What Is The Difference Between using WooCommerce vs Squarespace?

The creation of an online business has been extremely simple because of the availability of a variety of platforms. WooCommerce provides the open source freedoms of full ownership, When you decide to start an online store, though, you may feel limited in your options. How would you choose one over the other if you were a complete start with little experience with web technologies? The key is to understand how a platform manages particular issues that are essential to an eCommerce store.

A comparison between WooCommerce and Squarespace

Here is a brief review of each platform before the WooCommerce vs. Squarespace duel begins. Already familiar with these online shopping carts? Go to their comparison now.

WooCommerce.
All WordPress users can get the WooCommerce e-commerce plugin for free.
This e-commerce plugin, which is appropriate for companies of all sizes, is well-liked for its SEO friendliness, usability, designs, and plugins. And because it’s an open-source platform, you have complete customization freedom.
With the help of themes and plugins, you may manage design customization and feature additions for a WooCommerce site. The global community also makes it simple for you to manage your store’s day-to-day operations and to seek professional assistance when you need it.

Squarespace.
A large selection of e-commerce designs and themes are available on Squarespace, an online platform for building e-commerce websites. It is extremely well-liked by designers, photographers, and creative enterprises because of its aesthetic appeal.
Utilize one of the many available templates, then add products as necessary. Squarespace makes it simple to manage the sale of real goods, the provision of services, booking, and restaurant ordering. To run an online store using Squarespace, however, you will have to pay a monthly fee because, unlike WooCommerce, it is a paid service.

Templates & Themes

WooCommerce
WordPress is famous for its large theme selection, most of which are WooCommerce-friendly. This means that you can choose your favorite WooCommerce theme from a huge selection of interesting layouts.
Additionally, each of these themes is totally editable, but doing so will need some skill with the coding language.
The fact that some of these themes are not free is the only drawback. The better ones are typically more expensive. But they provide you an advantage over other e-commerce themes because they are mostly SEO and mobile-focused.
The best approach is to always test a theme for responsiveness before investing in it because there are so many possibilities.

Squarespace
Squarespace is the top option for artists for creating e-commerce sites because of its priority on attractive templates.
There are just 145 themes available, but they are all beautifully designed and highly optimized.
Similar to WooCommerce, Squarespace templates allow for easy customization, including changing colors and styles. Use the free trial offered by Squarespace to evaluate a template before purchasing it.

SEO-friendliness

WooCommerce
WooCommerce delivers WordPress SEO tools, giving you total customization power through CSS and HTML to enhance the back end.
Additionally, the commercial and free WooCommerce SEO plugins provide users with additional auto-optimization tools.
In order to optimize your website for SEO, you can use plugins like the well-known Yoast SEO plugin and RankMath, and you can change your meta title, description, alt-tags, and more for higher ranks.

Squarespace
Although Squarespace doesn’t offer the same SEO functionalities as WooCommerce, its SEO services have significantly improved recently.
Your site will rank highly on the SERPs thanks to features like automated markup, Google Console integration, a dedicated SEO panel, and XML sitemaps.
Unlike to WooCommerce, Squarespace has all of the SEO features built right into the platform. For improved SEO, you can manage page redirects and social images, as well as add meta descriptions and tags.

Pricing

WooCommerce
WordPress offers the free plugin WooCommerce. So long as you already have a website, you can install and set up it for free.
The only further costs after that will be for integrations and any premium themes or plugins that are purchased. You will have to pay for a hosting service plan, domain registration, and an SSL certificate if you need to create a WordPress site from scratch.
WooCommerce pricing can be easily managed by selecting just one required piece of information. 

Squarespace
Squarespace offers Basic Commerce and Advanced Commerce as its two pricing options to help you in setting up an online store.
The Advanced package includes options for automated delivery, selling subscriptions, and sending cart recovery emails.
You will receive necessary features like unlimited bandwidth, custom domains, an SSL certificate, etc. with all of their services. The cost of the Basic Commerce plan is $26 per month, while the Advanced plan is $40.
If you’re looking to reduce costs, WooCommerce is definitely the greatest option.

Security
WooCommerce
WooCommerce comes with fundamental security measures. It makes use of plugins to provide additional protection and protect your store.
WooCommerce, however, is not a self-hosted option, so you will be responsible for its security, backups, and upkeep. Additionally, you’ll need to locate your SSL certificate.
Having said that, a managed cloud hosting company like Cloudways offers a complete solution that adequately addresses each of these possibilities. Additionally, with Cloudways’ most recent integration of Cloudflare Enterprise, you can protect your website from DDoS attacks and malicious traffic.

Squarespace
Basic protections and SSL certificates are part of Squarespace’s plan. For added security, it also offers security add-ons, however, these are not on par with the security plugins for WooCommerce.
The integrated security features guarantee defense against DDoS assaults and unfriendly traffic.
In order to increase the security of your store, it also supports GDPR, enables the use of secure cookies, and provides two-factor authentication.

Support

WooCommerce
Although WooCommerce is a free plugin, community forums for WordPress serve as the main venue for customer support. To solve problems on your own, you will have access to a wealth of documentation, including videos.
You may expect dedicated support from the relevant team for the various additional tools and services you use to run your store.
Furthermore, it is not difficult to locate third-party maintenance service providers to deal with challenging store management issues.
With WooCommerce, it makes sense to pick a hosting company that provides quick assistance and knowledgeable services to keep you covered at all times. One such supplier is Cloudways, which relieves you of any hosting concerns.

