Shift4Shop vs. Squarespace

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
Shift4Shop
Score 2.3 out of 10
N/A
Shift4Shop (formerly 3dcart) is a customizable eCommerce platform designed to build an online store. Some features include Level 1 PCI security compliance, the same level used by banks and large financial institutions, along with search engine optimized templates and no transaction fees. The former 3dcart was acquired by Shift4 Payments in November, 2020.N/A
Squarespace
Score 8.4 out of 10
N/A
Squarespace is a CMS platform that allows users to create a DIY blog, eCommerce store, and/or portfolio (visual art or music). Some Squarespace website and shop templates are industry or use case-specific, such as menu builders for restaurant sites.
$12
per month
Pricing
Shift4ShopSquarespace
Editions & Modules
No answers on this topic
No answers on this topic
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
Shift4ShopSquarespace
Free Trial
NoNo
Free/Freemium Version
YesNo
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoNo
Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
Additional DetailsShift4Shop offers a free enterprise-grade plan for US customers who use their payment processing.Personal: $12/month (paid annually) $16/month (paid monthly) Business: $18/month (paid annually) $26/month (paid monthly) Basic Commerce: $26/month (paid annually) $35/month (paid monthly) Advanced Commerce: $40/month (paid annually) $54/month (paid monthly)
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
Shift4ShopSquarespace
Considered Both Products
Shift4Shop
Squarespace

