Table of Contents
With more than 2 billion people regularly shopping online, it makes more sense than ever to launch an e-commerce store. But it’s not enough to simply build an online store and expect your ideal customers to find it. As a business owner, you will need to include top-notch design, an easy-to-navigate menu, maximized SEO and eye-pleasing aesthetics. Many platforms offer e-commerce options, with most of them integrated into your website for one-stop service.
Squarespace is a general website builder that has e-commerce functionality, while Shopify is an entire platform geared toward helping customers sell online. While both are solid options, they both have their own distinct advantages and drawbacks. In this guide, we’ll take a close look at Squarespace vs Shopify to help you choose the right platform for you.
Featured Partners
1
Wix
Starting price
$16 USD ($21.88 CAD) per month
Drag-and-drop editor
Yes
E-commerce in entry-level plan
No
2
BlueHost
Starting price
$2.95 USD ($4.05 CAD) per month
Storage and bandwidth
Unmetered bandwidth, and SSD storage starts at 10GB
Extras and inclusions
Free domain name and SSL for a year, free CDN
3
Squarespace
Starting price
$16 USD ($21.88 CAD) per month
Drag-and-drop editor
Yes
Standout Features
Free domain and SSL certificate, no transaction fees, award-winning templates
Squarespace vs. Shopify: At a Glance
Squarespace is a beginner-friendly website builder designed for users who want everything in one place. Subscriptions offer a range of pricing plans and include templates, site management and plugins. Squarespace offers e-commerce integrations at three different levels
Shopify was created specifically as an online store solution and has subsequently added a website-building component. Each of its plans offers ways to grow an e-commerce site with unlimited products and multiple sales channels. Users can choose from a variety of templates and themes to customize an online store site.
Shopify and Squarespace each offer the ability to start, maintain and grow an online store within a website. Both platforms allow users to create exactly what they want, thanks to a plethora of available designs and options. Neither requires any coding knowledge or programming expertise.
Making the right choice for your business will be a personal decision, based on the features you need and how you want to connect with your customers.
BEST FOR CREATIVES
Squarespace
Starting price
$16 USD ($21.88 CAD) per month
Drag-and-drop editor
Yes
E-commerce in entry-level plan
No
Starting price
$16 USD ($21.88 CAD) per month
Drag-and-drop editor
Yes
E-commerce in entry-level plan
No
Squarespace is one of the most popular and best website builders because it’s packed with useful features. You can create an online store, blog, portfolio site, a small business website or a membership site. The editor is user-friendly, but it may take a while to learn the location of menus and features. It’s kind of a cross between a drag-and-drop editor and a point-and-click editor.
Squarespace is known for its templates—the website builder has won awards for design. Most of the templates are minimalistic, bold and modern, and they’re all created by professional designers. They’re also mobile-responsive, so you don’t have to design a whole other site just for mobile users.
Standout feature: Squarespace lets you enable accelerated mobile pages (AMP), which lightens the load of blog pages. Reducing the size of images, using a specific font and removing custom code speeds up loading time on mobile phones.
Learn More: Read our Squarespace Review.
Who should use it: Squarespace is one of the best website builders for creatives—photographers, designers and other artists would do well with a Squarespace design. It’s also a good choice for an online store, especially with specialty features like the limited availability of labels.
- Stunning, modern designs
- User-friendly editor
- AMP formatting available
- Good amount of apps for added functionality
- Limited availability of labels for e-commerce
- Limited customer support
- Lacks design & customization freedom
- More expensive than most website builders
Though Squarespace isn’t the cheapest website builder on the market, every plan is suitable for professional use. That said, many businesses will find that even its entry-level plan is a good value as it is packed with features from an extensive template library to a free domain and SSL certificate. Businesses looking to sell online will find its Commerce plan worth the price as it has zero transaction fees, which can save a good deal of money.
BEST FOR DROPSHIPPING
Shopify
Starting price
$38 CAD per month (billed annually)
Drag-and-drop editor
No
E-commerce (low-priced plan)
Yes
Starting price
$38 CAD per month (billed annually)
Drag-and-drop editor
No
E-commerce (low-priced plan)
Yes
Shopify is primarily an e-commerce website builder. All of the paid plans come with built-in shopping carts and marketing features to help you sell online. There are only nine free e-commerce templates from which you can choose. If you don’t mind paying, there are dozens of premium templates available, but they cost about $100 USD ($136.27 CAD) on average.
The editor isn’t a true drag-and-drop editor, which may add to the learning curve a bit. It’s more point-and-click navigation, but it’s easy enough to figure out and use after you spend some time with the tools.
Standout feature: Shopify Starter costs $7 CAD per month and allows you to sell products through social and messaging apps. Plus, after your free trial, you will receive an additional month for just $1.
Who should use it: Only serious e-commerce small businesses should consider Shopify. It’s meant for building online stores, not just websites. It’s an ideal solution for brick-and-mortar businesses that want to sell inventory online too.
- Dropshipping options available
- Only 9 free online store templates
- Pay lower transaction fees with higher-tier plans
- 24/7 customer support
- Most templates are premium and cost extra
- No automatic image optimization
- Expensive plans
How the Platforms Stack Up
Products and Sales
Both Shopify and Squarespace allow users to create an online store that offers physical and digital products, along with services. The platforms differ in how they organize and display items, as well as the ease of transition to in-person, physical point of sales (POS).
