The Best Squarespace Alternative for Canadian Small Businesses (Own It)

Squarespace is design-forward, but you rent it forever

There's no arguing Squarespace looks sharp out of the box. The templates are clean and the editor is friendly. That's the appeal, and it's a real one.

The catch is the math. Squarespace runs $16 to $99 a month depending on the plan. That's an ongoing bill for as long as your site is live. Stop paying and the site comes down. A $49-a-month plan is roughly $590 a year, and the website was never yours to begin with. You're renting space on their platform, not owning an asset your business keeps.

Leaving Squarespace is the part nobody warns you about

The real friction shows up the day you want to go. Squarespace's export is a limited XML file. It doesn't include your images, and on Squarespace 7.1 (their current version) there's no XML export at all.

So you can't simply pack up your design and move it somewhere cheaper. In practice, leaving often means rebuilding the site from scratch on a new platform. That rebuild cost is exactly what keeps people paying month after month, long after they've thought about switching.

What to actually look for in a Squarespace alternative

Ownership comes first. You should get the actual files of your website, plus your own domain in your name, so the site is an asset you keep, not a rental you lose access to.

Editability matters next. You want to be able to update text, prices, and photos yourself without a subscription or a developer on call. And hosting freedom seals it: if your site is real files, you can host it anywhere, switch providers anytime, and never get boxed in again.

GetFavours: the own-it alternative built for local Canadian businesses

GetFavours builds you a custom website and you pay once. You own the site outright, every file, plus your domain, and there's no monthly subscription and no lock-in. Any business type, anywhere in Canada.

Pricing is plain: Starter (single page) is $49 one-time, Business (multi-page with online booking or a quote form) is $149 one-time, and Custom builds start from $399 one-time. There's an optional managed care plan at about $19/mo if you'd rather we handle hosting and updates, but it's optional, not required.

Every build comes with a plain-English PDF guide that walks you through editing the site yourself, written for a normal business owner, not a developer. Host it with us, move it to another provider, or even run it locally. It's your site to do what you want with.

How the numbers and the freedom compare

Against Squarespace's $16–$99 every month, a one-time GetFavours build pays for itself fast and then keeps costing nothing. A $149 Business site is less than three months of a mid-tier Squarespace plan, and it doesn't come down if you stop a payment, because there's nothing to stop.

Compared with hiring out a custom build, the gap is just as clear. Freelancers typically run $500 to $5,000 one-time and agencies $5,000 to $50,000 and up. GetFavours gives you the own-it outcome of a custom build at a small-business price, with the guide you need to keep it running yourself.