Shopify vs SquareSpace: Head to Head Comparison

Sei o tatou talanoaina Shopify vs Squarespace.

But first, listen to this:

E ui lava i le mea moni ou te matua aafia ai i lalolagi o Shopify and Squarespace—site building, shop-building, ecommerce, etc—I tend to mix these two names up.

Why? Well, I suppose because I frequently see advertisements for the both of them, and they’re the two big “S” names in building software.

E ui e faʻamaoni e lua kamupani faʻapopopo, e eseʻese foi. Shopify o le sili pisinisi igoa i totonu o polokalame e-commerce, ma faʻafaigofieina sili atu $ 82 piliona i faʻatau atu talu ona faʻavae i le 2006.

Squarespace saunia faigofie le 'upega tafaʻilagi fale ma na faʻatuina i le 2003. Atonu e le o se tasi e sili ona lauiloa tufuga website (e leai saʻo a matou numera mo nei mea, e faamaoni), ae e mautinoa lava o se tasi o ituaiga sili ona lauiloa.

O kamupani nei e lua e mafai ona fai mai, o se vaega o la latou lauiloa, o le tele o igoa tetele na sainia i luga o latou tautua. Se ulugaliʻi ShopifyO kamupani tetele e aofia ai le kamupani a Kylie Jenner ma Nestle.

Squarespace, focusing more on an appeal to creatives, has Idris Elba and Keanu Reeves under its belt.

Oi talofa. E manino, Shopify and Squarespace are leaders in their respective fields. Suppose these two big names were to clash—who would win?

This isn’t a hypothetical, of course. Website-builders almost always extends into ecommerce, which means shop building. While pretty much all the popular easy website creators advertise ecommerce functions, Squarespace is unique in its core focus on freelancers, creatives, and pisinisi laiti.

O lea e i ai le faʻaluaina, ma le tauvaga faʻafiafia maua ai. Sei o tatou vaʻai iai.

Shopify vs SquareSpace: Who has better pricing and features?

Sei o tatou vaʻai muamua i tau ma foliga e te mauaina mo latou.

Squarespace’s prices are a tad more complicated in relation to Shopify's.

Squarespace has two types of fuafuaga, e tasi mo e-commerce ma le isi mo 'upega tafaʻilagi, ma taʻitasi ituaiga e lua ituaiga. E te manatu i lena mea ona o loo tatou faatusatusaina Shopify, we’d only need to look at these two Squarespace plans. Nope.

Squarespace’s “Business” tier for normal sites also has ecommerce functionality.

This means you actually can get ecommerce software through Squarespace for the starting price of $18 a month. If you do so, you’ll suffer a 3% transaction fee, but you can add pop-ups, sell unlimited products, accept donations, get a free domain, and basically use a full ecommerce suite (including inventory tracking, order management, etc).

Afai e te manaʻo e faʻaogaina le fuafuaga "faleoloa i luga ole laiga", e te maua ai nisi faʻamanuiaga faʻaopoopo i mea uma o loʻo i luga: e mafai ona e aveʻese atoa totogifuapauina fefaʻatauaiga, maua ni tagata le faʻatapulaʻa tupe, ulufale atu i tulaga sili atu pisinisi, faʻaaoga lomia lolomi, maua se siaki saogalemu i luga o lau lava 'auʻaunaga, faʻaopopo tagata faʻatau tusi poʻo saofaga, ma sili atu.

Of course, some perks are reserved for different tiers, but with a range of $18 to $40 a month (billed annually—these are pricier if paid monthly), Squarespace manages to provide a ton of ecommerce tools and perks.

Nei mo Shopify.

E tusa ai ma fuafuaga autu, o le ulufale mai tulaga amata e te amata i mea uma e te manaʻomia ma o le tele o fuafuaga e faʻaopopo ai nisi mea faigaluega ma mea aoga (ae maise totoga mea aoga). O faʻamatalaga autu e aofia ai faʻatapulaʻaina oloa ma le faʻatulagaina o tusi, le faleoloa atoa-fauina polokalama, paʻu code, faʻatau auala, ma isi.

