Squarespace alternative

Squarespace's polish. None of the transaction tax.

Squarespace makes a beautiful store. It charges up to 3% on transactions, gates real ecommerce to its Commerce tiers, and leaves the brand and catalogue work to you. LOAM generates both, ships every commerce primitive at every tier, and takes 0% in platform fees.

Where LOAM wins.

AI generates the store; Squarespace is templates + your work

Squarespace gives you a beautiful template. You still write every product description, set up the email campaigns, design the cart, choose every image. LOAM generates the brand, the catalogue copy, the storefront pages, and the customer agent from five answers — Squarespace's polish without Squarespace's homework.

No 3% transaction fee on lower plans

Squarespace's Commerce Basic ($36/mo) charges a 3% transaction fee in addition to Stripe's processing. LOAM charges no platform transaction fee — Stripe Connect Express runs in your name and we never take a cut.

Real commerce primitives at every tier

Squarespace gates subscriptions, abandoned-cart email, advanced shipping, and customer accounts to higher Commerce tiers. LOAM ships them all natively at every tier from day one.

Per-tenant database isolation

Squarespace stores your data in a multi-tenant CMS. LOAM provisions each store its own Postgres database — exportable in standard SQL, no cross-tenant query risk.

Agent-shoppable from day one

Every LOAM store ships with MCP, llms.txt, and OpenAPI surfaces so ChatGPT, Claude, and Perplexity can shop your store. Squarespace stores are invisible to AI commerce.

Where Squarespace is still the right call.

We'd rather you pick the right tool than churn out of LOAM in three months.

  • Editorial polish + scheduling / hospitality features

    Squarespace's templates remain the best out-of-box visual polish for editorial brands, restaurants, and creators. If your store is also a portfolio, booking system, or content hub, Squarespace's all-in-one approach can still be the right call.

  • Mature creator + scheduling integrations

    Acuity Scheduling, Member Areas, online courses — Squarespace bundles these natively. If your business is half retail / half service-with-booking, weigh the convenience.

Side-by-side.

FeatureLOAMSquarespace
AI brand + catalogue + agent generation
Native MCP / llms.txt / agent surfaces
Built-in customer agent
Squarespace has chat add-on, not native agent.
Partial
Lifecycle email programme
Partial
Subscription products
Squarespace gates to Commerce Advanced ($52/mo).
Partial
Real-time inventory + reserve-on-order
Partial
Returns + exchanges + RMAs
Partial
Per-tenant database isolation
Stripe Connect in merchant's name
Partial
Beautiful out-of-box templates
Squarespace's design lineage is best-in-class.
Partial
Native booking / scheduling
Member areas / online courses
Transaction fee (platform)
Squarespace charges 3% on Business, 0% on Commerce tiers.
0%0–3%
Platform pricing (commerce entry)
Free in beta$36/mo Commerce Basic

Common questions about switching.

I'm on Squarespace Personal / Business — is it worth switching for ecommerce?

If you're on Squarespace Personal or Business (i.e. you have a small shop section), yes — those tiers don't include real ecommerce features, and you'd be running into 3% transaction fees and shipping limitations. LOAM's free beta covers all of that natively. If you're already on Squarespace Commerce Basic+ and have a content-led brand where the booking / member-area features matter, the trade-off is more nuanced.

Can I migrate my Squarespace catalogue?

Yes. Squarespace's CSV exports cover products, customers, and orders cleanly. LOAM's import maps them to the Medusa v2 schema and generates brand + storefront copy from your data. Plan a half-day for testing before swapping DNS.

Will LOAM match Squarespace's templates?

Not directly — Squarespace's design lineage is editorial-magazine polish, and LOAM's curated themes are different aesthetically. What LOAM trades for that is brand generation: instead of picking a template and filling it in, you describe your brand and LOAM designs around it. Different model; both work depending on what you value.

Does LOAM do scheduling / member areas / online courses?

Not today. Those are Squarespace's strongest non-commerce features, and we're not chasing them. LOAM's focus is generated commerce: brand + catalogue + storefront + customer agent. If your business is half-commerce, half-scheduling, Squarespace may still be the right tool.

How does pricing actually compare?

Squarespace Commerce Basic is $36/mo + 0% transaction fee (Commerce tier), or Business at $23/mo + 3% transaction fee. Most stores on Business that take ecommerce seriously end up upgrading. LOAM is free during beta; planned paid tiers will be one all-inclusive subscription rather than 'website + commerce + addons' stacked.

Same polish. Zero transaction fees. Generated for your brand.

Free during beta. No credit card. Bring a domain when you're ready.