Why Squarespace Is a Poor Fit for Bank Websites

Squarespace is a terrific drag-and-drop builder for cafés, portfolios, and small online shops—but the platform’s consumer DNA shows the moment you map its controls against the OCC/Fed/FDIC playbook. Below are five concrete reasons U.S.-regulated banks should resist the temptation to launch (or keep) their public sites on Squarespace.

1. Limited Auditability vs. FFIEC Expectations

Squarespace only advertises SOC 2 Type II for its Enterprise tier—a plan that is negotiated, not self-service, and still doesn’t expose the raw evidence examiners typically request (e.g., penetration-test results, vulnerability scan histories). (What Is SOC 2 Type II Compliance and Why Should Your Website Platform Have It? — Squarespace Enterprise Resources)

Regulatory gap: FFIEC CAT and OCC 2023-17 require institutions to maintain continuous visibility into vendor controls and to supply that evidence on demand. With Squarespace, you get a glossy marketing PDF, not a real auditor’s portal.

2. No Granular Security Controls

Banks must enforce role-based access, detailed audit logs, IP allow-listing, and custom Web-Application-Firewall (WAF) rules. Squarespace offers:

• Binary user roles (Owner vs. Contributor) and no immutable audit trail.
  
• No option to inject custom security headers, manage HSTS, or rotate encryption keys.
  
• Zero access to server-side code for independent code review or SIEM integration.
  

These blind spots make it impossible to satisfy GLBA 501(b) and Gramm-Leach-Bliley Safeguards Rule requirements for “continuous monitoring of service providers.”

3. Recent Security Incidents Underscore the Risk‍

Date: July 2024

Incident: Domain hijacks exploited “weak security defaults” after Squarespace acquired Google Domains; attackers redirected high-value sites by registering half-initialized accounts. (Researchers: Weak Security Defaults Enabled Squarespace Domains Hijacks – Krebs on Security)

Reason Banks Should Care: Demonstrates lack of MFA enforcement and deficient account-creation logic—exactly the controls FFIEC examiners scrutinize.

‍

Date: April 23 2025

Incident: SSL certificate outage blocked secure connections for nine minutes across the platform. (Squarespace Status)

Reason Banks Should Care: Even brief TLS failures break online-banking login links and erode customer trust.

‍

4. Data Residency & Incident Response Constraints

Squarespace hosts content in U.S.-only, multi-tenant data centers and does not let clients pin workloads to specific regions or failover sites. Banks therefore cannot:

• Prove data-sovereignty for state-chartered operations.
  
• Conduct table-top breach drills with the vendor’s IR team (the SLA offers only email support).
  
• Obtain detailed chain-of-custody logs in the event of subpoena or breach.
  

Vendor-lock is also real: template code and proprietary CMS exports do not port cleanly to more secure environments, turning a compliance finding into a six-month rebuild.

5. Missing Banking-Specific Features

Squarespace provides no native modules for:

• Mandatory FDIC, Equal Housing Lender, or ADA banners.
  
• CRA branch-locator disclosures or rate-sheet versioning.
  
• Secure-mail contact forms that avoid unencrypted email relays.
  

All must be hand-coded in client-side JavaScript—an anti-pattern in modern security architecture.

Key Takeaways for Bank Leaders

1. Regulatory Evidence – You’ll struggle to give examiners the artifacts they require.
   
2. Control Deficiencies – No WAF, limited RBAC, and opaque logging.
   
3. Incident History – Real-world hijacks and SSL outages prove weak defaults.
   
4. Migration Pain – Exiting the platform after a bad exam is costly and slow.
   

Bottom line: What seems like a low-cost, low-code win quickly becomes a hidden-cost liability once FFIEC, GLBA, and state banking departments get involved. Choose a platform engineered for financial-services compliance from Day.

Next Step

Schedule a 15-minute risk review with the FindexSecure team to benchmark your current Squarespace site against FFIEC cyber assessment criteria and receive a remediation roadmap tailored for banks.