Comparison between Shopify vs Wix vs Squarespace

Shopify vs Wix vs Squarespace is confusing to choose according to Different businesses and requirements. Some require collecting donations, some like to show food menus and collect orders, and some require selling digital products online. In a nutshell, they have different requirements to attain their business goals. They need a website template that suits their demands.

When we talk of Shopify vs Wix vs Squarespace, Shopify is the giant e-commerce customizable platform that is good for e-commerce businesses of all sizes. The other two, Squarespace and Wix, are pure website builders that provide various options like E-commerce through add-ons, apps, and extensions. Wix deals in apps and extensions, and Squarespace deals in add-ons. 

The three masters support a unique set of businesses with templates, apps, extensions, and add-ons. Shopify braces E-commerce businesses of any size, Wix supports small businesses, and Squarespace supports businesses that require websites where aesthetics and design are the key.

Various website templates, features, and functionalities help them support multiple types of businesses. Let’s compare them and see where each of these stands out. 

Shopify vs Wix vs Squarespace

When we talk of Shopify vs. Squarespace or Shopify vs. Wix, we end with a set of features and functionalities based on which these comparisons take their final shape and differentiate the three services, approving one as an E-commerce giant and others as cutting-edge website builders with a set of add-ons, apps, and extensions. Let’s consider each feature and find how Shopify vs Wix vs Squarespace stands out. 

Shopify vs Wix vs Squarespace – Plans and Offers

Shopify leverages users with starters, basics, advanced, Plus, and Enterprise plans that require different subscriptions. Shopify also offers a free trial offer, where you can register through your email and use Shopify at no cost for three days without any credit card. You can also use Shopify for a meagre amount for the first month.

However, it does not offer a completely free website builder option, which Wix Offers. Wix offers free website-building features with basic options that suit small businesses. Apart from this, it provides many other plans like combo, unlimited, basic business, VIP, and others. However, the significance lies in its free website builder option, which makes it suitable for small businesses. 

Squarespace offers personal, business, essential, and advanced commerce plans. They all come at a cost. While Squarespace does not offer free website builder options, it provides a 14-day free trial. We can register with our email address and use it for 14 days for free. 

What do Wix and Squarespace offer?

So, while Wix offers free website builder options that suit small businesses the most, Squarespace offers stunning responsive website templates that suit businesses like restaurants, photography, non-profit companies, and portfolio types of requirements where aesthetics and designs are the key. Both Wix and Squarespace are good options when we talk about blogging. 

What is the Shopify Basic Plan, and why should we know? 

The Shopify basic plan costs around $39 per month. It includes features like an online store, competitive transaction fee, blogging option, SSL certificate, reports, and international commerce options. So, Shopify always comes at a particular cost, even when we subscribe to a starter plan. 

Do Shopify, Squarespace, and Wix offer a Free trial?

While Shopify offers a three-day free trial with no credit card required, Squarespace offers a 14-day free trial without a credit card. Wix, however, provides an unlimited free website builder option with basic options that suit small businesses.

Shopify vs Wix vs Squarespace – Website Builder offers

All three offer website builder options but come at a cost after the free trial. Only Wix offers an unlimited free website builder option. While Wix offers 800 customizable templates, Squarespace offers 110 such but fully responsive templates, though Shopify only offers 12 free templates. Regarding responsive design among Shopify, Wix, and Squarespace, Squarespace stands out at the top. 

Shopify vs Wix vs Squarespace – Online stores

While considering Shopify vs Wix vs Squarespace, Shopify offers robust E-commerce options such as inventory management. Extensive app store, 100s of payment options, shipping, marketing and sales options, and more. 

Wix offers essential to intermediate features for e-commerce businesses that are best for smaller online stores. 

Squarespace also offers a good list of e-commerce features, but it focuses mainly on design. Hence, it is best for ventures that prioritize aesthetics. 

Shopify vs Wix vs Squarespace – Customer Support

While Shopify offers 24/7 email, phone, and live chat support, Wix and Squarespace only provide phone and email support, and their support teams are available for limited hours. 

Do they offer live chat support?

Also, while Shopify offers 24/7 live chat support, the other two have limited hours for direct communications. 

Shopify vs Wix vs Squarespace – Sales and Marketing Tools

From built-in SEO options to email marketing and social media, Shopify offers various tools for acquiring and retaining customers. You can also use Shopify’s blogging CMS to create content that can drive visitors to your online store.

Does Shopify keep Email marketing, and what about the other two?

Whether it is Wix, Squarespace, or Shopify, they offer excellent email marketing campaign tools. However, Shopify and Squarespace stand out as the better options for email marketing with advanced features, like email list segmentation on the basis of customer behavior, integration with third-party email marketing tools, and setting up automated email campaigns.

They also offer pre designed email templates with analytics options for campaign performance tracking requirements. However, consider your specific requirements and budgets while selecting the right platform.

Social media options

When it comes to social media options, and we talk of Shopify vs Squarespace, Shopify vs Wix, or Shopify vs Squarespace vs Wix, not to our surprise, all three platforms are good at this, allowing the addition of social media buttons and icons in different sections of websites when it comes to Wix and Squarespace, and in product pages, blog pages and homepage when it comes to Shopify.

You can also embed the buy button in social media posts through each platform. Moreover, you can embed the buy button on any website or blog to help customers buy products without leaving the site. All three platforms support all these features. 

App stores feature between Shopify vs Wix vs Squarespace

When it comes to the App store, and we are talking about shopify vs Wix vs Squarespace, Shopify is the clear winner, with the app store having more than 5000 apps and integration options and all primarily focusing on E-commerce requirements like shipping, inventory, marketing, and sales. 

