What is Squarespace Members Area?
Squarespace Members Area may be a new feature on all Squarespace websites—on your existing site, you’ll see it under Settings > Member Areas.
This feature allows you to make specific, members-only pages on your Squarespace website—and then sell access to those pages via paid memberships.
(You also can create free membership-protected pages too—something we’ve talked about before as an excellent opt-in for growing your email list.)
Member Areas is a further service added to any Squarespace website—including versions 7.0 or 7.1 and any Squarespace plan.
So, you’ll pay a further monthly fee to be used of Member Areas if you select to line that abreast of your site.
Squarespace offers three different pricing plans for this membership feature, which vary in what percentage “member areas” you’ll include and what the transaction fee is on your membership sales.
(And, like Squarespace website plans, you’ll receive a reduction if you select annual billing.)
You’ll manage your Member Areas directly from the back-end of your Squarespace website. You’ll see those membership-protected pages in your pages panel and may work with them there like all other pages on your website.
Squarespace Member Area features
Here are some more details about what’s possible with the new Squarespace Member Areas, and a couple of notes on where that varies from the potential of MemberSpace (the previous method we’ve recommended for creating membership areas on Squarespace):
Membership-protect your Squarespace pages
Member Areas allows you to membership-protect specific pages on your Squarespace website and make those pages accessible only to subscribed members.
Note: Member Areas protects pages only; it doesn’t save any files shared on those pages—for example, PDF downloads, images, audio files, etc., meaning the direct link to your file (every file uploaded to your Squarespace website has its connection) wouldn’t be membership-protected, and anyone as long as the link would be ready to access that content—so, in theory, members could share your membership files with non-members. MemberSpace, on the other hand, does offer the power to guard files additionally to webpages.
Free & paid membership plans
Squarespace Member Areas allows you to make free memberships, also as paid memberships billed as either a one-time fee or recurring payment (a subscription).
Note: Member Areas doesn’t currently allow multiple payments (like a payment plan for a better-priced offering). MemberSpace does have the power to supply payment plans.
Customer accounts
The Customer Accounts used for membership access via Squarespace Member Areas are equivalent as other commerce products on your website. So, customers will have one account for all billing, shipping, and membership access on your site.
Note: this is often a perk not available with the MemberSpace integration because the MemberSpace-based member accounts aren’t connected to other Squarespace commerce products.
Member homepage
You have the power to make a selected homepage for every Member Area, which may function its “Welcome” page (the first page members will see upon enrollment), orienting members to the membership area and what they’ll have to access there.
Member pages navigation
With Squarespace Member Areas, you’ve got a couple of choices for structuring page navigation throughout your members-only content. These options vary slightly depending on if you’re on Squarespace 7.0 or 7.1, but include:
Replacing your site’s primary navigation—so, when logged in, members will see only their membership pages within the navigation bar. (This is merely available on Squarespace 7.1.)
A dynamic “Sign in” link in your site navigation that changes to “Your Account” when a member is logged in; may open their Customer Account panel, through which they will view all membership pages they need access.
You are using your member homepage to structure navigation links to other parts of your Member Area.
Note: as a Squarespace product, Member Areas gets you to access your Squarespace site’s built-in navigation a touch more easily than a third-party integration like MemberSpace. So, that first option (available only on Squarespace 7.1) may be a new feature that hasn’t previously been possible.
Member checkout process
Member Areas collects payments through MasterCard or PayPal (using equivalent settings as your other Squarespace commerce products).
In the checkout process for memberships purchased via Member Areas, you’ve got the power to feature a custom checkout form to gather additional information from your customers and require them to comply with your terms of service.
Note: Because Squarespace Member Areas uses an equivalent commerce structure as the other commerce products on your site, an equivalent checkout form will appear for all memberships and products.
Member email notifications
Squarespace Member Areas has some built-in customer email notifications, including a Welcome Email, Cancellation Email, and other Customer Account Emails (like resetting a password, etc.)
You can “customize” the styling and a few contents in these member email notifications… though we are saying “customize” in quotation marks because Squarespace isn’t known for having very customizable emails.
