Choosing the right eCommerce website builder can indeed be overwhelming given the numerous options available. To help you determine whether Shopify or Squarespace is the best fit for your online store, we’ll delve into several key aspects: pricing, eCommerce capabilities, ease of use, design options, and marketing tools. By examining these factors, you’ll be better equipped to select the platform that aligns with your business needs.
By evaluating these aspects, you can make an informed decision about which platform best suits your needs. Shopify may be the better choice if you require extensive eCommerce features and scalability, while Squarespace could be ideal if you prioritize design and ease of use for a content-driven online presence.
Overview of Shopify vs Squarespace
Let’s delve into the basics of Shopify and Squarespace to help you choose the right platform for your needs.
What Is Shopify?
Shopify is a leading eCommerce platform renowned for its user-friendliness and extensive functionality. It offers robust payment and marketing options, a vast library of compatible apps to extend its core capabilities and a wide selection of modern design templates. Whether you’re a small business or a large enterprise, Shopify’s features cater to various needs, making it a versatile choice for anyone looking to build an online store.
What Is Squarespace?
Squarespace is a versatile platform that, while offering some eCommerce tools, truly excels in providing stunning templates and design features. This makes it an ideal choice for businesses that prioritize visual appeal, especially those in creative fields such as art and music. Squarespace is also well-suited for small and medium-sized businesses that focus on consistent branding, thanks to its beautifully designed templates and user-friendly interface.
By understanding the strengths of each platform, you can better determine which one aligns with your business goals and aesthetic preferences.
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Shopify vs Squarespace Quick Comparison
This comparison highlights Shopify’s strengths in eCommerce and advanced features, while Squarespace excels in design and ease of use for general website building.
| Feature | Shopify | Squarespace |
| Primary Focus | eCommerce | Website building (includes eCommerce) |
| Ease of Use | User-friendly, designed for eCommerce | Easy-to-use website builder |
| Design Templates | Extensive range of eCommerce themes | High-quality, customizable templates |
| eCommerce Features | Advanced (inventory management, POS) | Basic (limited compared to Shopify) |
| Payment Gateways | Multiple options, including Shopify Payments | Fewer options, including Stripe and PayPal |
| SEO Tools | Good, with apps available for enhancement | Built-in tools and customization options |
| App Integration | Extensive app marketplace | Limited compared to Shopify |
| Pricing | Starts at $25/month, with additional costs for apps | Starts at $16/month for basic plan, higher for eCommerce |
| Customer Support | 24/7 support via phone, chat, email | Email and live chat support available during business hours |
| Customization | High, with extensive coding options | Moderate, with limited code access |
| Analytics & Reporting | Advanced reporting and analytics | Basic analytics included |
| Mobile Optimization | Mobile-responsive themes and features | Mobile-responsive templates |
| Transaction Fees | 2.9% + 30¢ per transaction (with Shopify Payments) | 3% on transactions (with third-party payment processors) |
Shopify vs Squarespace: Pricing
Let’s compare Shopify and Squarespace pricing to see which fits your budget and needs.
Shopify Pricing
There are different monthly plans by Shopify :
- Basic: $25
- Shopify Plan: $65
- Advanced: $399
These plans include features such as a stand-alone online store, abandoned cart recovery, unlimited products, multiple sales channels, point of sale (POS) systems, marketing automation, support for international markets, Shopify Payments, and currency conversion in selected countries.
It also provides specialized solutions:
- Starter: $5 per month. This plan has limited functionality, including embedding products on other websites and selling on social media, but does not support creating a stand-alone shop.
- Plus: Starting at $2,300 per month. This custom plan is designed for complex and high-volume businesses.
Squarespace Pricing
Squarespace offers different plans depending on the need for eCommerce functionality:
- Personal: $16 (Does not offer eCommerce functionality)
- Business: $23
- Basic Commerce: $28
- Advanced Commerce: $52
All Squarespace plans include a one-year free custom domain, SEO tools, basic metrics, extensions, access to Squarespace’s templates, and unlimited product listings. The POS system is available starting with the Basic Commerce plan, while abandoned cart recovery is included in the Advanced Commerce plan. The Business plan charges a 3% transaction fee, which does not apply to the more advanced eCommerce plans.