Squarespace
You may manage your website and eCommerce business with the help of a wide variety of resources provided by Squarespace.
To solve the problem on your own, look through their how-to articles, instructional videos, and discussion boards. In addition, you can select a Squarespace specialist from their directory of independent experts. Additionally, if you are utilizing one of their plans, you will have access to 24-hour customer service.

Add-ons & Plugins

WooCommerce
To assist you in automation processes, WooCommerce provides hundreds of plugins, both free and premium. Users that are familiar with coding games can add or change any features on this open-source platform.
The range of extensions that WooCommerce offers is unmatched by any other e-commerce platform. Additionally, you may use a lot of third-party plugins with it.
Yoast SEO, Breeze, WooCommerce Google Analytics Integration, LiveChat, Checkout Manager for WooCommerce, and Product Import Export for WooCommerce is a some of the more well-known WooCommerce extensions.

Squarespace
Squarespace only provides 31 extensions, which is a small number when compared to WooCommerce. The only benefit in this situation is that you don’t need to rely on third-party sources because all of Squarespace’s plugins are built-in.
Although Squarespace doesn’t have all the necessary plugins to operate a professional online store without any problems, the extensions it does offer are sufficient.
A few well-liked Squarespace extensions are Weglot Translate, EZ Texting, QuickBooks Commerce, inFlow Cloud, and MailChimp for Commerce.

Easy Use

WooCommerce
WooCommerce is comparatively simple to use and offers lots of customization options, including letting you select any hosting platform and domain registration.
Like other e-commerce platforms, it does not include a drag-and-drop builder. However, it enables drag-and-drop design creation using WordPress page builders.
The simplicity of customization requires manual work. Once more, the plugins come to your rescue because this e-commerce platform’s plugin repository provides a solution for practically anything.
You must purchase hosting, set up a WordPress account, and then create your WooCommerce store because WooCommerce is not a hosted platform.
This process is made simple by Cloudways, allowing you to launch a WooCommerce store in a matter of minutes with increased security, lightning-fast performance, and a number of other advantages.

Squarespace
Squarespace’s drag-and-drop website builder makes creating e-commerce websites simple. However, compared to other page builders, its builder promotes parts rather than allowing for simple object movement.
When you first join up on Squarespace, a brief tutorial shows you how to instantly design and update. The tool is simple to use once you grow accustomed to it.
Even a novice can easily experiment with the design and observe live changes as they play about with the elements thanks to the What You See Is What You Get (WYSIWYG) editor.
So you can use Squarespace and start building professional websites without having any coding experience.

Skill level

WooCommerce
Identifying potential WooCommerce fans is a delightful process. WordPress’ control and customization capabilities are a favorite among experienced and intermediate developers.
The WordPress/WooCommerce interface and the hosting setup process may overwhelm some total beginners. However, WordPress has a wealth of online tutorials, making it easy to learn.

Squarespace
Anybody can use Squarespace. The slightly restricted Squarespace Commerce capabilities are probably of no interest to experienced developers, but they’re a beginner’s paradise.
Overall, Squarespace is unbeatable if you want to quickly construct a great website.

Payment integrations

WooCommerce
All of the top payment processors, including PayPal, Stripe, and Square, are integrated with WooCommerce.
If you are based in America, you can also pay with checks, debit and credit cards, Apple Pay, COD, and bank transfers.
Furthermore, WooCommerce provides a free payment processor that may be downloaded that was created just for its consumers. You are also protected from any transaction fees, unlike users of other e-commerce platforms (like Squarespace).

Squarespace
By creating links with the following payment processors, Squarespace enables customers to accept payment methods:
Visa, MasterCard, American Express, Diner’s Club, JCB, Afterpay or Clearpay, and Apple Pay are all accepted via Stripe.
PayPal (PayPal Business to accept PayPal and Venmo) (PayPal Business to accept PayPal and Venmo)
Square (POS for cash and card payment for in-person selling) (POS for cash and card payment for in-person selling)

Product Management

WooCommerce
WooCommerce simplifies product administration with lovely product pages and a dynamic inventory list.
You can include features like product add-ons and varieties, and both digital and physical products are supported.

Squarespace
With its fantastic appearance, the Squarespace product creation module enables you to comprehend your inventory and create stunning product pages.
Create variations and SKUs, and market physical and digital goods.

Additional features

WooCommerce
The ability of WooCommerce to add functionality using plugins is one of its most appealing features.
For whatever feature or functionality you want to include in your store, there are many free and paid plugins available.
Among the places to look for high-caliber extensions are the WordPress plugin repository, WooCommerce store, trusted third-party plugin developers, etc.
Because they can be installed and configured by users of all skill levels, plugins also make the customization process simpler. WooCommerce also provides easy developer-level customization possibilities.

Squarespace
Squarespace doesn’t offer as many extensions as WooCommerce, but it does come with the majority of the necessary functionality for an online store.
A variety of extensions are available for managing inventory, marketing, shipping, and fulfillment, among other things.

Final Conclusion

The decision between the two e-commerce systems should have been made simpler as a result of this in-depth conflict between WooCommerce and Squarespace. Although both platforms have a sizable market share in e-commerce, choosing one depends primarily on your needs.
For those who want to focus on creating a beautiful business website, Squarespace is still the easier option. Not to mention that you won’t have to spend a lot of time investigating the functionality and compatibility of a variety of features.
WooCommerce is the best alternative for new and established e-commerce firms, whilst Squarespace is a terrific choice for people working with attractive websites.
If you want to know how to start an e-commerce business, visit the sphere plugins website.