Migration · Squarespace → WordPress

Squarespace to WordPress with everything that matters intact.

Squarespace is polished until you need something it does not offer — deeper SEO control, real plugins, ownership of your stack. It does provide an export, but a partial one, and the gaps catch people out. We move the content, recover what the export skips, and redirect every URL so nothing is lost on the way.

Get a migration plan See the gotchas

XML export handled — including the content it silently leaves out
Images recovered at full quality (the export does not include them)
Squarespace URL patterns mapped and 301-redirected

Why switch

When businesses come to us for Squarespace to WordPress.

Template ceiling

Squarespace templates are elegant but closed. Custom layouts, custom functionality and third-party integrations all hit the same wall.

Recurring cost, rented ground

Monthly fees buy a lease, not an asset. On WordPress the software is yours and hosting is commodity.

Partial data ownership

The export covers some content types and not others — the platform decides what you can take with you.

SEO limits

Structured data, performance work and technical SEO are only adjustable within what Squarespace exposes.

What moves

What comes across in a Squarespace to WordPress migration.

Scope your migration ↗︎

Blog posts and standard pages — via the Squarespace XML export, imported and cleaned up
Images — the export contains references, not files; we download every asset and re-host it
Content the export skips — product, event, album and index pages are extracted separately
URL map — Squarespace /blog/ and page URLs 301-redirected to the new structure
Forms and newsletters — rebuilt with WordPress equivalents; subscriber lists exported and moved
Design — rebuilt as a WordPress theme; the export carries no styling at all
Domain — repointed to the new host, or transferred out of Squarespace if it is registered there

The Squarespace specifics

What our Squarespace to WordPress work covers.

Every platform has traps that generic migration checklists miss. These are the Squarespace-specific ones — the difference between a clean move and a rescue job.

The export is partial by design

Squarespace exports blog posts, text and image blocks on standard pages — and skips product pages, events, albums, audio and index/portfolio pages. Knowing what will not arrive is half the job.

Images are not in the export

The XML references images on Squarespace servers. If the subscription lapses before assets are pulled, they are gone. We download everything first, at original quality.

Index pages have no equivalent

Squarespace index/portfolio stacks are a platform-specific layout. They are rebuilt deliberately in WordPress — usually better — rather than translated automatically.

Member areas and commerce

Member Areas content and store data do not travel in the XML. Stores migrate via a separate product/customer path (or to WooCommerce properly).

URL formats differ

Squarespace blog URLs (/blog/post-slug with date variants) need explicit mapping to WordPress permalinks, or the blog loses its search equity.

Process

How the Squarespace to WordPress migration runs.

Our full process ↗︎

Every migration is a parallel build: your Squarespace site keeps running while the new WordPress site is built and verified beside it. The switch is a planned window, not a leap.

Audit and inventory. Content, URLs, rankings, integrations — everything that must survive gets listed before anything moves.
Parallel build. The WordPress site is built and the data migrated on staging, while the live site trades on untouched.
Verification. Content counts, redirect map, metadata parity, forms — checked against the inventory.
Cutover. DNS switches in a low-traffic window; the old site stays reachable to us until everything is confirmed.
Aftercare. We watch Search Console, 404s and the numbers for the following weeks and fix what the real world surfaces.

Cost and timeline

What a Squarespace to WordPress migration costs, and what moves the number.

The full WordPress cost breakdown ↗︎

Two quotes for the same Squarespace site can differ by several thousand, and the spread is rarely padding — it is usually that the two firms read the job differently. Rather than publish one figure that would be wrong for most readers, here is what actually moves the number.

How much the export leaves behind

The XML covers blog posts and standard page text. Products, events, albums, index pages and the image files themselves do not travel in it. The more of your site lives in those formats, the more of the job is extraction rather than import.

How many distinct layouts there are

Forty pages built from six layouts is a smaller job than twelve pages that are all different. Count layouts, not pages — that is the number the rebuild is priced against.

Whether commerce or member areas are involved

Store data and Member Areas content take their own route, not the content export. Adding either turns a content migration into a second migration with its own checklist, and it is the single biggest step in the price.

How faithful the design has to be

Matching Squarespace to the pixel is a different brief from keeping the look and improving it on the way through. Both are legitimate; the first is slower, because every inherited quirk has to be reproduced deliberately.

How much URL history you are carrying

Squarespace blog URLs come in dated and undated variants, and both may have been indexed. Mapping them is quick on a young site and a real piece of work on one with years of history — worth doing properly, because this is where rankings go missing.

Questions

Squarespace to WordPress questions, answered plainly.

If your Squarespace to WordPress question is not covered here, send us the details and we will reply with a straight answer.

Ask your question ↗︎

Does Squarespace let me export my site?

Partially. The XML export covers blog posts and standard page text, but skips products, events, albums, index pages — and the image files themselves. A complete migration combines the export with direct extraction of everything it leaves behind.

Will my images come across?

Yes, but not via the export — it only references files hosted on Squarespace. We download every image at source quality and re-host it in your WordPress media library before your subscription ends, so nothing is orphaned.

Can my Squarespace store move too?

Yes — store data (products, customers, orders) travels a separate route from the content export, into WooCommerce. That turns the move into a store migration with its own checklist, which we scope alongside the content work.

Will my rankings survive the move?

Yes, with the same method as every migration we run: full URL inventory, one-to-one 301 redirects including Squarespace’s blog URL variants, and metadata parity checks before launch. Rankings follow content when the redirects are right.

Can a Squarespace to WordPress migration keep our design?

The design is rebuilt rather than transferred — there is no export Squarespace offers that WordPress can import. Budget for a rebuild plus a careful redirect map.

The platform itself is documented at wordpress.org.

Why move at all?

The usual reasons are a template ceiling you have hit, an integration Squarespace does not support, and fees that now exceed what hosting and maintenance would cost.

What happens to our domain if it is registered with Squarespace?

There are two routes and you do not have to choose straight away. The simpler one leaves the registration where it is and repoints the domain's DNS at the new host: the site moves, the registration does not, and there is no transfer window to sit through. The other transfers the registration to a registrar of your choosing, which needs the domain unlocked and an auth code from Squarespace, and which ICANN blocks for the first 60 days after any registration or transfer. Either way we carry the existing MX records across unchanged, so email keeps working through the switch.