Shopify vs Squarespace: Pricing Winner
While Squarespace offers more affordable plans, Shopify provides more advanced eCommerce features. Your choice depends on whether you prioritize cost or functionality.
Shopify vs Squarespace: Design and Customization
Let’s explore the design options and compare how much you can personalize your store with Shopify versus Squarespace.
Shopify
Shopify allows you to customize your store using a variety of themes and templates, along with a drag-and-drop editor to adjust individual elements. However, the editor can be somewhat unintuitive, and adding features that aren’t included in the theme might take extra time and effort.
The Shopify Theme Store offers around 13 free themes and over 180 premium options, with prices ranging from $140 to $400. The store’s filters help you browse specific features like EU translations or age verification. All themes are responsive and come with unlimited testing—you only pay when you publish your page.
Shopify also integrates with Burst for stock images, providing a seamless way to enhance your store’s visuals.
Squarespace
Squarespace is renowned for its top-tier design capabilities. Its new drag-and-drop Fluid Engine editor is more user-friendly compared to Shopify’s editor. Squarespace Blueprint, an AI-powered editor, asks questions to understand your website’s needs and suggests templates that perfectly suit your requirements. You can then personalize these templates with various layouts, fonts, and colour palettes, granting you ultimate creative control.
Squarespace offers more free templates than Shopify, all of which are sleek and professional-looking. The platform integrates with Unsplash and Getty Images for stock images. However, every site is built from a Squarespace template, and changing templates requires creating a new website.
Squarespace also allows users to create unlimited 14-day free trials, providing ample opportunity to experiment and perfect your site.
Shopify vs Squarespace: Design and Customization Winner
Squarespace excels in design options, focusing on creatives and artists, while Shopify keeps things straightforward with paid options for more customization. Squarespace’s user-friendly tools and abundant free templates give it an edge in design flexibility and ease of use.
Shopify vs Squarespace: Ease of Use
Let’s compare how easy Shopify and Squarespace are to use.
Shopify
Shopify is a feature-rich and beginner-friendly eCommerce platform, but it does have a learning curve. Building a website with Shopify involves using templates rather than directly editing the pages, which means no coding knowledge is required. The platform simplifies complex tasks, such as managing inventory and setting up shipment and payment gateways. Tasks like editing and adding products are straightforward, making it easier for users to manage their online store efficiently.
Squarespace
Setting up a Squarespace website is quick and easy. You simply pick a template, select the functions you need, and choose a name and category. The website builder offers consolidated functions with fewer margins for error and allows extensive personalization. Editing content, and placing and adjusting text and images, is easy using blocks in a grid system. However, inventory management and adding products can be a bit more complicated compared to Shopify.
Shopify vs Squarespace: Ease of Use Winner
Squarespace is generally easier to navigate, thanks to its user-friendly design and streamlined processes. However, Shopify still offers an intuitive experience, especially for managing eCommerce-specific tasks.
Shopify vs Squarespace: eCommerce Features
Let’s compare the functionalities of Shopify and Squarespace for managing your online store.
Shopify
Payment Options
- Shopify Payments: Available in 19 countries and integrates with over 100 gateways like Apple Pay and Stripe without charging transaction fees.
- External Gateways: Using external payment gateways incurs additional transaction fees, which vary by plan.
Currencies
- Multi-Currency Support: Shopify supports multi-currency selling and up to 50 additional markets in its primary market.
- Currency Conversion: Prices can be manually adjusted in Shopify and Plus plans. Without Shopify Payments, multi-currency functionality requires a third-party app.
Shipping
- Options: Diverse shipping options include free, flat-rate, weight-based, and calculated shipping rates.
- Discounts: Discounted rates are available through Shopify Shipping.
- Features: Advanced shipping features, such as carrier selection and automatic rate calculation, may require an advanced plan.
Product Types
- Variety: Merchants can sell both physical and digital products (up to 5GB per file).
