Squarespace, Inc. (NYSE: SQSP), the design-led website building and hosting platform, has announced a strategic partnership with Perplexity, the fast-growing AI search and answer company, to reimagine how businesses are created and discovered in a world shaped by artificial intelligence. The collaboration, unveiled on October 2, 2025, centers on Perplexity’s browser Comet, which will now feature Squarespace as the preferred website-building and hosting partner.
The integration allows users to move seamlessly from AI-powered research inside Comet to real-world brand creation, covering everything from domain registration and professional design to search engine visibility and business management powered by Squarespace’s AI Optimization (AIO) suite.
This marks a significant step in the convergence of AI search and website infrastructure, potentially redefining the funnel from discovery to business creation in an internet increasingly guided by machine intelligence.
How does the Squarespace and Perplexity collaboration change the pathway from search to business creation?
Traditionally, business creation online has involved fragmented steps—researching ideas on one platform, buying a domain on another, and then designing and optimizing a site through yet another service. The partnership between Squarespace and Perplexity aims to collapse those steps into a single streamlined journey.
Through Comet, a user conducting AI-assisted research into a market opportunity or brand idea can immediately transition into business execution. Squarespace’s platform provides domain suggestions, tailored branding recommendations, and design templates, with AI tools designed to optimize for discoverability across modern “answer engines” such as Perplexity itself.
Industry observers noted that this pairing represents a natural evolution of the internet’s shift toward conversational AI-driven search. As Paul Gubbay, Chief Product Officer at Squarespace, explained in the announcement, first impressions in AI search matter more than ever, and the goal is to ensure that when a business is discovered, its digital presence is polished and impactful.
Why is the integration of Comet and Squarespace seen as a signal of where the internet is heading?
Perplexity’s Comet browser is positioned as a challenger to traditional search engines by emphasizing AI-powered exploration and answers rather than blue links. The inclusion of Squarespace’s services inside Comet effectively builds a bridge between discovery and action.
This reflects a broader trend in the digital economy: the compression of user journeys. In the same way that social commerce shortened the path from inspiration to checkout, the Comet–Squarespace integration shortens the distance between researching an idea and building a brand.
Technology analysts suggest that as the internet becomes more mediated by AI interfaces, businesses will need to prioritize being not just searchable but “answerable”—appearing in AI-generated responses with a compelling presence. Squarespace’s focus on AIO tools plays directly into this shift, enabling websites to be optimized for AI-based indexing and ranking, not just traditional SEO.
The move also signals how AI platforms are evolving from pure information utilities to full business ecosystems. By embedding business creation into Comet, Perplexity ensures that its browser is not only a place to ask questions but also a platform where economic activity begins.
What are the implications for small businesses and entrepreneurs using Squarespace through this partnership?
For small businesses and solo entrepreneurs, the partnership offers a potentially game-changing simplification of the business creation process. Instead of juggling multiple providers for domain names, branding, hosting, and optimization, they can manage the process through a single integrated journey.
Squarespace, already known for its design-first approach and user-friendly templates, adds further value through AI-driven guidance. This includes suggesting brand names based on conversational prompts, offering design recommendations tuned to specific industries, and providing AIO tools that enhance visibility in AI search engines.
Dmitry Shevelenko, Chief Business Officer at Perplexity, noted that both companies see technology as a way to amplify human potential. For entrepreneurs, that translates into tools that remove friction rather than add complexity. The integration ensures that businesses discovered via Comet’s AI search engine can deliver high-quality digital experiences from the first click.
Experts suggest that this may particularly benefit creators, independent professionals, and startups in early stages who often lack resources for digital marketing and brand development. By embedding discoverability and optimization features at the foundational level, Squarespace and Perplexity aim to democratize access to professional-quality business infrastructure.
How does this partnership align with historical trends in search, website building, and AI adoption?
The partnership reflects a historical continuum of technology platforms converging to reduce friction for users. In the early internet era, the challenge was building static websites with coding knowledge. Platforms like Squarespace emerged in the 2000s to make design and hosting accessible to non-technical users.
Similarly, search engines evolved from directory listings to algorithm-driven engines like Google, and now to AI-powered answer engines like Perplexity. Each stage has been marked by a reduction in user effort, with complexity hidden behind increasingly intelligent systems.
Squarespace’s embrace of AI is not new. Over the past decade, the company has steadily integrated AI into its design and marketing features, anticipating the next phase of discoverability. The Perplexity partnership represents the culmination of this trajectory, aligning Squarespace’s design-led brand with the rise of AI-driven information platforms.
From a market perspective, the collaboration also highlights how mid-cap public tech companies like Squarespace are positioning themselves within the AI economy. Rather than competing with AI-native players, they are forming strategic alliances that embed their services directly into AI-powered workflows.
What could investors and industry analysts expect from Squarespace’s positioning in the AI economy?
Squarespace shares (NYSE: SQSP) have historically traded in line with broader SaaS and web-hosting peers. In recent quarters, the company has reported steady revenue growth driven by subscription expansion and upselling of business services. For example, Squarespace generated over $1 billion in annualized revenue in 2024, with recurring subscription fees providing a stable base.
Market sentiment has been cautiously optimistic, with investors weighing the company’s design leadership against intensifying competition from Shopify, Wix, and newer AI-native entrants. The Perplexity collaboration could be a differentiator, positioning Squarespace as the first mainstream platform to secure a native role inside an AI-first browser.
Analyst commentary suggests that the integration could help Squarespace capture incremental demand from early-stage businesses launched through AI discovery. While it is too early to quantify the revenue impact, the strategic significance is clear: Squarespace is embedding itself into the workflows of AI-powered discovery, effectively future-proofing its customer funnel.
Institutional investors have shown moderate buying interest in recent weeks, reflecting cautious enthusiasm for AI-linked partnerships. If execution is strong, this could support a re-rating of Squarespace’s growth trajectory relative to peers. A buy-and-hold perspective is emerging among some long-term investors who see the company as well positioned for the AI-driven evolution of the internet.
How might this long-term partnership evolve as AI transforms the way businesses and consumers interact online?
Both Squarespace and Perplexity have signaled that the October 2025 launch is only the beginning. Future phases are expected to deepen integration, potentially embedding analytics, e-commerce capabilities, and AI-driven customer engagement tools directly into Comet’s interface.
As AI continues to shift consumer behavior from keyword-based searches to conversational interactions, the challenge for businesses will be delivering instant credibility when discovered. By combining Perplexity’s answer-first model with Squarespace’s design and optimization platform, the partnership aims to ensure that businesses meet this challenge head-on.
Industry experts argue that such collaborations could define the next decade of digital commerce. If Comet grows its user base and Squarespace successfully converts AI-driven discovery into subscriptions, the model may inspire similar tie-ups between other AI search engines and web infrastructure providers.
The long-term narrative is one of convergence: AI discovery tools and business infrastructure no longer operating in parallel but as parts of the same ecosystem. For entrepreneurs and small businesses, this represents an unprecedented opportunity to shorten the path from idea to market presence. For Squarespace, it offers a chance to strengthen relevance in an era where the internet itself is being redefined by AI.
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