What happens if I let my Squarespace website expire?
When you let your Squarespace website expire, there are consequences and here’s a full summary so you can decide if that’s something you wish to do.
What happens to the website?
When your subscription expires, your website will no longer be accessible to users - past or present. The URL will display a ‘site not found’ message.
There is a grace period of around 30 days when you can renew the site without losing content. During this time, your site and its content remain in a held state which means they are inaccessible to visitors but the account is available for you renew the subscription. After this, Squarespace is within its rights to remove the site and the content.
Squarespace will let you know, by email, to the email address connected to the account that the site is expired and what next, look out for these.
Yikes, I don’t want my site deleted!
You can avoid the site being removed by logging in to your Squarespace account and renewing your subscription. This will reactivate your website, making it live. You can swap the billing plans around to personal, but note that some features are not available in this plan.
If you decide not to renew, it’s best to back up your website content. You can export your site content, for example, pages and blog posts, using Squarespace's export tools. Note that some content, like product pages, may need to be saved manually.
What happens if I don’t?
If you do not renew your subscription within the grace period, Squarespace may permanently delete your site and its content. This means you could lose all your data, including text, images, and other site code.
Your account is changed to limited access.
Other points to note
If your domain name was registered through Squarespace and your subscription expires, you risk losing the domain if you do not renew it separately. It’s important to keep track of your domain registration status to avoid losing your web address to another person.
If you have integrated third-party services (like Google Workspace, email campaigns, or scheduling tools), these services may also be affected.
A prolonged period of your site being offline could impact its search engine rankings, making it difficult to rebuild traffic even after it’s live.
Hello Lovely Design and Co recommends …
Keep track of your subscription and domain expiration dates to avoid lapses. Set calendar reminders if necessary.
Ensure your account details, including email addresses, are up-to-date so you receive all reminder notifications.
If managing multiple monthly payments is challenging, consider opting for an annual billing cycle, which offers a discount, if you build your site with Hello Lovely Design and Co you’ll receive a discount on the annual cost which is around 20% discount.
Any questions?
