Shopify vs Squarespace
Pricing
Shopify: Basic $29/mo billed yearly ($39 monthly); 3-day trial, then $1/mo for 3 months
Squarespace: From $16/mo
Description
Shopify: E-commerce platform for building an online store and selling online, in person and in AI chat apps, with payments built in
Squarespace: Beautiful website templates for non-technical users
Pros
- Shopify Payments is built in, with online card rates from 2.9% + 30c on Basic
- Sell on your own store, in person, and in AI channels such as ChatGPT and Perplexity
- Try it for 3 days without a credit card, then pay $1 a month for the first 3 months on most plans
- Gorgeous templates
- All-in-one (hosting, domain, ecommerce)
- No coding needed
Cons
- Using a payment provider other than Shopify Payments adds a 2% fee on Basic
- Shopify Payments is only available in some countries
- Advanced point-of-sale tools for physical shops (POS Pro) cost $89 a month per location
- Limited customization
- Can feel restrictive for devs
Details
Shopify gives you a hosted online store with checkout and payments, a built-in AI assistant, and tools to sell in person and through AI chat apps. Shopify pitches its Basic plan at solo entrepreneurs.
It suits founders selling products, from a single item to a full catalogue. A free Agentic plan also lets you list products in Shopify’s Catalog and sell them in AI channels, paying only when you make a sale.
Basic costs $29 a month billed yearly or $39 monthly, and card fees come on top. The next plan, Grow, is $79 a month billed yearly and lowers the online card rate to 2.7% + 30c.
Squarespace makes beautiful websites accessible to anyone. Founded by Anthony Casalena in his dorm room in 2003, bootstrapped for 7 years to $10M revenue before taking outside investment. He was the only employee until $1M ARR. Now over $1B annual revenue. The OG website builder.
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