Shopify vs Squarespace vs Wix: Which is a Better Option for Selling?

Every durable thing built started with a solid foundation. This applies even in business. Whether you are building an offline business or an online store, you need to begin with a strong foundation. In eCommerce, setting up an online store is the foundation we speak of. Once you can research and evaluate your options, building an eCommerce empire will be easy. There are many choices for building a website including Shopify Vs Wix Vs Squarespace. In this article, we aim to establish which one is a better option for selling online.

Shopify Vs Wix Vs Squarespace are three of the biggest eCommerce platforms on the market today for several reasons. They do not just fit small businesses as well as large businesses but also provide a wide range of options for both novices and experts to create and own an online store. This is fascinating seeing that some eight years ago; only those with coding experiences could have built a website. How fast things have changed, thanks to technology. Here’s the thing, before settling on a choice eCommerce platform, you need to first understand what individual platforms offer. Let’s see how Shopify Vs Wix Vs Squarespace compares.

Shopify Explained

Shopify is a leading cloud-based commerce platform that makes it easier for business owners to create and manage their online stores. Established in 2016, Shopify already powers 600, 000 businesses globally, recording a whopping $100 billion worth of total sales processed through its hosted sites. This Canadian-based eCommerce store solution provides full-service website builder, marketing solutions, SEO, physical POS hardware, and loads of exciting features to boost anybody’s success online.

Squarespace  Explained

Squarespace is a powerful easy-to-use website builder for freelancers, individuals, and businesses who need an online store. Starting as a website builder, the company saw the potential in eCommerce and launched its Squarespace Commerce in 2013. They have since recorded exponential growth which has attracted several popular figures including Idris Elba and John Malkovich all of which use Squarespace to power their websites. With at least a decade of experience in website building, Squarespace is a decent option for eCommerce businesses that need something easy but with amazing functionalities.

Wix  Explained

Wix is an Israeli software company that provides cloud-based web development services for individuals and business owners. Founded in 2006, Wix has grown to be one of the leading website building tools, allowing anyone to create mobile-optimized HTML5 sites through the use of online drag-and-drop tools. Wix is more than just a website builder; it has eCommerce features for creating an online store. 24/7 customer support, free templates, intuitive designs, all make Wix an effective dropshipping tool – no wonder millions of businesses are powered by Wix.

Comparing Shopify Vs Squarespace Vs Wix

With all these Lions in the room, which among the three provides superior features? There are different features to consider when comparing different eCommerce services. From page editing to themes/templates, customer support to payment method, inventory management to pricing, your chosen platform must meet up or exceed certain criteria in order to lay a solid foundation for your business. Let’s see how Squarespace eCommerce Vs Shopify and Wix compare.

Page Editor

Shopify has a WYSIWYG editor that is quite similar to Microsoft Word. This text editor is easy to use as it allows users to position photos and videos in line with the text.

Squarespace uses a visual, drag-and-drop page editor that is quite easy to use as well. Every element can be placed by simply dragging and dropping.

Wix has easy-to-use drag-and-drop building tools that make it quick for anyone to build a website or an online store.

Templates

With Shopify, you can create a beautiful website without stress. They already have 10 themes included to be used for free plus additional hundreds of third-party themes. While this is an excellent feature, users prefer to design their own theme than to use Shopify’s theme. This is because customizing the Shopify theme may require knowledge of Cascading Style Sheet [CSS], a programming language.

Squarespace boasts 70 beautiful, modern, and aesthetic templates that work for any type of website. The templates are easy to use but unlike Shopify, you do not need any knowledge of programming if you choose to customize.

Using Wix gives you access to 800 professionally designed, mobile-friendly, and fully customizable templates. You don’t even need to code before creating your first store.

Pricing

Shopify allows users to build any website with a 14-day free trial to get familiar with the platform and evaluate their needs. After which, users can choose any of the following services that suit their budget.

2. Basic Shopify: At $29 per month, you can get the fundamentals that you need to launch your online store. Using this plan means limited capabilities with Shopify Shipping, Shopify POS, and Shopify Payments. Also, take note that this plan attracts the highest Shopify Payments’ transaction fees @ 2.9%+$0.30 for each online transaction and 2.7% for each in-person transaction or a 2% additional transaction fee through a third-party payment provider.

2. Shopify: At $79 per month, users can access more of Shopify’s features, full access to Shopify’s POS, huge shipping discount through Shopify Shipping, and lower transaction fees @ 2.6%+$0.30 for each online card transaction, 2.5% for each in-person payment or 1% per transaction fee if you don’t use Shopify Payment Processor (this is on top of your payment provider’s transaction rates).

• Advanced Shopify: At $299 per month, you can enjoy Shopify’s full features as well as the lowest shipping fees and transaction fees @ 2.4%+$0.30 for each online card transaction, 2.4% for each in-person transaction or an additional 0.5% per transaction if you use a third-party payment provider.

Squarespace offers plans for “website pricing” and “online store”. Squarespace also starts everyone out with a free trial before you start paying for your desired service.

1. SQUARESPACE WEBSITE PRICING

1. Personal: This is ideal for small business owners and freelancers. At $16/month, you can get a simple, mobile-optimized website with SSL security, a custom domain, 24/7 customer support, and basic analytics.

1. Business: At $18/month billed annually or $26/month billed monthly, you can get all of the features listed in the Personal plan plus advanced website metrics, fully integrated eCommerce, sell unlimited products, options to purchase G Suite accounts, and much more.

