Squarespace vs. Shopify: Differences, pros and cons in 2024

With e-commerce on a continual, upward trajectory (based in large part on the increasing convenience of home delivery and major brand innovation), there’s never been a better time to sell your wares online. Choosing which platform to build your website on can be a tricky proposition, however, particularly given how diverse the offerings of different companies can be. 

With that challenge in mind, we pitted Squarespace vs. Shopify to see how two of the biggest e-commerce website development platforms compare. We thoroughly researched and investigated both companies’ platforms to determine which delivered on the most important factors for business owners looking to shift their sales online, including ease of use, available tools, customer support and more. 

Squarespace vs. Shopify: Quick overview

Both Squarespace and Shopify are designed to be approachable and easy to use for novices with little or no web design experience. Each platform focuses on being user-friendly and accessible. That said, both platforms also feature a suite of advanced tools for expert users or those looking to maximize their site’s functionality. 

Squarespace is a versatile platform built to allow users to create a broad variety of websites, while Shopify still clearly shows evidence of its roots when it was exclusively built for creating online stores.

Pricing and value

Verdict: Squarespace

Squarespace pricing and value

An important point of difference between the two platforms is that Squarespace’s cheapest plan doesn’t include any e-commerce functionality. The Personal tier is exclusively designed for nonmonetized sites, and includes a custom domain, templates and mobile optimization tools. 

The three higher tiers all include e-commerce functionality, including secure checkout, with a 3% transaction fee for any physical products and services. The Commerce Basic tier offers additional tools, like the ability to compare products or display low stock alerts, while Commerce Advanced also allows users to sell subscriptions, offer free shipping or apply discounts automatically to a user’s cart if it meets certain criteria.

Shopify pricing and value

All of Shopify’s plans offer e-commerce functionality, with decreasing fees for credit card transactions as you move up through the tiers. While we chose Squarespace as our winner because the Shopify plans are obviously more expensive across the board than their Squarespace counterparts, if you’re doing a very high volume of sales, Shopify’s lower fees may make its plans a better option for your business financially.

All of the tiers offer some level of reporting, though only the highest, Advanced tier offers the option to build custom reports. Each plan also offers up to 1,000 inventory locations and a shipping discount, though the Basic tier only offers a 77% discount, while the higher two tiers offer an 88% discount. Notably, none of them offer the option for free shipping, as does Squarespace’s highest tier. 

Web editor

Verdict: Squarespace

Both platforms are designed to be easy-to-use for newcomers, though they take different approaches to accessibility. While Squarespace asks you to select a template (or design your own) and then drops you directly into the editor, with occasional tutorial tips that pop up as you explore, Shopify has a longer setup wizard that helps guide your design. 

Both editors are powerful and relatively easy to use, though throughout the process, Shopify tends to be a more guided, hand-holding experience, while Squarespace’s editor encourages exploration and experimentation and is more of a direct representation of the final product.

Squarespace web editor

Squarespace offers a huge number of prebuilt templates. They’re organized into categories depending on site intent, like fashion or entertainment, and clearly delineate between e-commerce and non-e-commerce templates. You can also choose to build your own template from the ground up.

Once you’ve selected (or built) a template, the interface is very visual and intuitive. It allows you to select, move, delete or add elements completely a la carte, and navigating the top-level functions is a breeze.

Accessing more advanced features is also a simple matter of selecting them from a sidebar or drop-down menu. The only stumbling block is that, particularly compared to Shopify’s editor, there’s not a huge amount of hand-holding and guidance upfront, though most of the elements are intuitive enough that this isn’t a major issue. 

Shopify web editor

As previously mentioned, Shopify’s editor offers a much more guided experience. The initial setup wizard determines website intent and whether you’re interested in building an e-commerce site. Shopify offers a number of free templates, which it calls themes, as well as premium templates for an additional fee. 

Shopify’s web editor is another place where Shopify exposes its roots as an e-commerce solution. The majority of the features, and particularly the setup wizards, lean heavily into creating and managing an online retail platform. This is a boon if e-commerce is your intent, though for a non-commerce website, it can be off-putting and clunky. 

E-commerce functionality

Verdict: Shopify

Shopify is the clear winner where e-commerce is concerned, with a focus on commerce solutions in every part of the platform. This extends from the editor itself, where the setup wizards emphasize commerce solutions and e-commerce functionality is a major component, to the sidebars, themes and reporting options. 

That said, Squarespace also features powerful e-commerce functionality, and its implementation is an area where it mimics Shopify’s setup wizards, allowing users to easily click through a series of options to set up selling and marketing.

Squarespace e-commerce functionality

Inside the web editor, Squarespace features sidebar options for both selling and marketing, allowing users to quickly add products, payment options or subscription plans (if they’re on a Commerce Advanced plan). There’s also a marketing tab that offers quick access to email marketing and other marketing campaign tools.

Shopify e-commerce functionality

The Shopify editor offers access to a deep set of e-commerce features, also available via sidebar navigation. Users can customize product entries, add collections, manage transfers and purchase orders, all from a drop-down in the sidebar. There’s even a dedicated option for gift cards. There are also separate sections to manage finances, marketing and analytics. 

Blogging

Verdict: Squarespace

Both platforms offer dedicated blogging functionality, but Squarespace’s interface and functionality are both more approachable and easier to edit. Shopify’s approach is more menu-driven and clunkier, making it harder to navigate than Squarespace’s sleek, streamlined approach.

