Squarespace to WordPress migration service
We move a Squarespace site to WordPress. The pages and posts that Squarespace exports are carried across, the rest is rebuilt, and each old address is redirected to its new one. For site owners who have decided to move and do not want to do it themselves. Quoted after a free assessment.
In short
- Squarespace's export carries layout pages, one blog with its posts, and text and image blocks. Everything else is rebuilt.
- The design is rebuilt in a WordPress theme. It is not copied.
- Each old address is redirected to its new one, and the redirects are checked before the domain is changed.
- An image has moved only when its file was copied to the new site and loads from it. An address that points there does not prove it.
- Customer passwords do not move. Customers set a new one.
- It starts with a free assessment and a fixed quote in writing.
Squarespace hosts your site and gives you the tools to build it. WordPress is software you run on hosting you choose. Moving from one to the other is part transfer and part rebuild: Squarespace exports some of a site as a file WordPress can read, and the rest is made again on the new site.
This service is for the point where you have decided to move to WordPress and want someone else to carry the site across. You get a written list of what moves and what is rebuilt before you decide anything.
Who it is for, and who it is not
It fits when all of these are true:
- you have decided to leave Squarespace, and the site will be WordPress afterward
- the site has more on it than the export carries: a store, galleries, video, a second blog, or a design you want kept
- you want each old address to keep leading somewhere, and you do not want to map them yourself
It is not for you, or not yet, in these cases.
- You are still deciding. Squarespace runs the hosting and the software for you. On WordPress you choose the host, the theme and the plugins, and someone has to keep the site updated and backed up: the WordPress maintenance checklist shows what that involves. Settle that first.
- The site is layout pages and one blog. Those are what Squarespace's export carries, so you can move it yourself with how to migrate from Squarespace to WordPress. That is a reasonable choice for a site with few pages, no store and few old addresses that get visits.
- You want a different look. Rebuilding the look you have is part of the move. A new one is WordPress design and development.
- The site is already WordPress, and only its hosting is changing. That is a copy with a fixed price: see WordPress migration.
- The site is on another platform. See the migrations page. If you do not know what a site is built with, the platform detector reads it from outside.
What you get
- A written list before you decide. What moves by itself, what has to be rebuilt, and each feature that needs a WordPress plugin or is left behind.
- A fixed quote in writing. The assessment that comes before it is free, and you owe nothing after it.
- The pages and posts Squarespace exports, carried across, and the rest rebuilt: the other kinds of page, the menus, the header and the footer.
- The look you have, made again in a WordPress theme. It is rebuilt, not copied.
- Old addresses that still lead somewhere. Each is redirected to its new one, and the redirects are checked before the domain is changed.
- A new site you have gone through before your visitors see it. It is built on a staging copy while your Squarespace site stays live.
What moves, and what is rebuilt
This table follows the list in Squarespace's help center of what its export holds.
| What | How it gets there | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Regular pages | Squarespace's export file | Squarespace calls these layout pages. Their text and image blocks come across. |
| Blog posts | Squarespace's export file | One blog page, with all of its posts and up to 1,000 comments on each. A second blog is not in the file and is moved by hand. |
| Images | Copied to the new site | Squarespace warns that an import into a WordPress site you host yourself may bring only links to images still on its servers. Those links stop working when the Squarespace site is deactivated. Where an image's address points does not settle it: see "How can I tell that my images really moved? |
| Linked files | Not imported | Squarespace says linked .pdf files are in the export but cannot be imported into WordPress. Tell us about any file your pages link to. |
| Other kinds of page | Rebuilt | Album, cover, index, info, calendar, portfolio and store pages are not exported. Gallery pages are exported on version 7.0 only. |
| Video, audio, forms and embeds | Rebuilt | Audio, video and product blocks are not exported. Text from some other blocks arrives with very little structure. |
| Menus, headers and footers | Rebuilt | Dropdowns and page-specific headers, footers and sidebars are not exported. |
| Products | Squarespace's product export, a .csv file | Not in the site export. The product file has no featured or variant images, so those are added again in WooCommerce. |
| Customers | Squarespace's customer export, a .csv file | Names, email addresses and the last addresses used. No passwords: customers set a new one on the new store. |
| Orders | Squarespace's order export, a .csv file | The written reply says whether past orders are loaded into the new store or kept as a record. |
| Design | Rebuilt | Style settings and custom CSS are not exported. The look is rebuilt in a WordPress theme, not copied. |
| Drafts | Not exported | Tell us about any draft you want kept. |
| Addresses | Redirected | See the next section. |
What happens to your old addresses
On Squarespace, a page's address is its URL slug, such as /. A blog post's address begins with the slug of its blog page. The rest comes from the post's title and the blog's URL format, which can include the date. A product's address is the store page's address followed by the product's own slug, and on version 7.1 a p/ always comes before that slug.
WordPress builds addresses from its permalink settings. A post can sit at / or under its date, and category and tag pages carry a base such as /. Some of your addresses can stay as they are. Others change, blog posts and products most often.
