As both are famous eCommerce platforms in the world, the tight battle between BigCommerce vs Squarespace makes it difficult for merchants to choose. Which platform is more suitable when they want to build their own online store or site?
If you're having difficulty deciding the right platform for you, or if you want to switch from one to the other, read on! LitExtension – #1 Shopping Cart Migration Expert will help you answer questions you may have about BigCommerce and Squarespace through this article.
Let's take a look at the comparison of Squarespace vs BigCommerce using the sections below:
- BigCommerce vs Squarespace overview
- Detail comparison of BigCommerce vs Squarespace
- BigCommerce vs Squarespace – Who wins in 2023?
BigCommerce vs Squarespace – Overview
Both BigCommerce and Squarespace are hosted platforms, so users can build an online store without worrying about any infrastructure-related hassles.
#1. What is BigCommerce?
As a hosted eCommerce platform founded in 2009, BigCommerce provides everything users need to create an online store. All you have to do is register a BigCommerce account, and you may start personalizing and monetizing your eCommerce store straight away.
With various built-in features, diverse functionalities, multiple payment methods, and more, BigCommerce has successfully hosted many fast-growing businesses. At present, BigCommerce platform is powering over 50,0000 active stores.
#2. What is Squarespace?
Squarespace is a hosted CMS solution founded in 2004. This platform allows online retailers to construct and manage a portfolio, blog, or eCommerce store without many technical skills. Currently, there are more than 2,990,594 live stores running on the Squarespace platform.
Thanks to Squarespace's ease of use, all you need to do is establish an account, select a template for your website, and modify it to match your needs. Your stunning site will be up and running in no time!
Check out for more Squarespace information: Squarespace Review – Is It Worth Your Money?
BigCommerce vs Squarespace: Detailed Comparison
#1. Pricing
As we mentioned above, BigCommerce and Squarespace are hosted solutions, so they have specific pricing plans that meet the demands of each user. Let’s discover all the pricing plans and find the differences!
BigCommerce Pricing
You can start your BigCommerce experience with 15 days free-trial, and after that, you can choose which plan is right for your business. BigCommerce offers three specific pricing plans and an enterprise plan with customizable pricing.
The pricing of these plans is as below:
- Standard: $39/month
- Plus: $105/month
- Pro: $399/month
- Enterprise: Pricing varies depending on requirements.
Furthermore, BigCommerce pricing changes depending on how many sales you generate annually. With this platform, your subscription plan will be upgraded automatically as your business develops. Thanks to that, you can get more advanced features for your online store.
Whichever package you select, your store will come equipped with a completely responsive website, a one-page checkout, digital wallets, basic SEO tools, and thorough statistics. You'll even receive a 10% discount if you choose to pay annually rather than monthly.
Squarespace Pricing
Like BigCommerce, Squarespace also has a free trial and distinguished pricing packages. There are four Squarespace pricing plans: Personal, Business, Basic Commerce, and Advanced Commerce, each of them offers different selections of services.
Personal Business Basic Commerce Advanced Commerce Pricing $19/month $33/month $36/month $65/month Pricing $14/month save 25% $23/month save 30% $27/month save 25% $49/month save 25%
monthly paid
annually paid
annually
annually
annually
annually
You will get access to the incredible features listed below with each of these Squarespace pricing options:
- Various of modern templates
- Default SSL security encryption
- SEO support
- Fast and friendly support
- Mobile-optimized websites and basic website metrics
Keep in mind that Squarespace doesn’t offer a free option. Store owners can only choose the Business plan at the start of their business, but it still has good value for money and comes with many useful features.
The Verdict:
In terms of pricing, BigCommerce has the advantage. This platform provides various plans, which help users easily choose the most suitable plan for their needs. Despite having less features than BigCommerce, Squarespace also offers distinct pricing options for all customers.
#2. Ease of Use
Users who have no technical knowledge usually pay attention to ease of use when choosing an eCommerce platform. BigCommerce and Squarespace are both user-friendly website builders that allow store owners to create an eCommerce site in just a few minutes.
BigCommerce Ease of Use
With BigCommerce, your eCommerce store can be easily launched and maintained. You don't need to set up hosting or install any software to get started because it is a fully hosted platform.
