Square vs. Squarespace: The Ultimate 2024 Review
Square or Squarespace? You are probably thinking of building an e-commerce store, and after hours or days of rigorous research, you narrowed your research down to the best two; Square and Squarespace.
Square and Squarespace are two different website builders that are great for building eCommerce platforms; they both offer good eCommerce features and affordable paid plans.
However, each platform was designed with different target audiences in mind; therefore, they have varying benefits and features one can stand to gain.
After rigorous research coupled with my familiarity with Square and Squarespace website builders, I have come up with a detailed review of each platform, highlighting the similarities and the key differences between both platforms.
Best Overall
Ease Of Use:
Easy to use, intuitive interface. Small learning curve.
Design:
Over 100+ Predesign Templates +full design flexibility.
Pricing:
You can test it for Free. The starter plan starts at $16
Budget friendly
SquareUp
Ease Of Use:
Small learning curve when you get started with the platform.
Design:
Predesign sections are available. Limited customizations.
Pricing:
Free To Use: No setup fees or monthly fees — only pay when you take a payment.
Square vs. Squarespace: the good and the bad for online business
Square Online Pros & Cons
Square Pros |
Square Cons |
|---|---|
| Free Plan: You can start your online store right away on Square and get access to basic eCommerce options |
Limited Customization Square website customization is pretty limited, making it hard to tweak or build a unique template for your Square online store. |
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Robust Product Management Square online inventory management is super easy and can be done from a single dashboard. Online stores can keep track of their products and stay organized. |
Boring templates Although the templates are clean, most of them have similar layouts and can become boring. |
|
Affordable Plans Square offers one of the most affordable paid plans for online stores. |
Limited Payment Processor Square does a great job in integrating its Point of Sale system, Square. Despite having Square as a payment processor, it still offers a few third-party payment processors. |
Squarespace Pros & Cons
| Squarespace Pros | Squarespace Cons |
|---|---|
|
Powerful eCommerce and built-in website features Squarespace comes with advanced commerce functionalities that sponsor growth and effective store management, making it ideal for both small and large online stores. |
Website requires getting used to Squarespace may seem a little techy for new users, so it requires some time before getting used to its editor. |
|
Beautiful Template Designs Unlike Square, Squarespace offers stunning template designs. Squarespace's templates are versatile, clean, and come with a dynamic layout that can make businesses stand out |
|
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Advanced Customization settings You can make tremendous customizations to your templates and even add codes to tweak the appearance of your templates. |
Square vs. Squarespace: Pricing
Verdict: Square offers cheaper plans than Squarespace, but in the long run, Squarespace offers a higher return on investment when compared to Square.
Square Online Pricing Plans
When it comes to comparing the pricing of Square Online and Squarespace, Square is cheaper than Squarespace. In addition, Square comes with a free plan that offers all the necessary eCommerce tools. As expected, there is a tradeoff. The tradeoff is annoying ads, inability to use a custom domain (there will be square.site on your website address), and limited bandwidth of 500MB.
Square free version is great for businesses just starting out, but it is not feasible for long-term online stores. Sooner or later, you will need to subscribe to their paid plan.
Square Plans are as follows:
Free ($0): You get access to a free website with SEO tools, Afterpay, pickup, delivery and shipping, self-serve ordering, integration to square pos, etc
Professional ($12/mo): Free custom domain, no ads, password-protected pages, etc.
Performance ($26/mo): Abandoned cart recovery, PayPal payment processor, product reviews, gifting options, etc.
Premium ($72/mo): low processing rate, real-time shipping, etc.
Out of all these plans, we recommend the Professional $12/mo if you are just starting out, and you are on a tight budget. The Performance Plan ($26/mo) is the best option if you have a fairly large store and want to grow your customer base.
Squarespace Pricing Plans
Although there is no free website plan, Squarespace offers 14-days free trials and no transaction fees on some paid plans. Squarespace's e-commerce plans start from $27/mo (basic plan) and move to $49/mo (advanced plan). However, if you are just starting out, and you offer a few products, you can start with Squarespace's business plan tagged at $23/mo.
Squarespace Pricing Plans are:
Business ($23/mo): Fully integrated eCommerce, 3% transaction fees, unlimited products, POS, etc.
Basic commerce ($27/mo): 0% transaction fee, product reviews, customer accounts, eCommerce analytics, checkout on domain, limited availability labels, advanced marketing tools, etc
Advanced commerce ($49/mo): Abandoned cart recovery, advanced shipping, commerce APIs, etc.
