Shopify Squarespace are two great solutions in building e-commerce sites. They all have advantages and disadvantages. However, if you’re looking for a simple, fast, and effective way to launch your online store, look no further than Shopify. It is undoubtedly the first platform that comes to mind when it comes to online store creation. However, Shopify isn’t perfect, so some are turning to alternatives like Squarespace to build their online store. In this article, we’re going to confront them so you can see why Shopify is better than Squarespace. And if possible choose the solution best suited to your needs.
Shopify Squarespace: General
Before we make the comparison of Shopify vs Squarespace, let’s first see who these two platforms are.
Shopify
Founded in 2006 in Canada, Shopify is the most well-known ecommerce platform in the world. With over 1.2 million customers, Shopify offers an e-commerce solution that’s right for everyone, regardless of project size. Very to easy to use, Shopify allows you to quickly create and grow your online store. The platform offers you all the necessary tools to get started without worrying about the complications of creating an e-commerce. So whether you want to dropship or sell your own products, you’ll be able to do it with Shopify without worrying about technical skills.
Squarespace
Initially, Squarespace was created as a platform specializing in blogging. However, in 2013, it expanded its offering when it comes to e-commerce. Today, although it has fewer e-commerce tools, it still offers cheaper packages dedicated to e-commerce. Being a general tool, Squarespace isn’t just designed for online store building. Overall, it is suitable for creating professional websites. If you’re interested in design and have technical skills, you’ll be very comfortable with Squarespace.
Shopify Squarespace: The Comparison
Different criteria were taken into account to compare Shopify Squarespace.
Shopify Squarespace: Ease of Use
When it comes to set-up, both Shopify Squarespace platforms offer a very simple signup process. So, in terms of ease of use, it must be said that Shopify and Squarespace are really easy to make their own. Beginners or experts can therefore quickly set up an online store with both solutions. However, Shopify has a small advantage over Squarespace. Thanks to its library of apps, you have the ease and freedom to add features to your store.
Themes
Shopify Squarespace both offer quality themes. They have been professionally designed and carefully chosen to meet the highest expectations. Squarespace’s themes and templates are really more minimalist, but beautiful. There are over 100 templates, all free, for you to choose from. However, even though Shopify offers only a few free themes, and a lot of paid themes, they are all suitable for selling online. Plus, whether they’re free or paid, Shopify themes are very appealing.
It’s true that Squarespace offers more interesting options. However, they are more aimed at users who want to create a blog or present a portfolio of art, photography or music. This is not to say that there are not themes dedicated to online sales. In addition, you can sell your products using the other themes. For this, you may have to play a little on the design.
Shopify Squarespace: Pricing
Shopify Squarespace offers different plans for different prices. However, if we focus on the e-commerce aspect, Shopify Squarespace are in the same price range in their basic offering. However, when it comes to buying more advanced plans, Shopify does offer more expensive plans. It mainly offers 3 plans, all of which include accommodation for your store. You also get an SSL certificate to secure your store and sell unlimited products. Here are the 3 main plans:
- Basic Shopify at $29/month
- Shopify at $79/month
- Shopify Advanced at $299/month
To this is added the Lite plan which is $ 9 / month and which allows to sell only on Facebook. There is also the “Shopify Plus” offer which starts at $2,000/month and is suitable for those who have specific needs for their business.
Here are the plans offered by Squarespace:
- $26/month business plan
- Online Store Basic at $30/month
- Online Store Advanced at $46/month
The Business Plan plan costs $18/month if you sign up for an annual plan. Subscribing to this plan allows you to make significant savings. With Squarespace plans you get a domain name, unlimited storage capacity, unlimited products, an SSL certificate, and more.
Customer support
Shopify offers quality support. If you don’t get answers to your questions on Shopify’s forums or in the FAQ, you can turn to customer support. It is available 24/7 by email, phone, and chat. Being done mainly in English, you can get help from an online translator. In addition, the response time is fast and the staff seems very well informed. So you’re always in good hands.
Like Shopify, Squarespace offers real support available 24/7 via email. While there is no phone support, there is instant messaging which is available Monday through Friday from 4 a.m. to 8 p.m. However, you probably won’t get an answer instantly. They also offer an extensive library of how-to videos, guides, and many more. Besides that, there is also the FAQ that can help you.
Squarespace vs Shopify: Ecommerce Features
Let’s see the features that each platform offers.
Shopify Squarespace: Payment methods
Payment options are a part where Shopify offers more possibilities than Squarespace. The more a customer has access to multiple payment gateways, the more likely they are to buy a product from your store. That’s why Shopify allows you to use more than a hundred gateways such as PayPal, Stripe, Amazon Pay, not to mention major credit cards. However, if you don’t want to pay a transaction fee, you can opt for the built-in Shopify Payments solution. Until the time of writing this article, it is not yet available in France. Squarespace, meanwhile, offers far fewer payment options than Shopify. It only allows you to use PayPal, Apple Pay or Stripe, although the latter offers more flexibility.
