I have had my fair share of testing both Shopify and Squarespace. Cutting right to the chase, I love Squarespace. I run both my personal website and my company website, Common Ambition on Squarespace. I was an avid Wordpress user and it took me a long time to get behind the idea of website builders. (I have a little discount code for you guys at the end 😊. I became a partner weeks after writing and making this post live, so my blog post is in no way bias).

When I finally decided to give them a try, I tested both Squarespace and Wix. Wix is very what I like to call, Android lol. I say that because my mind just can’t wrap around the layout of it and it’s just too cluttered and confusing. I also don’t like that they have the free options with their banner. That looks ugly, you guys; it takes money to make money. So I gravitated towards Squarespace. I love the simplicity and ease of use.

When it comes to e-commerce, I naturally like most people went to Shopify. I was using Shopify in conjunction with Squarespace for about 4 months before I decided it just wasn’t for me.

Why Shopify wasn’t for me:

1. I was paying nearly $50 a month for having both Shopify and Squarespace.

2. You can’t really build a business or blog style website on Shopify without it looking too much like an e-commerce website.

3. Very heavily loaded with features for e-commerce, great for larger brands, but not for me or someone else that just isn’t filling hundreds of orders a day.

4. Backend layout takes a minute to get use to, they do have a great support team that is available 24/7 via phone.

5. My entire Common Ambition website looked really nice, until you clicked on shop and it was a totally different site, due to it being a Shopify theme. From a branding standpoint, I could not stand that.

6. You have to purchase a theme, if you want things to look pretty. If I remember correctly they start at $79 and go into $100+.

7. Their mobile apps weren’t user friendly in my opinion.

8. Adding a product is a bit tricky and editing a product is even more difficult if you forget a variant initially.

9. They have third party apps, which is actually a good thing, but all of the good ones cost a monthly fee, which can be very high and your monthly operating costs skyrocket.

Why I Looove Squarespace:

1. Though Squarespace has a limited number of themes, you can customize a lot of things to make the theme yours and they allow custom coding on the themes.

2. Websites can flow and not look different once you click on the shop tab.

3. Plans as low as $12 a month, there is a plan for everyone’s needs.

4. No selling fee on the two higher end commerce plans.

5. Mailing list campaigns built in, you can easily pull blog posts or products into your email campaigns. However email campaigns are an extra charge, but I think it’s worth it just due to the ease of integration.

6. Much cleaner backend for all of your changes.

7. Mobile apps are easy to use, although I wish there was just one app versus three. I wish the one app would know if you pay for a commerce plan then it would unlock a commerce section within the app, but this isn’t a deal breaker at all.

8. In-depth analytics that they improve regularly.

9. $100 Google Adwords credit when you spend $25 with Adwords. This is for all plans above the Personal plan.

10. Live chat agents to speak to during specific hours and 24/7 email support that is actually very quick and informative, most times it feels like you’re live chatting since they respond so quickly to emails.

11. SSL certified included and you even get a free domain name if you already don’t own your domain name when you sign up for a paid plan. No need to pay for hosting.

12. E-commerce Basic plan is still cheaper than having the lowest Shopify plan.

13. Easily add and edit products from your computer or on the go from your mobile devices.

14. Update (May 4th, 2021): Print On Demand integration is now available on Squarespace.

Don’t get me wrong, both platforms are great for their own individual reasons, but Squarespace wins me over because it just works for the level my brands are at. Which most of you would benefit most from Squarespace as well. The only time I would recommend Shopify to someone, is if they are doing volume, volume. Like close to a hundred orders a week or you have multiple shipping locations in different parts of the world. That’s when I feel like you could really benefit from the extra features and it would be worth your while to learn the complicated features; and if you are only an e-commerce website. If you are a blogger, artist, photographer, you offer a skill in addition to selling products, Squarespace is the way to go! Both platforms offer 14 day free trials, so go ahead and give them a try, if you want to verify my advice, but I promise, I wouldn’t steer you wrong.

United States Users: click here

International Users: click here

Both US and International users can use the following code for 10% off of your plan. Enter code: KARINABATH10 at checkout. Code is good for one month or one year depending on what option you choose as your first checkout.

Side note: Just because you are using a website builder, doesn’t mean you don’t need to hire an actual developer. You can benefit from someone that builds websites since they know how to make a website look good and be functional for the average consumer.

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