We will recommend the basic commerce plan if you have a fairly large eCommerce platform or if there will be growth in the future.
Square vs Squarespace: Ease of Use
Verdict: Square's online user interface is more beginner-friendly, with an easy editor and organized product management dashboard. Squarespace, on the other hand, offers more tools but needs some time to get familiar. In other words, Square wins.
Signing Up
Signing up on both platform is pretty straightforward; although Square online ask for more information than Squarespace site builder, that is no hassle. While Square is a compiled guide that helps you get started, it is not easily accessible.
On the other hand, the Squarespace help assistant menu pops right up once you choose a template and offers helpful texts and short videos to guide you through the journey, which is quite impressive when compared to Square
related article: A Complete Guide To Setting Up A Store On Squarespace (With Video!)Managing Your Store
Setting up and managing your eCommerce store is super straightforward on the Square eCommerce platform. On Square, you can get an overview of your product, such as product categories, orders, weekly sales, etc., from the sidebar dashboard. In contrast, Squarespace only allows you to make basic product details changes from the template editor. If you are looking to make some advanced changes, you will have to go to your website's dashboard.
SEO
Both Square and Squarespace have SEO tools designed to rank your online store on search engines. The two sites' SEO is robust and functional enough. They both come with Meta descriptions, SEO titles, permalinks, etc.
However, when it comes to ease of use, Square online store SEO tools are easier to understand and manage when compared to Squarespace's SEO tools. Squarespace SEO requires a little learning, but is highly effective in ranking your online store.
Third-Party Apps Integration
Squarespace and Square have a vast library of third-party useful app’s integration that you can operate from your dashboard. As Squarespace rightly states, they are all accepted, and Squarespace ensures that it runs smoothly on your website. Also, Square offers more integrations in the restaurant and bookkeeping section.
Domain and Hosting
Both websites did a great job in domain and hosting. It is super easy for you to connect your domain to your website if you already have one. You can purchase a domain right from your Squarespace or Square account if you don't. The cherry on top is that domains are free for the first year on both Square and Squarespace paid packages.
Square vs Squarespace: Website Design
Verdict: When building websites, the looks also matter. Squarespace does a far better job in the web design section. Squarespace comes with a more clean and unique design and higher flexibility in customization. In contrast, Square themes can quickly become boring.
Square: Website Design
Square themes are clean, simple, and easy to navigate. Any visitor will find your store intuitive and user-friendly. Also, you can customize colors, fonts and add your company's logo, but it doesn't go beyond that. Adding CSS codes or making advanced customization can be difficult.
Squarespace: Website Design
Squarespace gets all the accolades in the web design section. Squarespace's templates are intuitive, clean, and versatile. There is enough room to customize your site and create a unique store that stands out from every other store.
With Squarespace, you can customize fonts, colors, buttons, margins, section blocks, and much more. It is super easy to customize any page on Squarespace and add different blocks to your field, ranging from forms, maps, summary blocks, search bars, and many more.
Square vs Squarespace: Ecommerce features
Verdict: Both platforms offer the basic eCommerce tools to run a successful eCommerce store. However, Squarespace offers extra features such as automatic digital product delivery, advanced eCommerce statistics, and advanced discount codes.
I will take some time to explain some key eCommerce functionalities that each platform offer because that's the juice of the article
Adding And Managing Stock: Having an eCommerce platform that allows you to add and manage stocks without hassle is one of the major priorities of an online store; thereby, great inventory management tools are a priority.
On Square; you can update your inventory to display
Inventory recount: It replaces the current stock total with the new number you enter
Stock received: Add the number you added to the existing number.
Damage: Decrease the current number by the number of damages you enter.
Pop-up Promotions: Both Squarespace and Square offer pop-up promotions, which are great for advertising new products or important services when a visitor lands on your site. This is particularly useful for online stores and can be a game changer.
Customer Accounts: Squarespace allows customers to create their personalized accounts on your website, which have its own advantages. Customers will be able to complete checkout processes faster, leading to more sales at your side. Also, having customers signup will help you manage their details and create effective email campaigns.
Social Media Integration: Both Squarespace and Square allow you to connect your social media to your website to increase sales. Squarespace allows you to sync your products with the Facebook catalog and tag products in your Instagram posts.
Shipping and delivery: For shipping, both Square and Squarespace offer standard shipping methods like Flat rate, free shipping, order total, item quantity, real-time rates, and so on. You can also add a form to capture the delivery details of your customer.
