Can Squarespace Do Subscriptions?

Does Squarespace Support Subscription Products?

Yes. Squarespace has native subscription functionality built into its Commerce Advanced plan. When a customer purchases a subscription product, their payment details are saved and they are charged automatically on whatever recurring schedule you set. You receive the order each cycle and fulfill it manually or through your preferred fulfillment partner.

This is true subscription billing, not just a recurring invoice. The customer's card is charged automatically without them having to take any action each cycle. They can cancel at any time from their Squarespace customer account, and you can view, pause, and manage all subscriptions from your Squarespace admin panel.

What Types of Subscriptions Can You Sell on Squarespace?

Squarespace's subscription feature is designed for physical and service-based products. Common use cases include:

• Subscription boxes: Themed product boxes sent monthly or quarterly , cosmetics, snacks, books, pet products, clothing.
• Replenishment subscriptions: Products customers reorder regularly , coffee, supplements, skincare, cleaning supplies.
• Ongoing services: Maintenance contracts, retainer-based consulting, coaching sessions, or cleaning services billed on a recurring basis.
• Membership perks with physical components: Monthly member shipments paired with exclusive content or community access.

What you cannot sell on subscription through Squarespace's native feature: digital downloads, digital products, gift cards, or donations. If your business is primarily digital subscriptions or membership content, you'll need to use a third-party tool like Squarespace member areas or integrate a service like Memberspace or Patreon.

What Plan Do You Need for Squarespace Subscriptions?

Subscriptions require the Commerce Advanced plan. As of 2025, this plan costs $65/month billed monthly, or $49/month billed annually. It's the highest-tier Squarespace plan and includes other commerce features beyond subscriptions: abandoned cart recovery, advanced shipping, product reviews, and the Commerce API.

You also need to have customer accounts enabled on your website. Squarespace uses saved customer accounts to store payment details for recurring billing. Without customer accounts active, the subscription feature is unavailable even on the Advanced plan.

How to Set Up Subscription Products on Squarespace

Step 1: Open Your Store Page

In your Squarespace editor, go to the Home menu and click Pages, then select your Store Page. If you don't have a store page yet, click the + button to add one.

Step 2: Add or Edit a Product

Click the + icon to add a new physical product, or click an existing product to edit it. Subscriptions only work with the Physical product type. You cannot apply subscription billing to digital, service, or gift card product types in the standard product editor.

Step 3: Enable Subscription Billing in the Product Editor

In the product editor, find the Subscription section. Toggle it on. You'll see fields to configure the billing frequency:

• Billing interval: Enter a number from 1 to 12 and select weeks or months. For example, "1 month" = monthly, "3 months" = quarterly. The maximum is 12 months; "52 weeks" is not valid.
• Billing cycles: Choose Never (subscription continues indefinitely until cancelled) or Expires after X cycles (for example, expires after 6 charges = a 6-month subscription). Most subscription box businesses use "Never" and rely on customer cancellation.

Step 4: Set Pricing and Save

Your subscription price applies per billing cycle. If you want to offer a discount for subscribing vs. one-time purchase, you can create two product variants: one for subscription, one for one-time purchase, and price them differently. Save the product when done and it will appear in your store with subscription billing enabled at checkout.

Setting Up Subscribe-and-Save Discounts: The Exact Method

One of the most common questions merchants have is how to give subscribers a lower price than one-time buyers. Squarespace does not have a built-in "subscribe and save" toggle that automatically applies a percentage discount. Here is how to do it manually:

1. Open the product in the editor and go to Variants.
2. Create a variant named "One-time purchase" with the standard price.
3. Create a second variant named "Subscribe monthly" (or whatever interval you use) with the discounted price.
4. Toggle on Subscription billing for the "Subscribe monthly" variant only.
5. Save the product.

At checkout, customers see both variants as options. They self-select into the subscription by choosing the lower-priced variant. This is not automated like Shopify's "subscribe and save" apps, but it works and gives you full control over the discount amount. You can also run promotional discount codes specifically for subscription orders if you want a time-limited offer.

One thing to be aware of: if you later need to adjust the subscription price for existing subscribers, you cannot do that from within Squarespace. You would need to contact Stripe directly to update active subscription pricing, or cancel and recreate the subscription at the new price.

What Emails Squarespace Sends to Subscription Customers Automatically

One detail most guides skip: when you run subscriptions on Squarespace, the platform sends automatic transactional emails to customers at key moments. Knowing what these emails say (and when they send) matters because they are the main touchpoint between subscription cycles.

Here is what Squarespace sends automatically:

• Order confirmation on signup: Sent immediately when a customer subscribes for the first time. Includes the product name, billing frequency, price, and a confirmation number.
• Recurring order confirmation: Sent each time a subscription renewal charge processes successfully. Includes the renewal date, amount charged, and next scheduled billing date.
• Failed payment notification: Sent to the customer when a recurring charge fails. Prompts them to update their payment method via a link to their account.
• Cancellation confirmation: Sent when either the customer or you cancel the subscription. Confirms the final billing date and that no further charges will occur.

