If you’re a marketing professional and are looking to build your own website, the decision on which platform to use can be complicated. Which one will give me more power? What’s the difference between them? How do I know what I need? To make it simpler, we’ve broken down the basics of Shopify and Squarespace so that you can go forth and choose wisely. Read on for some pros and cons of each!
Shopify and Squarespace are two e-commerce website builders that allow you to create an online store quickly and easily.
What is Shopify?
Shopify is a website-building platform for creating your own online store. You can design your site using their wide variety of free templates or import one of their 200+ professional designs in the App Market.
Once you launch your site, it will be hosted by Shopify so you don’t have to worry about server maintenance or updates. So what exactly does Shopify do? It allows you to set up an online store in minutes. No coding experience is necessary! When it comes time to expand, there are over 100 apps in the app market that communicate with your Shopify store, making it easy to customize your store in almost any way.
What is Squarespace?
Squarespace is a website-building platform used to create both personal and business websites. It offers over 20 different page templates that can be personalized using their responsive design tools, which are easy to use even for a novice web designer.
Printing services are available through FedEx Office Print Online with the Commerce Control Panel integration. When it comes time to expand you have over 100 third-party integrations including Google Analytics, MailChimp, Facebook Store, etc., but there are no e-commerce integrations currently available for this site builder yet.
Here’s where things get interesting– Squarespace has partnered with Shopify so you can actually build your Shopify store within Squarespace!
Building a Store
You can build a store and sell products with both Shopify, and Squarespace. These two website builders make it easy to build a store and sell products. Shopify is a platform that is better known for its e-commerce features such as inventory, shipping, and tax processing while Squarespace is known for its customizability.
For built-in e-commerce tools with growth capabilities, the winner in this category is Shopify.
Blog Capabilities
You can blog on both Shopify and Squarespace. The blog features with Squarespace and Shopify are pretty similar and offer the same blogging tools such as custom domain names, SEO optimization, and page building.
Both platforms allow you to create blog posts with tags and categories making it easy to organize your content. However, Shopify offers more layout options than Squarespace if you want to make your posts stand out from each other. For example, Shopify allows you to choose between multiple blog post formats (standard, video, audio) while Squarespace only offers a standard article format.
Blog posts can be displayed as a grid or a list depending on your preference. Squarespace allows you to tag posts using hashtags which is better for breaking up your content pleasantly.
However, Shopify has more blog post layout options including full-width images with no sidebars to choose from. So it appears that in this category Shopify wins because its blog platform has more customization options than Squarespace.
For blog capabilities, the winner in this category is Shopify.
Mobile Capabilities
Shopify uses responsive design technology by default, while Squarespace offers custom mobile websites with their Build-A-Business feature (fee required).
While both sites boast about their mobile capabilities, they are very similar in this category.
You can also choose to use Shopify’s app for adding an online store to your website.
Customer Service and Pricing
Both Shopify and Squarespace offer great customer service when you need help with using their platforms. However, Shopify’s is even better because they offer 24/7 free phone support for all users which is an industry first! If live chat or email response isn’t fast enough, there are tutorials on the platform to guide you through any questions you have about your website. In addition to this, Shopify has a user-friendly interface allowing you to make updates and add content without any coding experience.
Squarespace also offers live chat support when you need assistance with your account or website. They have a good knowledge base that covers most questions but lacks the in-depth tutorials offered by Shopify.
The winner in this category is Shopify.
Pricing
Shopify websites start as low as $29.00 per month. Squarespace business plans start as low as $18.00 per month and include the ability to sell unlimited products. With the lowest plan, however, Squarespace will charge you 3% for each transaction. That’s worth upgrading to the $26.00 per month plan.
Squarespace is open with their pricing and makes comparing easy.
For this reason, we give this category to Squarespace.
Website Design Features
Squarespace boasts beautiful website design templates while Shopify offers a wide variety of themes that make your website look professional.
When it comes to design, both platforms offer full customization options using their own options or HTML/CSS code if you are familiar with that language. Squarespace allows you to adjust colors, fonts, images, and videos within the platform while Shopify lets you choose from various customizable features depending on the type of business you run.