Square offers an on-demand delivery that allows you to work with a third party courier that comes to your location to pick up the product and deliver it to the right customer. In addition to on-demand delivery, there is also in-store delivery where customers can walk into your physical store to pick up their orders and in-house delivery.
Subscriptions and Digital Products: While both platforms allow digital products, Squarespace is the best platform if you are offering digital products. Squarespace automatically delivers your digital file or link to your customer when an order is successful, while Square online does not. On Square, you will need to manually send your digital product to your customers.
Also, you can sell weekly or monthly subscriptions for services or digital products and get recurring revenue on Squarespace and Square
Point Of Sale: When it comes to payment processing methods, Square Online integrates its popular POS system known as Square, which makes it easier for you to manage your online sales. However, it is limited to other payment processors, which may pose a problem for your customers.
Squarespace, on the other hand, integrates more payment processors than Square. Your customers have access to Stripe, PayPal, Apple Pay, and other payment processors.
Discount/Promo Codes: Having the ability to offer discounts that automatically apply to orders without manually applying them is also one thing to watch out for on any eCommerce site. Squarespace and Square offer an advanced discount feature that automatically applies to every purchase.
Afterpay: Squarespace and Square offer Afterpay and Clearpay in case you want to integrate the buy now, pay later method to your online store. Your customers will have the chance to purchase products from your store with one installment.
While Afterpay is possible on Squarespace, it is only limited to physical products. Squarespace doesn't allow the buy now, pay later method for digital products.
related article: 6 Simple Website Launch Announcement Ideas & GraphicsSquare vs Squarespace: Payment and Transaction Options
Verdict: While Squarespace doesn't charge the transaction fee, you will need to connect to a payment processor, like Stripe or PayPal, which has transaction fees. Square transactions fee is 2.9% + 30¢.
Payment Options
Payment is important in every online store, and the more payment options one have, the more option your customers will have to pay.
Square
Square Online Store integrates with its POS system known as Square, which accepts credit card payments. Unfortunately, that is your only real option if you use their free website version. However, they integrate with PayPal, Google Pay, and Apple Pay on the Performance or Premium Plan
Squarespace
On the other hand, Squarespace offers more POS system options than Square. You can accept payments for online sales with PayPal, Stripe, Apple Pay, and Afterpay (limited to the US, Australia, and New Zealand), giving your customers more options to pay for their purchase.
When it comes to payment processing fee, it is a standard rate charged by the third-party payment processors, so it doesn't affect the ranking of both Square and Squarespace. Most third-party charges 2.9% + 30¢ on each purchase.
related article: 41+ Best Squarespace Plugins For Your WebsiteTransaction fees
Transaction fees are a percentage your site builder charges on each transaction, and they are totally different from process payments fee.
Square
Square charges a transaction fee on all their plans, the only difference is that the transaction fee reduces on higher plans. Square charges 2.9% + 30¢ on free, professional and performance plans, and 2.6% + 30¢ on its Premium plan. However, you are exempted from processing fee if you are using Square as your online payment processor for your online transactions.
Squarespace
For Squarespace, a 3% transaction fee is charged if you are on business plan, and 0% transaction fee is charge is you are on higher ecommerce plan.
related article: 31+ Best Bakery Websites Inspiration & TemplatesSquare vs Squarespace: Website And Marketing Features
Verdict: Square has a lower plan price than Squarespace, but Squarespace offers more features than Square, which makes their pricing worth each penny. Besides, Squarespace's most expensive plan is still cheaper than that of Square online
Each commerce plan comes with different marketing features that will be of benefit to your online store. The higher your commerce plan, the better the features. Let's take a look at some features you will enjoy on the Squarespace plan.
We will look at both the high and low-range plans of each platform:
Square
For the low range, we will compare Square's Professional Plan to Squarespace's business plan
Square professional plan
Promotional pop-up
Order information email
Discount codes
Remove ads
Social Media marketing
Square Premium Plan
Advanced eCommerce statistics
Real-time shipping
Squarespace
Squarespace Business Plan
Promotional pop-up
Order information email
Discount codes
No Ads
Social Media marketing
Advanced website analytics
Squarespace video studio app
Squarespace Advanced Commerce
Advanced shipping
Commerce APIs
related article: How To Create A One Page Website With SquarespaceSquare vs Squarespace: Security and Performance
Verdict: Square vs. Squarespace Security and Performance feature is a tie. Both Square and Squarespace offer premium protection for your online store.
