# Leaving Squarespace after the 2026 price increase > Squarespace raised annual plan prices up to 26% in July 2026. What you can export, what you cannot, and what happens the moment you cancel. Source: https://beliko-3ex.pages.dev/leaving-squarespace/ Author: Nico Beliko, Beliko (Oranjestad, Aruba) Updated: 2026-08-07 --- Updated 7 August 2026 # Leaving Squarespace after the 2026 price increase. Annual plans rose up to 26% in July 2026. Before you cancel: the export leaves most of your site behind, and cancelling an annual plan takes the site offline the same day. This page is what to check, in what order, whether you do it yourself or hire anyone. The order matters more than who does it. ## What changed in July 2026 Basic went from $16 to $19 a month billed annually, Core from $23 to $29, Plus from $39 to $49. Core and Plus are up about 26%. Advanced was unchanged at $99. | Plan | Was | Now | Per year now | | Basic | $16/mo | $19/mo | $228 | | Core | $23/mo | $29/mo | $348 | | Plus | $39/mo | $49/mo | $588 | | Advanced | $99/mo | $99/mo | $1,188 | One important qualification. Days after the notices went out, Squarespace emailed many customers to say the amounts shown were higher than intended, blaming an internal error. Those were advance notices, so nobody was actually charged them. If your renewal email showed a number that looked absurd, check what you were actually billed before making a decision on it. Sources: PetaPixel, 17 July 2026; Fstoppers, 19 July 2026; the walk-back reported by Revenue Rulebreaker and DIY Photography, late July 2026. ## What the export actually gives you One .xml file, and less than you expect. Squarespace's own documentation lists what the export does not include, and for most business sites that list covers the important pages. Per Squarespace's help centre, the export excludes album pages, cover pages, index pages, info pages, calendar pages, portfolio pages and store pages, plus audio blocks, product blocks and video blocks, drafts, style settings and custom CSS. Read that list against your own site. If your homepage is an index page, if your work is in a portfolio page, or if you have spent any time in the custom CSS box, the export is not a copy of your website. It is a copy of your blog posts. The way around it Do not use the export as the source. Use the published site. Every page Squarespace serves to the public is finished HTML, and that is what your visitors already see and you already approved. Taking the published pages as the source keeps the design you signed off on, including the parts the export drops. ## Do not cancel first On an annual plan the site goes offline the moment you cancel, and every domain pointing at it shows a “Website expired” message. There is no grace period to work in. This is the single most expensive mistake available here, and it is easy to make: you decide to leave, you cancel so you are not billed again, and your business disappears from the internet while you work out what is next. - Build the replacement firstOn a preview address, not on your domain. Compare it page by page against the live site until you are satisfied. - Capture the DNS, including mailEvery record, read from live DNS. If your email runs through this domain, this step is not optional. [What to look for](https://beliko-3ex.pages.dev/email/). - Switch the domainSquarespace keeps serving until the domain points elsewhere. That is your safety net, so keep it until the new site is verified live. - Then cancelOnce the new site answers on your domain, with mail flowing and pages checked, cancel the plan. If you cancel earlier you are working against a dark site. ## Where people are actually going In the July 2026 threads, the recurring answer is static hosting: the same site as files, served free by Cloudflare or a similar host, with only the domain still costing anything. From r/squarespace, 26 July 2026: “I'm in the process of migrating 3 sites from SS to Cloudflare Pages… It will essentially be free other than the domain fee.” From the same thread: “hosting it on Cloudflare now for free… Saving about $300 a year.” And: “im on github and cloudflare now. thats an additional savings of 440 every year for me!” These are real people doing it themselves, and if you are technical you should. The reason to pay someone is the part that is not typing: the DNS capture, the mail records, the redirect map, the check that every page still exists at the same address, and someone to call when something is wrong at 8am. The honest counter-argument, also from those threads: “you no longer have a visual, drag and drop editor.” True. [That trade is discussed here](https://beliko-3ex.pages.dev/), and if it is the wrong trade for you, staying on Squarespace is a reasonable decision. ## Questions How much did Squarespace go up in 2026? Annual plans announced in July 2026: Basic $16 to $19, Core $23 to $29, Plus $39 to $49. Core and Plus rose about 26%. Squarespace later told some customers their renewal notices were higher than intended. Can I export my Squarespace site? Partly. Squarespace exports one .xml file and its own documentation lists what does not come with it: album, cover, index, info, calendar, portfolio and store pages, plus audio, product and video blocks, drafts, style settings and custom CSS. What happens when I cancel Squarespace? On an annual plan the site goes offline immediately and visitors see a Website expired message on any of your domains. Cancel after the replacement is live, never before. Is there a way to keep the design? Yes. The published pages are used as the source, so the design you approved is what ships, rather than an approximation rebuilt from a screenshot. What does it cost to have this done for me? $890 to move the site as it is, $1,900 to move and redesign it. Hosting afterwards is $0 a month. [Full pricing](https://beliko-3ex.pages.dev/pricing/), and the audit beforehand is free. ## Send the address before you cancel anything. The free audit tells you which of your pages the export would lose, what your renewal actually costs, and whether your email is at risk — in writing, before you touch the cancel button. [WhatsApp +1 617 800 3406](https://wa.me/16178003406?text=Hi%20Nico%20%E2%80%94%20I%27m%20leaving%20Squarespace.%20My%20site%20is%20) [How the move works](https://beliko-3ex.pages.dev/move/)