Lanternbee vs Squarespace

Looking for a Squarespace alternative for your books?

A website builder with a store built in. Here is what it costs, where it does better than Lanternbee, and what moving would take.

What Squarespace is

Squarespace builds good-looking websites from templates, with a blog, booking and a store. Authors often have their author site there and add a few books to sell.

Who it suits

Authors who already have a Squarespace site and want to sell a handful of books from it, or who care most about the website’s design.

What Squarespace costs

US prices, checked against the sources at the bottom of this page.

Plan	Price	Fee on sales
Basic	$25 a month, or $19 a month paid yearly	7% on digital products; 2% on physical products
Core	$39 a month, or $29 a month paid yearly	5% on digital products; none on physical products

Squarespace and Lanternbee side by side

The jobs a bookstore has to do, and how each one handles them.

Squarespace and Lanternbee, feature by feature
What you need	Squarespace	Lanternbee
One book with several editions	PartlyVariants of one product.	Yes. Ebook, audiobook, paperback and hardcover live on one book page.
Series with a reading order	Not listed	Yes, with the reading order you set.
Bundles and box sets	Not listed	Yes. Readers who own book one pay less for the rest.
Ebook and audiobook delivery	YesA download link after purchase.	Yes. Download links by email, and a reader library.
Send to Kindle	Not listed	Yes, from the reader library.
Print on demand for books	Not listed	Yes, through BookVault or Lulu.
Your reader list	PartlyEmail campaigns are a paid add-on.	Yes. Every buyer lands on your list, with tags.
Your own domain	Yes	Yes. yourname.lanternbee.shop or shop.yourname.com.
Monthly cost	Basic: $25 a month, or $19 a month paid yearlyCore: $39 a month, or $29 a month paid yearly	Free: nothing a month. Author: $45 a month, or $35 paid yearly.
Fee on sales	Basic: 7% on digital products; 2% on physical productsCore: 5% on digital products; none on physical products	Free: 5%, only when you sell. Author: none.

US prices. “Not listed” means we could not find it on Squarespace’s own pages or in the sources below, so check with them. Card fees apply everywhere; on Lanternbee they are Stripe’s, with nothing added.

What Squarespace does better

No store is right for every author. These are fair reasons to stay.

Website design. Templates, a blog, galleries and pages for events all sit in one place.
Your author site and your store under one login, if you sell only a few books.
Booking and scheduling tools, if you offer coaching or editing.

Moving from Squarespace

There is no importer for Squarespace. Here is what you would do by hand.

Keep your Squarespace author site. Add your books on Lanternbee and link to them from your site.
Or use a store address like shop.yourname.com for Lanternbee, so your site and store share your name.
Download your Squarespace customers if you need them and keep them in your email tool. Lanternbee cannot import that list yet.
Add redirects on Lanternbee if you move book links that used to live on your old store pages.

Questions about Squarespace and Lanternbee

Can I keep my Squarespace website and sell books on Lanternbee?

Yes. Many authors will. Keep the website on Squarespace and point a store address such as shop.yourname.com at Lanternbee. Your book buttons link to the store.

What does Squarespace charge on ebook sales?

Squarespace takes 7% on digital products on Basic and 5% on Core, plus card fees. Lanternbee Free takes 5%; Author takes nothing.

Does Squarespace do print on demand for books?

Not that we could find. Lanternbee sends print orders to BookVault or Lulu, which print and ship each copy.