An honest comparison, including where they win
Spanli vs Squarespace: fourteen days to decide, or as long as you like
Squarespace has no free plan — you get a 14-day trial, then you pay or you lose it. Spanli lets you build and preview your whole site with no clock running, and asks for money at the moment you want it live. Both are real trade-offs. Here’s the whole picture, including the parts where they’re better.
Free to build and preview. Go live from $19/month.
No card required to build.
You type “A freelance product designer in Dublin working with small teams, two projects at a time” - and Spanli assembles the site in front of you: opening, how i work, recent work, enquiries. The changes receipt reads: Added: 4 sections - opening, how i work, recent work, enquiries.
The table
Side by side, checked 14 August 2026
| Spanli | Squarespace | |
|---|---|---|
| Entry price | $19/month (or $190/year) | $19/month billed annually, $25 month-to-month (Basic); Core $29 annual / $39 monthly |
| Free plan | Build and preview free, no time limit — can't publish | None — 14-day trial, then pay |
| How you build it | Describe it in chat; it builds | Answer five questions, then pick and edit a template |
| How you change it later | Type a sentence. Forever. | Their visual editor — the AI is mostly an onboarding step |
| Vocabulary it expects | Plain English | Design words: brand personality, font palettes |
| Published site | Static files on a CDN | Their platform runtime |
| Ads or badges on your site | None | None on paid plans |
| Shops, bookings, memberships | No | Yes — a mature commerce and scheduling platform |
| Design reputation | New. Judge ours by building one. | Excellent, and earned over 15 years |
Squarespace prices are their published rates on squarespace.com/pricing as checked on 14 August 2026, and may have changed — check before deciding. Ours are in full at /pricing.
Free to build and preview. No card required.
Where Squarespace is genuinely better
Three reasons to choose them instead
Their design taste is the best in the category
Fifteen years of curated templates means their worst-looking output still looks intentional. If you already know exactly how you want your site to look and you enjoy arranging it yourself, that's a real reason to pick them.
They sell things, take bookings, and run memberships
Spanli doesn't do any of that. If you need a shop, stop reading this page and go to theirs.
They're a known quantity
Fifteen years, millions of sites, a decade of reviews you can read. We're pre-launch. That should count for something in your decision, and we'd rather say it than have you find out.
Where we're different
Three reasons to try this instead
No clock
Build the whole thing, look at it, sleep on it, come back in three weeks. Nothing expires. The 14-day trial is the single most common reason people abandon a builder before they've had a chance to like it.
Day two, and day two hundred
Their AI helps you get started; then you're in their editor. Ours is how you make every change from now on. “Move the testimonials above the pricing” is a sentence, not a drag.
It doesn't ask you to speak design
Squarespace's onboarding asks for your “brand personality” and your font palette. If you have answers to those, great. If your honest answer is “I don't know, something that looks professional”, that question is where the last attempt died.
Make it yours
“New. Judge ours by building one.” — here's the range.
- Quietly exceptionalElegant & refined
- The story, up frontBold & editorial
- Take a breathSoft & calm
- Built for the nightSleek & dark
- An evening to rememberGlamorous & vintage
- The season, consideredFashion magazine
Who should pick which
The straight version
Pick Squarespace if you're selling products, taking bookings, or you enjoy laying out pages yourself and want the widest set of good-looking starting points.
Pick Spanli if the last three attempts died at a decision you weren't equipped to make, if the site needs to change often and you don't want to be the one clicking, or if you want to see the finished thing before you spend anything.