E le gata i le aufaigaluega teuga tupe e mafai ona e ave e tusa lava po o le a lou tulaga, ma tagata i le muamua tisaina le mafai ona faʻaaogaina pepa meaalofa poʻo le avanoa i lipoti alualu i luma.

I loʻu poto masani, fale teu fale faakomepiuta faʻapea ai ma oloa, faʻatonuga, coupon, ma le paʻu fausiaina e matua malosi ma Shopify. E mafai ona e faʻatonutonuina mea ma se tulaga lelei lelei auiliiliga, ma e sau uma i fafo o le pusa.

This is also true for Squarespace in my experience—Squarespace doesn’t simplify or reduce the details you can manage in your store, though it’s not fully on Shopify's le tulaga.

Squarespace offers a slight advantage in having a single-page checkout option. Shopify leai, tusa lava pe o e faʻaaogaina Advanced Shopify. Lenei e le o se tele faʻaletonu, ae o se mea e ofo ai mai le taʻutaʻua ituaiga (pei ona e manaʻo e faʻafaigofie e faigofie i au tagata faʻatau ona faʻatau).

E tusa ai ma uta vaʻaia, o loʻo ofoina uma e kamupani ni penefiti ma ni paʻu, ae ese lava auala.

Shopify'uta faapau e maualuga, oʻo i le 64% mo Basic Shopify ma le 74% mo Advanced Shopify. E ui lava e le o le a tatau ona maua nei aofaʻi i taimi uma, latou tele tupe paʻu e faʻafaigofie tele mo tagata faʻatau le okaina o au oloa.

E le gata i lea, o tala uma e tatau ona lolomiina igoa o loʻo lafo atu, ma o loʻo i ai i le lua a fuafuaga ua iai le USPS Priority Mail Cubic tau - o lenei mea e totogi ai afifi e faʻavae i luga o le lapoʻa, ae le o le mamafa (i lalo o ni faʻapitoa) e mafai ona faʻaititia tele tau mo tagata faʻatau.

O nei mea o se vaega o mea e avatu Shopify such tremendous appeal to businesses of all sizes. How does Squarespace fare?

O le "upega tafaʻilagi" fuafuaga ma e-commerce faʻagaioiga leai se mea o loʻo i ai vaʻaiga faʻapitoa totogi. Ae peitai, o le "faleoloa i luga ole laiga" fuafuaga e faia: maua uma lolomi igoa lolomi, faʻapea foi Shopify. Ole vaega pito i luga, ole komipiuta uta mamao, e aoga tele ShopifyFuafuaga o loʻo i ai uta calculators.

Squarespace’s “Advanced Online Store” plan lets you apply free shipping discounts to products automatically at checkout. You can’t set shipping rates per-product, so a free shipping option would be made available to all customers—it’s a little complicated and you need to be in the Advanced plan to exert the amount of control over it most desirable.

The less advanced Squarespace plans will let you create discounts that customers can apply to shipping—thus less directly offsetting the charges. It’s a bit complicated: you can read iinei mo faʻamatalaga auiliili.

Ae paga lea, Shopify and Squarespace take some transaction fees. Theses vary plan to plan: ShopifyO le vaega pito sili ona maualuga o loʻo i ai le tau maualalo i le 2.4% + $ 0.30 mo le faʻatauina i le initaneti mai le kata. Tau e eseese pe a e faʻaaogaina ShopifyO le tagata e faia le gaosiaina e ave ai peimeni totogi, faʻaopoopo ai ma totogifuapauina mo le faʻaaogaina o seisi totogifuapauina totogi e ese mai Shopify Tupe totogi.

Squarespace only takes transaction fees for its Business plan (as mentioned), the second “Websites” tier. O se tasi o nei mea e lua o loʻo fuafua e aveese ai le totogi o feuiʻaiga i luga o le initaneti, e le manaʻomia ona e alu mamao e aloese mai ai.

