Why Should I Use Squarespace As My Domain Host
If you already have a website, then you may be wondering why you would ever consider switching over to Squarespace as your domain provider.
Well, here are some reasons why you might want to switch.
For one, Squarespace is your web host, then it will be much more convenient for you to make it your domain provider, too.
Additionally, it is extremely simple to set up your domain host! When you first sign up for a Squarespace account, they walk you through how everything works.
Its easy to get started, even if youve never used Squarespace before.
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How To Connect A Third
Squarespace makes it easy to buy domain names right from your websites dashboard. But, the domains bought through Squarespace are more expensive than if you purchase a domain name through a third-party provider such as Namecheap or GoDaddy.
If you want a bit more control over your domain ownership and get a better price, then a third-party domain is exactly what the doctor ordered. In this video, Ill show you how to connect a third-party domain to your Squarespace website.
Pssst! Looking for an even easier way to build your website? Check out Strikingly an easy to use website builder with elegant templates and top-notch customer support thats there to help you every step of the way. Plus, you can easily buy a domain name for your website straight from your Strikingly dashboard.
Learn how to build a client-winning website with my free DIY website training!
What Are The Best Squarespace Alternatives
There are a number of great Squarespace alternatives depending on your unique needs. For example, Wix is the overall best Squarespace alternative that is equally as easy to use, but far more customizable. Weebly is a leading alternative for low-cost online stores, whereas Shopify is a top alternative for easy-to-build, but feature-rich online stores. Learn more about the best Squarespace alternatives.
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Save 20% Through Yours Truly
Im a proud member of Squarespace Circle, a community of developers and designers building beautiful Squarespace sites for ourselves and clients. As Circle members, we get longer trial periods, optimized customer support, and access to exclusive content.
Plus, we tend to be familiar with the ins-and-outs of Squarespace.
Check Domain Name Availability
After you choose a domain name, check its availability. You can type a domain into your navigation bar, a search engine, or use a dedicated domain name search database to make sure its available to purchase.
Its best practice to have a few domain name options ready in case your first choice is taken. If your preferred domain name is unavailable, take a moment to think about what the replacement should be ideally, once you get your domain, you wont want or need to change it anytime soon. Try simple variations like including the or my at the front of your domain name, or changing the TLD. If youre set on a specific domain, you can also reach out to the owner and see if theyre willing to sell, and at what price.
If youre launching a business, consider buying multiple domains including common alternate spellings of your brand name, and international domains if you plan to scale so visitors have more ways to find you. You can move, forward, or point domains to ensure people land exactly where you want them to, no matter which domain they use.
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Expired Domains And Failed Payments
If we can’t charge the credit card on file for your site, your domain will remain active for 15 days past the charge date. We’ll make additional attempts to charge your card every five days after the initially failed charge. After the third attempt, 15 days after the payment was due, the domain will officially expire and will no longer connect to your site.
After your domain expires, you’ll enter a grace period to renew your domain.
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Monthly Vs Annual Squarespace Plans
When it comes to Squarespace pricing there are two types of payment methods you can opt into. Either a monthly plan or a once-a-year annual Squarespace plan, so you will want to choose the one that aligns with your needs the best.
If you expect to use Squarespace for longer than a year, and you dont mind paying a single large sum, then the annual plan is the best option. You can save up to 30% off your overall pricing plan by choosing to pay annually.
However, although slightly more expensive, monthly plans do give you more freedom and are great for people who like to keep track of smaller manageable payments. The added flexibility also means you can upgrade to a pricier plan if you realise you need access to a certain feature not included in your chosen option.
Try to decide whether you would prefer saving money, especially if you aim to use Squarespace for at least or year. Or, whether you would prefer the freedom of being able to cancel your subscription at any point during the year.
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Why Should I Use Squarespace As My Web Host
There are plenty of reasons why you should use Squarespace as your web hosting provider. Squarespace provides excellent features, and some of these include:
24/7 Support They offer excellent customer support, including 24/7 support via phone, chat, email, and live chat.
Unlimited Space Their plans give you unlimited space to upload files, images, videos, etc.