For additional communication with your members, Squarespace Member Areas also integrates seamlessly with (you guessed it!) Squarespace Email Campaigns, their version of email marketing.
But despite our love for all things Squarespace, we’re still not huge fans of their Email Campaigns and typically recommend other email marketing tools over it.
Note: MemberSpace features a bit more customization potential in their member-specific email notifications (like confirmation emails, password reset, etc.) sent directly from their platform and connected with the other email marketing service (like Mailchimp, ConvertKit, Flodesk, etc.) via Zapier.
How to add a Membership Area to your Squarespace Website
The Free Way
If you don’t need much security and don’t need payment gated content (meaning people aren’t paying you to realize access), you’ll password protect a page or maybe a blog within your Squarespace Members Area website. Then you’d give an equivalent password to anyone who needs access. This is often an excellent solution for “freebie” areas only for your list members or a tutorials section for clients. From the Pages menu, click the cog icon on any page you’d wish to password protect, then add your password in Page Settings > General.
The More Secure Way
But what if you would like a safer option, an independent login for every person, or the power to require subscription payments? There are three good choices for membership programs on Squarespace, and I’ll detail those here, alongside the pros and cons of every.
The two third-party options each require the Business-level hosting plan or higher on Squarespace (they won’t work on Personal plan sites). For those, here’s a professional tip: If your Squarespace template has AJAX loading (like the Brine family), you’ll get to disable this in Design > Site Styles.
All these options allow you to make a Squarespace Members Area within your Squarespace website and offer free, one-time, or recurring payments to your customers. If you would like to limit access to certain pages of your site and need a singular login or paywall, here are some excellent options.
1. MemberSpace
MemberSpace is my favorite, thanks to launching a membership area on your Squarespace site quickly. They provide a free 14-day trial, incredible customer support (I’m not kidding, it’s fantastic), and an easy onboarding process.
They even have some great Case Studies on their website, so you’ll get pity layouts and possibilities.
2. MemberStack
MemberStack is a choice for adding a member’s area to Squarespace.
Their plans are free until you’re able to go live (so you’ll take some time to test out the system thoroughly), their branding is removed on a rock bottom-paid plan, and that they offer a relatively lower transaction fee than MemberSpace.
3. Squarespace Members Area
If you’re a lover of keeping everything under one roof, this is often an excellent option. you’ll create your own Squarespace Members Area directly within the Pages section of your website and test it out for free of charge until you’re able to sell. A few cons for this feature are that uploaded pdfs and other documents aren’t secure, and you may manually add members. This is often where MemberSpace comes out ahead.
What are Squarespace Members Area and why should you consider one?
Squarespace Member Areas are private areas of your website, where you’ll provide premium content exclusive to a signed up or paying group of your community. Here are some reasons to think about a membership area:
- Strengthens Relationship – Giving restricted access to members makes them feel exclusive and enhances the connection together with your brand.
- Privacy: Restricted access content are often necessary to supply information for intimate events and meetups.
- Monetization: Charging for access to restricted content may be an excellent way to monetize your website and expertise.
- Collect leads – Having select content only accessible via an email address check-in may be an excellent way to grow your database.
How much does Squarespace Members Area cost?
You can experience and add content to Squarespace Member Areas free – with no period restriction.
In your Squarespace dashboard, head to Settings > Member Areas to activate the add-on. Now you’ll set up a personal area and add multiple pages to urge a genuine pity in the new exclusive section. Only you can promote and begin earning income; you activate the add-on membership service by choosing a Member Areas plan.
If you’re new to Squarespace, simply sign-up here (using the coupon OPL10 for 10% off) to start your 14-day free trial. Here may be a video tutorial I published on the way to create a gorgeous long-scrolling Landing Page in under 10 minutes.
I want to reiterate how Member Areas is an add-on. Pricing starts at only $9/month for Member Areas but only available in addition to a Squarespace website. So if you’ve got a typical Squarespace website ($12/month) added on, the entire cost would be:
- $21 per month, if paying annually (see table below)
- $26 per month, if paying monthly
