Squarespace layoffs: the website builder is cutting about 300 jobs, 19% of staff, as AI site builders reshape its market

Squarespace is cutting about 300 jobs, 19% of its roughly 1,800 employees, as AI tools that build websites from a typed prompt reshape the market it sells into, The Verge reported on 2 November 2026. Spokesperson Jeff Seedman confirmed the layoffs and said: "The changes are intended to simplify how we operate, sharpen our priorities and enable the company to move faster as we position Squarespace for its next phase of growth." Departing staff get 16 weeks of base pay and healthcare into May 2027. The company's statement does not mention AI. The AI angle is in the market around it. "Website building has changed immensely over the last few years as a result of the generative AI boom," TechCrunch wrote in its report on the cuts, saying that AI "vibe-coding" builders, which produce a working site from a plain-language description, "have largely upended the industry". Rival Wix bought the AI app builder Base44 for $80 million, Lovable has been valued at $13.3 billion, and Google has launched its own AI design tool, Stitch. Squarespace has been moving the same way. In 2024 it launched Blueprint, which uses AI to build sites and write their copy, blog posts and product descriptions, and it has since announced Forma, an AI-native platform with a waiting list. The private equity firm Permira took the company private the same year. The job cuts are not counted as AI job losses in the tracker: Squarespace has not said AI is doing the work of the people it is letting go, and the pressure described here comes from AI changing how its customers build websites.