What Squarespace Badges Mean When You're Hiring a Designer in the UK
One detail is easy to miss when you're hiring a Squarespace designer. Every Squarespace Circle partner can add a Circle badge to their website, and the entry status, Silver, starts at zero points.
That isn't a dig at anyone. Every designer starts somewhere. It does mean that a badge on its own can't tell you whether someone has built three sites or three hundred, and if you're looking for expert Squarespace website design in the UK, it helps to know what each credential involves and how to check it.
A word on where we stand: we hold several of these credentials ourselves, so we've stuck to what Squarespace publishes and linked to it throughout.
The short version, before the detail. Squarespace Circle is a free programme open to any Squarespace customer, with three statuses earned on points: Silver at 0 points, Gold at 1,000 and Platinum at 5,000. Points come mostly from starting new paid subscriptions, so a tier reflects recent volume rather than quality of work. Squarespace Expert is a different thing entirely. It is invitation only, offered to Circle members who have built at least eight websites in a 12-month period, and applicants are vetted by Squarespace on work quality, technical skills, years of experience and client-first approach. Community Leader is a nominated role rather than an earned tier. Authorised Trainer relates to teaching the platform rather than building on it. None of them tell you whether a designer will pick up the phone next March, which is why the questions further down matter as much as the badges.
Squarespace Circle: Silver, Gold and Platinum
Squarespace Circle is Squarespace's free programme for people who build websites for others, and any Squarespace customer can join. Partners earn points, and those points decide their status:
Circle Silver Partner: 0 points
Circle Gold Partner: 1,000 points
Circle Platinum Partner: 5,000 points
Points come mostly from starting new paid Squarespace subscriptions. A monthly website subscription earns 100 points and an annual Advanced plan earns 700, according to Squarespace's explanation of Circle statuses. Renewals don't count. Points reset every 1 January, and partners keep their status for at least one full term.
So what does a tier tell you? Gold and Platinum show that a designer has been bringing a meaningful number of new sites onto Squarespace, and recently, since points reset each January. The arithmetic gives you a sense of scale: at 100 points for a monthly subscription and up to 700 for an annual Advanced plan, Gold can be reached with about ten new monthly sites or a couple of annual Advanced ones, while Platinum needs five times that. What tiers don't measure is quality, communication or whether those sites did the job they were built for. Volume is a useful signal, but it can't stand in for looking at the work.
What higher tiers can mean for your project
Circle status comes with benefits that grow with each tier, and a few of them can touch a client project:
Longer trials for sites being built. Three months at Silver, six at Gold and twelve at Platinum, which gives a bigger or slower build more time before a subscription starts.
A discount on a site's first payment. 10%, 20% and 25% respectively, according to Squarespace's Circle benefits overview. Whether that reaches you depends on how your designer handles billing, so ask.
Support. Platinum partners have a dedicated group of Squarespace advisers, which helps when something unusual needs looking into.
Squarespace Expert: invited, then vetted
Squarespace Experts are the designers listed on the Squarespace Marketplace, which is powered by 99designs by Vista. Getting there works differently from Circle tiers.
Squarespace's Help Center article on hiring a Squarespace Expert explains that Circle members who have built at least eight websites in a 12-month period are invited to apply, and Experts are vetted for work quality, technical skills, years of Squarespace experience and client-first approach.
That makes Expert status the most informative of the public badges, because it involves Squarespace looking at the work rather than counting it. Marketplace profiles also show past projects and reviews from clients. You can browse Experts by project type and industry, or submit a brief and invite up to five of them to your project.
Experts can be hired for work including full site builds, online store setup, SEO, design reviews, site migration, and training and support.
Community Leader
Circle Community Leaders are, in Squarespace's words, "active Circle partners who serve as a guiding council for the Squarespace team", and they're nominated by the Circle community. This one says less about volume and more about standing among other Squarespace professionals.
Authorised Trainer and Professional Learning
Two credentials relate to teaching rather than building. Squarespace has run an Authorised Trainer programme for designers who teach the platform, and its Professional Learning page features courses created by Circle partners for other web professionals. If training your team is part of what you need, look out for both.
Is there an official Squarespace certification?
