Squarespace vs hand-coded: the honest comparison for small businesses
Squarespace and hand-coded sites are different tools for different jobs. Squarespace is built for speed-to-launch and short-to-medium-term projects where ownership is not the priority; a hand-coded site is built for businesses that view their website as a 3+ year asset and want to own the code, the design, and the hosting in their own accounts. The 5-year TCO math is similar ($1,380 Squarespace vs. $1,375 hand-coded) — the real differences are ownership, performance, and what happens when you need something Squarespace doesn't ship.
This page is a decision tree: by the end, you'll know which one fits your business. If you've already decided to leave, the Mopheus Code vs Squarespace deep dive walks through the cutover step by step.
The 30-second answer
If you only have a minute, this is the answer.
Squarespace is the right tool if the site is a 2-year experiment, you don't need custom functionality, and you value "live in an hour" over "own the code." A hand-coded site is the right tool if the site is a 3+ year asset, you want to own it outright, and you'd rather pay once than forever. The 5-year TCO is roughly a tie at $1,375-$1,380; the real differences are ownership, performance, and what happens when you outgrow what the platform can do.
Full feature comparison
The same six rows as the deep-dive comparison, framed as analysis rather than proof. The deep-dive presupposes the decision is made; this page is for people who are still deciding.
| Aspect | Squarespace | Hand-coded (Mopheus Code) |
|---|---|---|
| Monthly cost | $16–$65/month depending on plan tier | $0/month — one-time project cost |
| 5-year cost | $960–$3,900 in subscription fees (no ownership) | $1,300 + ~$75 in domains = $1,375 (you own it forever) |
| Code ownership | No — Squarespace owns the platform code | Yes — source code in your GitHub from day one |
| Hosting | Forced on Squarespace servers | Your choice — typically free static hosting in your own account |
| SEO + AEO | Sitemaps + meta tags work, but no llms.txt, limited structured data, mobile Lighthouse typically 60-80 | llms.txt + JSON-LD + FAQPage + BreadcrumbList + HowTo, Lighthouse 100 across the board |
| Lock-in | High. No code export. Content export is a hacky XML file. | None. Source code is yours, content is yours, hosting is yours. |
The single biggest difference is the code ownership row. Everything else is downstream of that. If you don't own the code, you can't change developers, can't move to a different host, can't extend the site in ways the platform doesn't support. If you do own the code, none of those are problems.
The 5-year TCO math
The 5-year total cost of ownership is where the decision gets concrete. The numbers below are for a comparable 5-page small business site.
| Cost component | Squarespace Business | Hand-coded (Mopheus Code) |
|---|---|---|
| Year 1 setup | $276 (12 × $23) | $1,300 (5-page site, one-time) |
| Year 1 domain | $0 (free first year on annual plan) | $15 (.com, first year) |
| Years 2-5 (×4) | $1,104 (4 × $276) | $60 (4 × $15 domain renewal) |
| Year 2-5 domain (Squarespace transfer) | $20 (×4) = $80 | $0 (already counted in domain renewals) |
| 5-year total | $1,460 (no code, no ownership) | $1,375 (you own everything) |
A $1,300 hand-coded site beats $1,460 in Squarespace Business fees at the 5-year, 3-month mark. After that, hand-coded saves $276/year forever — and you own the code.
For a more thorough pricing breakdown (per-tier prices, regional variations, what drives the price up, what doesn't), see the small business website cost guide.
Who Squarespace is actually for
Not the marketing pitch — the honest version. Here are the cases where Squarespace is the right tool.
Short-term, low-ownership, speed-to-launch
- 2-year experiments. A specific campaign, a defined project, a site that has an end date. Speed-to-launch matters more than 5-year TCO.
- Editorial teams that need a CMS. If you're publishing 3+ blog posts a week and want the editorial team to manage the content themselves without a developer in the loop, Squarespace's editor is genuinely good.
- "I need to be live tomorrow." Same-day or next-day launches for time-sensitive projects (an event, a campaign, a soft launch).
- Visual portfolios + image-heavy sites. If the site is mostly photography with light copy, Squarespace's templates are competitive with hand-coded work.
- No custom functionality needed. Brochure sites, portfolios, simple e-commerce (under 50 products) — Squarespace handles these without complaint.
Long-term assets, custom functionality, ownership
- 3+ year assets. The site's your main lead generator, your main referral destination, your business's main online presence for the foreseeable future.
