To open an eCommerce store to sell goods and services, you’ll need the best eCommerce platform to meet your needs.

Squarespace and Shopify are two of the most well-known companies in this space. They allow business owners to create their online shops or websites without having to know a single line of code.

We’ll be giving you an in-depth review of each platform, taking a closer glance at their features. You can then choose the right one for you.

Comparison of Squarespace and Shopify: Overview

Shopify remains at the top of the best e-commerce platforms in the world. You can create online shopping websites that seamlessly integrate with social media and upload products, carts, order processing, payment options, and more. Shopify was 1 million users by October 2019 thanks to its professional design, user-friendly interface and easy navigation.

Shopify provides a wide range of themes that you can customize to meet your branding needs. This platform allows you to sell physical and virtual products.

Squarespace is the older brother to Shopify. They share one thing in common: they help people create their online shops without having to know any coding.

Squarespace was founded in 2003 in the United States. It started out as a blog hosting platform, but eventually it grew to be a well-known platform. Squarespace technology is a website builder that not only excels at SEO, but also makes your online business stand apart from the rest.

Shopify vs. Squarespace: Advantages & Disadvantages

Shopify

Shopify Pros	Shopify Cons
Featuring thousands of amazing shopping features	Shopify Payments requires you to pay transaction fees
There are many extensions and add-ons that can be integrated with your tools.	You may be surprised at how expensive the apps and tools you use.
Customer support via email and live chat is prompt and friendly	Squarespace may take longer to learn Shopify, but it is possible to use Shopify in less time than Squarespace.
There are hundreds of features that make it easy to use and a lot of knowledge.
Choose from a variety of premium and free templates
You can find answers to your questions in a large group
Multi-channel selling via Facebook & Instagram
Integrations with other sales solutions

Squarespace

Squarespace Pros	Squarespace Cons
There are many stunning templates	There are some restrictions on payment methods
Integration with offline selling options	There is no app store or marketplace for extensibility
Great tools for content marketing via blogging	Shopify has fewer selling opportunities than Shopify
Affordable pricing options
The analytics system allows you to monitor the performance of your store.
Print-on-demand sales are great
Multi-channel selling via Facebook & Instagram
Integrations with other sales solutions

Comparison between Squarespace and Shopify

Squarespace vs Shopify: Easy of Use

Shopify

Shopify offers the largest number of apps and features, making it possible to sell on multiple platforms. Shopify’s drag-and-drop design makes it easy to click, move and drop elements on any page. Shopify also offers an intuitive interface with visual cues that makes it easy to design your online store.

Squarespace

You can make edits and adjustments in the backend and you will only see what it will look like live when you preview it. Squarespace is clearer. Squarespace is much easier to use. You can add text and photos, and the site will look exactly as it does when it goes live.

Squarespace’s mobile app allows you to make site changes from your smartphone. There’s nothing you need to worry about in the event of a lost internet connection. Any work you have left will be available if you are offline.

Shopify vs. Squarespace: Customer Support

Shopify

Access to tech support is essential for every business. It is impossible to predict the type of problem you will face.

Shopify customers get 24 hour customer support. Shopify support can be reached via email and social media. You can also contact them via live chat 24/7 if you need quick answers. 

Squarespace

Squarespace offers a variety of support options.

• Chat live from Monday through Friday

• Support via email 24/7

• Twitter 24/7 support for social media

• Video tutorials

• Forum for the community

• Access to a wealth of in-depth knowledge

It does not offer phone support, like Shopify. Squarespace’s knowledge base contains articles, videos, and instructions. Register for webinars and join the discussion on the community forum.

Shopify vs. Squarespace: SEO & Marketing

Shopify

Shopify offers a range of SEO tools. Although it doesn’t cover every technique, the most important areas of SEO are covered, including customer URLs and header code. Shopify offers some SEO tips and tricks when you upload products.

Shopify offers an analytics tool that allows you to track the performance of your store, including returning customers rate, real-time insight, and total sales. You can also use Google Analytics to get more detailed data. You can track sales and analyze the behavior of your customers, among other things.

The platform offers built-in email shoutouts. Email marketing strategies can be executed from Shopify shops via third-party apps like Constant Contact, Campaign Monitor, Constant Contact and Klaviyo.

Squarespace

Squarespace offers the best tools to improve your SEO ranking. These include managing your title and keywords, as well as alt text.

