Shopify Vs Squarespace: Which Is the Right Choice For Your Business in 2025?

In a time when more than 2 billion people shop regularly online, the importance of an e-commerce store has never been more pronounced. Of course, building an online store has never been enough to bring in your target audience. As a business owner, you must complete the making of a top-notch design, a user-friendly menu, SEO optimization, and attractive aesthetics. E-commerce functionality comes built into many platforms, allowing you to do everything right there on your site.

Squarespace is a versatile website builder that comes with built-in e-commerce capabilities. In contrast, Shopify is a fully-fledged platform that enables customers to sell online. Both options are very solid but also carry their unique pros and cons. In this guide, we’ll explore an in-depth comparison of Squarespace vs Shopify so you can decide which platform is best for you.

Squarespace Overview:

Squarespace is a website builder designed for creatives and website owners looking to create beautiful web pages. All your coding knowledge goes to the trash with Squarespace; With a tiny investment of your time, you can create a beautiful-looking website. This comes with integrated eCommerce checkout tools, personalized domain names, and SSL certificate protection for additional security.

Squarespace started in 2003 in the state of Maryland in the USA as a blog hosting service. Over the years it became a broader platform. (And it had already made a whopping $1,000,000 in sales by 2006!)

Although anyone can use it for website design, Squarespace has an appeal to designers, artists, photographers, and other creative professionals. Getting started is as easy as signing up, choosing a template, and modifying it to meet your needs. Squarespace is extremely attractive in terms of how many great design choices it has to offer and this is one of the reasons why it is a top eCommerce and online selling choice..

Shopify Overview:

Shopify is a subscription-based software-as-a-service (SaaS) sales platform in the technology sector. Shopify provides various subscription plans, the starting fee being INR 1,994 per month, which is a suitable solution for online businesses. They are centered around plans that include a branded online store and a full suite of selling tools, in-person and online.

Also, Shopify launches a low-cost Starter plan for just INR 20 per month. It doesn't have an online store but does support mobile point-of-sale (POS) sales and includes a Buy Button for selling from outside websites, blogs, and email.

Shopify business management tools are available with all Shopify plans. Basic features like product sourcing, sales and inventory management, payment processor, shipping, customer accounts, marketing, and reporting are built into each Shopify plan. The platform also features incredible flexibility which allows users to enhance their arsenal by integrating with thousands of Shopify Apps.

Why Choose Squarespace Instead of Shopify: 

When building a website, Squarespace and Shopify are two of the most popular platforms available. While Shopify is renowned for its eCommerce capabilities, Squarespace stands out as a better choice for certain types of businesses and users. Below, we explore the key reasons why Squarespace might be the better fit for your needs.

1. Superior Design and Aesthetics

Squarespace is widely recognized for its stunning, professionally designed templates that are perfect for businesses focused on visual branding.

Why Squarespace Wins in Design:

• High-Quality Templates: Over 140 templates tailored for creatives, portfolios, and small businesses.

• Customizability Without Code: Easy drag-and-drop editor for non-technical users.

• Responsive Design: All templates are mobile-friendly and adjust seamlessly across devices.

Use Case: A photographer or creative agency can showcase their portfolio with Squarespace's elegant layouts, creating a visually immersive experience that Shopify templates may not offer.

Lower Cost for Smaller Businesses

Squarespace offers a more cost-effective solution for businesses that don’t need advanced eCommerce features.

Pricing Benefits:

• Lower monthly costs for basic plans compared to Shopify.

• No transaction fees on sales (other than standard Stripe/PayPal fees).

• Bundled features like hosting, analytics, and design tools are included in the subscription.

Plan	Squarespace	Shopify
Basic Plan	$23/month	$39/month
Advanced Features	Included in plans	Requires add-ons/apps

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Use Case: A business with minimal sales volume can avoid the higher costs and additional app fees associated with Shopify.

All-in-One Solution for Content and Design

Squarespace is more than just a website builder—it’s a platform designed to balance content creation, design, and eCommerce.

