Shopify vs Squarespace and how to pick the right one for your online store

You’ve got a business idea, a product you're proud of, and a vision for how it should all come together online. But the moment you start building your website, you're hit with a tough question: Shopify or Squarespace?

It’s a common fork in the road—especially for small business owners, freelancers, and creators launching their first online presence. The platform you choose can shape your growth, your user experience, and even your profit margins. Get it right, and your brand can thrive with sleek design, solid performance, and scalable ecommerce tools. Get it wrong, and you might find yourself stuck with limitations, costly plugins, or a site that doesn’t reflect your brand at all.

Shopify and Squarespace are two of the most popular website builders out there. Both offer beautiful templates, powerful tools, and user-friendly features—but they serve very different needs. Whether you're planning to build a full-fledged ecommerce empire or showcase a personal portfolio, the choice between Squarespace vs Shopify is more important than ever.

Shopify vs Squarespace at a Glance

Choosing between Shopify and Squarespace isn’t just about picking a website builder—it’s about aligning with the right platform that supports how you sell, showcase, and grow online.

Both platforms are strong contenders in the modern website space, but their strengths cater to different types of users:

Shopify – Best for Serious Ecommerce Sellers

If your business model revolves around selling products online, Shopify is designed to help you scale with confidence. It offers:

• Robust ecommerce infrastructure with inventory, shipping, and tax automation
• Seamless integration with platforms like Amazon, Instagram, and TikTok
• Built-in payment processing (Shopify Payments) and support for over 100 gateways
• A vast app store to customize features and extend functionality
• Advanced analytics and reporting tools

It’s a full-fledged ecommerce engine, ideal for dropshipping, DTC brands, and multi-product retailers.

Squarespace – Best for Creatives, Service Providers & Simpler Stores

Squarespace, on the other hand, leans into beautiful design and user-friendliness. It’s the go-to choice for creators, consultants, and small shops who want a strong online presence without needing complex ecommerce capabilities. It features:

• Sleek, modern templates tailored for visual storytelling
• Easy-to-use drag-and-drop editor with no coding needed
• Built-in blogging and email marketing tools
• Basic ecommerce tools for small catalogs or service booking
• Lower starting cost for personal and small business websites
  
  

Whether you’re showcasing a portfolio, promoting a local service, or launching a side

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 hustle, Squarespace offers a streamlined experience with everything in one place.

How Easy Is It to Build Your Website?

Before you dive into pricing or features, it’s important to ask: Can you actually build and manage your website without getting overwhelmed? Whether you’re tech-savvy or a complete beginner, the ease of use can make a huge difference in how quickly you launch—and how confidently you grow. Here’s how Shopify and Squarespace compare when it comes to setup, navigation, and user experience.

Ease of Use

A. Shopify User Experience

Shopify is built with ecommerce in mind, which means the platform is packed with tools—but that also means it can feel a bit overwhelming at first, especially if you’re a beginner. If you're just getting started, check out our 9 Essential Shopify Tips to Drive Sales to help you navigate the platform more confidently.

Setup Process

• Getting started is relatively straightforward: choose a theme, set up your products, connect a domain, and you're live.
• Shopify guides you with a step-by-step checklist, but first-timers may need to look up tutorials or rely on customer support to understand key features.

Dashboard & Navigation

• The admin dashboard is powerful, offering access to products, orders, customer data, marketing tools, analytics, and apps—all from a single interface.
• However, the abundance of options can be intimidating if you just want to launch a simple store quickly.
• Navigation is logical and clean, but accessing advanced features like shipping rules or tax settings may take a few extra clicks.

Learning Curve

• Shopify is not hard to use, but it does require some onboarding time to fully grasp its potential.
• Beginners might find themselves searching for definitions (e.g., "collections" vs. "categories") or how to install third-party apps for added functionality.
• Fortunately, Shopify’s support center, tutorials, and community forums are excellent resources.
  
  

Bottom line: If you’re serious about ecommerce and willing to invest a little time in learning, Shopify gives you full control over your store’s capabilities.

