In 2022, the e-commerce landscape expanded unprecedentedly, fueled by evolving consumer behaviors and technological advancements. As more businesses moved online or expanded their digital presence, choosing an e-commerce platform became a pivotal decision. This choice could significantly impact an online store’s operational efficiency, customer reach, and overall success.
Shopify and Square emerged as two leading contenders among the many options available. Both platforms offer distinct features and services tailored to meet the needs of diverse business models—from small startups to large enterprises. Finding the ideal partner for your business journey is as important as picking the best e-commerce platform. The right platform can simplify business operations, enhance customer experiences, and accelerate growth, while a less suitable choice might lead to complications, higher costs, and lost opportunities.
As businesses weigh their options, this article delves into a comprehensive comparison of Shopify and Square. It explores their features, usability, pricing, and customer support to determine which platform might best fit different types of online entrepreneurs in 2022.
Things to remember: Before deciding between Shopify and Square for your e-commerce needs, selecting the platform that best suits your aims and business strategy is imperative to consider several essential variables.
Business Model and Needs: First, assess whether your business will primarily operate online, have a physical presence, or a blend of both. Shopify is typically favored by businesses focused entirely on e-commerce due to its powerful online store capabilities. In contrast, Square excels at integrating physical sales with online operations, making it ideal for businesses with a storefront.
Budget and Costs: Next, consider your budget, including potential monthly fees, transaction fees, and costs for additional features such as themes, apps, or add-ons. While Shopify may require a higher initial investment due to its extensive theme and app marketplace, Square offers a cost-effective starting point with its free plan, though transaction fees do apply.
Ease of Use and Scalability: Evaluate each platform’s usability based on your technical expertise and future needs. Shopify offers extensive customization options, which are great for scaling a business quickly but may require a steeper learning curve. Conversely, Square offers simple-to-use solutions that require no technical expertise and are appropriate for moderate development.
Overview of Shopify and Square
Shopify: Empowering Online Retail
Founded in 2006 in Ottawa, Canada, Shopify started as a solution to the founders’ e-commerce problems—finding no existing platform suited to their needs for selling snowboards online. Creating a user-friendly, comprehensive e-commerce solution that empowers users to build online stores is necessary. Over the years, Shopify has become a popular e-commerce platform known for its robust features, scalability, and ease of use. Around 1.7 million firms utilize it worldwide, and small and medium-sized enterprises looking to expand also choose it.
Square: Seamless Integration of Online and Offline Sales
Founded in 2009 by Jim McKelvey and Jack Dorsey, Square began as a miniature merchant service aggregator and mobile payment company, offering a simple way for businesses to accept card payments with a mobile device. The platform quickly evolved to include tools designed to support online and physical store operations. Known for its Point of Sale (POS) system, Square makes it seamless for businesses to integrate their in-person and online sales. This integration is beautiful to small businesses, local artisans, and food and beverage outlets that prioritize face-to-face customer interactions alongside an online presence.
Market Position and Typical User Base
Shopify has become a significant player in the pure e-commerce platform space. Its market is predominantly online merchants who need a robust, scalable online store without substantial upfront investment in custom development. Shopify’s appeal lies in its extensive app ecosystem, which allows for extensive customization and expansion as business needs grow.
On the other hand, Square has carved a niche among businesses that require a blend of physical and online selling tools. Its user-friendly POS system and integrated services cater well to brick-and-mortar stores expanding into the online realm and service-oriented businesses like salons and cafes that benefit from appointment scheduling and payment features.
Features Comparison
When choosing an e-commerce platform, understanding each offer’s feature set is crucial to determining which will best support your business needs. Below, we explore the key features of Shopify and Square.
Shopify: Built for E-commerce
Online Store Functionality: Shopify’s user-friendly interface allows even novices to set up a store. The platform provides everything needed to start, including website templates, an integrated payment system, and tools for inventory management.
Extensive App Integrations: Shopify’s App Store is one of its greatest strengths, featuring thousands of apps that extend functionality in virtually every area—marketing, SEO, social media integration, accounting, shipping, and more.
