Do I have to transfer my domain away from Squarespace?

No. Your domain can stay registered at Squarespace, with Squarespace still handling the renewal bill, while your website runs on bernard. You just add a few settings at Squarespace that point the domain at your new site. Transferring the domain to another company is optional, and if you ever want to, it's best done later — after your new site is live and tested.

Will my email break when I move my website?

Not if you only add the records bernard shows you. Your email works because of separate settings on your domain (called MX and TXT records) that bernard never asks you to touch. The one thing that does break email is changing your nameservers — and bernard never asks you to do that either.

What do I cancel at Squarespace once my new site is live?

Only the website plan. Don't cancel the domain subscription, don't cancel Google Workspace or any email subscription, and don't close the whole Squarespace account. Cancelling just the website plan leaves your domain and email running exactly as before.

Some people see my old site and some see the new one — is something wrong?

No, that's normal. After you change the settings, the internet takes a little while to catch up — from a few minutes to a few hours. During that window some visitors still see the old site. It sorts itself out; just keep your Squarespace site active until everyone sees the new one. Bernard checks the records for you and switches over automatically once they're in place — and it never changes your live site without your approval, so you stay in control the whole way.

Leave Squarespace without breaking my domain or email

Your Squarespace account bundles together three separate services, even though they arrive on one bill:

Your domain — your address, like yourbusiness.com
Your website — the pages people see at that address
Your email — addresses like [email protected]

Moving to bernard only moves the website. Your domain and your email can stay exactly where they are, untouched. Get the order right and nothing goes dark, not even for a minute.

The safe order

1. Your bernard site comes first

Your bernard site is built and viewable on its own temporary address before you change anything at Squarespace. Look it over, click around, make sure it's the site you want people to see.

Don't cancel anything at Squarespace yet.

2. Leave the domain registered at Squarespace

You do not need to move your domain away from Squarespace to use it with bernard. Squarespace can keep looking after the registration and the renewal bill — you simply tell the domain to send website visitors to bernard instead. Squarespace calls this "pointing" the domain.

This is the simplest, lowest-risk option, and it's what bernard is built for.

3. Protect your email settings

Your email works because your domain carries special email instructions — usually called MX records. Think of your domain's settings (its "DNS") as a switchboard:

Website records send visitors to your website.
MX records send messages to your email provider.
TXT records provide security and prove who's allowed to send email as you.

Changing the website records doesn't need to touch the email ones. The rules:

Only add or change the records bernard shows you.
Don't delete or replace MX records.
Don't delete email-related TXT records.
Don't change your nameservers. Bernard never asks you to — it's the one change that can break everything at once.

Before touching anything, take screenshots of every entry under Squarespace → Domains → your domain → DNS Settings. Two minutes now, and you can always put things back exactly as they were.

4. Connect the domain to bernard

In bernard, open your site and go to Custom domain. Bernard shows you the exact records to add — a small set, already filled in with your values — plus step-by-step instructions for Squarespace's own screens. Squarespace lets you add these records while continuing to manage the domain there. The full walkthrough is in Connect my own web address (domain) to my site.

For a while after the change, some people may see the old site and others the new one. That's normal — the internet is updating its records, and it settles within a few hours.

5. Test everything

Before cancelling the old website, check:

yourbusiness.com
www.yourbusiness.com
Your contact form
Sending an email from your business address
Receiving an email at your business address
Replying to an email
Any booking, shop or payment pages

Keep the Squarespace website active until every one of these works.

6. Cancel only the Squarespace website plan

Once the new site is working, cancel the website plan — not the whole account. Cancelling the website subscription does not cancel a Squarespace-registered domain — the domain stays yours and keeps renewing separately. It also doesn't cancel an active Google Workspace email subscription.

Be careful not to cancel:

The domain subscription
Google Workspace or any other email subscription
The whole Squarespace account

Your email probably doesn't need to move

Many Squarespace customers have Google Workspace, which means Squarespace handles the billing but Gmail actually stores and runs the email. Moving your website doesn't require moving that account — Google Workspace is a separate subscription from the website.

If you ever want Squarespace to stop billing for Google Workspace, that's a separate process — and best not done during the website switch.

Moving the domain itself is optional

Later, you could transfer the domain away from Squarespace to another domain company. That's an administrative change — like changing who sends you the annual renewal bill — and it's not needed to launch your bernard site. A transfer can take up to 15 days, and you may not be able to edit your DNS settings while it's in progress, so if you want to do it, do it after everything else is live and tested.

So the sensible order is: bernard site ready → connect the domain → test website and email → cancel the old website plan → optionally transfer the domain later.

And the two rules that matter most: don't cancel the domain, and don't touch the email records.

The prompt

“I'm moving my website from Squarespace to bernard. My domain is [yourname.com] and my email opens in [Gmail / Outlook / somewhere else]. Walk me through connecting my domain to bernard without breaking my email, and tell me exactly which Squarespace subscription to cancel afterwards — and which ones to leave alone.”

The [bracketed] parts are yours to fill in. First time? Log in to bernard → your site → Edit with AI → copy your access prompt, paste that into your AI first, then ask the above.

Questions people ask

Do I have to transfer my domain away from Squarespace?: No. Your domain can stay registered at Squarespace, with Squarespace still handling the renewal bill, while your website runs on bernard. You just add a few settings at Squarespace that point the domain at your new site. Transferring the domain to another company is optional, and if you ever want to, it's best done later — after your new site is live and tested.
Will my email break when I move my website?: Not if you only add the records bernard shows you. Your email works because of separate settings on your domain (called MX and TXT records) that bernard never asks you to touch. The one thing that does break email is changing your nameservers — and bernard never asks you to do that either.
What do I cancel at Squarespace once my new site is live?: Only the website plan. Don't cancel the domain subscription, don't cancel Google Workspace or any email subscription, and don't close the whole Squarespace account. Cancelling just the website plan leaves your domain and email running exactly as before.
Some people see my old site and some see the new one — is something wrong?: No, that's normal. After you change the settings, the internet takes a little while to catch up — from a few minutes to a few hours. During that window some visitors still see the old site. It sorts itself out; just keep your Squarespace site active until everyone sees the new one. Bernard checks the records for you and switches over automatically once they're in place — and it never changes your live site without your approval, so you stay in control the whole way.