Squarespace is cutting approximately 19% of its global workforce, around 300 employees, in a restructuring move confirmed by public relations specialist Jeff Seedman.

The stated goals are to simplify operations, sharpen priorities, and enable faster movement as the company prepares for its next phase of growth.

The layoffs arrive as AI-powered “vibe-coding” website builders, which generate front-end designs from simple prompts, have significantly reduced the effort required to create websites and reshaped the website-building industry.

Competitors have responded with acquisitions and fundraising: Wix bought Base44 for $80 million last year, while Lovable raised a $400 million Series C round in August at a $13.3 billion valuation.

Google also recently launched Stitch, a feature for swiftly generating UI designs.

Squarespace itself has pushed into AI, launching the Blueprint tool in 2024 and recently announcing Forma, an upcoming AI-native platform with an open waitlist.

Founded in 2004, Squarespace went public in 2021 at a $10 billion valuation but struggled to sustain public market enthusiasm and went private again in 2024 through a $7 billion private equity deal.