Although Squarespace and Squarespace may sound like they are two pieces of the same puzzles, they offer very different solutions with distinct benefits. We’ll be looking at Squarespace and Squarespace today to help you choose the right one for you.
You need to know a few key things if you want your business to succeed in the online world. Number one is a clear understanding of the products and services that you are offering. Understanding your market and target audience is the second. A website is the third item you should have on your checklist. It can be used to display your products and facilitate transactions.
Today’s business owners have the good news that there are plenty of ecommerce website builders. There seems to be an inexhaustible selection of products available, from WooCommerce and Shopify to Magento and Wix. Today’s entrepreneurs face the greatest challenge: finding the right solution.
Squarespace and Squarespace:
Let’s first take a closer look at what Square is and Squarespace.
Square is a point of sale provider that allows companies to accept and process payment using a wide range of high-level devices. Square is most well-known for its card readers, which allow companies take payment virtually anywhere without the need to register.
Square is more than meets the eye. It’s best-known for its point-of-sale systems. However, it also provides tools for inventory management and product administration, as well as specialist systems for bars and restaurants.
You can use Square to make payments in the real-world, but you have decided to go online to access all of the functionality.
Squarespace is a platform for building websites. Squarespace doesn’t allow you to manage an offline store, but it allows you to create a website for selling online with pre-built templates. You can’t use third-party apps or extensions.
Squarespace is not perfect, but it can accomplish a lot. Squarespace websites allow for eCommerce, online transaction processing, and access to many payment systems, such as Stripe, PayPal, and Square. Squarespace can be accessed for payment processing in other ways, even if your Squarespace site is not available.
Square vs. Squarespace: Features
When comparing tools such as Squarespace and Square, the most important thing is what each tool can do for you. As mentioned, Square is not an online store service. Square was originally created as a point-of-sale provider. This is still a major aspect of what Square has to offer.
Square allows you to accept in-person payments in your store. There are also unique tools that can be used for specific purposes, such as reservation systems or restaurant management tools. Square doesn’t require you to create an online store, but it is possible.
Square’s online storebuilder Square Online is as simple to use as the rest. You don’t need any coding knowledge or skills and can immediately start building your website with unlimited hosting and a free URL. Access to responsive website design tools and inventory management services as well as integrated reporting that allows you to track your results.
Your Square Online can seamlessly integrate with other Square products. You can also use other payment methods with your shop depending on what package you buy. Although Square may not have as many advanced features than some of its competitors, it still offers plenty.
Squarespace, however, is all about digital store building. Squarespace is the ideal tool to build a website if you want to show off your creativity through blogging and create a beautiful website. Squarespace has a similar blogging function to WordPress. There are tons of options and a great form builder.
Squarespace gives you all the tools you need for great online experiences. Squarespace is a powerful publishing platform that hides behind its stunning interface. There are dozens of great templates available to help you get started.
These templates are among the best available, and you can combine them with “starter designs” for your site. You can customize pages and content, duplicate pages and have access to CSS.
Squarespace’s mobile app lets you manage your website from anywhere, including adding blogs to your workflow to be published later. Squarespace can be used to sell products, subscriptions, digital content and other services.
Square vs Squarespace: Pricing
While pricing should not be the only consideration when choosing an online store builder service, it is an important one. It’s not possible to afford high-end digital tools.
The good news? Square Online makes setting up different types of online stores relatively easy. You don’t have to pay transaction fees and there is a free plan. Payment processing fees are charged at 2.9% plus $0.30 per sale. That’s all. However, there are limitations to this free option. For example, you can only accept Square payments.
You can access the following:
- Professional — $16 a month
- Performance — $26 a month
- Premium — $72 a month
If you are willing to pay annually, the premium packages offer a slight discount. All paid plans include unlimited storage and the ability to remove Square ads from any site. The more you pay, the more features you can access, such as third-party integrations and Facebook ad management.
