Squarespace
Your Podia website is free forever
Tell your story, start a blog, share your portfolio, set up a storefront, or build any other type of website you want. With Podia, your website is already connected to your products, courses, community, email, and everything else.
Podia vs. Squarespace
In a few clicks, you could have a beautiful website that’s a breeze to customize. Your website is 100% free with Podia, and you can also sell products, publish blog posts, build your community, and grow your email list on the free plan.
Podia
✓ Free plan
✓ Blogging
✓ Full website builder
✓ Landing pages
✓ Sell online courses & downloads
✓ Unlimited video storage on paid plans
✓ Run your online community
✓ Integrated email marketing & automations
✓ Unlimited monthly email sends
✓ Customer chat messaging
✓ Affiliate management
Squarespace
x No free plan
✓ Blogging
✓ Full website builder
✓ Landing pages
✓ Sell online courses & downloads
x Video storage limits on most plans
x No community feature
✓ Integrated email marketing & automations
x Limits on monthly email sends
x No customer chat messaging
x No affiliate management
Comparing Podia vs. Squarespace
Podia
Squarespace
Free plan
Podia is yes
Squarespace is no
Price
Podia isFree, or $4/month to $89/month
Squarespace is$23/month to $65/month, plus add-ons
Free migrations
Podia is yes
Squarespace is no
Website builder
Podia is yes
Squarespace is yes
Unlimited web pages
Podia is yes
Squarespace is yes
Blogging
Podia is yes
Squarespace is yes
Online courses
Podia is yes
Squarespace is yes
Unlimited video storage
Podia is yes
Squarespace isPaid add-on
Digital downloads
Podia is yes
Squarespace is yes
Memberships
Podia is yes
Squarespace is yes
Communities
Podia is yes
Squarespace is no
Coaching
Podia is yes
Squarespace is yes
Webinars
Podia is yes
Squarespace is no
Email marketing
Podia is yes
Squarespace is yes
Built-in affiliate program
Podia is yes
Squarespace is no
Teammates
Podia is yes
Squarespace is yes
Embeddable buy buttons
Podia is yes
Squarespace is no
Customer messaging
Podia is yes
Squarespace is no
Chat support
Podia is yes
Squarespace is yes
Creator friendliness score
Podia is87.01
Squarespace is75.32
Video demo
Podia in action
Wondering if Podia is a better website building platform for you? Go behind the scenes in this video walkthrough, where Ben will show you the ins and outs of Podia’s software and how it can help your business.
An easier way to build your website.
Frustrated by Squarespace’s confusing customization dashboards and rigid layouts? Podia’s website builder is clean, straightforward, and so easy to use that you can have your site ready in an afternoon.
Free forever plan.
Squarespace comes with a price tag, especially if you want to use ecommerce features. With Podia, your website is free forever. We’ll even throw in an online community, one digital download, and one coaching product so you can monetize from day one.
Integrated features without hidden costs.
There’s no reason to rely on complicated (and pricey) third-party tools to grow your business. With Podia, video storage, affiliates, customer messaging, and memberships are all built in. No surprise upsells here.
Podia has been a game-changer for me on my journey of creating literacy courses for fellow teachers. The easy-to-use design interface is not just user-friendly; it’s a warm and welcoming canvas that turns course creation into a joyous experience. Thanks to Podia, I’ve found a creative haven where my passion for teaching seamlessly meets the art of design, making education a truly delightful endeavor.
— Ruby Ortiz, Sylph Creatives
Why customers choose Podia over Squarespace
Here are some reasons creators choose Podia instead of Squarespace to power their small businesses.
Your website and products in perfect harmony
We designed Podia with your creator journey in mind. Start by making a website with our easy site builder and grow your online business by selling digital products from our all-in-one platform. From content hosting to product delivery, we make life easier for you and your customers.
An interface your customers will love
Don’t just dump files on your customers’ laps. Podia gives customers a simple and beautiful elearning experience with their own login, on-page delivery, and a course viewer to enjoy their content.
A support team that's here for you
The number one reason people cite for loving Podia? Our customer service. We’re always here to help with real people offering chat support 7 days a week.
Free migrations
Sit back, relax, and let us do the heavy lifting. We’ll move your digital products and contacts over to Podia. Our migration service makes switching to Podia easy and is completely free on all annual Mover and Shaker plans.
Podia vs. Squarespace: Which is right for me?
Great question! We obviously think we’re pretty great, but here’s an honest comparison:
Both Podia and Squarespace allow you to build a stylish website for your online business. You can also use both platforms to sell digital products and manage your email, but that’s about where the similarities end.
To help you decide between Podia vs. Squarespace, let’s dive into the details.
All prices and features are accurate at the time of writing, but they may change over time.
Intuitive website builder
If you’re in the market for a new website builder, you’ve probably heard of Squarespace. It’s one of the most popular site builders around, and it comes with a wide selection of done-for-you templates.
But while Squarespace’s code-free editor may be easier than building an entire site from scratch, it’s not as straightforward as it seems.
Templates can be a blessing and a curse. They give you a solid starting point and they look nice, but if you want to deviate from the blocks provided, things can get tricky.
To make Squarespace easier for everyday users, a lot of customizations simply aren’t available. And the ones that are can be difficult to find since there are editing options on individual elements, pages, and a separate design dashboard.
Another thing to remember is that Squarespace only allows you to upload 30 minutes of video to your website. You must pay extra for the digital products add-on to get more video storage.
