Squarespace Member Areas: Everything You Need to Know

Have you heard the news?! Squarespace Member Areas are here! The timing could not be more perfect as business owners are planning and strategizing for the start of a new year. As digital content continues to rise in popularity, Squarespace Member Areas will allow you to take your business to the next level and monetize your content seamlessly through gated memberships.

Needless to say, I’m pretty excited!

You’re probably wondering what the Squarespace membership is all about. You’ve come to the right place! I’m breaking things down and outlining everything you need to know about the new Squarespace Member Areas. Let’s get to it!

Here’s what you’re going to learn about Squarespace Member Areas…

• What are Squarespace Member Areas?
• Key Terms to Know About Squarespace Member Areas
• How to Enable Squarespace Member Areas
• Squarespace Member Areas Pricing and Features
• How To Subscribe To and Setup Squarespace Member Areas
• Setting Up Member Payments for Squarespace Member Areas
• Managing Members in Squarespace Member Areas
• Understanding Your Membership Customers with Member Areas Analytics

What is Squarespace Member Areas?

Squarespace Member Areas allow you to create gated, members-only content on your Squarespace website to not only grow your business in the digital landscape but deepen connections with your audience and website visitors. These member-only pages allow your site visitors exclusive access to gated content you’ve created by creating an account and paying a membership fee if you decide to set one.

Squarespace Member Areas allow you to…

1. Monetize your digital content – generate revenue and create passive income for your business by selling exclusive access to your digital content like classes, digital courses, visual media, community pages, digital guides, workshops, video series, and more.
2. Grow your audience – connect with your audience in a new way and promote your exclusive, gated content to reach a new audience. You can accept an unlimited number of members so the possibilities of growth are endless!
3. Seamlessly manage your brand – from your website to your new members-only content, easily manage everything from your Squarespace dashboard, truly making Squarespace the premier all-in-one platform.

Key terms to know about Squarespace Member Areas

Before diving into all the details, I’m going to define a few key terms you should know. I’m a firm believer in always understanding the foundational elements as they are what help set you up for success.

• Member area – a set of gated pages on your website that only visitors who sign up for a membership and pay the membership fee, if applicable, can view the restricted content.
• Membership fee – the fee a visitor pays to gain access to a member area on your website. You can select if a member area’s membership fee is free, a one-time payment, or recurring during the setup phase.
• Member homepage – this is the first page in the member area that members see after they set ip and sign into their account. You are able to customize the member homepage to include a welcome message and direct links to other parts and pages in the member area.
• Customer account – an account visitors create with a username and password when signing up for a membership. Members are able to save payment methods, shopping carts, shipping information, etc to ensure a faster checkout experience if they purchase more products or membership from your website.

How to enable Squarespace Member Areas

Squarespace Member Areas can be enabled in one of two (2) ways: building a new site OR expanding an existing site. I’m going to break down each of these options so you can decide which is best for your business to grow.

Building a new site with Squarespace Member Areas

Similar to a traditional Squarespace website, you will first start off by selecting a Member Areas template from the template story. If you aren’t a fan of the template options, you can select any template and follow the steps to manually enable Member Areas.

Adding Member Areas to an Existing Site

If you’re looking to enable Member Areas on an existing Squarespace website…

1. In the main dashboard of your Squarespace website, select Settings from the panel on the left-hand side.
2. Select Member Areas.
3. Click to toggle Member Areas on.
4. Done!

Squarespace Member Areas Pricing and Features

Once you’ve selected to either build a new site or add Member Areas to an existing site you’ll need to select a Member Areas plan from the pricing table and subscribe.

What is the cost of Squarespace Member Areas?

Squarespace Member Areas are available at three (3) different levels: starter, core, and pro. The fees associated with Member Areas are in addition to your general Squarespace website plans and can be paid annually or monthly.

The Starter Member Areas plan is $10 per month when paid monthly, or $9 per month when paid annually. The Starter plan allows for one (1) member area and there is a transaction fee of 7% (yes, 7%…quite high if you ask us!).

The Core Member Areas plan is $20 per month when paid monthly, or $18 per month when paid annually. The Core plan allows for three (3) member areas and there is a transaction fee of 4%.