- Subscriptions and Variants: Subscriptions and additional product options beyond three with up to 100 variants require third-party Shopify apps.
Selling Offline
- POS System: Integrated POS system compatible with proprietary or third-party hardware.
- Basic Plan: Supports offline transactions and tax calculations.
- Advanced Features: Advanced POS features require a separate subscription to Shopify POS Pro, costing $89 per month.
Additional Features
- Tax Calculations: Facilitates automatic tax calculations and VAT for EU digital products.
- Abandoned Cart Recovery: Included in all plans, even the Starter.
Squarespace
Payment Options
- Supported Gateways: eCommerce stores support payments through PayPal and Stripe.
- Additional Options: Lacks integration with Google Pay but offers buy-now-pay-later options like Afterpay or Clearpay via its iOS app.
Currencies
Single Currency: Operates in a single currency. Stores targeting multiple currencies need separate sites for each.
Shipping
- Methods: Offers free, flat-rate, and weight-based shipping.
- Advanced Plan: Real-time shipping quotes are exclusive to the Advanced Commerce plan and integrate with carriers like FedEx, UPS, and USPS, but only for domestic shipments.
- Additional Tools: Require third-party extensions with varying fees.
Product Types
- Variety: Facilitates the sale of physical and digital products, as well as subscriptions. Digital product uploads are capped at 300MB per file.
- Attributes and Variants: Extensive product options allow up to six attributes per product and 250 variants, surpassing some of Shopify’s offerings.
Selling Offline
POS Integration: Requires Square’s integration and compatible hardware. Accepts various card payments, including UnionPay and Apple Pay.
Additional Features
- Tax Calculations: Extensions provide automatic tax calculations for US-based merchants.
- Abandoned Cart Recovery: Included in the Advanced Commerce plan.
Shopify vs Squarespace: eCommerce Features Winner
When comparing Shopify and Squarespace for eCommerce, Shopify wins in most features, including payment options, currency conversion, shipping rates, POS, and additional options such as tax management and dropshipping. Squarespace lags slightly behind but excels in product variations.
Shopify vs Squarespace: Marketing
Both Squarespace and Shopify offer a comprehensive range of marketing features – let’s dive into a detailed comparison.
Shopify
Social Media Integration: Shopify integrates with over ten social media platforms through various apps, enabling an expansive marketing reach. This integration allows for seamless promotion and selling across multiple channels.
SEO Capabilities: Shopify excels in SEO by automatically generating optimized page titles and meta descriptions, ensuring better performance on Google’s Pagespeed Insights compared to Squarespace. Advanced SEO features are available on higher-tier plans, making it easier to enhance your site’s visibility.
Email Marketing: Shopify Email manages campaigns directly within the platform, offering 1,000 free monthly emails with additional batches of 1,000 costing $1. It also integrates with several popular email marketing services like Mailchimp, GetResponse, Campaign Monitor, and AWeber, providing flexibility and robust marketing capabilities.
Squarespace
Social Media Integration: Squarespace connects with up to 13 social media platforms, allowing for content import and site updates directly. It includes tools for creating and scheduling posts via the Unfold app and a video creator tool for Apple users. However, its social selling features primarily focus on Meta platforms.
SEO Capabilities: Unlike Shopify, Squarespace requires manual customization for SEO elements like page titles and meta descriptions. Squarespace uses static URLs for product and collection pages and requires manual setup for 301 redirects. The Smart SEO extension helps optimize product attributes, and integration with Google Analytics along with strong blogging features boosts the potential for organic traffic.
Email Marketing: Squarespace Email Campaigns starts at $7 per month for three newsletters and 500 emails, offering competitive pricing and integration with its website builder. While it integrates with Mailchimp, it lacks some advanced features found in dedicated email tools. Connections to other services like Zapier may require additional effort for seamless integration.
Shopify vs Squarespace: Marketing Winner
Shopify holds a slight edge over Squarespace due to its extensive app ecosystem and superior SEO automation. Both platforms provide standard marketing tools, but Shopify’s broader integrations and automated features make it a more robust choice for businesses seeking comprehensive marketing capabilities.
