If you’re in the digital field, you must have heard of Square and Squarespace to create websites. And while both have amazing sets of features, each has its own fan base.
So, in this article, we’re going to do a step-by-step comparison of Square vs Squarespace. Let’s start!
What exactly are Square Online and Squarespace?
Square Online and Squarespace are easy-to-use eCommerce website builders that add great value to your business and are cost-effective. Both of these are different from the other but are always put into comparison with each other. People sometimes prefer Square vs Squarespace and vice versa, but it all comes down to what kind of website outlook you require and what kind of business shift you are looking for.
Square Online is more suitable for physical stores that are trying to keep up with changing trends and are looking to shift to online selling or for people who have a small supply of products and need an online presence to sell their goods. On the other hand, Squarespace is for brands and stores that want to expand and grow and have a uniqueness to their brand.
Pros and Cons: Square vs Squarespace
Following are some pros and cons to consider if you are looking for Square Online for building your eCommerce website.
Pros:
- User Friendly: The website dashboard is easy for beginners and has a later simple outlook to navigate through.
- Budget Friendly: Initial plans for beginners are relatively economical and helps sell the product at a much faster pace.
- Exceptional Inventory Management System: Square Online has a simple yet efficient management system that helps you stay on top of your inventory management plan.
Cons:
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Average Templates: The templates available are simple, easy to understand, yet not inspiring.
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Limited Payment Processors: If you are not initially using Square’s in-house payment processor, you need to pay a little extra to access this feature.
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Limited Options to Customize: The designs don’t have a lot of editable versions, so you can only do much .with the available designs.
On the other hand, the pros and cons of Squarespace are as follows:
Pros:
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Built-in Advanced Features: You will have access to all advanced marketing tools for easy access.
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Amazing Template Designs: The template designs available are not just easy to customize but also trendy and up-to-date.
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Value for Money: At the end of the day, it’s all about value for money, which Squarespace provides its users with.
Cons:
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No auto-save option: Your work will not be auto-saved, but you’ll need to ensure that you keep saving your work along the way.
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Learn the Editor: You’ll need to explore the editor to understand more about it.
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Limited Support: If you have any queries and concerns, you can raise them to the support team via email or chat, but no phone support is available.
Pricing Plans: Squarespace vs Square Online
While one is a cheaper option, it all depends on which one provides value for money. When comparing Square vs Squarespace, then Square is cheaper, but the latter provides value for money based on its built-in features. Choosing the plan that suits your budget and needs depends on your preference.
Square Online Pricing Plans
Square allows you to build an eCommerce platform on its free plan, but it’s not the best option in the long run. On this free plan, while you can sell, it will have unwanted ad pop-ups, making your site look highly unprofessional to visitors. But you can use adblocker, that can help you to get rid of the ads.
If you want to upgrade, you must get on the paid plan. The paid plan has different options, ranging from $12 to $72 per month, but if you are looking for which plan to get on, we suggest the $26 per month plan, also known as the Performance plan. This plan allows you to benefit the most from its features and is the most appropriate plan to enjoy. It also allows you to post customer reviews and send an email to those who have abandoned their carts, to build on customer base and site credibility.
Squarespace Pricing Plans
If you are a new seller or a beginner in this field of business, we suggest you get on the most low-cost plan on Squarespace, which is the Business plan and costs only $23 per month. In this plan, there is a 3% transaction fee on each purchase, but once you have smooth sunning sales, this transaction fee wouldn’t be much of a bother.
On the other hand, if you are looking for no transaction fees and more in-built features, the Basic Commerce plan for $27 per month is the best option. There is a $4 difference between the two plans, and you can choose according to your needs.
Are there any additional features to look into?
Have a little more to invest? Look into Squarespace’s Email Campaign feature, which helps keeps branding on point across your emails and website pages. The monthly charge to avail of an in-house email marketing service on Squarespace is $5 only.
Why invest in this additional feature? Well, if you want consistency in branding and design across all platforms, this additional feature will help you manage that all in one place.
Source: Squarespace
Which platform is more user-friendly?
If we see Square vs Squarespace, hands down, Square will win this one because it is more user-friendly and perfect for beginners, while on the other hand, Squarespace is a little more advanced and requires more hands-on experience.
How to sign up for both?
Both platforms have an easy signup process, which is quick. However, the onboarding process for Squarespace is more impressive. Squarespace provides a mini-guide to edit your template and make adjustments. The setup guide for Square is only available once you have completed the signup process.
Source: Squarespace
Manage your plan: Square vs Squarespace
Products and Dashboard
On the one hand, Square has a simpler dashboard, which is easy to navigate and set up. It has a sidebar menu with different tabs to view different things on the site. It gives weekly insights on sales and performance, which can help you make the necessary changes where needed.
Source: Square
On the other hand, Squarespace is more advanced and a little tricky to navigate through but has amazing customizable templates. It allows you to edit without product information within the template editor, but it’s impossible in Square with this much ease.
Source: Squarespace
SEO
Incorporating SEO best practices are easy in Square, as it helps improve your page's ranking on the SERP. Instead of investing in an individual SEO plan, Square helps you with a built-in guide to help you make investments when necessary.
Source: Square
As for Squarespace, the SEO tool is not so easy to use and is a bit more complex and advanced. It even automatically converts any image description you add into alt text, which is the text Google reads to better understand the image. If you have time on your hand to learn and explore, then Squarespace tools are perfect for you to help your site rank better on the SERP.
Source: Squarespace
Domains
If you already have a domain name. It is available on any paid plan, from the cheapest to the most expensive. If you don’t have a domain name, you don’t need to go to a third party and search through them and register; Square vs Squarespace allow you to search for a domain name and register it to their account dashboards.