Tasi le mea mulimuli ou te mauaina le taua taua: pa'ū. Shopify o se alamanuia taʻitaʻi vaega ona o le faigofie ona faia dropshipping. Dropshipping uiga o oe, se tagata e ona le faleoloa, o le ai ai le lona tolu (tamoe o se fale teu oloa, masalo) utaina se oloa na faatonuina e se tagata faatau tuusao i le tagata faʻatau. O lona uiga e faʻaaogaina e le tagata faʻatau lou faleoloa, ae e te le faʻapipiʻiina oe lava i le oloa.

Shopify faaaogaina Oberlo to make dropshipping incredibly easy. And it works, honestly, like a wonder. Squarespace has a corollary: instead of Oberlo, Squarespace integrates with Lomia.

O le faʻafitauli o le naʻo oe faʻaaogaina le Printful tuufaatasia faʻatasi ma le Advanced faleoloa fuafuaga (le maualuga vaega) ma tagata i Shopify mafai ona faʻaogaina Oberlo i soʻo se vaega, faʻaopoopo ai ma le Oberlo ua matua saoloto fua e faʻaoga i le umi e te maua ai se Shopify teuga (e ui lava e mafai ona e faʻaleleia mo maualuga Oberlo vaega).

O nei mea e taua, ae, a e faʻatuina se laiga i luga ole laiga, foliga ma isi mea, mea e le masani ai o mea moni e taua tele vaega o e-commerce faʻagaioiga foi.

Shopify vs SquareSpace: Who has better templates and apps?

Mamanu ma mamanu e taua tele mo mea uma e lua Shopify and Squarespace—both market themselves as great places for beautiful storefronts and sites. If you’re looking into ecommerce, having an online store that looks great to your customers is highly important.

Uma kamupani ofoina se tele o auivi, ma o mea uma e lua lelei.

Shopify ofo mai ni nai tasene aututele o latou na totogi.

Squarespace offers a similar number of themes, but there’s a catch.

The catch is that most of Squarespace’s themes are for ordinary sites. If you go to online store templates, there are only a few to choose from. You can add a store to another template, but it’s more of a hassle than it needs to be.

I loʻu manatu, uma e lua Shopify and Squarespace have beautiful themes. I’d say I generally prefer Squarespace’s themes and find Shopifyfoliga foliga tutusa lelei — e ui i lea, e o se mea e mataʻina. Talu ai ShopifyO autu o loʻo faʻapitoa uma mo faleoloa, ou te fai atu ai Shopify manumalo mo autu / templates.

Ae peitai, e tusa ma le faʻatonutonuina ma tulaga o mea na faia i luga o le upega tafaʻilagi, ou te avatu Squarespace the award. It’s not a huge difference, but Squarespace places heavy emphasis on style and design, and this investment of energy has returned very well.

Le isi, o le faleoloa o le faleoloa e tulaga ese ese taua peʻa faʻaaogaina se faʻatau pisinisi. Manaia le maua o le tele "i fafo o le pusa" pei ona e mafaia, ae e te le mafai ona faʻalagolago i taimi uma.

Shopify leads when it comes to apps and installations, in my opinion. Squarespace builds in a lot of integrations into the platform, which means you don’t use an app store for installations. Some integrations are included by default, and others can be enabled if you’re willing to pay.

You can view the full list of integrations Squarespace supports iinei, but it’s a decent enough list. Certainly, all the popular apps and add-ons are supported by Squarespace, and in some ways it can be really cost-efficient when they’re included.

Shopify ese. Shopify ua i ai le sili atu aga masani app store fausaga mo ona faʻapipiʻiina. Atonu e foliga mai o se mea sili ona leaga, ae ou te le manatu o le - e moni, e mafai ona sili atu taugata i nisi taimi.

The benefit is that you can access more than with Squarespace. Admittedly, most of what you’d be interested in is included on Squarespace, but ShopifyO le fale teuoloa a le polokalama e olaola ma tupuola. E mafai ona e mauaina sili niche faʻatasiga, faʻatasi ai ma le tele o lauiloa lauiloa o nisi taimi saoloto.