B. Squarespace User Experience

Squarespace is widely known for its ease of use, especially for non-technical users who value visual design and simplicity over complex backend tools.

Drag-and-Drop Builder

• You can literally drag text blocks, images, galleries, and other elements exactly where you want them, what you see is what you get (WYSIWYG).
• It’s incredibly intuitive, making it ideal for users with zero coding experience.

Visual Design Tools

• Squarespace offers stunning, pre-built templates that are easy to customize using built-in design controls.
• Fonts, colors, spacing, and layouts can be adjusted with sliders and dropdowns—no need to touch HTML or CSS unless you want to.

Interface & User Flow

• The platform’s layout is clean and minimal, keeping things simple for users who just want to get a site up and running fast.
• Adding pages, blog posts, or products feels natural, and most functions are within a click or two from the main dashboard.

Bottom line: Squarespace is ideal for beginners, creatives, and service-based businesses who want a beautiful website with minimal setup and hassle.

Ecommerce Capabilities

If selling products is your main goal, ecommerce functionality should be at the top of your checklist. While both Shopify and Squarespace offer ways to sell online, the depth, flexibility, and scalability of their ecommerce features are very different.

A. Shopify: An Ecommerce Powerhouse Built for Growth

When it comes to ecommerce, Shopify is in a league of its own. The platform was built specifically for selling products, and it shows in the wide range of tools and integrations it offers out of the box.

Robust Inventory & Order Management

• Easily manage thousands of SKUs with advanced inventory controls.
• Organize products with variants (size, color, etc.) and collections.
• Track orders, monitor fulfillment, and automate stock alerts.

Streamlined Payments

• Use Shopify Payments or integrate with 100+ payment gateways like PayPal, Stripe, Apple Pay, and even crypto wallets.
• Transparent transaction fees and fraud detection tools included.

Point of Sale (POS) Integration

• Sell online and in-person with Shopify POS.
• Sync inventory across retail stores and ecommerce seamlessly.

Advanced Sales Features

• Abandoned cart recovery to bring back lost sales.
• Discount codes, gift cards, and dynamic pricing options.
• Subscription and recurring payment options via apps.

Multi-Channel Selling

• Amazon
• Facebook and Instagram Shops
• TikTok
• Google Shopping

Centralized dashboard to manage all sales channels in one place.

In short: Shopify is built for serious sellers—from startups to fast-growing brands—who want power, customization, and room to scale.

B. Squarespace: Simple Ecommerce for Small Shops and Creatives

Squarespace started as a website builder for creatives, and while it has added ecommerce features over the years, it's still best suited for light to moderate online selling.

Built-In Ecommerce Tools

• Sell physical products, digital downloads, or services directly from your site.
• Manage a small product catalog with basic inventory tools.
• Accept payments via Stripe, PayPal, or Afterpay.
  
  

Simple Checkout & Order Management

• Customizable checkout pages.
• Basic order tracking and tax settings.

Good for Service-Based & Visual Brands

• Great for artists, photographers, consultants, and small shops with fewer items.
• Appointment booking and subscriptions available through add-ons.

Scaling Limitations

• Limited third-party integrations and ecommerce apps.
• No native POS system or advanced inventory tools.
• Multi-channel selling is minimal—no built-in Amazon or TikTok support.
  
  

Bottom line: Squarespace ecommerce works well for simple stores and personal brands, but it’s not ideal for businesses looking to scale aggressively or sell across multiple platforms.

Design & Templates

When visitors land on your site, design is the first thing they notice. Whether you’re building a creative portfolio or a high-converting online store, your site’s look and feel plays a huge role in brand perception and user experience. Here’s how Shopify vs Squarespace stack up when it comes to templates and design flexibility.

A. Squarespace Templates: Stunning Designs for Creatives and Visual Brands

Squarespace is often the go-to platform for designers, photographers, and service-based businesses, and for good reason.

Modern, Elegant Templates

• Squarespace offers a wide selection of professionally designed, image-heavy templates that are clean, minimal, and visually striking.
• Best suited for portfolios, personal brands, blogs, and boutique stores that want to showcase visuals over volume.

