Let’s dive and take an overview of what the heck is Shopify, and how to work with Shopify.

Shopify vs Squarespace: An Overview?

Overview of Shopify

Shopify offers online retailers to promote and create their websites. Shopify is a cloud-based, SaaS (software-as-a-service) that helps you to manage your business online. It’s a complete commerce platform that lets you start, grow, and manage a business online. Moreover, this renders you more flexibility and direct action to access and run your business from anywhere within an internet connection.

Shopify provides you a variety of editing tools that you can use to make your chosen theme fit your brand. Shopify offers online retailers a suite of services “including payments” marketing, shipping & customer engagement tools to simplify the process of running an online store for small merchants.

Overview of Squarespace

Squarespace is another website creator and hosting provider. It allows you to manage your web services, blog, and other business purposes online. On the other hand, it is the best provider and creator that concurrently hosts your website as well. Squarespace holds many features like website design, online stores, and some other marketing tools. In the following section, we are going to discuss each of them one by one.

Besides, it allows you to create any type of website which includes, blog, shop or any business online. Squarespace creates stunning templates, creative pictures for your striking websites or we can say to make your website looks more attractive. In recent years, it has drastically expanded its e-commerce offering, gradually making it a bigger part of its business model to the extent that Squarespace now offers e-commerce focused plans. This has made the major comparison between both Squarespace and Shopify, if not easy.

Shopify & Squarespace both provide everything you need to start your business as an online store but the experience and great potential scope are drastically inconsistent.

How does Shopify work?

Shopify is equitably straightforward – which is sort of their whole selling point. The broad process is as follows –

1. Choose a Shopify plan that suits your budget and feature needs.
2. “Point” your domain that you bought from a registrar like GoDaddy or NameCheap to your Shopify store. You can also buy one via Shopify.
3. Choose a design/template for your store. You can edit a free one via their drag/drop tool or buy a premium one or hire a designer.
4. Add your products, page content, payment options, etc.
5. Go get customers! Here’s an eCommerce marketing strategy to get you begun.

Shopify vs Squarespace: Features

Shopify features

It contains features like, e-commerce, shipping, advanced feature tools, blogging, and other website tools. It is so easy to use that any developer can use it with such an easy mode. Shopify is loaded with many features with both front- and back-end features that let you do much more than simply create your online store (though it does that extremely well too).

1. E-commerce

As we all know somehow, that e-commerce is often used to refer to the sale of physical products online, but it can also describe any kind of commercial transaction that is simply facilitated through the Internet.

1. Custom StoreFronts

At Shopify, the custom storefronts API provides customer-facing access to a shop’s data. This enables you to build customer-facing shopping experiences by accessing the functionality such as managing a customer’s cart, accessing the custom storefronts view of products, and creating checkouts.

Moreover, the storefront API (application program interface) provides you comprehensive creative control to build customized purchasing experiences for your customers. You can use your domain name, or buy one from Shopify. With Shopify, you can easily run your website without any dubiety.

1. Web Hosting

As your online stores’ web host, Shopify ensures that your website stays active 24/7, which renders you an unlimited Bandwidth and a custom email address (only if you’ve taken online through the Shopify platform), and it automatically syncs your contacts to Shopify’s online store.

Squarespace Features

1. Website Design

As we all know a bit concerning website designing, that to create or design a website is not an uncomplicated task for a designer. In concerning all these obstacles, there comes up the best website provider either if you want to create for your own business like brand clothing, blogging platform or any other servicing website (freelancing, information & technology). Square space ultimately allows you to create your website to run your business all per your requirements.

In other words, Squarespace is perfect for creating a professional website. With professional, we intended that eCommerce or online professional business. Squarespace began as a platform that was fully focused on blogging.

1. Modern Templates

Each Squarespace template design has been crafted by their world-class design team. Template designs are created with modern browsers and mobile devices in mind and employ the latest HTML, CSS, and JavaScript techniques.

1. Customizable Content Layouts

Each design is built with customizable content areas that utilize Squarespace’s’ layout engine and content block system. Pages, blog posts, footers, and sidebars can use all available content block type (video, audio, text, markdown, etc.)

Shopify vs Squarespace: Advantages & Disadvantages

Shopify Advantages

1. Fully-hosted, so you won’t have to worry about server maintenance and costs.
2. Numerous Shopify partners that can provide full support.
3. Highly engaged community.
4. Support of multi-channel retailing i.e. online, social and offline.

Shopify Disadvantages

1. Additional transaction fees for using external gateways.
2. No free plan available (except free trial).
3. Customization limited to theme and platform capabilities.
4. No B2B capabilities out of the box.

Squarespace Advantages

It is one of the superior known brands in the website building space. Squarespace does a ton of advertising with everything from podcasts to the super bowl & has a wonderful product with a long trusted history. Let’s dive into its advantages and disadvantages:

1. The templates are beautiful.
2. Your website will be mobile-friendly.
3. Squarespace websites are quite easy to manage.
4. You get 24/7 support.

Squarespace Disadvantages

1. There is no phone support.
2. Pricing is more expensive with Squarespace.
3. There is an overall lack of advanced marketing tools.
4. There is no support for third-party apps, extensions or plugins.

Shopify vs Squarespace: Pricing

Shopify Pricing

Now, if you’ve chosen that Shopify is the most suitable for you and your business then you should check out the Shopify plans they offer. Shopify allows all the basics for commencing a new business’. Shopify offers a basic price plan that is the minimum option you’ll need to set up your e-commerce store.

Squarespace Pricing

They implement manageable plans with simple offers. At Squarespace, you have to pay for just you need. All the plans that Squarespace offers come with award-winning 24/7 customer support. You can change and arrange your plan at any moment.

Shopify vs Squarespace: Themes

Shopify templates

Shopify comprises over 70 premium templates through you can create a custom e-commerce website designs by your own choice or requirements. The Theme Store includes professional looking templates for clothing & fashion, jewelry, electronics, art & photography, and other types of e-commerce sites. Many of the e-commerce templates discovered in the Shopify Theme or template Store have been designed by world-renowned designers including Pixel Union and Clean Themes.

Squarespace Templates

One of the first things people notice about Squarespace is the beautiful & eye-catching templates. With these templates, the result is almost always a clean-modern looking website. Squarespace templates will leave you in awe, you need to try all before starting up your own e-commerce business.

Shopify vs Squarespace: All in All

The big issues that potential customers need to look at when picking up between Shopify vs Squarespace are cost & functionality. Here, if you’re concerned about how much does Squarespace cost, you’ll see it the clear conqueror, particularly for those who want to be able to scale up massively.

On the other hand, Shopify pros tend to love the platform’s high level of extensibility and support. Each system comes away from the clear winner and certain characters or features, but the distinctions in specific advantages will enforce you to think about what your online store is how and what you intend it to be in the feature. The team paradise hopes you’ve attained a lot through this tutorial.

Useful Resources for Shopify vs SquareSpace:

https://www.shopify.com/

https://www.shopify.in/buy-button/squarespace

https://answers.squarespace.com/questions/8322/can-you-integrate-a-shopify-store-into-a-squarespace-site.html

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