Squarespace to Acquire Google Domains

Squarespace recently announced its acquisition of Google Domains. While timing is vague, the definitive business agreement will finalize sometime in the third quarter of 2023, with a full transition slated for 2024.

Squarespace and Google promise a seamless transition, ensuring customers that their domain name registrations and DNS delegations won’t be affected by the migration. When the transition goes into full effect, existing Google Domains customers will become Squarespace customers, meaning the company will handle support and billing.

“Squarespace can provide an integrated experience of purchasing and managing domains along with offering other tools that these customers may need to build their online presence,” Matt Madrigal, Vice President and General Manager of Merchant Shopping at Google, said in a statement.

The acquisition will enable Squarespace to become “the exclusive domains provider for any customer purchasing a domain along with their Workspace subscription from Google directly for a minimum of three years.”

Squarespace will honor existing Google Domains customers’ renewal prices “for at least 12 months following the closing of the transaction.” During this period, Squarespace will “encourage” Google Domain customers to build a website using its popular website-building tool and receive additional services through the company.

Upsells, however, seem to be the biggest concern among existing Google Domain customers. Still, both companies assure that customers can make changes to their domain accounts and transfer to another domain registrant “at any time.”

As one of the leading website builders, Squarespace already has its own domain name registration. Google Domains’ acquisition will add 10 million domains to Squarespace’s roster. The move will make Squarespace one of the biggest domain name registration platforms globally, behind only a few established domain registrants like GoDaddy and Namecheap.

Google is only selling Google Domains. Its Google Registry for top-level domains such as .dev, .app, and .how remains under its ownership and control. The deal with Squarespace is reportedly worth $180 million.