SSL Security Certificate: An SSL Certificate encrypts your online store' data and creates an encrypted channel between your website and your client's browser. Therefore, credit card details, login information, and clients' information cannot be stolen. Both Square and Squarespace websites have a SSL certificate
PCI-DSS Compliance refers to 12 security standards protecting customers' card data. Squarespace and Square online are PSI compliant, which automatically means your online store is PSI compliant
related article: 29+ Premium Squarespace Templates Shop For Any BusinessSquare vs Squarespace: Website Migration
Verdict: Moving your content from an existing website has to be done manually on both platforms, but Square online has a more tedious process than Squarespace.
If you have an old website that you would love to import to either Squarespace or Square online, you will need to open an account with either of them and export your content manually from your previous website.
To move your content from an existing website to Squarespace or Square, here are the processes to follow
Create an account: You can start a free trial or pay for a plan on Squarespace or Square
Select a template: The next thing you want to do is to find the right pre-built templates for your online store. if you are purchasing a premium template, ensure you've installed the template on your Squarespace or Square website.
Import pages: On Squarespace, you can import blog pages from WordPress, Blogger, and Tumblr using this guide. To import product pages, you have to use a .csv file. Here is a guide for importing from Big Cartel, Esty, and Shopify.
You will need to use the copy and paste format for other content. Here are some tips to pay attention to
Tips
Ensure that your old site is live until you are through importing
Remove text formatting to stay clear from HTML tags
related article: How To Add Blog Sidebar To Squarespace 7.1 ( Video Tutorial )Square vs Squarespace: Help and Support
Verdict: Square online does better than Squarespace by offering phone support.
Both platforms offer excellent customer care support and help. Squarespace offers 24/7 live chat and email support. On the other hand, Square claims to offer a live chat feature, but it is just a chatbot programmed to reply to messages easily. They make up for it with their phone support that allows you to speak with a real person.
Also, Squarespace features a large helpful library, periodic webinars, and a large online community that is ready to help you with your pending questions.
Square Online vs. Squarespace: Final Verdict
Who is Squarespace best for
Squarespace is best for small businesses that are looking to offer fairly large products online. It has robust functionalities like inventory management, eCommerce statistics, abandoned carts, etc.
Squarespace is particularly good for digital products because, unlike Square online, where you have to manually fulfill digital items, Squarespace automates the process.
Overall, we will recommend Squarespace for businesses serious about building a unique online brand and have a long-term goal of expanding and massively growing their products.
Who is Square Online best for
Small business owners just starting out, brick-and-mortar businesses, and restaurants keen on booking tools will find Square Online useful. Square Online offers easy inventory management, robust eCommerce tools, and an easy interface.
Another worthy feature Squarespace Online has is the Pay later feature, which is particularly helpful for stores. The pay later feature allows customers to purchase a product without paying the full price. They can pay in interest-free installments over a period of days or months.
Overall we recommend Square Online for Restaurants, small and new businesses looking for a budget-friendly yet good eCommerce website building platform
related article: Showit Vs Squarespace. Which One Is Right For Your Business?FAQs
Does Squarespace use Square
Short answer Yes. Square has a payment processing integration, which could be connected to your Squarespace store. Squarespace and Square are separate companies. Square started off as a Point of Sale integration for other eCommerce platforms, but after the purchase of Weebly, they created their own eCommerce platform known as Square up or Square Online. Squarespace, on the other hand, is a website builder that can be used to build different types of websites, from blogs to real estate. However, they offer robust eCommerce functionalities that make them a great platform for eCommerce stores. Therefore, Square and Squarespace aren't the same company.
Is Squarespace website good for Online Business
Squarespace is an award-winning website builder that comes with advanced functionalities ready to scale your business to newer heights. Online Businesses depend on SEO and website features that will help their business grow, and Squarespace offers all that and even more.
Can I offer digital products with Square Online Store
Yes. You can offer digital products with Square Online. You follow virtually the same process as uploading a physical product. However, when a purchase is made, you will need to manually email the link or file to the customer, which can quickly become tiring if you get hundreds of orders daily.
Square and Squarespace have a lot of unique features to offer, depending on your business goals. We've gone through each platform, and I hope you were able to decide the best platform for your business this Square vs. Squarespace Showdown.
Looking for a unique website design for your business? Explore our Squarespace Web Design packages for a stunning website. Need to enhance your site's visibility? Our Squarespace SEO services are here to assist you. Curious about our work? Take a look at our Squarespace website designer portfolio for some inspiration!
