Squarespace vs Shopify: Which Platform Is Right for You?

Ecommerce is more essential than ever for business success. As online shopping continues to dominate, having a seamless and well-designed online store is crucial. However, for many businesses, choosing the right ecommerce website builders to launch and manage their online store can be a daunting task. Shopify and Squarespace are two of the most popular ecommerce platforms, but each comes with its own set of features, pricing models, and unique advantages. Understanding which platform best suits your needs—whether you're just starting out or already have an established business—can make all the difference. 

In this comprehensive comparison guide, we delve deep into the specifcs of each platform, comparing and evaluating their strengths, pricing, usability, and overall value to help you make the optimal choice for your business.

Squarespace vs Shopify for Ecommerce: Which is Better for Your Business Needs?

Choosing between Squarespace and Shopify largely depends on your business needs and eCommerce aspirations. If you prioritize sleek website design, prioritized content management, and a more all-inclusive pricing plan, Squarespace may work for you.

On the other hand, if your focus is heavily on eCommerce and scalability, and you require extensive customization from an app store, Shopify might be the better option. Let us delve deeper to understand these platforms better.

Shopify vs Squarespace: Overview

Squarespace, established in 2003, was initially designed as a website-building platform, which later integrated eCommerce features. It's often chosen for its excellent design templates and user-friendly interface.

Shopify, founded in 2004, was born out of eCommerce necessity and has since grown into one of the leading eCommerce platforms worldwide.

Shopify's strengths lie primarily in its comprehensive eCommerce capabilities and scalable solutions.

Here’s a detailed overview table comparing Shopify and Squarespace across key areas to help you understand their strengths and weaknesses:

Choosing Between a Website or an Online Store

The decision between an online store and a website depends on the nature of your business. Let's understand your requirements and make an informed decision accordingly.

Need a Website That Highlights Your Content? Choose Squarespace

Squarespace is a fantastic choice for creating content-rich and visually stunning websites. Here's what makes it stand out:

Sleek and Responsive Templates: Visually appealing designs tailored for diverse businesses like artists, bloggers, photographers, and restaurants, offering adaptability for various needs.

User-Friendly Drag-and-Drop Editor: No coding skills are required, making it perfect for beginners.

Robust Blogging Features: Supports multiple contributors, post scheduling, RSS syndication, social media integration, podcast hosting, and AMP support for blog posts.

SEO-Friendly: Built-in SEO tools and custom CSS options make it easy to optimize your website for search engines and create a unique design.

Basic Ecommerce-Friendly: Enables product and service sales, online bookings, and reservations, making it perfect for businesses needing a mix of website and e-commerce features.

Here are a few limitations to consider:

While Squarespace handles basic ecommerce well, it started as a website builder.

For advanced ecommerce features, platforms like Shopify may be a better ft.

Shopify: The Go-To Platform for Building and Growing Your Online Store

Shopify reigns supreme when it comes to building a fully functional, top-notch online store. Here’s what sets it apart:

Shopify App Store: Over 1,200 apps (both free and paid) to customize and enhance your store.

Point of Sale (POS): Built-in POS system to sync sales, products, and customer data online and offine.

Design Templates: Choose from a variety of free and premium templates, which are highly fexible for ecommerce.

Comprehensive Ecommerce Features: From creating product listings, managing your inventory, and setting up a secure shopping cart to handling tax and shipping rates, Shopify ensures you have all the necessary tools at your disposal. Templates: Shopify provides diverse template designs - some free and others premium.

Evaluating Squarespace vs Shopify Pricing Plans and Features

Both Shopify and Squarespace offer a range of plans tailored to different business sizes and needs. However, the breadth of eCommerce functionality, transaction fees, and overall value for money, including options like a free trial, may impact your decision. Let's break down and compare their pricing structures and what each subscription level entails.

Squarespace Pricing and Key Features

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Squarespace offers a straightforward pricing structure with four main plans: Personal, Business, Basic Commerce, and Advanced Commerce.

It must be noted that the Personal plan, aimed at individuals, doesn't support eCommerce. However, all other plans offer full eCommerce functionality with an increasing scale of features and tools.

The downside is that the business plan applies a 3% transaction fee on all sales, which might be signifcant for stores with high-volume sales.

