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Payment gateways for Squarespace

Gateway pages

About Squarespace

Squarespace is a hosted website builder with a built-in commerce module. Small businesses, creators and service providers use it to run a storefront, sell digital content and memberships, take donations and book appointments on one site, without managing hosting or code.

Payments on Squarespace are a closed system. Online checkout runs on Squarespace Payments (the native processor, available in 16 countries), Stripe or PayPal; Square is supported only for in-person point of sale. Connecting Squarespace Payments replaces Stripe, though PayPal can stay attached. No other gateway can be added, and the help center states plainly that the Commerce API cannot be used to connect a third-party processor. On top of the processor's own fee, Squarespace charges a transaction fee on store sales, and the rate depends on which plan family a site is on. New sites, offered only Basic, Core, Plus or Advanced since February 2026, pay 2% on Basic and 0% on Core, Plus and Advanced. Existing sites on Business, Commerce Basic or Commerce Advanced, previous-generation plans no longer sold, pay 3% on Business and 0% on the two Commerce tiers. Digital content and memberships carry higher rates at the lower tiers of whichever family a site is on.

For integrators the surface is the Commerce APIs at api.squarespace.com: REST endpoints for orders, products, inventory, transactions, contacts, discounts and analytics, plus OAuth-only webhook subscriptions signed with a Squarespace-Signature header. They read and sync data around checkout rather than replacing it; Create Order imports already-paid orders from external channels and never charges a card. API keys are generated in the site dashboard on the Commerce Advanced plan, and the general rate limit is 300 requests per minute.

Testing uses a 14-day trial site (no card needed) and a test-mode toggle that accepts a 4242 test card with no fees; PayPal has no test mode.

How payments work on Squarespace

Built-in payments
Squarespace Payments (native; available in 16 countries including the US, Canada, the UK, Australia, New Zealand and several EU markets). Connecting it replaces Stripe; PayPal may run alongside it.1
Third-party gateways
Closed list. Online checkout can use Squarespace Payments, Stripe or PayPal; Square is supported for in-person point of sale only. No other gateway can be connected, and the help center states the Commerce API cannot be used to connect a third-party payment processor. Squarespace is transitioning between plan families: as of February 2026, new sites are offered only Basic, Core, Plus or Advanced (Plus may not appear in every country), rolled out in waves; Business is a previous-generation plan, along with Personal, Commerce Basic and Commerce Advanced, retained only by existing customers and closed to new signups. Squarespace charges its own transaction fee on online store sales regardless of processor: on current plans, 2% on Basic and 0% on Core, Plus and Advanced; on previous-generation plans, 3% on Business and 0% on Commerce Basic and Commerce Advanced; a cohort that signed up between November 2015 and November 2017 instead pays legacy rates of 3% (Legacy Personal) or 2% (Legacy Business), and sites older than November 2015 pay no transaction fee at all. The processor's own fee (Stripe, PayPal, Square) is charged in addition. Digital content and memberships carry 7%/5%/1%/0% across Basic/Core/Plus/Advanced; previous-generation plans default to 9% unless the site holds a separate Digital Products add-on subscription.1
Checkout extensibility
Hosted checkout only. Merchants can adjust cart/checkout settings, add custom checkout form fields and styling via the site theme, and enable express wallets (Apple Pay, Google Pay, Link) through processor settings; button text, default field text and checkout layout cannot be edited, and custom code is outside Squarespace support. The Commerce APIs (REST, api.squarespace.com/1.0) cover Orders, Products, Inventory, Transactions, Contacts, Discounts, Analytics and Webhook Subscriptions; Create Order imports already-paid orders from external channels and does not process payment. The Transactions API is read-only and reports the gateway as SQUARESPACE, STRIPE, PAYPAL or SQUARE.2