Each old address is redirected to its new one. Redirects you made in Squarespace as URL mappings do not come with the site: Squarespace applies them only to domains connected to a Squarespace site. Tell us about any you have. The redirects are checked before the domain is changed.
How it works
Step 1: Ask for a free migration assessment
Fill in the free migration assessment. Tell us that you are on Squarespace and going to WordPress, and roughly how many pages and posts the site has, and whether there is a store.
Step 2: Get a written reply and a fixed quote
We reply in writing with what moves by itself, what has to be rebuilt, and a fixed quote. Whether to go ahead is up to you.
Step 3: The new site is built on a staging copy
The WordPress site is built on a staging copy. Your Squarespace site stays live while this happens.
Step 4: Old addresses are mapped to new ones
Each old address is matched to its new one, and the redirects are checked.
Step 5: You look at the new site
You go through the new site on staging. The domain is changed only after that.
What we need from you to start
For the assessment, the form asks for your name, an email address for the reply, where the site is now, where you want it, roughly how big it is, and its address if you can share it. In the message, say:
- roughly how many pages and posts the site has, and whether there is more than one blog
- whether there is a store
- any URL mappings you made in Squarespace, any draft you want kept, and any file your pages link to
- anything the site could not do without, and when you would like to move
We use these details to reply to you about this request, and for nothing else.
For the move itself:
- Access to the Squarespace site, to the new WordPress hosting, and to wherever the domain is managed.
- The WordPress hosting, bought by you.
- Your Squarespace subscription, kept running until the new site is live.
- An answer to where your email lives. Mailboxes are not moved.
What it does not cover
- Hosting and subscriptions. You buy the WordPress hosting. Squarespace exports only from a site that is active and published, so keep that subscription running until the new site is live.
- The domain's registration. A domain registered with Squarespace can stay there and be pointed at the new host.
- Email. Mailboxes are not moved. Find out where your mail lives before you cancel anything.
- A new design. Rebuilding the look you have is part of the move. A different look is a separate job. See WordPress design and development.
- What Squarespace did for you beyond pages, posts and the store. Each such feature has to be matched by a WordPress plugin or left behind. The written reply names each one.
- Looking after the site afterwards. That is a care plan. See the WordPress maintenance service.
Before you ask: do it yourself, or check first
Each of these is free to use.
- How to migrate from Squarespace to WordPress. The whole move by hand: the export, the import, the check that the images were copied, and the redirects.
- How to migrate a website without losing SEO. What Google and Bing document about a move.
- WordPress migration cost. What moves the price of a change of platform, and what a quote should say. Hold ours against it.
- Website migration checklist. The order of work before, during and after the switch.
- Redirect map builder and redirect checker. The first turns a list of old and new addresses into redirect rules. The second shows where an old address leads now, hop by hop.
- Moving a WordPress site or changing platform. Every page we have on the subject.
What it costs
Platform migration
Ask us for a quote
Moving a site or a store from one platform to another, with its old addresses redirected to the new ones.
- A written list of what moves and what is rebuilt, before you decide
- Old addresses redirected to the new ones, and checked
- The new site checked before the domain is changed
Common questions
Can I do the move myself?
Yes. Squarespace's export file carries layout pages and one blog, and the WordPress importer reads it. What takes the time is the rest: the pages the export leaves out, the design and the redirects. How to migrate from Squarespace to WordPress goes through each.
What will it cost?
It is quoted in writing, because no two sites are the same size. The assessment is free, and you owe nothing after it. WordPress migration cost lists what sets the size of the job, so you can count your own first.
How long will it take?
This page gives no time, because that depends on how much of the site is outside the export and has to be rebuilt. The assessment form asks when you would like to move. Say so there.
Will the new site look the same?
Squarespace does not export style settings or custom CSS, so the look you have is made again in a WordPress theme. You go through it on staging before the domain is changed.
How can I tell that my images really moved?
Not by where an image's address points. The WordPress importer copies images only when its "Download and import file attachments" box is ticked, and it can change an image's address to the new site's whether or not the file was copied. On the staging site, open an imported post, right-click an image and open it in a new tab. A copied image loads, from an address on the new site that by default contains /. An address on the new site that answers "not found" is an image that was never copied. An address that is not on the new site is an image still loaded from Squarespace.
What happens to my search rankings?
Nobody can promise what a search engine will do. What protects them is that each old address answers with a redirect to the page that replaced it. Those redirects are checked before the domain is changed. How to migrate a website without losing SEO sets out what the search engines themselves say about a move.
What happens to my customers' accounts?
Squarespace's customer export holds names and addresses and no passwords. Each customer sets a new password the first time they sign in to the new store.
When can I cancel Squarespace?
After the domain points at the new site, the redirects have been checked and no image is still loaded from Squarespace. Squarespace's own instructions put it the same way round: cancel after the import has succeeded. Once the Squarespace site is deactivated, any image still linked from its servers stops loading.