Shopify vs. Squarespace

Having an online store for your business is crucial to give your sales a boost. Shopify and Squarespace are both excellent platforms for online sales. When it comes to which building your website, though, it can be difficult to determine which is better suited for your ecommerce needs.

While both Shopify and Squarespace are tools for making online sales more efficient, they are both different. Each offers their own monthly plans to fit your budget based on the needs of your business and website. The cost can range from $18 per month to over $250. The right plan for you can depend on the transaction fee rate, social media integration, and your reporting needs. Both Shopify and Squarespace both offer a variety of different user plans.

In terms of functionality, Shopify was created solely as an ecommerce platform and accepts more forms of payment than Squarespace, including all credit cards, multiple currencies, offline payments and payments through channels like Twitter and Amazon. For this reason, it can be a better choice for if you have a high volume of online traffic and want to make user experience a priority. Unlike Squarespace, Shopify also has an app store which can help ecommerce sites keep track of gift wrapping, inventory, and customer reviews.

Squarespace also has its benefits. It has a much simpler and easier to use page editor, making it ideal for those looking to create an aesthetically pleasing ecommerce website. Squarespace’s page editor prioritizes dynamic pages (such as product or collection pages) rather than static pages (like an about or contact us page). Meanwhile, Shopify’s page editor isn’t as powerful because it’s not as high of a priority for many ecommerce websites. So, if you only need to sell a handful of products online and want your site to look attractive, Squarespace may be a better choice for you to fit your specific needs.

Essentially, the biggest difference between the two is the anticipated audiences. Squarespace is a great choice for small businesses with a limited number of products for sale online. Shopify, on the other hand, is built for large, corporate ecommerce websites.

Ultimately, both Shopify and Squarespace each have their pros and cons. Both platforms are easy to use and make online transactions simple for users. Generally, if you plan to have a lot of traffic on your ecommerce website and want to optimize payments for customers, Shopify is the better of the two. However, if you have a smaller ecommerce site and visuals are important to you, you may choose Squarespace because it is budget-friendly and easy to design unique pages.