Squarespace Blog Design: Beyond the Default Layout
Squarespace Member Areas are a powerful feature for selling content, courses, memberships, and exclusive access. But they come with significant limitations. A lot of designers recommend them without fully understanding what they can and can't do. That does clients a disservice.
If you're considering building a member area for a client, you need to understand the constraints, the design limitations, the functionality gaps, and when it makes sense to use external tools instead.
What Member Areas Can Do
Squarespace Member Areas let you: Sell access to content behind a paywall. Customers subscribe or make a one-time purchase for access. Create membership tiers with different access levels. Bronze members get Content A. Gold members get Content A, B, and C. Restrict content to registered members. Non-members see a login prompt. Accept recurring payments. Monthly, yearly, or custom billing cycles. Integrate with email marketing tools to send members-only emails. Track member information and purchase history. Issue member credentials and download links. Set expiry dates on memberships.
This is useful for coaches selling programmes, educators selling courses, publications selling subscriptions, or any business selling exclusive content.
What Member Areas Can't Do
And here's where honesty matters. Member Areas have real limitations: No content dripping. Squarespace doesn't support scheduled content release. You can't set Content Week 1 to unlock on week 1, Content Week 2 to unlock on week 2, etc. You have to manually publish content. This is a major limitation for course creators. No detailed course progression tracking. Squarespace doesn't track if a member watched a video, completed a quiz, or reached a specific point in your content. You get purchase history, not engagement history. Limited customisation. Member area pages have design constraints. You can't build member pages with the same flexibility as regular pages. Layout options are limited. No native integration with learning platforms. Squarespace Member Areas aren't a learning management system (LMS). They're a paywall. If your client needs course features, quizzes, certificates, or structured learning paths, Member Areas won't deliver. No advanced access control. You can't give specific members access to specific content based on complex rules. It's tiers or nothing. Limited API access. You can't deeply integrate member data with external tools. You can send members to email lists, but that's about it. No student-to-student interaction. Member areas are read-only. There's no discussion forum, peer interaction, or community features.
If your client needs any of these features, Member Areas aren't the solution. Consider external platforms like Teachable, Kajabi, or Memberpress instead.
Pricing Tiers and Plan Options
Member Areas are available on Squarespace Business and above plans. You need at least a Business plan to access this feature.
There's no additional fee for Member Areas beyond your Squarespace plan. Squarespace takes a transaction fee on sales, but that's standard for any payment processing.
You can create multiple membership tiers on a single site. A basic tier might be $10/month, a premium tier $30/month. Members choose which tier to purchase.
You can also sell one-time access. A video course for £99 one-time purchase, with no recurring payment.
Design Limitations You Need to Know
Member area pages have restricted design capabilities. You're more limited than on regular pages:
You can't use the Fluid Engine freely. Member area pages have a more rigid structure. Custom CSS applied to the site doesn't always apply to member area pages. You need to use Squarespace's limited styling options or add member-specific CSS.
You can't embed certain block types. Some Squarespace blocks don't work in member areas. Navigation is limited. Member area pages have their own navigation structure separate from your main site navigation.
For designers, this is frustrating. You can build a beautiful main site, but the member area pages feel disconnected or less polished. This is Squarespace's biggest member area weakness.
The Content Dripping Problem
This is the most common complaint about Squarespace Member Areas: no content dripping.
If your client is selling a 12-week programme, they want week 1 content to unlock on week 1, week 2 on week 2, etc. Squarespace Member Areas don't support this natively. You have to manually publish content on a schedule.
This means: Creating a calendar reminder to publish each week's content on schedule. Publishing content and immediately messaging all members that new content is available. Manually tracking which content has been released and when.
It's clunky and error-prone. For courses that rely on timed content release, Member Areas are a bad fit.
Workaround one: use a third-party scheduler or integration. Some integrations can automatically publish Squarespace pages on a schedule, but this requires setup and ongoing maintenance. Workaround two: use an external platform for the course. Squarespace Member Areas for sales and authentication, but deliver course content through Teachable or similar. Workaround three: accept manual publishing. Some creators are fine with releasing content manually. It allows flexibility to adjust content based on member feedback.
Be honest with clients about this limitation. If they specifically need automated content dripping, Member Areas aren't the right solution.
Integrating With Email Marketing
One of Member Areas' strengths is email integration. When someone purchases membership, you can automatically add them to an email list.
In Squarespace, set up Member Areas, then go to Integrations and connect your email marketing platform (Mailchimp, ConvertKit, etc.). Create a rule: when someone buys membership, add them to specific lists or tags.
This lets you: Send members-only emails. Segment members by tier. Gold tier members get different emails than Silver tier. Automate email sequences. Welcome series for new members, engagement sequences, re-engagement for inactive members. Sync member data to your email platform.
This is powerful for retention and engagement. A well-executed email strategy often matters more than the member area platform itself.
When to Use Member Areas vs External Platforms
Use Squarespace Member Areas when: Your client's primary business is on Squarespace, and they want a simple paywall. Keep everything on one platform. They're selling subscriptions to a magazine, newsletter, or regularly updated content. A simple paywall is sufficient. They're selling courses that don't require content dripping, progress tracking, or quizzes. They want to minimise complexity. Squarespace handles billing, login, content access in one system. Their content is relatively static. One-time purchases or memberships without complex progression.
Use external platforms (Teachable, Kajabi, Memberpress, etc.) when: Your client needs content dripping and timed access. They need detailed engagement tracking and progress monitoring. They want quizzes, certificates, or structured learning. They need community features or student-to-student interaction. They require complex access control rules. They want a dedicated learning platform that's optimised for education. They're likely to outgrow Member Areas as the business scales.
A hybrid approach often works best: use Squarespace for marketing, landing pages, and sales. Use an external platform for course delivery and member management.
The Designer's Role in Setting Up Member Areas
As a designer, your role includes: Designing the member landing page and account area. Setting up the member area structure and content organisation. Customising member area styling to match the brand. Configuring payment options and tiers. Integrating with email marketing tools. Testing the member purchasing and login flow. Documenting the system for the client so they can manage it independently. Being honest about limitations and recommending external tools when Member Areas aren't sufficient.
Many designers set up Member Areas without fully testing the flow or understanding the limitations. Then the client launches and discovers major gaps. Be thorough. Test everything. Document everything. Set expectations clearly.
Testing the Member Area Setup
Before handing a site over to a client: Create test memberships at each tier and verify access works correctly. Test the signup flow, login, account management. Verify email integrations trigger properly. Test member-only content is hidden from non-members. Check the visual design on mobile and desktop. Verify payment processing works (use Stripe test mode or similar). Test password reset and account recovery. Confirm members receive emails about their subscription status. Test that cancellations are processed correctly.
Have the client do a final test run. They'll find edge cases you missed.
Wrapping Up
Squarespace Member Areas are a solid solution for simple subscription and paywall models. They integrate cleanly with the rest of the platform and require minimal setup. But they're not a learning management system, and they shouldn't be sold as one.
Understand the limitations. Know when to recommend an external platform instead. Be honest with clients about what Member Areas can and can't do. Set up the system thoroughly, test extensively, and document everything.
Done well, Member Areas are a valuable revenue stream for your clients. Done poorly, they're a source of frustration. The difference is understanding the tool's constraints and being honest about them.
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