Shopify Vs Wix Vs Squarespace: Ultimate Comparison For 2023

Let’s face it; One of the most difficult and stressful tasks in e-commerce is choosing a platform. There are many factors to consider – such as price, features, and cost. Then there is the question of “who is going to win the battle” between Shopify vs Wix vs Squarespace? You need solid evidence about these sites to make an informed decision, as you can never be sure whether your business is based on e-commerce or not. In this article, we will do an in-depth analysis of the key features of the Shopify vs Wix vs Squarespace platform. Read on to find the right ecommerce platform to suit your business needs and budget.

What Is Shopify?

Shopify is an eCommerce website builder launched in 2004 and is a popular option for beginners who aren’t aware of technology and coding. The platform is easy to use and offers top-grade eCommerce features. Shopify is utilized by over 4 million live websites across the globe.

What Is Wix?

Wix is a cloud-based eCommerce website-building platform that was founded in 2006. It is a simple website builder with a drag-and-drop interface ideal for beginners. There are over 8 million websites across the globe built on the Wix platform in various domains like photography, music, design, food, fitness, etc. it offers an intuitive interface and several eCommerce tools for quick website building for its users.

What Is Squarespace?

Squarespace is a hosted CMS platform that lets you create and manage websites, blogs, ad online stores without the requirement of any coding skills. Nearly 3 million websites are built using the Squarespace website builder across the globe.

Wix vs Shopify vs Squarespace: A Detailed Comparison

Let’s compare the features offered by Shopify, Wix, and Squarespace based on the eCommerce website features:

1. Ease of use

When it comes to choosing a website builder, the first feature users look for is the ease of use. Not every business owner is a technology expert. Thus it is important to choose a platform where you can build an online store or a website as quickly as possible.

Shopify is one of the outstanding platforms when it comes to user-friendliness. You can create a new Shopify website from scratch within a few steps and a minimum budget.
Wix provides a detailed guide to new users on how to set up their businesses. Follow the guide and you can easily build your Wix store from scratch without any technical skills.
Squarespace comes with a dashboard that is simple for beginners and non-coders. It offers a detailed guide to help you quickly build an online store from scratch.

To sum up, all three platforms, Shopify, Wix, and Squarespace are easy to use and beginner friendly. You can comfortably navigate to all the core features from the dashboard.

2. Design flexibility

When a customer first lands on your website, it is your website design that holds them for a longer time. Most website builders offer tons of design templates to save you time and money. You can quickly create your website design using the templates and start selling your products. But, for your website to stand out, you need uniqueness. These website builders offer customizable templates so that you can add or remove functionalities depending on your requirements.

When you consider Shopify, there are over 105 themes (95 premium and 11 free themes) in the Shopify theme store. Shopify lets you customize the Shopify themes using CSS/HTML languages. Unlike any other hosted platform, Shopify has developed its templating language- Shopify Liquid to customize the design templates.
With more than 700 templates including 300+ free ones, Wix is an eCommerce platform with the largest reservoir of templates. It has the coolest drag-and-drop features. Wix offers drag-and-drop solutions to any kind of section you want to include on your website.
Wix allows users to customize their themes using CSS/HTML languages. But, one of the downsides is that it could be confusing for the users who aren’t clear about what features to add and how to organize content on their website. Another thing to keep in mind is once you choose a Wix theme, you cannot modify it.
Squarespace website builder offers over 140 templates that are artistic and beautifully designed. Though it offers drag-and-drop sections, there are still fixed regions for each section to be placed on the Squarespace websites.

If you want to compare Shopify vs Wix vs Squarespace based on design flexibility, all three platforms offer different types of templates for design flexibility. However, when all the factors are weighed down, Shopify becomes the clear winner.

3. Responsiveness

A responsive web design allows your website content freely flow across devices of multiple screen sizes and resolutions. It saves your time and resources from making separate designs for mobile and desktop.

Shopify and Squarespace templates are by default responsive for mobile devices. Customers get a uniform user experience of your website across all devices.
Whereas Wix creates a mobile-friendly version of their websites but they are not fully optimizable. The platform follows an absolute positioning approach for its pages which means the site elements are positioned by pixels rather than the user’s screen.
As a result, Wix has to edit themes using the mobile editor to make them compatible with different screen resolutions.

4. Dropshipping

Dropshipping is a business model which lets retailers outsource inventory management and order fulfillment to a third party. In dropshipping, you will send the order information to the dropshipping providers and ship the products directly to your customers.

Shopify comes with powerful features to support your dropshipping business. It has partnered with popular dropshipping app providers like DSers-Ali Express Dropshipping, Modalyst, Spocket, etc.
To start your dropshipping business on the Wix platform, you have to connect your Wix store to dropshipping apps available on Wix App Market. The platform partners with popular dropshippers like Modalyst, Sprocket, etc. to deliver a smooth selling experience.
Squarespace is a little behind in terms of dropshipping features. You can still connect to fulfillment extensions like Printful or Syncee. However, the platform does not support it if the extensions don’t work properly. You have to directly contact those third-party services for resolving issues.

You can choose either Wix or Shopify for outstanding dropshipping features.

5. Inventory Management

Inventory management is the process of storing, handling, and keeping track of your inventory items. Businesses are increasingly requiring more sophisticated, integrated, and powerful inventory management software to meet this demand. Keeping track of inventory can help you avoid out-of-stock situations and keeps you informed about when to supplement your product.

