What is Shopify?
Even if you’re a newbie in the ecommerce world, you’ve likely heard of Shopify before. It’s one of the major players in the global online commerce market, and it’s also the largest platform in the US—around 28% of all online stores in the US use the Shopify platform.
Source: Shopify
Who is Shopify best for?
Shopify has many strong commerce and marketing tools, so it’s best for people who are dedicated to building robust, high-performing online stores. Whether you plan to sell trending products like custom t-shirts or manage a more complex operation, such as selling dropshipping products with high-profit margin, Shopify will be able to accommodate your business needs.
Valuable read: Is Shopify Worth It?
Squarespace vs. Shopify: an in-depth comparison
Alright, we have the basics down, let’s get into the good stuff. In this section, we’ll compare the most important ecommerce features of both Shopify and Squarespace. We’ll cover everything from how easy it is to use the platform to things like store management features, costs, and more.
Ease of use
One of the most important things about choosing a platform for your online store is making sure that it’s user-friendly. Let’s check out both Shopify and Squarespace to see which platform is more intuitive and easier to use.
Squarespace
Opening your online store on Squarespace is pretty quick and easy. First, you’ll have to answer some basic questions about the kind of site you’re planning to build. Once you’re done, Squarespace will match you with templates that best suit your needs.
Source: Squarespace
From there, you’re taken to your Squarespace dashboard, where you can edit your website, add your products, and manage your store in general. Squarespace uses a simple website builder that doesn’t require any coding knowledge. Adding products is also fairly simple and intuitive.
Source: Squarespace
A major plus is that you can easily switch between desktop and mobile views when designing your website. That ensures your website will look attractive even if your customers are browsing on their phones.
However, a minor drawback is that there’s no step-by-step checklist for getting your store up and running. After you set up your website, you’re kind of left to your own devices, which can be a little confusing for someone who’s just starting out.
Shopify
Similar to Squarespace, when you’re opening up your store, you’ll have to answer a few starting questions about what kind of online store you’re planning to run.
Source: Shopify
After you answer the questions, you’ll be taken to your Shopify dashboard, where you’ll find a setup guide. For a beginner, this is a huge plus—Shopify basically takes you by the hand and guides you through every single step. That might be especially helpful for beginners since it allows you to set up your online store quickly.
These first steps are where you can immediately see the difference between Squarespace and Shopify. Squarespace, a website builder with a heavy focus on design, pushes you to choose a website template first. Shopify, however, emphasizes adding your first product.
Shopify vs. Squarespace: who’s the winner?
Both platforms are easy to use—you can open your store and add products in a matter of minutes.
However, if you’re a new business owner, you’ll find Shopify’s approach more structured and easy to follow. While Squarespace’s templates are gorgeous, Shopify offers more step-by-step guidance, which is very valuable to someone who’s new to the ecommerce world.
That’s why, in our view, Shopify takes this round.
Costs
Starting an online store doesn’t require as much upfront investment as opening a brick-and-mortar shop. However, selling online does come with various costs and fees that can stack up.
Let’s see what kind of costs and fees you can expect when opening a Shopify or Squarespace store.
Squarespace
Squarespace offers 4 pricing plans—Personal, Business, Commerce Basic, and Commerce Advanced. If you pay annually, the Personal plan is $16 per month, Business is $23, Commerce Basic is $27, and Advanced is $49. You can also pay month-to-month, but take into account that you’ll have to pay slightly higher rates.
Source: Squarespace
The Personal plan will allow you to build a stunning website but with a very basic ecommerce functionality. If you’re looking to make online sales, you should choose either the Business or Commerce Basic plans.
The Business plan is generally the best option for small businesses—among other features, it allows you to sell unlimited products, your customers will be able to create their accounts on your website, and you’ll also have access to marketing tools like promo pop-ups.
But keep in mind that with the Business plan, you’ll have to pay 3% transaction fees for product sales. You can avoid transaction fees if you upgrade your plan to Commerce Basic. Compare all the plans here.
Shopify
Shopify offers 3 pricing plans—Basic, Shopify, and Advanced. These plans are priced at $29, $79, and $299 per month, respectively. Beginners can also try a 3-day free trial. After the trial, your monthly fee will be $1 for the first 3 months.
Source: Shopify
Unlike Squarespace, all Shopify plans come with strong sales features—even cheaper plans allow you to sell in person or on multiple sales channels like Facebook or Instagram. If you’re new to the ecommerce game, we’d suggest going with the Basic plan. It’s best suited for small businesses and allows you to build a robust store without spending a ton of money.
When it comes to pricing, Shopify and Squarespace are pretty evenly matched in the lower-tier plans. It’s the more expensive subscriptions where you start to see a difference—the most expensive Squarespace plan is $49 per month, while Shopify’s is $299.
Shopify vs. Squarespace: who’s the winner?
Shopify offers strong ecommerce features in its plans. However, if you’re just starting out, you’ll probably be using only the basics while you learn. In this case, Squarespace’s pricing is generally more beginner-friendly.
In our opinion, Squarespace wins this round.
Site design features
Your website will be the first thing your customers see and will also play a large part in their decision to buy from your online store or not. So, it’s important that you choose a website builder with advanced features that’ll allow you to build a professional-looking and attractive site.
Let’s check out what kind of design features you’ll have access to on Shopify and Squarespace.
Squarespace
It’s no secret that Squarespace is one of the most advanced online platforms out there when it comes to website design. Squarespace offers great templates and has advanced product view features that’ll give your website a sleek, professional look.
Source: Squarespace
With Squarespace, you’ll have access to 168 stunning templates. The good news is that all of these are free themes—you don’t have to pay to use them. However, many of these templates aren’t ecommerce-specific but focus on website content and blogging features.
So, if you’re looking to open an online store, you’ll either have to pick one of the ecommerce themes, tinker with an existing theme, or create your own custom template. You can create a custom template using Squarespace’s AI tool called Squarespace Blueprint.
Source: Squarespace
Another big plus is that Squarespace also allows you to edit your product layouts. You can choose between several different layouts and tailor your shop design to your liking.
Source: Squarespace
Shopify
Shopify isn’t quite as design-oriented as Squarespace, but it has some great design and customization features. You can see all available Shopify themes on the Shopify Theme store.
Source: Shopify
Unlike Squarespace, Shopify offers both free themes and premium themes. On the Shopify Theme store, you’ll find 12 free and 174 paid templates—all of these are focused on ecommerce.
While there are only a dozen free themes to choose from, they’re not a bad start. All of these themes have a modern, sophisticated look and strong standard features. If you choose a free template, you can play around with it on the Shopify website editor to make sure it’s not quite the same as other online stores.
Source: Shopify
But if you really want to give your ecommerce website a more individual look, go with one of the paid themes. The paid themes range in price from $140 to $400. Since it’s quite a lot of money, consider starting out with a free theme and upgrading to a paid theme once your store grows.
Source: Shopify
Shopify vs. Squarespace: who’s the winner?
Although Shopify has more ecommerce-specific themes available, Squarespace’s templates are more accessible and beginner-friendly. Unlike Shopify, Squarespace’s themes are all free, which is especially good for beginners with a modest budget.
That’s why we say Squarespace wins this one.
Source: Squarespace
Source: Squarespace
Source: Shopify
Source: Squarespace
Source: Shopify
Source: Squarespace
