Ecommerce Website Builders

Square Online vs Squarespace: They’re Not The Same!

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Despite the similarity of their titles, Square Online and Squarespace are two totally different websites builders for e-commerce. In this article we’ll put our days spent testing and study into action and examine these two platforms in a head-to-head comparison.

Before we start we’ll provide a quick overview for each of the platforms:

Warning: Squarespace was the overall winner of this contest. However, it’s not ideal for all customers. For a more precise description we suggest Squarespace for businesses which are expanding, as well as businesses that are focused on creating an identity that is unique. We recommend Square for brick and mortar stores who are planning to launch online sales or for those with no plans to open an established store and simply want to sell a few items on the internet.

Let’s now find out the way we arrived at this conclusion!

Square Online vs Squarespace: Pros and Pros

Square Pros and Pros

Pros

  • User-friendly: Square’s dashboard is straightforward and user-friendly for beginners.
  • Cheap: You can start selling products for nothing and basic plans are affordable
  • Great inventory management Square makes it easy to keep track of your inventory and stay organized. the track of your inventory

Cons

  • Payment processors with limitations: You’ll have to pay additional charges if you choose not to make use of Square’s internal payment processor.
  • Mediocre templates: Template designs are clean, but uninspiring
  • Customization is limited: Square’s templates don’t offer any design flexibility, which means it’s not possible to modify them in any way.

 

Squarespace Pros and Cons

Pros

  • Amazing templates: Squarespace’s templates are all original, stylish and easy to modify
  • With powerful built-in features: You’ll have advanced marketing tools right at your fingertips
  • Excellent value for money Squarespace isn’t the most affordable e-commerce developer, however you get the value you pay for.

Cons

  • A small learning curve is involved: You’ll need to set aside an hour for getting familiar using the Squarespace editor
  • It doesn’t automatically save all your files: You’ll have to save your work on a regular basis as you go.
  • Support via phone is not available: You can contact our support staff via live chat or email, but not by phone.

Price and Value for the money

Square vs Squarespace: Pricing – Squarespace Wins

Square offers cheaper plans as compared to Squarespace however, you’ll end in needing to upgrade for higher-quality features. Squarespace’s plans are more value for money, which means you get the value you spend for.

Square is less expensive than Squarespace and is therefore the better choice for those staying within a tight budget, but Squarespace provides better price for the money. The features included with Squarespace eCommerce plans are of higher quality than those you’ll find with the cheapest plans offered by Square.

Squarespace’s Pricing Plans

The most affordable e-commerce plan offered by Squarespace is called the Business Plan which is priced at just $18 monthly . We suggest the Business plan for those who are just beginning to sell online and just need to begin with a couple of items.

The Business plan has the user 3% of transaction fees per purchase, which means you’ll soon outgrow it as sales increase. In this situation, we recommend the $26 monthly Basis Commerce Plan which comes with strong built-in features and does not charge fees for transactions.

Square’s Pricing Plans

Square is an unusual e-commerce builder that allows you to sell on the Free program . This is an important perk however we wouldn’t suggest it as a long-term option. There will be advertisements on your website that can make it look less professional. You won’t be able to get a customized domain without making the switch to a paid subscription.

If you choose to switch to a premium subscription, you’ll have three options that range between $12 and $72 per month. Of these, we suggest the $26/month Performance plan since it’s most in line to Squarespace with regards to features.

If you’re on the Performance plan, you’ll be able to email abandoned cart customers to increase conversions, and review customer feedback on your website to boost confidence.

What about additional products?

If you’re willing an extra bit of money into optional tools, then the Squarespace Mail Campaigns option is definitely worth exploring.

This is the internal email marketing service that starts at just $5 per month. At that cost you’ll have the ability to send 500 emails per monthly to an endless number of customers.

The primary benefit of linking your email marketing with your Squarespace website is that your design as well as your branding are uniform and you’ll have the ability to organize everything in one location.

Additional Information

 

Easy of Use

Square and Squarespace: User-Friendliness – Square wins

We tested the user-friendliness We discovered it to be the case that Square is the easier to use platform, whereas Squarepsace is more advanced and powerful.

