Website Builds vs Squarespace for a trade business
Squarespace makes polished templates and is a solid choice if you enjoy building things yourself. For a tradesperson, the question is less about the software and more about whether you want to be the person writing, building and maintaining the site.
What Squarespace gives you
Templates, a decent editor and hosting, on a monthly or annual plan. Check Squarespace's current plans, because the price and what each tier includes change.
What it does not give you is the content. Every page, every photo, every description of your services and the areas you cover is still yours to write and keep up to date.
What having it built gives you
A site written around how your customers actually search: your trade, your services, your towns, your reviews and a fast way to ask for a quote. Linked to your Google Business Profile and set up so Google can read it. Then changes made for you when you send a message.
£249.99 to build, then £49.99 a month for a sole trader, with no minimum term, and the domain registered in your name.
Which is better value?
If you have the time and like doing it, Squarespace is good value. If evenings spent learning an editor would be better spent pricing jobs or with your family, paying someone usually is.
The full three-year cost comparison, including your time, is in the guide on doing it yourself versus paying someone.
Common questions
- Can you move my Squarespace site?
- Squarespace sites cannot be lifted out as working sites. I rebuild yours, carrying over your words and photos, and point your domain at the new one.
- Will my site look as good as a Squarespace template?
- Have a look at the showcase and judge for yourself: every site there is live on its own domain.
If you would rather somebody just did it
I build websites for self-employed tradesmen and small businesses across the UK: £249.99 to build, then £49.99 a month to host, maintain and update it. The sites I have built show on page one of Google for 103 searches between them, in Search Console.