When looked at just on the surface, one might assume that Shopify vs Squarespace work alike. There are various reasons for this. However, one of the major reasons the average person might consider Shopify vs Squarespace to be similar is that they give you the freedom to create a website.
Also, they make it possible for anyone interested in commerce to sell products from the developed website. Amazingly, you do not need to code or carry out designs before building a website and selling products in Shopify vs Squarespace.
These two platforms might be very similar. Nonetheless, they are markedly different. I could go on and on about how these two platforms differ. However, they got set up for different reasons and have different foundations are enough to set them apart.
Squarespace vs Shopify: Overview
Shopify was developed basically to meet the needs of people that enjoy shopping online. Squarespace, on the other hand, was developed for simply building and running content-based websites.
In as much as these two platforms were built majorly for different purposes, they have expanded significantly and seemed to have entered each other’s niche.
Shopify, on the one hand, has introduced a good number of apps targeted at content development. This is a major expansion from simply being a platform for just eCommerce. Squarespace is not left out of these as it has expanded its frontiers to include e-commerce. Since these two platforms have expanded into each other’s niche, they now share many similarities. Additionally, you do not need to depend on just Shopify for e-commerce or Squarespace for creating content. This makes them worthy competitors.
In this article, we will be looking at the strengths and weaknesses of Shopify and Squarespace to find out which one is best for you.
READ MORE: Shopify Vs Wix: Which Online Store is Best For Your Business?
Shopify vs Squarespace: What are the Major Differences?
What Exactly Are You Looking To Achieve?
There is a lot that one can achieve with Shopify vs Squarespace. So, your exact goal is a strong determinant of which platform will be best. Is your aim to develop an online store or a website? Your answer to this question will go a long way in helping you choose the right platform.
The truth remains an online store is a website. However, for the sake of this article, we will not be treating it like one. To make this comparison worth the while, a website is a platform that contains the needed information. While an online store is a website, it was not built to convey information. Rather, it was built to help people shop online.
Are you interested in simply building a regular website? If yes, then you will need to give a great deal of attention to design. Additionally, content management functionality should be given a great deal of consideration. The fact is, if you are more interested in an informative website, you might need to select Squarespace over Shopify, as this is Squarespace’s primary niche.
Building Websites with Squarespace
Since Squarespace was originally designed as an informative website, it has just the right templates to make this happen. Furthermore, it has a content management system that virtually everyone can use. You do not need to be tech-savvy before finding your way around this site. If this were all it offered, it would be great.
However, there is more. It has a great blogging display and photo editing tools.
As much as Squarespace was built to meet the needs of people more interested in an informative website, it has a major downside. This downside is flexibility. It isn’t easy to get third-party apps integrated into this platform.
Although Squarespace has some glaring drawbacks, many people still depend on it as they consider it an amazing sight. This is not without reason. Some of the reasons people still enjoy using this site are its reliability, its greatly designed templates, and the ease of use that it is associated with.
Squarespace has its pros and cons. However, getting a great site ready will not be challenging when you take good advantage of what it has to offer. This is in addition to the fact that you have the freedom of displaying your content in many amazing ways. So long you need a website, Squarespace should always be chosen ahead of Shopify.
Are You Interested in Creating an Online Store?
So long eCommerce is concerned, one of the biggest names is Shopify. As much as many platforms can be used in building eCommerce sites, they do not offer anything close to what Shopify offers.
As an eCommerce platform, Shopify has several features that can make the job of creating an online store easy. Beyond simply coming with lots of amazing features. Some of its mind-blowing features cannot be gotten on Squarespace.
When you use Shopify in creating an online store, you will be able to make payments in several currencies; you get to enjoy advanced inventory management alternatives, sophisticated point-of-sale features, amazing dropshipping alternatives, ease of integration with several third-party apps, and several payment alternatives.
Now that we know the major strengths and weaknesses of Shopify and Squarespace, let’s check out other parameters that can be used as a yardstick for making comparisons.
Shopify vs Squarespace: Pricing and Plans
When you make use of the Squarespace platform, you get to choose four pricing alternatives. These alternatives are;
- Advanced Commerce – $54
- Business – $26
- Personal – $16
- Basic Commerce – $30
Each of the plans above is per month.
Since there are several alternatives to choose from, it is okay to take advantage of the available trials before making any financial commitment. By taking advantage of the available trials, you can make up your mind easily on what plan you think is best for you. The trial is available for two weeks. However, after two weeks, if you need extra time to get your site ready, you can get more time.