Recently, BigCommerce launched an app that helps you access your theme’s template files to edit advanced templates. Therefore, you can drag and drop content (text blocks, videos, banners, buttons, blocks of custom HTML) into your site easily.
However, some terminologies can cause beginners confusion. You may need to spend time figuring out what the technical phrases imply and signify.
Squarespace Ease of Use
Among website builders, Squarespace is one of the most user-friendly platforms. You don't need to touch a single line of code because the platform is purely drag-and-drop, allowing you to quickly add and modify any items on your pages.
Once you're familiar with the builder, you may modify your website's logo, theme, font, and color with ease, and your store will display exactly what you see when you edit.
However, the editor's site lacks any visual cues and is a little difficult to navigate. It will take more time for people who are unfamiliar with creating eCommerce websites to understand the Squarespace system.
The Verdict:
When it comes to Ease of Use, BigCommerce and Squarespace are both user-friendly eCommerce platforms. However, you might have to take a bit of time to get used to BigCommerce's terminology. At the same time, non-technical users may get some difficulty when navigating Squarespace's design.
Want to migrate BigCommerce to Squarespace?
Suppose you are intending to migrate from BigCommerce to Squarespace. In that case, LitExtension offers a great migration service that helps you transfer your data from the current eCommerce platform to a new one accurately and seamlessly with utmost security.
#3. Design
It's a fact that the first thing customers notice when they see an eCommerce site is its design. Let's compare the designing functions and themes that BigCommerce and Squarespace have to offer.
BigCommerce Design
The BigCommerce themes store offers 15 free and about 300 variant theme versions. The themes have been divided into distinct categories to correspond with the goods you're selling. Furthermore, you may purchase the top BigCommerce themes at Themeforest.
Moreover, if you are familiar with CSS or HTML coding, you can easily customize the design to achieve your desired storefront.
BigCommerce recently debuted a brand-new visual merchandising app – DesignO. With the help of this app, you can personalize various aspects of your website, from the background colors to the logo's size and position.
Do you know that Wix is also an eCommerce website builder with stunning templates? If you're interested, here is our comparison between Wix vs BigCommerce for your concern.
Squarespace Design
Squarespace templates are very eye-catching and extremely professional. They also include high-quality stock photos for you to choose from.
Many Squarespace themes were created for users who want to blog or display their artistic, photographic, or musical portfolios in mind. The platform offers 200+ beautifully designed themes, the pricing of which will be with your subscription plan.
Squarespace is quite suitable for photographers (because of its design style). So, if you're thinking about using Squarespace, you may want to put some thought and work into collecting some fantastic images for your site before you start developing your store.
The Verdict:
In terms of design, BigCommerce has more advantages than Squarespace. With BigCommerce, users can customize their design through coding and get various themes in the BigCommerce Themes Store. For store owners who prefer a more aesthetic look, Squarespace will be more suitable.
#4. Apps & Plugins
In order to enhance your eCommerce platform functionalities, adding apps and plugins is an important activity. In this section let’s see what apps and plugins BigCommerce vs Squarespace could offer.
BigCommerce Apps
As a BigCommerce user, you can install 1000+ apps that can assist with a variety of aspects of running an online store, including Accounting & Tax, Checkout, Payment & Security, etc. This makes it one of the most scalable eCommerce platforms available.
To meet your demand, we also offer a thorough analysis of apps you can’t miss on BigCommerce Store. Check it out to see which applications are best for your store.
Squarespace Apps & Plugins
In contrast, Squarespace only offers a limited number of built-in apps. There are now 31 extensions, although this number may decrease due to country restrictions. This seems to be a disadvantage compared to BigCommerce.
Despite the fact that the number of apps may be lacking in comparison to other platforms, Squarespace extensions nonetheless address the essential necessities of eCommerce duties: shipping and fulfillment (7), finance (5), inventory & products (10), and sales & marketing (9).
The Verdict:
It’s easy to realize that BigCommerce takes the crown in this app and plugin competition. This platform offers lots of apps that provide much support for users. Squarespace, although it has fewer extensions, meets the essential demand of eCommerce duties.
#5. eCommerce Features
This is one of the most important factors that users focus on when considering an eCommerce platform for their business. In the BigCommerce vs Squarespace comparison, each platform has its own eCommerce strengths.
