Shopify vs. Squarespace – Which Is the Better eCommerce Platform? (2023)

If you want to make money by selling online, you should create an online store using either Shopify or Squarespace

When creating an online store, Shopify and Squarespace are two of the most popular platforms.

But which one is the best for making money on an eCommerce platform?

Setting up an eCommerce platform is an excellent way to make money online. Even if you are a beginner looking for a way to get into the online money-making game, grabbing some eCommerce software, setting up an eCommerce site, and selling your products online are great ideas.

But first, you need to set up a website or a store on which to sell your products, and that means you need to choose an eCommerce platform that will

• Showcase your products
• Allow customers to pay for them
• Give you the ability to market your site
• Be accessible for beginners to use
• Be able to offer you a variety of themes, apps, and plugins to customize and personalize your site
• Has quality customer support to ensure your site is running optimally

Shopify and Squarespace are two of the most popular eCommerce platforms. They offer a wide range of features, but some key differences exist.

Shopify is a comprehensive platform that offers everything you need to build and run your store. It has a user-friendly interface, extensive design options, and powerful marketing and SEO tools. Squarespace is less comprehensive but has everything you need to get your store up and running. It’s also very user-friendly and offers a wide range of templates.

In this blog post, we will compare Shopify and Squarespace in terms of their features, pricing, and ease of use. We will also decide which platform is better for eCommerce websites.

What is Shopify?

Shopify is a hosted eCommerce platform that was founded in 2004. It is currently used by over 1.3 million websites worldwide. It is the most favourable option for beginners who know nothing about programming, coding, and web development to start and manage their own online store. Shopify makes it easy to create an online store and manage its content, payments, and shipping.

You can also try Shopify for 14 days for free.

What is Squarespace?

Squarespace is a hosted CMS solution that enables businesses of all types to create professional websites quickly and easily with a drag-and-drop interface.

Currently, Squarespace hosts over 2.6 million live websites worldwide. It has been designed with the content-based website in mind, which has resulted in many differences between it and Shopify.

Do You Want an eCommerce Website or an Online Store?

To decide which platform you want to work with, you need to figure out if you need an eCommerce website or an online store. An online store is technically a website, but in this case, an online store is where you predominantly sell products.

An eCommerce website’s primary goal is to provide information — such as a blog, magazine, portfolio, or news site.

To start selling products online, you’ll need an eCommerce website. Squarespace and Shopify offer eCommerce features, but Shopify’s are more comprehensive.

For example, Shopify allows you to create product pages with multiple images, add product variants (e.g. different colours or sizes), create a custom checkout process, and more.

Squarespace does have some of these features, but they’re not as robust as Shopify’s. So if you want to start selling products online, it’s worth considering using Shopify.

Shopify vs Squarespace: A Comparison

Both Shopify and Squarespace are popular platforms for launching eCommerce stores.

However, they differ in a few key ways. Shopify is more expensive, but it offers more features and integrations.

Squarespace is cheaper, but it has fewer features and integrations.

Additionally, Shopify is better for stores that expect to have a high traffic volume, while Squarespace is better for stores with lower traffic expectations.

Shopify was created specifically for eCommerce businesses, whereas Squarespace started as a tool for creating content-based websites.

Shopify and Squarespace are both popular website builders that offer eCommerce functionality. But there are some critical differences between the two platforms.

Ultimately, the best platform depends on your needs and budget, so let’s dive deeper into the differences between the two platforms to make a better, more informed decision.

Shopify

Here’s a quick look at some of Shopify’s overall pros and cons.

Shopify Pros

• Great eCommerce features
• Easy to use
• Large app store
• Excellent customer support
• Multi-channel selling on many social media channels

Shopify Cons

• There are additional transaction fees for alternative payment methods
• The monthly costs with additional app add-ons can add up

Squarespace

Here’s a quick look at Squarespace’s overall pros and cons.

Squarespace Pros

• Very affordable
• Modern templates to make your website sleek-looking

Squarespace Cons

• It only has an “extension market” rather than an app store
• The dashboard is a bit complicated for beginners
• Limited payment options

The Comparison: Shopify vs Squarespace

Now, let’s dive into the individual elements you need to look at when choosing the best eCommerce platform for you.