At Podia, we’re taking a different approach.
Our easier-than-drag-and-drop website builder includes a set of content blocks with dozens of styling options. You can change up the look of your site in just a few clicks, and all our blocks play nicely together so you can add and remove anything you want.
Here’s an example of two ways you can style the same content on your Podia website. Making these changes only took a few clicks in the sidebar “Design” editor.
Your Podia website can have unlimited pages, and you can use Podia to build as many standalone sales pages and landing pages as you want. Podia also gives you unlimited video hosting on all Mover and Shaker plans.
“Podia makes website building so fun. I feel like I could set up a site in an afternoon, and it would look great. And if there’s something to be said for how pretty it is. It’s the best-looking one by far.” – Joseph D’Amico, online classical piano instructor and founder of Flex Lessons
Selling physical products vs. digital products
If you’re using your website for ecommerce, the decision between Podia vs. Squarespace largely depends on what kinds of products you want to sell.
Podia is a better choice if you’re selling online courses, communities, webinars, coaching, and digital downloads. Your customers can access all of their purchases and content from one sleek dashboard.
Create unlimited products on all paid plans, bundle products together, offer upsells, and create different payment plans to accommodate your customers.
Course creation is a breeze with our intuitive course builder, meaning you won’t need to use a separate learning management system or plugin. You can also create a brand community to connect with your followers.
On the flipside, Squarespace is a good fit for selling physical products because there are integrations for shipping, inventory management, and point of sale. It’s possible to sell digital products on Squarespace, but there are notable limitations.
Files can only be up to 300 MB, and you can only sell one file per product. You can work around this by zipping files together, but you still can’t exceed 300 MB. You can’t offer variations for digital products, nor can you sell digital items as subscriptions.
Also, many of Squarespace’s digital product features require the Digital Products add-on.
Bottom line: Go with Podia if you want to sell digital goods and build your community. Go with Squarespace if you want to sell physical items.
Built-in marketing tools
Both Squarespace and Podia provide tools to help you market your brand. As a business owner, it’s nice to have everything you need in one place.
With the Podia, you can build your email list, create email newsletters, and drip content to subscribers over time. You can also use the optional Podia Email add-on to set up automated email marketing campaigns and sales funnels so you don’t have to connect separate email service provider.
Podia Email is free to use for your first 100 subscribers, and you can upgrade to add more subscribers as you grow. No matter what email plan you’re on, you get access to all advanced features and unlimited monthly email sends.
Podia also includes live chat messaging on all plans, even the free one. You can easily communicate with visitors to answer questions and give your website a personal touch.
Finally, you can set up your own affiliate program for your courses and products so that happy customers can earn a commission for promoting your work.
Squarespace also has an email marketing tool with email design templates. All Squarespace email plans have limits on the number of emails you can send each month.
Squarespace does not have integrated affiliate marketing, and there’s no built-in customer chat tool.
Pricing
Podia has a simple pricing structure. There are three paid plans and a generous free plan that includes a full website, an online community, one digital download, and one coaching product.
Podia pricing:
- Free: $0/month and 10% transaction fee
- Starter: $9/month and 8% transaction fee ($4/month when paid annually)
- Mover: $39/month and 5% transaction fee ($33/month when paid annually)
- Shaker $89/month and 0% transaction fee ($59/month when paid annually for the first year, then $75/month when paid annually after that)
Squarespace’s pricing structure is more complicated because there are quite a few upsells and add-ons. There’s no free plan, but they offer a 14-day free trial so you can try the Squarespace website builder before paying.
If you’d like to use some of Squarespace’s advanced offerings like email marketing, digital products, or appointment scheduling, you’ll need to pay extra monthly fees.
Here’s a look at the Squarespace pricing plans:
Squarespace website pricing:
You must have one of these plans before adding digital products, email, and scheduling.
- Personal: $23/month (No ecommerce features)
- Business: $33/month (3% transaction fee)
- Basic Commerce: $36/month
- Advanced Commerce: $65/month
Here’s how this could play out by the numbers:
You’re an aspiring entrepreneur, and you’re ready to share your ideas with the world. You set up your website and start growing your business over the course of a year.
If you used Squarespace and paid month to month, your first year in business would cost $276, assuming you only used the website feature.
- $23/month x 12 months = $276 for the Personal website plan
If you used Podia, your total cost after one year would be $0.
Podia websites are free forever, and you can sell one digital download, coaching, and community access on the free plan.
With all that extra money in your pocket, there’s no telling what you could create.
So let’s get started.
Make your free Podia website now, or take a video tour to see the platform in action.
-
Absolutely! You can check out our Podia demo site, which we’ve built to show you what the Podia experience will look like for both you and your customers.
There are also dozens of creator example sites on our Examples page, so you can see what other creators just like you have built using Podia.
-
Yes! We offer free (and hassle-free) migrations on all annual Mover and Shaker plans. Get started here.
-
Yes! Podia has a free forever plan that includes your full website, blogging, one digital download, one coaching product, customer chat messaging, and your online community. Sign up for free today to see for yourself!
-
Absolutely! You can see how Podia stacks up to many of our competitors right here.
We also have some head-to-head comparisons of other leading platforms in case you’re choosing between those, including:
-
We’d love to. Podia’s customer support is here for you, seven days a week. Just reach out to us on chat and a real, friendly person will be delighted to help you out.