Shopify vs Squarespace Comparison

Great eCommerce platform where you can customize with countless apps, codes, and add ons

Back end is more advanced than a platform like Wix or Squarespace so there is a learning curve

Everything was fairly easy to set up, except for running into trouble with my domain transfer from SquareSpace, but I got plenty of help from Shopify Support - and quickly! I like that there are many website themes to choose from to best suit my needs and that they are all customizable to a large degree. I also like that there are many available apps to add functionality (payment plans, compare products) and enhance the site (google and yelp reviews).

I wish that Shopify itself had many of the features that I have gotten via third party apps so that Shopify Support would simplify resolution of any issues I have.

It has great plug-and-play options similar to Squarespace, while being more geared towards e-commerce with a connection to brick-and-mortar businesses.

Some of the integrations are a little lackluster, and I feel like they are a couple years away from seeing more viability

Our team-lead is an author and blogs daily with a large following, but his physical/digital books sales were down. We switched to Shopify and his bookstore after set up and management has created more profit.

The site customization is not as easy as some well know companies like Wix or Squarespace when it comes to creating an all-inclusive website.

I love how great of an experience my customers have because of Shopify. It's easy for them to use and works we for me on the backend

It's complicated to implement - you need a web dev to do it and can't just figure it out yourself too easily like you can on Squarespace

Great plugins available on the app store for your site. Perfect for people selling products.

I wish you did't need to have a plugin to build pages. Would be nice if there was a built in page builders on every page like squarespace and wix.

Overall, what I like the most about the software is that you can use it to sell your goods and services as well as connect it to your Squarespace website for better functionality.

What I like the least about the software is that the user experience is sometimes hard to work through. Also, the application sometimes freezes.

Shopify has made it so easy to connect with customers and provide the best e-commerce service. It's easy to set up and honestly, really user friendly.

The thing I like least about Shopify is that sometimes it doesn't always work with the different platforms I use. Other than that, its still really easy to use on like your six or squarespace page.

I'm by no means a web designer, but I've used Shopify on multiple occasions and it's just as easy every time. Building pages is quick and even easier than Squarespace, and listing products is also super fast and easy to reference.

I do wish Shopify could handle more file types when uploading assets. Sometimes the sizing gets weird and glitchy.

Shopify has a fantastic website builder tool which our team leveraged to build our website. We actually didn't even have an online store, but we chose Shopify simply because their website builder tool was better than Squarespace and other offerings.

While our use case is admittedly off-brand, it would have been nice to see more features from Shopify that were focused solely on building the website, and less so on the e-commerce aspect.

If you plan on creating your own online store, there are a few things to like about Shopify: -it's fairly cheap -The learning curve is quick. No need to learn to code. -It's pretty much fully integrated with all the apps/add-ons/web page themes that you can think of you can create your own professional-looking and fully functional online store extremely quickly and for the fraction of the cost of getting a custom website made by a web developer.

Unless you pay for upgraded website themes, most other web stores are going to run the same theme as yours.

I love how e-commerce focused Shopify is. It has all the features you'll need to make selling online streamlined and easy. It's also super easy to set up and design your site, so you don't need any fancy skills to be able to set it up your self.

The templates can be pretty restricting unless you want to edit custom code. I wish there was a happy medium with more Squarespace-like capabilities. That way when you wanted to change the design your only option wasn't to resort to custom code.

Shopify lets you set up an online store without too much hassle. It's easier to use than Wordpress, but maybe a little bit tougher than Squarespace. In any case, someone without a ton of experience, but a little bit of time, can put together a presentable Shopify site.

My main issue right now is the blogging feature, which is not as rich or customizable as Wordpress. There is a decent chance your online store won't need flashy blogs, or any blogs at all, so this may not be a deal breaker.

There are so many things I love about Shopify and their customer service is at the top of the least. They have 24/7 availability to chat live with a representative. As an entrepreneur, sometimes you are working late into the evening (past midnight) and someone is always available to answer your questions! I am floored by this. And if they do not have an answer, the representative will reach out to other employees and email you back with the solution. Excellent service.