Squarespace blogging

Squarespace allows you to choose a blog template and then leads users seamlessly to a page where you can design the overall look of the blog and start editing individual entries. It’s a smooth, intuitive and easy-to-use interface.

Shopify blogging

Shopify’s blog interface is much less intuitive and more layered than Squarespace’s. It limits the blog design to one locked to the theme you’ve chosen for your page as a whole, and creating and editing individual blog entries is cumbersome (and forces you to open each entry in a separate tab). 

Marketing and SEO

Verdict: Shopify

Though Squarespace offers some basic marketing tools, Shopify is clearly ahead in this category, with a broad array of tools and options. Both platforms offer well-rounded, comprehensive SEO reporting. 

Squarespace marketing and SEO

Squarespace only offers an email option in terms of marketing campaigns, though it does have a number of supporting tools. Among them is the Unfold app, which helps users design compelling social media posts to market their products and a suite of integrated SEO tools that track popular search terms and suggest ways to maximize ranking.

Shopify marketing and SEO

Like Squarespace, Shopify offers email marketing campaigns and a number of SEO tools crafted to help capture traffic and build ranking. Additionally, however, Shopify includes options to market directly on social media, add chat functionality to your site and create lead capture forms. Shopify even offers SMS marketing and a full dashboard to track the performance of each campaign.

Performance and security

Verdict: Tie

Both platforms appear to take security seriously, and both provide a number of tools, tips and resources to help users optimize load times and reduce lag.

Squarespace performance and security

Squarespace has a number of tools and features designed to protect users’ data, privacy and transactions:

• Password protected pages: Offers the option to conceal individual pages behind password protection.
• Security operations center: Monitors for threats and vulnerabilities 24/7.
• SSL certificates: Automatically protects all domains correctly added to a Squarespace site.
• Data encryption: Encrypts website traffic through SSL.
• Two-factor authentication: Prevents unauthorized access to users accounts.
• Proprietary tools: Guard against potential intruders, DDoS attacks and other vulnerabilities.

Squarespace offers a number of tools to help users maximize site performance, and its sites are generally fast.

Shopify performance and security

Shopify also offers a number of security features to safeguard users privacy and data:

• PCI compliance: Certified Level 1 PCI DSS compliant, which extends to all stores powered by Shopify.
• SSL encryption: Shopify uses SSL encryption technology.
• Shopify protect: Helps prevent fraudulent chargebacks.
• Two-factor authentication: Stops unauthorized access to accounts.
• Secure checkout: Creates a secure environment for customer information.

Shopify also regularly tests and optimizes its platform for maximum performance and offers a number of tips and solutions to help optimize customers’ sites.

Mobile app

Verdict: Shopify

Both Squarespace and Shopify offer multiple mobile apps designed to help manage your website and market your content, though Shopify has a slight edge because of the robust functionality across its entire suite of apps. It should be noted, however, that multiple apps are required to access all of that functionality.

Squarespace mobile app

The Squarespace app allows users to manage most, but not all, features on their sites. While you can update pages, edit blocks, review traffic and analytics and manage orders, it’s not possible to add certain specific blocks or pages. Squarespace also offers the Unfold app, which helps users design appealing social media posts to market their products.

Shopify mobile app

Shopify has a suite of four mobile apps available for iOS and Android. The main app allows users to manage their site/online store and offers almost all of the same functionality available on a desktop. 

There is also the POS app for accepting credit cards directly from a smartphone or tablet, Shopify Inbox to live chat with customers and Shopify Balance, to manage transactions, transfer money and view or manage your finances.

Final verdict

Winner: Squarespace

While Squarespace earns our endorsement over Shopify, it comes with a significant caveat. If your site is primarily or exclusively focused on e-commerce, Shopify is likely the better choice, particularly if you’re expecting to process a high volume of transactions. 

However, for general-purpose websites or for a site with only minimal e-commerce intent, Squarespace is the superior platform, based primarily on its lower costs, intuitive design and robust tools. Also, while it may not have the depth of e-commerce solutions that Shopify offers, it does offer a competent set of e-commerce tools that will suit the majority of online sellers.

Who is Squarespace best for?

Squarespace is best for anyone designing a site not explicitly or exclusively intended to serve as an e-commerce platform. For hobbyist sites, entertainment and blogging, Squarespace’s user-friendly UI and great design tools (as well as its lower price point), are paired with a powerful array of tools for more expert users.

Who is Shopify best for?

While Shopify may not be as well-rounded for general users as Squarespace, it’s the superior choice for e-commerce, particularly for larger businesses that expect high transaction volumes. 

The lower transaction fees, particularly at the higher subscription tiers, can offset the higher cost of its plans at scale, and Shopify as a platform is designed from the ground up to enable e-commerce, from its reporting to its sales and marketing tools.

Frequently asked questions (FAQs)

Which is better, Squarespace or Shopify?

Though Squarespace edges out Shopify overall, both are strong platforms for web design for both novice and more experienced users. Squarespace is a better-rounded platform more suited for general interest websites, while Shopify is more capable for building e-commerce platforms.

Do I need a website builder to make a website?

Building a website doesn’t require a third-party builder, though for those with little or no familiarity coding in HTML, they’re an excellent way to construct a site through a visual interface.

How much does it cost to build a website?

Depending on your needs and how much of the labor you’re willing to do yourself, building a website can range anywhere from free to well into the tens of thousands of dollars for a professional, large, enterprise-grade site. On average, however, a new small business site will cost between $100 and $500.