Squarespace Domains: Buying, Connecting and Managing a Domain

You can either buy a domain directly through Squarespace, or connect a domain you already own from another registrar — you don't need to do both. Buying gets you Squarespace as the registrar with a few things bundled in automatically. Connecting keeps your existing registrar in charge of the registration while pointing the domain's DNS at your Squarespace site. This covers both paths using Squarespace's own documentation: what a purchase includes, the two ways to connect an outside domain, and what renewal actually looks like.

How do I buy a new domain through Squarespace?

From an existing site, open your domains dashboard, click Get a domain, and search for the name you want. Squarespace's own guide walks through the rest of checkout: pick from the suggested list (each labeled Free, a specific price, Premium, or Unavailable), choose a registration term length, and enter contact information. Squarespace notes plainly that "discounts only apply for the first year," so it tells you to "review the renewal price in the Cart Overview panel before checking out" (Squarespace, checked September 2026).

Pricing itself isn't something to quote a number for here — it "varies by top-level domain (TLD), premium status, and any applicable one-time premium fees," per that same guide, so check the domain name search page for your specific name and TLD. One distinction the guide is explicit about: "Your domain's price includes domain hosting, but doesn't include web hosting" — a domain and a website subscription are billed separately even when both come from Squarespace. Country-code domains (.uk, .de, and similar) are a special case: Squarespace notes that they "follow different rules than most other domains" (Squarespace), so check the requirements for your specific ending before you buy or connect one.

What's included with a Squarespace-registered domain?

Squarespace's own overview of domain benefits lists what comes bundled at no extra cost when you register or transfer a domain to them:

(Source: Squarespace, "Why manage your domain with Squarespace?", checked September 2026.)

Whois privacy has real limits worth knowing before you count on it. Squarespace's dedicated privacy guide says most country-code TLDs don't allow domain privacy to be enabled at all, and even where a ccTLD does support it, "disabling Whois privacy on your ccTLD via your domains dashboard doesn't always guarantee that the personal details associated with your domain will be revealed in public searches" — the registry, not Squarespace, decides what's public for that TLD (Squarespace, "Whois privacy"). There's a partial exception even on ordinary gTLDs: "by default, for generic top-level domains (gTLDs), Squarespace displays the Registrant Organization, Registrant State/Province, and Registrant Country you provide" — privacy hides your name and precise contact details, not those three fields.

Email set up through Squarespace's Google Workspace or Titan resale, or the free forwarding option, is a separate topic with its own rules for what survives if you leave — see our guide to email on a Squarespace domain for how each option actually works.

How do I connect a domain I already own?

If your domain is registered somewhere else — Bluehost, GoDaddy, HostGator, or any other provider — and you want to keep it registered there while pointing it at your Squarespace site, that's a connection, not a purchase. Squarespace's guide treats connecting and transferring as different tools, and actively recommends transferring instead when your domain is eligible, since "you can get help for both your site and your domain from our Customer Support team" once it's transferred in (Squarespace, "Nameserver connect vs. DNS connect"). If you'd rather keep the domain where it is, or it isn't eligible to transfer, connecting is the documented path (Squarespace, "Connect a third-party domain to your Squarespace site", checked September 2026).

Two requirements first: your site must be active (a free trial is fine, an expired site is not), and your domain provider must offer full DNS access — "most common domain hosts do," per Squarespace, but if yours doesn't, transferring or switching providers is the alternative. A domain also cannot be connected to a specific page (like yourdomain.com/blog) or used as a parking-page target — every connected domain resolves to your site's homepage.

Should I use Nameserver Connect or DNS Connect?

Squarespace documents two distinct ways to connect a third-party domain, and the difference is about where your DNS records actually live:

• Nameserver Connect: "your domain's DNS records are stored at Squarespace." Setup is "a guided process" — from your Domains panel, you add two nameserver records at your domain provider, and Squarespace takes it from there.
• DNS Connect: "your domain's DNS settings are stored with its third-party provider." Setup is manual — you log into your provider's account and add the specific CNAME and A records Squarespace's DNS settings panel lists for you.

(Both quotes: Squarespace, "Nameserver connect vs. DNS connect", checked September 2026.)