Squarespace Annual vs Monthly Plans
While payment for a month is not over the top, you get to pay even less if you pay for a full year instead of making payments monthly. When you make payment for one year, you get to receive a significant discount.
Although Squarespace is more associated with its monthly plans, it recently put out a yearly plan for people that are more interested in making yearly payments. To enjoy this plan, you will need to pay $4900 every year. This might not be very suitable for individual users because of the amount involved. However, they are great for corporate users. Also, with the yearly payment comes improved security and SEO.
When selecting a pricing plan with Squarespace, you should not just choose a plan because it seems affordable. You need to look out for features before choosing a plan, as these plans differ in price because of what they offer.
When you make use of the personal plan, you do not have the freedom to make sales. Also, you are not allowed to carry out any customization with JavaScript and CSS. With a business plan, you have to pay a transaction fee of 3% of the sales generated. This is separate from the fees you might have to pay for credit card processing.
So long you are looking to enjoy many e-commerce features such as real-time carrier shipping, the alternative of selling subscriptions, advanced discounts, abandoned cart recovery, etc., you might have to settle for the advanced commerce plan. This is the most expensive.
Individuals interested in getting a custom domain without making any special payment need to pay upfront for a year’s service.
Shopify Pricing and Plans
Now that we know what the plans available for Squarespace are let’s find out the available plans on Shopify. Shopify offers its customers five monthly plans. These plans are Shopify Plus which is about $200 every month, Advanced Shopify for $299 a month, Shopping for $79 a month, Basic Shopify for $29 a month, and Shopify Lite for $9 a month.
The plans for Shopify might be different from those for Squarespace. However, just like Squarespace, with Shopify, you get to enjoy a trial for 14 days. That’s not all. Suppose you pay a year’s month of the monthly plan for whatever plan you choose. You get to enjoy a discount. This could be a discount of 20% or 10%. The discount you get is dependent on how much you pay upfront.
The five available Shopify plans are great. However, they have different features. This makes it important that you know what the various plans have to offer before making a payment for any of them.
The Shopify lite plan might be the easiest to afford. However, it is the most limited of all the plans. It does not give you the freedom to create an isolated online store. It simply gives you the freedom to use a Facebook page or a website that you already own for sale. This is possible because of the presence of the Shopify Buy Button. You can also make sakes at a physical location.
Additionally, the different plans will give you the freedom to have different numbers of users. If you have an Advanced Shopify plan, you can have fifteen users on your account. However, this number is reduced to two if you are on Basic Shopify.
Squarespace vs Shopify: Features on Special Plans
As an enterprise user, you might not get the best from other Shopify plans apart from the Shopify Plus Plan. When you pay for the Shopify Plus plan, you get to enjoy special account management, fulfillment features, and advanced security.
On the Shopify platform, you do not need a special plan before enjoying point-of-sale functionality, as this feature is available on all plans.
Going by what we have been able to find out about pricing on Shopify and Squarespace, it will be difficult to tell which platform is better so long pricing is involved. Nonetheless, you get better value for money with Shopify in the area of pricing. This is because of the existence of the abandoned cart saving.
The abandoned cart feature can only be enjoyed on one Squarespace plan. However, it can be enjoyed on every single Shopify plan. The implication of this is the abandoned cart saver feature is cheaper on Shopify.
With the abandoned cart feature, it is possible to convince customers to go on with sales if they stop shopping while in the middle of a purchase. This feature makes it possible to send emails to people automatically and talk them into completing a purchase. With this feature, you can enjoy spiked up sales,
Shopify vs Squarespace: Means Of Payment
With Shopify, you are not limited to a currency. Also, you can use it regardless of your physical location. This is because it gives people the freedom to take advantage of up to 100 payment means. It also gives freedom to the use of third-party processors.
Unlike Shopify, Squarespace only gives you the freedom to make payment with four means. They are Apple Pay, Afterpay, Stripe, and Paypal. The implication is that if you do not have access to any of these platforms, you cannot use Squarespace.
Rather, unfortunately, a payment platform as prominent as Google Pay is not compatible with Squarespace. So, this explains the extent of limitations you might have to deal with so long payment on Squarespace is concerned. So long means of payment is concerned, Shopify trumps Squarespace.
Conclusion
There are several parameters with which we can try to choose which platform is better between Shopify and Squarespace. Nonetheless, so long plans and means of payment are concerned, Shopify is the preferred platform. On the other hand, you might not need to use Shopify if you need a website for content.
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