Squarespace Email Marketing: Pros, Cons & Alternatives

Squarespace email marketing tools on a laptop.

Your email platform is more than just a tool; it’s the engine for your customer relationships and a key driver of growth. While Squarespace email marketing offers an attractive, integrated solution for website owners, it’s important to evaluate it as a strategic investment. Does it have the power to support your ambitions? This article provides a clear-eyed review, moving beyond the surface-level convenience. We’ll analyze its features, sending limits, and automation capabilities to help you determine if it aligns with your long-term business goals or if a more specialized platform is a better fit for scaling your outreach.

Key Takeaways

Prioritize Simplicity Over Scale: Squarespace Email Campaigns is a great choice for its seamless integration and user-friendly design, but its sending limits and basic features won't support businesses with ambitious, high-volume outreach goals.
A Strong Strategy Outweighs Any Tool: Your success depends on your approach, not just your platform. Focus on building a quality list, personalizing your content to create a genuine connection, and setting clear goals for every email you send.
Analyze Sending Limits, Not Just Price: The low monthly cost is appealing, but the strict email sending caps can quickly become a roadblock. If consistent, high-volume outreach is critical to your business, you'll need a more robust, dedicated infrastructure.

What is Squarespace Email Marketing?

If you’re already using Squarespace for your website, you’ve probably seen their built-in email marketing tool, Squarespace Email Campaigns. At its core, it’s an integrated solution designed to help you send professional emails that perfectly match your website's branding. Think of it as an extension of your site, allowing you to connect with your audience directly in their inbox without ever leaving the Squarespace dashboard.

The main appeal is its convenience. Instead of juggling a separate email service and trying to make templates look like your site, Squarespace handles the design consistency for you. It’s built for business owners and creators who want a straightforward, all-in-one platform. You can manage your website, online store, and email list from a single place, which simplifies your workflow. This makes it a solid choice for anyone looking to start building an email list and sending out newsletters, announcements, or promotional campaigns without a steep learning curve.

What Can You Do With It?

With Squarespace Email Campaigns, you can cover all the email marketing basics. You can send one-off newsletters to your entire list or use smart segmentation to target specific groups of subscribers. The platform also offers simple automation features that save you time. For example, you can set up a welcome email for new subscribers, an abandoned cart reminder for shoppers, or a thank-you note after a purchase.

Beyond sending emails, you get access to built-in analytics to see how your campaigns perform. You can track open rates, click-throughs, and unsubscribes to understand what content resonates with your audience. This data helps you refine your strategy and make more informed decisions for future emails.

How It Connects to Your Squarespace Site

The biggest advantage of Squarespace Email Campaigns is its seamless integration with your website. Because it’s a native tool, adding email signup forms to your footer, contact page, or as a pop-up is incredibly simple. Your mailing lists are automatically synced, so you don’t have to worry about manually importing contacts.

This deep connection also makes creating content easier. You can pull blog posts, products, and other content directly from your site and drop them into your email drafts. This ensures your branding stays consistent and saves you the hassle of recreating content. For anyone who values efficiency and a unified brand experience, this tight integration is a major selling point for getting started with Squarespace Email Campaigns.

Create Effective Email Campaigns with Squarespace

Once you’re set up with Squarespace Email Marketing, the real work begins: creating campaigns that people actually want to read. Sending emails is easy, but sending effective emails requires a thoughtful approach that combines great design, compelling content, and smart targeting. Think of it as a three-legged stool—if one leg is wobbly, the whole thing can fall flat. A beautiful email with a weak message won’t convert, and a brilliant message sent to the wrong audience will be ignored.

Squarespace gives you a solid foundation to build on, but your strategy is what will ultimately determine your success. The platform’s main strength lies in its native integration with your website, allowing you to create a seamless brand experience from the moment someone lands on your site to when they open an email from you in their inbox. By focusing on the core elements of a great campaign, you can turn your email list into a powerful channel for building customer relationships and driving sales. Let’s walk through how you can use Squarespace’s tools to design emails that capture attention, write content that builds connection, and segment your audience for maximum impact. This approach will help you move beyond simple email blasts and start creating valuable, targeted communications that feel personal and drive results.

Design Emails People Want to Open

Your email’s design is the first thing subscribers notice, and it sets the tone for everything else. A cluttered or unprofessional layout can make people hit the delete button before they even read your first sentence. Luckily, you don’t need to be a graphic designer to create something beautiful. Squarespace offers a collection of clean, modern email templates that automatically pull in your brand’s logo and colors, ensuring every email feels like a natural extension of your website.