Squarespace's own recommendation is specific: use Nameserver Connect if your domain is with GoDaddy, Namecheap, or Network Solutions, unless it has custom DNS records, multiple subdomains, DNSSEC enabled, a complex setup like glue records, or depends on a third-party service like Cloudflare or AWS for its nameservers — in any of those cases, or with any other provider, use DNS Connect instead. One limitation once you're on Nameserver Connect: "after connecting via nameserver connect, you can only add A, AAAA, CNAME, MX, SRV, and TXT records to your domain" — a full transfer to Squarespace is the documented way around that ceiling if you need a less common record type later.

How do I add the DNS records myself with DNS Connect?

Squarespace's general DNS Connect steps, if your specific provider isn't on its provider-specific list:

1. In Squarespace, open the Domains panel, click Use a Domain I Own, enter the domain, and click Connect Domain.
2. Log into your domain provider's account and find its DNS settings (labeled "DNS," "Advanced DNS," "Zone File," or similar depending on the provider).
3. Add a CNAME record with the unique verification code Squarespace shows you, pointed at verify.squarespace.com.
4. Add a second CNAME record with www as the host, pointed at ext-cust.squarespace.com.
5. Add four A records, all with @ as the host, pointed at 198.185.159.144, 198.185.159.145, 198.49.23.144, and 198.49.23.145.
6. Wait for propagation: "after adding these DNS records, it can take 24 to 48 hours for the connection to start working properly," per Squarespace's own guide. A green "Connected" label in the Domains panel confirms it worked.

Squarespace's instructions also flag one easy mistake to avoid: don't delete MX records while you're in your provider's DNS panel making these changes — those handle your email, separately from anything above.

How does domain renewal work?

Squarespace-managed domains auto-renew by default. The renewal guide lays out the timeline: an email 30 days before a renewal term starts, then "15 days before the start of each renewal term, we'll charge the payment method on file for another term." If a charge fails, the consequence is direct: "your domain expires and disconnects from your site, and any email services associated with your domain... will be disrupted" — domain, site, and email all ride on that renewal succeeding (Squarespace, "Squarespace domain renewals", checked September 2026).

Turn auto-renew off from your domains dashboard instead, and Squarespace sends reminder emails 30 days before expiration, 5 days before, and on the expiration day itself. An expired domain enters a grace period rather than disappearing immediately, but after that window closes "you could permanently lose access to your domain if someone else purchases it." Canceling the website is a separate decision from letting the domain lapse — don't let a subscription cancellation take the domain down with it.

What if I eventually want the domain somewhere else entirely?

Buying or connecting a domain through Squarespace doesn't lock you in. Moving the registration to a different registrar later — the authorization code, the lock period, and what happens to email in the process — is a distinct procedure, which our guide to transferring a domain away from a website builder covers for Squarespace specifically, alongside Wix, GoDaddy, Shopify, and Weebly.

A checklist before you buy or connect

• Decide: register a new domain through Squarespace, or connect one you already own elsewhere?
• If buying, check the actual price and renewal price for your exact TLD on the domain search page — don't assume the first-year price repeats.
• If connecting, confirm your current provider offers full DNS access, and that your site is active (not expired).
• Choose Nameserver Connect only if you're on GoDaddy, Namecheap, or Network Solutions and don't need custom DNS, multiple subdomains, DNSSEC, or a third-party nameserver service — otherwise use DNS Connect.
• Before touching DNS records, note down every existing record so you can restore anything Squarespace's guided steps don't cover (particularly MX records for email).
• Check whether your TLD supports Whois privacy at all before assuming your registration details will be hidden.
• Decide now whether auto-renew should stay on, and calendar a check-in before the first renewal charge date.

Bottom line: buying a domain through Squarespace bundles SSL, Whois privacy where the TLD allows it, and free email forwarding into one dashboard; connecting a domain you already own leaves the registration where it is and only changes where the DNS points. Nameserver Connect and DNS Connect solve the same problem two different ways — check Squarespace's recommendation for your specific provider rather than guessing. None of this locks the domain to Squarespace permanently; moving it later is a separate, documented process.