Source: Square
This is the ease the platforms provide their users, as they get a one-stop solution to all their queries and concerns. On the paid plans, the domain names are free for the first year only, but later it’s an additional $12 per year for Square and $20 per year for Squarespace.
Website Designs & Layouts
Now let’s look at the different layouts and website designs that the two platforms offer.
Minimal Designs by Square
While Square doesn’t have a variety of templates to use and explore, you can broaden your search to filters like service, retail, restaurants, and even non-profit. While there are not many options, the best thing about its templates is that they are easy to navigate through and understand.
Moreover, according to your brand guidelines, they are easy to edit and change color, size, font, etc. This gives a more personalized touch to your brand site and allows visitors to understand the feel of your brand.
Source: Squarespace
If you don’t want complex designs, then your best option is definitely to use Square templates. Standard layouts allow you a little room to play with and create and design a modest eCommerce website. But if you want to get into more depth and create crazy designs, then Squarespace is the way to go.
Stunning Squarespace designs
As mentioned previously, Squarespace designs are a bit more complex than Square, but once you get the hang of things, it’s pretty easy to navigate. It has an amazing variety of templates, which makes it stand out and helps creators to build the website of their dreams on it. It has awesome online store templates, and they come with the freedom to play around.
Source: Squarespace
The customization is not limited to the font style and color shades but also the overall website layout, including the call-to-action buttons, margins, etc. You can add additional tabs according to your brand.
Ecommerce Features
The competition ties up here as the features are similar for both Square vs Squarespace. While one offers a cheap plan, the other provides value for money with its built-in features.
Want to go basic? Go for Square!
A big win for Square is its cheap plans that allow small businesses and beginners to start somewhere and alter shift to a different plan since it has a lot of pop-up ads that force its user to grow out of the free plan and switch to a more professional option.
The pricing range helps you to go with the package that works best on your budget and with the features that you require to use. With its pros and cons, the best feature to be highlighted within Square is its inventory management system, which updates you on different stock changes. Following are some of the benefits of its inventory management system:
- Check and balance on restocking returns
- Check new stock received
- Recounting existing stock
- Lose of stock due to theft or damage
While it might not seem like an important feature, it contributes to the ease for the creators to keeping track of the inventory.
Looking for more advanced features? Try Squarespace!
While the Squarespace plans get expensive with every upgrade you need, you always get everything worth your month in terms of its special features. The basic plan, Basic Commerce Plan, covers many things for businesses and is recommended if you want even to scale up.
Payment Method, Options, and Transaction Fees
Where Square doesn’t have a proper payment process which is why Squarespace is a better option over it, Squarespace even waives off any transaction fees, as mentioned before, on 2 of its plans.
What Payment Options do they have?
Most eCommerce platforms have a built-in payment portal that allows for smooth transactions and upgrades to different options.
The low-priced plan on Square allows payments through the following:
- Apply Pay
- Square
- Google Pay
On the other hand, the most low-priced plan on Squarespace offers the following payments:
- PayPal
- Stripe
- Apple Pay
- Afterpay (but only available in Australia, the US, and New Zealand)
With its in-house payment systems, Square has more limited options than Squarespace. While the in-house integration makes it easier for the platform, on the flip side of it, you need to ensure that there is ease for the customers as well. As mentioned before, there is a transaction fee regardless of your platform.
Transaction Fees
For each transaction that you make, there is a fee that is charged which is not a part of third-party processing fees. The charges for Strip and PayPal on Square are 2.9% + 30¢ on each purchase, while that for Squarespace is3% for the Business plan and no transaction fee for Basic and Advanced Commerce plans.
Website and other Marketing Features
Square vs Squarespace both offer marketing plans, but it’s cheaper for Squarespace.
Square Professional Plan
With only $12 a month, you’ll get the following features:
- Discounts and Promo Codes
- Website Pop-ups
- Order information emails
Squarespace Business Plan
With only $23 per month, you’ll get the following features:
- Discounts and Promo Codes
- Website Pop-ups
- Order information emails
- Other website analytics
Performance and Security
Both platforms are safe and secure, offering backlinks and secure payment gateways and processes. As a creator, you don’t need to worry about safety and security as they handle it themselves. Both platforms have:
Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) Certificates
This way, the customers' personal information is protected, and all the data is encrypted and passed from the customer’s web browser to the customer.
PCI-DSS Compliance
Websites that handle credit card payments, the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard is an organization that provides a secure payment gateway and handles the backend process.
Both Square vsSquarespace are PCI compliant; hence so is your website.
Switching Process
If you want to move or switch from one platform to another, from Square vs Squarespace, or vice versa, the move needs to be manual in terms of content. There is no option to download and import the data. Following are the steps that you need to follow:
- Sign up for a new plan with either of the new platforms
- Select a template and modify it according to your required layout
- Copy and paste; make sure you paste without formatting so that there is no old site link
- Reformat your text according to the new site
- Upload images to the new template that you’ve selected
Help and Support
Both have a decent support channel. Square has a live chatbot, and you can switch to phone support anytime. On the other hand, Squarespace has a live chat feature with a real person on the other end but does not offer phone support.
Source: Squarespace
Source: Squarespace
Square vs Squarespace - Key Takeaway
In most of the features, Squarespace is the real winner with its amazing design and features. It provides people a platform to explore and create their brand identity.
Who should use Squarespace?
Since Squarespace is not for everyone, it should be used by the following:
- Creators who are looking to build their brand aesthetics
- People who are more into website aesthetics and want to sell their items
- Businesses who are looking to grow over time
Who should use Square Online?
- Beginners who are looking to sell new items
- Businesses looking to switch from a brick-and-mortar model to an online business
- Beginners who want to start small and grow easily and quickly.
Tags: square, square vs squarespace, squarespace
