Biosites Review: How Good Is Squarespace's Bio Link Tool?
Biosites is a free “link in bio” platform by Squarespace (Unfold) that lets creators turn a single URL into a mini-website. It offers templates and mobile editing to aggregate your most important links, media, and products in one place.
In this review, we examine what Biosites is, its origins, core features, pricing, and real user feedback, and determine if it lives up to its claims. And finally, we will go through some of the best alternatives like brandID and other link-in-bio tools.
What Is Biosites?
Biosites is a link-in-bio platform that allows users to build a customizable one-page site where they can share links, products, social profiles, videos, and other content in one place. The platform features modern, mobile-friendly templates, a drag-and-drop editor, and various content sections, including galleries, embedded media, donation links, and affiliate products.
In addition to basic link-sharing, Biosites offers built-in business and audience tools. Users can sell digital products, accept tips or donations, collect email and phone leads, and access simple analytics for tracking views and clicks.
Biosites Overview
At a Glance
- Ownership: Introduced in 2022 as part of Squarespace's Unfold suite.
- Access: Managed through the Unfold mobile app.
- Goal: To combine link-building tools with business and monetization approaches.
- Templates: Biosites comes with four main template styles. All are mobile-first and optimized for smartphones.
- Apps & Integrations: Ties to the Unfold app ecosystem. You can cross-promote with Unfold story templates.
- Reporting: Provides simple analytics, but nothing like Google Analytics-level detail.
Biosites Features
Here are some of the features that Bio sites will offer you on their platform:
Links & Sections
Using Biosites, you can add any number of links and content sections. These include link blocks, image or video carousels, photo galleries, and countdowns. There are also special sections for “Support Me” like GoFundMe, Patreon, and PayPal links, and “Featured Social” for showcasing posts from Instagram and TikTok.
Built-in Templates & Builder
Another feature is a drag-and-drop editor with mobile-optimized templates. Users get many template designs out of the box. You can choose fonts, background colors/textures, and add cover images or videos. No coding is needed, and the interface is easy for non-designers.
Embedded Content
Biosites supports embedding YouTube videos, Spotify music, SoundCloud tracks, Vimeo, Twitch streams, and social media posts from Instagram and TikTok.
E-Commerce & Monetization
You can sell digital downloads, book appointments or online classes, accept one-time payments or recurring donations, and run affiliate product links. For example, add a “Shop” section with products, a “Tip Jar” section powered by Stripe/PayPal, or links to crowdfunding.
This brings Biosites among the monetization tools available on the market.
Analytics Dashboard
Basic analytics show page views, link clicks, and click-through rate (CTR). It lists total views, clicks, and clicks-per-link. Note that Biosites analytics doesn't break down visitors by source or geography.
Payment and Tipping Integration
Through a Stripe partnership, creators can enable a tip or donation button on their Bio Site and collect their tips. Squarespace will process tips through Stripe, so funds go directly to you. You can also connect PayPal to accept payments or donations.
Integration with Squarespace
If you already have a Squarespace website, Biosites can pull in data. Your profile info will auto-fill from Squarespace. Also, purchases made on Biosites can link to your Squarespace Commerce backend. Essentially, it's part of the larger Squarespace ecosystem.
Bio Sites Pricing
Biosites pricing can be complicated at some point and needs clarification. Let's go over it:
- Free: Biosites is free to use for all features. Squarespace has removed any separate paid tier for Bio Sites, and Bio Sites Pro is no longer available.
- Transaction Fees: While the platform itself is free, Biosites does charge a fee on transactions made through built-in payment features unless you upgrade. For example, one site reports an 8% fee on donations/sales for free users, which will drop to 5% on the paid plan, 0% on the highest plan.
Biosites Reviews: What Do Customers Say?
Real user feedback on Biosites shows a mix of praise for design and criticism for limitations. Here are the key points that must be mentioned in any review:
1. No Customer Service
Julane Scott, in one of the reviews about Squarespace, which is the parent company of Biosites, shows that they have little to no customer service in solving customers' problems.
2. High Renewal Cost
In another Biosites review, Photo Retouch mentions the high cost of renewing the plan for the Unfold app, which does the customization work on mobiles for Biosites.
3. Selling Information to Third-Party Companies
This one is about an incident in which Jordan Q complains about receiving numerous messages and spam emails indicating that Squarespace has sold his information to third-party companies.
4. Sudden Account Closure
Morgan Maher has had an awfully frustrating experience with the platform. In this Bisosites review, we see that Morgan's account was closed without any warning, and it is unclear how he can get his $300 back.
