Squarespace vs. Shopify: Which is Best for Small Business?

The most popular question that pops up in my inbox is someone wondering whether to go with Squarespace or Shopify for their eCommerce website. The second most popular is how to connect the two which I describe here but then try to talk you out of doing here 😉 So I think it’s fair to say that I’m always willing to give each side its fair shot, present all the pros and cons, and then let you decide what you think is best for you. I mean I clearly have my favorite but that’s not this post.

One more little soapbox before we jump into the details on this subject is that you should definitely be looking at this from within the scope of your own business. It doesn’t matter what anyone else is using or doing. It doesn’t matter if your uncle’s best friend’s daughter’s neighbor who once had a semi-successful Etsy shop thinks you should use Shopify. Hell, it doesn’t even really matter if I think you should use Squarespace! At the end of the day, even if you want to try to be as hands-off as possible, you’re the one who will be spending the most time on your website both on the front end and back end) so aside from your customers, you’re going to be the #1 user. The point is: you have to love it and at least (somewhat) enjoy using it and that’s worth something.

Moving along, in this post, I’m going to break down the main considerations I look at when I’m trying to figure this question out with a client. Some of them have clear “right” answers and some are a little more subjective.

Considerations

What You Sell

This is always the first question I ask because it does a good job of letting me know at the highest level what the eCommerce needs will be. Do you sell mostly products or services? Do you need people to book things or make appointments? Are you offering memberships or subscriptions? Maybe you’re a mix of all the above? In the most general sense, I tend to give Shopify points for people selling very large volumes of strictly physical products but Squarespace points for everything else.

Something else that factors in is how complex or customizable your products are. Squarespace has the same capabilities as Shopify when it comes to setting up complex variants and can even do simple customizable products very well.

An example of the type of customizations I’m referring to would be if you ran a custom embroidery shop. If you just needed people to be able to enter their initials for a monogram on a product when they add it to their cart, I think Squarespace does that better than Shopify. However, if you needed the price to be variable based on what letters or how many letters were entered for the monogram, that may be a better fit for Shopify + a third-party plugin. All this being said, there are ways to solve this problem and stay on Squarespace just like there may be reasons why you wouldn’t want to go the Shopify + plugin route (i.e. cost). I’ve built shops with 10,000+ variants on Squarespace and others with 5 services on Shopify and both were right for those businesses despite initial impulse telling us it would be better the other way around!

Squarespace

• 10,000 products per store page (can have multiple pages if needed)

• Each product can have up to 6 options and up to 250 variant combinations

• You can sell physical, digital, service, and subscription products in addition to memberships, events, classes, and other scheduling-based products - all without any third-party apps.

Shopify

• Technically you’re allowed an unlimited number of products but some restrictions kick in after 50,000 products

• Each product can have up to 3 options and up to 100 variant combinations (more allowed with apps)

• You can sell physical products. Other product types (such as subscriptions or digital products) all require a third-party app from the Shopify app store.

• Access to large dropshipping network

Shipping & Fulfillment

Shipping has a way of either making it or breaking it for some online retailers. I don’t know why, it’s just a lot of merchants’ Achilles heel! Most of the time, I think it’s because they’re making things more complex than they need to be. You can check out this post on why I think you should keep it simple for yourself and your customers and just offer free shipping but if that’s not part of your strategy, it’s helpful to know the types of options you would like to offer. Flat rate or weight-based? Carrier calculated rates? Will most of your shipments be domestic or will some be international? Do you also offer local pickup or delivery… or are most of your items digital and don’t even require any shipping at all? 

Squarespace

• Free, flat rate or rate depending on weight shipping with any carrier you choose

• Carrier calculated rates for FedEx, UPS, or USPS (US Only)

• Ability to create shipping zones based on country, state/province, and zip/postal code (US & Canada)

• Print & pay for shipping labels directly through Squarespace or a shipping extension

• Third-party fulfillment options are possible by connecting to Shipwire or Fulfillment by Amazon through ShipStation

• Mutli-origin shipping through a shipping extension allows for shipping from multiple locations

• Print on Demand through Printful or Printique

Shopify

• Carrier calculated rates for DHL, UPS or USPS (US) or Canada Post (Canada) via Shopify Shipping

• Carrier calculated rates for FedEx if you have your own account with negotiated rates

• Ability to create country-wide shipping zones. Shipping zones based on zip or postal code possible with a third-party app

• Print & pay for shipping labels through Shopify Shipping or a third party extension from the app store

• Custom third-party fulfillment options or Fulfillment by Amazon with an Amazon Seller Central account

• Ability to activate multi-origin shipping if you need to track inventory across multiple locations

• Print on Demand options through the app store

Content & Design

I often hear potential clients say that they love the look of Squarespace but feel like they need the function of Shopify. In reality, you shouldn’t need to sacrifice design for function or vice versa - both are super important! Just because you’re planning on running the next big thing in eCommerce does not mean that things like style and content don’t matter. In fact, completely the opposite is true. Content is an important way to help you build an engaging brand. You’re going to want the ability to create landing pages, sales pages, a blog, and any other great-looking easily and effectively.