Shopify Pricing and Key Features

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Shopify's pricing plan is divided into three tiers – Basic Shopify, Shopify, and Advanced Shopify. Additionally, they offer Shopify Lite (sell on social platforms) for $9/month and Shopify Plus (enterprise-grade solutions) for high-volume merchants and large businesses with pricing starting from $2000/month.

The Basic plan offers comprehensive eCommerce features for new, small online stores, whereas the Shopify and Advanced Shopify plans are suitable for growing and larger businesses needing advanced features.

Shopify charges transaction fees only if you choose to use a third-party payment provider instead of Shopify Payments. If you use Shopify Payments, these transaction fees can be completely avoided.

Next, let's examine these platforms through the lenses of user experience and interface design.

User Experience and Interface Design of Shopify and Squarespace: A Design Face-Off

User experience and interface design can heavily impact your end customer's shopping experience and your ease of managing the online store.

Here's how:

Ease of Use on Both Platforms

On the Squarespace platform, setting up a basic store can be fairly straightforward. With its intuitive, drag-and-drop builder and beautiful templates, Squarespace ensures users can quickly build visually stunning websites. However, when it comes to exploring more advanced features or specifc adjustments beyond the provided templates, it could get a bit more complex and might require some basic coding knowledge.

Comparatively, Shopify is all about eCommerce-optimized usability. The Shopify backend is well-structured and offers tutorials and guidance for those new to the platform. However, setting up your store and utilizing its numerous features might have a steeper learning curve due to the depth and complexity of its store settings. Once familiar, Shopify's interface makes day-to-day operations smooth and effcient.

Both platforms offer mobile apps for managing your online presence on the go, further enhancing their ease of use.

Customization and Design Capabilities

Squarespace has made a name in the industry with its superior design capabilities. It offers an impressive collection of professional, mobile-responsive templates that cater to varying business sectors. Its real-time editing feature and the ease of customizing a template with its web page builder make it a go-to choice for businesses prioritizing content and aesthetics.

In comparison, Shopify provides fewer but eCommerce-focused, mobile-responsive free themes. It also has a Shopify theme store that offers premium themes tailored to various industries. While Shopify's editor isn't a drag-and-drop interface like Squarespace, it offers more fexibility for

eCommerce-specifc customization. Shopify's edge truly comes into play with its app store, which contains numerous apps for extending and customizing your store's functionality.

Now, let's look at how these platforms handle product and inventory management.

Product and Inventory Management Comparison

Product and inventory management are critical to the success of an ecommerce store. Both Shopify and Squarespace provide tools for effective product and inventory management, but their capabilities may vary. Let's understand how.

Type of Products You Can Sell

Shopify supports the selling of physical products, digital products, services, consultations, and ticketed experiences. However, you may need to install additional apps to cater to the specifc needs of selling digital products or providing services.

On the other hand, Squarespace, with its robust website builder features, is more fexible in managing a wide array of product types – be it physical goods, digital downloads, services, or even subscriptions, quite effortlessly without the need for third-party apps. It's worth mentioning that subscription and advanced commerce selling are available only on specifc Squarespace plans.

Product Options, Variants, and Images

Both Squarespace and Shopify allow the addition of multiple variants, such as size, color, weight, material, etc., for products. Squarespace allows up to 250 combinations of variants per product over six options, while Shopify provides up to 100 combinations across three options, extendable with apps.

When it comes to presenting products visually, both platforms support multiple product images, as well as variant-specifc images. Squarespace scores an edge with its superior design-centric approach, allowing you to create visually captivating product details and category pages. However, Shopify balances it out with more eCommerce-focused features such as zooming and 3D models.

Inventory Control Features and Automation

Shopify's inventory management is robust, enabling you to monitor stock levels, receive restock alerts, handle backorders, set up automated triggers based on inventory level, and hold paused orders till inventory replenishment. It also offers multiple warehouse management and supports dropshipping integration for low inventory-risk sales.

Conversely, Squarespace's inventory features are more basic. While it allows inventory tracking, low stock alerts, and backorders, it lacks advanced automation and multiple warehouse support. Dropshipping capacity, while feasible to some extent via the print-on-demand service Printful, is not as comprehensive as Shopify.