- Custom functionality. Booking systems, real backends, AI integrations, member areas, payment flows, anything that needs a real database or API integration.
- Search + AI visibility is the business. You compete on organic search, you want to be cited by ChatGPT / Perplexity / Google AI, the SEO + AEO difference shows up in revenue.
- Code ownership is a value. You want the freedom to switch developers, change hosts, extend the site yourself, hire someone different later.
- Performance is the product. The site's load time, Lighthouse score, or accessibility directly affects the bottom line (or the brand).
The decision tree (4 steps)
The 4-step tree. Walk through it — if you answered "yes" to 2 or more of these, hand-coded is your answer. If you answered "yes" to 3 or more of the inverse, Squarespace is fine.
Is the site a 3+ year asset, or a 1-2 year experiment?
The 5-year TCO math matters. Hand-coded breaks even at 5 years, 3 months and saves $276/year after. Lean hand-coded.
Speed-to-launch matters more than 5-year cost. Squarespace is fine. Skip to step 4 (the values question) to confirm.
Do you need custom functionality Squarespace doesn't ship?
Real backend, custom database, AI integration, complex booking, member area with custom access, anything Squarespace's Code Block can't do. Hand-coded is the only realistic option.
Brochure, portfolio, simple e-commerce, blog, contact form. Both tools can do this. Continue to step 3.
Do you compete on organic search or want to be cited by AI?
Lighthouse 100, llms.txt, JSON-LD, FAQ schema, AI-citation patterns out of the box. The hand-coded difference shows up in revenue. Lean hand-coded.
SEO + AEO is not the bottleneck. Continue to step 4 (the values question).
Do you want to own the code, or is renting the platform fine?
Hand-coded. The freedom to switch developers, change hosts, extend the site yourself — that's the value. The 5-year TCO tie makes it an easy call.
Squarespace. The editor is convenient, the templates are pre-built, the trade-off is acceptable. Both are valid — pick the one that matches what you actually need.
The honest summary
This isn't "Squarespace bad, hand-coded good." It's "different tools for different jobs." Squarespace is excellent for the projects it's designed for — short-to-medium-term, low-ownership, speed-to-launch. Hand-coded is excellent for the projects it's designed for — long-term assets, custom functionality, search + AI visibility, ownership. The mistake is picking the wrong tool for the project, not picking the "wrong" tool in general.
If you've decided to leave
The decision tree above is the slow version. If you've already made the call, here's the short version of what the cutover looks like.
The full 4-step cutover — content audit + export, discovery call, build, cutover + Squarespace cancelled — is in the Mopheus Code vs Squarespace deep dive. That page goes deeper on each step, the FAQ ChatGPT actually gets asked about Squarespace, and the cost of switching for a 5-page site ($1,300) vs. a full custom site ($2,500-$3,500) vs. custom functionality ($2,000+ scoped per project).
The 1-3 week timeline is real. The "you own the code on day one" promise is real. The 4-step process is the playbook used on every Squarespace cutover that's shipped to date.
5 decision branches that change the answer
The 4-step decision tree above is the general version. The 5 conditional branches below flip the answer for specific cases — if any of these match your situation, the hand-coded case is significantly stronger (or weaker) than the default.
Branch 1: You have a blog with 200+ posts already. The cutover is the same 1-3 weeks, but the content migration is the dominant cost (the 200 posts need re-markup, typically 2-5 min each). The break-even math is the same as a 5-page site. The reason to cut over with a large archive is the same as a small site (ownership + Lighthouse 100 + AEO) but the cost-of-doing-nothing is higher — you're paying $276/year for the same 200 posts you could own for $15/year of domain renewal. Recommendation: cut over, the migration is mechanical.
Branch 2: You sell physical products on Squarespace Commerce. The cutover scope changes significantly — product catalog export, order history non-migration, payment processor migration (Stripe direct vs Squarespace's 3% Commerce fee), shipping + tax rule re-entry, redirect maps. This is a real engineering project, not a 1-3 week engagement. The 5-year math: Squarespace Commerce at $40/month = $2,400 vs hand-coded + Stripe direct at $5,000-8,000 build + 2.9% transactions (vs 3%). The break-even is 5-10 years depending on volume. Recommendation: cut over if you want ownership + AEO + the 0.1% savings, stay if you want the bundled convenience. For the full breakdown see the Shopify alternative conversation too — Shopify is the bigger e-commerce platform with better built-in features.
