Squarespace
Ranked 3 of 14 AI app builders by recommenders
Hosted website builder with visual editor and templates, so people avoid coding and server upkeep. Critics say it is expensive for simple sites and hard to move away from.
Hosted website builder with visual editor and templates, so people avoid coding and server upkeep. Critics say it is expensive for simple sites and hard to move away from.
46 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 23
- criticize it
- 23
- approval share
- 50%
Recommended in 11 of 13 months
- November 2025: not recommended
- December 2025: recommended
- January 2026: recommended
- February 2026: recommended
- March 2026: recommended
- April 2026: recommended
- May 2026: recommended
- June 2026: recommended
- July 2026: recommended
- August 2026: recommended
- September 2026: recommended
- October 2026: recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it doesn’t carry the badge
- 23 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, met.
- 1 recommender for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, not met.
- Recommended in 11 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, met.
The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works
What people say about it
The reasons people give, with the number of comments that give each one. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
Visual editor, no coding needed
“If you're not interested in hand-maintaining the code of the website(s), and you just want a nice GUI for publishing pages/posts/etc., then I'd say use some hosted platform like Squarespace.”
Comment from 28 Jun 2026 in “Ask HN: Is WordPress the best way to create new websites for beginner” “if you want all the bells and whistles on a platter: Squarespace, Wix, etc.”
Comment from 28 Jun 2026 in “Ask HN: Is WordPress the best way to create new websites for beginner” “It's expensive but there are templates and it had a WYSIWYG editor.”
Comment from 18 Mar 2026 in “Have a Fucking Website” - Comment from 17 May 2026 in “AI is a technology not a product”
Hosted, no maintenance required
“If you're not interested in hand-maintaining the code of the website(s), and you just want a nice GUI for publishing pages/posts/etc., then I'd say use some hosted platform like Squarespace.”
Comment from 28 Jun 2026 in “Ask HN: Is WordPress the best way to create new websites for beginner” “There's no maintenance if you go with a hosted solution with custom domains like Squarespace, Wordpress.com and the like.”
Comment from 14 Jan 2026 in “The Case for Blogging in the Ruins” “Or just host it on squarespace (or something similar).”
Comment from 18 Mar 2026 in “Have a Fucking Website” Better than DIY for non-techies
“you'd be likely better off with Squarespace or Shopify until your business outgrows those platforms”
Comment from 14 Dec 2025 in ““You should never build a CMS”” “Resist the urge to make your own anything. Just use Squarespace or Wix!”
Comment from 23 Jan 2026 in “How do I make $10k (What are you guys doing?)” “Any of these would be better than vibe coding for a non-tech person.”
Comment from 18 Feb 2026 in “Claude Sonnet 4.6 System Card” Polished templates and clean UI
“It's expensive but there are templates and it had a WYSIWYG editor.”
Comment from 18 Mar 2026 in “Have a Fucking Website” “Squarespace is the most professional and ad-free UI”
Comment from 14 Jul 2026 in “Telegram's t.me domain has been suspended”
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
Expensive for simple websites
“It's a huge price if you are say a part time artist just wanting somewhere to store a price list, gallery and contact form.”
Comment from 2 Dec 2025 in “Free static site generator for small restaurants and cafes” “The mainstream options for a website like squarespace are absurdly expensive.”
Comment from 18 Mar 2026 in “Have a Fucking Website” “Instead they charge ridiculous fees that simply go to pay for more ads.”
Comment from 18 Mar 2026 in “Have a Fucking Website” - Comment from 3 Dec 2025 in “Free static site generator for small restaurants and cafes”
- Comment from 22 Apr 2026 in “Show HN: A free tool for non-technical folks to easily publish a website”
- Comment from 18 Mar 2026 in “Have a Fucking Website”
Domain and email handling problems
“they cover the entire interface with their paid hosting stuff which makes them a poor registrar”
Comment from 13 Jul 2026 in “Telegram's t.me domain has been suspended” “squarespace refuses to enable dkim signing for transactional emails that they send for us”
Comment from 28 Jul 2026 in “DMARC Has Been Public Since 2012. 68.4% of Domains Still Don't Enforce It” “The google domain had a catch all email forwarding config that squarespace botched.”
