Squarespace vs. Duda: Which Website Platform Is Right for Your Business?
An Honest Comparison From a Squarespace Expert With 10+ Years on the Platform
If you're a small business owner shopping for a website platform, you've probably come across both Squarespace and Duda in your research. They're both solid website builders, but they're built for very different audiences with very different goals. As a Squarespace Circle Member with over 10 years of experience building 100+ websites exclusively on the platform, I've had plenty of clients ask me about the differences between the two.
Here's my honest take on how they compare and which one is likely the better fit for your business.
A Quick Overview
Squarespace is an all-in-one website platform designed for business owners, entrepreneurs, and creatives who want a professional, polished website they can manage themselves. It's known for its award-winning design templates, intuitive editor, and built-in tools for SEO, email marketing, scheduling, and ecommerce.
Duda is a website builder designed primarily for agencies and web professionals who build sites at scale for their clients. It's built around white-label capabilities, multi-site management, and reseller tools that let agencies host and manage dozens (or hundreds) of client websites under one account.
That distinction matters more than most comparison articles let on. The platform you choose shapes who actually owns and controls your website.
Design and Templates
Squarespace has long been considered the gold standard for website design among DIY-friendly platforms. Their templates are modern, clean, and mobile-responsive out of the box. With the introduction of Fluid Engine (their drag-and-drop editor) and the new Finish Layer toolkit from Refresh 2025, Squarespace now offers professional-grade design capabilities like block animations, custom transforms, responsive mobile editing, and the ability to import external fonts. These tools were previously only available through custom code or platforms like Webflow.
Duda also offers a solid drag-and-drop editor and a library of over 100 templates. Their Flex editor provides creative freedom similar to Showit or Webflow, and their global design feature lets you update colors and fonts site-wide from one location. For experienced designers and agencies building sites at volume, that flexibility is useful.
However, Squarespace templates tend to be more visually refined and conversion-focused right out of the box. If you're a business owner (not a designer), Squarespace will get you to a professional result faster and with less effort. Duda's templates are functional but often require more customization to reach the same level of polish.
Ease of Use and Site Ownership
This is where the two platforms diverge significantly.
With Squarespace, you own your account, your content, and your website. You log in directly, make changes on your own schedule, and you're never dependent on a third party to update a headline or swap out a photo. The editor is intuitive enough that most business owners can manage day-to-day updates after their designer hands over the site.
Duda's model works differently. It's built around agency management, which means your website often lives inside your agency's Duda account. The agency can grant you a client login with limited permissions, but in many cases, the agency retains primary control over your site, your hosting, and even your domain. If you part ways with that agency, migrating your site can be complicated.
This isn't a knock on Duda as a product. It's genuinely useful for agencies managing portfolios of client sites. But if you're a business owner who values independence and long-term control over your web presence, that distinction is worth understanding before you sign up.
SEO Capabilities
Both platforms offer the essential SEO features: customizable page titles and meta descriptions, clean URL structures, automatic sitemaps, SSL certificates, and mobile-responsive designs.
Squarespace has invested heavily in SEO tooling over the past year. Refresh 2025 introduced a suite of AI Optimization (AIO) tools, including an SEO scanner that audits your page titles, descriptions, and image alt text with one-click optimization suggestions. They also launched an AIO Scanner that tracks how your site appears in AI-driven search results from tools like ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Google's AI Overviews, giving you a personalized report with recommendations for increasing visibility.
Squarespace also offers native integration with Google Analytics and Search Console, built-in blogging tools with category and tag support, and automatic structured data for products and events.
Duda includes built-in technical SEO settings grouped in a sidebar for easy access, automatic image size optimization, and the ability to edit meta information across pages. However, several third-party review sites have noted that Duda's SEO tools are more limited compared to competitors.
For business owners who want robust, built-in SEO and the emerging advantage of AI search optimization without relying on third-party plugins, Squarespace currently has the edge.
AI Optimization (AIO)
This is a category that barely existed two years ago, but it's quickly becoming critical. As more consumers use AI-powered search tools like ChatGPT, Google's AI Overviews, and Perplexity to find service providers, your website needs to be optimized not just for Google's traditional algorithm but for how AI models discover, evaluate, and cite businesses.
Squarespace is one of the first major website platforms to build AIO tools directly into the platform. Their AIO Scanner monitors how your business appears across AI search engines and provides actionable recommendations for improving your visibility. They've also introduced AI-powered FAQ generation, product description creation, and content optimization tools designed to make your site more structured and quotable for AI models.
Duda does not currently offer comparable AIO features. Their AI tools are focused on site building (generating copy, images, and layouts) rather than on helping businesses get discovered through AI search.
