What It's Actually Like Being a Squarespace Circle Platinum Partner
Inside the Squarespace dashboard of someone with over a thousand sites in one account
There's a lot of talk about Squarespace Circle, but not much about what the top of that program actually looks like day to day. I want to show you Squarespace's dashboard from the perspective of a Platinum Circle member.
Circle is Squarespace's own partnership program, a kind of membership for Squarespace designers. Your rank is based on how many websites you create, and it runs on a points system. A personal plan website on a monthly subscription earns 100 points. A core plan website on a yearly subscription earns around 300. To reach Platinum status, you need 5,000 points.
Last year I had ten times that.
I recently learned, though I can't share exact numbers, that Platinum partners make up less than 1% of all Circle members. Becoming a Circle member is easy. Reaching Platinum is genuinely hard.
I'm Olga Kolgusheva, and I run Applet Studio, a Squarespace template shop and design agency. As a template designer I create a lot of websites, because people are constantly buying our templates. I thought it would be interesting to tell you what the program looks like from the inside.
Why My Account Has Over a Thousand Websites
Right now I have more than a thousand websites in my account. We're constantly duplicating sites, creating them for clients, and then deleting the ones we no longer need. A lot of people buy a template and never actually launch it, so the site sits there until it expires, and we still have it in our dashboard.
We go back and clean these up from time to time, but I'm used to having a huge number of sites at any given time, which sometimes makes finding a specific one difficult.
How to Find a Website in Your Squarespace Dashboard
On the dashboard, you can pin ten projects at a time. Mine are my Squarespace templates. But I have more than thirty templates for sale, plus older ones I've retired, so ten pins isn't nearly enough.
I found a way to tag websites inside the account, and it's the only thing that keeps this manageable. I label them as template or client site so I can find them later.
There's also a duplication quirk worth knowing. When you duplicate a site, it used to drop to the bottom of your dashboard, which made it almost impossible to find. Now duplicated sites show up at the top instead. Squarespace also emails you a link every time you duplicate a site, which is a reliable backup way to track a new one down.
Inside the Circle Dashboard
Inside the account, you have tabs for your domains and for the Circle program itself. Under Circle, you can see your current points, your next referral payout, and who has upgraded the site.
Under the Platinum tab specifically, you can see the perks tied to that status.
What Platinum Actually Gets You
A 25% discount on all annual subscriptions. Every website I create gets this discount automatically.
A 12-month free trial. Every site I create starts with a full year to trial, instead of the standard 14 days.
Early access to new features. Right now, for example, I can add pages to favorites and transfer them between sites inside my account well before that rolls out more broadly.
Priority support. This one matters for clients too. If I run into a problem, I email support and get a reply in about two hours. That's a dedicated support line specifically for Platinum partners, and it's genuinely fast.
A downloadable Platinum badge, if you want to display your status.
How the Tiers Actually Break Down
You can join Circle at Silver for free. Gold requires 1,000 points, roughly four or five yearly subscriptions. Platinum requires 5,000 points, roughly twenty yearly subscriptions.
Twenty subscriptions a year is a lot for a small design studio, and most designers working on Squarespace run small studios. That's why Platinum tends to belong to people doing real volume, template sellers especially.
I've been a Circle member since 2020, when I started building on Squarespace. When the points system launched, I was immediately at Platinum, which wasn't a surprise, since selling templates naturally generates a lot of sites.
More Than an Affiliate Program
I feel like Circle is more than a partnership program. Squarespace publishes a lot of content for it, stays active in the forum, and clearly puts real effort into bringing designers together. It's not just an affiliate arrangement with a discount attached.
If you're looking at Squarespace as a business model for your own design studio, it is worth considering building a template shop. Selling templates is a way to multiply the number of sites tied to your account, which compounds into real perks: discounted subscriptions, affiliate revenue, and a genuine place inside the community around the platform.
Frequently Asked Questions
How many points do you need for Squarespace Circle Platinum?
5,000 points. A monthly personal plan website earns around 100 points, and a yearly core plan subscription earns around 300, so reaching Platinum generally takes about twenty yearly subscriptions.
What discount do Squarespace Circle Platinum partners get?
25% off all annual subscriptions, applied to every site created under the account.
How long is the free trial for Circle Platinum partners?
12 months, instead of the standard 14-day trial.
What percentage of Squarespace Circle members reach Platinum?
Less than 1% of all Circle members hold Platinum status.
Is Squarespace Circle free to join?
Yes. You can join at the Silver tier for free. Gold requires 1,000 points and Platinum requires 5,000, both earned through subscriptions tied to your account.
Do Circle Platinum partners get better support?
Yes. Platinum partners have access to priority support, with typical response times of around two hours.
Building a site right now? Try Squarespace free and save 10% on your first subscription with code APPLET10. Or browse our Squarespace templates – every one comes with a 12-month trial through our Platinum partner status.