Mobile-Responsive by Default

• All templates are mobile-optimized out of the box, ensuring your site looks great on any device, without needing to tweak code or settings.
  
  

Design Controls Without Code

• Users can easily adjust fonts, colors, spacing, and layout with intuitive style editors.
• No coding required, but custom CSS can be added if you want more control.

Verdict: If design is your top priority and you want a site that looks like it came from a creative agency, without hiring one, Squarespace delivers.

B. Shopify Themes: Clean, Conversion-Focused Designs

While Shopify may not be known for artsy templates, it excels in themes that are built to drive sales and maximize conversions.

Professional and Business-Driven

• Shopify’s theme store includes both free and premium themes tailored for ecommerce.
• Most are built with a product-first mindset—clean layouts, product filters, sticky navigation, and fast-loading pages.

Customization via Liquid Code

• Themes are customizable using Shopify’s theme editor for basic changes (colors, sections, layout).
• For deeper changes, Shopify uses Liquid, a proprietary coding language, which allows for robust customization if you’re comfortable with code or have a developer on hand.

Mobile Optimization & Performance

• All themes are mobile-friendly and designed to work across devices with optimized checkout experiences.

Verdict: Shopify may not offer as many design-forward templates as Squarespace, but its themes are highly optimized for ecommerce performance, especially for stores focused on conversions over aesthetics.

SEO and Marketing Tools

Your website’s visibility and your ability to attract, engage, and convert visitors depend heavily on the marketing and SEO tools your platform provides. Both Shopify and Squarespace come with built-in features to help you optimize your site for search engines and manage your marketing strategy, but they differ in depth and flexibility.

SEO Capabilities: Customization & Optimization

Shopify SEO Tools: Shopify provides a strong foundation for SEO, especially for ecommerce stores looking to rank product and category pages.

• Editable Meta Titles & Descriptions: Easily set unique titles and meta descriptions for products, collections, and pages.
• Automatic Sitemap & Robots.txt: Automatically generated and optimized for Google indexing.
• 301 Redirects: Shopify handles redirects automatically when you change a URL, but you can also manually set custom redirects.
• Customizable URL Structure: Clean URLs with limited flexibility (e.g., /products/ and /collections/ are fixed).
• Image Alt Text: Add alt tags for all product and content images to improve image SEO.
• Apps for Advanced SEO: Tools like Plug in SEO and Smart SEO allow more granular control over schema markup, structured data, and broken link checking.

Best for: Ecommerce SEO where product ranking and technical optimization matter.

Squarespace SEO Tools

Squarespace simplifies SEO with built-in features but offers a bit less control over technical aspects.

• Meta Titles & Descriptions: Fully editable for all pages and blog posts.
• Clean URLs: SEO-friendly URLs without clutter or excessive parameters.
• Automatic Structured Data: Schema markup is built into most templates.
• Redirects: Supports 301 redirects via its URL mapping tool.
• Image Optimization: Add alt text and auto-scaled images for faster loading.
• Basic Control Over Robots.txt: But cannot be edited directly.

Best for: Portfolio sites, blogs, and service-based businesses focused on clean SEO basics without getting technical.

B. Built-in Marketing Tools

Email Marketing & Campaigns

• Shopify:
  
  
  
  • Offers Shopify Email, a native email marketing tool for newsletters, product promotions, and abandoned cart emails.
  • Integration with Mailchimp, Klaviyo, Omnisend, and other third-party platforms.
  • Includes email templates, automation triggers, and customer segmentation.
  • Abandoned cart recovery is built-in for higher-tier plans.
    
    
• Squarespace:
  
  
  
  • Offers Squarespace Email Campaigns, integrated directly into the platform.
  • Great for visually branded emails using your website’s fonts, colors, and styling.
  • Features include automation, subscriber lists, and analytics.
  • Ideal for creators or service providers who want a unified look across site and emails.

Blogging & Content Marketing

• Shopify:
  
  
  
  • Has a native blogging engine, but it's relatively basic.
  • Good for simple content marketing, announcements, and updates.
  • Lacks some advanced features like categories/tags flexibility or related post automation unless using apps.
    
