Best Squarespace Blog Templates in 2026 (and How to Blog on Squarespace)

Some links in this article are affiliate links. If you buy through them, SquareLocator may earn a commission at no extra cost to you. Every template and plugin here was chosen editorially, on its merits.

Short answer: you can blog on Squarespace on any plan, and the built-in blog is better than its reputation: scheduling, categories, tags, excerpts, SEO fields, comments and an automatic RSS feed are all there. What it lacks is a sidebar, search and filtering on the blog page, and that is where a good template and two or three small plugins earn their keep.

I am Miles. Through Altitude Design I have been a Squarespace Platinum Partner since 2018, with more than 400 client builds, and a lot of those sites live or die by their journal. Below: how the 7.1 blog works (checked against Squarespace's help centre and pricing page today), my template shortlist, and the plugins that fix the gaps.

Quick Comparison: Squarespace Blog Templates

Prices are SquareLocator listing prices in US dollars at the time of writing. For the wider field, see our full Squarespace templates collection and my roundup of the best Squarespace templates in 2026.

How to Blog on Squarespace 7.1

Blog pages and posts

A blog on Squarespace is a collection page. In the Pages panel you click the plus icon, choose Blog, pick a layout and give it a title. Posts are added from inside that page. Squarespace sets no limit on the number of posts in a blog page, and you can have more than one blog page per site. Post titles are capped at 200 characters. One thing that surprises people: Fluid Engine is not available inside blog posts, which still use the classic block editor.

Post settings: categories, tags, excerpts, featured images and SEO

Each post has its own settings panel. The Content tab holds the featured image, the excerpt, the post URL slug, the author and a source URL. Options covers status, tags, categories, comments on or off and whether the post is featured. There is an SEO tab for an SEO title and description, a social sharing image and sharing options. My advice: write the excerpt and SEO description yourself, and keep categories broad and tags fine.

Scheduling and drafts

Hover over Publish and choose Schedule, or set the status to Scheduled in Options. Scheduled posts go live on their own at the date and time you set.

Comments

Native comments are switched on in the blog settings and can be turned on or off post by post, with moderation in the panel. They are fine for a light conversation. If you want a full community with reader profiles, a third-party comment system such as Disqus is the usual route, and it needs code, so it comes back to your plan (below).

RSS

Every blog page has a built-in RSS feed. Add ?format=rss to the end of the blog page URL to find it. The feed includes the 20 most recent items.

Blog layouts and summary blocks

Version 7.1 offers five blog page layouts: basic grid, masonry, single column, side by side and alternating side by side. You can set between 1 and 20 posts per page, and pagination links appear underneath. Infinite scroll is not supported on 7.1. To show posts anywhere else, such as your homepage, use a summary block: wall, carousel, list or grid, filtered by category, tag or featured posts.

Which Squarespace plan you need for a blog

Blogging itself works on every plan. The catch is code. On squarespace.com/pricing today the four plans are Basic, Core, Plus and Advanced, priced at $19, $29, $49 and $99 a month on annual billing ($25, $39, $65 and $139 billed monthly). Basic does not include code injection, and JavaScript in a code block, which nearly every blog plugin relies on, starts at Core. If you are on an older legacy plan, check what your billing panel says before buying a plugin. My Squarespace pricing guide goes deeper.

The Missing Sidebar in Squarespace 7.1

None of the five 7.1 blog layouts includes a sidebar, so there is no native place for an author bio, newsletter sign-up or category list beside your posts.

You have three realistic options:

• Put the extras inside the post. Add a newsletter or summary block at the end of each post. Free, but you repeat it in every post.
• Write your own CSS. Possible, but fragile on mobile. If you want to try, my guide to using custom CSS in Squarespace is the place to start.
• Use a sidebar plugin. The Squarespace Sidebar Plugin by SQPlugins ($49) lets you design one ordinary page as a master source and display it as a live sidebar on whichever pages you choose, with up to two sidebars per page. It installs through Code Injection, so it needs Core or above. See the Sidebar Plugin on the developer's site.

