May 3
Shopify vs Square: Which Software Can Leverage Your Business?
By LitExtension
Introduction
With over 10 years of experience, Shopify has proved itself to be the “crown jewel” of the eCommerce world. Meanwhile, Square Online Store is just a newcomer in the market. The question is, can Square’s fresh appearance and reasonable pricing beat Shopify, the eCommerce behemoth? Find out in our in-depth Shopify vs Square now!
Stay tuned because in this Shopify vs Square comparison, let’s break down:
- Shopify vs Square: Pros and Cons
- What is Shopify and What is Square?
- Square vs Shopify pricing
- Shopify POS vs Square POS
- Shopify vs Square: eCommerce features
- What are Shopify and Square’s support?
One Report to Win Your eCommerce Game
Are you ready to unveil the future of eCommerce and rocket your sales in 2022?
Get our ultimate eCommerce report and THRIVE now!
Shopify vs Square: Pros and Cons
Shopify vs Square: A Quick Overview
What is Shopify?
With all the top-notch features it provides, Shopify is undoubtedly one of the best eCommerce platforms. It offers an all-in-one solution for businesses of all sizes to quickly set up an online store and start selling in no time.
Here’s how to set up a Shopify store in just a few minutes.
Armed with a great wealth of features, Shopify is an ideal solution to take your business to the next level. Shopify ecosystem includes everything you need to run your business, including smart inventory management, accelerated check-out button, point-of-sale system, automated sales tax calculation, and so much more.
Curious about Shopify? Please check out our in-depth Shopify review below for more information about this platform.
What is Square?
Not only being one of the top eCommerce payment gateways, but Square has also grown beyond borders and now offers so much more. In 2019, this payment provider introduced Square Online Store, a cloud-based website builder solution for small businesses.
Square Online Store allows any users to quickly build an eCommerce website to sell online and in-person. This solution can easily and seamlessly sync with Square POS data to update inventory automatically among your stores. Outstandingly, with Square Online’s free pricing plan, you can set up and run your business at no cost.
In the latter part of this Shopify vs Square comparison, we will dive deeper into what Square vs Shopify has in store. Stay tuned!
Need Help To Migrate Your Store?
If you are intending to migrate to Shopify, LitExtension offers a great migration service that helps you transfer your data from the current eCommerce platform to a new one accurately, painlessly with utmost security.
Shopify vs Square: What Are the Differences
Pricing
Shopify Pricing
Before committing to any Shopify pricing plan, this platform offers a 14-day-free-trial for every new user. So, don’t miss this limited-time offer to tour around all Shopify features with no cost required.
Nonetheless, if Shopify is not the solution you are looking for, feel free to cancel the free trial and look for Shopify alternatives instead.
Feels great about Shopify and ready for a commitment? Let’s dive right into everything about Shopify pricing. This hosted solution comes with three Shopify pricing plans including Basic Shopify, Shopify, and Advanced Shopify with the price ranging from $29 to $299 per month.
Each package offers a great set of eCommerce features that perfectly align with users’ needs. Therefore, Shopify guarantees to meet the demand of every business, regardless of its size and function.
When opting for Shopify, you will be able to use an exclusive in-house payment provider, Shopify Payments. This processor will eliminate the transaction fee for every purchase made in your store. More than that, Shopify Payments also grants you full access to Shop Pay — an accelerated checkout button dedicated to Shopify stores.
Nonetheless, while you can avoid transaction fees with Shopify Payments, you still need to pay a small amount of money for credit card processing fees. The price will be variable based on the Shopify pricing plan you are, the order value, and the number of purchases.
Square Pricing
Unlike Shopify, Square pricing comes in four different packages including Free, Professional, Performance, and Premium. The price for these packages ranges from $0 to $72 per month if billed annually. Each Square pricing plan equips store owners with unlimited product listing, a basic built-in SEO tool, and Facebook & Instagram integration.
Square is one of the minorities of eCommerce platforms that offer a free pricing plan. But the important question is, is Square really free? The answer is yes, to some extent. You won’t have to pay for hosting, an SSL certificate, or other monthly expenses. Nevertheless, please note that when using this Square pricing plan, you might have to pay some extra money for a custom domain name.
Besides the monthly Square pricing plan, this payment processor charges a small amount of money for each transaction made in your store. Square transaction fee is 2.9% + 30¢ per purchase, applied for the Free, Professional, Performance. However, if you are on Premium, the most prestigious tier of Square pricing plan, the transaction will be reduced to 2.6% + 30¢.
Verdict: Between Shopify vs Square in terms of pricing, Square is clearly more affordable than Shopify. As a result, Square would be an ideal option for users who are on tight budgets.
Point-of-Sale System
Both Shopify vs Square are among the best POS systems for retail business. But are they the same? Who will win in the battle of Shopify vs Square in terms of point-of-sales? Check out the comparison below to find out!
Shopify POS System
The Shopify POS system has industry-leading capabilities that enable merchants to manage their products, employees, and inventories easily. With this point-of-sale software, store owners can add an infinite number of items to their POS, categorize products automatically using the smart collection function, and create product variations depending on their materials and colors.
As well as the customer and product management, Shopify POS System also offers a top-notch report and analytic tool. This software comes with an overview report that lets store owners quickly and easily track the overall performance of their stores. With this report, effective selling strategies can be promptly implemented to increase sales.