Wix offers an extended range of apps through its app store. However, the list is limited compared to Shopify’s, and the apps primarily focus on website building and designs, with few e-commerce-specific options. 

Squarespace’s app store has fewer apps and integration offers than Wix and Shopify’s, but it covers all essential E-commerce features, such as payment gateways, inventory management, and shipping.

Hence, if you are searching for a balance between website design and E-commerce features, Wix should be your choice. If you are entirely E-commerce specific, then Shopify should be your choice, and if you want a simpler and more streamlined E-commerce requirement, then Squarespace is the right option. 

Payment Options offered by Shopify vs Wix vs Squarespace

Wix supports payment options like Paypal, Stripe, and Square, whereas Shopify bears more than 100 payment options, including those offered by Wix. It also supports payment through Amazon, Google, and Apple Pay. Squarespace supports payment options like Stripe and PayPal, apart from payment through Apple Pay and Google Pay.

However, Shopify allows more currency, locations, and payment gateways, which are more than 100 in number. However, The main advantage of Shopify is the availability of its own payment method, which the others need to support. 

When we talk of Shopify vs Wix vs Squarespace, the real difference is Shopify payments. 

Shopify payments, how Shopify holds the upper hand in payment

The real advantage when it comes to payment and when we think about Shopify vs Wix vs Squarespace is Shopify payment powered by Stripe. This is Shopify’s in-house payment option, where customers do not have to pay any transactional fee other than a credit card processing fee. Shopify holds the upper hand in payments due to Shopify payments, which supports more payment methods like credit card payment, debit card payment, and other options like Google Pay, Amazon Pay, and Apple Pay.

Shopify can offer more payment options, which results in better conversion rates and sales. It also provides robust security through features like 3D security and fraud analysis. These come with built-in Shopify payments. Thus, merchants are saved from chargebacks and fraudulent transactions. 

Credit Card Payment facilities as provided by the three

When we talk about credit card payment facilities in the context of Shopify vs Wix vs Squarespace, all three are good in this regard, with features like fraud detection, chargeback options, and automatic tax calculations. They all support multiple payment gateways and prime credit cards, including Visa, American Express, and Mastercard. While all are primarily website builders, they support various payment gateways and all major credit cards for payment processing.

User-Friendly Feature – Shopify vs Wix vs Squarespace 

All three platforms are user-friendly for the features and functionalities they offer. No one is the clear winner on this behalf, though. As discussed, one supersedes the other in the context of a list of features and functionalities that make them good for certain businesses. Our final choice for each business category has already been mentioned. 

Drag and Drop Editor Feature – Shopify vs Wix vs Squarespace

Wix offers drag-and-drop editing features for the website’s layout and design. It supports features like text, images, videos, and social media integrations. Shopify provides features to enhance the look and feel of the website through various website lists, such as product lists, images, and text. Squarespace offers such services for website design through E-commerce functionality, a blogging tool, and social media integrations.

While all support drag-and-drop editing features, they differ in the list of website elements they offer. For Squarespace, aesthetics and design are the prime objectives. For Shopify, it’s e-commerce, and for Wix, it’s easiness and flexibility while creating websites, which makes it best for small businesses with basic requirements.

Shopify vs Wix vs Squarespace – SEO Options

While all three are good when we compare Shopify vs Wix vs Squarespace, Shopify holds the upper hand with the Automatic XML sitemap creation option, Accelerated mobile page support for increasing speed, and automatic addition of Schema.org markup, which leverages the search engines to understand what your page content means.

These features are not available in Wix and Squarespace. Shopify also supports canonical URL addition to your pages, which helps you avoid duplicate content issues. Squarespace does not support this feature; Wix can only support it through a third party. 

Summarizing the comparisons between Shopify vs Wix vs Squarespace:

Shopify vs Wix vs Squarespace – Preference Based on Needs  

Shopify, Wix, and Squarespace are all excellent for building websites and are the best choices in different circumstances. Some of the scenarios with the best option are as follows:

1. E-commerce website: Shopify as it is primarily built for it
2. Small business website: Wix, as it has a user-friendly interface and a variety of free templates with basic options. It also offers features like contact forms, social media integration, and SEO tools.
3. Blogging website: Squarespace due to its support for blogging through categories/tags, social media integration, SEO, comments, and scheduling.
4. Multilingual website: Shopify, as it creates multiple language versions of your site, and the number of languages is maximum.
5. Portfolio website Squarespace, as it provides features and functions like galleries, social media integration, and blogging support
6. Non-profit website: Squarespace: it comes with templates with features like a collection of donations.
7. Membership website:Wix: due to built-in features for creating membership plans, restricting content, and managing member accounts.
8. Restaurant website: Squarespace, as it has templates designed for restaurants and built-in features for displaying menus, taking reservations, and showcasing images.
9. Photography website: Squarespace, as it supports uploading images, creating galleries, and selling prints.
10. Personal website: Wix due to support for contact forms, social media integration, and blogging tools.

Shopify vs Wix vs Squarespace – Conclusion

While we have discussed Shopify vs Wix vs Squarespace through a brief overview based on various features, we also concluded that Shopify braces E-commerce businesses of all sizes. Squarespace prefers those that focus on aesthetics and design.

In contrast, Wix supports small businesses by ensuring ease and comfort in creating user-friendly websites with a free website builder option that provides essential features such companies require. We have listed our platform choices for numerous business categories in the context of Shopify vs Squarespace vs Wix. APPWRK provides tailored app development solutions that seamlessly integrate with Shopify, Squarespace, and Wix, enhancing functionality and customization for businesses across all sizes and industries. Ready to elevate your online presence? Explore how APPWRK’s customizable solutions can optimize your Shopify, Squarespace, or Wix website today!

Shopify vs Wix vs Squarespace – FAQs