SEO Capabilities: Shopify has built-in SEO features to help stores rank better in search results. These include customizable headlines, titles, and meta tags. It also generates sitemaps automatically, which help search engines index site content.
Customization Options: Customers can choose from various themes and add more customizations with Shopify’s Liquid coding language. This adaptability lets businesses personalize their websites according to their unique branding and functional requirements.
Scalability: Shopify can quickly scale with your business. It easily handles everything from small stores to large enterprises, supporting high volumes of traffic and transactions without sacrificing performance.
Shopify Pricing, Features, and Description
| Tier | Price | Features | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| Basic Shopify | $29/month | 2 staff accounts, up to 4 inventory locations, unlimited products, 24/7 support | Ideal for small businesses looking to start and grow online with essential features. |
| Shopify | $79/month | 5 staff accounts, up to 5 inventory locations, professional reports | Suitable for growing businesses that require more in-depth reporting and lower transaction fees. |
| Advanced Shopify | $299/month | 15 staff accounts, up to 8 inventory locations, advanced report builder | Best for scaling businesses that need advanced reporting and better shipping conditions. |
| Shopify Plus | Starts at $2,000/month | Additional API calls, customizable checkout, dedicated support | Designed for enterprise-level businesses with high volumes that need a customizable platform. |
Square: A Hybrid Solution for Online and Offline Sales
POS System Integration: Square’s top-notch POS system is crafted to blend online and offline sales smoothly, perfect for businesses with brick-and-mortar stores and e-commerce platforms.
Features Suitable for Physical Stores: Square offers unique features like inventory management between online and offline stores, offline mode for sales processing when the internet is down, and hardware options like card readers and registers.
Appointments Scheduling: Handy for service-based businesses, Square’s system allows for online booking of appointments, which is integrated with the payment system to handle cancellations and no-shows effectively.
Loyalty Programs: Square supports the creation of loyalty programs, encouraging repeat business by offering rewards for frequent customers. This feature integrates smoothly with both the POS and online store.
Additional Services: In addition, Square offers tools for managing employees, including time tracking and payroll integration, which are especially beneficial for businesses with a notable physical footprint.
Square Pricing, Features, and Description
| Tier | Price | Features | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| Free | $0/month | POS app, inventory management, customer directory | Best for new and small businesses that need basic features without any monthly fees. |
| Plus | $60/month | Advanced inventory management, customer insights, Square marketing | Ideal for growing businesses that require more comprehensive inventory and customer relationship management. |
| Premium | Custom Pricing | Custom rates, dedicated account manager, advanced reporting | Tailored for larger businesses that need more advanced features and personalized service. |
| Add-ons | Varies | Payroll, employee management, loyalty programs, marketing, and more | Optional services that can be added to any plan to enhance functionality. |
Usability and Design
The usability and design of an e-commerce platform can significantly influence the user experience, affecting how quickly business owners can launch their stores and how customers perceive their shopping experience. Here, we compare Shopify and Square in terms of ease of use for new users, the quality of design templates, and the flexibility in design customization.
Shopify: Intuitive and Aesthetically Pleasing
Ease of Use: Shopify is well-known for its user-friendly interface, making it easy for new users to establish their online store. The dashboard is intuitive, with clear directions for adding products, creating collections, and setting up payments. This accessibility makes Shopify a favorite among entrepreneurs who might not have extensive technical skills.
Design Templates: Shopify offers a wide variety of free and paid themes that are professionally designed and mobile-responsive. These sleek and modern templates cater to various industries, from fashion to electronics. The themes are visually appealing and crafted to enhance user experience and boost conversions.
Design Customization: Users have significant control over the customization of their sites through Shopify’s theme settings, which allow for changes in colors, fonts, and layout without needing to code. For those with coding knowledge, Shopify offers even deeper customization capabilities through its Liquid template language, enabling detailed adjustments and unique design features.