The Best Squarespace Blog Templates in 2026

Any 7.1 template can run a blog, including Squarespace's own free ones, which I cover in the best free Squarespace templates. A premium template adds designed journal layouts and a homepage that already surfaces your writing. If you are still weighing options, read how to choose the right Squarespace template first.

1. Musing by The Styled Square: best for writers and copywriters

Price: $299. Who it is for: copywriters, designers, brand strategists and anyone whose brand is built on words. Musing frames generous type with thin lines, so it reads like a print publication. It is built on 7.1 with Fluid Engine and ships with 15 pages, including a blog, a shop, services pages and an Instagram link tree page.

Pros: the most "writerly" design here; a complete page set for a service business that also publishes. Cons: the minimal look depends on good writing and restrained imagery, and a photo-heavy blog will fight it. Alternative: Resonance, if your posts are mostly visual.

Verdict: my first pick for a personal brand that writes. View Musing on SquareLocator.

2. Resonance by The Styled Square: best for photographers and content creators

Price: $299. Who it is for: photographers, content creators and creative service providers. Resonance is editorial and luxury-leaning, with dynamic summary blocks that pull your latest posts onto key pages automatically and a custom hamburger menu.

Pros: fresh posts appear across the site without manual updates; a clear journey from homepage to enquiry. Cons: it is a business site with a blog rather than a blog-first design, and the custom menu is one more thing to check after Squarespace updates. Alternative: Journal, if you want the writing to lead.

Verdict: the right choice when the blog feeds enquiries. View Resonance on SquareLocator.

3. Kalina by Studio Founded: best for studios with a journal

Price: $399. Who it is for: portfolio-led businesses, creatives and studios selling project work. Kalina is a Fluid Engine template with 15 layouts, including a shop, a sales page and two blog styles. Studio Founded is a Squarespace Circle Platinum member.

Pros: two journal layouts give you a choice between a gallery feel and a reading feel; spacious, almost architectural design. Cons: the most expensive pick alongside Paloma, and the blog is one section of a portfolio site. Alternative: Musing, at $100 less, if you mainly write. More in templates for creative studios.

Verdict: for studios that publish case studies and process notes. View Kalina on SquareLocator.

4. Paloma by Studio Founded: best for coaches and course creators

Price: $399. Who it is for: coaches, course creators and education brands. Paloma has 15 pages, including Journal 1 and Journal 2, a shop and a dedicated sales page. It is not the free Squarespace template of the same name.

Pros: the blog and the sales page sit in one coherent design, which is how content-led coaching businesses actually sell. Cons: the name causes confusion with the free template, and you are paying for sales and shop pages a pure blogger will not use. Alternative: Nova, slightly cheaper and similarly offer-focused. Browse templates for course creators.

Verdict: the strongest pick when your posts lead to a course. View Paloma on SquareLocator.

5. Nova by Big Cat Creative: best for bloggers who sell offers

Price: $297. Who it is for: coaches and creative entrepreneurs. Big Cat Creative lists bloggers among the intended audience, and its own product page shows seven pages, including a blog. The demo features a podcast, but the podcast page is a separate paid add-on.

Pros: a tight, conversion-minded structure with no filler pages to delete. Cons: fewer pages than the Studio Founded and Styled Square templates, and the podcast page costs extra. Alternative: Montreux, if audio and video matter more than offers.

Verdict: a solid, focused starting point for a personal brand. View Nova on SquareLocator, or browse templates for personal brands.

6. Montreux by Avelã Creative: best for blogs, podcasts and video

Price: $249. Who it is for: content-led sites mixing articles, podcast episodes and video.

Pros: designed for content first rather than services first; good value. Cons: the listing gives less detail on the exact page set than the others, so check the demo before you buy. Alternative: Resonance, for a more polished business layer.

Verdict: the best fit for multi-format creators on a budget. View Montreux on SquareLocator.