For example, if you’re running an online store, you can install apps for tracking sales or adding social sharing buttons. The winner in this category is Squarespace because they have better-looking designs than Shopify’s free themes.
Adding Content
Both websites are easy to use no matter what your experience level is. You can add text, images, videos, and products to Shopify without any help while Squarespace doesn’t require you to know HTML/CSS code for creating a high-quality website.
The winner in this category is Squarespace because it has an easier user interface that walks you through the setup process.
Abandoned Cart Recovery
To recover abandoned cart items, Shopify has a free app that sends cart recovery emails to customers which is beneficial in recovering lost sales.
For this reason, we give this category to Shopify.
eCommerce Shopping Carts
If you are looking for an eCommerce shopping cart service with tons of features, then both platforms offer great options for small business owners with entry-level needs.
Shopify offers many eCommerce apps compatible with the platform while Squarespace does not have any available apps at this time.
The winner in this category is Shopify.
Marketing
Both platforms offer unique features for marketing your business, events, deals, or products on social media.
Shopify lets you choose from apps to help with sharing deals and offers through social media while Squarespace offers a social bar at the top of your homepage so that customers can quickly share posts with their friends. Both are beneficial depending on the type of content you want to share.
The winner in this category is Squarespace because it offers more creative ways of engaging customers than just sharing deals.
Ease of Use & Data Security
Both websites are user-friendly although some aspects may be more difficult depending on your knowledge level. As mentioned above, platforms allow users to add products or content without any coding experience.
Squarespace is more secure, however, because it stores information encrypted on Amazon Web Services servers while Shopify does not encrypt credit card data.
The winner in this category is Squarespace.
Popularity
Shopify has over 100k businesses using the platform for their website while Squarespace touts one million websites operating on its services.
For this reason, we give this category to Shopify.
SEO & Digital Marketing Capabilities
Both platforms have SEO integration tools that can be found through apps on each website. Both platforms are compatible with major search engines including Google and Yahoo allowing your website to rank higher in searches across all browsers including mobile devices since both companies offer mobile eCommerce websites.
The winner in this category is Squarespace because the platform offers better SEO capabilities than Shopify.
Company Reputation & Trustworthiness
Shopify has been around since 2006 while Squarespace started up in 2003 (although they only launched their website hosting service in 2008). Both companies offer secure checkout options that encrypt sensitive data during payment processing for added security measures against phishing attempts.
For this reason, we give this category to Shopify.
Visual Appeal vs User Experience
Both platforms have easy user interfaces and similar visual appeal with simple themes available through apps on each website. However, Squarespace has the edge here because the theme design looks more professional than Shopify’s.
The winner in this category is Squarespace because it has a more professional theme design than Shopify.
Inventory Management
Both platforms offer inventory management tools that include order fulfillment and tracking. Shopify offers a free app for this called Shopify POS which lets you process sales in-store using your mobile device.
For this reason, we give this category to Shopify.
Reviews
Many customers have left positive reviews for both websites. Most customers praise the ease of use and reliability of each website, but some customers state that Shopify has more apps available than Squarespace.
The winner in this category is neither because customer opinion is split between both platforms.
Summary
Both Shopify and Squarespace make great options for building an online store.
Shopify is the clear winner in the marketing and company reputation categories with 11 apps in Shopify’s “Features” section compared to Squarespace with just a social bar in its “Apps” section.
Squarespace wins three categories: ease of use, popularity, SEO & digital marketing capabilities. In terms of visual appeal vs user experience, customers state that both websites have simple themes available but suggest that Squarespace’s theme looks more professional than Shopify’s when it comes to design.
In conclusion, when deciding which platform you want for your website you should choose which best fits your needs.
If you only need a simple website with basic features, then Shopify may be best for you. If you prefer a user-friendly platform, SEO capabilities, and having your site look more professional then Squarespace is the better option. We hope this article was helpful in deciding which one to pick!
If you would like to go the WordPress route, head over to Ballen Brands where your website awaits!
