How to Download a Squarespace Website: Full Backup

To download a Squarespace website completely, you need two different things. Squarespace's built-in export gives you an XML file with some of your pages and blog posts, meant for importing into WordPress. An offline copy of the published site saves every page with its design, images and layout as files you can open in a browser. The export moves content. The copy preserves what the site looks like. This guide shows how to download a Squarespace website both ways, what each one misses, and which to use before you cancel, migrate or hand a site over to a client.

What Squarespace's built-in export actually gives you

Squarespace has an export option in the site settings, usually under Import & Export. The exact menu path has moved between dashboard versions, so search the settings panel for "export" if you can't find it. You choose WordPress as the destination, and Squarespace produces an XML file in the WordPress import format.

That file is a content export, not a backup. Going by Squarespace's help center, the main limits are these:

• Only some page types are included. Regular pages and the posts of one blog page are exported, along with text, image and embed blocks. Product pages, event pages, album pages and index pages are left out. If your site has more than one blog, only one of them comes along.
• The design is not included. Your template, fonts, colours, spacing and custom CSS stay on Squarespace. The XML holds text and structure, not the look.
• Images are links, not files. The XML points to image addresses on Squarespace's servers. It does not contain the images themselves.
• Some blocks don't survive. Audio, video, product and other special blocks are dropped or reduced to placeholders.

Squarespace changes this list from time to time. It also distinguishes between version 7.0 and 7.1 sites, and some third-party migration services report that 7.1 sites have stricter limits. Before you rely on the export, check Squarespace's current help article on exporting your site, then open the export panel on your own site to see what it offers.

Content export vs. offline copy: which one do you need?

The two approaches answer different questions. The XML export answers "how do I get my words into another CMS?" An offline copy answers "how do I keep a record of the site exactly as visitors saw it?"

In most real situations you want both. If you are moving from Squarespace to WordPress, use the export for the blog content and the offline copy as a visual reference while you rebuild the design. If you are closing the site for good, the offline copy is the part you will actually open again in two years.

How to download a Squarespace website as a ZIP, step by step

Squarespace serves most page content as ordinary HTML, so a crawler that follows links from page to page usually captures it well. Here is how to make a Squarespace offline copy with Website Downloader:

1. Make sure the site is published and publicly visible. If you have set a site-wide password, pages behind it can't be downloaded. Remove the password temporarily, or accept that those pages won't be in the copy. Member areas and customer account pages are never captured, because they sit behind a login.
2. Enter the address. On the home page, type your site's address. Use your custom domain if you have one, otherwise the yoursite.squarespace.com address.
3. Start the download and watch the progress. The page count rises as subpages, images, stylesheets and scripts are collected. You can close the tab, because the crawl runs on the server and your computer doesn't need to stay on.
4. Download the ZIP and check it. Unzip it, open index.html and click through the navigation, a few blog posts, a gallery and a product page.

Which plan fits? The free plan covers up to 100 subpages with no account, which is enough for many portfolio and small business sites. The archive is kept for one day, so download it straight away. Blogs grow faster than people expect, because every post, tag page, category page and paginated archive counts as a subpage. If your site is larger, the Single Site plan (a one-time 7.99 EUR) handles up to 5,000 subpages and keeps the archive for 30 days. Agencies archiving several client sites a month may prefer a monthly plan. See pricing for the details. For more on what ends up inside the archive and how to open it, see the complete guide to downloading a website as ZIP.

Exporting products, blogs and images for re-importing elsewhere

If you are rebuilding the site on another platform, the offline copy alone won't do the job. You need the data in a form another system can import. Collect each part separately.

Products

Products are not in the XML export. Instead, the Commerce area of the dashboard lets you export your product inventory as a CSV file. Most e-commerce platforms, including WooCommerce, can import a CSV, although you will usually need to remap some columns. Order history and customer lists can also be exported from the Commerce and contacts areas. Download them separately if you need them for accounting.

Blog posts

The XML export carries the posts of one blog page. If you run several blogs, temporarily move the content you need into the blog that gets exported, or rely on the offline copy for the others. When you import the XML into WordPress, the built-in WordPress importer offers to download file attachments. Tick that option. It fetches images from Squarespace's servers while your site is still live.