Comment from 5 Feb 2026 in “Ask HN: Gmail Spam Filtering Suddenly Marking Everything as Spam?” Private equity owned, heavy advertising
“They are owned by private equity, advertise on countless YouTube channels”
Comment from 13 Jul 2026 in “Telegram's t.me domain has been suspended” “Instead they charge ridiculous fees that simply go to pay for more ads.”
Comment from 18 Mar 2026 in “Have a Fucking Website”
Other AI app builders people recommend
The four most recommended other AI app builders, with the same counts for each, so you can compare like for like. The tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs.
| Product | Recommend | Criticize | Approval | Months | Owned | Badge |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lovable | 73 | 77 | 49% | 11 | — | — |
| Replit | 51 | 39 | 57% | 11 | 9 mo3 owners | — |
| SquarespaceThis page | 23 | 23 | 50% | 11 | — | — |
| Bolt.new | 20 | 14 | 59% | 9 | — | — |
| v0 by Vercel | 19 | 11 | 63% | 9 | — | — |
What people said
40 of the 50 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“I don't think stuff like Wix and SquareSpace are valid competitors as I don't want to pay a monthly fee.”
“squarespace and similar services exist. Sure, there's a fee associated, but compared to even the costs of running a small coffee bar it's negligible.”
“I just got done getting all the way off Squarespace after Google Domains pushed me there”
“They're probably better off on Wix or Squarespace.”
“obviously just use a squarespace or wix template feel so cheap”
“Instead of paying Squarespace/Wix/WordPress anything per month”
“squarespace refuses to enable dkim signing for transactional emails that they send for us”
“Squarespace is the most professional and ad-free UI”
“they cover the entire interface with their paid hosting stuff which makes them a poor registrar”
“They are owned by private equity, advertise on countless YouTube channels”
“GCP cloud domains are moved to them.”
“If you're not interested in hand-maintaining the code of the website(s), and you just want a nice GUI for publishing pages/posts/etc., then I'd say use some hosted platform like Squarespace.”
“if you want all the bells and whistles on a platter: Squarespace, Wix, etc.”
“whip up a landing page on SquareSpace and send DMs to people on Twitter”
“every existing tool (Wix, Squarespace, even Linktree) assumes you want to "design" something”
“They have graphical editors that you can stay in if you wish.”
“AFAIK you can't make a website on SquareSpace and download it to your computer, edit it locally and move it to a different host”
“a sort of trade off between time and asspain to stay on square space”
“this works, the cost is correct, and - I can't stress this enough - it already freaking works”
“Squarespace etc can charge so much for simple static sites”
“I looked at the price of squarespace for a year”
“Squarespace, etc. are stupid expensive for most websites.”
“That's why Squarespace and Wix exist. You have 30 minutes.”
“Instead they charge ridiculous fees that simply go to pay for more ads.”
“such offerings aren't stable - they change, fail, or enshittify over time”
“Or just host it on squarespace (or something similar).”
“The mainstream options for a website like squarespace are absurdly expensive.”
“It's expensive but there are templates and it had a WYSIWYG editor.”
“debug why their Squarespace contact form stopped working”
“Any of these would be better than vibe coding for a non-tech person.”
“The google domain had a catch all email forwarding config that squarespace botched.”
“Either google or Squarespace leaked the info.”
“the number of clients coming from Wix or Squarespace is surprising—especially considering those platforms are marketed as “easy.””
“Resist the urge to make your own anything. Just use Squarespace or Wix!”
“you're not using Substack or Squarespace or any of the other million blog hosting options you're crazy IMO”
“There's no maintenance if you go with a hosted solution with custom domains like Squarespace, Wordpress.com and the like.”
“you'd be likely better off with Squarespace or Shopify until your business outgrows those platforms”
“they all have a learning curve”
“NO available funds when the Squarespace renewal hits. It's a lot.”
“It's a huge price if you are say a part time artist just wanting somewhere to store a price list, gallery and contact form.”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.