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Shopify vs Squarespace.
Squarespace sells a website that can take payments. Shopify sells a shop. For a small catalogue the difference shows up in your evenings rather than your design.
Shopify Better for growing a shop
Inventory, shipping, discounts and checkout all work properly at scale, and the app market fills any gap. You pay for that in subscription and app fees.
Squarespace Better for a beautiful small shop
The site around the products looks far better with no effort, and for a small catalogue the commerce features are enough. It stops scaling sooner.
Side by side, honestly.
We include ourselves in the last column, and the last row is the one where we lose.
| Shopify | Squarespace | Avago | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Published entry price | From £19/mo | From £13/mo | Free to build, £34.99/mo to publish |
| Built for large catalogues | Yes | No | No |
| Design quality out of the box | Moderate | Strong | Strong |
| Extra fee for third-party payments | Yes | No | No |
| Writes your copy for you | No | No | Yes |
| Imports from your socials | No | No | Yes |
| Export your site elsewhere | No | No | No |
Competitor prices are the vendors' published UK list prices and change often. Check before you buy.
Where both of them lose.
This is the honest bit, and the last one applies to us too.
Neither writes your product copy
Forty products need forty descriptions, and that is the job that quietly stops shops launching.
Photography is the real budget
At £8 to £40 a product, a modest catalogue costs more to photograph than to build.
Lock-in runs both ways
Neither lets you take the built storefront with you, and nor do we.
So which one?
Questions.
Which is cheaper for a small shop?
Squarespace, on published pricing, and the gap widens once you add Shopify apps. Shopify wins back the difference the moment catalogue admin starts eating your time.
Does Shopify charge extra for using Stripe or PayPal?
Yes. Using a third-party gateway instead of Shopify Payments incurs an additional per-transaction fee on top of what the gateway charges. Squarespace does not do this.
Can Squarespace handle stock control?
Basic stock levels and simple variants, yes. Bundles, multi-location stock and complex shipping rules are where it runs out and Shopify does not.
Other comparisons.
Wix vs Squarespace →
A comparison from someone with no affiliate deal on either. Real pricing, where each one wins, and the thing both of them get wrong for small businesses.
Wix vs WordPress →
One you can use this afternoon, one you will still be configuring next month. Which suits a small business, and what each really costs to run for a year.
Squarespace vs WordPress →
Squarespace looks right out of the box. WordPress does anything, eventually. A comparison for people who want a working site, not a new hobby.