Squarespace started as a website builder that later added a store; Shopify started as a store and later added the website tools around it. Both are hosted and billed monthly, so the choice for someone selling products comes down to a few numbers: what the cheapest plan that sells really costs once the fee on each order is counted, how many versions of one product the catalog can hold, how much each card payment costs, and how much of the store’s data comes out cleanly if you later move.
Every price, rate and limit below was read on 6 November 2026 on the companies’ own US pages: Shopify’s US pricing table and its Help Center articles, and Squarespace’s pricing page and Help Center. All figures are in US dollars. Squarespace and Shopify both show different prices to visitors in other countries, so a reader outside the US should check the plan page for their own location before comparing.
Key takeaways
- Squarespace’s four plans cost $19, $29, $49 and $99 a month on yearly billing (Basic, Core, Plus, Advanced), or $25, $39, $65 and $139 paid monthly.
- Shopify’s US plans cost $29, $79 and $299 a month on yearly billing (Basic, Grow, Advanced), or $39, $105 and $399 paid monthly. Shopify Plus begins at $2,300 monthly.
- Squarespace Basic adds a 2% fee to every online store sale. Core and above charge no store transaction fee. Shopify adds no fee of its own when orders are paid through Shopify Payments.
- Standard US card rates start at 2.9% + $0.30 on both platforms and fall to 2.5% + $0.30 on each company’s Advanced plan.
- A Squarespace product can have 6 options and 250 variants. A Shopify product can have 3 options and 2,048 variants.
Shopify vs Squarespace: comparison table (2026)
| Item | Shopify | Squarespace |
|---|---|---|
| Entry plan, US | Basic: $29 a month yearly, $39 monthly | Basic: $19 a month yearly, $25 monthly |
| Other plans, yearly billing | Grow $79, Advanced $299; Plus from $2,300 | Core $29, Plus $49, Advanced $99 |
| Trying it first | A 3-day free trial, then three months at $1 | 14-day free trial, no card needed; no free plan |
| Fee on each online store sale | None with Shopify Payments; 2%, 1% or 0.6% with another provider (Basic, Grow, Advanced) | 2% on Basic; 0% on Core, Plus and Advanced |
| Standard US card rate | 2.9% + $0.30 on Basic, falling to 2.5% + $0.30 on Advanced | 2.9% + $0.30 on Basic and Core, falling to 2.5% + $0.30 on Advanced |
| American Express and premium cards | 3.5% + $0.30 on Basic | 3.2% + $0.30 on every plan |
| Cards issued abroad | +1% | +1.5% |
| Product options / variants | Up to 3 / up to 2,048 | Up to 6 / up to 250 |
| Team access | Basic includes no extra staff; Grow 5 staff, Advanced 15 | 2 contributors on Basic, unlimited from Core |
| Stock locations | 10 per standard plan, 200 with Plus | Not stated on the plan page |
| Squarespace tools kept off Basic | Not applicable | Discount codes, carrier-calculated shipping, shipping labels, Commerce APIs |
What a year on each platform costs
On list prices alone, Squarespace is cheaper at every level. The gap closes on its first plan because of the 2% charge Squarespace takes from each Basic store sale, on top of the card rate.
| What the store needs | Shopify, per year | Squarespace, per year |
|---|---|---|
| The cheapest plan that sells | Basic: $348 | Basic: $228, plus 2% of online sales |
| No platform fee on orders | Basic: $348 (paid through Shopify Payments) | Core: $348 |
| A 2.7% card rate | Grow: $948 | Plus: $588 |
| A 2.5% card rate | Advanced: $3,588 | Advanced: $1,188 |
These are yearly-billing list prices before card fees, apps, extensions, themes and tax. The 2% on Squarespace Basic is worth working out: Core costs $120 a year more, which is the same as 2% of $6,000 in online sales. A store that expects to sell more than $6,000 a year online pays less on Core, and gets discount codes and carrier-calculated shipping with it.