Squarespace export images

A common complaint is that the images are missing after a Squarespace export. That happens because the XML only links to them. If the WordPress importer didn't fetch them, or the site was already closed, the links lead nowhere. There are two practical fixes:

• Re-run the WordPress import with attachment downloading enabled, while the Squarespace site is still active.
• Use the offline copy. Its images are saved as real files in the archive, so you can pull them out from there instead of saving them one at a time from the browser.

How do I keep a copy of my site before cancelling Squarespace?

Once a subscription ends, the site stops being public. Squarespace may hold onto an expired site for a while so you can reactivate it, but don't build your plan around that grace period. Go through this checklist while the site is still live:

1. Make an offline copy of the published site, as described above. This is your visual record.
2. Run the XML export and store the file, even if you aren't migrating yet.
3. Export products, orders and customer data as CSV from the Commerce area.
4. Save form submissions and newsletter subscribers. Depending on how your forms were set up, submissions sit in your email, a connected service or Squarespace's contacts area. Export what you need.
5. Keep your original files. Logos, high-resolution photos, PDFs and video files are better taken from your own drive than from the website.
6. Sort out the domain. If the domain was registered through Squarespace, decide whether to transfer it before you cancel, so your email and future site keep working.

Archiving a site at client handover

Agencies have a related problem. Once the site belongs to the client's account, you may lose access. Before you hand it over, make an offline copy of the site as delivered on the handover date. You get a portfolio piece that doesn't depend on the client keeping the site unchanged, and a reference if there is ever a question about what was delivered. Store the ZIP together with the XML export and a note of the date. If you have also built sites on other builders, the same approach is covered in how to download a Wix website.

Will forms, the store and member areas work in an offline copy?

No. An offline copy is a set of static files, and anything that needs Squarespace's servers to respond stops working:

• Forms and newsletter blocks show up but can't send anything.
• The online store displays product pages, prices and photos, but the cart and checkout don't work.
• Member areas and customer accounts are not captured at all, because they are behind a login.
• Site search doesn't return results.
• Comments, scheduling and booking blocks don't load or can't be submitted.
• Embedded maps and videos from third-party services need an internet connection, because they are loaded from those services.

Text, images, layout, navigation, galleries and downloadable PDFs do work. Galleries and sliders run on JavaScript that is saved with the page, so test them once after downloading.

Site already expired? Recovering it from the Wayback Machine

If the subscription has already lapsed and Squarespace can no longer reactivate the site, the export option is gone too. Your best remaining source is often the Internet Archive. The Wayback Machine regularly captures public websites, and many Squarespace sites have snapshots going back years.

The Wayback Machine downloader rebuilds a site from one of those captures and delivers it as a ZIP. The archive.org playback toolbar and the links back to archive.org are removed, so the result reads like the original site. A restore of up to 100 pages is free. Larger sites take a one-time Wayback Restore at 14.99 EUR, which covers up to 5,000 subpages. How complete the result is depends on what the Internet Archive actually captured, so pages it never crawled can't be recovered. For a full walkthrough, read how to restore a website from the Wayback Machine.

FAQ: Squarespace backups and downloads

Can I back up my whole Squarespace site, design included?

Not with Squarespace's own tools. The XML export leaves out the design and several page types. An offline copy of the published site keeps the layout, styles and images as they appear to visitors. Combine the two, plus the product CSV, for the most complete backup.

Why are my images missing after a Squarespace export?

The XML file contains links to images on Squarespace's servers, not the images themselves. Import it into WordPress with attachment downloading enabled while the site is still live, or take the image files from an offline copy, where they are saved locally.

Can Squarespace restore an earlier version of my site?

Squarespace has no site-wide version history you can roll back to. Recently deleted pages can usually be recovered from the trash for a limited time, but edits to existing pages cannot be undone later. Dated offline copies are the practical way to keep earlier versions.

Can I export from a trial site or an expired site?

Squarespace restricts exporting on trial sites, so if the option is unavailable that is likely the reason. You can still make an offline copy of a trial site if it is publicly visible. For an expired site that is no longer online, a Wayback Machine restore is usually the only route.

Can I host the downloaded HTML somewhere else?

Technically, yes: the files are static and can be uploaded to any web host, but forms, the store and search won't work. Legally it is less clear-cut. Your own text and photos are yours, but template code and design elements may be covered by Squarespace's terms. The rules depend on your country and situation, so check the terms or ask a lawyer before republishing a copy as a live site. More common questions are answered in the FAQ.