Squarespace vs. Custom: An Honest Comparison for Bands

We build custom band websites for a living, so read this knowing where we sit. We are still going to tell you when Squarespace is the better call, because it sometimes is, and because a comparison that only goes one way is an advertisement.

The numbers, side by side

Note what is not in that table: a big price gap. Over five years the two land within about fifty dollars of each other. Anyone telling you custom design means thousands of dollars is describing the agency tier, which is a different product at $8,000 to $15,000.

What Squarespace is genuinely good at

• <strong>Changing your mind at midnight.</strong> You can move a block, try a font, republish, and do it again. If you enjoy that, it is a real feature and no service can give it to you.
• <strong>Breadth.</strong> Scheduling, courses, memberships, a blog with categories. If your band is also a teaching business or a label, that matters.
• <strong>Nobody gets stuck.</strong> There is a tutorial for every question, written by someone else, ten years deep.
• <strong>Independence.</strong> Nothing about it depends on a small company still being around next year, which is a fair thing to weigh when the small company is us.

What it costs you that the price page does not mention

The hours, first. Fifteen to thirty of them is the realistic range for a first-time build that looks decent, and they are not clean hours — they are scattered across weeks, in the same evenings you were going to use for demos.

Then the ceiling. A template has a look, and the look is shared. Bookers and writers see a lot of band sites, and the fiftieth instance of a layout does not register as bad, it registers as nothing. That is the actual cost: not ugly, just unmemorable, which for a band is worse.

And month-to-month billing is $39, not $29. The advertised price assumes you paid for a year up front.

A template site does not register as bad. It registers as nothing.

Pick Squarespace if

• Someone in the band actually likes design work and will keep at it
• You need a feature outside a band site — courses, bookings, memberships
• You want to move things around yourself, constantly, forever
• You would rather bet on a large company than a small one

Pick custom if

• Nobody in the band wants to spend twenty hours in a page editor
• You have a visual identity already and want the site to match it
• You need it live this week because a record or a tour is announced
• You want the design to change when the band does, without starting over

The honest summary: Squarespace sells you tools and your time builds the site. We sell you the site. At roughly the same money, the question is only whether those twenty hours are something you want to spend or something you want back.

What about Wix, Bandzoogle and Carrd?

Squarespace is not the only DIY option, and for bands specifically it is not always the best one. The short version of the field:

• <strong>Bandzoogle</strong> — built for musicians, 0% commission on music and merch, plans from $6.37 a month for a single-page EPK to $18.33 for Pro, billed annually with the domain included. Less design range than Squarespace, more band-specific plumbing.
• <strong>Wix</strong> — Light at $17.77 a month, Core at $29.77, billed annually. More templates, more freedom to place things badly, a free tier with their branding on it.
• <strong>Carrd</strong> — $19 a year for Pro Standard. One page, custom domain, a form. Not a competitor to any of the above so much as proof that a single good page beats a bad five-page site.

If the reason you are reading a Squarespace comparison is that you want a band site rather than a website, Bandzoogle deserves a look before Squarespace does. It will do the music and merch parts with less fighting.

Decide in ten minutes

1. Does anyone in the band want to build it? Not would be willing to — want to. If nobody raises a hand, no amount of good template will save the project.
2. Is there a date? A record, a tour, a press push. A deadline turns a DIY build from a hobby into a stressful hobby.
3. Would you recognize your own site in a lineup of five? If the answer is no and that bothers you, that is the whole argument for custom, and it is a legitimate one.