E taʻitaʻia ai tatou i le tatou isi itu taua tele: faʻafaigofie ona faʻaaogaina.

Shopify vs SquareSpace: Who is more easy to use?

Ease of use is a huge deal for SaaS (software as a service) companies. It’s all the rage these days—popular software and websites try to be sleek, modern, clean, and usable. Squarespace and Shopify aemaise lava maketi moni i latou lava o taʻitaʻi i le faʻaaoga-faauo mea fatufatu.

Here’s Squarespace, for example, advertising its easy product management:

Ma o le a avea lenei Shopifye tutusa:

Na malamalama uma kamupani i le manaʻoga o le faigofie ona faʻaaogaina lelei. Mea e laki ai mo matou, e lua kamupani ola e oʻo i a latou lava hype.

Shopify and Squarespace both incorporate a lot of features and allow users to edit things to a high degree of detail, but make it clean and straightforward at the same time—a more impressive feat than you might think.

Ole vaʻaiga lautele lea o SquareSpaceO le laupapa laupapa

ma o lenei le vaʻaiga lautele o ShopifyO le laupapa laupapa

On this note, I think Squarespace does a little better.

Faʻapitoa faleoloa faʻamatalaga e uiga tutusa faigofie ma malosi i luga o kamupani uma e lua (ui Shopify e sili atu loloto i le loloto), ae lelei sili teuteu mamanu Squarespace. E le naʻo ni faʻataʻitaʻiga e te mauaina, ae o mea faigaluega ma mea e te mauaina mo le faʻatonutonuina o na auivi.

Se mea ou te fiafia tele i ai Shopify and Squarespace is they make things easy for advanced users. Specifically, both companies let customers edit code directly if they choose to. This can allow for a great degree of detail and control if you or someone on your team has programming knowledge.

O le mea le lelei iinei o soo se tasi e manaʻo e faʻaauau Shopify tatau ona aʻoaʻo ShopifyO la latou lava mamanu tulafono, Liva. E iai le poto masani o le polokalame e mafai ona pikiina i ai, ae e sili atu le faʻalavelave nai lo le mea e tatau ona iai.

On Squarespace, knowing the popular languages Javascript and CSS is all you need.

In short, I give credit to both companies for making things easy for developers and advanced users to take full control of their site should they wish. This mitigates the dumbing-down effects an “easy” builder application can have. Specifically, Squarespace is easier for developers who want to edit directly.

To put all that together, both Squarespace and Shopify e sili faigofie e faʻaaoga ma taofia le tikeri o le pulea e aunoa ma le ositaulagaina o le tele o le aoga.

O leo o lenei mea o le Shopify is slightly better for in-depth store details, and Squarespace is better for design. Plus, Squarespace is easier for programmers, though both Shopify and Squarespace are programmer friendly.

Shopify vs SquareSpace: Whose customer support is best?

A o ou faia se manatu o le faʻamamafaina, e oʻo lava i "faigofie" le faʻaaogaina o manaʻoga e manaʻomia ni tautua lagolago lelei O faigata faʻapitoa e tupu e oʻo lava i mea sili ona lelei, ma e oʻo lava i tagata lalagaina tagata faʻaaogaina e manaʻomia vave faʻamatalaga i luga o le fou.

uma Shopify and Squarespace have truly excellent customer support. However, I have to say that Shopify alu le maila faaopoopo, o lea o le a ou amata ia i latou.

O le mafuaaga muamua e ala ai ona ou fai atu e mafua lenei Shopify faataga oe ulufale atu i sui e ala i talatalanoaga ola, imeli / tiketi faiga, ma telefoni. Ma le isi mea, i loʻu poto masani, sa fesoasoani tali malo ma fesoasoani.

E sili atu nai lo sui faʻamaoni. Shopify ei ai le tone o luga ole laiga punaoa. O nisi o mea taua ia e masani ona e vaʻai, pei o le malamalama malamalama (e faʻaigoa foi o le Help Center).