    
• Squarespace:
  
  
  
  • Excellent blogging capabilities with tags, categories, scheduled posts, and more.
  • Great for SEO-driven content creators or businesses relying heavily on blogs for traffic.
  • Built-in commenting, podcast hosting, and RSS feeds available.

C. App Integrations & Marketing Extensions

Shopify App Store

• Over 8,000 apps available for SEO, email marketing, pop-ups, social media, SMS, reviews, loyalty programs, and more.
• Popular integrations: Klaviyo, Google Shopping, ReConvert, Loox, Privy, Judge.me.
• Flexibility to scale with paid apps and deep integration with external CRMs and ad platforms.

Squarespace Extensions

• More limited ecosystem of extensions (around 40) compared to Shopify.
• Focused mostly on accounting, shipping, email, and scheduling.
• Native integrations with Mailchimp, Acuity Scheduling, and Printful.
• Fewer advanced tools for marketing automation or customer lifecycle management.

Pricing Breakdown

While both Shopify and Squarespace offer tiered pricing plans to suit different business sizes, the real difference lies in how their pricing reflects their focus.

A. Shopify: Built to Scale with Ecommerce Power

Shopify is designed for businesses that want to grow. Its pricing structure supports everything from small startups to large-scale online stores. What you’re really paying for is access to a powerful ecommerce engine—complete with inventory systems, analytics, multi-channel selling, and customizable features through apps and integrations.

However, keep in mind that the cost can increase depending on the features you need. Premium themes, apps, and third-party integrations often come with additional charges. That said, for businesses looking to invest in serious growth and performance, the value is there.

B. Squarespace: Simplicity and All-in-One Value

Squarespace takes a more all-inclusive approach. Most of what you need—hosting, templates, design tools, and even basic ecommerce features—is bundled into your plan. It’s ideal for users who want predictable pricing and don’t want to deal with add-on costs for every new feature.

While it doesn’t offer the same level of ecommerce depth as Shopify, it covers a lot of ground for creative professionals, service providers, and small shops—without needing to worry about surprise fees.

Ready to Build the Right Online Store for Your Brand?

Choosing between Shopify and Squarespace is just the beginning. Whether you're leaning toward Shopify’s powerful ecommerce capabilities or still weighing your options, one thing’s for sure: a well-built store makes all the difference.

At WhatArmy, we help brands like yours get set up for success—fast, clean, and conversion-ready. From product setup to design customization and backend integrations, our Shopify Store Setup Service gives you a solid foundation to launch and scale confidently.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is Squarespace good for ecommerce?

Yes, Squarespace is a solid choice for light to moderate ecommerce needs. It’s ideal for small stores, service-based businesses, and creators who want to sell a few products, digital downloads, or book appointments. It includes built-in shopping cart functionality, secure checkout, and simple inventory tools. However, if you're planning to scale aggressively or need advanced ecommerce features, Shopify may be a better fit.

Can I switch from Squarespace to Shopify?

Yes, you can migrate from Squarespace to Shopify, though the process isn't entirely automatic. You'll need to manually transfer your content (pages, blog posts, product info) or use migration apps or services that can help with the move. Product catalogs and customer data may require formatting adjustments, but Shopify offers guides and support to make the transition easier.

What is the cost of Squarespace per year?

Squarespace offers discounted rates if you pay annually instead of monthly. While exact pricing depends on the plan you choose, annual billing typically includes a free custom domain and reduced monthly fees. It's a good option if you're looking for predictability and want to save a bit in the long run.

Does Shopify offer better SEO tools than Squarespace?

Generally, yes. Shopify provides more robust and customizable SEO features, particularly for ecommerce-focused sites. You get control over meta titles, descriptions, redirects, and access to SEO-focused apps for schema markup, image optimization, and more. Squarespace handles SEO basics well and is perfectly fine for blogs, portfolios, and simple websites—but Shopify is better equipped for those serious about driving organic traffic to an online store.

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