Shopify vs. Squarespace
Ever wonder why I specialize in both Shopify and Squarespace web design? In my opinion these are two of the best website building platforms on the market. And while both are amazing, each has their place depending on your unique business needs. Looking to make the switch, but not sure where to start? Let’s dive in to see what might be the best fit for you.
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The Best Hosting Platform for Service-Based Businesses
Perhaps you have an art or photography portfolio you’d like to share, or want a way for potential customers to learn about your boutique storefront or local business before their visit. Or perhaps you offer online coaching or therapy services and need a way to book discovery calls with potential clients. Maybe you just want to look professional and legit when someone clicks onto your Google Business profile. This is the place for you.
Squarespace offers the ability to create and maintain a professional yet unique website for an affordable price, all with a super user-friendly interface (hello, drag and drop editing!). I love how easily I can train my clients to manage their site after our work together is complete. I’ve also had great experiences with their customer support, plus it’s so popular, there are TONS of tutorials out there to help as well.
The Best Hosting Platform for eCommerce
Is the main focus of your website to sell products online? I would say 9 times out of 10 that Shopify is going to be the best fit for you. Shopify is fantastic for e-commerce - complete with an ever-expanding list of tools, apps, reports, themes, and more. You also get access to Shopify Shipping and Shopify Payments, which make setting up your store pretty quick and painless.
Browse the template and app stores to find solutions for your business needs. Most themes can easily be customized with color and font choices. The website editor is pretty user-friendly with the ability to drag in image or slideshow blocks, add product collection feeds, or pop in a block of text. Depending on the theme you select, different options are available for adding blocks to the product, collection, and page templates. Where these option aren’t available, a developer can help add them through custom code, or you’ll need to stick with the system defaults and edit page content with their basic WYSIWYG editor.
Adding products is fairly straightforward - just follow the steps to fill out all the product information and upload photos and videos. Have a lot to add? You can create a spreadsheet and bulk upload! Bonus: I absolutely love using Shopify tags to create collections, pull reports, segment audiences in Klaviyo (more about email marketing here), and so much more. Be sure to add a few to your products to get the most out of Shopify.
Out of the box, Shopify is pretty great and functions well. But maybe you want something that looks a bit more custom and not so cookie-cutter. The good news is that you can hire a Shopify Partner like me to add custom code, help set up apps, or customize a whole theme just for your store. Grab a discovery call with me to learn more.
Squarespace or Shopify for eCommerce?
I’ve built several boutique e-commerce websites on Squarespace and while love the platform, I have to admit there are pros and cons to using it for online sales. The pros - a beautiful website and a user-friendly interface. You can create gorgeous custom designs using the drag and drop editor in Squarespace where you would need to pay someone to do some expensive custom coding or purchase a higher-end template to achieve these looks.
Squarespace is also a much better platform for blogging. Again, you gotta love that drag and drop editor. In Shopify, you are only supplied with a WYSIWYG editor for blog posts - and that’s not the easiest way to work for someone with little HTML knowledge. If blogging or including a portfolio is important to your business, Squarespace might be a better fit for you.
The cons of Squarespace for e-commerce? I’m a little disappointed with the price point that’s needed to get what are included as basic features in Shopify. Some examples are abandoned cart emails, customer accounts, selling on Instagram, and more. Shopify costs $29/month while Squarespace would cost $49/month to get these valuable features (as opposed to the $23/month Business plan I usually recommend for my clients).*
You’ll also miss out on Shopify’s extensive App Store. Some of these valuable apps are even free - like Product Reviews (which I typically install on my clients’ sites). Shopify integrates beautifully with my favorite e-commerce email platform Klaviyo as well, so if sending lots of targeted emails and automations is your gig, I’d recommend the Shopify & Klaviyo duo.
Finally, if you have a larger inventory with multiple variants, I feel it’s a bit more difficult to manage in Squarespace than Shopify.
The bottom line: if custom unique style is your thing and blogging/portfolio are important to you - and you’re not super concerned with having “all the marketing tools” - Squarespace might be the perfect fit for you.
Need a little help deciding?
I’d love to hop on a call with you to discuss your options, the pros and cons of each platform, and how I can help you build that dream website. Grab a discovery call with me today!
*Shopify and Squarespace pricing & features as of July 2022, subject to change.