O le malamalama faʻavae e lautele e pei o le sili ona lelei o latou, ma le lautele o mataupu o tala. Mautinoa lava, e mafai ona maua lau fesili ese ma le faapitoa i luga o le Fesoasoani Center.

Shopify i ai le blog, e sili ona taatele, ae o loʻo i ai aʻoaʻoga punaoa e sili atu tutasi ma loloto. O se tasi o faataitaiga o le a Shopify akademia, lea e i ai fua vasega e mafai ona aoga mo tagata amata. O le isi faʻataʻitaʻiga taua o le ai ai Shopify's faʻalapotopotoga lautele, lea e mafai ai ona e ulufale i totonu ShopifyLe lapoʻa faʻaaogaina tagata ma o loʻo aoga tele mo faʻafitauli ma fautuaga.

O le isi o le Shopify taiala, o se aofaʻiga faʻaputuga o faʻaavanoa ebooks o loʻo i ai le lautele pisinisi ma fautuaga e-commerce. Shopifyle lua 'podcast e tutusa, se isi faʻaopoopoga mo i latou e fia vaʻai, ma le pisinisi encyclopedia E le o se mea ou te masani ai e aoga ae e manaia lava le iai.

Shopify Palemia o se sili-loloto loloto taiala i ShopifyFuafuaga o mamanu. O se mea e le masani ai punaoa, ae mafai ona avea ma se mea e te faʻasaoina ai pe a fai o loʻo fausia nofoaga mo tagata faʻatau (pe tusa foi mo oe lava).

mulimuli, Shopify saunia ni mea e leai se totogi e mafai ona aoga mo tagata amata.

Ioe, ioe. Oi talofa. Shopify clearly has a ton of resources, and even if some are fluffy, a lot aren’t. How on earth can Squarespace live up to this?

Well, Squarespace starts with pretty good customer representatives and an accessible means of contacting them: live chat or email. Unfortunately, there is no phone support yet.

E le afaina pe a, aua o sui e aulelei tali ma fesoasoani e ala i ola talatalanoaga poʻo imeli.

The cornerstone of Squarespace’s onsite resources is its malamalama malamalama.

Squarespace’s knowledgebase isn’t as in-depth as Shopify'a, ae o loʻo lelei pea. E aofia ai foi video tutorials mo i latou e fiafia iai i le faitau tusi.

Squarespace offers a lot more aside from its knowledge base. For example, Squarespace has webinars, se blog (toe, e masani lea), ma a fono. Ou te mauaina le fonotaga ina ia le sili atu le malosi nai lo le ShopifyAe o se mea lelei.

Squarespace also brings a lot to the table when it comes to customer support and resources. The reason I grant the win to Shopify o i ai isi avanoa mo le faʻafesoʻotaʻiina o sui, ae maise o loʻo i ai isi punaoa ma o punaoa ua tele ina loloto.

Who is more secure and reliable?

Ia, mo le mea mulimuli i la matou lisi siaki: puipuiga ma le faʻatuatuaina. E te le manaʻomia aʻu e taʻu atu ia te oe pe aisea e taua ai le saogalemu ma le faʻatuatuaina o le faʻatautaia o se pisinisi i luga o le initaneti, o lea ia tatou oso i totonu.

E leai se tasi oa matou tauvaga fai mai se tone e uiga i lo latou saogalemu, ae e le o lona uiga latou te leai. Latou faʻapea latou taua i luga o latou tusipasi mo le gaosia o peimeni ma faʻamatalaga a tagata faʻatau, e foliga mai e sili le lelei seʻi oʻo ina e iloa o lo o faʻailoa mai ai se faʻatulagaina (e ese mai i se mea i luga atu o se tulaga faʻatatau)

Squarespace is significantly better in outlining its security practices, though it’s slightly out of the way.