At $348 a year, Shopify Basic and Squarespace Core cost the same. Above that level, Squarespace stays cheaper as long as Shopify’s extra staff accounts, inventory locations and the route to Plus are not things the business needs.
Card rates and the fee on each sale
Squarespace Payments charges a US store 2.9% + $0.30 for a standard credit or debit card on Basic and Core, 2.7% + $0.30 on Plus and 2.5% + $0.30 on Advanced. American Express and some business cards are billed at 3.2% + $0.30 on every plan. A card issued outside the US adds 1.5%, converting the buyer’s currency adds 1%, and ACH bank payments cost 1.5% on Basic and 1% above it, with a $250 minimum per payment and a $10 cap on Advanced. Squarespace also lets a store take cards through Stripe or PayPal instead, at those providers’ rates.
Shopify Payments has the same standard US rate ladder: 2.9% + $0.30 on Basic, 2.7% on Grow, 2.5% on Advanced and 2.25% on Plus. Its premium-card rate is higher than Squarespace’s at 3.5% + $0.30 on Basic, and its surcharge for international cards is lower at 1%. In person, Shopify charges 2.6% + $0.10 on Basic. When a store uses a payment provider other than Shopify Payments, Shopify adds its own percentage on top, which falls as the plan rises: 2% of the order on Basic, then 1% (Grow), 0.6% (Advanced) and 0.2% (Plus).
The fee that changes the result is the one on the plan, not the card rate. Squarespace charges 2% per store order on Basic whatever processor you use; Shopify charges its percentage only when the payment avoids Shopify Payments. Selling courses or memberships is a separate case on Squarespace: that content carries 7% on Basic, 5% on Core, 1% on Plus and nothing on Advanced.
Catalog and product limits
Squarespace sells an unlimited number of products on every plan. Each product can carry up to 6 options and 250 variant combinations, and the CSV importer takes up to 10,000 products on a version 7.1 site with the same 250-variant ceiling per product.
Shopify’s limits go the other way: 3 options per product, but up to 2,048 variants. A shoe sold in 14 sizes, 6 colours and 2 widths has 168 combinations, which fits on both. A product with 3 attributes that multiply past 250 combinations fits only on Shopify, and a product described by more than 3 attributes fits only on Squarespace, unless the extra attributes are split into separate products.
What each plan unlocks for selling
Squarespace keeps several selling tools off Basic. According to its pricing page, discount codes, payment plans, carrier-calculated shipping, UPS and USPS label printing, Google Shopping listings and the Commerce APIs all start at Core. The reserved cart with a countdown timer, used for limited drops, starts at Plus. Automated tax calculation is charged per transaction: 0.15% on Core, 0.10% on Plus and 0.05% on Advanced, each capped at $0.99.
Shopify’s pricing page separates its plans mainly by staff accounts, card rates and the third-party payment fee. Every plan includes 10 inventory locations, which rises to 200 on Plus, and POS Pro for physical stores is an extra $89 per location each month. Squarespace’s in-person selling runs through the Squarespace app with Square in the US.
Shopify vs Wix vs Squarespace
For readers choosing among all three hosted builders, two facts separate them before price does. Wix’s lowest paid tier, Light, has no payment acceptance, which pushes a Wix shop to Core at minimum. Squarespace’s Basic plan sells, but with the 2% fee and without discount codes. Shopify’s Basic plan sells with neither restriction. On product variants, Wix sits between the two at 1,000. Our Shopify vs Wix comparison covers Wix’s plans and export limits in detail, and Shopify vs WooCommerce covers the self-hosted alternative.
Leaving Squarespace later
What you can export decides how hard a future move will be. Squarespace exports products to a CSV file, up to 10,000 at a time, but the file leaves out featured images, variant images, image alt text, customer reviews and additional product information. Pages and blog posts export only as a WordPress-format XML file. That file holds one blog page, and it skips store pages, product blocks, video blocks and custom CSS.