Shopify vs Squarespace: Apps & Extensions
Shopify
In Shopify’s app store, it boasts over 8,000 apps. This significantly enhances your store’s built-in capabilities. These apps provide exclusive functions for Shopify, such as additional product variants or multilingual support, and include integrations with various services and platforms, such as dropshipping apps like Printify. However, many of these integrations require additional subscriptions, which can increase your overall costs.
Squarespace
Squarespace offers around 40 curated extensions in categories like shipping, fulfillment, and sales. While these extensions are well-integrated, the limited selection can be restrictive for growing businesses, particularly in areas like internationalization and point-of-sale (POS) options. Although you can embed code or connect third-party apps via Zapier, these workarounds may not always provide the most seamless or effective solutions.
Shopify vs Squarespace: Apps & Extensions Winner
While Squarespace provides a selection of quality extensions, Shopify’s extensive app store with thousands of options gives it a significant advantage, offering more flexibility and scalability for businesses looking to expand their capabilities.
Integration With POD Supplier
Integrating Printify with both Shopify and Squarespace is a straightforward process. Here’s a step-by-step guide for each platform:
Shopify
1. From Printify:
- Log in to your Printify account.
- Click on “My store” in the upper-left corner.
- Select “Manage my stores” and then click on “Connect to Shopify.”
- Choose Shopify and paste the URL of your Shopify store (you can copy this from the Settings menu on your Shopify admin page).
- The browser will redirect you to the Shopify App Store. Click on “Install app” to complete the connection.
2. From Shopify:
- Log in to your Shopify account.
- Go to the Shopify App Store and search for Printify.
- Click “Add app” and then “Install” to integrate Printify with your Shopify store.
Squarespace
1. From Printify:
- Log in to your Printify account.
- Click on “My store” in the upper-left corner.
- Select “Manage my stores” and then “Add a new store.”
- Click on the Squarespace icon and log in to your Squarespace account.
- Allow access and select the store you want to integrate.
2. From Squarespace:
- Log in to your Squarespace account.
- Navigate to “Settings” and then “Extensions.”
- Search for Printify in the search bar or find it under “Inventory” and “Products.”
- Follow the prompts to connect Printify to your Squarespace store.
Integration With POD Supplier Winner
Both Shopify and Squarespace offer seamless integration with Printify, allowing you to connect without needing additional workarounds or code.
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Shopify vs Squarespace: Customer Support
Shopify
Shopify offers round-the-clock customer support through various channels including phone (available upon request), email, and live chat. Their comprehensive online help resources are accessible in multiple languages, ensuring that users around the globe can find assistance in their preferred language. The Help Center on Shopify’s platform features a variety of informational content such as text-based guides, illustrative images, and instructional videos. For issues related to Shopify’s official templates, the support team directly handles these concerns. However, problems arising from third-party templates are addressed by the respective developers, ensuring specialized assistance tailored to those specific issues.
Squarespace
Squarespace provides customer support through live chat, email, and a well-organized Help Center that includes articles, images, and videos. Their support services are available in six languages, catering to a diverse international audience. Squarespace is equipped to handle most template-related inquiries, particularly for templates that do not involve custom HTML or CSS modifications. However, users seeking assistance with issues related to non-U.S. jurisdictions, especially concerning GDPR compliance, might find the service less detailed and less tailored to their specific needs.
Shopify vs Squarespace: Customer Support Winner
Both Shopify and Squarespace offer robust customer support, ensuring users receive help when needed. Shopify stands out with its extensive range of support options and resources, covering a wider array of languages and support channels. Squarespace, on the other hand, provides a support experience that is highly interactive and user-friendly, aligning well with its target audience. Overall, the choice between the two may come down to the specific needs of the user, with Shopify offering a broader and more resource-rich support system, while Squarespace delivers a more personalized and accessible support experience.
Shopify vs Squarespace: How to Choose?