If AI search visibility matters to your business (and it should), this is a meaningful differentiator.
Ecommerce
Both platforms support online selling, but they approach it differently.
Squarespace includes ecommerce features starting with their Core plan at $23/month (billed annually). You can sell physical products, digital downloads, services, gift cards, and subscriptions without paying additional platform fees beyond standard credit card processing. Their Plus plan ($39/month) and Advanced plan ($99/month) unlock additional features like abandoned cart recovery, advanced shipping, and lower processing rates.
Duda separates ecommerce from its base platform pricing. You'll pay for your Duda plan (starting at $14/month for Basic, $22/month for Team, or $44/month for Agency, all billed annually), and then add ecommerce as an additional per-site charge. This means the total cost for a Duda site with ecommerce can exceed what you'd pay for a comparable Squarespace plan with ecommerce included.
For most small businesses selling products or services online, Squarespace offers a more straightforward and cost-effective ecommerce experience.
Blogging and Content Marketing
Squarespace has one of the strongest native blogging platforms of any website builder. You get full blog functionality with categories, tags, author profiles, scheduled posts, RSS feeds, and SEO-optimized URLs. Blog posts integrate seamlessly with your site's design, email marketing, and social sharing tools.
Duda's blogging capabilities are more limited. While you can create blog posts, the CMS isn't as robust for content-heavy strategies. If blogging and content marketing are part of your growth plan (and for SEO purposes, they should be), Squarespace gives you more to work with out of the box.
Scheduling and Appointments
If you run a service-based business (healthcare, consulting, fitness, beauty, coaching), online booking is essential.
Squarespace owns Acuity Scheduling, which integrates natively with your website. You can embed booking pages, accept payments, send automated reminders, and even handle HIPAA-compliant scheduling on the Powerhouse plan. Refresh 2025 added a style editor that automatically applies your website's design to your scheduling pages, creating a seamless brand experience.
Duda doesn't have a native scheduling solution. You'd need to integrate a third-party tool like Calendly or Acuity (ironically), which adds another monthly cost and often creates a disconnect between your site's design and your booking experience.
Pricing Comparison
Here's a side-by-side look at what each platform costs for a typical small business website:
Squarespace (billed annually):
Basic: $16/month (no ecommerce)
Core: $23/month (ecommerce included, 0% transaction fees)
Plus: $39/month (advanced ecommerce)
Advanced: $99/month (enterprise ecommerce features)
All plans include hosting, SSL, a free custom domain for the first year, unlimited bandwidth and storage, and access to all templates.
Duda (billed annually):
Basic: $14/month (1 site, email support only, limited features)
Team: $22/month (adds phone support, client permissions, code access)
Agency: $44/month (4 sites included, white-label, priority support)
Additional sites: $17-19/month each
Ecommerce: additional cost per site
Duda's Basic plan is slightly cheaper, but it's missing features most businesses need (client access, code editing, site analytics, publish-per-page). Once you add ecommerce and a second site, Duda's costs can exceed Squarespace's. And Duda does not include a custom domain, so that's an additional annual expense through a third-party registrar.
For a single business website with ecommerce, Squarespace's Core plan at $23/month is hard to beat.
Who Should Choose Squarespace
Squarespace is the better choice if you are:
A small business owner who wants a professional website you can manage yourself
A healthcare practice, real estate professional, or service-based business that needs online booking
Someone who values design quality and wants a polished site without hiring a developer
A business that relies on blogging and content marketing for lead generation
Anyone who wants built-in SEO and AI optimization tools without third-party plugins
A business owner who wants to own and control your website long-term
Who Should Choose Duda
Duda is the better choice if you are:
A web design agency building and managing websites for multiple clients
A SaaS company that needs white-label website building capabilities
An agency that wants to resell hosting and website services under your own brand
A team that needs multi-user permissions and collaborative site editing at scale
The Bottom Line
Both Squarespace and Duda are capable platforms, but they serve fundamentally different audiences. Duda is an excellent tool for agencies. Squarespace is an excellent tool for business owners.
If you're a business owner reading this, the question isn't really "which platform is better." The question is: do you want a website you own and control, built on a platform that's investing heavily in your ability to get discovered through both traditional search and AI, with design tools, ecommerce, scheduling, and content marketing all in one place?
For most small businesses, the answer is Squarespace.
Agave Studio is a Denver-based Squarespace website design agency and Squarespace Circle Member with over 10 years of platform expertise and 100+ websites launched. We specialize in Squarespace website design, brand identity, and SEO/AIO services for small businesses and professionals across a range of industries. Get a free SEO audit or explore our Squarespace SEO packages.
