Shopify vs Squarespace

If you’re looking to set up a website to help launch your new business, you’ll want to find a platform that enables you to do this more easily.

Here, we take a look at the key features of Shopify and Squarespace so you can see how they compare and which might work best for you.

Main features

Shopify was primarily built for e-commerce and is a fully hosted platform to help users set up an online store and sell products. Squarespace, meanwhile, started as a website builder focused on design and content, but also enables people and businesses to create websites without needing advanced coding skills. Because they are both hosted platforms, each one handles updates, security and infrastructure on the user’s behalf.

Both platforms also offer a wide range of templates and themes you can customise for different types of websites and online stores. However, Squarespace is best known for its professionally designed templates, with layouts aimed at portfolios, blogs and service-based businesses. Shopify, on the other hand, offers templates that are more focused on e-commerce functionality and product selling.

In terms of payments, both Shopify and Squarespace support credit cards, debit cards, Apple Pay, Google Pay and Buy Now, Pay Later (BNPL) services. Both allow payments to be handled through built-in or integrated systems without users needing to build their own checkout infrastructure.

Each platform also includes tools for shipping, order management and account tracking from one dashboard, although Shopify’s system is a little more advanced. In addition, Shopify offers access to a vast app store to help you extend your site’s functionality. Squarespace doesn’t have a traditional app store for plugins, but does offer Squarespace Extensions, which is a marketplace of third-party tools to enhance your website.

Both platforms include SEO tools, although these tend to be more basic with Squarespace.

Setup speed

The length of time it takes to get your website up and running depends on your experience and whether you have your content ready.

With Shopify, you can typically have a basic website ready within a few days. This will be fairly simple and only include a few live products. Setting up a fully customised store with a greater range of products and professional branding will typically take 1 to 4 weeks.

Squarespace is usually quicker to set up because templates are ready-made and there’s less technical setup. It can take a few hours to a couple of days to launch a basic website. A more polished site with more content can take up to a week, while a small online shop might take 3 to 10 days to set up.

Pricing and fees

Pricing options are similar for both Shopify and Squarespace – although Squarespace is considerably cheaper. Both are subscription based and have 4 plans to choose from, with the most expensive plans offering the most advanced features.

Monthly prices work out 25% cheaper if you pay annually, with Squarespace’s plans starting from £16 a month (£12 a month annually) and Shopify’s starting from £25 a month (£19 a month annually).

In addition, Shopify Payments charges a fee for processing each payment, with the fee depending on card type and location. If a third-party payment provider is used instead, additional platform fees can apply.

With Squarespace, you’ll usually need to pay a fee to your chosen payment provider, such as Stripe or PayPal. Squarespace also applies an additional transaction fee on sales for lower-tier plans.

Selling internationally

Both platforms allow international selling. Shopify offers Shopify Markets where you can sell to several markets from one store, allowing for customised pricing, languages and product availability. There’s also a multi-currency checkout with Shopify Payments, so customers can pay in their local currency while you receive funds in your designated payout currency.

By comparison, Squarespace allows businesses to accept orders from multiple countries and process international payments. But it only lets you operate with a single store currency, meaning prices are only displayed in one currency, regardless of the customer’s location.

Overall

The platform you choose will largely depend on the type of business you’re building. If your priority is selling a wide variety of products and you want to scale your online store over time, Shopify could be the better fit due to its e-commerce tools and infrastructure.

On the other hand, if you want a platform that prioritises design, offers a wide range of polished templates and is relatively straightforward to set up and maintain, Squarespace could be the better choice.

Written by

Rachel Wait

Writer

Rachel Wait is a freelance journalist and has been writing about personal finance for more than a decade, covering everything from insurance to mortgages. She has written for a range of personal finance websites and national newspapers, including The Observer, The Mail on Sunday, The Sun and the Evening Standard. Rachel is a keen baker in her spare time. See full bio