Squarespace has several instruction pages that provide a thorough introduction to SEO. You might feel overwhelmed if you’re a beginner, but you can persevere and get through it all.

Squarespace offers an all-in-one marketing platform, Email Campaigns. You can also integrate MailChimp. This system unites your brand across all aspects of your website, including your homepage and your marketing messages.

Squarespace vs Shopify: Offline Selling

Shopify

Shopify’s POS system is designed to work seamlessly with Shopify’s website. Download the Shopify app to purchase hardware. Every offline order will be subject to a transaction fee between 2.4% and 2.7% depending on the plan selected.

Squarespace

Squarespace will require you to download the Square Commerce app as well as a Square card reader if you wish to sell offline. Squarespace charges a transaction fee between 2.6% and 3.5%, as well as $0.10 to $0.15 for each offline sale. 

Shopify vs. Squarespace: Mobile Apps

Shopify

Shopify provides a variety of apps. Shopify’s primary app allows you to modify and edit your store from faraway. This app can also be used to view basic statistics.

Shopify also offers an app that supports point-of-sale functionality. You can place orders and make payments in many locations.

These two Shopify apps allow you to keep track of your store via a mobile device. Shopify has its own app store that can be used to improve the functionality and performance of your online shop.

Squarespace

Squarespace gives you access to many apps that allow for analytics, commerce, site management, and more. Squarespace’s overall app allows you to make site changes, such as to content, and to respond to comments.

Shopify vs. Squarespace: Analytics

Shopify

Shopify is a better option than Squarespace when it comes to reporting and analytics. Shopify can track everything from traffic sources to website browsers to customer reports, sales reports, behavior and financial reports as well as acquisition tracking.

Shopify allows you to create your own reports if you are able to prove yourself to shareholders and stakeholders. You can also track customer behavior to see who visits your shops and why. Shopify offers stock-level emails and notifications that can help you make sure you never run out of the most popular items in your store.

Squarespace

Squarespace has its own software that can be used to track revenue, customer behavior, and total orders. Squarespace integrates with Google Analytics so that you can get more out of your statistics.

Pricing: Squarespace vs Shopify

Shopify

Shopify offers five pricing options:

• Shopify Lite: $9 per month

• Basic Shopify: $29 per month

• Shopify: $79 per month

• Advanced Shopify: $229 per month

• Shopify Plus is packed with additional features for large-scale companies, starting at $2000 per month

You’ll get a 10% discount if you pay 12 months. You get 20% if you pay 24 months.

We have listed the major differences between these plans to help you make a decision.

• Shopify Lite doesn’t support the creation and maintenance of e-commerce websites. This would make it a great option if you sell through a Facebook page or point-of-sale website.

• All Shopify plans, except Shopify Lite offer the abandoned cart recovery function.

• Shopify, Shopify Plus and Advanced Shopify plans include gift cards.

• Advanced Shopify, Shopify Plus, and Shopify are the only ones that support advanced reporting.

Squarespace

Squarespace offers four pricing options. Squarespace offers four pricing options. Two of these are classified under “websites”, and the rest are for “online shops”.

You can choose between:

• Basic plan: $26 per month, yearly. $30 monthly.

• Advanced plan: $40 per month if paid annually, $46 if paid monthly.

You can also choose from the following options in “websites”

• Personal plan: $12 per month, charged annually or $16 if paid monthly.

• A business plan costs $18 per month, charged annually or $26 monthly if you prefer monthly billing.

You might be confused as to why they offer separate “websites” packages from other “online shops” options. It’s quite simple. It’s not possible for every online business to have their own ecommerce store. This package is best suited for this type of website.

There are differences between these two options.

• Online sales are not allowed. You can leverage developer mode and add javascript and CSS if you choose the Personal.

• All sales made through the Business plan are subject to a transaction fee equal to 3%

• The Personal plan is only for two people, while other pricing plans don’t limit the number of contributors.

• Only the Advanced plan offers the most important abandoned cart recovery function.

• You’ll receive a Google Apps account free of charge for one year if you subscribe to either the Business, Advanced or Basic plans.

• The “online shop” option offers e-commerce reporting services.

• An annual subscription grants you a custom domain for free

Final thoughts

Shopify is the best platform to use if you have an expanding online business. This platform is primarily designed for managing and creating online shops. Squarespace, on the other hand, is ideal for new or small businesses that have limited digital store functionality.

It is important to think about your needs and determine the best features for your ecommerce website. This is how you will quickly arrive at your decision.