Next, we proceed with payment processing and checkout options, which are crucial aspects of any eCommerce venture.

Payment Process and Checkout Options

The selection of payment methods, transaction fees, and the checkout process play a delicate role in customer satisfaction and shopping cart abandonment rates. Let's take a closer look at how Shopify and Squarespace fare in this integral part of eCommerce.

Transaction Fees and Credit Card Fees

In Squarespace, the Business plan applies a 3% transaction fee on all sales. However, both of its commerce plans waive this fee. Remember, these fees are over and above the credit card processor fees that all eCommerce sites need to pay.

On the other hand, Shopify charges transaction fees only if you choose a third-party payment processor instead of Shopify Payments. The transaction fees decrease as you move up their pricing plans.

Supported Payment Gateways

A wide choice of payment gateways ensures a smooth checkout experience for a global audience. Here's the range of payment options available with both platforms: 

Shopify:

Shopify Payments (powered by Stripe)

PayPal

Amazon Pay

Google Pay

Apple Pay

Over 100 external gateways, including Authorize.net, WorldPay, PayFast, etc.

Squarespace:

Stripe

PayPal

Apple Pay

Multi-currency and Multilingual Selling 

Multi-currency and multilingual features are pertinent for eCommerce businesses targeting a global audience. 

Shopify enables multi-currency checkout with real-time exchange rates using Shopify Payments. It permits selling in multiple languages up to 20 in its standard plans and up to 5 languages in its Shopify Plus plan.

Squarespace doesn't offcially support multi-currency. However, you can manually create and maintain separate product lists priced in different currencies. For multilingual functionality, you'd need to build an entirely separate site for each language or use coding workarounds, which isn't ideal.

Shipping, Sales Tax, and Point of Sale (POS) Systems

Along with backend operations and visual appeal, some necessary logistics affect the operations of your online store. Let's check how our contenders, Shopify and Squarespace, manage the shipping, calculate sales tax, and handle Point of Sale (POS) transactions.

Shipping Options and Real-Time Shipping Rates

Shopify facilitates a breadth of shipping options from free, fat rate, weight-based, to price-based rates. It also supports carrier-calculated shipping rates (via USPS, UPS, DHL Express, and Canada Post) and third-party fulfllment solutions like Amazon, Rakuten Super Logistics, and Shipwire.

Squarespace also supports free, fat rate, weight-based, and carrier-calculated shipping (via FedEx, UPS, or USPS for US users). However, Squarespace's shipping tools are less confgurable than Shopify's, but they are enough to meet the requirements of many small- to medium-sized businesses.

Tax Calculation Features

Both Shopify and Squarespace support automatic tax calculations. Shopify guides you through setup during your store creation, while Squarespace calculates tax when the product is added to the cart based on the customer's shipping address or your business location.

Both platforms offer real-time sales tax calculations on all plans for US sellers, helping you comply with the ever-evolving online sales tax laws.

POS Integration and Management

Shopify, being an eCommerce specialist, has more advanced POS (Point of Sale) features. It provides a seamless omnichannel experience, making it easier for businesses to sell both online and offine while syncing their sales, products, and inventory data.

On the other hand, Squarespace partners with Square for its POS system. Although it's functional for in-person selling at pop-up shops, markets, and fairs, it may lack the holistic integration that Shopify provides.

Now, let's shift our focus to another important aspect: marketing, SEO, and blogging.

Marketing, SEO, and Blogging

Digital marketing, Search Engine Optimization (SEO), and blogging play a crucial role in attracting and retaining your online audience. Here, we'll examine how Shopify and Squarespace facilitate these aspects of your eCommerce business – from the availability of marketing tools, email marketing, and automation integrations to blogging features and SEO optimization practices.

Available Marketing Tools

Shopify offers an abundance of built-in marketing tools. It integrates easily with major social media platforms, supporting direct sales on Facebook, Instagram, and Pinterest. Its impressive app store provides numerous options to extend your marketing reach, like product reviews, customer wishlists, loyalty programs, and more.

Squarespace, although not as extensive as Shopify, still provides a host of useful marketing tools for store owners. It supports social media integrations, promotional pop-ups, banners, customizable email campaigns, and more. However, the real game-changer is its integrated analytics, which provides comprehensive insights into your website's performance, helping you make data-driven marketing decisions.

