Magento vs Squarespace: Features, Cost and Migration
Squarespace is built around content-first sites and sells commerce on top of its plans, starting every site with a 14-day trial. Magento is a commerce platform you install and maintain. This page compares APIs by plan, exports, upkeep and scale from vendor pages. US pricing, checked October 2026.
✦ FEATURES
Feature comparison.
| FEATURE | MAGENTO | SQUARESPACE |
|---|---|---|
| Starting point | The README names OSL 3.0 and says files may instead be licensed under the terms of an ordering document with Adobe (or Magento). | Squarespace says every site starts with a 14-day free trial, and that all paid plans let you sell products or services while specific ecommerce features vary by plan. |
| Plans and price | The installation guide we read gives no Adobe Commerce price. | Squarespace lists Basic, Core, Plus and Advanced plans with an annual or monthly toggle and says paying annually saves up to 36%. The page does not label which figure is which, so we quote no plan prices. |
| Transaction fees (US pricing, checked October 2026) | Adobe's documentation index lists no payment processing rates. | The online store fee is 2% on Basic and 0% on Core, Plus and Advanced. Card rates are 2.9% + $0.30 on Basic and Core, 2.7% + $0.30 on Plus and 2.5% + $0.30 on Advanced. |
| Commerce APIs by plan | Adobe's web API page covers REST and GraphQL and names no plan tiers or rate limits. | Squarespace's pricing page lists Commerce APIs on Core, Plus and Advanced and shows them as not included on Basic. |
| What the APIs cover | The Web API guides are for connecting third-party software and building headless applications. | Orders reads history and imports orders, Inventory reads and adjusts stock for variants, Products manages physical, service, gift card and download products, and Transactions covers orders and donations. Webhook subscriptions report events such as a new order. |
| Extensions | Adobe's developer docs link to Marketplace seller guides and to an App Builder guide on extending Commerce. | Squarespace Extensions come in five groups: finance, inventory and products, sales and marketing, shipping and fulfillment, and Business Tools. Connecting them costs nothing through Squarespace, and they work on all plans. |
| Content and storefront | Adobe's developer docs list Page Builder CMS, PWA Studio and a PHP reference storefront under storefront development. | Squarespace's store page says its templates come from world-class designers, and that Member Areas lets you sell memberships for private content or videos. |
| Ease of use | Adobe's installation guide recommends Composer and says you should have intermediate technical knowledge and server access. | Squarespace's store page describes order management tools and automatic sales tax calculation, and calls its templates easy to customize. |
| Maintenance | Adobe's release table gives regular support for version 2.4.9 until May 31, 2029 and advises installing the latest security patch for each release line. | Squarespace describes its cloud hosting as fully-managed. |
| Scalability | Adobe's cloud overview calls the environment scalable, and its update log records vertical autoscaling for Adobe Commerce on cloud infrastructure. | Squarespace says it offers unlimited hosting, and that its cloud hosting provides 99.9% uptime and supports billions of monthly views. |
| Multi-store and currency | One installation holds websites, stores and store views, and currencies are managed per store view. | The Squarespace store page does not describe multiple stores or multi-currency selling. It shows only a currency selector in the footer. |
| SEO | Adobe's SEO overview groups metadata, site maps, URL rewrites and robots.txt handling. | The store page says every Squarespace online store comes with SEO tools for product titles and descriptions. |
| Security | Adobe's launch checklist leads with two-factor authentication on the Admin and SSH, reCAPTCHA, and keeping the release and patches current. | Squarespace says correctly added domains get free SSL certificates and payment integrations are PCI-DSS compliant. Its security operations center monitors for threats 24/7. |
| Support | Adobe's versions page points to its lifecycle policy page for extended support dates. | Squarespace says its customer care team is ready to help 24/7. |
✦ COST OF OWNERSHIP
Cost of ownership.
| COST ITEM | MAGENTO | SQUARESPACE |
|---|---|---|
| Plans or license | The README names OSL 3.0 for source files. We found no Adobe Commerce price on the installation guide. | Four commerce plans with an annual or monthly toggle. We quote no plan prices because the page does not label them. |
| Transaction fees (US pricing, checked October 2026) | No processing rates appear in Adobe's documentation index. | Online store fee of 2% on Basic and 0% on the other plans. Card rates run from 2.9% + $0.30 down to 2.5% + $0.30. |
| Hosting | Adobe Commerce on cloud is described as AWS hosting. The installation guide expects server access for self-installed Magento, so that hosting bill is yours. | The security page describes fully-managed cloud hosting, and the pricing page lists no separate hosting price. |
| Extensions | Cost driver: the Marketplace extensions or App Builder work you add. | No additional cost through Squarespace to connect extensions. Some third-party services need their own subscriptions. |
| Development | Orange Collar Media's own Magento rates, not Adobe's: a 20-hour block for $3,800 ($190/hour), or a 12-month contract at 20 hours a month and $160/hour. | Your input: your agency or in-house rate. |
✦ MIGRATION
Migration effort.