Signing up

Square and Squarespace both Square and Squarespace have made signing up simple and quick as they can, and we found ourselves more impressed with Squarespace’s process than Squarespace’s.

When we had selected the Squarespace design, we had to go through a short tutorial on using the editor for templates.

Square also provides useful installation guides as you move through the process.

The Square setup guides are helpful, however, you’ll be able to find them in your account after the signup process has completed. We liked how the guidance provided by Squarespace was readily available at a very early point throughout the process.

Controlling Your Store

Dashboard and Products

We tested the user-friendliness We were more impressed by Square due to its simple dashboard. The sidebar menu is on the left side that you can access to view your product catalogs, your categories and other useful information such as your sales for the week or page view.

On the other hand It’s not complicated to use. It’s only a bit more sophisticated than Square (and it shows in the striking Squarespace template designs. We’ll explore within the following section! ).

Squarespace allows you to modify a large amount of information about products without having to leave the editor for templates. With Square it’s possible to modify basic information about the product in the template editor. However, you’ll need to return to the dashboard in order to make the majority of modifications.

SEO

Square allows it to be simple to incorporate SEO(SEO) the best practice in your store. SEO covers everything you could do to improve your site’s likelihood of ranking high in Google results.

A significant portion of small-scale businesses are planning for investing in SEO in 2021. Square makes it a simple investment, with integrated guidelines to help you in the process.

However, the SEO tools of Squarespace aren’t as user-friendly – but they are They’re stronger than Square’s. If you’re willing to learn by doing, the tools offered by Squarespace can aid your store in ranking higherand more efficiently.

Squarespace will also transform your images’ descriptions to alt-text, which is the data Google makes use of to understand images.

Domains

Square and Square and Squarespace allow you to connect your domain in the event that they already own one. It is possible to do this for all of their plans that are paid.

If you’re planning to purchase an entirely new domain name, you don’t have to deal with a third party registrar both Square and Squarespace allow you to search for and sign up for the domain name via your account’s in the dashboard.

This is a huge benefit to both services’ user-friendliness as you can control the details of your website in one location. Domains are at no cost for the initial calendar year of any paid Squarespace or plan. After this, the cost for domain names begin at $20 per year for Squarespace or $12 annually for Square.

Additional Information

Website Design

Square Vs Squarespace Design – Squarespace is the winner

Squarespace’s templates are unbeatable in the stunning design and quality. There is no skills in coding or technology to build a professional looking Squarespace website!

Square: Simple but limited

Square isn’t able to provide a large collection of templates. You can narrow your search for the categories of restaurant, retail and non-profit templates, but there’s not much of difference between them.

Square’s templates are simple and easy for users to navigate. They’re able to do their job however they’re not exclusive. One user said it best:

“It’s easy to alter the template, however there’s only one template can be customized to your preferences It’s not a lot of options except if you’re willing explore design.”

The good thing lies in the fact that Square templates are incredibly simple to modify – you can quickly alter colors, fonts and even your logo.

Modifying fonts and colors can help to add your own personalization.

If you’re looking for simplicity and a secure in terms of design and avoiding clutter, then Square’s templates can work – their minimal options for customization and the standard layouts conform to the requirements of e-commerce best practices, so if you stick with them, you’ll be good. However, if you’re looking to establish your brand, then we recommend using Squarespace instead.

Squarespace: Stunning Designs

The template editor in Squarespace may take a few time to master than Square’s editor, but it’ll generally be easy following the initial. It’s also worth noting that templates are an area that Squarespace is truly excels as it was recognized as the top web design tool for artists through our research.

Here’s what one tester has to say about the course of testing:

“Squarespace’s templates are extremely professional. They offer a wide variety, as well, with Squarespace offering a list of the features each template is equipped with. It is extremely helpful to decide on the features you want to include in the store.”

Each Squarespace eCommerce template comes with a an Products page on which you can showcase your products. It’s simple to personalize any page within your Squarespace template and you are more flexible than you do with Square.