Biosites Pros and Cons
Let's review some of the advantages and disadvantages of this platform
Pros
- Free: All core features are free to use. There is no paywall gating tools.
- Content: You can host rich content sections like images, video, Spotify, and social feeds, and unlimited links.
- Integrated Monetization: Built-in support for selling products, accepting tips, and running affiliate links.
- Up to 10 Pages Allowed: You're not limited to one bio link. Biosites supports up to 10 distinct pages under one account.
- Easy Setup: It's very quick to get started: design templates, drag a few elements, and publish.
- Mobile-First Experience: The app interface is smooth and intuitive.
Cons
- Limited Customization: Fonts, layouts, and colors are locked to preset options. You can't upload custom fonts or completely freeform design. This keeps things cohesive but can feel restrictive.
- Basic Analytics: Lacks advanced stats. Only total views/clicks/CTR are shown. No breakdown by source or visitor demographics. Also, you can't A/B test or track conversions beyond the built-in counters.
- Mobile-Only Editing: No desktop/web editor. Must use the Unfold app on a phone or tablet. This is inconvenient for users who prefer a laptop.
- Free Plan Limits: The free version restricts some features: only 5 sections and 1 cover image, no custom background color. Removing the “powered by Unfold” watermark requires a paid subscription.
- Transaction Fees: On free accounts, Biosites takes an 8% cut of any payments/donations made through its built-in tools.
- Learning Curve with App: Some find the Unfold app interface initially confusing.
- No Blogging or Pages: It's strictly a one-page layout; you can't add sub-pages or complex site navigation. It's meant only as a bio landing page.
After reading through Biosites' limitations, the natural question is: what platform actually fixes them? The answer most creators land on is brandID.
brandID: The Best Biosites Alternative
brandID is an all-in-one creator monetization platform and free link in bio tool built for people who want to do real business from their bio link, not just collect taps on a mobile-only app. It addresses every Biosites weakness covered in this review while adding revenue streams Biosites simply doesn't offer.
Here's how it directly fixes the problems you just read about.
1. No 8% Transaction Fee, No “Free With a Catch”
This is the headline difference. Biosites takes 8% on every donation and sale made through its built-in payment tools on the free plan. Sell $1,000 in digital products through Biosites and you've handed over $80 before Stripe even touches the transaction.
brandID's free plan charges 5% if you connect your own Stripe or PayPal. The Creator plan at $9/month drops that to 0% with your own gateway. On the same $1,000 in sales, you keep $1,000 instead of $920. Across a year of meaningful sales, that gap compounds into thousands of dollars staying in your pocket instead of the platform's.
2. Edit on Any Device, Not Just Your Phone
Biosites is mobile-only. You build and edit through the Unfold app, which means every update requires reaching for your phone, opening the app, and navigating a small screen interface. For creators who actually run businesses (long product descriptions, blog posts, careful design work), this is exhausting.
brandID works on both web and mobile. Build your page on a laptop with a real keyboard and a real screen, then tweak from your phone when you're on the go. The web platform is the primary experience, not an afterthought.
3. Real Design Flexibility, Not Preset Limits
Biosites locks you into a handful of templates with limited font and color choices. You can't upload custom fonts, and color customization is essentially picking from preset palettes. This keeps things “cohesive” in marketing speak, but in practice it means every Biosites page looks similar to every other Biosites page.
brandID gives you hundreds of templates across creator niches plus a drag-and-drop builder with genuine design control: custom branding, your own logo, advanced backgrounds (image, video, gradient), full typography choices, and sectioned layouts. Your page actually looks like yours, not a Biosites template with your photo swapped in.
4. A Real Affiliate Marketplace, Not Manual Link-Sharing
Biosites lets you add affiliate links, but it's basically the same thing as adding any other link. You have to find every affiliate program yourself, apply to each one separately, get approved, generate the link, and paste it in. For creators in 2026, this is the equivalent of doing manual data entry.
brandID has a built-in affiliate marketplace with over 5 million products from 2,000+ brand partners. You browse, pick the products that fit your audience, and add them to your page in one click. Commission rates go up to 65% on qualifying products and even more. Weekly payouts. No minimum withdrawal threshold. This is what affiliate marketing should look like in 2026, and Biosites doesn't come close.