Ou te fautua e siaki le itulau itself if you want to see the full details for yourself, but the short version is that yes, Squarespace takes all the appropriate measures. Firewalls, internal monitoring, secure servers, DDoS attack prevention protocols, etc.

And of course, Squarespace and Shopify saunia le SSL mo teuga tupe uma.

I le taimi nei, e tusa ai ma le faʻatinoga, ua naʻo loʻu lelei o mea na tutupu i kamupani taʻitasi. E aofia ai e le gata i le taimi i luga ma tulaga saosaoa, ae o le aso ma lea aso faʻaaogaina o le polokalama. Ou te leʻi feagai ma mea faʻaʻaisa itulau, nofoaga faʻalavelave, poʻo se isi lava mea matuia popolega.

These companies are both industry leaders with large thanks to their reliable performance. As far as security goes, Squarespace clearly is more transparent, but I don’t think it’s necessarily more secure than Shopify.

Taofi i lou mafaufau lena mea Shopify tautua nisi o kamupani lapopoa i le lalolagi (ma ioe, pisinisi-vasega saogalemu o le a mautinoa lava maualuga atu nai lo le masani tala - e ui i lea, o le tulaga e tu) ma na faafaigofieina le fiasefulu piliona o fefaatauaiga, o le saogalemu atonu e matua malosi.

Shopify vs SquareSpace: Which do I Recommend?

It’s time to put everything we’ve talked about together. Which is better—Squarespace, or Shopify?

Matou te iloa uma e leai se tasi telē e fetaui lelei i uma, ma Shopify and Squarespace clearly have some different pros and cons.

Uma ia saogalemu ma faatino lelei. E tofu lava i laua ma ni tagata lelei lagolago, e ui lava ou te manatu Shopify e tausolomua.

E tusa lava ma le faigofie ona faʻaaogaina, e sili uma mea uma, ae Shopify is better at store details and Squarespace is better at site design. Plus, Squarespace is easier for programmers who want to edit a site’s code.

E tusa ma le mea na oʻo i ai, Shopify has a larger selection of online store-specific templates but Squarespace has a larger selection of templates in total—they just may require some extra steps to turn into stores. Design capacity is better with Squarespace, peitaʻi.

Squarespace’s integrations are mostly included in the Squarespace infrastructure and there is no app store. This can at times make things easier and more affordable, but ShopifyO le faleoloa polokalama o loʻo sili atu le soona faʻalelei ma filifiliga (e ui lava e mafai ona taugata i taimi).

As far as price and overall go features go, things get dicey. Squarespace is of course much cheaper, and Shopifyo le laina e sili atu taugata (e ui lava e amata i se sili ona taliaina manatu i loʻu manatu).

Squarespace is very well-featured for its comparatively low prices, which at first can make it seem a better deal.

faaopoopo i ai, Shopify is better for those who wish to scale their stores, which explains part of the prices, and the tools you get out of the box can be very in-depth if you wish them to be (though Squarespace’s aren’t bad either).

Although Squarespace foregoes some of the things that make Shopify sili atu taugata nai lo le mea e tatau ona iai, e pei o le tuʻuina o faʻavae autu i vaega maualuluga ma le faʻatagaina o totogi fefaatauaiga, Shopify o loʻo sili atu le malosi sili filifiliga e-pisinisi.

Ou te fai atu atoa Shopify maua mai laʻu fautuaga. Mo i latou faʻatau atu numera o oloa for whom shipping is not a major cost, Squarespace might be better. But for anyone planning on shipping regularly and/or in large quantities, Shopify is easily the better option. It’s also a better option for those who are particularly anal about controlling store details—Squarespace can be very detailed as well, but Shopify faʻaaogaina se faʻamalosi tino aoga pe a manaʻomia.

Ae talofa, afai e te le mautinoa, e mafai i taimi uma taumafai i latou! Shopify e 14-aso free trial ma Squarespace faʻatagaina oe e nofo i se faʻataʻitaʻiga maua fua seʻia e sauni. Alu i luma ma alu i fafo, au uso-getter!