Squarespace has a stylish system in place to sell products, manage online orders and process transactions. Store pages are beautifully designed, can be customized to match brands, and an express checkout feature is available.
It also offers a 360-degree zoom feature, allowing for up-close product viewing.
Squarespace does have an in-person sales option, utilizing a Square card reader to take in-person cash or card payments that integrate with the online store. These POS transactions are only permitted within the United States.
Shopify places less emphasis on online store aesthetics, preferring to pay close attention to the functionality of the site. Store pages have attractive template and design options, but the focus is on enhancing growth and scalability. While a built-in zoom function is not included, there are options for this feature to be added with a third-party app.
Shopify has offered in-person sales options from the beginning, and sellers are able to purchase a point-of-sale kit that includes a barcode scanner, card reader, cash drawer and receipt printer. In addition, POS transactions are permitted outside of the U.S.
SEO Tools
SEO (search engine optimization) uses keywords and high-quality content to help your online store reach a larger audience, potentially with buyers from all over the world exploring your site.
Fully maximized SEO is essential for business success but can be a challenging undertaking without the help of support tools. Both Shopify and Squarespace offer users integrated SEO support, although they go about it in two different ways.
Shopify is set up to meet the objectives of Google’s Core Web Vitals requirements. These include three metrics: page loading time, responsiveness and visual stability. In addition, Shopify takes the content of a page and generates suggested titles and meta descriptions based on what it sees, saving the user time. There are also best practice prompts and built-in marketing tools to enhance SEO.
Squarespace also allows control over meta titles, descriptions and custom URLs. Google Analytics is available with all plans, but some older Squarespace templates can be problematic and don’t allow users to customize their page titles. That being said, there is also a third-party downloadable plug-in that does provide SEO tools for Squarespace called SEOSpace.
Considering a Business Blog?
Creating a blog can help boost your business, drive more traffic to your website and potentially serve as another source of revenue. While adding one to your website does tack another item on the to-do list, a blog made in conjunction with an e-commerce site can be extremely effective for marketing.
If this is something you decide to pursue, Squarespace makes the process simple. The platform has blogging features and capabilities that include analytics, post scheduling and the ability to archive posts.
Shopify also offers blogging functionality with its service. Building, publishing and managing your blog works in a very similar fashion to Squarespace. This could be useful if you want to supplement your online store with written content that tells your audience more about the products you sell. You could also give tips and tricks for getting the most out of your products.
Bottom Line
For most e-commerce categories, including POS, customer support and SEO tools, Shopify is ahead. This is mainly due to the fact that it was originally designed to power online stores, and it’s been around long enough to have perfected a lot of elements. On the other hand, Squarespace is geared more toward general website building for all of your different pages, with some extra e-commerce functionality for selling. The best choice for you will ultimately come down to what you want out of your online presence.
Canadian specific editing and research (including pricing) conducted by Anna Rey.
Related: Webflow Vs. Squarespace
Featured Partners
1
Wix
Starting price
$16 USD ($21.88 CAD) per month
Drag-and-drop editor
Yes
E-commerce in entry-level plan
No
2
BlueHost
Starting price
$2.95 USD ($4.05 CAD) per month
Storage and bandwidth
Unmetered bandwidth, and SSD storage starts at 10GB
Extras and inclusions
Free domain name and SSL for a year, free CDN
3
Squarespace
Starting price
$16 USD ($21.88 CAD) per month
Drag-and-drop editor
Yes
Standout Features
Free domain and SSL certificate, no transaction fees, award-winning templates
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
Which is better for dropshipping: Shopify or Squarespace?
Shopify and Squarespace both offer integrations with major dropshipping companies. However, Shopify offers a lot more, making it the better choice for those building a dropshipping business who want maximum choice when it comes to sourcing products.
How much do Shopify themes cost?
Shopify offers free and premium themes. Its free themes tend to require more customizations and, therefore, time, which is why many businesses opt to purchase a premium theme. It’s possible to buy themes directly from Shopify for around $150 CAD to $350 CAD, or from third-party sites, such as Themeforest, Creative Market, or Etsy, for around $3 CAD to $1,000 CAD.
Is Squarespace good for e-commerce?
Squarespace is a great option for businesses that want to add e-commerce functionality to their website. Users have the ability to set up an online store quickly rather than spending months or years developing it from scratch. Not only does Squarespace give users a robust platform to design their website, but it also offers inventory management, shipping options and discount codes for e-commerce stores.
How do I build an e-commerce website?
There are a few different ways you can build an e-commerce website. You can use an e-commerce platform, such as Shopify or BigCommerce, which provides everything you need to get started. Alternatively, you can use WordPress with a WooCommerce plug-in or Ecwid plugin. Finally, you can use a do-it-yourself (DIY) website builder, such as Squarespace.
Will using a website builder help my business?
A website builder like Squarespace or Shopify allows you to design your website easily using a process that allows you to create the look that you want for your site. Once your site is ready to go live, you can choose when and where to host rather than being forced to go with a particular hosting site. Both Squarespace and Shopify both provide the website-building tools you need to create a memorable website.
