Squarespace vs Shopify

Squarespace and Shopify are technically similar platforms on which you can build an online store and content-driven website. However, the creation process of these two platforms differs from each other. Hence, you may want to consider these differences while deciding which platform is more proper for your business. So, let’s take a look at Squarespace vs. Shopify.

Squarespace was built for content-based websites. The aim was to build and maintain these websites as informative or entertaining. On the other hand, Shopify aimed to create and design online stores. Then, these platforms improved with additional features and became similar websites. Users can create and maintain an online store and content-based websites on both platforms.

Content-Based Website or Online Store

If you want to build an informative website or blog, your choice should be Squarespace. Of course, Shopify also can be useful for this aim; however, it may not be enough all the time in terms of functionality. Thus, when it comes to Squarespace’s advantages:

• There are various high-quality templates on Squarespace, which you can create well-designed websites.
• It does not require prior information about designing a website because it is highly easy to use.
• The platform has the perfect tools for photo editing and displaying images. It means that it has excellent features for blogs.
• Besides, Squarespace has various features for content display. Hence, creating a professional look for your website is easy and quick.
• The platform is highly reliable and ready to help with any issue.

When designing and maintaining an online store, Shopify would be a better choice than Squarespace. It is because most of its features for online shopping are not available on Squarespace. These are:

• Shopify allows shoppers to make their payments in multiple currencies. Thus, it is possible for online store owners to reach customers from different countries.
• When it comes to buying and selling, tax calculations are necessary and significant on these platforms. Shopify’s tax calculation functionality seems better than other platforms like Squarespace.
• Third-party apps like Zoho and Quickbox increase the functionality of online stores. Shopify has efficient integration with these kinds of third-party apps.
• The inventory management of Shopify seems better than Squarespace due to its being more sophisticated and varied.

Ease of Use

Shopify and Squarespace have a user-friendly dashboard similar to most website builders. If we compare with details Shopify vs. Squarespace, we need to focus on the aims of these website builders. As we mentioned, Shopify is the best for online store websites, but if you need a content-based website, Squarespace will be a proper choice. Thus, it can be challenging to choose Squarespace even though you want to build an online store. In addition, Squarespace has many templates and customization opportunities, which is why creating a website design requires practice to get used to.

Pricing of Squarespace and Shopify

When preparing a budget for your business, pricing matters greatly since your payment should be worth spending. Besides, your budget may change according to your company’s size or purpose. Hence, examining pricing and deciding whether it is worth it is crucial before choosing the right platform. Thus, here are the pricing details of Squarespace and Shopify:

Squarespace Plans

• Personal Plan: Personal plan is $16 per month, allowing you to create your content-driven website. The platform does not allow you to customize your website in this plan. Besides, users cannot sell their products via this plan. 
• Business Plan: The business plan is $23 per month. You can sell products with an additional 3% transaction fee per sale. Besides, this plan has more sophisticated features like announcement bars and pop-up messages.

• Basic Commerce: Basic commerce plan requires $27 per month. The plan allows you to use point-of-sale functionality if your company is based in the United States. Besides, users can utilize business and personal plans’ features as well.
• Advanced Commerce: Advanced Commerce plan requires $49 per month. It has advanced features as well as other plans’ features, such as real-time carrier shipping, advanced e-commerce features, abandoned cart recovery, etc. 
• Squarespace Select: This plan was announced recently and did not have a particular fee. The fee differs according to the needs of customers. You can access SEO consultation and support for your website. According to your needs, experts offer a negotiable price.

All plans of Squarespace have discounts if you purchase the plan that you want on an annual basis. Moreover, the platform offers a two-week free trial for paid plans except for the Squarespace Select plan.

Shopify Plans

• Basic Shopify: Basic Shopify plan costs $24 per month. This plan allows you to add two more users to your account with additional features. It is the cheapest plan; thus, you cannot access all platform features. With this plan, the platform only allows you to sell on your existing website. It means that you cannot design your online store on Shopify.

• Shopify: Shopify plan costs $69 per month. Professional reporting features are available on the platform from this plan and up. 
• Advanced Shopify: The Advanced Shopify plan costs $229 monthly and includes nearly all features. Besides, you can add fifteen users to your account. It is an effective feature, especially for big businesses.

Like Squarespace, Shopify also offers a discount if you purchase a plan annually and a two-week free trial. Moreover, the abandoned cart saving feature is available on all plans of Shopify. If it is necessary for your business, you should consider this advantage. Lastly, you can have point-of-sale functionality with all plans. However, you should pay an additional fee, which is $89.

Pricing Comparison

Since both platforms have different plans, it may be hard to distinguish and compare all plans with each other. Therefore, a comparison may be helpful for you.

Firstly, if you do not want to sell products and want to design an informative website for your company, the Personal Plan of Squarespace can be the right choice for you. It costs $16 per month and allows you to utilize all photo editing and content-displaying features with easy and strong templates.

To create and maintain an online store, you should purchase either the Business Plan of Squarespace or the Basic Shopify plan of Shopify at least. When prices are compared, Business Plan seems $3 cheaper than Basic Shopify. However, Squarespace requires a 3% transaction fee. Besides, when Squarespace’s limited payment gateway options are considered, Shopify seems more advantageous in pricing.

Lastly, the Shopify Lite plan allows users to sell if they have a website or a Facebook page. Besides, it only costs $9. It means that if you have an option like that, you do not have to pay high monthly fees for two platforms.

