Squarespace Member Areas (2024): 8 Key Features & Examples

There’s nothing like being a member of an exclusive club!

Websites that offer paying members special content, like Patreon, Podia, Substack, and Buy Me a Coffee, have skyrocketed in popularity over the past few years.

If you’re a musician, artist, writer, or podcaster, these sites are a great way to earn money in exchange for providing specialist content.

If you own a Squarespace site, did you know you can use Squarespace Member Areas to provide exclusive content and functionality to paying subscribers?

Join us as we look at the benefits, the features, the pricing, and how to sign up for a Squarespace Membership site.

What is a Squarespace Member Area?

Squarespace Members Areas (also known as Squarespace Membership sites) allow your customers to sign up for exclusive content that regular web visitors can’t access.

You can set up different subscription tiers, which customers can log into your website to view.

This is an additional feature you can add to your Squarespace website to increase its functionality.

Are Squarespace Member Areas the same as Squarespace Courses?

Squarespace Member Areas and Squarespace Courses seem similar on first impressions, but they are two separate Squarespace packages.

Squarespace Courses is designed for delivering structured online courses. It’s free on Business and Commerce plans, but you only get 30 minutes of video storage and have to pay a 9% transaction fee on any courses you sell.

However, you can buy add-ons to increase your video storage space and reduce your transaction fees.

Squarespace Member Areas are designed to provide customers with different types of content like blog posts, newsletters, downloads and videos. You can also use Member Areas to promote and sell courses too. Unlike Squarespace Courses, there isn’t a free version.

So, which package is the right choice for your Squarespace site?

Squarespace Courses is the best option if you just want to focus on creating and selling online courses.

Squarespace Member Areas are ideal if you want to provide your customers with a wealth of online content, including courses.

What can you do with Squarespace Member Areas?

If you already have a Squarespace site, a Squarespace Member Area is a fantastic way to monetize your content, engage with your community, and provide additional value to customers.

Some ways you can use it include:

• If you’re a musician, you can use it to share exclusive demos and unreleased songs

• If you’re a comic book writer, you can offer early access to comic strips before you post them on social media, as well as personalized artwork for lucky subscribers

• If you’re a chef, you can share cooking tutorials, Q+A sessions, and promote exclusive events

• If you’re a podcaster, you can release bonus episodes and ad-free versions of podcasts

• If you’re a YouTuber, you can share blooper reels, behind the scenes footage, and offer shoutouts to show appreciation for your subscribers

Looking for Squarespace member area examples? Here’s a good one!

Kanda Yoga School uses Squarespace Member Areas to provide members with exclusive content, including courses, videos and lectures.

There are a range of different membership tiers, as well as a free membership to give customers access to pre-recorded content and tutorials.

What is the Squarespace Membership Pricing?

You have to pay to use Squarespace Member Areas – so let’s take a look at Squarespace Member Areas pricing and what you get for your money.

Squarespace Membership pricing starts from $9 a month, and there are three different pricing tiers. Remember that this payment is on top of your standard Squarespace subscription.

• Starter. For small businesses and individuals wanting to get started with membership areas. From $9 a month

• Core. For medium-sized businesses that want to provide a comprehensive membership experience. From $29 a month

• Pro. For large businesses that plan to make significant revenue selling memberships online. From $89 a month

All three pricing tiers allow you to create as many membership packages as you like, and enrol as many customers as you want. You can also access analytics to see what elements of your membership packages are most popular with customers.

The only difference between the packages is the transaction fee and the amount of video storage you receive.

How do you get started with a Squarespace Membership site?

Getting started with Squarespace Member Areas is really easy. Here’s how to get up and running in five simple steps.

Bear in mind that it’s free to build a Squarespace Membership site, but you need to sign up for a pricing plan before you can offer memberships.

Step one: Access your website

Log into your Squarespace website and click on Website. Then click the plus sign (+) under Main Navigation.

Step two: Access Squarespace Member Sites

Scroll down to the bottom of the menu and choose Member Site.

Step three: Pick a starting template

Next, Squarespace will ask you to choose a template for your member site. This is the page your customers will see when they sign up and log in.

Don’t worry too much about the style or design, as you can change this later.

Step four: Access your Member Site

This will create a new section in your Pages menu called Member Sites. Click to edit your site, or hover over it and click the cog to access general settings.

Here, you can change the name of your Squarespace Member area.

Step five: Build your new site

Set up your Squarespace Member area by adding pages, videos, and any other content you want. This section works in the exact same way as the rest of your website.

You will need to set up a pricing plan before you make this section of your site live. To do this, click on the Pricing Plans section, and Squarespace will guide you through the process.

You can charge a fixed amount, offer a subscription, or allow free access to pages and content.

When your pricing plans are up and running, your Squarespace Member area will be live to the world!

You can have multiple membership areas, so if you want more, just repeat the process.

The 8 key features of Squarespace Member Areas

The great thing about Squarespace Membership Sites is that they’re fully flexible. Whether you’re selling songs, artwork, or fitness classes, Membership Sites are easy to use and customize!

Here are some of the main features of Squarespace Member Areas we think you’ll love.

1. You can offer as many tiered levels of access as you need

Have a complicated pricing structure? Squarespace Member Areas lets you set up as many tiers as you want.

You can also offer a free subscription tier. This is a brilliant option if you want to gate your content in exchange for customer data or if you want to provide a free membership to give members a taste of what paid membership is like.

2. You can provide discount codes

Squarespace Member Areas allow you to generate discount codes to entice people to sign up.

Discount codes are also great for tracking where your customers are coming from – just offer different codes on your various marketing channels.

Alternatively, you can offer a free trial. You can do this by creating a discount code for customers, effectively meaning they get free access for a specified amount of time.

3. You can integrate with Squarespace Emails

Want to send a Substack or Beehiiv-esque email to subscribers? You can combine your Member Area with Squarespace Emails to send stunning email campaigns to your customers.

4. You can offer any type of content

Squarespace Member Areas work with any content, from images and videos to documents and emails.

You can even set up a forum for your members to have their say in!

5. You can offer content on both desktop and mobile

Like the rest of your website, Squarespace Member Area templates are completely mobile responsive.

This means subscribers can access content on their mobile devices with complete peace of mind.

6. You can granularly manage subscriptions

Need to change a customer’s details or suspend their account?

The Squarespace Membership Area settings are easy to access and super-simple to manage

7. You can easily collect payment from customers

You can set up either one-off payments or monthly subscriptions.

No need to chase up customers – Squarespace sorts everything out for you.

Plus, customers have the choice of signing up with either PayPal or Stripe, meaning they can pay in a way that’s convenient to them.

8. You can get valuable analytics

Squarespace Membership Areas provide a wealth of data you can use to optimize your subscription packages.

See which content your members engage with, how much money you’ve generated, and which pages drive the most traffic.

Are Squarespace Member Areas the right choice for your business?

Not all Squarespace website owners will benefit from what Squarespace Member Areas offer.

But if you want to engage with customers and provide an additional revenue stream, Member Areas could be perfect for your needs!

Will you be giving Squarespace Member Areas a try?

Want to know more about making the most of your Squarespace website? Check out our blog for more inspiration and incredible articles!