Email Marketing and Automation Integrations

Both platforms support integration with numerous email marketing services for automated email campaigns, reminders, and newsletters.

Shopify's app store extends support for popular email marketing services like Mailchimp, Omnisend, and more. They also provide their own powerful email marketing tool – Shopify Email. Automation can also be achieved with apps such as Kit (a virtual assistant) and Shopify Flow (automated workfows for Plus users).

Squarespace offers built-in email marketing (Squarespace Email Campaigns) with visually appealing templates that match your website design.

However, it doesn't support as many third-party email marketing services as Shopify.

Blogging Features on Both Platforms

Squarespace's blogging capabilities are more robust and intuitive. It supports a range of features, including multiple contributor roles, AMP support for faster mobile loading, a built-in commenting system, scheduled posting, content syndication, and integrated podcasting support.

Shopify's blogging features, although not as comprehensive, are decent enough to maintain an engaging blog. The platform offers basic tools like drafting, tagging, scheduling, and SEO settings. However, the comment system isn't as sophisticated and would need integration with a third-party app.

SEO Optimization and Best Practices

Both platforms offer pretty solid base settings for SEO. They allow editing URL slugs, meta titles, and descriptions; they offer SSL certifcates for secure connection and automatically generate sitemap.xml for site indexing.

Shopify's SEO features include essential customization, automatic redirects when URLs are changed, and product details being structured using Schema.org format, which could favorably infuence Google's rich snippets.

Squarespace makes many SEO best practices default in its design, including clean URLs, automatic tagging, SSL, automatic redirects, and mobile optimization. However, it lacks speed optimization in the default setup and does not support advanced SEO plugins.

As we all know, an online store isn't just a website. It's an ecosystem of various apps working harmoniously to create an end-to-end e-commerce solution. So, let's explore this aspect next.

Beyond the Basics: Exploring Shopify and Squarespace's App Ecosystems and Integrations

The provision of additional software via apps extends the native functionalities of your eCommerce platform. Here's what each platform offers:

Differences in App and Extension Libraries

Squarespace's strength lies in its beautifully designed, feature-rich, built-in functionalities, which may be plenty for many small businesses. However, if your business requires very specifc features that are not available natively in Squarespace, there might be some hiccups as it lacks an offcial app store.

Shopify's App Store, on the other hand, offers more than 1200 apps like SEO Manager and AfterShip, catering to an array of customized extensions and integrations from SEO, social media marketing, sales and conversion optimization to reporting and insights. This can bring unlimited potential to what your Shopify store can achieve, but also complexity.

Mobile Apps for Managing Your Online Presence

Mobility is essential in today's fast-paced world. Both platforms offer mobile apps, allowing you to manage your e-commerce stores on the go.

The Squarespace Commerce app is well-designed and feature-packed, enabling full management of your online store, from order fulfllment, inventory, and customer engagement to site edits.

Shopify's mobile app, while functional, may need the assistance of other specifc standalone apps like Shopify POS or Ping (live chat) to fully utilize all its features.

Next, let's compare how well these platforms cater to your support needs.

Customer Support and Resources

Great customer support can make the difference between a frustrating and a smooth user experience. Here, we assess the customer support niches of Shopify and Squarespace, looking at their availability, responsiveness, and range of resources offered to users, including their AI chatbot assistant.

Customer Care Clash: Which Platform Has Your Back?

Shopify shines in the customer support arena with 24/7 availability via email, live chat support, and phone support, backed by a dedicated support team. It also has an extensive Help Center for Shopify users, comprising tutorials and guides, a community forum, free online webinars, and even Shopify Academy – a set of free online courses on eCommerce and running a business.

Squarespace's support isn't 24/7 but is available Monday to Friday, 4:00 am to 8:00 pm Eastern Time. They, too, have a comprehensive knowledge base, active community forums, and provide webinars (Squarespace Webinars), offering assistance on various issues users might encounter.

Online Documentation and Learning Resources

Both Shopify and Squarespace have abundant online documentation, learning resources, and active communities that help users gather insights, resolve issues, or learn new features.

Shopify provides a rich array of resources, from its blog featuring advice, inspiration, and success stories to free business tools like logo makers, business name generators, etc.