This consistency is key to building brand recognition and trust. When subscribers open an email that looks and feels familiar, they’re more likely to engage with its content. Use a visually appealing layout to guide the reader’s eye toward your main message and call to action. A well-designed email isn’t just about looking good—it’s about making your content easy to digest and act upon.

Write Content That Connects

Great design gets your email opened, but great content is what builds the relationship. Your subscribers invited you into their inbox, so make it worth their while by providing value in every message. Go beyond just announcing sales and promotions. Share behind-the-scenes stories, offer helpful tips related to your products, or celebrate customer milestones. The goal is to create a genuine connection that makes your audience look forward to hearing from you.

You can also use automation to send timely, relevant messages without lifting a finger. A welcome email for new subscribers, a reminder for an abandoned cart, or a simple thank you note after a purchase can make a huge difference in how customers perceive your brand. By crafting personalized content for these key moments, you show customers you’re paying attention and value their business.

Segment and Target Your Audience

Sending the same email to every single person on your list is a missed opportunity. Your audience is made up of different people with different interests and histories with your brand. This is where segmentation comes in. By dividing your list into smaller, more targeted groups, you can send messages that are far more relevant and effective. Squarespace’s platform includes features for smart segmentation that help you group subscribers based on their behavior.

For example, you could create a segment for first-time buyers and send them a special welcome offer for their next purchase. Or, you could target subscribers who have previously bought a specific type of product with news about a related launch. When your emails speak directly to a subscriber’s interests and actions, they feel less like marketing and more like a helpful conversation, leading to much higher engagement.

How Much Does Squarespace Email Marketing Cost?

Let's talk about the investment. One of the main draws of Squarespace Email Marketing is that it’s built right into the platform you already use for your website, which can simplify your tech stack and your billing. The pricing is tiered, so you can choose a plan that aligns with the size of your email list and how often you plan to send campaigns. It’s designed to scale with you, from your first few subscribers to a much larger audience. However, it's crucial to look closely at the details of each plan, especially the sending limits, to make sure it truly fits your business goals. A plan that seems like a bargain at first might become restrictive as you grow.

A Breakdown of Plans and Limits

Squarespace offers four paid plans, each with different sending capabilities. Here’s a quick look at what each tier includes so you can see how they stack up:

Starter: For $5 per month (billed annually), you get 3 campaigns and 500 email sends per month. This plan doesn't include automation.
Core: At $10 per month, this plan gives you 5 campaigns, 5,000 sends, and introduces automation features.
Pro: For $24 per month, you can send 20 campaigns and up to 50,000 emails.
Max: The top tier costs $48 per month for unlimited campaigns and 250,000 email sends.

These pricing tiers are structured to grow with your business, but pay close attention to those monthly send limits, as they are the most important factor.

What You Get at Each Price Point

The pricing is definitely one of Squarespace's main attractions, with plans starting at a very budget-friendly price point. Even the highest-tier plan is relatively inexpensive for sending up to 250,000 emails. You can also test the waters with a free trial, which lets you send three campaigns to see if you like the interface. Just know that the trial doesn't include all the features.

The biggest catch is the sending limits on the lower-tier plans. Starting with only 500 emails per month on the Starter plan can be restrictive. If you exceed your plan's limit, your sending could be paused, which is the last thing you want during a promotion. For businesses focused on scaling their outreach, these limits might feel tight. If you need to support high-volume campaigns without worrying about monthly caps, a dedicated infrastructure might be a better fit.

Pros and Cons of Squarespace Email Marketing

Deciding on an email platform is a big step, and Squarespace Email Marketing has clear benefits and drawbacks. It’s a fantastic tool for some, but it can be limiting for others. Let’s break down where it shines and where it falls short so you can see if it fits your business goals.

The Good: Why It Works for Squarespace Users

If you already have a Squarespace website, their email marketing tool is incredibly convenient. The biggest advantage is its seamless integration. You can manage your website and email campaigns from one dashboard, and the design tools make it easy to create emails that perfectly match your site’s branding. You don’t need any coding skills to get started; the platform offers a variety of attractive, pre-designed templates and even uses AI to help you write copy. For small businesses or creators just starting their email list, the built-in analytics are straightforward, helping you track opens and clicks without getting overwhelmed. The pricing is also competitive, making it an accessible choice if your budget is tight.