There isn't much I don't love about Shopify. They connect with FB and instagram and sell on those platforms, they provide excellent analytics, easy information for shipping internationally, and many templates and apps to help elevate your business.

We love Shopify's clean website templates, added features like live visitor counts and its thousands of app integrations. Using Shopify has given us the ability to truly understand our customers and their wants and needs through thorough reporting. While we don't currently use all of Shopify's features and apps, we love knowing that as our store grows and changes, the features and functionality of our Shopify store will too!

The administrative Shopify website often loads slowly, so completing basic tasks can sometimes be tedious. While it functions without this feature, we would appreciate it if it was possible to run multi-product purchase orders or inventory adjustments in Shopify - we currently have to increase the in-stock product quantity item-by-item when we receive new orders, which is time consuming.

What makes Shopify standout the most from their competitors is how intentional their features are when it comes to supporting your eCommerce business. All the features and functionalities that you might probably need are out there. They have an abundant amount of third party apps to support your needs as well.

There's a bit of learning curve when it comes to creating and launching your store. It is not so much as easy as Wix or Squarespace. You might need to consider hiring a web designer, buy a template, or dedicate some time to get used to where's everything.

I love that Shopify is Canadian, and really apprecaited the support I received in setting up my site. The store templates are attractive (though not as much so as Squarespace commerce) and the options to integrate with a point of sale and account system are nice. There are a ton of add on apps that can broaden the features a great deal.

It wasn't long before I discovered some limits in the design and functionality of my site. My biggest pet peeve is the inability to swap out a set of different images when a different product variant (like a new colour) is selected. There are plugins one can pay for to do this but that only adds on to an already high cost for a Shopify store.

Of the big 3 website builders (Shopify, Squarespace, Wix), Shopify is hands down the best for e-commerce. The other platforms simply don't have the same level of e-commerce support - from advanced shipping options to the wide range of discounts you can create for your online store. The extensive App Store also offers easy-to-install plugins to enhance your website's functionality. If you're serious about growing your online store, Shopify is the way to go.

It has to be said that Shopify is not as pretty as Squarespace or Wix, both of which being more design-led platforms. Shopify 2.0 was a major upgrade, in that you can now add design blocks to every page. But unless you know how to do custom coding, the design features are still somewhat limited. The email campaign feature is buggy - Wix is much better for that, but then Wix isn't really suited to run an online store.

Shopify is easy to set up, modify and manage without requiring outside technical support. The interface is fresh and modern, loads fast, and everything you need in terms of additional software apps are within easy reach from the admin panel.

I really wish it were easier to create marketing campaign landing pages in Shopify. The platform isn't built for creating multiple unique page types. In fact, it's not intuitive at all when it comes to adding and editing a new page type. Luckily, there are landing page apps available that can help with that. App integration is a snap, and we like that apps are billed monthly... it makes it easy for us to audition a new app and see how well it works for us. There are many inexpensive and even free apps available.

Shopify is extremely user-friendly and easy to set up. It's intuitive even if you've never used an e-commerce platform before, and you're able to get by with no coding skills. The basic templates are plain, but professional and modern. Basically it covers everything you need to get started with an online business, the pricing model is fair, and there's a wealth of 3rd party plugins and templates if you require something beyond the standard functionalities.

Though I've put the 3rd party marketplace as a benefit, I'm also left with the feeling that it comes with a hidden downside. Basic functions such as bundling and customer messages on an order (which, to give an example, Etsy offers) requires a 3rd party plugin with Shopify. After so many years in the industry, I'm baffled as to why this hasn't been implemented by default. The only reason I can think of is, why would they? Customers are forced to buy an app, which makes more money for Shopify. Another pet peeve example: You cannot use more than 1 discount code unless you install an app. Which means, you can't put 10% off the entire site, and offer customers an additional discount with a code.

For the casual business person, this is a great solution for e-commerce. I have dealt with large companies who use Magento or OpenCart to small Etsy shop owners who need a boutique solution. Shopify is powerful but better suited for those who need to get online fast. Like WordPress, the theme library is exponentially growing every day to provide design options to the point of being overwhelming. But in the age of form over function, this is only helpful for someone who needs to present themselves well and figure out the "how" later.

