Comparing Divi and Squarespace is not quite an apples-to-apples comparison. They are built on fundamentally different infrastructure: Divi is a theme and builder plugin for WordPress, a self-hosted open-source platform. Squarespace is a fully hosted, all-in-one website service where hosting, software, security, and maintenance are all managed for you. This difference in architecture produces meaningful differences in cost, flexibility, control, and long-term ownership.
Both tools are designed to let non-technical users build professional websites without writing code. But the trade-offs they each make in pursuit of that goal are significant. Understanding those trade-offs is what this comparison is about.
Divi wins on design customization, data ownership, SEO control, ecommerce flexibility, multi-site pricing, and long-term cost value. Squarespace wins on simplicity, all-in-one setup (hosting included), and getting a polished website live faster than any WordPress-based solution. If you want the fastest possible path to a beautiful, low-maintenance website for one site, Squarespace is genuinely excellent. If you want ownership, flexibility, scalability, and better value over time — especially across multiple sites — Divi on WordPress is the stronger long-term choice.
What Each Builder Is
A premium visual page builder and theme from Elegant Themes for self-hosted WordPress. Requires separate hosting (typically $3–15/month). Full ownership of your data, code, and content. 200+ modules, 800+ layout packs, Theme Builder, A/B testing, Bloom, Monarch. Annual $89/year (unlimited sites) or $249 lifetime.
A fully hosted website platform. Hosting, security, updates, and SSL are all included and managed automatically. 100+ professionally designed templates. Built-in ecommerce on all plans. Per-site pricing: Basic $16/month to Advanced $99/month (billed annually). No WordPress required. 14-day free trial.
Before comparing features, it is worth being clear about the single most important structural difference between these tools: who controls the platform your site lives on.
With Squarespace, Squarespace controls the platform. Your site runs on Squarespace’s servers, uses Squarespace’s software, and is subject to Squarespace’s pricing and policy changes. If Squarespace raises prices, changes its plans, or in an extreme scenario shuts down, your site is affected. You can export your content, but the design, templates, and specific features of your site cannot be moved to another platform in any meaningful sense.
With Divi and WordPress, you own your site. Your files are on a hosting server that you pay for independently. Your content is in a database that you control. Your design is built on open-source software that exists regardless of what Elegant Themes does as a company. You can move your site to a different host, a different builder, or a different configuration at any time. This ownership difference is the most important consideration for any serious long-term website project.
You own your data and files. Full access to database, code, and content. Portable — move to any host anytime. Plugin ecosystem of 60,000+ extensions. Requires managing hosting, updates, and security separately.
Platform managed entirely by Squarespace. Hosting, SSL, updates automatic. Cannot move site design off-platform. Very limited third-party integrations (~40–50 extensions vs WordPress’s 60,000+). No manual server management needed.
Setting up a Squarespace site is the simplest path to a live website that exists. You sign up, choose a template, add your content, and publish. Hosting, SSL, security, and software updates are automatic. There is no hosting account to configure, no WordPress dashboard to learn, no plugin compatibility to manage. A non-technical person with no website experience can have a polished, mobile-responsive site live within a few hours.
Setting up Divi requires more steps: choosing a hosting provider, installing WordPress, installing and configuring Divi, and then learning Divi’s builder before you can start designing. Elegant Themes has worked hard to make Divi accessible through layout packs and guided onboarding, but there is no avoiding the reality that the initial setup is more complex than Squarespace. Most users report being productive in Divi after a few days of learning. But those few days exist — and Squarespace does not require them.
This ease-of-use advantage matters most for people who want to focus entirely on their content or business, not on managing technology. For a restaurant owner, a photographer, or a small service business that simply wants a professional online presence with minimal ongoing maintenance, Squarespace’s managed simplicity is a genuine and practical advantage.
Squarespace’s templates are genuinely beautiful. The company employs professional designers, and the default visual quality of Squarespace templates is consistently higher than most WordPress starter themes. If you want a site that looks polished with minimal customization effort, Squarespace templates are hard to beat as a starting point.
Where Squarespace shows its limits is when you want to deviate from the template’s structure. Squarespace’s block-based editor allows adding and rearranging sections within the template’s design system, but you cannot freely position elements anywhere on the page, redesign the template’s overall layout, or create custom section structures that the template does not support. Users frequently describe hitting a wall where the design they envision is “not quite possible” in Squarespace’s interface without CSS workarounds.
Custom CSS and JavaScript are locked to the Core plan ($23/month) and above. The Basic plan ($16/month) does not allow any custom code, which limits design customization to what the template and block editor expose visually.