The Not-So-Good: Where It Falls Short

While Squarespace is great for simplicity, that’s also its main weakness. As your business grows, you’ll likely hit a ceiling. The platform has fairly restrictive send limits, even on its highest-tier plan. If you’re planning high-volume outreach or have a large subscriber list, you’ll outgrow it quickly. This is especially true for anyone running cold email campaigns, which require a robust infrastructure. It’s also missing the advanced features that are standard on more specialized platforms. You won’t find A/B testing to optimize your subject lines, sophisticated automation sequences beyond a simple welcome email, or advanced audience segmentation. This makes it difficult to run targeted, data-driven campaigns.

How to Succeed with Squarespace Email Marketing

Having the right tool is just the first step. Success with Squarespace Email Marketing—or any email platform—comes down to your strategy. It’s about creating a system where you consistently connect with your audience in a way that feels genuine and valuable. Let’s walk through the three core pillars of a strategy that works: building your list, personalizing your content, and timing your messages perfectly. Focusing on these areas will help you create campaigns that not only look great but also drive real results for your business.

Build and Grow Your Email List

Your email list is the foundation of your entire email marketing effort. Without an engaged audience, even the most beautiful campaign will fall flat. Squarespace makes it straightforward to start building your email list by adding signup forms, pop-ups, and announcement bars to your website. You can also capture emails at checkout. To encourage sign-ups, offer a clear incentive, like a 10% discount, a free digital download, or access to exclusive content. Remember to focus on quality over quantity. A smaller list of people who are genuinely interested in what you offer is far more valuable than a massive list of unengaged contacts. Always get clear consent and make your unsubscribe option easy to find.

Personalize Your Content

No one likes feeling like just another number on a mailing list. Personalization is how you make your subscribers feel seen and valued. Squarespace offers a range of customizable templates that you can tailor to match your brand’s look and feel without touching a line of code. But true personalization goes deeper. Use subscriber data, like their first name, to add a personal touch to your greetings. You can also segment your audience based on their interests or purchase history to send more relevant content. Even small gestures, like acknowledging that someone is a new subscriber or a repeat customer, can significantly improve how people respond to your emails.

Get Your Timing and Frequency Right

Sending the right message at the right time is critical. This is where automation becomes your best friend. Squarespace allows you to set up helpful automated emails that save you time and engage your audience at key moments. A welcome email for new subscribers, a reminder for an abandoned cart, or a thank-you note after a purchase are all powerful ways to build relationships automatically. Finding the right sending frequency is also a balancing act. You want to stay on your audience's radar without overwhelming their inbox. Start with a consistent schedule, like a weekly newsletter, and pay attention to your analytics to see what resonates best with your subscribers.

Get the Most Out of Your Investment

Simply signing up for an email marketing tool doesn’t guarantee results. The real value comes from how you use it. To turn your subscription from an expense into a powerful asset, you need a clear strategy that guides every email you send. Without one, you’re just sending messages into the void, hoping something sticks. A thoughtful approach, on the other hand, ensures your efforts are focused, measurable, and consistently getting better over time.

Think of it like this: your email platform is the vehicle, but your strategy is the map. You need the map to know where you’re going and the best way to get there. A solid email strategy is built on three core practices: setting clear goals for what you want to achieve, measuring your results to see what’s working, and using that data to continuously refine your approach. Mastering this cycle is the key to building a strong connection with your audience and driving real growth for your business. It transforms email marketing from a task on your to-do list into a reliable engine for sales and customer loyalty. We'll walk through how to put each of these pillars into practice.

Set Clear Goals for Your Campaigns

Before you write a single word, ask yourself: What is the purpose of this email? Every campaign should have a specific, clear goal. Are you trying to drive traffic to a new blog post, announce a flash sale to increase sales, or share a personal story to build brand awareness? Defining your objective from the start makes all the other decisions easier, from writing the subject line to designing the call-to-action.

Once you know your goal, you can align your communication style and content to match. For example, a campaign aimed at generating direct sales will look very different from one designed to nurture new subscribers. Starting with a clear purpose ensures your message is focused and gives your audience a clear next step to take. This simple habit is the foundation of every effective email marketing program.