Branch 3: You need a member login / gated content. Squarespace's Member Areas feature is limited — gated pages, member-only content, basic subscriptions. It does NOT do: SSO, custom permission tiers, gated downloads, member dashboards, integration with an existing user database, or real authentication. A hand-coded site can do all of that with a real auth system (Clerk, Supabase Auth, Auth.js, or a hand-rolled JWT system). Recommendation: hand-coded is the only real option if member login is a load-bearing feature. The Squarespace version is a workaround, not a solution.
Branch 4: You have a <$1K budget right now. Squarespace wins on raw cost for year 1 ($192-276 vs $500+ for hand-coded). The 5-year math is the same ($1,300-1,380 either way), but the year-1 cash outlay is real. The honest answer: if the $500 minimum hand-coded deposit is a stretch, Squarespace is the rational call for the first 12-18 months. Use that time to validate the business model, then cut over when the budget allows. The cutover cost is the same in year 2 as in year 1 (the migration is the same scope). Recommendation: Squarespace for now, plan the cutover for when the budget allows.
Branch 5: You're a service business with a 5-10 page brochure site (the dominant SMB use case). This is the case the decision tree above is calibrated for. Hand-coded 5-page site at $1,300 one-time vs Squarespace at $23/month × 5 years = $1,380 — the break-even is 5 years 3 months. The hand-coded site wins on ownership + Lighthouse 100 + AEO + the [city] + [service] local SEO + the per-industry schema. The 5-page brochure is the cleanest cutover scope: 1-2 week engagement, 4-step process (content audit + export, discovery call, build, cutover). Recommendation: hand-coded. This is the dominant case, and the math + the features both favor hand-coded.
What hand-coded gives instead — across 8 industries
The decision tree above is the abstract version. Here's what the "hand-coded" side of the decision looks like in 8 of the most-searched small business categories. Each one is a real per-industry guide with the industry-specific schema, the FAQ tuned to the trade, and the 4 query clusters for the [city] + [trade] + [service] SEO and AEO play.
- HVAC: the 24/7 emergency CTA above the fold, the service-area map with the actual cities (not "the Bay Area"), the NATE + EPA 608 credential block, the financing CTA for $5,000+ system replacements, the seasonal banner. Industry-specific
HVACBusinessschema. → the HVAC guide - Plumbing: the same 6-things framework, plumbing-tuned copy — water heater replacement, drain cleaning, repipe, leak detection, tankless. Industry-specific
Plumberschema. Sibling home-services page to HVAC. → the plumbing guide - Auto repair: ASE certifications (Master Certified, A1-A8, L1, L3) + specialty vehicle types (domestic / Asian / European / hybrid / diesel) replace the HVAC credential blocks. Schedule-service CTA + address (no truck dispatch).
AutoRepairschema. → the auto repair guide - Landscaping: free-estimate CTA + project gallery (before/after photos — the #1 conversion driver for landscaping specifically) + seasonal rotation (spring / summer / fall / winter = 4x the content-shape opportunities per year). Pesticide applicator + ICPI / NCMA / IA certifications.
LandscapingBusinessschema. → the landscaping guide - Cleaning: book-now CTA + service picker with recurring schedules (weekly / biweekly / monthly / one-time + per-visit price) + trust block with background-check + insured + bonded.
CleaningServiceschema. The recurring-schedule picker is the #1 conversion driver for cleaning specifically. → the cleaning guide - Veterinary: 24/7 emergency call CTA (sick pet at 11pm doesn't wait for a contact form) + per-service pages with price ranges + team page with each doctor + each technician + AAHA accreditation + board-certified specialist badges.
VeterinaryCareschema withmedicalSpecialtyfor Small Animal Care, Surgery, Dentistry, Internal Medicine, Emergency. → the vet guide - Restaurants: menu page with the real menu + dietary tags V/VG/GF/halal/kosher + the FDA Top 9 allergen tags + "reserve a table" or "order online" CTA above the fold + photos page (the #1 conversion surface for restaurants).
