Key Takeaways
- Squarespace’s latest Refresh just landed on Sept. 30, and it hints at where the next wave of hosting competition is going.
- There’s a heavy focus on AI-driven management, dynamic design, and even fintech, all of which hosts may want to watch closely.
- The bigger story may be that younger users, especially Gen Z, are shaping what platforms need to deliver.
Every year, Squarespace drops an annual bundle of new features and upgrades. This year, Refresh 2025 focuses on three key areas: more AI integration in daily workflows, advanced and customizable design controls, and financial tools that offer more than just third-party payments.
Paul Gubbay, Chief Product Officer at Squarespace, said Refresh 2025 is an answer to what its entrepreneur-heavy customer base has been asking for: help with visibility and growth in a crowded digital market.
“With Refresh 2025, we are expanding our product suite by combining design expertise with AI-powered tools to make it easier to run a business while maintaining an authentic brand,” Gubbay said in the official press release.
While Squarespace didn’t specify which segment prompted these updates, Refresh 2025’s themes won’t come as a surprise to anyone in the hosting industry.
Providers have been repeating it for years: Customers want faster setups, simpler tools, and clearer ways to grow. And it’s the younger users entering the workforce who’ve been the loudest about today’s landscape being too complex and too slow.
What’s Inside Refresh 2025
Stack Refresh 2025 against Refresh 2024, and the shift is obvious.
Last year, the Refresh focused on design intelligence, encompassing both UI and UX, and a more dynamic web that finally touches upon smarter layouts, curated themes, and AI that could swap images or generate copy.
But in 2025, it’s clear that Squarespace has identified new priorities. Its upgraded Beacon AI isn’t there just to respond to prompts, but more so acts like a business partner. Perhaps most impressively, the once-simple website builder has officially entered the fintech space by adding balance accounts, capital loans, and instant payouts.
Here’s a glance at what fellow hosts should be looking at under this year’s hood:
- AI & Optimization
- Beacon AI: Marketed as a full business partner, not just a content-creating tool
- Scanner Suite: Bundled AIO/SEO/site health checks that edge into automated site management
- AI Composers: Fast content generation for products, discounts, and FAQs with a ChatGPT Store (added to Blueprint AI)
- Design & Customization
- Finish Layer: Motion, transforms, and pro-grade styling to answer the dynamic website demand
- Blueprint AI expansion: Chat-driven setup and adaptive, designer-made templates
- AI Backgrounds: Also expands creative resources with image/video libraries
- Business & Finance
- Squarespace Balance: Free financial account to track same-day earnings, rewards, and business spending cards
- Squarespace Capital: A brand-new funding program that helps small businesses access financing
- Instant Payouts/Pay Links: Faster cash flow for small operators
- Commerce Upgrades: Smarter invoicing, tax automation, event/experience listings, more TLDs, and stronger security
- Marketing Tools: Auto-generated campaigns and email automations
- Acuity Scheduling and Bio Sites: Cleaner client checkout and more monetization options for creators
The Gen Z Elephant in the Room
Clients these days are craving simple, customizable, AI-driven platforms to build their businesses.
And Gen Z and the younger end of millennials, in particular, are driving the demand. After all, it’s the first generation to understand that a side hustle can, viably, be a career. And providers now know that this means cutting friction anywhere they can.
“Gen Z and Millennials are reshaping the eCommerce landscape faster than any previous generation,” Saulius Lazaravičius, VP of Product at Hostinger, previously told HostingAdvice. “Their digital fluency, demand for speed, simplicity, and convenience are driving the next evolution in online retail.”
Liquid Web also conducted a survey of 1,000 small-business owners and side hustlers, finding that 83% said time saved was the biggest benefit of their modern hosting setups, with cost-effectiveness and ease of learning coming in right behind at 80%.
Other hosts are chasing the same crowd:
- Bluehost is openly pitching to creators and influencers who are “turning their passion into profit.”
- GoDaddy, Hostinger, and others have added eCommerce, marketing, and automation features because they understand that the younger users won’t settle for confusing workflows.
Users want polished platforms with the essentials already built in (and often the extras they didn’t realize they’d need). The million-dollar question is whether the rest of the market can keep up with what the youngest, most tech-comfortable generation expects.
And if not, Gen Z has no problem moving to a platform that gets the job done faster.