Squarespace's resources are also comprehensive, covering a range of topics like getting started, account setup, integrations, and SEO practices.

The Squarespace Forum further extends user support with peer-to-peer interactions and problem-solving.

What are the Pros and Cons of Selling on Squarespace vs Shopify?

Both Squarespace and Shopify are robust and reliable platforms for establishing your online store and expanding your sales channels. Each brings its unique strengths to the table. While Squarespace could be better for smaller businesses or those focusing on services/professional portfolios with lesser eCommerce needs, Shopify excels in handling comprehensive eCommerce operations seamlessly, which is more suitable for high-volume sellers or those ambitious to scale. Let's delve deeper into specifc reasons favoring each.

Reasons to Choose Shopify Over Squarespace

Several reasons could incline you towards choosing Shopify over Squarespace:

Comprehensive eCommerce features: From inventory management, shipping, a vast App Store, and an effcient POS system, Shopify shines in its eCommerce competency.

Greater scalability: With its superior API, Shopify handles large product ranges and high-volume sales more effectively.

More payment gateway options: Shopify offers multiple payment options, providing fexibility to your customers.

Better multi-currency and multilingual support: Shopify enables selling in multiple currencies and languages, effortlessly aiding global expansion.

Reasons to Choose Squarespace Over Shopify

On the other hand, here are compelling considerations to choose Squarespace over Shopify:

Superior design options: If visual identity and aesthetics matter to your business, Squarespace, with its superior templates and intuitive editor, is a solid choice.

Inbuilt content-rich features: If your main goal is content and branding over hardcore ecommerce, Squarespace's Journalism and blogging capabilities can come in handy.

Lower starting cost: Squarespace doesn't charge additional fees for necessary features, offering better upfront value.

Less complexity: Squarespace is simpler to set up and manage without the need to add third-party applications for basic functionalities.

Revolutionize Your Business with TheGenieLab

To maximize your eCommerce success, consider partnering with TheGenieLab. Whether you need a custom web application, a robust e-commerce platform, or a cutting-edge AI solution, we've got you covered.

Our highly experienced team can help you transition from either platform seamlessly, ensuring your business continuity. Whether you wish to scale your operations with Shopify or create a visually captivating online presence with Squarespace, we can help bridge your business needs with the right eCommerce solution.

Experience the magic of effortless effciency and unlock your business's full potential with TheGenieLab. Contact us for further queries.

Conclusion

Choosing between Squarespace and Shopify ultimately boils down to your business vision, operational requirements, and, to a certain degree, your personal preference. If eCommerce lies at the heart of your business strategy and you foresee rapid scaling. In that case, Shopify's comprehensive eCommerce features, vast app store, robust customer support, and comprehensive payment options offer a clear advantage.

Conversely, Squarespace's stellar design capabilities, user-friendly interface, better content management, and competitive pricing could make it a perfect ft for small businesses or enterprises where eCommerce is a valuable add-on rather than the core focus.

Remember, there isn't a one-size-fts-all solution in eCommerce. The key is understanding your business needs and customer expectations and matching them with the right platform to provide the best user experience.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is Shopify Suitable for Beginners?

Shopify is beginner-friendly, offering intuitive tools for building online stores. With user-friendly interfaces and extensive support resources, beginners can quickly set up their e-commerce site. Consider Shopify for its ease of use and robust features tailored to newcomers in the online retail world.

Can I Use Squarespace for Dropshipping?

Yes, you can use Squarespace for dropshipping. While it has limitations compared to Shopify, Squarespace offers e-commerce features suitable for small-scale dropshipping businesses. Integration with third-party tools like ShipStation can enhance order fulfllment.

Does Shopify Offer Better SEO than Squarespace?

Shopify typically offers more advanced Shopify SEO features compared to Squarespace. With Shopify, you have greater control over your website's SEO optimization, including customizable meta tags, URLs, and alt text. However, both platforms can be optimized effectively for search engines.

How Scalable are Squarespace and Shopify Stores?

When comparing Squarespace and Shopify for scalability, consider Shopify's robust app ecosystem for enhanced functionality as your business grows. Squarespace offers simplicity but may have limitations in advanced features for highly scalable operations.