Square: Functional but Limited Design Options
Ease of Use: Square is also user-friendly, particularly praised for its straightforward setup process for online and offline sales systems. Its interface guides new users through each setup step, from product entry to hardware integration for physical stores.
Design Templates: Compared to Shopify, Square offers fewer templates, which can be a limitation for businesses looking for a highly unique storefront. The available templates are functional and responsive but are more basic and less diverse in style.
Design Customization: While Square provides some customization options, they are generally more limited than Shopify’s. Users can adjust essential visual elements like colors and fonts, but the scope for deeper customization with professional help is limited. This might be sufficient for small businesses prioritizing functionality over unique aesthetics but could be a drawback for those looking to stand out visually.
Here’s a checklist table comparing transaction fees, monthly fees, and any potential hidden costs between Shopify and Square.
| Cost Type | Shopify | Square |
|---|---|---|
| Monthly Fees | – Basic: $29 – Shopify: $79 – Advanced: $299 – Plus: Starts at $2,000 | – Free: $0 – Plus: $60 – Premium: Custom Pricing |
| Transaction Fees | – 2.9% + 30¢ per online transaction (varies by plan and payment method) | – 2.6% + 10¢ per tapped, dipped, or swiped transaction – 2.9% + 30¢ for online transactions |
| Additional Costs | – Themes – Apps – Domain name (if not already owned) | – POS hardware (card readers, registers) – Premium features (e.g., payroll, loyalty programs) |
| Hidden Costs | – Higher transaction fees without Shopify Payments – Additional fees for external payment gateways | – Additional fees for chargebacks – Fees for advanced POS features and additional employees |
Frequently Asked Question
- What is the main difference between Shopify and Square?
- Their core purposes and target consumers are where they differ most. Shopify is an online company platform designed for e-commerce. They offer extensive features for building and managing an online store, including a wide range of e-commerce tools and customization options. On the other hand, Square is best suited for businesses that need to integrate online and offline sales, offering a robust POS system along with e-commerce capabilities, making it ideal for brick-and-mortar stores that are expanding online.
- Can I use both Shopify and Square for my business?
- Yes, it’s possible to use both platforms if different aspects of your business demand the specific functionalities each offers. For example, you might use Shopify for its advanced online store capabilities while utilizing Square for its POS system and in-person payment solutions. Managing two systems, however, might be more complex and require manual synchronization or integration technologies to ensure data consistency and inventory management.
- Which platform is better for a business that is just starting?
- For businesses purely focused on e-commerce, Shopify might be the better choice due to its ease of use, scalability, and extensive support for online sales. If the business involves both online and physical sales or is heavily service-based (like cafes or salons), Square could be more advantageous because of its seamless POS integration and features that support physical operations.
- How do transaction fees compare between Shopify and Square?
- Shopify charges transaction fees if you do not use Shopify Payments, and these fees can vary based on your plan. With Shopify Payments, credit card rates also vary by plan. On the other hand, Square offers no monthly fees on its free plan but charges transaction fees for all card payments, with the exact rate depending on the type of transaction (in-person, online, etc.). For specific and current rates, checking directly on each platform’s official pricing page is best.
Resource Guide for Shopify and Square
Shopify Resources
- Shopify Pricing Plans
- Link: Shopify Pricing
- Description: Details all current Shopify plans and pricing, including what features are available at each tier.
- Shopify App Store
- Link: Shopify App Store
- Description: Explore additional functionalities through apps that integrate directly with your Shopify store.
- Shopify Help Center
- Link: Shopify Help Center
- Description: Provides comprehensive support documentation and user guides to help you manage and scale your Shopify store.
Square Resources
- Square Pricing
- Link: Square Pricing
- Description: Offers an overview of Square’s pricing for its different services, including point of sale, payroll, and more.
- Square Shop
- Link: Square Shop
- Description: Lists available POS hardware and accessories for purchase, which can enhance your physical store operations.
- Square Support Center
- Link: Square Support Center
- Description: A resource for FAQs, troubleshooting, and detailed articles about using Square’s features effectively.