Divi’s 200-plus modules, 7 responsive breakpoints, per-element CSS controls, global design system, and full-screen visual canvas give designers complete control over every visual aspect of a site. The constraint in Divi is not “can I do this” but “how long will it take.” Nearly any design concept can be implemented. The same is not true of Squarespace, where the platform’s design system is a ceiling, not a canvas.
Squarespace includes basic built-in SEO tools: editable meta titles and descriptions, clean URL structure, automatic sitemaps, and mobile responsiveness. For most small sites, these basics are sufficient. What Squarespace cannot offer is the depth of SEO control that WordPress provides through dedicated SEO plugins like Yoast or Rank Math, which include schema markup, advanced redirect management, content analysis, and on-page optimization guidance that Squarespace does not match natively.
On performance, Squarespace manages its own server infrastructure and delivers decent page speeds. However, you have no ability to add server-level caching, switch CDN providers, or implement advanced performance optimizations beyond what Squarespace’s platform allows. A well-optimized Divi site on quality hosting with a caching plugin routinely outperforms Squarespace on PageSpeed scores.
For sites where organic search traffic is a primary business driver, the SEO control difference between WordPress and Squarespace is meaningful. Large sites, competitive niches, and content-heavy businesses consistently perform better in search when they have full SEO tool access.
Squarespace’s ecommerce is well-designed and genuinely functional for small stores. All plans now include the ability to sell products. The interface for managing products, inventory, and orders is clean and beginner-friendly. For a photographer selling prints, a creator selling digital downloads, or a small retailer testing an online store, Squarespace’s commerce tools handle the job with minimal setup.
The limitations emerge as stores grow. Squarespace charges transaction fees on the Basic plan (2% per sale on top of payment processor fees). Real-time carrier-calculated shipping rates are locked to the Advanced plan ($99/month). Product review apps, advanced filtering, loyalty programs, and deep CRM integrations are largely unavailable — the Squarespace extension marketplace has approximately 40 to 50 integrations compared to WooCommerce’s thousands. Custom checkout flows and checkout page design are not possible without advanced plan access and custom code.
WooCommerce (the ecommerce layer that runs on Divi sites) powers over 39% of all online stores globally. Its plugin ecosystem covers effectively any commerce functionality imaginable: subscriptions, memberships, wholesale pricing, advanced inventory, dropshipping integrations, hundreds of payment gateways, and deep analytics. This breadth is simply not available in Squarespace’s closed platform.
Squarespace ecommerce hidden costs: Basic plan has a 2% transaction fee per sale plus payment processor fees. Real-time shipping rates require the Advanced plan ($99/month). Email marketing is not included — connecting Mailchimp or Klaviyo requires separate subscriptions. Custom professional email requires Google Workspace ($7+/month). These costs add up quickly for growing stores and can make Squarespace significantly more expensive than it appears on the pricing page.
- Divi: $89/year (unlimited sites) or $249 lifetime
- Hosting: ~$5–15/month (~$60–180/year)
- Domain: ~$15/year
- SSL: Free (Let’s Encrypt on most hosts)
- Total (annual plan): ~$164–284/year per site
- Total (lifetime plan): ~$75–195/year per site (year 1)
- Additional sites: only hosting cost (~$60–180/year each)
- Basic: $16/month ($192/year) — very limited
- Core: $23/month ($276/year) — most usable plan
- Plus: $39/month ($468/year)
- Advanced: $99/month ($1,188/year)
- Hosting: Included
- Domain: Free year 1, then $20–70/year
- Each additional site: full plan price again
For a single site, Squarespace Core at $276/year is broadly comparable to Divi on basic hosting at $164–284/year. But the comparison shifts significantly when you factor in what each plan includes. Divi at $89/year covers unlimited sites, meaning a second, third, or tenth site only requires additional hosting. Squarespace charges full plan pricing per site, every site, every year. An agency with 10 client sites on Squarespace Core pays $2,760/year in Squarespace fees alone — versus $89/year in Divi fees regardless of site count.
The lifetime comparison is more striking: Divi at $249 one-time covers unlimited sites forever. There is no Squarespace equivalent — Squarespace subscriptions are ongoing and per-site by definition.