Inventory Management
Inventory management is the process of arranging and monitoring your goods, which is especially important when you have a large number of products.
BigCommerce Inventory Management
This platform creates a variety of apps and software to control your inventory. In this manner, inventory accuracy can be improved, low-stock products can be quickly refilled, and restocked products can automatically update on your eCommerce platform.
Additionally, BigCommerce integrates with 3rd party apps, so you can completely manage every aspect of your inventory with the help of these centralized systems.
A centralized system is essential if you sell through your BigCommerce website as well as other platforms like social media and marketplaces like Amazon. You can learn more about multichannel selling and integrating with other platforms by visiting LitCommerce.
Squarespace Inventory Management
With Squarespace, you can manage your inventory through the Squarespace Product Inventory panel with ease. Adding new products, changing stock levels, managing inventory, and bulk editing your products are all made simple by its user-friendly interface.
Payment Gateways
eCommerce platform offers payment gateways to authorize the processing of direct payments or credit cards.
BigCommerce Payment Gateways
There are over 250 local payment methods in over 100 countries and over 65 payment gateway integrations ready to help BigCommerce users. This website builder also provides integrations for the most widely used mobile and digital wallets, including Paypal, Apple Pay, and Amazon Pay. The payment gateways that are available to you will depend on the country and currency of your store.
Squarespace Payment Gateways
In contrast, Squarespace only provides a few payment methods, including Square, Stripe, and Paypal. Among them, Paypal and Stripe enable users to pay with widely used debit and credit cards from other countries, including Visa, MasterCard, and American Express. In addition, Square lets business owners use the Squarespace POS to take payments in person, including cash and credit cards.
Blogging
Blogging could be a fantastic tool for marketing your goods, giving your company a human touch, and raising the SEO ranking of your website.
BigCommerce Blogging
BigCommerce is a well-known eCommerce platform that can be used for blogging. Furthermore, you can easily upload blog posts using the built-in blogging feature without having to purchase BigCommerce apps to manage content.
Additionally, BigCommerce offers a text editor with drag-and-drop support for embedding images and videos, text formatting, HTML markup, and other word-processing features you'll need to create posts that look wonderful.
This platform also integrates with social media platforms such as Facebook, Google+, Twitter, and LinkedIn to make it easier for users to share all BigCommerce posts.
Squarespace Blogging
You can write blog posts and excerpts, tag and categorize posts, allow comments, share your posts on social media, and more with Squarespace's built-in blog page. Either by using the Squarespace apps or a computer, you can update your blog.
The Verdict:
BigCommerce has out-of-the-box eCommerce features. With BigCommerce, you will be assisted more and your eCommerce experience will also improve. Although Squarespace supports various eCommerce features, it’s more suitable for photographers than store owners.
#6. SEO
If you want to succeed in your online business, you must invest in SEO and marketing. Fortunately, whether you choose BigCommerce or Squarespace, you'll have access to powerful SEO to help your business succeed.
BigCommerce SEO
In fact, BigCommerce has a strong SEO performance. You can use BigCommerce to carry out crucial SEO tasks like changing the meta title and description, customizing URL slugs, adding alt text, and receiving keyword support. In addition, BigCommerce includes the SSL certificate, which enables search engines to confirm the security of your website.
Squarespace SEO
Users of Squarespace can also access helpful SEO tools to properly optimize their websites for search engines. By automatically creating title tags, meta tags, and sitemaps, this platform also streamlines the SEO optimization process. You may visit our article on Squarespace SEO guide to better optimize your website.
However, Squarespace has a few SEO weaknesses: no automatic 301 and 302 redirects, no SEO checking tool, no rich snippet function, and difficult alt-tag addition.
The Verdict:
Both BigCommerce vs Squarespace offer basic SEO features to help your online store get a higher rank in SERPs. However, BigCommerce seems to have superior SEO features thanks to flexible SEO tasks.
#7. Security
Security should be one of the top considerations, regardless of which eCommerce platform you select between BigCommerce and Squarespace.
BigCommerce Security
More people tend to prefer BigCommerce in terms of security. BigCommerce will handle security as part of your monthly subscription because it is a fully hosted platform. Regarding the SSL certificate, it provides not only SEO-friendly benefits but also the highest level of website security.
