed, WordPress takes more setup but you actually own it. After Squarespace’s 2026 price rises of up to 26%, that difference matters more than it used to.
The part people miss is lock-in. A Squarespace site cannot be moved off Squarespace. A WordPress site can be picked up and hosted almost anywhere, so you are never trapped by one company’s pricing decisions.
This guide compares the two honestly for a UK small business, covers the recent price changes, and explains why ownership and portability are worth more than they first appear.
- Squarespace is an all-in-one closed platform. WordPress is open-source software you own and can host anywhere.
- In July 2026 Squarespace raised prices on most plans by 19% to 26%, its Core plan jumping from 23 to 29 US dollars a month.
- Squarespace was taken private by the equity firm Permira in a 7.2 billion dollar deal that completed in late 2024.
- You cannot export a Squarespace site and run it elsewhere. A WordPress site moves between hosts freely.
- For most UK small businesses that rely on their site for leads, WordPress ownership and control win over convenience.
Squarespace vs WordPress: what is the real difference?
The real difference between Squarespace and WordPress is ownership. Squarespace is a closed, all-in-one platform where the software, hosting, and your site all live together under one company’s control. WordPress is open-source software: you install it on hosting you choose, and the site is yours to move, change, or take elsewhere whenever you like. Squarespace’s appeal is obvious and real. It is genuinely easy to use, everything is handled in one place, and you can have a decent-looking site live quickly with no technical knowledge. For a hobby site or a simple presence, that convenience is worth a lot. WordPress asks more of you up front. It needs setting up, it needs hosting, and it rewards either some learning or a professional to build it properly. In return you get near-total control over design, features, and search optimisation, and crucially, you own the result. This is the same trade-off we walk through in our guide to DIY website builders versus professional web design.Why did Squarespace prices go up in 2026?
Squarespace put its prices up in July 2026 because, like any business, it needs to grow revenue, and since going private it has been under particular pressure to do so. The increases were steep: across most plans, prices rose by between 19% and 26%. The popular Core plan, a common choice for small businesses, went from $23 to £29 a month on annual billing, a 26% jump.
The backdrop matters here. In a deal that completed in late 2024, Squarespace was taken private by Permira, a global private equity firm, in a transaction worth around $7.2 billion. It is no longer a publicly listed company. Trade press covering the price rises, including Fstoppers, described the increases as following a familiar pattern of extracting more value from an established customer base after a private equity buyout.
The way the changes landed added to the frustration. According to reporting from outlets including TechRadar and PetaPixel, the increases were communicated by email rather than a public announcement, and many were tied to new AI features that a lot of users say they did not ask for and do not use.
Can you leave Squarespace and take your site with you?
You cannot truly leave Squarespace and take your site with you, and this is the single most important thing to understand before you commit to it. Squarespace is proprietary. Your site is built with Squarespace’s own system, runs only on Squarespace’s hosting, and cannot be exported and rehosted somewhere else as a working site. You can extract some content, but not the site itself. That is what people mean by lock-in. If prices rise, if the terms change, or if you simply outgrow the platform, your options are limited to staying and paying or rebuilding from scratch elsewhere. The more successful your site becomes, the more painful that trap gets. WordPress is the opposite by design. Because it is open-source and you own the installation, a WordPress site can be moved between hosting providers with relative ease. If one host raises prices or lets you down, you move to another and take your entire site with you. That portability is not a technicality, it is real, ongoing freedom, and it is one of the core reasons we build on WordPress. We wrote about our commitment to it in our piece on the WordPress industry drama, where our position was simple: we love WordPress precisely because it belongs to the people who use it.Squarespace vs WordPress compared
Every business is different, so treat this as a guide to the shape of the decision rather than a verdict for every case. The comparison table sits below this section. In short: if you want the simplest possible route to a basic site and never expect to move, Squarespace can suit. If your website matters to your income and you want to own and control it, WordPress is the stronger long-term home.| Factor | Squarespace | WordPress |
|---|---|---|
| Ownership | Closed platform | You own it |
| Can you move host? | No, the site cannot be exported and rehosted | Yes, move between hosts freely |
| Ease of setup | Very easy | Needs setup or a pro |
| Design and SEO control | Limited to the platform's templates and tools | Near-total control over design and on-page SEO |
| Pricing control | Set by one company, rose 19 to 26% in 2026 | You choose hosting, switch any time to cut costs |
| Best suited to | Simple sites where you never expect to move | Businesses that rely on their site for leads |
For a fuller breakdown of what each realistically costs a UK business, our guide to website design costs in the UK lays out the real figures, including the point that around 95% of UK businesses are micro businesses for whom a well-built five-page WordPress site is plenty.
The final question is the practical one: if you are already on Squarespace, is it worth the effort of moving.
Should you move from Squarespace to WordPress?
Whether you should move from Squarespace to WordPress depends on how much your site matters to your business and how the recent changes sit with you.
If Squarespace is working, your site is simple, and the new pricing does not bother you, there is no urgent need to move. Change for its own sake is not worth it.
The case for moving gets stronger the more your website earns you. If you rely on it for leads and sales, if you want full control over SEO and design, if you are uneasy about being locked into one company’s pricing, or if you have simply hit the ceiling of what the platform allows, then a move to WordPress is a sound long-term investment.
Yes, it means a rebuild, but you do it once and then own the result for good.
The honest bottom line is that Squarespace versus WordPress is really a choice between convenience now and control later. For most UK small businesses that depend on their website, control wins.
Sources
- Squarespace / Permira, “Squarespace and Permira Amend Merger Agreement” (7.2 billion US dollar take-private deal, 46.50 US dollars per share, completed late 2024), PR Newswire, 2024,
- PetaPixel, “Squarespace Is Increasing Prices By Up to 26%” (Core plan 23 to 29 US dollars per month, increases of 19% to 26%, effective July 2026), 2026,
- TechRadar, “Squarespace users aren’t happy with recent price hikes” (context on 2025 to 2026 increases and comparison with Wix and Shopify), 2026
- Fstoppers, “What Squarespace’s Subscription Price Increase Means” (private equity value-extraction framing, Design Intelligence AI features), 2026
- QED Web Design, “Website Design Cost UK” (95% of UK businesses are micro businesses, House of Commons Library 2025), 2026
If you are weighing up a move and want a straight, no-pressure conversation about whether it makes sense for you, get in touch with QED.