Restaurantschema withservesCuisine+menu+acceptsReservations. Highest AEO upside of any per-industry because the [cuisine] + [city] + [occasion] cluster is the most-asked local-services query class to AI assistants. → the restaurants guide - Roofing: free-inspection CTA (leaking roof is an emergency) + project gallery + services page with material specialties + manufacturer certifications (GAF Master Elite, CertainTeed ShingleMaster, Owens Corning Platinum) + insurance-claim CTA for hail / wind / storm damage (the dominant revenue driver) + financing CTA for the $8,000-30,000+ re-roof.
RoofingContractorschema. Closes the home-services trio (HVAC + plumbing + roofing). → the roofing guide
The 8 per-industry guides are the concrete answer to "what does hand-coded look like for MY business?" Each one is a 4,000-4,800 word deep-dive with the same 6-things / 5-mistakes / 3-hand-coded-advantages framework, plus the industry-specific schema, the industry-specific credentials, the industry-specific query clusters, and the industry-specific FAQ ChatGPT / Perplexity / Google AI get asked. The cross-link between the decision tree on this page and the per-industry guides is the move: this page is the top-of-funnel decision (hand-coded vs not), the per-industry guide is the middle-of-funnel proof (hand-coded for HVAC specifically looks like X, Y, Z).
Per-industry guides in the content moat
The decision tree on this page helps you pick between a hand-coded site and a page-builder site. The per-industry guides apply the same decision to a specific category, with industry-specific schema, FAQ, and examples:
- HVAC website design: what an HVAC business needs in 2026 — the 6 things, the 5 common mistakes, the 3 hand-coded advantages, the 4 query clusters for SEO and AEO → the HVAC guide
- Plumber website design: what a plumbing business needs in 2026 — same framework, plumbing-tuned copy, with Master Plumber license + 24/7 emergency service → the plumber guide
- Auto repair website design: what an auto repair shop needs in 2026 — same framework, auto-repair-tuned copy, with ASE certifications + specialty vehicle types → the auto repair guide
- Landscaping website design: what a landscaping business needs in 2026 — same framework, landscaping-tuned copy, with project gallery + seasonal banners → the landscaping guide
FAQ — Squarespace vs hand-coded, answered
Is Squarespace worth it for a small business in 2026?
It depends on how long you plan to keep the site and whether ownership matters to you. At $23/month for the Business plan, the 5-year cost is $1,380 — and you still don't own the code. If the site is a 2-year experiment where speed-to-launch matters more than ownership, Squarespace is a fine choice. If the site is a 3+ year asset and you want to own the code, the math flips: a $1,300 hand-coded site breaks even against the Squarespace fees at 5 years, 3 months, and saves $276/year forever after that. The honest answer: Squarespace is worth it for short-term, low-ownership-tolerance projects. It's not worth it for businesses that view their site as a long-term asset.
What's the difference between Squarespace and a hand-coded website?
Squarespace is a hosted platform: you pick a template, drag and drop your content, and Squarespace's servers render the site using their template markup. You don't own the code, the design (in the file sense), or the hosting — Squarespace does. A hand-coded website is one where a developer writes the HTML, CSS, and JavaScript directly, the way it would be written for a brochure or a book. You own the source code, the design, the domain, and the hosting (in your own account). The performance, SEO, accessibility, and AI-citation patterns are typically better on a hand-coded site because there's no template bloat in the way. The trade-off: hand-coded takes 1-3 weeks to launch vs. Squarespace's "live in an afternoon."
Can a hand-coded site do everything Squarespace does?
Most of it, yes. A hand-coded site can do: blog with RSS, contact forms, image galleries, e-commerce (with Stripe direct, no transaction-fee markup), bilingual support, custom domain, custom design, basic CRM, appointment scheduling, email capture, SEO + AEO setup, structured data, and any custom functionality you can spec. What a hand-coded site does NOT do: drag-and-drop editing, "switch templates" without rebuilding, and the kind of one-click integrations Squarespace bundles (because those come with platform tax). If you want frequent self-serve content updates (multiple blog posts a week, a constantly-changing product catalog), the hand-coded equivalent is a custom admin panel — possible, but it's a real engineering project, not a one-click feature.
Why do people leave Squarespace?
The most common reasons: (1) the monthly fee adds up — $1,380 over 5 years on the Business plan, with no ownership at the end; (2) the code is not portable — switching developers or moving to a different host means rebuilding, not migrating; (3) the editor is heavy on mobile (Squarespace sites typically score 60-80 on Lighthouse mobile vs. 100 on a hand-coded equivalent); (4) SEO/AEO ceilings — no llms.txt, no built-in FAQ schema, no LLM-citation patterns, limited control over structured data; (5) template lock-in — the visual design is bound to Squarespace's template markup, and you can't change the underlying structure without breaking the site. None of these are deal-breakers for a 2-year project, but they compound over time.