Price

Let’s not pretend price has nothing to do with your selection. The first thing you need to know about business is that your costs must be less than your income to make a profit. So let’s start with the price you will pay for hosting a store on Shopify and Squarespace.

Shopify

• Basic plan: $19 per month
• Shopify plan: $49 per month
• Advanced Shopify plan: $299 per month.

These prices are based on paying month to month. You will save 10% if you pay yearly.

Squarespace

• Personal plan: $23 per month
• Business plan: $33 per month
• Basic Commerce: $36 per month
• Advanced Commerce: $65 per month

These prices are based on paying monthly. You will save 30% if you pay yearly.

Ease of Use

Most people who want to get into the dropshipping or eCommerce business and sell their products are beginners. How easy an eCommerce platform is to use is an essential selling point for many would-be entrepreneurs.

Shopify

Shopify makes it incredibly easy to set up and manage your online store. With its drag-and-drop interface, you can easily add, remove or move sections around your page. This makes designing and customizing your store to fit your specific needs simple.

Additionally, Shopify has a straightforward interface with visual cues and shortcuts to help you add products, customize themes and add a domain name. This makes it easy to get started and never feel lost while setting up your store.

Squarespace

Although Squarespace can be tricky for beginners and more challenging than Shopify, it is ultimately an easy-to-use platform. Building a website with drag-and-drop sections and content blocks is simple.

Additionally, Squarespace’s homepage is easy to navigate, with clear visual cues that make finding the right tools easy. Squarespace is a user-friendly platform that makes website building accessible to everyone.

Themes and Templates

You want to ensure that your website is as original as possible to stick out from the millions of other websites that sell products.

Shopify

Shopify themes focus on eCommerce, including features that make it easy to sell your products online. There are a variety of themes to choose from, so you can find one that fits your business and branding. Plus, all Shopify themes are responsive, meaning they’ll look fabulous no matter what device your customers use.

If you’re looking for a theme tailored explicitly to wedding planners, there’s a theme. Or, if you’re in the pet industry, there’s a theme for that too. And if you can’t find a theme that meets your needs, you can always create your own.

Shopify also offers a library of free and premium templates that you can use to get started with your website design. These templates have been created by professional designers and are fully customizable. So whether you’re looking for a simple template to get started or something more complex, Shopify has you covered.

Squarespace

Squarespace is a platform that offers users a wide variety of themes and templates to choose from. There are themes for various industries, including businesses, blogs, and portfolios. Templates are also available for multiple purposes, such as creating a website, adding pages to an existing website, or creating a landing page.

One of the great things about Squarespace is that it is so easy to use. The platform is user-friendly, so you don’t need to be a web developer to create a beautiful website. You can easily customize your site’s design and content, and plenty of features and tools help you get the most out of your website.

If you’re looking for a platform that offers a wide range of themes and templates, Squarespace is a great option. The themes are stylish and professional, and the templates are easy to use. Plus, plenty of features and tools help you create the website you want.

Payment Capabilities

If you have an online store, you need to get paid. Not only do you want to get paid, but you also need your money quickly, efficiently, and with no issues for your customers.

Shopify

Shopify supports all the major payment gateways like PayPal, Amazon Pay, Square, cryptocurrency, and more than 100 other options. To help store owners maximize the conversion rate, Shopify offers more payment methods, especially for local providers.

Users of Shopify Payments won’t be charged any additional transaction fees, which fall in the range of 0.5% to 2% per transaction for all the other payment methods.

Currently, Shopify Payments is only available in 17 countries, including

• Australia
• Austria
• Belgium
• Canada
• Denmark
• Germany
• Hong Kong SAR
• Ireland
• Italy
• Japan
• The Netherlands
• Belgium
• New Zealand
• Singapore
• Spain
• Sweden
• United Kingdom

If you live in those nations, consider using Shopify Payments to avoid this extra cost.

Squarespace

Squarespace offers three payment processors: PayPal, Square, and Stripe. PayPal is the most widely-used payment processor, with Square coming in a close second. Stripe is a newer payment processor that is gaining in popularity.