When inventory management is considered, Shopify offers an outstanding inventory solution for its users. The platform lets you perform tasks like setting up and organizing inventory, managing multiple product variations, assigning bar codes, tracking stock counts, etc. You can stay organized, and track all activities with ease using this Shopify inventory management feature.
Wix helps its users track and update their inventory. Using Wix, you can automatically track the number of products in stock and set the status for each product manually. The information you can fill in manually is limited to the inventory number, SKU, and weight.
Squarespace offers a dedicated inventory panel that allows users to search and manage their product inventory from a single location.

Wix and Squarespace are made for small and medium-sized online stores and thus the inventory management capabilities are limited. If you want additional functionalities, you need to integrate third-party apps to expand and facilitate your requirements. To sum up, Shopify website builder is a clear winner in the case of inventory management.

6. Point of Sale (POS)

The Point of Sale system allows you to unite your physical stores and online store by incorporating offline sales into the online system. When your customers pay online and come to the store to collect the product, it is said to be a point of sale.

Shopify offers a built-in POS solution which is available for every Shopify plan. But, if you want to unlock more features like staff management and hardware integration etc, you need to opt for Shopify plus or the advanced Shopify plans. The Shopify POS is available globally but makes sure that your store is listed over the 175 countries that support Shopify Payments.
The Wix POS helps users carry out certain functionalities like creating a seamless user experience, accepting payments through Wix mobile POS anywhere, etc. You can also partner with the Square platform however this facility is available only for Business Premium plans. Wix POS solution is currently available for U.S. and Canada-based merchants. Wix POS can be accessed with a verified Wix Payments account.
Just like Wix, Squarespace also partners with Square to create a seamless user experience for retailers. Using its POS solution, you can accept offline payments in physical stores, offer personalized discounts to your customers, etc. The biggest downside of Squarespace is that it is not possible to set up Squarespace POS outside the United States.

Read this Blog Also – Everything To Know About Online Payment Gateway Integration

When you compare Shopify vs Wix vs Squarespace for POS, the three platforms for Point of Sale, and Shopify outweighs Wix and Squarespace with more POS features and a wide range of countries supported. Shopify has all the POS features that are offered by Squarespace and Wix. It is more innovative than the other two and accepts all major credit and debit cards to ensure a smooth checkout process for the customers.

7. Apps & extensions

As a retailer, you may need additional functionalities to create a smooth shopping experience for your customers. You can integrate third-party apps into your store and level up your store capabilities. All three platforms, Wix vs Shopify vs Squarespace come with several apps in their app store. Let’s look into the details of each platform:

Needless to say, Shopify has more than 6000 apps in its Shopify app store. Most of the extensions are designed specifically for eCommerce stores. If you are an eCommerce owner or a retailer, you don’t have to look at anything outside Shopify. Additionally, you also get ideas and recommendations in the Shopify app store if you are a new Shopify user.
Wix App store offers over 250 apps both created by Wix and third parties. You can get access to apps in specific categories like marketing, selling online, communication, etc.
Squarespace contains over 32 apps and all of them come from third parties. If you want basic apps for your website you can opt for Squarespace. Though the apps are limited in Wix and Squarespace, you can still find apps with diverse functionalities like finance, shipping & fulfillment, sales & marketing, etc.

By the time you arrive here, you are already aware that Shopify outperforms every other eCommerce website builder in the market when it comes to Apps & extensions.

8. Support

Squarespace vs Wix vs Shopify, all of them have managed to provide the best customer support system to their platforms. Each platform has its dedicated community and forum where industry experts and business owners share their knowledge and support each other in solving problems.

Shopify offers customer support through multiple channels like social media, email, live chat, and phone.
Wix offers phone support through a callback option to its customers.
Squarespace platform offers only chat support for its users.

In terms of customer support, Shopify beats the other two platforms.

9. Security

Security is a serious concern when you are building an eCommerce store. SSL is a standard security technology to help users establish encrypted links between browsers and web servers. Using this SSL certificate, you can ensure that data transfer between a web browser and a web server stays protected. All three platforms, Shopify vs Wix vs Squarespace follow best security practices to protect financial transactions from potential fraudulent actions.

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

Is Squarespace Or Wix better For Selling?

Both Squarespace and Wix offer e-commerce solutions, but Squarespace is generally considered better for selling due to its stronger inventory management and marketing features. However, it ultimately depends on your specific needs and preferences.

Can Squarespace Compete With Shopify?

Yes, Squarespace can compete with Shopify because both platforms offer e-commerce solutions for businesses. However, Squarespace focuses more on creating visually stunning websites with e-commerce capabilities, while Shopify is king and has a strong focus on e-commerce functionality and scalability. Ultimately, the choice between the two depends on the specific needs of the business.

What Is The Biggest Problem With Shopify?

As a language model, I may not have an opinion. However, Shopify has some limitations when it comes to customization and scalability for larger businesses. Additionally, some users have reported issues with the site’s transaction fees and customer support That being said, Shopify is a popular e-commerce platform with many benefits for small and medium businesses.

Which Is A Better Platform For Big Stores?

Shopify is a popular ecommerce platform used by many large brands. It offers a variety of features to help businesses manage their online stores, such as customizable templates, payment processing, and inventory management.

Is Shopify better Than Squarespace And Wix?

Shopify vs Wix vs Squarespace all three of them come with tons of features that facilitate the development and management of your website. Without a doubt, Shopify becomes the champion as it offers advanced functionalities required to design and promote online stores. If you are looking to build a functional eCommerce website, you should prefer Shopify over the rest of the two platforms. Hope this article gave a detailed comparison of Squarespace vs Shopify vs Wix. Thanks for reading!

Shopify vs Wix vs Squarespace: Who Will Win In 2023?