There are two different pricing tiers available for Shopify POS system: Shopify POS Lite and Shopify POS Pro. Shopify POS Lite is default and already equipped for every Shopify store. Meanwhile, opting for Shopify POS Pro will cost an additional $89 per month for each location. Nevertheless, this option is available for free for all Shopify Plus users.
Square POS System
Being a front-runner in the point-of-sale system market, Square offers four different POS software options. They include one regular point-of-sale app and three other software dedicated to restaurant, retail, and appointment. All of them are packed with powerful functions for inventory tracking (both online and brick-and-mortar stores), customer & order management, and real-time analytics.
While Shopify aims at businesses of all sizes, Square POS system is highly favored by newly-established online stores. This software is renowned for its flat and transparent pricing. This means Square POS system requires no monthly fee, no setup fee. You even get a free card reader as a starter pack. However, please note that Square POS will ask for a small amount of transaction fee (starting from 2.6% + 10¢) whenever you take payments.
Verdict: In terms of point-of-sales, the competition between Shopify vs Square is quite neck-to-neck. Besides the user-friendliness, both systems are packed with top-of-the-class features to sell from anywhere, both online and in person. Nevertheless, Square POS seems to be a notch better than Shopify since this software gives away a free card reader as a starter pack item.
Payment Gateways
Payment gateway is a crucial element of your store. Enabling customers to check out with various methods ensures a seamless customer experience. Consequently, you can boost your store’s conversion rate, reduce cart abandonment, and thus increase sales volume.
Now, let’s see what Square vs Shopify has to offer in terms of payment methods.
Shopify Payment Gateways
Living up to its reputation as the top eCommerce platform, Shopify can integrate with over 100 payment processors. This hosted solution provides support for an impressive number of payment gateways, including top eCommerce processors like Stripe, PayPal, 2Checkout, and so on.
Outstandingly, Shopify is one of the leading platforms that accept e-wallets like Google Pay or Apple Pay. With the emergence of digital payment as an eCommerce trend, it’s best to adopt Shopify now to catch up with this upcoming surge.
Square Payment Gateways
On another note, Square Online Store is fully packed with a built-in Square payment gateway. This processor can accept all major credit cards like Visa, Mastercard, American Express, and Discover. Moreover, similar to Shopify, Square also offers support for e-wallet payments via Google Pay or Apple Pay. In short, Square Online Store has everything you’ll need to take payment.
With that being said, one downside of Square payment is that it is integrable with several major payment processors in the market. This might be a hindrance if you want to boost your business by expanding the payment gateway selection.
Verdict: Between Shopify vs Square in the battle of payment gateways, Shopify is clearly the winner. This platform can integrate with an enormous amount of payment processors as well as the ability to take payment via e-wallets.
eCommerce Features
When it comes to creating an online store, eCommerce features must be the #1 thing to consider. While Shopify is renowned as a top eCommerce platform, Square is just a newcomer in the market. Can Square catch up with Shopify in this Shopify vs Square battle? Can Shopify secure its crown against Square? Check out our Square vs Shopify comparison to find out!
Support
Shopify Support
Shopify has a great advantage over its rivals thanks to the top-of-the-class customer support it offers. Shopify’s support team is available 24/7 via phone call, live chat, and email. They will make sure your problems will be resolved as soon as possible.
Besides, store owners can easily conduct research using Shopify Help Center or find answers in Shopify’s vibrant eCommerce community.
Square Support
On another note, Square also provides support via live chat, phone call, and email. Nevertheless, please note that Square support is not available 24/7. Therefore, you might not be able to get practical assistance in case of problems and conflicts.
With that being said, Square offers a large knowledge base in its Help Center. You can seek answers using the built-in search query or browse through different categories to find your request.
Verdict: Shopify clearly wins this battle of Shopify vs Square in terms of help and support. This platform provides top-notch customer service that barely any other eCommerce platform offers.
Square vs Shopify: FAQs
- Can you use Square with Shopify?
Unfortunately, Shopify hasn’t provided support for the Square payment gateway. Hence, Shopify store owners are unable to connect and take payments using Square.
- How to perform Shopify Square integration?
Though Square is not a verified payment gateway on Shopify, it is possible to perform a Shopify Square integration. However, please note that this process may be complicated and high risk. You might need to hire a Shopify expert to set Square up as an external redirect checkout.
- Is Square good for Shopify?
Since Shopify does not support Square as a payment gateway, it’s hard to determine if Square is good for Shopify. If you are looking for a way to take payments on Shopify, please consider using Shopify Payments or check out the list of verified Shopify payment processors.
Shopify vs Square: Final Verdict
Long story short, it’s hard to determine the ultimate winner between Shopify vs Square. While Shopify attracts new users with its powerful features to support businesses of all sizes, Square is more friendly to start-ups or entrepreneurs thanks to its affordable pricing plan.
Therefore, it solely relies on customers’ needs when it comes to choosing between Square vs Shopify. If you want to build an eCommerce platform that offers great scalability and flexibility, go for Shopify. On another hand, if you’re on a tight budget and just looking for a platform with adequate features, Square is the solution for you.
What do you think about Shopify vs Square? Which one would you choose to grow your business? Join our Facebook community now and share your thoughts.