What Squarespace does not send automatically: renewal reminders before a charge processes. If you want to send a "your subscription renews in 3 days" email, you would need to connect an email marketing tool and trigger that flow manually based on subscription data. Klaviyo and Mailchimp both support Squarespace integrations for this type of automated flow.

You can customize the visual design and basic wording of these emails from Settings > Notifications, but you cannot change the core transactional content or timing. They go out when they go out.

How to Handle Failed Subscription Payments on Squarespace (Merchant Side)

Failed payments are inevitable in any subscription business. Here is what actually happens in Squarespace and what you need to do as the merchant:

When a renewal charge fails, Stripe (not Squarespace) controls the retry logic. By default, Stripe retries failed charges on days 5, 10, and 15 after the initial failure. You can customize this retry schedule in your Stripe dashboard under Revenue Recovery > Smart Retries.

On the Squarespace side, here is what you see and what you can do:

• The subscription in your Commerce > Subscriptions panel will show a "Payment failed" status. You can see which customers have failed payments in this view.
• You cannot manually retry a charge from within Squarespace. Retries are handled by Stripe automatically, or the customer can update their payment method and trigger an immediate retry by logging into their account.
• If all retries fail, Stripe cancels the subscription automatically and notifies both you and the customer. The subscription will show as "Cancelled" with a "Non-payment" reason code in Squarespace.
• There is no built-in dunning management in Squarespace beyond the automated Stripe retries. For higher-volume subscription businesses, dedicated platforms like Chargebee or Recurly offer more sophisticated dunning workflows.

The most actionable thing you can do on the merchant side is to contact customers proactively when a payment fails, before Stripe exhausts its retries and cancels the subscription. The automatic failed payment email from Squarespace is generic. A personal follow-up from your business often has a higher recovery rate.

How Do Customers Manage Their Squarespace Subscriptions?

Customers log in to their Squarespace account on your website and navigate to their profile to see active subscriptions. They can view upcoming billing dates, update payment methods, and cancel subscriptions at any time , no intervention from you required.

From your admin panel under Commerce > Subscriptions, you can see all active, paused, and cancelled subscriptions. You can manually pause a subscription (for example, if a customer contacts you about a billing issue) or cancel subscriptions from your end. When a subscription renews, Squarespace generates a new order automatically, which appears in your Orders panel the same way a manual order does.

What Payment Processors Support Squarespace Subscriptions?

Only Stripe supports subscription billing on Squarespace. PayPal and Apple Pay do not support recurring payments through Squarespace's native subscription feature. This means your store must have Stripe connected and active. If Stripe is not available in your country, you cannot use Squarespace's native subscription feature.

Stripe is available in 46+ countries, including the US, UK, Canada, Australia, and most of Europe. If you're in a region where Stripe isn't available, a third-party subscription platform integrated via Squarespace's embed blocks or extensions may be your best option.

Squarespace Subscriptions vs. Other Platforms

If you're deciding whether Squarespace is the right platform for subscription selling, here's how it stacks up against the main alternatives:

Squarespace is a solid choice if you're already using it and want to add physical subscriptions without switching platforms. For stores where subscriptions are the core business model , especially digital subscriptions or boxes requiring complex billing logic , a dedicated platform like Subbly or Shopify with a subscription app gives you more flexibility.

When Native Squarespace Subscriptions Aren't Enough

Squarespace's built-in subscription feature covers the majority of physical product and service use cases, but there are situations where you'll need a third-party tool instead:

• Digital content subscriptions: If you're selling access to courses, downloadable files, or members-only content on a recurring basis, Squarespace's native subscriptions don't apply. Memberspace integrates directly with Squarespace to gate content behind a paywall with monthly or annual billing, including free trials and coupon codes. Patreon works as a standalone membership platform that you can link to from your Squarespace site.
• You're not on Commerce Advanced: If upgrading to the Advanced plan isn't justifiable yet, Bold Subscriptions and ReCharge both offer JavaScript-based integrations that can work on lower-tier Squarespace plans, though the setup is more technical and requires embedding custom code.
• You need more billing flexibility: Squarespace caps billing intervals at 12 months and doesn't support free trial periods natively. Third-party tools like Subbly (built specifically for subscription boxes) offer trial periods, gift subscriptions, and pause options that Squarespace doesn't.
• Stripe isn't available in your country: Squarespace's subscription feature requires Stripe. If Stripe isn't supported in your region, a third-party processor that supports recurring billing may be your only option.

How to Track Subscription Revenue in Squarespace

Squarespace provides subscription-specific reporting directly in your admin panel. Go to Commerce > Subscriptions to see a breakdown of all active, paused, and cancelled subscriptions. Each subscription entry shows the customer name, product, billing frequency, next billing date, and total value billed to date.

For revenue reporting, Squarespace Analytics under Commerce > Revenue shows subscription revenue as part of your overall sales data, but doesn't break it out as a separate line item by default. To see subscription revenue specifically, filter your orders by "Subscription" order type. Stripe's own dashboard (stripe.com) provides more detailed recurring revenue metrics including monthly recurring revenue (MRR), churn rate, and lifetime value. This data is especially useful for any subscription business managing more than a handful of active subscribers.

For a deeper look, see our complete guide to how to use Squarespace.