5. Multiple Revenue Streams Instead of Three
Biosites supports digital downloads, donations/tips, and basic affiliate links. That's the entire monetization story.
brandID supports various distinct revenue streams from the same page:
- Digital product sales (ebooks, courses, templates, presets, audio, video)
- Subscriptions and memberships for recurring revenue
- Affiliate commissions from the 5 million product marketplace
- Paid bookings and 1-on-1 sessions (coaches, consultants, photographers) via brandID bookme
- Tips and fan support with no caps
- Digital billboard rentals where brands pay you to rent ad space on your page
- Brand sponsorships through direct chat with brand partners (Turbo Creator plan)
If your goal is to actually grow your income from your bio link, the difference between three revenue streams and seven is the difference between a tip jar and a business.
6. Marketing Tools That Go Beyond Capturing Emails
Biosites can collect email and phone leads. That's where its marketing capabilities end. To actually do anything with those leads, you have to export them and connect Mailchimp or another tool.
brandID includes a full marketing toolkit on the free plan: built-in email marketing with broadcasts, lead capture forms, in-platform blog for SEO, CRM with audience segmentation (up to 1,000 users on Creator, unlimited on Turbo Creator), promo codes, QR codes, and giveaway tools. You can run your entire creator marketing stack from inside brandID instead of paying for three separate tools.
7. AI Video Translator Opens Global Markets
This is a feature Biosites doesn't have and likely won't add. brandID includes an AI-powered video translator that dubs your video content into 200+ languages while preserving your original voice. For creators selling courses, tutorials, or video products globally, this turns what was a multi-thousand-dollar localization process into a few clicks.
A course creator who would otherwise pay translators thousands per language can serve international buyers from day one. Available on web, iOS, Android, and as a Chrome extension.
8. Real Analytics, Not a Basic Counter
Biosites shows total views, clicks, and click-through rate. That's it. No source breakdown, no geography, no time-based trends, no per-product performance, no Google Analytics integration.
brandID provides full analytics: page views, link clicks, conversion rates, traffic sources, per-product and per-affiliate-link performance data, audience insights, plus Google Analytics and Meta Pixel integration. For creators actually trying to optimize their page and grow their revenue, this is the difference between guessing and knowing.
Biosites vs brandID
| Feature | Biosites | brandID |
|---|---|---|
| Starting Price | Free (8% transaction) | Free (5% transaction) |
| Affiliate Program | Basic | Yes (all plans) |
| Link Management | Yes | Yes |
| Booking & Scheduling | No | Yes |
| AI Video Translator | No | Yes |
| Link in Bio Page | Yes | Yes |
| Secure Inbox | No | Yes |
| Collect Tips | Yes | Yes |
| Giveaways | No | Yes |
| Promo Codes and QR codes | No | Yes |
| Digital Billboard Rentals | No | Yes |
| CRM & Email marketing | Basic | Yes |
Other Biosites Alternatives
We went through brandId as the best Biosites alternative. However, there are many other link-in-bio tools, each with pros and cons. Below is a look at some of the popular ones.
Biosites vs Linktree
Linktree can be considered the original link-in-bio service. It's very popular, but it shows its age in some areas.
Linktree pages are very basic, usually just a vertical list of links, and the design is plain and hard to customize into a distinctive brand page. Linktree's free plan is also limited, and its paid tiers, which are for analytics or more features, aren't cheap. In short, it works, but it's hardly cutting-edge in comparison to the new and futuristic features of brandID.
If you are interested, you can have a deeper look at Linktree in our complete Linktree review.
Later
Later's link tool (Linkin.bio) is mostly geared toward e-commerce. It syncs with your Instagram and TikTok posts. You tag a post with a URL, and it appears on your bio page.
If you already use Later for scheduling, this can be a helpful feature. However, it only shows content that you explicitly tagged, and it requires a business account. If you forget to tag a post, followers won't find it via the bio link.
Also, because it's focused on sales, some non-profits or creators may find it overkill. If you are one of these creators, you may enjoy our deep Later interview, which covers all aspects of this tool.
Lnk.Bio
Lnk.Bio is a low-cost alternative with unlimited links. Lnk.Bio's free and paid plans are cheap, but there are trade-offs.
Users report that Lnk.Bio's editor is clunky, and the UX is unintuitive. Their free plan is extremely limited – essentially only text links or basic video/music embeds with no styling options. In practice, most need to pay for even modest branding. So while it offers the basics, it lacks other advanced features.
Conclusion
Biosites is a solid, free link-in-bio solution that is good at aesthetics and ease of setup. However, it isn't without drawbacks. Its analytics are minimal, design flexibility is locked to presets, and it requires using a mobile app. Transaction fees and app-only editing are also negative points for power users.
Alternatives like brandID might be the answer here. brandID provides equivalent link-page functions plus a built-in store, rich affiliate network, and marketing tools. It's a more feature-rich ecosystem that can solve many problems.
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