business website builder | plan cost, fees lost, break-even

A local studio in the US selling $3,000 a month online on Squarespace Basic pays $2,226 a year for its website, not the $228 plan price, and $600 of that is a builder fee it would not pay on a 0%-fee plan (made-up example, computed with the calculator).

The sum, line by line

The studio sells $3,000 a month, so 3,000 × 12 = $36,000 a year. Squarespace Basic is $19 a month billed yearly: 19 × 12 = $228. Basic adds a 2% transaction fee on online store sales: 36,000 × 2% = $720. Card processing is 2.9% + $0.30 per order: 36,000 × 2.9% = $1,044, plus 600 orders × $0.30 = $180. One sale in ten is paid with an international card, which adds 1.5%: 36,000 × 10% × 1.5% = $54. Card fees total $1,278. Everything together: 228 + 720 + 1,278 = $2,226, which is 6.18% of sales.

Why the cheaper plan costs more

Squarespace Core is $29 a month billed yearly, $348 a year, and charges 0% transaction fee. The card fees stay the same on both plans, so Core costs 348 + 1,278 = $1,626. Basic costs $2,226. The difference, $600 a year, is the fee lost by staying on the cheaper plan.

The two plans cost the same at one point. Core is $10 a month more. The 2% fee eats $10 at 10 / 2% = $500 of monthly sales. Below $500 a month Basic is cheaper; above it Core is. A shop at $400 a month pays $494.40 a year on Basic and $518.40 on Core, so it should stay. A shop at $8,000 a month with $120 orders loses $1,800 a year on Basic.

Where these numbers come from

All figures were read on 2026-11-11. Squarespace pricing (squarespace.com/pricing): Basic $19 a month billed yearly with a 2% transaction fee, Core $29 with 0%, card processing 2.9% + $0.30 on both, international cards +1.5%. A free custom domain is included for the first year of an annual plan only; after that it renews at the standard rate. Stripe (stripe.com/pricing): 2.9% + 30¢ for US cards, +1.5% for international cards, +1% if currency conversion is needed. Wix (wix.com/plans) lists its plans billed yearly with a free domain for 1 year, and Wix Payments in the US charges 2.9% + $0.30 with +1.5% cross-border.

The renewal is the moment to check

Builder plans billed yearly renew in one charge. Many Wix reviews on Trustpilot are about renewals and charges after cancelling. The calculator does not change your plan; it shows which plan costs less at your own sales before the charge arrives. Type last year's online sales from your builder or Stripe dashboard, your average order and the share of international cards, and read the fee lost. If it is above 0, the switch pays for itself.

Free on the page, paid in the workbook

The whole yearly answer is free on the page for your own numbers, as often as you like. The workbook keeps it: cost per order ($3.71 in the example), the fee lost over 3 years ($1,800) and a 12-month ledger where you type each month's real online sales and see the builder fee so far against the extra cost of the 0%-fee plan.