7. Journal by Kseniia Krasilich: best for travel bloggers

Price: $229. Who it is for: travel bloggers and anyone telling stories through photography. It is a 7.1 template built around large imagery.

Pros: the cheapest pick here and the most blog-first; it lets photographs carry the story. Cons: heavy imagery needs disciplined image compression, and there is less built in for selling. Alternative: Musing, if words matter more than pictures. Writers should also look at templates for authors.

Verdict: the purest blog template on this list. View Journal on SquareLocator.

Plugins That Improve a Squarespace Blog

All of these need JavaScript, so Core or above. My best Squarespace plugins guide and best SEO plugins and tools cover the wider picture, and the full range is in our plugins collection.

• Squarespace Sidebar Plugin by SQPlugins, $49. Brings back a live, editable sidebar, as covered above. Developer page.
• Genius Blog Contents by The Square Genius, $25. Builds a clickable table of contents from your headings automatically. Essential for long guides. Developer page.
• Squarespace Blog Filter by SQS Mods, $60. Adds search plus category, tag, author and year filters, with grid, newsroom and mosaic layouts. The fix for archives past about fifty posts. Developer page.
• Blog Pagination by Will Myers, $25. Replaces the plain next and previous links with designed cards showing the adjacent posts, so readers carry on reading. Developer page.
• Blog Post Scroll Indicator by Will's Toolkit, $15. A reading progress bar for long posts. Small, cheap and useful. Developer page.

What about the Elfsight Blog widget?

The Elfsight Blog widget is a different animal: an embedded blog that you write and manage in Elfsight's own editor, with categories, tags, scheduled posts and grid or list layouts, then paste onto a Squarespace page as code. Elfsight's pricing page today shows a Free plan with one widget and 200 views a month (go over and the widget is temporarily deactivated until the next month) plus Elfsight branding. Paid plans start at $5 a month billed yearly for 5,000 views. See the Blog widget on Elfsight.

My honest view: for a real blog, use native Squarespace posts. They are proper pages on your own domain with your SEO fields and RSS feed. An Elfsight blog is externally hosted and embedded, so it suits a small news feed on one page or a site that does not want a blog collection at all. It also needs JavaScript in a code block, so it will not run on Basic. My Elfsight guide, Elfsight review and Elfsight pricing explained go further.

My Verdict

Squarespace is a good place to blog in 2026 if you accept its shape: no sidebar, no blog search and plain pagination. Start on Core so plugins work, and add a sidebar or filter only when you need one. For most writers that means Musing or Journal; for businesses where the blog sells something, Paloma, Resonance or Nova. See our Squarespace website examples for finished sites.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can you blog on Squarespace?

Yes. Every Squarespace plan includes blog pages with unlimited posts, categories, tags, excerpts, featured images, SEO fields, scheduling, comments and an automatic RSS feed. You can also have more than one blog page on a site.

Which Squarespace plan do I need for a blog?

Any plan can host a blog. If you want plugins or embedded widgets, choose Core or above, because Basic does not include code injection or JavaScript in code blocks.

Does Squarespace 7.1 have a blog sidebar?

No. None of the five 7.1 blog layouts includes a sidebar. You can add content blocks inside each post, write custom CSS, or use a sidebar plugin such as the Squarespace Sidebar Plugin by SQPlugins.

Can I schedule blog posts on Squarespace?

Yes. Hover over Publish and choose Schedule, or set the post status to Scheduled. The post goes live automatically at the date and time you choose.

Does a Squarespace blog have an RSS feed?

Yes. Every blog page has a built-in feed. Add ?format=rss to the end of the blog page URL to find it. It includes the 20 most recent posts.

Is an Elfsight blog widget better than a native Squarespace blog?

Not for SEO. Native Squarespace posts are proper pages on your own domain with their own SEO fields. An Elfsight blog is externally hosted and embedded, which suits a simple news feed on one page rather than a blog you want to rank.

Some links in this article are affiliate links. If you buy through them, SquareLocator may earn a commission at no extra cost to you. Every template and plugin here was chosen editorially, on its merits.