Measure and Analyze Your Results

After you hit send, your work isn’t over—it’s time to listen. Squarespace offers built-in analytics that act as your audience’s feedback. These tools let you track how your campaigns are performing, showing you who is opening your emails and how they are interacting with your content. Pay close attention to key metrics like open rates, click-through rates, and unsubscribe rates. These numbers tell a story about what resonates with your subscribers and what doesn’t.

Don’t just glance at the numbers from a single email. Look for trends over time. Do emails with a certain type of subject line get more opens? Do your subscribers click more on images or text links? Using your analytics to measure campaign success helps you understand your audience on a deeper level and gives you the concrete data you need to make smarter decisions for future campaigns.

Continuously Improve Your Strategy

The insights you gather from your analytics are only valuable if you act on them. Email marketing is not a "set it and forget it" channel; it’s a process of continuous improvement. Use the data from past campaigns to refine your strategy for the next one. If you notice that emails sent on weekend mornings have higher engagement, adjust your schedule. If a conversational tone gets more clicks than a formal one, lean into it.

This is where you can start experimenting. Try A/B testing different subject lines to see what captures more attention or test different calls-to-action to see what drives more conversions. Remember that email marketing is not a one-size-fits-all approach. Your strategy should be tailored to your specific business goals and audience. Each campaign is an opportunity to learn more about your subscribers and make the next one even better.

How Squarespace Compares to Other Platforms

Choosing an email marketing tool is often a trade-off between convenience and capability. Squarespace Email Campaigns is built for convenience, offering a streamlined experience for anyone already using its website builder. It handles the basics well, but its limitations become clear when you need to scale. For businesses that rely on high-volume outreach, the conversation shifts from all-in-one platforms to more powerful, dedicated email infrastructure.

While Squarespace provides a solid starting point, it’s important to understand how it stacks up against specialized services. A dedicated Email Service Provider (ESP) will almost always offer more advanced automation, deeper analytics, and higher sending limits. The right choice depends entirely on where your business is today and where you want it to be tomorrow. If your email strategy is central to your growth, you’ll likely need a tool built specifically for that purpose.

A Head-to-Head Feature Comparison

When you place Squarespace Email Campaigns next to other email marketing platforms, the differences become clear. It’s a solid choice for businesses on a tight budget that need to send simple newsletters or automated welcome emails. The features are straightforward and cover the essentials without overwhelming you. However, if you’re looking for advanced segmentation, complex automation workflows, or A/B testing capabilities, you’ll find it lacking.

The most significant limitation is its sending volume. According to a detailed Squarespace email marketing review, even the highest-tier plan caps you at 250,000 email sends per month, with lower-tier plans having much stricter limits. For businesses with large lists or frequent campaigns, this can be a major roadblock. Exceeding these limits can get your sending temporarily banned, which is a risk serious marketers can't afford to take.

Which Platform Is Easiest to Learn?

This is where Squarespace truly shines. Its biggest advantage is its seamless integration and user-friendly interface. If you’ve built a Squarespace website, using its email marketing tool will feel intuitive and familiar. You don’t have to learn a new system or worry about connecting third-party tools. For absolute beginners, this built-in convenience is a huge plus, as it removes the technical hurdles that often come with setting up an email marketing strategy from scratch.

This ease of use is a common topic of discussion among users, with many agreeing it’s a great starting point. The platform guides you through creating and sending emails, making the process feel accessible. However, this simplicity comes at the cost of advanced functionality. While it’s easy to learn, the ceiling for what you can achieve is lower than with more robust, specialized platforms.

How Well Does It Integrate with Other Tools?

Squarespace Email Campaigns is designed to integrate perfectly with one thing: Squarespace. It pulls your branding, fonts, and colors directly from your website, making it easy to create professional emails that look like a natural extension of your site. Adding signup forms and importing contacts from your site’s audience is effortless. If you run an e-commerce store on Squarespace, you can also set up post-purchase emails without any complicated configurations.

The challenge arises when you want to connect with tools outside the Squarespace ecosystem. Unlike dedicated ESPs that offer hundreds of integrations with CRMs, analytics software, and other marketing platforms, Squarespace is more of a closed loop. While you can get started with Email Campaigns quickly, you may find yourself limited as your marketing stack grows more sophisticated and requires data to flow between different systems.

Is Squarespace Email Marketing Right for You?

