Webstallion Co vs Squarespace
Squarespace rents you a website. We build you one you own.
Squarespace is a subscription product. Stop paying and your website disappears. We build hand-coded sites that live on your own hosting, under your own domain, with no ongoing platform fee. You own every file.
$0
Monthly platform fee after launch
90+
PageSpeed guaranteed on every build
You own it outright.
Code, domain, hosting - all yours.
Side by side
What you actually get - hand-coded vs Squarespace.
An honest comparison. Squarespace is a solid product for some use cases. But for a business that wants to own their site and isn't building an e-commerce store, hand-coded is better value over time.
| Feature | Webstallion Co | Squarespace |
|---|---|---|
| Ownership | You own every file | Squarespace hosts and controls your site |
| Monthly fee | None after build | ~$23–46 AUD/month, every month |
| PageSpeed score | 90+ guaranteed | Typically 55–80, template-dependent |
| Design flexibility | Unlimited - built to spec | Constrained by chosen template |
| Code access | Full - hosted on GitHub | Limited CSS/HTML injection only |
| Content editing | PagesCMS - free, browser-based | Squarespace editor (requires active subscription) |
| What happens if you stop paying | Nothing - site stays live | Site goes down. Content inaccessible. |
| Local SEO control | Full - custom schema, meta, structure | Built-in SEO tools, limited schema control |
| Hosting | Cloudflare Pages or Netlify (free tier) | Squarespace-managed, included in subscription |
| Build time | 10–25 business days, fixed | Hours to weeks, depends on how much you customise |
The real cost of Squarespace
What a Squarespace subscription actually costs over time - and what you get for it.
The monthly fee isn't the only issue. Here's what the Squarespace model means in practice for a small business.
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You're renting, not buying
At ~$23/month (Business plan, AUD), that's ~$276/year. Over 5 years that's $1,380 - for a site you don't own. Stop paying and the site goes down. You can export your content but not your design. A custom site built once at $1,500 costs less over 2 years than the Squarespace subscription, and you own it outright.
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Template constraints that compound
You pick a Squarespace template and build from there. The template determines your layout options, section types, and font pairings. Every design decision is made within those constraints. For many businesses that's fine at the start - but as your needs evolve, you hit walls. Moving to a new template means rebuilding your entire site.
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PageSpeed ceiling
Squarespace's template engine loads JavaScript and CSS it needs for the editor, for all possible features, not just the ones your site uses. This creates a baseline overhead you can't remove. With careful content management a Squarespace site can score reasonably well - but hitting 90+ consistently requires the kind of control you only get with hand-coded HTML.
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SEO you can't fully control
Squarespace has SEO settings for titles and descriptions, but schema markup, structured data, and technical SEO are limited to what the platform exposes. For local businesses trying to rank for industry and location keywords - "dentist Parramatta", "accountant Fitzroy" - the ability to write precise JSON-LD schema and structure URLs correctly matters more as the site grows.
What a hand-coded rebuild looks like
Serene Family Dental - rebuilt from 45 to 91 PageSpeed.
Serene Family Dental came to us with a slow, hard-to-maintain website. It was scoring 45/100 on PageSpeed, wasn't optimised for mobile, and had no clear online booking flow. Their team had no time to manage it and weren't getting value from it.
We rebuilt the site from scratch in hand-coded HTML, CSS, and JavaScript - no platform, no subscription. The result scored 91/100 on PageSpeed. They edit content via PagesCMS when needed. No ongoing platform fee. The site will stay live as long as they pay their $10/month hosting and $20/year domain.
Read the full case study"We had been putting up with our old website for too long — it was slow, hard to update, and we weren't happy with how it represented our practice. Param rebuilt it from scratch and it's been a completely different experience. Faster, cleaner, and our patients comment on it."
What we build instead
Hand-coded HTML with PagesCMS - fast, owned, and editable.
You still get a content management system - it just doesn't come with a subscription. PagesCMS is free, open-source, and connects to your GitHub repository.
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Hand-coded, built to spec
Every page is written from scratch for your business. No template constraints, no builder overhead. The design is exactly what your business needs - not what a template lets you get close to.