Who Each Builder Is Right For
Feature Comparison at a Glance
| Feature | Divi (WordPress) | Squarespace | Winner |
|---|---|---|---|
| Setup and Hosting | |||
| Hosting included | No (separate cost) | Yes (included) | Squarespace |
| Setup time | Hours to days | Hours | Squarespace |
| Maintenance required | Yes (updates, security) | None (managed) | Squarespace |
| Data ownership | Complete | Platform-controlled | Divi |
| Portability | Full — move anytime | Content only — design stays | Divi |
| Design and Customization | |||
| Design freedom | Near-unlimited | Template-bound | Divi |
| Module / element count | 200+ modules | ~40 block types | Divi |
| Template quality | High (800+ layout packs) | Very high (100+ templates) | Tie (different styles) |
| Custom CSS/code | Full access | Core plan+ only | Divi |
| Responsive breakpoints | 7 customizable | 3 device views (limited) | Divi |
| eCommerce | |||
| eCommerce platform | WooCommerce (unlimited) | Squarespace Commerce (limited) | Divi |
| Transaction fees | None (WooCommerce) | 2% on Basic plan | Divi |
| Extensions / integrations | 60,000+ WordPress plugins | ~40–50 integrations | Divi |
| Custom checkout | Yes (full) | Limited | Divi |
| SEO and Performance | |||
| SEO plugin access | Yes (Yoast, Rank Math) | Built-in basic tools only | Divi |
| Performance optimization | Full control (caching, CDN) | Platform-managed only | Divi |
| A/B testing | Divi Leads (built-in) | Not available | Divi |
| Pricing | |||
| Entry price (usable plan) | ~$164–284/year (Divi + hosting) | $276/year (Core plan) | Comparable |
| Multi-site pricing | $89/year (unlimited) | Full price per site | Divi |
| Lifetime option | $249 — unlimited sites | Not available | Divi |
| Free trial | No (demo only) | 14-day free trial | Squarespace |
Final Verdict: Divi vs Squarespace
This comparison ultimately comes down to one question: what kind of relationship do you want with your website?
Squarespace is for people who want a website — a polished, professional online presence that requires minimal technical engagement. It manages everything for you. The trade-off is a ceiling on what you can build, cost that scales per site, and a platform dependency that means your site design lives on Squarespace’s terms, not yours. For a photographer, a small local business, a creative professional building a portfolio, or anyone who wants the fastest path to a live site they will not need to customize deeply — Squarespace is a genuinely excellent tool that does exactly what it promises.
Divi is for people who want to own and control their website. WordPress gives you full data ownership, portability, and access to the largest ecosystem of tools and integrations in the world. Divi gives you design depth that no hosted platform can match. The trade-off is that you manage more: choosing hosting, installing software, handling updates. For agencies, designers, marketers, ecommerce businesses, content-heavy sites, and anyone building more than one site — Divi’s flexibility, control, and significantly better long-term pricing make it the more capable and valuable investment.
If you are unsure, a useful rule of thumb: if you are building one site for a personal or small business project and you never want to think about WordPress, get Squarespace. If you are building sites professionally, running an online store you expect to grow, need deep SEO control, or want to own your site without platform dependency — Divi on WordPress is the right foundation.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can you migrate a Squarespace site to WordPress/Divi?
Partially. Squarespace allows exporting your content (blog posts, pages, and some products) to an XML file that WordPress can import. However, your Squarespace design — the template, visual layout, and specific formatting — cannot be exported or migrated. You would need to rebuild the visual design in Divi from scratch. The content migration handles text and images, but not the site’s appearance.
Is Squarespace cheaper than Divi?
For a single site, the costs are broadly comparable. Squarespace Core at $276/year is similar to Divi plus hosting at $164 to $284/year. But Squarespace charges full plan pricing per site, every site, every year — while Divi at $89/year covers unlimited sites. For anyone building more than two sites, Divi becomes substantially cheaper. The lifetime plan comparison is more dramatic: Divi at $249 covers unlimited sites forever, while Squarespace has no lifetime option.
Does Squarespace have a free plan?
No. Squarespace offers a 14-day free trial (no credit card required) that gives full access to the platform for testing. After the trial, a paid plan is required to publish a live site. Squarespace has no permanent free tier. Divi also has no free version, though Elegant Themes offers a demo environment for testing.
Which is better for SEO — Divi or Squarespace?
Divi on WordPress is better for SEO. WordPress’s access to dedicated SEO plugins like Yoast SEO and Rank Math provides schema markup, advanced redirect management, content analysis tools, and technical optimization controls that Squarespace’s built-in SEO tools do not match. Squarespace covers the basics — editable meta tags, sitemaps, clean URLs — which is sufficient for simple sites. For content-heavy sites competing in search, WordPress’s SEO plugin ecosystem provides a meaningful advantage.
Can Squarespace handle a large online store?
Squarespace works well for small to mid-sized stores. Its clean interface handles product management, inventory, and order processing effectively. The limitations emerge at scale: no access to advanced loyalty or review apps, limited checkout customization, transaction fees on lower plans, and an extension marketplace of roughly 40 to 50 integrations compared to WooCommerce’s thousands. Most store owners who scale past a few hundred orders per month move to WooCommerce or Shopify. Squarespace is a strong platform for launching and testing an online store, but has meaningful ceiling limitations for high-volume or highly specialized ecommerce operations.
