Step-by-Step: Exporting Your Squarespace Website for Self-Hosting

Squarespace is undeniably one of the most popular platforms for designers and small business owners who want a polished, professional-looking website without touching a line of code. However, as your site grows or your budget tightens, you might find that Squarespace hosting is expensive. Paying $20, $30, or even more every month per site adds up quickly, especially if you have multiple projects.

What if you could keep the beautiful design you built in Squarespace but move it to a more affordable, flexible environment? The answer is self-hosting. In this guide, we’ll show you exactly how to export your Squarespace website and host it yourself using ExFlow.

Why Move Away from Squarespace Hosting?

While Squarespace offers an all-in-one solution, it comes with limitations. Many users seek to download their Squarespace site to gain:

1. Significant Cost Savings: Static hosting (like Cloudflare Pages or GitHub Pages) is often free or costs pennies compared to Squarespace’s monthly fees.
2. Total Control: Once you have your files, you own them. You aren't tied to a single platform's uptime or pricing changes.
3. SEO Performance: Static sites are incredibly fast. Moving your Squarespace site to a static environment can significantly boost your Core Web Vitals and PageSpeed insights.
4. Reliable Backups: Having a local version of your site is the ultimate backup for Squarespace content. No more worrying about account lockouts or platform outages.

Introducing ExFlow: Your Bridge to Freedom

Standard tools like HTTrack often struggle with modern platforms like Squarespace, leading to broken styles, missing scripts, or failed image loading. This is because modern sites use complex asset-loading mechanisms that generic scrapers can't handle.

ExFlow was built specifically to solve this. It’s a dedicated website exporter that handles the heavy lifting of converting your dynamic Squarespace pages into clean, static HTML, CSS, and Javascript. It ensures that animations remain smooth and the layout stays pixel-perfect.

Step 1: Getting Ready

Before you begin, ensure your Squarespace site is public. If it is password-protected, don't worry—ExFlow can still access it if you provide the password during the setup process. Have your site URL ready (e.g., https://your-site.squarespace.com). It's also a good idea to audit your site for any broken links before exporting to ensure the cleanst possible output.

Step 2: Configuring Your Export in ExFlow

Head over to ExFlow and enter your URL. You’ll be presented with several options to customize your output:

• Export All Pages: Unlike simple scrapers, ExFlow follows the site structure to ensure every sub-page, blog post, and gallery is captured.
• Media & Asset Optimization: Ensure 'Export Images' and 'Export CSS/JS' are selected. This bundles everything into a single, portable package, optimizing images for faster loading.
• Badge Removal: One of the best features of ExFlow is the ability to automatically remove the 'Powered by Squarespace' or 'Made with' badges, giving your site a fully custom, white-label feel.
• Custom Scripts: You can even inject your own script.js or style.css files during the export process. This allows you to add custom tracking codes or styling that Squarespace’s editor might restrict.

Step 3: The Export Process

Once you hit 'Export', ExFlow goes to work. It crawls your site, optimizes the code for performance, and packages everything into a ZIP file. This process usually takes just a few minutes. While you wait, ExFlow provides status updates so you know exactly when your static version is ready for the world.

Step 4: Choosing Your New Home

Once you have your ZIP file, you have several powerful options for self-hosting your Squarespace site:

1. ExFlow Unlimited Hosting

The easiest path is to use ExFlow’s own hosting service. It’s designed to be a fraction of the cost of Squarespace while offering unlimited bandwidth. You can link your custom domain name directly and go live in seconds without touching any server configuration.

2. Syncing with Git or S3

For more technical users, ExFlow supports automatic syncing. You can connect your GitHub repository or Amazon S3 bucket, and ExFlow will push your exported files directly there. This is perfect for setting up a CI/CD pipeline, where every change on your original site can be automatically mirrored to your static host.

3. Traditional FTP

If you have an existing web server (like Bluehost or SiteGround), you can use the FTP sync feature to upload your files automatically without manually handling ZIP folders.

Preserving Your SEO and Redirects

A common concern when moving sites is losing SEO progress. Since ExFlow exports your pages with their original paths, your URLs remain consistent. If you are moving to a new domain, ensure you set up 301 redirects to point your old traffic to the new static destination. Because static sites load faster, you may actually see an improvement in your search engine rankings after the move.

Frequently Asked Questions

Will my forms still work? Static sites don't process form submissions on the server. However, you can easily integrate 3rd party services like Basin, Formspree, or even Google Forms to handle your inquiries.

Is it really cheaper? Yes. While Squarespace starts at ~$16-23/month, static hosting on platforms like Cloudflare is often $0, and ExFlow hosting is significantly more affordable for those wanting a managed experience.

Conclusion

You don’t have to be locked into high monthly fees to keep your beautiful website. By using ExFlow to self-host your Squarespace site, you gain independence, save money, and improve your site’s performance. Whether you’re looking for a simple backup for Squarespace or a full migration to Cloudflare or S3, ExFlow makes the transition seamless and professional.

Ready to take control of your web presence? Try ExFlow today and see how easy it is to export and host your site on your own terms.