The UK-based Squarespace alternative
Orbit Commerce vs Squarespace.
Looking for a Squarespace alternative for serious selling? Squarespace makes the most beautiful sites in the mainstream market. It also takes 2% of every Basic-plan sale, gates the shipping and discount tools to higher tiers, and charges 3% + 25p on business cards at every level. Orbit is UK-based and shop-first: no platform fee on your sales, and the commerce depth in the plan.
| Orbit Commerce | Squarespace | |
|---|---|---|
| UK plans | Solo £25 / Team £85 / Pro £249 per month (£19/£64/£187 yearly) | Basic £16 / Core £24 / Advanced £37 per month (£12/£17/£25 yearly, ex VAT) |
| Platform fee on product sales | None on any plan | 2% on Basic; 0% on Core and Advanced |
| Fee on digital products & memberships | None. Subscriptions included (Team and up) | 7% on Basic, 5% on Core, 0% only on Advanced |
| UK card rate (own payments) | 2% / 1.7% / 1.5% + 25p by plan | 2% + 25p (Basic & Core), 1.5% + 25p (Advanced); business cards 3% + 25p on all plans |
| Carrier shipping, auto discounts, Google Shopping | Included in the plan | Core plan and above |
| Custom code & tracking pixels | Included in the plan | Core plan and above |
| Abandoned-cart recovery & reviews | Included in the plan | Included on every plan. Credit where due |
| Staff accounts | 1 / 10 / 40 by plan | 2 on Basic; unlimited on Core and above |
| Multi-warehouse inventory & operations | Built in on higher plans | Not part of the platform |
| Free trial | 14 days, full platform, no card required | 14 days, no card, but trial sites can’t accept payments |
A design platform with a shop, or a shop-first platform.
The honest centre of this comparison: two products with different centres of gravity.
Squarespace is a design platform that grew a shop. Its templates are the best-looking in the mainstream market. For a photographer, restaurant, studio or creative business whose website is the product, it's an excellent choice, with scheduling, member areas and email built in around the site.
Orbit is a shop that comes with a builder. Catalogue, checkout, subscriptions and inventory were designed together as the core of the product, with a page builder that competes on function. When the products are the business, the differences are operational. No platform percentage on your sales. Carrier shipping and discount automation in the plan rather than a tier up. Card rates that step down as you grow. An inventory layer that handles multiple warehouses.
The fees behind the plan price.
Squarespace's plans are cheaper on the page. The percentages are where a growing shop pays.
Squarespace's UK plans are Basic at £16, Core at £24 and Advanced at £37 a month (£12, £17 and £25 billed annually), quoted excluding VAT. A non-VAT-registered seller pays 20% more than the page suggests. Cheaper than Orbit's £25 entry point, and for a site with occasional sales that difference is real. Then the percentages start.
On the Basic plan, Squarespace takes 2% of every physical product sale as a platform fee, on top of card processing. Selling digital products, courses or memberships costs more still: 7% on Basic and 5% on Core, reaching 0% only on Advanced. And whichever plan you're on, a customer paying with a business or corporate card costs 3% + 25p. A rate many shops selling to other businesses will feel constantly.
Orbit's pricing is the other way around: a higher plan price, then no platform percentage on anything. Card rates are published per plan (2% + 25p, 1.7% + 25p, 1.5% + 25p online) and subscriptions with failed-payment recovery, gift cards and abandoned-cart recovery are part of the plan. At £2,000 a month of Basic-plan sales, the 2% platform fee alone is £480 a year. Several times the annual price gap between the two entry plans, before the digital fee or the business-card rate is counted.
Worth crediting where due: Squarespace includes abandoned-checkout recovery, customer reviews and subscription selling on every plan. Gates that some bigger rivals keep much higher up the ladder.
Who should pick which.
Different businesses, different right answers. Here's our honest take.
Choose Orbit Commerce if…
- The shop is the business and the percentages matter: no platform fee on sales, and card rates that improve as you grow.
- You sell digital products, courses or subscriptions and don’t want 5–7% of that revenue going to the platform below its top tier.
- You need the operational layer (carrier shipping, discount automation, multi-warehouse inventory) in the plan, not a tier up.
- You sell to other businesses and can’t carry 3% + 25p on every corporate card.
- You want UK-first: pounds, UK gateways and couriers, support in your timezone.
Squarespace may fit better if…
- The website is the product (portfolio, studio, hospitality) and the shop is a graceful sideline.
- Design pedigree and templates matter more than commerce depth, and the all-in-one spread (scheduling, member areas, email) fits your business.
- Your volumes are small enough that a £12–£25 annual-billing plan plus the fees still totals less than a shop-first platform.
Moving from Squarespace, without losing your rankings.
Switching platforms sounds scarier than it is. Here's what actually moves.
Products and customers export from Squarespace as CSV, and Orbit's importer takes CSV or Excel files with as many rows as you have. Products land with variants and images mapped, and customers keep their details. URL structures differ between the platforms, so redirects are set up for whatever ranks before you switch. That's the part of replatforming that most often goes wrong.
Run the import from your dashboard and point your domain when you're ready. Or book a free migration call and walk your catalogue through it with our team first. Email and live chat support are included on every plan; see pricing for what each plan includes.
Questions, answered.
Straight answers from the team building it. If we don't know, we'll tell you.
Squarespace pricing and features checked 1 August 2026 against squarespace.com/pricing & support.squarespace.com and other published sources, and reviewed regularly. Squarespace is a trademark of its respective owner; all figures exclude VAT unless stated. Spotted something out of date? Tell us.
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