Squarespace pricing also is quite simple. For $16 per month, the personal site is the cheapest, but it doesn’t provide access to store building functionality. The full list of available options includes:
- Personal — $16 per month
- Business — $26 per month
- Basic Commerce — $30 a month
- Advanced Commerce – $46 per Month
Only the personal plan offers eCommerce. All other plans let you sell unlimited products. Advanced commerce plans offer the most functionality including abandoned cart recovery, discounts and real-time shipping calculation.
You can avoid transaction fees by choosing Basic or Advanced commerce. However, you will still need to pay processing fees for your chosen payment processor.
Square vs. Squarespace: Easy of Use
After you have determined which store building solution is best for your budget, it’s time to think about ease of use. To build a successful business, you must feel confident using the tools. Square Online is simple to use and allows you to sell anything from digital products to physical items.
You can accept donations and sell tickets for events. It is easy to set up your website. You can also manage your inventory via the back-end using an intuitive interface.
Square Online has a variety of themes that you can choose from to build your store. The templates also look professional. You can access all templates from Square Online without worrying about your customers not being able access them. After you have chosen the right theme, you can add additional information to your store including the URL.
You can also set up additional integrations with your store, such as BigCommerce and Weebly links. If you prefer Square for payment processing, you can use Square.
Squarespace can be used in a similar way and is ideal for those who want to stand out online. Squarespace is a popular website builder that allows you to drag and drop. The clean interface allows you to access many features and offers many editing options that will make your site stand out.
The boxes that appear when you edit a page will let you make changes to its color scheme, layout, and background images. Squarespace follows the “what is shown is what you get” style of editing. This means that you can see the changes you made in the backend and see how they will look on the front-end. WordPress is an example of this.
Square vs. Squarespace: Product Management
It’s not easy to run an online shop.
Management of products and inventory is one of the most difficult tasks business leaders must face. This can be made easier by Square or Squarespace. Square will sync your inventory between your online and offline accounts if you already use Square as your point-of-sale system.
This means that if you sell a product in real life, your online inventory will shrink. This is a great benefit for anyone who wants to sell both online and offline simultaneously. Square automatically updates your inventory when you join the online marketplace.
You can import the items you wish to sell as soon as your store is set up. It’s easy with an intuitive user interface. You can also add modifiers to your items, such as colors or sizes, and any additional accessories to the purchase.
Square Online allows you to organize all your products into categories, making it easier to manage. You can simply go to your dashboard and update your items later if you don’t want to add a category or include sales tax information.
Square allows you to add advanced options to products. You can, for example, change the visibility of an item in your store depending upon whether you are ready to launch a new product. You can also manage inventory using the following features:
- Bulk upload options
- Low stock alerts
- Notifications regarding inventory levels
- Inventory level tracking
- Online and offline sync automatically
- Product customizations
Squarespace doesn’t offer as many inventory management options for online stores, but it has a lot more to offer. The Squarespace mobile and online apps have an inventory panel that allows you to view your inventory from wherever you are. You can view the price for each item and how many products you have available.
Squarespace makes it easy to set up product pages. It’s possible to do this on your iOS app or on a computer. It takes only a click to add product to your product page. You can set the product’s price, add important information and photos. You can also modify the stock levels for each product individually or in bulk.
These features include:
- Product details can be edited, uploaded and organized
- A mobile app lets you manage your inventory and products.
- Subscribe to products
- Allow limited availability labels
- Notifications of low stock
- Limitations on service product
Squarespace and Square Online also allow you to connect with different payment processors. However, you can only use Square as your sole option if you have a free website account.
Square vs. Squarespace: Customer Service
When you look at site builders, it’s easy for customers to forget about customer service. You should focus your attention on the credit card payment options and delivery methods. You need to ensure that you have the right support before you build your eCommerce store. Square lets you contact them via @SqSupport or by filling out an on-line form.
However, the Square support page does link to a Weebly site. Square offers most of its site-building functionality through Weebly rather than creating its own tool.
Square also offers its own knowledgebase, where you can search for information.