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Free hosting on Cloudflare/Netlify
Static HTML sites can be hosted for free on Cloudflare Pages or Netlify. Both are production-grade platforms. You pay for your domain (~$15–20/year) and nothing else. No platform subscription required.
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PagesCMS for editing
We set up PagesCMS connected to your GitHub repo. Edit text, update images, publish blog posts - through a clean browser interface. Free, open-source, and no subscription required ever.
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90+ PageSpeed - guaranteed
Every site hits 90+ on PageSpeed Insights before handover. No caching plugins required. No CDN configuration needed. The code is lean because we only write what the site actually needs.
Pricing
Pay once. Own it forever.
No subscription. No renewal invoice. No platform fee. Full package details →
Starter
$1,500
10-15 pages · 10 business days
- ✓ No monthly platform fee
- ✓ 90+ PageSpeed guaranteed
- ✓ PagesCMS setup
- ✓ Mobile responsive
Growth - Most popular
$2,000
30-35 pages · 15 business days
- ✓ Everything in Starter
- ✓ Blog with PagesCMS
- ✓ Industry-specific pages
- ✓ Local SEO structure
Scale
$4,000
Up to 100 pages · 25 business days
- ✓ Everything in Growth
- ✓ Large content sites
- ✓ Multiple location pages
- ✓ Full SEO content structure
Questions
What people ask when they're thinking about moving off Squarespace.
Why not use Squarespace for a small business website?
Squarespace is a reasonable starting point for many businesses. The tradeoffs are: you pay a monthly subscription indefinitely, your design is constrained by the template you chose, and PageSpeed scores are typically lower than what's possible with a hand-coded site. If you're comfortable with those tradeoffs, Squarespace is a valid option. If you want to own your site outright and aren't prepared to pay subscription fees forever, a hand-coded site makes more sense.
How does a custom site perform compared to Squarespace on PageSpeed?
Squarespace sites typically score between 55–80 on PageSpeed Insights, depending on content and configuration. Our hand-coded sites are guaranteed to hit 90+. The Serene Family Dental rebuild went from 45 to 91. The difference comes from writing only the code that's needed - no template overhead, no builder scripts.
Do I keep paying after the website is built?
No ongoing fees to us. You pay hosting separately - we typically recommend Cloudflare Pages (free tier) or Netlify (free tier) for static sites. You own the domain separately (usually $15–20/year). There's no Squarespace subscription, no platform fee, no renewal to forget.
Can I edit the site myself after it's built?
Yes. We set up PagesCMS (pagescms.org) - a free, open-source CMS that connects to your GitHub repo. You can edit text, update images, and add blog posts through a browser interface. No code knowledge needed.
I already have a Squarespace site - can you migrate it?
Yes. We rebuild your site from scratch, migrating your content across. You'll end the project with a faster, fully owned site. We handle the migration as part of the project scope.
Can I migrate from Squarespace to a hand-coded site without losing content?
Yes — we handle the migration as part of the project. Same packages apply. Your content is transferred across — copy, images, page structure — and old Squarespace URLs are redirected to the new pages so any Google rankings are preserved.
What happens to my Squarespace site if I stop paying?
Your Squarespace site goes offline. You do not own the code or files. With a Webstallion hand-coded site, you own all files — stop paying Webstallion and the site keeps running, because you control the hosting directly. Platform dependency is removed at the moment of handover.
Related reading
- → Dental website design in Australia — what practices need to know
- → Why your PageSpeed score matters (and what's killing it)
- → How much does a dental website cost in Australia?
- → Case study: Serene Family Dental — PageSpeed 45 to 91
- → Web design packages and pricing
- → Why cheap websites cost more in the long run — 3-year total cost breakdown
- → Squarespace vs custom code: the honest take for Australian businesses
- → Custom website vs builder — the full 2026 comparison
Own your website
Ready to stop paying rent on your website?
Tell us about your business and your current site. We'll scope the project, give you a fixed price, and have it live in 10–25 business days. You own every file from day one.