Features That Stand Out:

• Integrated Blogging Tools: Perfect for businesses that rely on blogging for SEO and audience engagement.

• Built-In Analytics: Squarespace offers traffic insights without needing third-party tools.

• Seamless Content and Commerce Integration: Ideal for businesses combining storytelling with light eCommerce, such as selling books, art, or digital products.

Use Case: A small business owner running a blog and selling handmade crafts can use Squarespace to combine storytelling with a simple online shop.

Why Choose Shopify Instead of Squarespace:

Essentially, the decision to choose Shopify vs. Squarespace boils down to e-commerce performance. Squarespace has all of those church bells, but Shopify has bells, whistles—everything else you can think of regarding selling.

The huge library of over 8,000 apps for Shopify complements its attractiveness. The great number of these apps makes the synchronization of the platform with external services easy and gives a chance to cut a new functionality. Shopify, on the other hand, is a far more professional, powerful, and scalable e-commerce platform than Squarespace.

Pros And Cons

Squarespace Pros And Cons

Pros of Squarespace:

• Extensive Collection of Designer Templates

• Excellent Analytics System for Non-E-commerce Websites

Cons of Squarespace:

• Limited Payment Options

• Lack of Autosave Functionality in the Editor

Shopify Pros And cons

Pros of Shopify:

• Recognized as the Leading E-commerce Platform

• Seamless Multi-Channel Selling on Facebook and Instagram

Cons of Shopify:

• Transaction Fees Imposed on Alternative Payment Methods

• Cumulative Monthly Expenses, Especially with Additional Apps

How the Platforms Stack Up

SS Vs SP	Squarespace	Shopify
Cost:	The Personal plan comes at $18 monthly, the Business plan at $27 monthly, and the Premium plan is priced at $69 per month when billed annually. For those opting for month-to-month billing, slightly higher rates apply.	The Basic plan is set at $29 per month, the Shopify plan is available for $79 monthly, and the Advanced plan is priced at $299 per month. Opting for month-to-month incurs slightly higher rates. Additionally, there's Shopify Lite, tailored for those adding a buy button to an existing site, priced at $9 per month.
Templates and Design:	Access a diverse range of templates at no extra cost, with recommended themes tailored to suit different industry types.	Choose from a selection of 10 complimentary templates or opt for over 50 premium templates, each available for a fee. These templates come equipped with industry-specific features to enhance your website design.
SEO Tools:	Providing meta descriptions and customizable URLs for all pages, with access to Google Analytics included in every plan. Exciting news – the SEOSpace SEO plugin is now available!	Automatically generates page titles and meta descriptions based on page content, while the setup simplifies compliance with Google's Core Web Vitals requirements.
Blogging	Includes integrated analytics and features like categories, comment moderation, tags, and the ability to schedule posts.	Access tools for managing categories, comment moderation, tags, and post scheduling, with the added convenience of bulk post removal options.
Customer Support:	Benefit from around-the-clock customer support through email, social media, and live chat, though phone support is not currently provided.	Enjoy 24/7 customer support via email, live chat, and phone, though support through social media channels is not available.
Backup and Storage:	Provides unlimited storage; however, users are required to manually back up their website content.	Provides unlimited storage, but it is essential for users to manually back up their website content.

Pricing:

Pricing is important when it comes to comparing Shopify vs Squarespace. Squarespace's most expensive package, the Commerce Advanced, is $65 per month, which is more than what Shopify's basic package, Basic, costs ($39 per month). That price differential reflects a deeper difference in the platforms’ philosophies.

Squarespace is an easy, flexible starting point for building a website for many different reasons. The strong eCommerce features come in its most expensive tier, which is still reasonably priced. Importantly, Squarespace does offer an enterprise plan that includes custom website creation, a one-on-one SEO session, unlimited website creation, and an intranet site (the course portal).

Although enterprise pricing isn't explicitly stated, it appears to offer considerable value by combining an extensive account with professional guidance.

