Tradewebsite.uk vs Squarespace for tradespeople: which is the better buy?

What Squarespace charges in the UK

I checked the official Squarespace pricing page from the UK in September 2026. It showed four plans in pounds:

• Basic: £12 a month paid annually, or £16 a month paid monthly.
• Core: £17 a month paid annually, or £24 paid monthly.
• Plus: £29 a month paid annually, or £36 paid monthly.
• Advanced: £79 a month paid annually, or £89 paid monthly.

Core, Plus and Advanced each carried a 50% off label when I looked, so treat those three as promotional prices that may not last. Basic had no label. I could not verify from that page whether VAT is added at checkout, so check before you pay.

Squarespace says there is no free plan. Every site starts with a 14 day free trial and no credit card is required. If you buy an annual plan you get a free custom domain for one year. After that first year the domain is a separate yearly cost. You can also connect a domain you already own.

For a trade site, Basic is the plan to look at. It includes the templates and the editor, a free custom domain for the first year on annual billing, and up to 2 contributors. It can take payments too, with a 2% online store transaction fee on Basic that drops to 0% on Core and above.

How tradewebsite.uk works

Here is my whole offer, so you can hold it against theirs. You build a one page site yourself at edit.tradewebsite.uk/start. It takes about 2 minutes and you do not enter a card. The site is free for 14 days. If you want to keep it, you pay £299 once. There is no monthly fee and hosting is included. If you do not pay, the site is switched off and nothing is charged. The one thing not included is the domain name itself, which costs roughly £8 to £15 a year from any registrar. Connecting it is free.

You will notice we both offer 14 free days with no card. The difference is what happens next. Squarespace becomes a subscription. Mine becomes a single payment.

Side by side

Squarespace facts from squarespace.com/pricing, checked September 2026. Prices change, so check their page before you buy.

The 3 year cost, with the working

I assume the listed price holds for all three years, and I leave VAT out because I could not confirm how Squarespace applies it.

• Squarespace Basic, paid annually: £12 x 12 = £144 a year. £144 x 3 years = £432. Add the domain for years two and three.
• Squarespace Basic, paid monthly: £16 x 36 months = £576. The free domain is for annual plans, so add a domain for all three years.
• Squarespace Core, paid annually: £17 x 36 months = £612 at the promotional price shown, plus the domain for years two and three.
• Tradewebsite.uk: £299 once, plus your domain at about £8 to £15 a year. Over three years that is £299 + £24 to £45 = £323 to £344.

The break even is simple. £299 divided by £12 is just under 25. For the first two years Squarespace Basic has cost you less (£288). From month 25 it has cost you more, and it carries on costing £144 a year for as long as the site is up. At five years that is £12 x 60 = £720 against £299.

Who should pick Squarespace

• How the site looks is a big part of how you win work. Think kitchen designers, garden designers, bespoke joiners and interior fit out firms, where a big gallery of finished projects sells the job. Squarespace gives you designer templates and far more control over design than I do.
• You want several pages: a portfolio, a page per service, a blog.
• You want to sell products or take payments on the site.
• You want to send invoices from the same system. Squarespace lists free invoicing on every plan.
• You have the time and the eye to build it yourself and you will enjoy doing it.
• You prefer £144 this year to £299 this year.

Who should pick tradewebsite.uk

• Your customers need a fast answer to three questions: what do you do, do you cover my area, and how do I ring you. A single page does that well. See what to put on a one page trade website.
• You do not want a subscription. You want to pay once and forget it.
• You do not want to choose templates, fonts or colours. You want it done in about 2 minutes.
• You expect to still be trading in three years, which is when the one off price has clearly won.
• You want one named person to ring if something is wrong. That is me, Nasser.

If photos are your strongest selling point, read using photos to win trade work whichever builder you choose. My own price breakdown is in how much a trade website costs, and every builder is in one table in the cheapest website builder for tradespeople.

Frequently asked questions

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