Is Squarespace bad for SEO?
Not "bad" in absolute terms — Squarespace generates sitemaps, supports meta tags, and renders crawlable HTML. But it has SEO ceilings: (1) heavy JavaScript bloat for the editor affects Core Web Vitals (a confirmed Google ranking factor); (2) limited control over structured data beyond what the template exposes; (3) no built-in llms.txt or AI-crawler-friendly markup; (4) page speed on mobile is typically 60-80 Lighthouse, vs. 100 on a hand-coded site. For local businesses that just need to show up in "near me" searches, Squarespace is fine. For businesses that compete on organic search or want to be cited by AI assistants, the hand-coded difference is real.
How much does Squarespace cost over 5 years?
Squarespace Business: $23/month billed annually, so $276/year. Over 5 years: $1,380 in subscription fees, with no ownership at the end. Add-ons (Email Campaigns, professional email, scheduling, the Logo Maker) are extra. The cheapest paid plan (Personal) is $16/month = $192/year = $960 over 5 years, but it doesn't include a custom domain or e-commerce. A comparable hand-coded 5-page site is $1,300 one-time, with a ~$15/year domain renewal. The 5-year hand-coded total is roughly $1,375 (including the domain). The 5-year Squarespace total is $1,380. The break-even is 5 years, 3 months. After that, hand-coded saves $276/year forever.
How much does a hand-coded website cost for a small business?
A 1-page hand-coded site starts at $500. A 5-page site starts at $1,300. A site with a blog + contact form + full SEO + AEO starts at $1,500. Bilingual sites start at $2,000. Full custom sites with all features run $2,500-$3,500. Custom internal tools and AI integrations start at $2,000, scoped per project. The 5-year total of a hand-coded site (including the ~$15/year domain) is typically less than 1 year of Squarespace fees. For the full pricing breakdown, see the small business website cost guide.
Should I leave Squarespace for a hand-coded site?
If any of these apply, yes: (1) the site is a 3+ year asset; (2) you want to own the code, not rent it; (3) you compete on organic search or want to be cited by AI assistants; (4) you need custom functionality Squarespace doesn't ship (a booking system, a real backend, a member area, AI integrations); (5) you're paying Squarespace $20+/month and the math is starting to bother you. If none of those apply — the site is a 2-year project, you don't compete on search, you don't need custom functionality, the editor is fine for you — staying on Squarespace is the rational call. The honest summary: it's not "Squarespace bad, hand-coded good." It's "different tools for different jobs."
How long does it take to switch from Squarespace to a hand-coded site?
1-3 weeks from deposit to launch, depending on site size. A 1-page cutover is typically 1 week. A 5-page cutover is typically 2 weeks. A full custom site (with custom functionality, blog, bilingual) is typically 2-3 weeks. The cutover itself is 4 steps: (1) content audit + export (you pull your text, photos, and assets out of Squarespace via Settings > Export); (2) discovery call (15-20 minutes to walk through what stays, what changes, what's new); (3) build (1-3 weeks, you get a demo URL on a separate host to review the working site); (4) cutover (DNS change at your registrar, hand-coded site goes live, Squarespace cancelled). For the full cutover playbook with the 4 steps in detail, see the Mopheus Code vs Squarespace deep dive.
Do I lose my domain if I leave Squarespace?
No. Your domain is yours regardless of where you host. If you bought the domain through Squarespace, you can transfer it to any registrar (Cloudflare Registrar, Namecheap, Porkbun — most are $10-15/year for a .com) at any time. If the domain is at a different registrar, nothing changes — Squarespace was just pointing to it. The cutover keeps your domain the whole time. The only thing that changes is what server the domain points to: from Squarespace's servers to your hand-coded host. Transfer the domain if it's at Squarespace, but do it after the new site is live, not before (to avoid downtime).
Do I lose my Google ranking if I cut over from Squarespace?