What we checked

  • Squarespace Commerce connects to Squarespace Payments, Stripe or PayPal for online checkout, and Square for in-person point of sale only; no other processors are listed.1
  • The help center states it is not possible to use the Commerce API to connect a third-party payment processor.2
  • Connecting Squarespace Payments replaces Stripe as the processor; PayPal can still be accepted alongside Squarespace Payments.3
  • Squarespace Payments is available in 16 countries (US, Canada, UK, Australia, New Zealand and several EU markets) and supports cards, Apple Pay, Google Pay, Klarna, Link, iDEAL and SEPA, with Afterpay/Clearpay and ACH limited by country.4
  • Squarespace's transaction-fees article, updated 2026-08-03, lists two current-plan rates (2% Basic, 0% Core/Plus/Advanced) and, separately under a "Legacy plans" heading, a previous-generation rate of 3% on Business and 0% on Commerce Basic/Commerce Advanced, plus an older 2015-2017 signup cohort at 3% (Legacy Personal) and 2% (Legacy Business); a footnote says sites older than November 2015 pay no transaction fee. Third-party processors (Stripe, PayPal, Square) charge their processing fee separately on top.5
  • Squarespace's "Legacy website billing plans" article, updated 2026-07-29, says that as of February 2026 a new site can no longer sign up for the Personal, Business or Commerce plans; those plans are retained only by sites that already had them, and switching to a current plan cannot be reversed.6
  • The pricing page shows online store transaction fees of 2% on the first plan tier and 0% on the other three, and digital content/membership fees of 7%, 5%, 1% and 0% across the four tiers.7
  • Squarespace Payments US standard-card rates range from 2.9% + $0.30 to 2.5% + $0.30 depending on plan, with premium cards at 3.2% + $0.30 and a 1.5% international card surcharge.5
  • Checkout customization is limited to settings, custom form fields, theme styling and express wallet toggles; button text, default field text and layout cannot be edited, and adding code is outside Squarespace support.8
  • The Commerce APIs are REST over HTTPS and comprise Analytics, Contacts, Discounts, Inventory, Orders, Products, Profiles (legacy), Transactions and Webhook Subscriptions APIs.9
  • Commerce APIs authenticate with site-generated API keys (Commerce Advanced plan) or OAuth 2.0 for Extensions; the Webhook Subscriptions API is OAuth-only, and each token only reaches the owning site's data.10
  • Requests go to https://api.squarespace.com/{api-version}/{resource-path} over HTTPS only, with the version in the path and a custom User-Agent recommended to avoid stricter rate limiting.11
  • Commerce APIs allow 300 requests per minute with a one-minute cool-down on 429; Create Order is limited to 100 requests per hour per site under API-key auth (not under OAuth).12
  • Create Order imports orders completed on external channels (requires channelName and externalOrderReference) and does not process payment.13
  • The Transactions API exposes payments, refunds and gateway errors for orders and donations, with paymentGatewayName limited to SQUARESPACE, STRIPE, PAYPAL and SQUARE.14
  • Webhook subscriptions cover order.create, order.update, contact and address events and extension.uninstall; each notification carries a Squarespace-Signature header verified with the subscription secret, and subscriptions never expire.15
  • Webhook delivery is at-least-once, counts a 2xx response as success, retries for up to 48 hours, and may arrive duplicated or out of order.16
  • Trial sites last 14 days, need no credit card, and cannot accept real payments, connect a PayPal Business account or create subscription products.17
  • Test mode works with Squarespace Payments and Stripe (not PayPal), uses card 4242 4242 4242 4242 with any future expiry and CVC, carries no fees, and is the only order mode available on a trial.18
  • Squarespace Extensions is a marketplace of third-party tools in four categories (sales and marketing, inventory and products, finance, shipping and fulfillment) with no payment gateway category.19

Sources

  1. https://support.squarespace.com/hc/en-us/articles/235161188-Connect-a-payment-processorofficial documentation · checked 2026-09-11
  2. https://support.squarespace.com/hc/en-us/articles/236297987-Squarespace-API-keysofficial documentation · checked 2026-09-11
  3. https://support.squarespace.com/hc/en-us/articles/19848492736269-Getting-started-with-Squarespace-Paymentsofficial documentation · checked 2026-09-11
  4. https://support.squarespace.com/hc/en-us/articles/33482360045069-Supported-locations-payment-methods-and-currencies-for-Squarespace-Paymentsofficial documentation · checked 2026-09-11
  5. https://support.squarespace.com/hc/en-us/articles/27853679334157-Transaction-fees-and-payment-processing-ratesofficial documentation · checked 2026-09-11
  6. https://support.squarespace.com/hc/en-us/articles/212743478-Legacy-website-billing-plansofficial documentation · checked 2026-09-11
  7. https://www.squarespace.com/pricingvendor pricing page · checked 2026-09-11
  8. https://support.squarespace.com/hc/en-us/articles/360002111987-Customize-your-checkout-experienceofficial documentation · checked 2026-09-11
  9. https://developers.squarespace.com/commerce-apis/overviewofficial documentation · checked 2026-09-11
  10. https://developers.squarespace.com/commerce-apis/authentication-and-permissionsofficial documentation · checked 2026-09-11
  11. https://developers.squarespace.com/commerce-apis/making-requestsofficial documentation · checked 2026-09-11
  12. https://developers.squarespace.com/commerce-apis/rate-limitsofficial documentation · checked 2026-09-11
  13. https://developers.squarespace.com/commerce-apis/create-orderofficial documentation · checked 2026-09-11
  14. https://developers.squarespace.com/commerce-apis/transactions-overviewofficial documentation · checked 2026-09-11
  15. https://developers.squarespace.com/webhooks/overviewofficial documentation · checked 2026-09-11
  16. https://developers.squarespace.com/webhooks/notification-deliveryofficial documentation · checked 2026-09-11
  17. https://support.squarespace.com/hc/en-us/articles/206536827-Starting-a-Squarespace-trial-siteofficial documentation · checked 2026-09-11
  18. https://support.squarespace.com/hc/en-us/articles/205811368-Run-test-ordersofficial documentation · checked 2026-09-11
  19. https://www.squarespace.com/extensions/homemarketplace listing · a claim here is implied by this source, not stated · checked 2026-09-11

Last verified 2026-09-12 · Reviewed by a person 2026-09-25

Integration capabilities, requirements, pricing, availability, and vendor policies may change over time. UAT-Ops documents information based on the authoritative sources and testing available at the time of review.

Where newer information, testing, or vendor documentation materially changes a published claim, UAT-Ops may revise the page to reflect the most current verified information. Readers should confirm time-sensitive requirements with the relevant vendor before making production or purchasing decisions.