Point of sale integration
One of the main features of Shopify is the quality of its integration with your physical store. If you want to offer a retail experience to your customers, Shopify offers a point-of-sale (POS) system. It is designed to automatically match with your online store. For this, you can download the Shopify POS app.
Thanks to a recent collaboration with Square, Squarespace allows you to sell in person. This is possible thanks to the Point of Sale feature of the Squarespace Commerce app. Your inventory data and customer data sync. Whether you decide to sell online or in person. This partnership with Square allows you to accept payments by credit card, and even cash. To do this, you need to connect your Square account and pair a Square card reader with an iPhone, iPad, or Android device.
Shipping
It is essential to have convenient shipping options. When it comes to shipping, Shopify gives you the ability to calculate taxes and shipping prices, print shipping labels from your dashboard, and more. It has even partnered with DHL and UPS for simpler shipping.
For its part, Squarespace doesn’t yet offer much possibility and flexibility when it comes to shipping options. On this point, Shopify allows you to do all your shipping work from one place, and offers you a variety of shipping options in the process. Squarespace still allows you to calculate UPS rates and change shipping costs.
Applications
Shopify offers more than 3,700 apps in its App Store. Of course, not all of them are free. However, they will undoubtedly help you create and market your products. It is totally optional and it depends on your needs. On the Squarespace side, there is no App store. You will only be able to enjoy the built-in features. But, recently, it launched an extension marketplace. The selection is still very limited, but it mainly focuses on ecommerce integrations.
Dropshipping
With Shopify, thanks to Oberlo, the dropshipping platform, you have the ability to import products from AliExpress to your store. Keep in mind, however, that by using Oberlo’s services, you will have to pay other fees, besides those of Shopify. Unlike Shopify, and perhaps because it’s not a dedicated e-commerce solution, Squarespace doesn’t really lend itself to dropshipping. You can use Printful to sell print-on-demand products, but that’s about it.
What to remember?
Shopify offers features to easily manage all aspects of your e-commerce. It allows you to manage your inventory, create coupons and discounts, accept online payments, edit the HTML and CSS code of your pages, and more. You also get handy tools to manage shipping costs or to relaunch your abandoned carts to try to increase your sales. Squarespace is not a solution designed only for e-commerce, but for web design in general. However, it remains a good solution for e-commerce.
In sum, in terms of ecommerce features, Shopify as an online store builder solution usually trumps Squarespace. Shopify offers more comprehensive e-commerce features, in addition to a few essential features that aren’t yet available on Squarespace.
Shopify Squarespace integration
Is it possible to integrate Shopify with Squarespace? Yes, it is quite possible. What’s the benefit of integrating your Shopify store with your Squarespace site? This is a very simple but effective way to enjoy the benefits of Shopify without giving up your Squarespace site. If you need a blog and content, Squarespace has a ton of tools to best manage a blog. However, if at the same time you want to sell products, you may need more than what the platform offers. Shopify allows you to integrate products and collections into your site.
Start selling products on your Squarespace website with the Shopify buy button. It is the easiest way to add an online store to any platform. Here are the steps to follow:
- Sign in to Shopify and add your products
- Create a buy button
- Generate your code
- Copy and paste the code on any page of your website
- That’s it, you’re done
To test the integration, make sure the payment method is set up. Your visitors can now add multiple items to their cart and enjoy secure payment. They can also come back later to finalize their purchase.
In short
Shopify Squarespace both offer everything needed to launch an online store. However, the experience and opportunities are extremely different. Shopify is for sellers who want to build a serious reputation in the field. It is the best platform for large online shops. As well as for stores that have ambition and want to have powerful e-commerce tools to develop. It is the best known and most appreciated e-commerce site creation software. It is specially designed for online sales. Simply for this reason, it’s no surprise that Shopify is better than Squarespace. In reality, in terms of ecommerce features Shopify trumps Squarespace. So, if you’re primarily aiming for commerce with your website, Shopify is the perfect tool.
However, Shopify obviously won’t be able to suit everyone. Despite being the best e-commerce site builder, it may not be suitable for your products, budget, or style. On the other hand, there’s Squarespace, which is considered a complete website builder. It offers a few additional e-commerce features if you’re looking to sell online. These sales tools are less advanced than Shopify, but they are less expensive. On top of that, Squarespace is also the master of design. So, if you are looking to sell a few products online with nice templates, then this may be the solution for you. With Squarespace, you could have a very nice website with great blogging tools.
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