We're not aware of one. Squarespace's Circle pages don't list a certification exam for designers, so if someone describes themselves as "Squarespace certified", it's fair to ask what they mean by it. Usually the answer is one of three things: they hold Squarespace Expert status on the Marketplace, they've completed a course run by another designer and have a certificate for it, or they're using the word loosely to mean experienced. The first is checkable and the second is worth asking about. What none of them amount to is an exam set by Squarespace, so treat "certified" as the start of a conversation rather than the end of one.
How to check a designer's claims in ten minutes
Ask for their Marketplace profile. If someone says they're a Squarespace Expert, their profile on squarespace.com will show projects and client reviews.
Ask which Circle status they hold. We haven't found a public directory of Circle partners, and the badge is an image designers add to their own sites, so it's fair to ask for a screenshot of their Circle status.
See whether Squarespace mentions them. Squarespace features some partners on its own pages, such as Meet the Community.
Look at live work on your phone. Portfolios show the best angle. Live sites show how things have held up since launch.
Questions worth asking on the first call
Credentials get someone onto a shortlist. These questions tell you more about what working together would be like:
Will my business own the Squarespace site? Designers often start a site in their own account during the build, which is normal. What matters is that ownership moves to your business by launch, with your designer staying on as a contributor if you want them to. Only the owner can transfer ownership, so don't leave it hanging.
Who will work on my site day to day?
What does handover include? Training on your own site should be part of it. We've written about what good training after launch looks like.
What happens when something breaks six months after launch?
Can I speak to a past client?
A few red flags
Credentials nobody can point to, such as "Squarespace certified" with no explanation.
No clear plan for handing ownership of the site to you.
A portfolio with no live links.
Requests for your login details by email. Squarespace lets site owners invite contributors, so nobody needs your password.
Choosing where to look in the UK
Most Squarespace projects run remotely, so a UK business isn't limited to designers down the road. Location still matters for some things: time zones, in-person workshops, knowing how local customers search and understanding UK rules on VAT, delivery and consumer rights if you're selling online.
If you're comparing options, our round-up of Squarespace designers in the UK and our guide to what makes a great Squarespace designer are good places to start.
Where Made by Dave fits
For transparency: Made by Dave is a Circle Platinum Partner and Squarespace Expert studio, and Squarespace's Meet the Community page describes Dave as "a Squarespace Expert, Circle Platinum Partner, and Community Leader". We're based in Watford, just outside London, and since 2014 we've built more than 650 Squarespace sites for organisations including Skyscanner and NHS Vital Arts. Dave is also speaking on the main stage at Circle Day 2026 in New York. We work with clients across the UK and further afield, mostly remotely, with handover training at the end of every build. That last part isn't a badge, but after twelve years of doing this it's the thing clients mention most when they come back.
Badges and checklists only go so far. A conversation tells you whether you'd enjoy working together, so get in touch if you'd like to talk it through with us.
FAQs
Who offers expert Squarespace website design services in the UK?
Squarespace's Marketplace is the official starting point. It lists Squarespace Experts, who are invited from Circle members with at least eight sites built in a 12-month period and then vetted by Squarespace, and you can browse them by project type and industry or submit a brief and invite up to five to your project. UK studios include Made by Dave, a Circle Platinum Partner and Squarespace Expert based in Watford near London, which has built more than 650 Squarespace sites since 2014 for clients including Skyscanner and NHS Vital Arts. Whoever you end up considering, check three things before hiring: their Marketplace profile and reviews, live sites they've built (on a phone, not just a laptop), and what happens after launch in terms of training and support.
What is a Squarespace Circle Platinum Partner?
Circle Platinum is the highest of Squarespace Circle's three partner statuses. It requires 5,000 points, which partners earn mainly by starting new paid Squarespace subscriptions. Silver starts at 0 points and Gold at 1,000.
How are Squarespace Experts vetted?
Squarespace invites Circle members who have built at least eight websites in a 12-month period to apply to the Marketplace. Experts are vetted for work quality, technical skills, years of Squarespace experience and client-first approach.
Is there an official Squarespace certification for web designers?
We're not aware of a formal Squarespace certification exam for designers. The recognised signals are Circle partner status, Squarespace Expert status on the Marketplace, the Community Leader role and features on Squarespace's own pages.