Not only are you able to modify your color schemes as well as font designs, but you can also alter the styles of buttons and change the margins of your site (ideal for any business selling visual goods, such as artists and photographers! ).

The addition and removal of sections on every page can be accomplished by clicking one button. There are many alternatives for different areas,from cleanly designed “Contact Us” forms to maps of your company’s address.

Additional Information

Ecommerce Features

Squarespace vs. Squarespace: Features of Ecommerce It’s a tie!

Square is able to cover all of the essentials very well, and Squarespace is a more robust platform with more features built into the platform.

Square All the basics

It is possible to sell products using Square’s most affordable plan, which is a important benefit for those just beginning their journey. But, unprofessional advertisements as well as a domain that ends with “.square. site” means that most businesses will have to upgrade their plan fairly quickly.

As with all website builders the number of e-commerce features that you can avail with Square will depend on the pricing plan you pick.

In the end, the ecommerce feature that we found most impressive when we tried Square was the management of inventory.

Square lets you make changes to your stock reflect the following modifications:

  • Receiving new stock
  • Recounting inventory
  • Returns to stock
  • The loss of stock is because of damage or theft

This isn’t the most interesting feature but it’s an crucial tool for an online store, and is a significant contributing factor to Square’s remarkable user-friendliness.

Squarespace features powerful built-in features

Although the plans that come with Squarespace’s initial plans have higher prices than those offered by Squarespace, you’re getting the most value for your money with regards to features. We suggest that you choose the Basic Commerce plan for most firms, because it’s more adaptable over the business plan, and includes the features you require to have built-in.

More Information

Payment Options and Transaction Fees

 

Square in opposition to Squarespace Payments – Squarespace wins

Square’s inability to process payments options makes it lag in a position behind Squarespace in this regard. Squarespace is also completely free of the transaction fee on two of its eCommerce plans.

Payment Options

Most web builders provide some options to accept payment on their basic plans for e-commerce, with the possibility of more payment options if you upgrade to an advanced plan.

Square’s most affordable plan provides these payment choices:

  • Square
  • Apple Pay
  • Google Pay

The cheapest plan for ecommerce offered by Squarespace provides:

  • Stripe
  • PayPal
  • Apple Pay
  • After pay (only available only in New Zealand, the US, Australia, and New Zealand)

Since Square connects to its payment processor, the other choices are less extensive than Squarespace’s. The advantage is that using an internal tool will make your work easier as a merchant however, for your customers’ sake, you’ll want to select a web-based builder that is able to accommodate the most diverse payment options as is possible.

Each payment processor will charge their own fees which means you’ll need make payments for the identical fee for processing transactions regardless of the building tool you’re using. The majority of fees for payment processing are fairly similar, for instance, Square, Stripe and PayPal all cost 2.9 30% + 30C/ for each transaction.

 

Transaction Fees

Although payment processing fees are a third-party expense, transaction fees are the amount you pay your web builder for every transaction you complete.

Squarespace charges an 3% transaction fee for the Business plan and does not charge fees for transactions on Basic Commerce and Advanced Commerce plans. Basic Commerce and Advanced Commerce plans.

Square charges 2.9 percent plus 30C/ for its Free Professional, Professional, and Performance plans as well as 2.6 percent + 30Cfor their Premium Plan. When Square is the payment processor you’ve chosen to use Square to process your transactions, that transaction cost is all the one you’ll be charged – you’ll not be charged the exact payment processing cost. If you’re using third-party services such as PayPal for example, you’ll be required to pay for this transaction cost as well as PayPal’s processing fee.

Site and Marketing features

Square against Squarespace Marketing vs Squarespace Squarespace wins!

Both platforms provide good marketing capabilities, however the most advanced plan offered by Squarespace is actually more affordable than Square’s and has the same number of options.

Let’s look at the marketing tools you’ll receive for each platform’s most affordable ecommerce plan. For Square this is the professional plan that costs $12 per month. plan. For Squarespace this is the $18/month Business plan.