I don't like the rigidity of Shopify's domain registry and hosting solutions. If you ever need to move your cart away from Shopify, you will find an endless loop of hurdles to gain back control of your domain or hosting. It's the same with Squarespace. I understand why there's very little peaking under the hood with their integration, but it's annoying when you want to "do more" with your online presence by moving to a more powerful platform. I recommend registering your domain and hosting elsewhere and integrating them with the Shopify platform for "down the road" flexibility.

I was reluctant at first to try Shopify for an e-commerce startup but after hearing so much hype about this Canadian online platform, I thought it would be prudent to try it out. And I'm impressed. You are able to make a professional, aesthetically pleasing e-commerce store in a few hours. Less if you just want to use their pre-made templates and images. As someone who has little to no coding experience,...

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There is a learning curve. I had many preset expectations on what Shopify did and how it did it based on my experiences with Squarespace, Wordpress, etc. which made the learning curve harder. But I believe that even someone with no experience building websites or an online store will catch up quickly. What kind of got me was the feeling of being entrapped in Shopify's ecosystem. I know building an ecommerce site from scratch would be much much more expensive but I knew if I started with Shopify, it would be difficult to break up if/when the times came.

Beginners can make easy use of this software like I did around 5 or so years ago. Advanced users can toy around with CSS if they want. It's a great platform that has a lot of easy to use and useful features. Great if you want to start simple but eventually learn more and more as you progress and learn advanced techniques. Can't really do that with Wix, and I thought Squarespace would be the same way based on what I've heard about it. Want to open up a store online right away for a low cost and come out with something that looks great with minimal effort? Shopify is for you.

I really don't have anything bad to say. More customization if I want to get nit picky, but I'd just go to Wordpress and build something from scratch there if I needed to, it will just take me longer so Shopify is the way to go as long as it has everything you need, and for a lot of people it does.

So easy to build our website and edit it! Templated sections helped us design without needing a web designer.

You can't change templates after you selected one like you can with Shopify.

Squarespace has a simple step-by-step set up process. I started as a beginner and never had trouble navigating my way through the program.

The shopify platform seems to have a more mobile-friendly e-shop for users.

The inventory backend and order section is easy to use!

The actual site is sometimes difficult to update. We wish it linked to more like shopify now does

Squarespace is very cheap and it did integrate with ShipStation, which was a requirement. It's easy to manage inventory.

Very limited features. There are details you wouldn't necessarily think about, until you don't have them or your options are limited. For example, there is only one message you can send to customers when their order is refunded. Whether the order is refunded for out of stock, or because the customer cancelled, they can only get one message. There is no option for the customer to cancel their order once it's placed, other than manually contacting the company via phone or email. Product upload process is cumbersome and the categories and tagging is very manual. Limited options for promo codes and sales. Example: no buy x product get x product free. No app plug-ins.

I liked that shopify made it easy to create the website of your dreams. The themes were very simplified.

The pricing is a bit much. I also dont like the product page and how complex it can be. That should be simplified as well.

There are some really cool free layouts that shopify does not have, better for regular website, not ecommerce

It is not that great for ecommerce as it is not nearly as efficient or good cusotmer support like shopifuy

This platform allows me to create quick portfolio sites for my clients that have a below average budget. I do not like turning away small businesses due to spend, so this saves me time and gets the job they need done.

I do not favor their base templates and theme management. eCommerce wise, Shopify & WIX definitely outranks their user-friendly integrations.

Easy to use for dummies. More cool functions that WIX

Prefer it could have more integrations like shopify. Lack of integrations make this less attractive for businesses that prefer process automation

For small firms, this software truly offers an all-in-one solution. It makes building a website really simple, especially for individuals who lack a lot of technical or creative know-how. To completely simplify the process of building a website, it offers domain name searches and website templates.

Kind of on the expensive side, would like to see it compete better with others that are out there like Shopify and WiX.

The ease of use, the aesthetic and they seem to always be improving their software and buying new companies to expand third party integrations.

The price has been getting higher and they are second to Shopify for e-commerce but hoping they continue to close the gap.