All BigCommerce servers have level 1 PCI DSS certification against credit card data breaches. Intrusion detection software, file integrity scanners, perimeter and server-specific firewalls, 24/7 human monitoring, and fraud protection are additional security measures.
Squarespace Security
Like BigCommerce, as a hosted solution, Squarespace takes care of all security concerns on your behalf. This platform pricing tier offers SSL certificates, and all payment processors adhere to the PCI-DSS standard.
Furthermore, your account's security is enhanced by two-factor authentication. Additionally, each time you contact customer support, account ownership verification will be necessary. This significantly helps to protect your content and privacy.
The Verdict:
BigCommerce and Squarespace are quite neck-to-neck when it comes to security. They certainly provide some of the best security solutions due to being a hosted platform. As a result, users no longer have to be too concerned about security issues.
#8. Support
Finally, let's compare the level of support provided by BigCommerce and Squarespace. Users who are new to building websites would benefit greatly from responsive customer support and help centers.
BigCommerce Support
BigCommerce offers top-notch customer service. From the dashboard, you can easily get in touch with support personnel for phone, email, and live chat assistance. Additionally, they provide support from their user community, where you can talk about any problem or fascinating subject.
Keep in mind that BigCommerce offers support around the clock, so you can ask your questions whenever you want. What's even better is that BigCommerce created the Help Center, which houses an archive of user manuals for users of all skill levels, including beginners, seniors, non-techies, and developers.
Squarespace Support
In general, Squarespace offers a great support system. It provides in-depth answers and a pretty responsive live chat. Besides, Squarespace even provides a Developer Center to create fully custom sites or build everything from scratch.
However, some downsidtes exist: No phone support, long response time, especially on peak time and live chat is not always available. This has an impact on user satisfaction if they require immediate assistance.
The Verdict:
BigCommerce has a slight edge in terms of support channels thanks to its 24/7 and quick customer service. Despite offering strong support, Squarespace has disadvantages that decrease customer experience.
BigCommerce vs Squarespace: Who Wins in 2024?
Whether you're creating an eCommerce store or a blog, Squarespace has all the tools you need. It offers flexible site-building options and is most suitable for bloggers or, small online retailers. Most importantly, Squarespace focuses on design, so it is a great choice for creative brands or photographers.
BigCommerce is the preferred platform for businesses of all sizes because it is flexible and has lots of strong eCommerce features, which can help your business grow better. You will manage your online business well thanks to their strong service and support team. They will help you overcome obstacles and provide you with a large collection of eCommerce features and marketing tools. Those are the reasons why BigCommerce is one of the best platforms for eCommerce.
In case you want some more insights to decide a suitable eCommerce platform, let's have a glance at BigCommerce alternatives.
LitExtension will be here to help you migrate from BigCommerce to Squarespace or Squarespace to BigCommerce as easy as a pie. Even if you lack technical knowledge, you can use the LitExtension migration solution with ease. If you don't want to get your hands dirty in this process, All-in-One Migration Service may be able to help. Our automated service will complete your migration accurately and securely in just a few hours.
BigCommerce vs Squarespace: FAQs
Is BigCommerce better than Squarespace?
Yes, BigCommerce is the winner in terms of eCommerce function. It is a superior platform for power users of online stores because it offers more options for payment gateways and a large range of additional tools aimed specifically at selling items in general. It is also one of the most professional eCcommerce solutions on the market.
Do professionals use Squarespace?
For building expert, creative websites, Squarespace is great. It is ideal for blogging, photography, and resumes and offers the highest quality styles and features available! Additionally, it offers fantastic sales tools for your internet business.
Can I move my store from Squarespace to BigCommerce?
Yes! By using LitExtension's migration service, you can easily move your vital data from your Squarespace store to BigCommerce. This includes your customers' information, orders, blogs, and other relevant entities. Data will be transferred automatically, securely, and accurately without any worry.
Final Words
We hope this article about BigCommerce vs Squarespace above can help you make the right decision. Feel free to contact the LitExtension support team if you have any questions related to BigCommerce and Squarespace.
Please visit LitExtension Blog or join our community for extra eCommerce advice!