Lastly, the Pro Member Areas plan is $40 per month when paid monthly, or $35 per month when paid annually. The Pro plan allows for 10 member areas and has a transaction fee of only 1%.

Stuck on which plan is right for you? Thankfully Squarespace has a great breakdown I had to share…

“Transaction fees apply to every membership sold through your site. If you expect to sell a large number of memberships, we recommend the Core and Pro plans for their lower transaction fee percentages. For example, the difference between a Core and Starter plan billed annually is $108 USD per year. If you’re on an annual Starter plan and sell more than $3,600 in memberships per year ($300 per month), you’ll pay more in transaction fees than the difference between the plans. In that case, you’ll save by upgrading to the Core pricing plan.”

All Squarespace Member Areas include the following features…

• Unlimited members
• No ads
• No Squarespace branding
• Offer discounts and promotions
• Free, one-time, or recurring fee structure for members
• Seamless and secure member experience
• Member profile management
• Integrated analytics
• PayPal or credit card payments from members
• Squarespace extensions to manage this new branch of your business
• 24/7 customer support

Commerce features available once you subscribe

Whether you have a business or commerce Squarespace website plan, you’ll receive access to select commerce features once you enable and subscribe to Squarespace Member Areas. These commerce features are an incredible inclusion and will truly provide you with essential tools to manage your business.

1. Checkout on your own domain – that’s right…you’ll be able to direct your members to a custom and secure checkout page on your very own domain when they purchase one of your products or offers. This feature will be automatically enabled.
2. Customer accounts – your members will each create and log into password-protected accounts in order to access the Member Areas pages that they have purchased memberships to. Members have the ability to save payment methods and shipping information to their customer account for a faster checkout experience in the future.
3. Custom tax rules – with this commerce feature, you will be able to create tax rules based on the billing addresses of your members. The tax rate will be automatically calculated in addition to their membership fee.
4. Promotional discounts – the best way to encourage membership sign-ups aside from your amazing content? Offering discounts! You are able to customize all elements of the discount offer from the name to promotion type, how it’s applied, start date, and end date. If you currently have a commerce advance plan for your Squarespace site, you’ll get some bonus features for discounts.

How to subscribe to and setup Member Areas

Setting up Member Areas for your business is as easy as 1-2-3! It only takes a few quick steps and you’ll have your Squarespace membership site going in no time.

1. In the main dashboard of your Squarespace website, select Settings from the panel on the left-hand side.
2. Click Settings.
3. Click Member Areas.
4. Click Select Plan at the bottom of the Member Areas panel.
5. Select the billing cycle – either monthly or annually.
6. Select the Member Areas plan that best suits your business and needs – either Starter, Core, or Pro.
7. Click Confirm Payment.
8. Done!

You can view and manage your subscription easily at any time, exploring things like subscription details, reviewing your invoices, disabling auto-renew, or even canceling your subscription. You are also able to change your Member Areas billing cycle and pricing plan at any time.

How to change your billing cycle

If you switch from annual billing to monthly billing (downgrade your account), you will start a brand new billing cycle. The invoice generated will be based on the cost of the monthly plan subtracted from the cost of the unused time on the annual plan originally signed up for. This refund can take between 3 to 10 business days to process.

If you switch from monthly billing to annual billing (upgrade your account), you’ll also start a brand new billing cycle. Your invoice will be prorated based on the unused time from the month subtracted from the cost of the annual plan.

1. In the main dashboard of your Squarespace website, select Settings from the panel on the left-hand side.
2. Click Settings.
3. Click Billing & Account.
4. Click Billing.
5. Click Member Areas.
6. Click Change Billing Cycle.
7. Select Annually or Monthly.
8. Click Confirm Cycle Change.
9. Done!

How to change your pricing plan

1. In the main dashboard of your Squarespace website, select Settings from the panel on the left-hand side.
2. Click Settings.
3. Click Billing & Account.
4. Click Billing.
5. Click Member Areas.
6. Click Change Plan.
7. Select the plan you wish to change to.
8. Review changes and confirm the change.
9. Done!

Setting up member payments for Squarespace Member Areas

Before you can begin selling memberships to your gated and password-protected content in your Member Areas, you’ll need to connect to a payment processor like PayPal or Stripe. The good news…all it takes is 3 easy steps!