Free Templates They offer tons of free, beautiful templates to help you get started right away.
Easy Setup Once you sign up for a Square designs account, they walk you step by step through how everything works.
Flexible Pricing You can pay per month, per year, or project. The pricing varies depending on which plan you select.
Squarespace Pricing Vs Competitors
When it comes to price, Squarespace boasts some serious value, particularly compared to its website building competitors.
For one, Squarespace’s overall score has improved since our last bout of research from a score of 4.5 to 4.8 out of 5. This is owing to fact that the platform has significantly improved its ease of use while still keeping costs more than reasonable for users, starting at only $14 per month. The website builder has even improved its app store, adding even more customizability, and ramped up its help and support efforts to aide those having trouble getting set up.
Additionally, compared to many of its ecommerce rivals, Squarespace looks relatively affordable. Shopify, for example, costs $29 per month on its cheapest plan, before rising to $79 per month. Squarespace’s ecommerce plans, meanwhile, start at only $27 per month and are capped at $49 per month. While Squarespace doesn’t quite match the features of Shopify and Wix, we can confidently say it’s still pretty great for ecommerce.
Simply put, Squarespace is one of our top-rated website builders for businesses and ecommerce, so you can rest easy knowing you’ve made the right choice. Still, if it doesn’t suit your particularly needs, you can check out the bevy of other options in the table below, or check out our best website builders guide here.
*Use code TECHCO10 for a 10% discount off all Squarespace plans
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Remove A Failed Transfer
If the transfer failed and you need to try again, you can remove the current transfer before starting over. While this step isnt necessary, removing a failed transfer can help you keep track of other pending transfers.
You may need to refresh your browser for the failed domain to disappear.
Summary Of Squarespaces Pricing:
Heres our brief recap. Prices are shown for the annual billing option.
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Using Your Existing Email
As weve already mentioned above, you are free to use your existing custom email address with your Squarespace website. In case your email is linked to some third-party domain, connecting your domain to Squarespace wont affect the way your email is hosted. And if your email is already linked to a Squarespace domain, you are free to continue using your email service by simply changing your domains MX records.
Examples Of Squarespace Website Costs
Ok, that was a ton of information.
Are you a little confused?
Feeling your head spin?
Lets break down a couple concrete examples.
All too often, small business owners dont realize that their costs will grow after the first year.
One year of a free domain and email is great but dont forget to budget for the additional costs in Year Two and beyond!
Katie is starting a blog about her new bakery. She isnt sure if she needs all the features of the Business Plan, so she starts with a Squarespace Personal Plan on annual billing.
Her first-year costs will be $144 total:
- Squarespace Plan $144
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What Does The Personal Plan Include
The cheapest Squarespace prices can be accessed with the Personal plan, which costs $16 per month with monthly payments, or $12 per month for an annual subscription .
All annual plans come with a free domain for the first twelve months. All subscriptions also include a free SSL certificate, advanced SEO integrations, mobile-optimized website templates, 24/7 customer support, and unlimited bandwidth and storage.
Note, though, that the Personal plan doesn’t come with any eCommerce or marketing tools.
Personally, I feel like it’s a little expensive, but it certainly comes with a much greater range of advanced tools than the low-end plans from competitors like Wix.
Connect An Existing Domain
Your second option is to just connect your existing domain to Squarespace. For this option, once again, youre going to click Settings, and then Domains, and now youre going to click Use A Domain I Own. Click on that. Here is an example of a domain I own.
Moving on lets say that you own this domain, but you bought it somewhere else such as GoDaddy or one of those other sites. What youre going to do is just type it in, then click Continue, then youre going to see Connect From Provider. There is also a third option to transfer it to Squarespace so that it is all in one place and you can absolutely do that but this is just the quick and easiest way to connect.
Im going to Connect From Provider. Then you need to select your domain provider from the dropdown. As you can see, we have Namecheap and GoogleDomains I purchased this one from GoDaddy, so Im going to select that and then click Connect Domain. Then this little pop-up is going to appear and all you need to do is click Connect, and its done. It is now connected.
