Squarespace Email Campaigns is Squarespace's built-in email marketing tool for building mailing lists, sending one-off blast emails or automated emails, and tracking how they perform. Before you can send anything you need an Email Campaigns plan, verified sender details and at least one mailing list, and you don't need a Squarespace website to sign up.
Here's the part people miss. As of October 2026, current plans cap your total email sends per month, not how many campaigns you write, and automated emails count toward that same limit. A campaign won't send at all if the mailing list has more subscribers than your plan's monthly send limit. So a welcome series that fires for every new subscriber quietly eats into the allowance you were saving for your newsletter.
Campaigns versus sends
Squarespace's FAQ spells this out with a simple example. Send one blast campaign to ten email addresses and that's one campaign and ten sends. Set up an automated campaign that goes to five people and that's five sends. Some legacy plans also limit how many different blast campaigns you can send a month, and Squarespace suggests moving to a current plan if that limit gets in your way.
Scheduled campaigns count in the month they go out, not the month you wrote them. A draft written in May and scheduled for June counts toward June. The plan you choose also decides whether you can remove the powered by Squarespace branding at the bottom of your emails.
| What you're doing | How it works, per Squarespace's help as of October 2026 |
|---|---|
| Blast campaign | A single email you send to one or more mailing lists, now or on a schedule |
| Automated campaign | Sends after a visitor's action, such as subscribing, filling in a form or buying |
| Sends | Each email address a campaign goes to, blast and automated alike |
| Someone on two lists | Only receives one copy of a blast |
| Test email | Unsubscribe links are switched off and links expire after 24 hours |
| Resending | You can't resend a campaign to specific subscribers |
Sender details and your domain
Your sender details are the name and email address in the From line, plus the reply-to address. Squarespace strongly recommends a custom domain email such as [email protected], because major providers often reject bulk email sent from free services like Gmail. If you use a Gmail address with an unverified domain, Squarespace swaps in a generated From address using sqspmail.com, and your subscribers can see it. Some free providers aren't supported at all.
Domains registered through or managed by Squarespace verify automatically. If your domain's hosted somewhere else, such as GoDaddy, Namecheap or IONOS, you add a CNAME and a TXT record Squarespace gives you to your DNS settings, and it can take up to 48 hours to resolve. Watch for one thing: if your domain has a DMARC policy set to p=reject, you can't use those sender details until the domain's verified.
A few more rules worth knowing. You can't verify an email forwarding alias, so use an address with its own inbox. You can't edit the address on existing sender details, only create new ones. You can keep up to ten sets of sender details but only send from one at a time, and the last one you added and verified becomes the default.
How to send your first blast campaign
- Sign up for an Email Campaigns plan on a computer. Site owners and contributors with admin or billing permissions can buy one for a site.
- Build or import at least one mailing list.
- Set up your sender details and verify the email address with the code Squarespace sends you.
- If you use a custom domain hosted elsewhere, add the verification records to your DNS settings.
- Write your draft, then add a subject line and email preview text.
- Choose your recipients, connect your sender details and add a valid physical postal address for the footer.
- Click Send Test, check every link and image on a computer and a phone, then click Send to Recipients or Schedule Campaign.
If you schedule, you must click Schedule Campaign after picking the date, or it stays a draft. The time zone comes from the device you're using. If you see an In Review notice, that's a routine safety check, not a sign you did anything wrong.
Automations: welcome emails and beyond
Automations run on all current Email Campaigns plans as of October 2026. There are three kinds: subscriber automations, customer automations and form response automations. Customer automations need a Squarespace website, while subscriber and form automations don't. You can't create or edit automations in the Squarespace app.
You start from a preset, such as Welcome new subscribers, Thank first-time customers or Reply to form submission, then edit it. Time delays can run up to 730 days. Squarespace's advice on conditions is worth taking: always add a time delay before a condition, because without one nobody meets the criteria. Your draft stays paused while you edit, so nobody gets a half-finished email, and you click Go live when it's ready.
Subscriber verification and unsubscribes
Newsletter blocks and promotional pop-ups that store subscribers in Squarespace need Google reCAPTCHA, a confirmation email or both. reCAPTCHA is on by default when you add a form block or newsletter block, and turning it on is the only way to switch off confirmation emails for those blocks.
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Every campaign footer has an Unsubscribe link, and you shouldn't add your own, since extra links won't work and may get you marked as spam. When someone unsubscribes, they come off all your mailing lists and can't be added back to those lists, even through a .csv import. If you removed someone by hand, importing them again does add them back.
Reading your campaign analytics
Open rates are shaky, and Squarespace says so. Apple Mail Privacy Protection reports campaigns as opened even when they weren't, and providers that don't load images won't count an open. Corporate mail filters that pre-scan links can push click rates up. Squarespace suggests looking at delivered, unsubscribed and clicked numbers together. Clicks made on the browser version of a campaign aren't tracked. For what each number in your site dashboard means, see my guide to Squarespace analytics.
Is Squarespace Email Campaigns worth using?
I'd use it if your site's already on Squarespace and you want welcome emails, store follow-ups and a regular newsletter in one place, sent from a verified custom domain. I'd skip it if you need custom code in your emails, which isn't supported, or if you're sending to a list bigger than your plan's monthly allowance. If you're still comparing tools, here's my rundown of the best email marketing software for a small business.
Automated welcome and follow-up emails are a good first job to take off a small team's plate. I run AI training and workshops for teams, and help businesses with AI enablement and workflow automation, so the busywork runs itself and people get time back. Most of that work is with SaaS marketing teams and small businesses. Here's how we can work together.
Frequently asked questions
Do I need a Squarespace website to use Email Campaigns?
No. You can sign up without a website, though customer automations need one.
Do automated emails count toward my Squarespace send limit?
Yes. Both blast and automated campaigns count toward the monthly send limit.
Can I send Squarespace campaigns from a Gmail address?
You can, but Squarespace strongly recommends a custom domain email. With Gmail and an unverified domain, it uses a generated sqspmail.com From address that subscribers can see.
How long does domain verification take for Email Campaigns?
Depending on your provider, the records can take up to 48 hours to fully resolve.
Can I add someone back after they unsubscribe?
Not to the lists they unsubscribed from, even with a .csv import. If their address is imported to a totally new mailing list, it's added to that list.