Payment Gateways

The two platforms have a big difference in terms of payment gateways. Firstly, Squarespace only allows payments from four gateways. They are PayPal, Stripe, Afterpay, and Apple Pay.

On the other hand, Shopify allows shoppers to make payments from more than 100 gateways. Since they also accept payments in various currencies, choosing Shopify seems more professional. You may not need to accept payments in different currencies if you have a local company. However, if you have a big business or are aiming to widen your business to the world, it would be best to choose Shopify. Even though Squarespace accepts payments from four gateways, these platforms are not available in some countries.

Themes

The online stores are very similar to the physical shops. The shops should not be just attractive but also simple to navigate because otherwise, they will leave the store quickly. Websites are the same about this issue; if your website is not attractive in theme and the navigations are complicated, the users will leave the website, and it increases the bounce rate, which has a bad impact on SEO. Moreover, the statistics show people surf the web with their smartphones more than computers. In this situation, having a mobile responsive website theme is compulsory for a good user experience. The good news is no matter which website builder you choose, both Spotify and Squarespace have mobile responsive and user-friendly themes. However, Squarespace is the winner of the Shopify vs. Squarespace competition about themes.

Shopify

Shopify has limited free templates, and you must pay for the other ones. These templates are minimal and simple, so you can draw attention to just your products.

In addition, it is possible to customize your templates with coding; however, if you are using a web builder because you don’t know to program, it can be a problem.

Squarespace

When we say Squarespace, the themes come to mind first. There are many options for choosing the best Squarespace templates for your website; the best thing is you can preview them freely. The themes of Squarespace are modern and attractive, or if you want, you can choose simple and clear ones.

Although there are many options, you can not use all templates if you need to build an online store. They are proper, especially for blogs, portfolios, or other content-based purposes. However, that is not mean that you can not build artistic stores; you just need to find the best template. You can use developed filter options on the templates page to choose from.

Search Engine Optimization

SEO (Search Engine Optimization) is one of the most important aspects that should be considered when choosing a platform to sell. Google published a new requirements list named “Core Web Vitals”. It shows the basic and detailed requirements for search engine optimization. More specifically, it shows the necessity for improving your website’s rankings on Google.

While Shopify meets Core Web Vitals, Squarespace has some issues with that. Of course, it should not prevent you from using Squarespace since they still meet most of the SEO requirements. However, if you want the best rankings in your ultra-competitive industry, it would be right to pick Shopify.

One other important SEO requirement for websites is the 301 redirect. When you change your website’s URL, a 301 redirect lets search engines know that. On Shopify, 301 redirects are done automatically by the platform if you change your URL. However, on Squarespace, you should do it manually. It is a disadvantage because URL changes may sometimes be necessary for SEO, and forgetting to create a 301 redirect is often possible.

Lastly, while creating a URL, both platforms place prefixes between words. It is not preferable because Google prefers clearer URLs for SEO. While Squarespace is easier on this issue, Shopify is not flexible. From this aspect, Squarespace may be preferable for SEO.

Dropshipping

Dropshipping is an efficient strategy for online stores. Companies take orders and convey them to supplier companies. Then, suppliers send products to customers. It is an advantageous method in many ways. Firstly, you do not need to invest much money at the beginning of your business. Besides, you will get paid without spending effort on shipping. On the other hand, since you do not reach the products you sell, you cannot be sure about their quality. It may be risky for you and your reliability.

Squarespace allows you to use just two dropshipping agencies: Spocket and Printful. However, Shopify has a large scale of dropshipping services, which makes Shopify preferable in that area. Even though popular dropshipping services are chosen more, it is nice to have various options and choose the best one for you.

Support

Before choosing a web builder, it is essential to learn customer service options because you need to solve the problems quickly to not lose traffic. Both Squarespace and Shopify have high-rated customer support services. In any case of a problem, it is possible to contact the help center easily.

You can contact Shopify 24/7 via live chat, email, and phone; however, you can contact Squarespace, but options are limited. There is live chat Monday to Friday, 4 am-8 pm. Also, Squarespace provides a knowledge forum.

Squarespace vs. Shopify

Regarding Squarespace vs. Shopify question overall, it is possible to say that Shopify runs the competition. As we examined different aspects, such as the website’s purpose, pricing, SEO, payment methods, and dropshipping, it seems that Shopify has more profits in all aspects except content-driven websites. If you do not want to sell products, Squarespace should be the obvious choice with the quality and pricing.

On the other hand, if you want to have an online store, Shopify is the better option. It has a bit better pricing and payment options. Since payment is a big part of your business, picking the best opportunities is crucial. Besides, it offers wider options when it comes to dropshipping.

Therefore, looking at the overall comparison of both platforms’ opportunities, Shopify wins the competition until Squarespace develops its options.

For more insight on Shopify SEO, take a look at our article!

Shortly Squarespace vs. Shopify

We have compared Squarespace vs. Shopify. Both Squarespace and Shopify can be used for content-driven websites and online stores. However, they have advantageous features on their own. Squarespace seems better if you want to run a blog or informative website without selling products. Its display and editing options carry it on a better sort. However, when running an online store, Shopify obviously wins the competition. It is because its options are wider and more beneficial for companies’ budgets. Therefore, when you are sure about your purpose, it is easy to make a choice between these two platforms.