Each of these payment processors offers different capabilities. PayPal provides the ability to process payments internationally and to accept debit cards and Apple Pay. Square is limited to processing payments in the U.S. but does offer the ability to accept cash payments. Stripe processes payments in numerous countries and also accepts Apple Pay.

When deciding which payment processor to use, it is essential to consider the available payment methods and the processing fees. The processing fees vary by country and processor, so it is vital to research before selecting a payment processor.

Marketing and Blogging

You can’t have a store on the internet without marketing it. If you don’t market your store, no one will show up. Let’s take a look at how Shopify and Squarespace let you market your store.

Shopify

Shopify is one of the most popular eCommerce platforms on the web. It has a wide range of marketing and blogging capabilities, making it an excellent choice for online businesses. You can create beautiful product pages, manage your inventory, track sales and more.

Shopify also has a robust blogging system that lets you publish posts, add images and videos, and track reader engagement. You can also use Shopify to sell products directly from your blog.

Squarespace

Squarespace offers built-in SEO best practices and Google Analytics for every plan, making optimizing your content and tracking your website’s success easy.

The platform also includes powerful blogging capabilities, including built-in analytics, comment moderation, tags and post scheduling. This makes it easy to create and share content that will help you attract new visitors and grow your business.

Apps and Plugins

These are the intangibles that can make the most difference. What can each platform offer that the other doesn’t? Let’s take a look.

Shopify

Shopify has a vast range of apps and plugins, making it an incredibly comprehensive eCommerce platform. There are over 2000 different apps available on the Shopify app store, with prices ranging from free to $200 per month.

There is an app for everything on Shopify, from increasing sales and engaging customers to managing inventory and shipping. Some of the most popular and highly rated apps include:

• Snippet: This app allows you to create custom product pages quickly and easily without needing any coding knowledge. It’s perfect for creating high-converting product pages that stand out from the competition.
• Privy: This app helps you to create custom pop-ups and landing pages to increase conversions and gather email addresses. It’s a great way to increase engagement with your store’s visitors.
• Shipstation: This app streamlines the shipping process by connecting your Shopify store with Shipstation, a leading shipping software provider. It saves you time and money by automating the shipping process.

Squarespace

Squarespace has various extensions and plugins to help you manage and optimize your website. The extensions marketplace provides a wide range of tools to help with shipping and fulfillment, finance, inventory and products, sales, and marketing. You can filter by category to find the right extension for your needs.

Some popular extensions include Google Analytics integration, Facebook pixel, and Shopify integration. These extensions allow you to collect data about how your site performs and use that data to improve your website’s effectiveness.

The Squarespace team constantly works to improve the extensions marketplace and add new features. Be sure to check back regularly to see what new extensions are available.

Customer Support

With so many first-timers starting an eCommerce store, quality customer service is a factor when deciding what to purchase.

Shopify

• 24/7 customer support through email
• Live chat and phone
• No social media suppurt

Squarespace

• 24/7 customer support through email
• Social media and live chat
• No phone support

Conclusion

Both Shopify and Squarespace are popular platforms for building eCommerce stores. They offer a wide range of features, templates, and customization options to make it easy for users to create a professional-looking online store. Additionally, both platforms have built-in support for selling products online and through various sales channels. This makes it easy for users to get their store up and running quickly and easily.

There are some key differences between Shopify and Squarespace, however. Shopify is designed explicitly for eCommerce stores, while Squarespace offers website-building capabilities. This means that Shopify has more features geared toward selling products online, while Squarespace is more versatile. Additionally, Shopify offers more pricing plans than Squarespace, which can be a plus or a minus depending on the user’s needs.

Both Shopify and Squarespace are great platforms for starting an eCommerce store. They offer a wide range of features and customization options, making it easy for users to create a professional-looking online store.

So which platform is right for you?

If you want a complete eCommerce solution with all the bells and whistles, Shopify is probably your best bet.

If you’re looking for more of a website than a store but still have all the eCommerce essentials, Squarespace is a great option.