Big Cartel is a website builder designed specifically to support creative artists selling their products or services online. With reasonable value for money and an expansive suite of features, its basic plan allows you to sell five physical or service products.
However, for advanced marketing and sales tools you will require third-party apps with separate monthly charges.
Cost
Big Cartel is an eCommerce website builder tailored towards small, individual sellers. Free to use, this tool features such as blogs and SEO tools to help expand your business while providing numerous payment options – though its competition, Shopify may provide more features than Big Cartel does.
Big Cartel and Squarespace both provide free trials, giving you the chance to explore their sites before deciding. Following your trial period, you can upgrade or downgrade your account at any time; Squarespace gives you access to many templates; both sites feature online store features; you can even integrate a blog or social media links into your site!
Big Cartel may be ideal for beginners because of its user-friendly interface and straightforward setup process. Its simple design also makes it perfect for hobbyists or artists hoping to showcase their work online. However, if your plan involves selling more than a handful of items simultaneously, other platforms might be more suitable.
Squarespace boasts an expansive selection of templates and offers a comprehensive platform. Their collection offers templates to fit a range of industries and purposes, as well as multiple layout options. However, customizing one of their templates takes more work than with others; therefore, for more advanced sites it may be beneficial to hire a web designer.
One of the key differences between Squarespace and Big Cartel lies in how each handles customer support. Squarespace boasts a helpful knowledge base with answers to frequently asked questions, plus phone, email and live chat support Monday-Friday from their customer service representatives.
Big Cartel’s user-friendly interface is ideal for newcomers to online selling, yet some advanced features are missing – for instance, creating multiple product pages or offering various types of goods isn’t possible and its highest tier plan only supports up to 500 physical and service products at one time.
Squarespace stands out from Big Cartel by not charging transaction fees when making sales. Users can choose a free plan, while annual subscription plans offer discounts. In addition to eCommerce features, Squarespace provides other apps designed to enhance websites: marketing/promotion apps; store management applications and domain providers.
Customization
Big Cartel is an eCommerce website builder designed for small-scale sellers of handmade or vintage products, featuring customization options and automatic SEO. As it does not incur transaction fees or annual turnover limits, this cost-effective option may not meet everyone’s needs, as well as not offering as many built-in features; plus monthly costs may be higher.
Squarespace is a comprehensive and powerful website builder, featuring an easy drag-and-drop editor for effortless website creation without needing coding skills. Squarespace was specifically created with no-code users in mind and boasts an easy onboarding process; however, for beginners who lack experience it may prove overwhelming.
Both website builders offer an attractive selection of templates, though Squarespace stands out with a larger library than Big Cartel. Squarespace templates look fantastic and can be modified easily for any brand; additionally it’s possible to add HTML code for advanced users if needed. Both website builders provide phone and email support.
Big Cartel does not provide built-in blogging functionality, making it difficult and time consuming for users looking to use it as both an online store and blog. Third-party apps may allow for adding a blog feature but this method requires significant work.
Squarespace provides greater flexibility when it comes to selling physical and digital products as well as services, like consulting or software development. You can create multiple product categories with varied display styles; import products from other websites (like Etsy ) into Squarespace easily as well.
Squarespace provides users who need to manage inventory with integrated tools that make life easier – including payment processors, marketing and promotion tools, domain providers and payment processors. You can even integrate other business apps to streamline running your online store.
Security
Big Cartel is a managed ecommerce platform tailored towards artists and small retailers, offering website templates with an easy onboarding process for even novice users. Furthermore, this platform boasts various built-in features designed to increase search engine optimization while simultaneously creating engaging brand presence.
Big Cartel website editors are user-friendly and provide plenty of customization options, such as changing logos, colors, font sizes and layouts. However, for more advanced modifications you may require knowledge of HTML or CSS coding; and lack of features like product videos and zooming tools could prove to be detrimental for shoppers.
Squarespace provides more robust eCommerce tools and is best suited to larger retail businesses that want to sell multiple products. It allows both physical and digital sales, supports various payment methods, allows in-person payments at retail events such as fairs or markets and allows drop shipping so your physical goods never have to remain in inventory.
Big Cartel provides basic marketing, customer service, and reporting tools as well. Squarespace’s analytics feature gives an in-depth view of customer interaction while its email marketing tool makes sending targeted emails a snap. Unfortunately Big Cartel lacks these features; nonetheless they still contain certain metrics and reports.
Big Cartel only allows for selling physical products directly, and to add digital ones you must purchase an additional plugin. Unfortunately, Big Cartel lacks its own blog feature; therefore if you wish to include one with your store you will require third-party applications instead.
Big Cartel remains an ideal option for small retailers despite its limitations, thanks to its user-friendliness and low learning curve. However, more advanced retailers who require advanced features may find other systems more suited.
Support
Big Cartel provides an array of ecommerce features. This includes shipping tracking, coupon and promotional code support, analytics reporting and in-person payment via Square readers (ideal for craft fairs or similar events). Furthermore, it provides a basic free plan enabling sellers to sell five products. Lastly, all orders can be managed from a central dashboard interface.
Big Cartel provides important SEO tools for online businesses, which is vital for growth. It automatically allocates alt tags to website images, offers 301 redirects and search-engine-friendly URLs, as well as quality SEO page settings. However, blogging functionality cannot be found within Big Cartel; third-party apps will need to be utilized if this feature is desired for your store.
Squarespace provides users with an array of templates that are well-designed and straightforward to personalize, thanks to their user-friendly interface. Text, images, and videos can all be added quickly – helping users quickly build unique, professional-looking websites in minutes. Furthermore, they feature commenting features, scheduled posts, multi-author functionality, AMP support as well as multi-author support in all their eCommerce templates.
Big Cartel and Squarespace both provide various payment options, including PayPal, Stripe, and Square. Both platforms also allow customers to customize their sites with custom domains and SSL certificates for additional customization options. In terms of extensions – plugins which add features to websites – both platforms offer similar libraries; though Squarespace boasts more available plugins.
Big Cartel can be an excellent option for independent artists and small retail stores with limited catalogs of physical goods, but for more advanced eCommerce features and tools that help you expand your business, Squarespace may be better.
Big Cartel and Squarespace both offer customizable templates, making it easier to fit your brand’s aesthetic. While both platforms cater to users with no coding experience, Squarespace boasts a larger library than Big Cartel as well as more robust features at more competitive pricing points.