On the other hand, Shopify includes basic eCommerce features like payment processing and shipping management in its lowest tier but introduces a more enterprise-level package at $2,000 per month for "high-volume businesses." Unlike Squarespace, Shopify's pricing tiers show significant jumps. The mid-tier is priced at $105 per month, and the Advanced tier reaches $399 per month. Each tier offers additional staff accounts, improved reporting capabilities, and lower credit card fees as incentives.

In summary, independent sellers and small businesses may find suitable options in Squarespace's four packages or Shopify's Basic offering. However, larger sales operations might discover that Squarespace's commerce capabilities fall short, making Shopify's higher-priced tiers a more fitting choice.

SEO :

SEO (Search Engine Optimization) harnesses keywords and high-quality content to broaden your online store's reach, potentially attracting buyers worldwide.

In the realm of SEO, both Shopify and Squarespace offer integrated support, each employing a distinct approach.

Shopify aligns with Google's Core Web Vitals requirements, focusing on page loading time, responsiveness, and visual stability. It simplifies the process by automatically generating suggested titles and meta descriptions based on page content, thereby saving user time. Shopify also provides best practice prompts and incorporates built-in marketing tools to boost SEO efforts.

Squarespace empowers users with control over meta titles, descriptions, and custom URLs. Google Analytics is seamlessly integrated into all plans. However, certain older Squarespace templates may pose challenges, restricting users from customizing page titles. To address this, a third-party plugin named SEOSpace is available for download, offering additional SEO tools tailored for Squarespace users.

Considering a Business Blog?

Integrating a blog into your business strategy can significantly enhance your online presence, drive website traffic, and potentially become an additional revenue stream. Despite the added task to your to-do list, a blog, especially when paired with an e-commerce site, proves highly effective for marketing.

Choosing to pursue this avenue with Squarespace simplifies the process. The platform offers comprehensive blogging features, including analytics, post scheduling, and the ability to archive posts.

Similarly, Shopify provides blogging functionality seamlessly within its service. The process of building, publishing, and managing your blog mirrors Squarespace, making it a valuable tool for complementing your online store with informative content. This content can range from product details to helpful tips and tricks, providing your audience with valuable insights.

Squarespace stands out for its advanced visual capabilities

Shopify can compete in terms of visuals, but Squarespace wins on design. Both platforms have a block-based page editor that is easy to set up and use. Squarespace, on the other hand, has way better quality and quantity of templates than Shopify did.

One of the things that immediately leaped at me was the incredible choice and quality of the Squarespace templates. The process for adding products is nearly identical on both platforms, but Squarespace shines when it comes to product displays. Users can build extremely detailed pages for each of their products, including zoom or lightbox functions for the images and even 360° turntable images to allow users to see the product interactively.

However, if you fall into the category of serious sellers conducting volume-based sales, you may not be beating Shopify's technical eCommerce features with Squarespace's concise visual boosts. But that's a fair trade-off for larger businesses; smaller businesses and individual sellers might still find that trade-off worthwhile, as Squarespace's design-centric approach can be especially helpful for creating visually stunning and engaging product pages.

For those scaling a store, Shopify provides a more robust suite of tools

Although both Shopify as well as Squarespace have you covered with the essentials for eCommerce store management, Shopify reigns supreme with its overt focus on a complete and supercharged eCommerce experience. The strengths of that platform are an indication of the knowledge of its creators as they know a thing or two about successful online business.

Sales Channels: With Shopify, you can effortlessly connect with Facebook Marketplace, Instagram Ads, TikTok Ads, and top online marketplaces like Amazon and Walmart.

Payment Options: From Apple Pay and PayPal to Affirm and Klarna, there’s a huge number of payment options available. Squarespace, on the other hand, doesn't have quite as many options, only accepting PayPal, Stripe, Square, and Apple Pay to process transactions.