Deciding on an email marketing platform isn't just about features; it's about finding the right fit for your business stage and goals. Squarespace Email Campaigns offers a streamlined experience, but its convenience comes with trade-offs. The key is to understand what you need right now and what you'll need as you grow. Are you looking for a simple, all-in-one solution, or do you require a powerful engine for large-scale outreach?

Answering this question honestly will help you determine if Squarespace is your perfect match or just a starting point. Let's break down who benefits most from the platform and when it makes sense to explore other options.

Who Is It Really For?

Squarespace Email Campaigns is a solid choice if you're already using the platform for your website and prioritize simplicity and brand consistency. Because it's built-in, you don't have to manage another login or integration. This makes it incredibly convenient for solo entrepreneurs, small businesses, or anyone just starting to build an email list. If your main goal is to send beautifully designed newsletters that match your website's aesthetic without a steep learning curve, this tool gets the job done. It’s a great way to get started with email campaigns if you're on a tight budget and your needs are straightforward.

When to Look for an Alternative

You'll likely feel the limitations of Squarespace Email Campaigns as your business scales. If your strategy involves complex automation sequences, advanced audience segmentation, or sending high-volume campaigns, you'll quickly hit a ceiling. The platform lacks the robust features needed for serious outreach, where deliverability and detailed analytics are critical. Marketers who need to A/B test different subject lines, use custom HTML, or manage large lists will find it restrictive. When your email list is a primary driver of revenue and you can't afford for your messages to land in spam, it's time to consider a dedicated email infrastructure that can support your ambitions.

Get Started with Squarespace Email Marketing

Jumping into a new tool can feel like a big step, but Squarespace makes the initial setup fairly straightforward. The key is to not just send emails, but to build a system that works for you in the long run. Here’s how you can get your first campaign out the door and establish a foundation for lasting success.

Set Up Your First Campaign

Because Squarespace Email Campaigns is integrated directly into your site’s backend, you can get moving quickly. The platform lets you create professional emails that automatically pull in your branding, logos, and fonts, which keeps everything consistent. You can even add product blocks or blog posts to your emails with just a few clicks. Before you hit send, make sure you’re using a custom domain email address (like hello@yourwebsite.com) to help your messages avoid spam filters. Once your campaign is live, you can track its performance with built-in analytics to see who’s opening your emails and what they’re clicking on.

Set Yourself Up for Long-Term Success

A successful email strategy is about more than just one campaign; it’s about building a real connection with your audience over time. The first step is to focus on building an email list. You can add signup forms, pop-ups, and announcement bars to your website to capture visitor information. Offering a small incentive, like a discount or a free download, can make a big difference. Next, save yourself time by setting up automated emails. A simple welcome series for new subscribers or a reminder for abandoned carts can engage customers at key moments without you having to lift a finger. This approach turns your email marketing from a task into a sustainable system for growth.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can I use Squarespace Email Marketing for cold outreach? This platform is designed for permission-based marketing, meaning you should only email people who have explicitly signed up to hear from you. Using it for cold email is not a good idea, as it lacks the dedicated infrastructure needed for that kind of outreach. Doing so could hurt your sender reputation and may even lead to your account being suspended.

What happens if I exceed my plan's monthly email sending limit? If you hit the sending limit for your plan, Squarespace will typically pause your ability to send any more campaigns until the next monthly cycle begins. This is a hard stop, which can be a major issue if you’re in the middle of a launch or promotion. It’s important to choose a plan that gives you enough room to grow or consider a more robust platform if you anticipate high sending volumes.

Do I need to be a designer to make my emails look good? Not at all. One of the biggest strengths of Squarespace Email Campaigns is that it makes design easy for everyone. The platform provides clean, modern templates that automatically pull in your website’s logo, colors, and fonts. This ensures your emails look professional and stay consistent with your brand without you needing any design or coding skills.

When is the right time to move away from Squarespace to a more advanced email tool? You’ll know it’s time to look for an alternative when you start feeling the platform's limitations. The most common signs are consistently hitting your monthly sending limits, needing more sophisticated automation sequences than a simple welcome email, or wanting to run A/B tests to improve your results. If email has become a primary channel for driving revenue, you'll benefit from a dedicated platform built for growth.

Can I use Squarespace Email Campaigns if my website isn't on Squarespace? No, you can't. Squarespace Email Campaigns is an integrated feature available exclusively to Squarespace website users. Its main appeal is how seamlessly it connects to your site, so it isn't offered as a standalone product. If your website is hosted on another platform, you will need to choose a different email service provider.