The 5 best Squarespace alternatives for author websites (2026)
Looking for a Squarespace alternative? We compared the best tools for free plans, custom domains, book and series pages, and newsletter signups, on price and other aspects so you can pick the right fit for your books.
Last reviewed
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For most indie authors, BookSparker is the best Squarespace alternative. It builds your author website from your books, with series pages, buy buttons, and a newsletter signup, and it is free on every plan. If you need a blog, an online store, or complete design freedom, the general website builders below may suit you better. All five are compared fairly on price and other aspects.
The 5 best Squarespace alternatives
Ranked for indie authors who want a professional website that shows off their books and grows their mailing list, with the trade-offs called out fairly.
- 1
BookSparker
A website builder made for authors: your site is built from your books, with series pages, buy buttons and a newsletter signup, and it is free on every plan at yourname.booksparker.com. Paid plans connect your own domain, and the same account adds book swaps, group promos and landing pages.
Pros
- A complete author website, free on every plan
- Built from your books: covers, series pages in reading order and buy buttons
- Newsletter signups sent to your email provider, with a free book to offer
- A website for each author name, with your own domain on paid plans
- Change the design by describing it in your own words, or paste your own CSS
- Book swaps, group promos and landing pages in the same account
Good to know
- No blog or online store: it is a website for your books, not a general website builder
- Your own domain needs a paid plan, plus a domain you buy from a registrar
- Best for:
- Indie authors who want a professional, book-first website live today without paying for a website builder, with signups that go straight to their mailing list.
- Pricing:
- Author website free on every plan; paid plans from $15/month ($150/year) add your own domains.
- 2
Wix
Wix is one of the biggest website builders, with a drag-and-drop editor, the AI-assisted Wix Harmony editor, thousands of templates and an app market for blogs, stores and email marketing. Its free plan shows a Wix banner ad on a wixsite.com address, and your own domain needs a paid plan from $17/month billed yearly. BookSparker builds an author website from your books, with series pages, buy buttons and a newsletter signup, free on every plan.
Pros
- Thousands of templates, including dozens made for authors and writers
- A drag-and-drop editor, plus Wix Harmony with AI help built in
- A free blog, and an online store for selling e-books from the Core plan
- Strong SEO tools, including structured data markup and an automatic sitemap
- A free domain for the first year on yearly plans
Cons
- The free plan shows a Wix banner ad and uses a wixsite.com address
- Book pages, series lists and buy buttons are built and updated by hand
- Your own domain needs a paid plan, and each extra site, such as another pen name, needs its own
- Kit has no app in the Wix App Market, and its own Wix app needs a paid Kit account
- Best for:
- Authors who want complete design control, a blog or an online store to sell books direct, and who are happy to build and pay for the site themselves.
- Pricing:
- Wix has a free plan with a Wix banner ad on a wixsite.com address. Light, $17/month billed yearly or $24 month to month, connects your own domain, removes the Wix branding and includes a free domain for the first year on yearly billing. Accepting payments, for example to sell e-books, starts with Core at $29/month billed yearly, and each site needs its own plan.
- 3
WordPress.com
WordPress.com is the hosted version of WordPress, run by Automattic. Its free plan puts your site at yoursite.wordpress.com with WordPress.com ads; paid plans from $4/month billed yearly add your own domain, remove the ads and let you install plugins and themes, and every site includes a newsletter. BookSparker builds an author website from your books, with series pages, buy buttons and a newsletter signup, free on every plan.
Pros
- Your own domain from $4/month billed yearly, with a free domain for the first year
- Thousands of themes, and plugins on every paid plan
- A blog and a built-in newsletter on every plan, the free one included
- Sell e-books and take payments from the Premium plan
- It is WordPress, so your site can grow into almost anything
Cons
- The free plan shows WordPress.com ads and keeps only 7 days of stats
- No book catalog: each book page and series list is built by hand or with a plugin
- Your own domain needs a paid plan, and each extra site, such as another pen name, needs its own
- The SEO tools need Premium, and payments carry a fee below the Commerce plan
- Best for:
- Authors who blog regularly, want the WordPress world of themes and plugins, or want a low-cost single site on their own domain.
- Pricing:
- WordPress.com has a free plan with ads on a wordpress.com address. Personal is $4/month billed yearly ($48 for the first year, renewing at a higher price) or $9 month to month, and adds your own domain, no ads and plugins. Premium, $8/month billed yearly, adds the SEO tools and payment buttons for selling e-books. Prices exclude tax, a free domain covers the first year on yearly plans, and each site needs its own plan.
- 4
BookBub Author Websites
BookBub Author Websites is BookBub’s builder for author websites and email newsletters. It imports your e-book details from Amazon or BookBub, generates book pages with buy links for any retailer and sends your newsletter itself, on a free plan with no time limit that works with your own domain. BookSparker builds an author website from your books too, with series pages, a free book for signups and a newsletter signup that goes to your own email provider, on every plan.
Pros
- Your own domain on the free plan, at no extra cost
- Sends your newsletter itself, with a welcome email and open and click stats
- A blog, events, a press kit and many other page types
- Imports your e-book details from Amazon or BookBub and builds the book pages
- Pro is $7.99/month billed yearly, with a free domain for the first year
Cons
- Series pages, a free book for signups and header design need Pro
- Sending stops for the month once your list outgrows your remaining emails, so a list past 1,000 readers needs Pro
- One site per account, with pen names shown as collections on it
- Built-in labels such as Buy Now and Subscribe are in English only, prices are in US dollars, and there is no legal notice (imprint) page type
- Best for:
- Authors who want one simple site with a blog and a newsletter sent from the same place, on their own domain for free, and whose readers speak English.