Squarespace

• All design layouts and features are available for all pages.

• Customize any page using any product block.

• Create galleries, custom forms, event calendars, and portfolio pages without the need for third-party plugins

• All pages have tidy URLs. For example “example.com/about” or “example.com/landing-page”

• Nearly limitless style capabilities on every single page element

• Rich blogging and podcasting capabilities are built-in

• Easy SEO features

Shopify

• Home page content capabilities are dependant upon theme

• Interior pages (anything besides the home page) are created within the Shopify admin and limited to customization via custom CSS/HTML

• Pages don’t have tidy URLs. For example “example.com/pages/about” or “example.com/pages/landing-page”

• Limited style capabilities, some dependant upon theme

• Simple blogging capabilities; layout and style are dependent upon the theme

• Simple SEO features, some more robust tasks require access to code

Cost & Payments

There are some small differences in plan costs on Squarespace and Shopify. For complete details on the various plans and their features, you can check out this post for Squarespace or this page for Shopify. It’s tough to compare apples-to-apples between Squarespace plans and Shopify plans because they don’t really break them up into similar tiers. So for comparison's sake, let’s just look at both of Squarespace’s Commerce plans (Basic & Advanced) and then Shopify Basic & Shopify. The other big thing to keep in mind is that many of the built-in features on Squarespace require paid apps on Shopify. Depending on what you need, paid Shopify apps can end up costing hundreds of dollars each month alone just to get features that are included on Squarespace such as custom forms, galleries, social media tools, product merchandising, and selling features, etc.

Squarespace

Basic Commerce

• Access to everything except Abandoned Carts, some advanced shipping and discount features & Commerce APIs

• Unlimited Contributor Accounts

• 0% Transaction Fees

• $26/mo (paid annually)

Advanced Commerce

• Access to all Squarespace features

• Unlimited Contributor Accounts

• 0% Transaction Fees

• $40/mo (paid annually)

Shopify

Shopify Basic

• Access to all features except reports & some international settings

• 2 Staff Accounts

• 2.0% transaction fees if not using Shopify payments otherwise 2.9% + 30¢ USD

• $29/mo

Shopify

• Access to all features except advanced reports

• 5 Staff Accounts

• 1.0% transaction fees if not using Shopify payments otherwise 2.6% + 30¢ USD

• $79/mo

Wildcards

• Are you starting from scratch or revamping an existing site? All of the above being said, there are always some variables and subtle nuances that I take into account when advising a client on which platform or subscription is best for them. To me, the most important of those is: do you have an existing website? If so, are there specific features or functionalities that you feel like you’re missing on that platform that you think switching to a different platform would help with? 

  I think people often want to change just because they think they should, or someone else told them they should, or they think that switching is going to magically solve a business problem they’re having. In reality, there may not be a need to scrap what you’ve already built entirely and it could be a better option to stay where you’re at and work on optimizing instead of moving. Moving a website to a new platform can cause a short-term dip in SEO and if you’ve built a lot of brand authority where you’re at, that’s an additional factor worth considering.

  There may also be updates to the platform you’re currently on that you’re just not taking full advantage of. For example, most Squarespace sites out there could stand to be updated to the new 7.1 platform from their current 7.0 versions which would instantly make things feel fresh and new and offer some advanced eCommerce options. 

• Does anyone ever really move from Shopify to Squarespace? The conversation is often framed as if Squarespace is the “starter” website and that after you find a little eCommerce success, you’re ready to “graduate” or move up to Shopify. And I’m just here to challenge this assumption!

  Moves can go both ways and you should select a platform that meets your business needs and goals for the next 2-4 years, regardless of what they were in the past. And, yes, this can mean moving from Shopify to Squarespace. Why would you do this? Several reasons: you’re looking for more design options and control, you want to focus on blogging as part of your key marketing strategy or you want to trim extraneous costs associated with Shopify apps just to name a few! So, while it’s definitely more common for people on Squarespace to wonder if they should be moving to Shopify, I think the future of eCommerce makes the simple, streamlined design of Squarespace a top contender as well.