Square Knowledgebase is a place where you can get your support by yourself. This is a comprehensive resource for anyone who wants to get started in the sales market. You can browse the articles, see screenshots and find other helpful tidbits. You can also visit the strong seller community to get additional guidance.
Squarespace offers customer support via email guidance or live chat. These are available between 4am and 8pm EST. Unfortunately, there is no phone support. This makes it difficult for Squarespace users to reach someone who can help them with their Squarespace tech problems.
The live chat system makes it easier to quickly get information, whether you need SEO support or help with social media connections. Small business owners who don’t like to call for help may prefer the live chat service.
Square Pros and Square Cons
It is sometimes easier to decide between two solutions that will allow you to take credit card payments and grow your online business by creating a pros-and-cons list. Square is a great tool to help you grow if you are just getting started in the market. You can get started quickly and don’t need any technical knowledge to do so.
Square can be used to quickly process payments, integrate with other shopping carts and create beautiful product pages. You will need to pay more for tracking and analytics. However, you can’t instantly link your store to your social media accounts and there aren’t many payment options on the initial package.
Square Online can also pose a problem for your online business in shipping terms, as it is difficult to set different prices for products that you wish to ship.
Square Pros
- Predictable and convenient pricing
- Start with a free option
- This is a great option if you use Square offline payments
- It’s great for tracking payments via apple pay or credit card
- Custom domain options available
- A wide range of payment options that all work together
- There are many useful themes available.
Square Cons
- Shipping rates are not the best option
- Better customer service is possible
- The best features are available for high-cost accounts
- Problems with account stability could be common
Squarespace pros and cons
Squarespace allows individuals and companies to create a website that is flexible enough to be used by anyone. Squarespace allows you to create a stunning website that is mobile-friendly and comes with ecommerce store features. Squarespace offers more than other ecommerce solutions on the market. You have access to API functionality, which allows you to add your own elements at a deeper level.
Squarespace is like many hosted ecommerce tools. You can try some functionality before you pay. This might be a good option if you aren’t sure what you need. You can choose your payment method even for the lowest priced packages, unlike Square. Squarespace and Squarespace offer many payment options for most packages.
Squarespace is an excellent tool for anyone looking to create an online store, POS system and website tool. It also offers access to email marketing and blogging.
Squarespace Pros
- Beautiful templates, some of the best on the market
- SEO tools and content management with blogging functionality
- The image management system is excellent, and there are many tools for importing images.
- There are no transaction fees
- You can use a variety of features, including video backgrounds.
- Many design customization options
- Integrates with many third-party tools to provide all types of online functionality
- Already built email marketing tool
- A great range of additional features
- It doesn’t take a lot of knowledge as a web developer
- This template is suitable for either a blog or an ecommerce website.
Squarespace Cons
- Isn’t the best GDPR compliance
- There are limited payment gateway options and no tax calculation.
- There is no auto-saving option available for pages and posts
- The SEO functionality could be expanded
- The app store isn’t as well-stocked as other options.
- Only available in certain countries
Verdict
If you are looking for an integrated solution to your offline point-of-sale system, Square is the best choice. It will be easy to integrate Squareup.com with your offline payment system for your online shop. This company will help you go from selling on Etsy, to owning your eCommerce website in no time.
Square is simple to use and has a variety of pre-determined pricing plans. There’s even a free option! You can also track a variety of payment options. There are many themes you can use to make your store stand apart, but there are other products that offer more extensive features.
Square Online has some issues with account stability and customer service isn’t great. Square may not be the easiest way to calculate shipping rates.
Squarespace is a great way to create a stunning website using some of the best themes. Video backgrounds can make your website stand apart and you don’t need to be a developer to do so.
Squarespace does not charge transaction fees. People also love its SEO and content marketing capabilities. Squarespace is limited in access to offline point-of-sale tools and doesn’t have a lot of options.
If you are on a search engine trying to find the best website building service, we recommend that you compare both options. Try out the features and get a feel for it. Then, make your decision based on what you find.