1. SQUARESPACE ONLINE STORE PRICING

1. Basic: At $26/month billed annually or $40 per month billed month to month, you can build a simple, mobile-friendly store with advanced analytics, checkout, and Xero integration.
2. Advanced: For $40/month billed annually or $46/month billed monthly, you can enjoy Squarespace’s full suite of eCommerce features [abandoned cart recovery, gift cards, customers’ subscription services, etc.] in addition to all the features listed in the Basic plan above.

Wix has a free plan, after which you subscribe to a premium plan.

1. Combo: $14 per month billed annually or $18 per month.
2. Unlimited: $18 per month billed annually or $23 per month.

• Pro: $23 per month billed annually or $28 per month.

1. VIP:$39 per month billed annually or $47 per month.
2. Business Basic:$23 per month billed annually or $28 per month.
3. Business VIP:$49 per month billed annually or $56 per month.

The Wix Pro plan is ideal for small businesses that need branding – it’s a great value for your money as you will get a free logo designed [worth $50] plus access to social media logo files and the Events Calendar app.

Wix’s Business Unlimited plan gives you unlimited bandwidth, apps, services, templates, eCommerce tools.

Ecommerce

Shopify

No doubt, Shopify is the most powerful eCommerce platform available for several reasons. The Shopify App Store is a wonder, catering to any business need. Here, you can add several features to make your site both professional and secure. They boast tons of innovative and intuitive features [including SEO tools, gift wrapping, order fulfillment & tracking, inventory integrations, marketing tools, product reviews, analytical tools, and up-sell recommendations] that allow businesses to easily scale their online store. PayPal and Stripe are popular payment processors among eCommerce platforms but Shopify leads by launching its own “Shopify Payments”. This eliminates the need for third-party payment processors thereby facilitate fast, easy, and secure payments.

Squarespace

If you consider eCommerce, Squarespace has enormous features including digital products, custom notifications, shipping integrations, taxes, subscription payments, etc. that can effectively power small stores. Squarespace is more powerful than Shopify in terms of design but Shopify boasts more features.

Wix

With Wix, you can sell any type of product – whether physical, serviced-based, or digital. The inception of Ecwid, a powerful Wix app makes it possible to create checkouts, social commerce, promotional codes, and more. On the Wix dashboard, you can control your shipping options and also access eCommerce analytics. Wix is one of the best platforms for online selling for small businesses. However, medium to large businesses can opt for Shopify or Squarespace.

Shipping And Inventory Management

Shopify offers the most flexible and attractive option when it comes to selling products and services online, payment processing, and eCommerce features. Dropshipping allows you to deliver your products through your suppliers to your customers – this can save you a lot on warehousing and shipping. Shopify has embedded everything that will make life easier for retailers in its service. For example, Shopify offers dropshipping tools, NHL integrations, built-in UPS, and even allows you to include printable shipping labels.

From an eCommerce perspective, Squarespace might be as advanced as Shopify, yet it shines when it comes to inventory management, seeing that is just a website builder with an eCommerce functionality. Like Shopify, Squarespace also offers fulfillment companies like USP but in addition, Squarespace allows you to tweak your shipping fees according to parameters like weight, or the destination that you’re shipping to. In general, Shopify might be better than Squarespace in terms of shipping options but when it comes to managing your inventory, it is much better and more intuitive than rivals like Wix and Weebly.  

Wix Inventory Management allows you to manage everything in one place. It alerts you when stock is running low, allows you to track inventory, set shipping rules, and connect to leading fulfillment solutions. After each sale, the inventory amount is automatically updated. Wix Stores come with two regions; the “domestic region” and the “international region”. By default, both offer free shipping.

Shopify Vs Squarespace Vs Wix Pros And Cons

Bonus Tip: Dropshipping With SaleYee Platform

Comparing tools like Shopify Vs Wix Vs Squarespace gives retailers the freedom to search for the product that will give the best result. Remember that a solid foundation is required to build a successful online business. However rich Squarespace eCommerce Vs Shopify features are, many small businesses cannot afford their services. As such, starting with a dropshipping platform that offers similar services as that of Shopify vs Squarespace for free would make much sense. There are many wholesale dropshipping platforms all over but the SaleYee platform stands out for a number of reasons.

SaleYee is a global dropship and wholesale platform dedicated to making retailers sell and earn online with ease. SaleYee offers quality products and professional services from the best suppliers you could get. At SaleYee, you will find over 30k profitable SKUs that can give you a huge profit margin. What’s more, the SaleYee platform can easily integrate with eBay, Amazon, Walmart, Shopify, Wish, and the likes. Here are other features of the SaleYee platform:

30,000+ profitable SKUs

650,000+ sq.m. local warehouses

Fast & free delivery

Responsive customer support

Free membership & huge discounts

Up to 3-Month after-sales period

You can begin your dropshipping adventure here and then scale up to Shopify Vs Squarespace Vs Wix if you like. Getting started is as easy as signing up; no membership fee, no hidden charges – just sign up and get access to reputable wholesale dropship suppliers.

Conclusion

Choosing an ideal website builder with eCommerce functionalities can be a daunting task. Having highlighted the exciting features of Shopify Vs Wix Vs Squarespace, we leave the verdict for you. Depending on what you want and your budget, any of these services would work for you. Once you know that, you can settle on a choice and begin your dropshipping adventure. Oh, or better still, start for free with the SaleYee platform.