1. In the main dashboard of your Squarespace website, select Settings from the panel on the left-hand side.
2. Click Member Areas.
3. Scroll down to the Paid Membership header and section and click Payments.
4. Done!

After you connect to a payment processor, any sign-up blocks will automatically update.

Managing members in Squarespace Member Areas

Each visitor who signs up for a membership to one of your Member Areas automatically has a profile created that you can view and manage in the Profiles panel. You are able to see key information like their membership history, email address, and total money spent. In the Profiles panel, you can also organize your members using tags and notes.

It is important to note that you cannot import member profiles manually or sign someone up for a member area on their behalf. Each person must individually and personally sign up for a membership and establish their personal customer account and login credentials. If you are using a third-party extension or transferring from another platform with similar features, your members will need to re-establish their membership after you enable Member Areas on your Squarespace website.

To ensure an easy transfer, contact your current members to notify them of this change and invite them to join your Members Areas. Explain to them the benefits of this switch for them (make it about them, not you!) and outline the simple steps for signing up for your Member Areas. Be sure to outline what will happen to their existing membership account and the respective content.

How to view member profiles

All member profiles in your Squarespace Member Areas memberships display an email address and a name. To view all of your members, follow these steps…

1. In the main dashboard of your Squarespace website, select Settings from the panel on the left-hand side.
2. Click Members Areas.
3. Select Manage Members.
4. Click Members.
5. Sort the list accordingly by name or email address.
6. Use the Filter by Member Area drop-down menu to view all members of a single member area, or you can search for a specific name or email address.
7. Click a profile to see an overview of their engagement with your membership site.
8. Click on Member Details to see a list of all their memberships.

How to issue a Membership Refund

Based on your business and terms & conditions, you will determine and set the precedent for refunds to your membership(s). Members who request and receive a refund will still have access to your member area. If you allow membership refunds, initiate a refund by completing the following steps…

1. In the main dashboard of your Squarespace website, select Commerce from the panel on the left-hand side.
2. Click Orders.
3. Select the order to open the order summary.
4. Click Issue Refund.
5. Enter the amount of the refund and click Issue Refund.
6. Done!

How to cancel a Membership

Canceling a membership will come up and it is essential you have terms & conditions in place stating your cancelation policy. If you need to cancel someone’s membership to one (or more) of your membership areas, complete the following steps…

1. In the main dashboard of your Squarespace website, select Settings from the panel on the left-hand side.
2. Click Member Areas.
3. Select Manage Members.
4. Search for the member’s profile you wish to cancel by either name or email address.
5. Select the member’s profile and click Member Details.
6. Under Memberships, locate the member area(s) you wish to cancel the user’s membership.
7. Click Cancel.
8. Click Confirm.
9. Done!

Understanding your membership customers with Member Areas analytics

Regardless of your overall Squarespace website plan, you will have access to detailed analytics in the Analytics panel of the main dashboard. There are five (5) key stats that will be displayed and I’m going to break those down for you here.

1. Sales Analytics – includes revenue from both one-time and recurring membership fees. It displays all six (6) sales analytics KPIs (key performance indicators): revenue, units sold, order, conversion rate, average order value (AOV), and revenue per visit (RPV).
2. Sales by Product Analysis – lists each member area you sell along with values for revenue, units sold, and orders for each. The views and conversion rate columns only apply to products sold online and are always left blank in this instance.
3. Purchase Funnel Analytics – stages of your purchase funnel: visit, started checkout, purchased.
4. Traffic Sources Analytics – see where visitors to your site are coming from before they purchase a membership, and also breaks down revenue generated by each traffic source.
5. Popular Content Analytics – these stats appear in the Popular Content panel of the analytics dashboard and display how popular the pages in your member areas are and how many page views they get compared to the rest of your Squarespace website.

There you have it – the ultimate guide to Squarespace Member Areas. AndI know that was A TON of information but hopefully, it can serve as the go-to resource for all things Squarespace Member Areas for you and your business. What are your thoughts on this new Squarespace feature?

Looking for even more insight on Squarespace Member Areas? Rebecca from Inside the Square wrote a great recap of her beta test experience – be sure to check it out!