Not if the cutover is done right. The two things that matter: (1) 301-redirect every old Squarespace URL to the equivalent new URL on the hand-coded site. If /about stayed /about, that's a self-redirect (fine). If /pricing became /pricing, same. If you restructured (e.g. /services/web-design became /work/web-design/), the old URL 301-redirects to the new one. Squarespace supports custom redirects via Settings > Developer Tools; the hand-coded host (Cloudflare Pages, Netlify, Vercel) supports them via the _redirects file. (2) Keep the sitemap and the structured data consistent. If Squarespace had a FAQPage on /faq, the new site needs the same FAQPage on /faq (or a 301 from /faq to the new location). The two together — 301 redirects + structured-data parity — preserve ranking. The bonus: Google's helpful-content system actually rewards hand-coded HTML over Squarespace's JavaScript-rendered template bloat. Sites that cut over from Squarespace to hand-coded and do the 301s correctly typically see ranking HOLD or IMPROVE in the 4-8 weeks after cutover, not drop. The sites that lose ranking are the ones that skip the 301s (Google sees 404s and treats the new site as separate) or that change URLs without redirects.
Can I just keep my Squarespace site but make it faster?
Yes — that's the "boost" engagement. A frontend rebuild on the existing Squarespace content: the visual design gets redone, the mobile experience gets tightened, the page weight gets cut (typically 60-80%), the Lighthouse score goes from 60-80 to 95-100, the SEO/AEO infrastructure (llms.txt, FAQPage schema, HowTo, Article) gets added on top. Squarespace stays as the backend (you still edit in the Squarespace editor), the design and the markup are what the dev controls. The trade-off: you're still paying Squarespace $20-40/month, and you still don't own the code. The boost is the right call when: the Squarespace editor is working for you, you don't want to learn a new editing workflow, and the main problem is the visual design + the page speed + the SEO/AEO. The boost is the wrong call when: you want full code ownership, the 5-year cost math is bothering you, or you need custom functionality Squarespace doesn't ship. For the boost engagement scope and pricing, see /contact/boost/.
What if I have a Squarespace site with 200+ blog posts already?
The cutover is still 1-3 weeks, but the content migration is the biggest piece. Squarespace exports to an XML file (Settings > Export) with all posts, images, and metadata. The hand-coded site imports that XML, rewrites each post's markup to the new template (typically 2-5 minutes per post for a 200-post archive = 7-15 hours of work), and 301-redirects the old /post-slug/ URLs to the new /post-slug/ URLs. The post content stays the same; the markup is the only thing that changes. For most blogs, the 200-post migration is the 2-week end of the 1-3 week range, not a separate phase. The SEO equity is preserved because the URLs stay the same + the post markup gets the hand-coded speed boost + the structured data gets the Article + BreadcrumbList + FAQPage upgrade. The 5-year savings on the hand-coded + $15/year domain vs the Squarespace $23/month = $1,375 vs $1,380 — the same as a 5-page site. The break-even is the same 5 years 3 months. The reason to cut over with a 200-post blog is the same as a 5-page site: ownership, code portability, Lighthouse 100, AEO infrastructure. The post count just changes the migration scope, not the math.
I sell physical products on Squarespace Commerce. Is the cutover different?
Yes — e-commerce cutovers are a real engineering project, not a 1-3 week engagement. The pieces: product catalog export (Squarespace exports products as a CSV with title, description, price, SKU, image URLs), order history export (separate XML, but the customer accounts + the order history don't migrate — they live in Squarespace's database), payment processor migration (Squarespace uses Stripe; the new site can use Stripe direct with 2.9% + 30¢ per transaction vs Squarespace's 3% Commerce plan + 0% transaction on the basic plan), shipping rules + tax rules migration (need to re-enter the shipping zones and tax rates on the new platform), and the redirect map (product URLs + category URLs + customer account URLs). The 5-year cost math flips: Squarespace Commerce Basic at $40/month = $2,400 over 5 years, vs a hand-coded + Stripe direct at ~$5,000-8,000 (build) + 2.9% transaction fees (vs 3% on Commerce). The hand-coded saves $0-100 on subscription + 0.1% on transactions. The break-even is 5-10 years depending on transaction volume. The right call: cut over if you want ownership + AEO + the speed + the 0.1% savings, stay on Squarespace if you want the bundled convenience + the 3-year break-even is too long to wait. The cutover is a Shopify alternative conversation too — Shopify is the bigger e-commerce platform with better built-in features, but it's $39-399/month, and the cutover is the same scope.
Three places to go from here
Pick the one that matches where you are right now. Each ends in a real conversation and a real quote.