- Pricing:
- BookBub Author Websites has a free plan with no time limit, and Pro at $9.99/month or $7.99/month billed yearly, with a 14-day Pro trial. Free includes 3 templates, a your-name.author-pages.com address or a domain you already own, a signup form and up to 1,000 emails a month. Pro adds series pages, a free book for signups, more templates and up to 10,000 emails a month. Prices are in US dollars.
- 5
Carrd
Carrd builds simple, responsive one-page websites. The free plan gives you up to 3 sites on a carrd.co address with a Made with Carrd note, and the Pro plans, billed yearly, add your own domain and signup forms that connect to MailerLite, Mailchimp, Kit and many other providers.
Pros
- Your own domain and signup forms for $19 a year
- Fast, clean one-page sites that look good on phones
- Signup forms for MailerLite, Mailchimp, Kit and many more
- Up to 10 sites on Pro Standard, enough for several pen names
Cons
- One page per site, so no separate page for each book or series
- Book layouts and buy buttons are built by hand
- The free plan has the Made with Carrd note, no forms and a 50-element limit
- Best for:
- Debut or single-series authors who want a cheap, simple one-page site on their own domain and do not mind building it by hand.
- Pricing:
- Free for up to 3 sites; Pro Lite $9/year, Pro Standard $19/year (your own domain and forms, up to 10 sites), Pro Plus $49/year.
Squarespace: marketing vs reality
The marketing promise
What to weigh up
- No free plan: after the 14-day trial the site goes offline unless you pay
- No author templates or book catalog, so book pages and series lists are built by hand
- Embedded signup forms with JavaScript, code injection and the Mailchimp integration need the Core plan
- Each extra site, such as another pen name, needs its own plan
At a glance
Philosophy, setup, pricing, and who each tool is for.
Philosophy
BookSparker
Squarespace
Free plan
BookSparker
Squarespace
Your own domain
BookSparker
Squarespace
Setup
BookSparker
Squarespace
Best for
BookSparker
Squarespace
Full feature comparison
Every feature, BookSparker vs Squarespace.
Free plan
Squarespace has a 14-day free trial; the site goes offline when it ends unless you pay for a plan.
BookSparker
Squarespace
Your own domain
BookSparker
Squarespace
Book and series pages built from your catalog
Squarespace has no author templates or book catalog, so each book page is built by hand.
BookSparker
Squarespace
Newsletter signups to your email provider
Kit connects through Zapier, and embedding a provider’s signup form with JavaScript needs the Core plan.
BookSparker
Squarespace
A website for each pen name
BookSparker
Squarespace
Blog
BookSparker
Squarespace
Sell e-books directly
Basic charges a 2% fee on sales and Core and up charge none, plus card processing fees.
BookSparker
Squarespace
Free domain for the first year
BookSparker connects a domain you buy from any registrar.
BookSparker
Squarespace
Templates and design
BookSparker
Squarespace
SEO settings
BookSparker
Squarespace
Visitor stats
BookSparker
Squarespace
Free book for newsletter signups
BookSparker
Squarespace
Book swaps, group promos and landing pages
BookSparker
Squarespace
Where Squarespace falls short for authors
What a Squarespace author website costs
Squarespace has no free plan. Every site starts with a 14-day trial, stays private while it runs, and goes offline when it ends unless you pay. Basic, at $19/month billed yearly or $25 month to month, puts your site on your own domain with a free domain for the first year on yearly billing, and Core, at $29/month billed yearly, adds the Mailchimp integration and code embeds. Each site needs its own plan, so a second pen name is a second subscription.
BookSparker’s author website is free on every plan, with no ads. Growing Author, at $15/month or $150/year, connects up to 4 domains, one for each author name, and includes book swaps, group promos and landing pages.
Beautiful templates, but no books
Squarespace has more than 200 designer templates, but none made for authors and no catalog of your books. Every book page, cover, blurb, buy button and series list is built by hand and kept up to date on every page where the book appears.
BookSparker builds your site from the books in your account. Books in a series group together, each series gets its own page in reading order, and every book gets a buy button, so adding a new release takes a minute.
Newsletter signups that reach your list
Squarespace’s own Email Campaigns is a paid add-on, billed separately from your site plan. Sending signups to Mailchimp needs the Core plan, Kit connects through Zapier, and embedding a provider’s signup form with JavaScript also needs Core.
BookSparker’s signup sends each reader straight to the email provider you connect, such as MailerLite, Kit or Mailchimp, on every plan, and can offer one of your books free for joining, delivered by email.
Squarespace alternatives: FAQs
How we evaluated these alternatives
We focused on what an author website has to do, ranking each builder on the criteria that matter to indie authors:
- A free plan, or a fair price for a site on your own domain
- Book and series pages, with buy buttons readers can't miss
- Newsletter signups that reach your email provider
- How quickly you get a finished site, with no code or plugins
- Room to grow: more pen names, and a blog or a store if you need one
Pricing and features for each tool are checked against their live sites; figures marked approximate are gated or quote-based.
Last reviewed
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