Moving from Squarespace to Magento starts with data. Squarespace's help articles describe CSV exports of orders, with status and date filters, and of customers from the Lists & Segments panel. The Export Commerce orders article also covers exporting all products or a specific product, for active, visible products only. Map what you get into Magento's data model. Content sits outside the catalog, so blog posts, member content and service pages need their own plan. Any Squarespace Extensions in use need a Magento extension or custom work. Carry old URLs across with 301 redirects, rebuild the design as a Magento theme and re-test payments, tax and shipping.
✦ CHOOSING
Which fits your store.
Choose Magento if
- You want several websites, stores and store views in one installation.
- You want REST and GraphQL APIs that Adobe's web API page ties to no plan tier.
- You want release lines with published support dates.
- You want Page Builder CMS or a headless storefront.
Choose Squarespace if
- You want a 14-day trial before picking a plan.
- Content comes first and the store sits inside the site, with memberships for private content or videos.
- You want Commerce APIs from the Core plan up.
- You want fully managed hosting and customer care around the clock.
✦ QUESTIONS MERCHANTS ASK
Common questions.
Which Squarespace plans include Commerce APIs?+–
What can the Squarespace Commerce APIs do?+–
Does Squarespace charge transaction fees?+–
Can I export my data from Squarespace?+–
How much upkeep does each platform need?+–
Which one scales further?+–
✦ KEEP COMPARING
Related comparisons.
AEM vs Magento: Content Platform vs Commerce Platform (2026)
Adobe Experience Manager (AEM) is Adobe's content and experience product, with authoring, Content Fragments and Multi Site Manager. Magento and Adobe Commerce are the store side, and Adobe documents how the two connect. This page compares what each does and how they integrate.
Adobe Commerce vs Shopify Plus for B2B and Enterprise
Adobe Commerce is the licensed Magento edition, sold under an ordering document with Adobe. Shopify Plus starts at $2,300 a month on a 3-year term (US pricing, checked October 2026). This page compares B2B tools, content scheduling, inventory and support as each vendor documents them.
Magento Open Source vs Adobe Commerce: Key Differences
Adobe documents some features for Adobe Commerce only, such as Content Staging, and describes its B2B solution for Adobe Commerce. This page lines up licensing, B2B, hosting, security, SEO and support for both editions using Adobe and GitHub documentation.
Magento vs BigCommerce: Features, Cost and Migration
BigCommerce publishes plan prices that step up with trailing 12-month GMV (USD, checked October 2026). Magento's README names OSL 3.0 and says files may instead be licensed under the terms of an ordering document with Adobe (or Magento).
Magento vs Salesforce Commerce Cloud: Key Differences
Salesforce sells Commerce Cloud as licensed editions, and its pricing page shows "Contact for Pricing" for each one. The Magento README names OSL 3.0 and says files may instead be licensed under the terms of an ordering document with Adobe (or Magento). Both platforms can run headless.
Magento vs Shopify vs BigCommerce: Features and Cost
Shopify and BigCommerce sell hosted plans with published prices. Magento is self-managed, or hosted by Adobe with Adobe Commerce. The sharpest difference between the two hosted platforms is how plans scale: Shopify by plan tier, BigCommerce by trailing 12-month GMV.
SOURCES
- Magento on GitHub (README and license) (opens in a new tab)
- Squarespace pricing (opens in a new tab)
- Adobe Commerce installation overview (opens in a new tab)
- Adobe Commerce developer documentation (opens in a new tab)
- Adobe Commerce web API documentation (opens in a new tab)
- Squarespace Commerce APIs overview (opens in a new tab)
- Squarespace Extensions (opens in a new tab)
- Squarespace ecommerce website (opens in a new tab)
- Adobe Commerce release versions (opens in a new tab)
- Squarespace security (opens in a new tab)
- Adobe Commerce on cloud overview (opens in a new tab)
- Adobe Commerce multi-site overview (opens in a new tab)
- Adobe Commerce SEO overview (opens in a new tab)
- Adobe Commerce security guidance (opens in a new tab)
- Orange Collar Media Magento support rates (opens in a new tab)
- Squarespace help: Export Commerce orders (opens in a new tab)
- Squarespace help: Managing customers (opens in a new tab)