The process will be a bit different depending on what your domain provider is it might not be as easy as GoDaddy just made it for us, but Squarespace generally has instructions for each individual provider. Then, you will see Connection In Progress. Ive always found this to be really quick, so just keep checking in until it is connected.
You can sign-up for a free trial of Squarespace here. Use the code SIDEKICK10 for 10% off your first year!
Yes!
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How Long Does It Take For Squarespace Domain To Go Live
Transferring a domain from one Squarespace site to another can take anywhere from an hour to a few days. The amount of time it takes will depend on where, and if, the transfer is done using our Transfer Service. This service costs $15 per year up to a maximum of $50 per year.
If you transfer using the General Transfer Service, which is free, it will take 2-3 weeks.One of the keys to transferring a domain is making sure there are no restrictions on the new siteâs incoming mail server . If you have questions about this or other aspects of the transfer process, please donât hesitate to reach out to us.
How Much Does A Squarespace Domain Cost
A domain is your website address, such as studioanansi.com.
When you first create a trial website, Squarespace will automatically assign a random domain such as
The *incredibly memorable* domain arugula-kayak.squarespace.com a real winner.
This random domain is fine for the trial period, but lets be honest its not very noteworthy.
And definitely not professional.
When youre ready to launch your website, youll probably want something a little more polished. Youll need to purchase a domain through either Squarespace or a third-party site.
You can purchase a domain through Squarespace, typically starting at $20.
Or you can purchase your domain through a third-party site such as Bluehost. Oftentimes third-party sites are slightly cheaper , but youll have to connect your domain to the Squarespace website.
If you already have a domain that you purchased before starting your Squarespace trial, youll want to follow these steps:
Connecting a third-party domain with Squarespace requires a little extra work. Rather than chasing a $10 savings, I suggest purchasing your domain through Squarespace.
Save your limited time and energy for better uses like growing your business.
And remember, each annual plan includes a domain for free for the first year. After that, youll pay the full price.
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How Much Is Squarespace Domain Renewal
Squarespace Domain Renewal is an annual event that takes place on the first of every year. It is a time when people can renew their domain names with Squarespace, and it is also a time when new domain names can be registered with the company.
The cost of renewing a domain name with Squarespace depends on the type of domain name you have. For example, a .com domain name will cost you $20 per year, while a .net domain name will cost you $25 per year.
If you have multiple domain names that you need to renew, the cost can quickly add up. However, there are some ways to save money on Squarespace Domain Renewal.
PRO TIP:
One way to save money is to use a coupon code. Coupon codes are available from time to time, and they can give you a discount on your renewal fees.
Another way to save money is to sign up for a yearly plan. Yearly plans are available for both .com and .net domain names, and they can save you a significant amount of money over the course of a year.
No matter how you choose to renew your domain name, Squarespace makes it easy to do so. The process is simple and straightforward, and it only takes a few minutes to complete.
Whether youre renewing your own domain name or registering a new one, Squarespace makes it easy to get the job done.
Can I Get A Discount With A Squarespace Coupon Code
Squarespace doesnt offer any free plans but you can get 10% off on your first subscription term for any plan using the Squarespace promo code PARTNER10 at checkout. There are no hidden terms and conditions â as long as youâre a first-time Squarespace customer, you get 10% off your subscription plan using the voucher code PARTNER10. Squarespace also offers a 50% off student discount. Students with a valid academic email address get 50% off the first year of Squarespace. Visit this page to redeem this offer.
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How To Choose A Domain Name For Your Website
A domain is the unique name by which your website is known on the Internet. If you think of your website as the contents of a house, the domain is the sign in front of your house, indicating to visitors that theyve found the right place. No other website in the world has the same domain name. The domain is maintained separately from the files that make up your website, but it must be connected to those files to allow your website to be found and used. If youre getting ready to create your first website, read on to find out what domain names are, how theyre related to your website, and how you can claim that perfect domain name for your website.
Squarespace Pricing: External Costs
While the Squarespace pricing plans make budgeting easier with their inclusive packages, most users can expect to pay more than the base cost. Even if your plan has everything you need, theres still plenty of costs outside of Squarespaces purview that you need to budget for when youre setting up a website for your business.
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