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FramervsSquarespace

TL;DR

Framer sells a design tool that publishes: Free at $0 with 500 AI credits and 1GB of bandwidth, Basic at $10/mo on yearly billing with 2 CMS collections and 50GB, Pro at $30/mo with 10 collections, 100GB, staging and branching, and editors billed at $20 each on top. Squarespace sells a finished business site: Basic at $25/mo, $19 with the current 20% offer, two contributors and a 2% store transaction fee, then Core at $39 ($29), Plus at $65 ($49) and Advanced at $139 ($99), where store fees drop to zero and card rates fall from 2.9% to 2.5%. Choose Framer when the design is the differentiator and you are comfortable with a canvas; choose Squarespace when the site has to take payments, run inventory and be handed to a non-designer.

Squarespace prices by business stage and shows both list and promotional numbers. Basic is $25 per month, displayed at $19 with the current 20% offer, and covers a personal or business site with two contributors, a free custom domain, built-in SEO and card rates from 2.9% plus $0.30 — at the cost of a 2% online store transaction fee and ten one-time AI credits. Core is $39 ($29), where the store fee disappears, contributors become unlimited, a year of professional Google Workspace email is included and 20 AI credits arrive monthly. Plus is $65 ($49) with card rates from 2.7% and 40 credits a month; Advanced is $139 ($99) with card rates from 2.5%, 120 credits a month and elevated support. A 14-day trial precedes any of them.

The clearest way to separate them is to ask what the site is for. Framer optimises for a unique, motion-heavy layout maintained by the person who designed it: the canvas is the product, CMS collections hold the content, and per-editor charges mean the team grows with the bill. Squarespace optimises for commerce operations: catalog, taxes, shipping, discounts and card rates are first-class, and the trade is that your site will look like a Squarespace site unless you spend real effort making it not so.

Pros & cons

👍 Framer Pros

  • Basic at $10/mo on yearly billing includes a free custom domain, 2 CMS collections and 50GB of bandwidth
  • Pro at $30/mo adds 10 CMS collections, 100GB, staging, branching with previews and site redirects
  • Free plan publishes on a Framer domain with 500 AI credits to prototype with
  • Design canvas, layout and motion are editable directly rather than constrained by templates

👎 Framer Cons

  • Editors are billed separately: $20 per additional editor and $10 per content editor each month
  • Bandwidth overage bills at $40 per 100GB up to a 2TB cap, so traffic spikes have a price
  • Commerce is not the centre of the product — stores need third-party tooling or Squarespace-class features elsewhere

👍 Squarespace Pros

  • Basic is $25/mo, shown at $19 with the current 20% offer, including a free custom domain
  • Store transaction fees drop to zero from Core upward, and card rates fall to 2.5% on Advanced
  • Catalogue, taxes, shipping, discounts and inventory are built into the plan rather than added
  • Contributors are unlimited from Core, and a year of professional Google Workspace email is included

👎 Squarespace Cons

  • Basic charges a 2% online store transaction fee on top of card rates from 2.9% plus $0.30
  • Only two contributors on Basic, so a team site needs the Core tier at $39 ($29)
  • Template-led layouts mean less freedom of motion and composition than a design canvas offers

Side by side

FeatureFramerSquarespace
Free optionFree plan: 500 AI credits, Framer domain, 1GB bandwidth14-day trial, no permanent free plan
Entry paid planBasic $10/mo on yearly billingBasic $25/mo, $19 with the current 20% offer
Second tierPro $30/mo with staging, branching and 10 CMS collectionsCore $39/mo, $29 with the offer, no store transaction fee
Top tierEnterprise, custom quote, unlimited editors and SSOAdvanced $139/mo, $99 with the offer, card rates from 2.5%
Content modelCMS collections: 2 on Basic, 10 on Pro, 1,000 / 2,500 itemsPages and products within the template structure
PeopleExtra editors $20/mo each, content editors $10/mo each2 contributors on Basic, unlimited from Core
Selling feesStore payments depend on the payment provider you connect2% store fee on Basic; 0% from Core; cards from 2.9% to 2.5%
Included extras500 AI credits on Free; monthly credits on paid tiersFree custom domain, Google Workspace email for a year from Core

Verdict

Pick Framer if

Choose Framer if the design is the product

For portfolios, product launches and brand sites where layout and motion carry the message, Framer's canvas is the reason to pay. $10/mo on yearly billing gets a real domain and 50GB of bandwidth, $30 gets staging and branching, and the cost you should watch is editors at $20 each rather than the plan itself.

Pick Squarespace if

Choose Squarespace if the site has to sell

When the project is a store, a booking business or a catalogue that a marketer will maintain without a designer on call, Squarespace's commerce tooling wins outright. Start on Basic at $19 with the current offer and accept the 2% store fee, or move to Core at $29 to remove it — the arithmetic is published, so model it against your monthly volume before choosing.

What the vendors say, and what we did not measure

No independent reviews, ratings or user quotes were collected for this page, so none appear above. Every figure and claim comes from the vendors' own pricing and product pages as retrieved for this article.

Who Should Use Which?

Use Framer if you...

  • The site's value is a bespoke layout that templates cannot express
  • A designer on the team will maintain the pages directly
  • Content is structured around CMS collections rather than a product catalogue

Use Squarespace if you...

  • The site takes payments and needs taxes, shipping and discounts built in
  • Several non-technical people will edit the site over its lifetime
  • Predictable per-plan pricing matters more than per-editor flexibility

FAQ

Which is cheaper, Framer or Squarespace?

Framer's entry plan is $10/mo on yearly billing against Squarespace Basic at $25, shown at $19 with the current 20% offer. The gap narrows once you add Framer's editors at $20 each, since Squarespace includes contributors from Core upward.

Can I sell products on Framer?

Framer is built around design and content rather than commerce operations. Squarespace ships catalogue, taxes, shipping and discount tooling in the plan itself, which is why stores usually land there.

What transaction fees does Squarespace charge?

Basic adds a 2% online store transaction fee and card rates from 2.9% plus $0.30. From Core upward the store fee is removed, and card rates step down to 2.7% on Plus and 2.5% on Advanced.

Do Framer's AI credits reset?

The Free plan lists 500 credits to try, while the paid tiers carry a monthly credit allowance in the plan table. Credits are consumed by agents and other AI features, and additional credits can be purchased at any time.

What happens if I outgrow the bandwidth limit?

On Framer, bandwidth beyond the plan allowance bills at $40 per 100GB up to a maximum of 2TB, with overage alerts configured on the site. Squarespace does not meter bandwidth on its plans at all.

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Heraldware analysis engine

reviewed · data sourced from official product pages · sources: framer.com, squarespace.com