Shopify’s Help Center says it cannot import that XML file, so pages and posts are copied across by hand. Customer exports must be edited to match Shopify’s CSV headings, past orders can only come across through an import app, and Squarespace categories arrive as product types, so collections are rebuilt after the import. Squarespace can also lock a domain for 60 days after it is registered or its contact details change, which affects when the domain can transfer. Our Shopify migration services map every old URL to its new address before launch, so search rankings carry over.
When Shopify fits better
- No platform fee on the entry plan. Shopify Basic adds nothing per order when payments go through Shopify Payments; Squarespace Basic adds 2%.
- Large variant counts. 2,048 variants per product against 250.
- Several stock locations. 10 inventory locations on every standard plan and 200 on Plus.
- International buyers. A 1% surcharge on cards issued abroad, against 1.5%.
- Growth on one platform. Plus is available from $2,300 a month when the store outgrows Advanced, without another migration. Our team handles that build work as part of our Shopify development services.
When Squarespace fits better
- Lower plan prices at every level. $99 a month buys Squarespace Advanced and its 2.5% card rate; the Shopify plan with that rate costs $299.
- Unlimited contributors from $29. Core has no cap on the people who can edit the site.
- A cheaper rate on American Express. 3.2% + $0.30 on every plan.
- More attributes per product. 6 options against Shopify’s 3.
- A longer trial. 14 days without a card, compared with Shopify’s 3 days before the $1 months begin.
Our verdict
Pick Squarespace when the website is the business and the store is one part of it: a studio, a portfolio, a service business selling a short product list, or a creator selling courses on Advanced. The lower prices are real, and a store under $6,000 a year in online sales can stay on Basic.
Pick Shopify when products are the core of the business, the catalog has products that will need more than 250 variants, stock sits in more than one place, or you expect the store to grow to the size where Plus makes sense.
FAQ
Is Squarespace cheaper than Shopify?
Yes, on plan prices. On yearly billing in the US, Squarespace Basic costs $19 a month against $29 for Shopify Basic, and Squarespace Advanced costs $99 against $299 for Shopify Advanced. Squarespace Basic also takes 2% of each online store sale, so a store selling more than $6,000 a year online pays less on Core at $29 a month.
Does Squarespace charge transaction fees?
On the Basic plan, Squarespace charges a 2% fee on online store sales, in addition to card processing. Core, Plus and Advanced charge no store transaction fee. Squarespace Payments card rates in the US run from 2.9% + $0.30 on Basic and Core to 2.5% + $0.30 on Advanced, and courses and memberships carry a separate fee of up to 7%.
What are the product variant limits on Squarespace and Shopify?
Squarespace caps each product at 6 options and 250 variants. Shopify allows 3 options and 2,048 variants for each product.
Can I move my Squarespace store to Shopify?
Yes. Products and customers move by CSV, though the product file leaves out featured images, variant images and alt text, and the customer file needs its headings edited for Shopify. Orders need an import app. Pages and blog posts export only as a WordPress XML file that Shopify cannot import, so they are copied by hand, and every old URL should be redirected.
Which is better for a small online store, Shopify or Squarespace?
For a small catalog sold alongside a services or content website, Squarespace costs less, and Core removes the 2% fee for $29 a month. For a store where products are the business, Shopify’s variant limit, inventory locations and lack of a platform fee with Shopify Payments make it the better base.
Sources: Shopify’s US pricing page, plus Shopify Help Center articles on product variants and migrating from Squarespace; Squarespace’s US pricing page and the Squarespace Help Center on transaction fees and processing rates, its current plans, product variants, CSV imports, product exports and site exports; and Wix’s plans page and Wix Stores limits. All were read on 6 November 2026. Prices on both platforms change and depend on the visitor’s country, so check the current plan page before you commit.