In the comparison between Shopify and Squarespace, no definitive winner emerges as each platform has its own distinct advantages and drawbacks, making the choice highly dependent on specific needs and goals.
Shopify excels in providing a comprehensive suite of eCommerce features, making it a robust choice for businesses that require extensive functionality. It offers a wide array of tools for dropshipping, store management, shipping logistics, tax calculations, and payment processing. This extensive feature set is particularly beneficial for businesses that need a high level of complexity and customization. However, the additional resources and capabilities offered by Shopify may come with extra subscription costs and fees, which might not be necessary for all sellers.
On the other hand, Squarespace shines in catering to creative niches, particularly for users in the US. Its platform is known for its sleek, consistent, and professional design features, making it an excellent choice for content-driven sites. Squarespace’s strengths lie in its ability to create visually appealing websites that are well-suited for selling digital products and managing subscriptions. While it may not offer the same breadth of eCommerce features as Shopify, its focus on design and user experience makes it a valuable option for those prioritizing aesthetic and functional simplicity in their online presence.
Ultimately, the decision between Shopify and Squarespace should be guided by the specific needs of your business. Shopify is ideal for those who need a comprehensive eCommerce solution with advanced features, while Squarespace is well-suited for those who value creative design and streamlined content management.
Shopify vs Squarespace: Alternatives
Here are some other reputable eCommerce platforms that compete with Shopify and Squarespace:
Wix
Wix is an all-in-one solution that provides both website and online store-building features. It is known for its ease of use and user-friendly interface, making it an excellent choice for sellers who prefer a straightforward tool for setting up and managing their online stores. Wix’s eCommerce plans include features such as abandoned cart recovery, which helps recover lost sales. However, its point-of-sale (POS) capabilities are limited. Wix offers eCommerce plans ranging from $36 to $172 per month, catering to various needs and budgets.
BigCommerce
BigCommerce is a hosted eCommerce platform that stands out for its reliable built-in tools and extensive payment gateway options. It supports scalability, making it suitable for growing businesses. While BigCommerce provides a robust set of features, its visual design options could be improved to enhance user experience. Additionally, abandoned cart recovery is only available with the Plus plan. BigCommerce’s pricing ranges from $39 to $399 per month, offering different levels of functionality to meet diverse business requirements.
WooCommerce
WooCommerce is an open-source plugin that transforms WordPress sites into fully-featured online stores. It provides complete control and ownership over your eCommerce website, allowing for extensive customization and flexibility. However, WooCommerce requires separate hosting and has a steep learning curve, which might be challenging for users unfamiliar with WordPress. This platform is ideal for those who need a highly customizable solution and are comfortable managing their hosting environment.
PrestaShop
PrestaShop is another open-source platform that offers full control over your online business. You can install it on a server or hosting provider using MySQL, FTP, or even a local computer. Like WooCommerce, PrestaShop provides a high degree of customization and flexibility. However, it also requires technical knowledge for setup and management, making it best suited for users who are comfortable with technical tasks and prefer an open-source solution.
Final Thoughts: Shopify vs Squarespace: Which Should You Use?
Choosing between Shopify and Squarespace ultimately hinges on your specific business needs and priorities. Shopify stands out as a powerful eCommerce platform with an extensive array of features designed for businesses that require advanced functionality and scalability. Its comprehensive tools for managing inventory, processing payments, handling shipping, and supporting complex eCommerce operations make it an excellent choice for businesses looking to grow and adapt in a competitive online marketplace.
On the other hand, Squarespace excels in providing a sleek, visually appealing, and user-friendly experience, making it ideal for businesses that prioritize design and content. Its intuitive interface and professional templates are particularly suitable for those who want to create a visually stunning online presence with a focus on digital products or content-driven sales.
In summary, if your primary goal is to build a robust online store with extensive eCommerce capabilities and you are willing to invest in a more complex solution, Shopify is likely the better choice. However, if you value a streamlined, aesthetically pleasing platform with straightforward eCommerce functionality, Squarespace may be the perfect fit. Both platforms offer strong support and resources, so your decision should be about which features and strengths align most closely with your business objectives and preferences.