Shipping Integration: Shopify directly integrates with USPS, UPS, DHL, and dropshipping services so sellers can calculate carrier rates, print labels, and access substantial shipping discounts without leaving the platform. For lower-volume sellers, Squarespace's basic packages include everything on your checklist, but they often skimp on the scalability needed for higher-volume sellers.

In-Person Selling: You can use Shopify’s point-of-sale ecosystem at lower transaction rates than you’ll pay with Squarespace utilizing point-of-sale functionality through Square.

For people launching or operating a smaller, basic business, such differences may not matter. That said, users who are especially eCommerce focused and have plans to scale up will tend to favor Shopify heavily, with its added features and tools allowing them to conduct a more advanced and refined business operation.

Template Design and Customizability

Squarespace has better template design and customizability

Squarespace is hands down the best place to build a website with a professional look. They provide a vast selection of beautiful, well-designed themes suitable for a variety of business types, letting your products take center stage and delivering an attractive storefront. Whereas Shopify offers a good number of themes, they're not very attractive or customizable.

Just as a nice physical store attracts customers, how your online store looks is the deal breaker. Squarespace's templates are prettier than Shopify, and look a little more modern and sleek in our tests. All templates have a definitive message and all have easily recognizable key action buttons. On top of that, it also offers themes for specific industries including creativity, which makes Squarespace different from Shopify. Free themes — All Squarespace themes are also responsive which means your site will look good no matter what device a visitor uses to access it. This highlights Squarespace's leading position in ecommerce builders design.

Can We Make Custom Edits?

Exploring a code opens a variety of personalizations to fit your online store.

BBM Group 4: Shopify — Test a Theme To Access HTML and CSS Customization.

On the contrary, Squarespace promotes customization by allowing users to add their own HTML using a Code Block and on the CSS Editor, they can add custom CSS.

This allows you to quickly customize the look and feel of your site, as well as the functionality, all according to your design and brand preferences. It's an extremely valuable path to go down for those looking for a high level of control over the design and e-commerce user experience.

Features for Sales

Shopify is one of the most complete solutions for ecommerce website builders and enjoys a comfortable lead. So Shopify is our clear winner here throughout, as Squarespace stands firm with some impressive inventory management features, but Shopify takes back the crown with more payment gateways and better shipping features.

The sword — without a doubt — sales tools become a vital feature for effective online selling. At Website Builder Expert, we understand these tools are more than just product prices, images, and discounts. We are analyzing each website builder to determine which should come out on top when it comes to selling your inventory.

Point of sale (POS) in Shopify vs Squarespace

Default Point-of-Sale (POS) in ecommerce: both Shopify and Squarespace have done an excellent job can offering customers the online and offline selling experience. This feature allows card readers and other selling hardware (barcode scanners and receipt printers) to be used at physical locations (retail outlets, market stalls, or events).

But maintaining harmony between the backend of your online store and the hardware on which transactions are made is through POS. This ensures that the inventory levels are accurate after a sale happens, whether it is an online or offline sale.

Though both Shopify and Squarespace have integrated POS features, the significant difference comes into play when it comes to the hardware you can sell products with. Shopify has a wide network, so you can use barcode scanners, card readers, cash drawers, and more. You can buy this hardware individually or as part of an all-in-one package, and it's being made available in more countries.

On the other hand, Squarespace integrates with Square, a specialized ecommerce company providing POS hardware. Notably, Squarespace's POS functionality is currently limited to the integration of the Square card reader, exclusively available in the United States.

Shopify extends its POS capabilities with additional features like staff accounts, permission settings, staff PINs, and comprehensive store management. The platform supports selling in up to 1,000 locations, and for enhanced functionality, merchants can opt for the 'Shopify POS Pro add-on at $89 per month. Shopify also offers a 'Starter' plan at $5 per month for those solely interested in utilizing it as a POS solution, presenting a cost-effective option not provided by Squarespace.