Square Professional Plan

  • Pop-ups on websites
  • Discount promo codes
  • Order-related information emails

Squarespace business Plan

  • Pop-ups on websites
  • Discount promo codes
  • Emails with information about orders
  • Analytics on websites

Performance and Security

Square Vs. Squarespace Security It’s a Tie!

The two platforms provide all the fundamentals of secure payments as well as backups for websites.

The two companies Square and Squarespace have your e-commerce store secured when it comes to security. One of the benefits of all-in-one web builders (like the two mentioned above) is the fact that users don’t need to take care of security procedures on your own.

Here’s the content included with the two platforms:

  • Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) Certificates: SSL certificates keep the payment details of your customers secure by encrypting the data that travels from your website server to your client’s web browser.
  • PCI-DSS Compliant: The Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard is an industry standard for security in organizations who handle major credit cards. The two websites Square as well as Squarespace are PCI compatible and, by extension that means your website is also PCI compliant.

More Information

  • Explore the depths of each service by reading the Square Online Store Review and our Squarespace Review.

Switching Process

 

Square vs . Squarespace The Switching is an Unofficial tie!

If you’re planning to change your the website you have in place to Square or Squarespace it is necessary to transfer your content manually.

It’s impossible to download and then transfer an entire website onto Square or Squarespace from an alternative platform. What you’ll need to do instead is create a new website using Square or Squarespace and then enter your existing content manually.

Here’s what you’ll have to know:

  • Register for an account for this new service (either Square or Squarespace)
  • Choose the template and drag-and-drop the editor to create or improve design of the current website
  • Paste and copy content from the previous website to your new. Be sure to choose “paste sans formatting” to make sure you write plain text without unnecessary HTML being transferred from your old site.
  • Rewrite Your Text with Bold, Italics and paragraph options available in the editor you have installed.
  • Upload your photos onto your template

Top Tip: Maintain your old website up to the very last moment

If you’re manually moving an existing website to a new platform, you should keep the old website online for as long as you are able, even if you’ve already transferred the data to your personal computer. This is because you’ll want your website to be available to users as you move it to the new platform. It’s possible to keep your new site in “private” mode until you are getting it ready so that you don’t have two sites up and running at the same time!

Assistance

Square vs Squarespace: Support – Square Wins!

Square surpasses Squarespace by providing phone support. Square also compensates for the absence of live chat by offering a 24/7 chatbot assistant.

The two companies Square and Squarespace did a great job when we evaluated their customer support using our personal accounts.

Square’s “live chat” function is actually an “support assist” chatbot that, although fast and useful but not as effective as talking to a live person:

…Which is the reason we were so impressed by the fact with the fact that Square provides phone assistance. If you get bored of the chat feature, you are able to talk to a representative on the phone. While Squarespace’s live chat lets you get in contact with a live person :…It does not provide phone service, which may be a major issue for certain users.

 

Square Online vs Squarespace: Summary

In this article we’ve looked at Square against Squarespace across the important categories.

Squarespace has been our top top choice. Its combination of amazing designs and powerful features are ideal for expanding their business or creating an individual brand. But, Squarespace isn’t for all people..

Who should use Squarespace?

  • Creators who want to create an unrivalled brand
  • People who are looking for an impressive website where it is possible to sell your personal goods
  • Companies that wish to increase their customers in the future

Who is the best person to use Square Online?

  • Businesses that are just beginning to selling on the internet
  • Brick-and-mortar-based businesses are moving to the internet
  • For those who are just beginning, it is important to connect quickly and quickly

 

FAQs

It’s not! Do not let this name deceive you. Square as well as Squarespace are two totally separate businesses.

You can’t connect to the Square processing company directly to the Squarespace website. If you’re selling on the street you can connect the Point of Sale (POS) system to the Squarespace Commerce app. This helps keep your Squarespace store updated with the latest transactions made in person.

Square as well as Squarespace are top-of-the-line platforms. However, if you’re not convinced that either of them is the right choice for you, read our full analysis of the top ecommerce site builders available. We’ll let you know: Wix gets the number one spot.

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