Integrating Shopify and Squarespace with Google Workspace

This integration is pitched and offered to users as a suite called Google Workspace and is something that Squarespace has invested in heavily to promote Google as a partner. If you're on a Squarespace plan purchase flow so either the ‘Business’ ‘Commerce Basic’ or ‘Commerce Advanced’ plans, you can select Google Workspace during the purchase. For instance, those who have such plans of users would get a free, one-year GoogleWorks essentials plan per user.

This integration allows you to complete key Google Workspace admin tasks right in your Squarespace site. These jobs involve adding users, renaming or deleting users, and retrieving Google Workspace invoices. Although these functionalities are available in the standard Google Workspace admin panel, the ability to manage them from the Squarespace environment is something worth noting.

Here are some key points of this integration and the strongest offering of this $honest offering is the free @1 year Google Workspace account savings. This is especially beneficial for solopreneurs who only need one email account.

And differently, Squarespace integrates right alongside Google Workspace—linking data capture forms to a Google Sheet. This feature guarantees that you will not miss a submission and you can view all submissions either in real-time or keep an archive for future reference, all straight from within your site. Shopify does not provide such features out of the box and would need an app to enable that.

Applications for Mobile Platforms

Both Shopify and Squarespace offer mobile apps, providing users with convenient ways to manage their websites or stores while on the go.

For Squarespace, there are three primary apps catering to different needs:

Squarespace: The main app for managing Squarespace sites on iOS and Android devices. It enables content editing, analytics viewing, and order management. If you're in the U.S., it also grants access to point-of-sale features.

Scheduling Admin: Designed for managing appointments with clients.

Scheduling Client: Allows clients to book and manage appointments.

Shopify also offers several apps, with the most relevant ones being:

Shopify: This app allows you to edit certain parts of your Shopify sites, view some basic stats, and check orders

Shopify POS: Focuses on using point-of-sale features from Shopify to take orders and process payments at brick-and-mortar venues

Along with these two apps, Shopify also supports additional apps for users wanting to use their merchandise store even more. Notable among them are:

Shopify Inbox: A live chat service integrated with your Shopify store to help you manage inquiries and share product details while chatting with customers.

Shop: With features for an accelerated checkout process, the option to pay for products in installments and options for following or discovering brands. It also supplies a way for shoppers to tip merchants.

They ensure the flexibility and ease of managing and running online stores based on the Shopify and Squarespace platforms through mobile apps.

Choosing Between Shopify and Squarespace for Your Business

Shopify suits businesses engaged in:

• Direct sales and shipping to individual customers.

• Regularly listing products on various platforms, including social media and third-party marketplaces.

• Generating substantial revenue to leverage reduced payment processing fees and shipping discounts offered at higher pricing tiers.

On the other hand, Squarespace is well-suited for businesses involved in:

• Appointment bookings.

• Small Or Medium Business

• Revenue streams from memberships or exclusive content.

• Generating lower revenue where the cost advantage of cheaper payment processing fees with Shopify or Shopify Advanced becomes a significant factor.

Both platforms provide trial periods—three days for Shopify and two weeks for Squarespace. If time permits, experimenting with both services to set up your e-commerce website can offer valuable insights into which platform aligns better with your preferences before committing to a paid plan.

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FAQ

1. What is the better platform for a design-focused website?

Squarespace is stronger for visually stunning and content-driven sites that require flexible design tools.

2. Have you heard about Squarespace eCommerce?

Yes, but it’s ideal for smaller stores. Shopify for Scaling + Advanced eCommerce Functionality

3. What is more customizable between the two?

CSS & JavaScript — have more control over your design with Squarespace

Shopify offers deep customization through its Liquid templating language but is more design-restrictive.

4. Plugins: Does Squarespace have any like Shopify?

Yes, but fewer options. Shopify has a more extensive app store, and Squarespace depends on features and third-party add-ons.

5. Which is better for SEO?

SEO Power can Be Increased in Shopify due to Structured Data Support and Better Performance

Squarespace is ok, but less flexible for in-depth SEO.

6. Which works better with SquareCraft?

(Since SquareCraft is a Squarespace plugin, built to alter and improve CSS on the fly.)