No answer on this topic

Top Pros
Top Cons
Features
Shift4ShopSquarespace
Online Storefront
Comparison of Online Storefront features of Product A and Product B
Shift4Shop
1.0
8 Ratings
154% below category average
Squarespace
-
Ratings
Product catalog & listings1.08 Ratings00 Ratings
Product management1.08 Ratings00 Ratings
Bulk product upload1.06 Ratings00 Ratings
Branding1.07 Ratings00 Ratings
Mobile storefront1.08 Ratings00 Ratings
Product variations1.08 Ratings00 Ratings
Website integration1.08 Ratings00 Ratings
Visual customization1.08 Ratings00 Ratings
CMS1.07 Ratings00 Ratings
Online Shopping Cart
Comparison of Online Shopping Cart features of Product A and Product B
Shift4Shop
1.0
8 Ratings
153% below category average
Squarespace
-
Ratings
Abandoned cart recovery1.06 Ratings00 Ratings
Checkout user experience1.08 Ratings00 Ratings
Online Payment System
Comparison of Online Payment System features of Product A and Product B
Shift4Shop
1.0
8 Ratings
157% below category average
Squarespace
-
Ratings
eCommerce security1.08 Ratings00 Ratings
eCommerce Marketing
Comparison of eCommerce Marketing features of Product A and Product B
Shift4Shop
1.3
8 Ratings
141% below category average
Squarespace
-
Ratings
Promotions & discounts1.08 Ratings00 Ratings
Personalized recommendations1.07 Ratings00 Ratings
SEO1.98 Ratings00 Ratings
eCommerce Business Management
Comparison of eCommerce Business Management features of Product A and Product B
Shift4Shop
1.0
8 Ratings
154% below category average
Squarespace
-
Ratings
Multi-site management1.04 Ratings00 Ratings
Order processing1.07 Ratings00 Ratings
Inventory management1.06 Ratings00 Ratings
Shipping1.07 Ratings00 Ratings
Custom functionality1.08 Ratings00 Ratings
Security
Comparison of Security features of Product A and Product B
Shift4Shop
-
Ratings
Squarespace
8.5
59 Ratings
6% above category average
Role-based user permissions00 Ratings8.559 Ratings
Platform & Infrastructure
Comparison of Platform & Infrastructure features of Product A and Product B
Shift4Shop
-
Ratings
Squarespace
8.3
51 Ratings
8% above category average
API00 Ratings8.044 Ratings
Internationalization / multi-language00 Ratings8.733 Ratings
Web Content Creation
Comparison of Web Content Creation features of Product A and Product B
Shift4Shop
-
Ratings
Squarespace
7.8
88 Ratings
3% above category average
WYSIWYG editor00 Ratings9.076 Ratings
Code quality / cleanliness00 Ratings8.069 Ratings
Admin section00 Ratings8.387 Ratings
Page templates00 Ratings7.188 Ratings
Library of website themes00 Ratings7.185 Ratings
Mobile optimization / responsive design00 Ratings6.784 Ratings
Publishing workflow00 Ratings9.076 Ratings
Form generator00 Ratings7.569 Ratings
Web Content Management
Comparison of Web Content Management features of Product A and Product B
Shift4Shop
-
Ratings
Squarespace
8.2
78 Ratings
11% above category average
Content taxonomy00 Ratings8.966 Ratings
SEO support00 Ratings7.171 Ratings
Bulk management00 Ratings8.044 Ratings
Availability / breadth of extensions00 Ratings8.058 Ratings
Community / comment management00 Ratings8.958 Ratings
Best Alternatives
Shift4ShopSquarespace
Small Businesses
Ecwid by Lightspeed
Ecwid by Lightspeed
Score 10.0 out of 10
Divi
Divi
Score 9.8 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies
IBM Digital Commerce
IBM Digital Commerce
Score 9.0 out of 10
Image Relay
Image Relay
Score 9.5 out of 10
Enterprises
IBM Digital Commerce
IBM Digital Commerce
Score 9.0 out of 10
Tridion
Tridion
Score 9.0 out of 10
All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
User Ratings
Shift4ShopSquarespace
Likelihood to Recommend
1.0
(9 ratings)
8.3
(88 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
-
(0 ratings)
10.0
(4 ratings)
Usability
-
(0 ratings)
10.0
(4 ratings)
Support Rating
-
(0 ratings)
10.0
(2 ratings)
User Testimonials
Shift4ShopSquarespace
Likelihood to Recommend
Shift4
At this point I would recommend looking elsewhere - 8 years with a platform and finally have to switch due to the unreliability is not something a business likes to do! They should sell the platform to a company that actually cares about owning an ecommerce builder. Research Shift4 - the parent
Read full review
Squarespace
I have a gorgeous website that I made myself, thanks to Squarespace. I'm able to integrate marketing emails, SEO, analytics, online carts, pretty much instantly. If you want to get started fast, it's really great. I think if you want to customize square space and you're having trouble, it would be most helpful to hire a square space designer. That's what I would have done in retrospect.
Read full review
Pros
Shift4
  • Membership rewards (a points awarding system) is really easy to set up and manage
  • Gift certificate issuance and redemption is simple to use and manage
  • Site design and redesign is straightforward and they are very helpful with design packages to customize.
  • They offer comprehensive SEO services and are very knowledgeable about how to engage customers and create traffic.
Read full review
Squarespace
  • Stupid simple to use. I know very creative people who cannot code and this is probably the easiest ever platform for them!
  • Pretty website templates and great functionality with showing off portfolios.
  • They've already figured out what are the problems that non-coding people have when creating websites and they've figured out a simple solution for all of it.
Read full review
Cons
Shift4
  • Page structure is all over the place. It can be difficult to find where to go to make page edits.
  • Base platform isn't very robust and requires multiple add-ons in order to add CRM, Taxes, and other capabilities
  • Reporting isn't very strong, necessitating outside analytics
  • File system is also pretty wonky and feels very primitive
  • Customer service and technical help leaves MUCH to be desired.
  • Not as many supported add-ons/plug-ins as other platforms, and many of them cost additional fees. Many of them also don't seamlessly integrate, meaning you'll need to dev the integration yourself.
  • In general, what you see in the WYSIWYG is not what you get.
  • Order System is not very intuitive for the modern era
Read full review
Squarespace
  • As a wine company it would really love it if Squarespace had an easy plugin for wine club subscriptions.
  • Squarespace would be awesome if it could automatically take your photos that you upload on the site and optimize them for the web and for the website.
  • I do wish we could have more than two contributors for the basic website costs.
Read full review
Likelihood to Renew
Shift4
Not applicable - as a franchisee, the franchiser took over the web site and shopping cart capabilities, so I no longer need the tool. But I would recommend it.
Read full review
Squarespace
Unless our website requires significantly more functionality in the future, I can't see us terminating our contract
Read full review
Usability
Shift4
No answers on this topic
Squarespace
It's simple to use for someone who is really good with computers as well as those who are not. I've been using my personal squarespace for years and have also helped clients build a starting page which they are later able to manage theirselves.
Read full review
Support Rating
Shift4
No answers on this topic
Squarespace
Help is available directly from the back end and uses full sentence searching to find answers to questions others may have asked before. With a ton of articles and support questions documents, it is very likely that your question has been answered. If not each page has the ability to open a direct email to support. Each case has a number and can be followed. Responses are often quick and have links and directions clearly stated
Read full review
Alternatives Considered
Shift4
We used them for 2 years and had minor problems up until the end. For the last 2 months, customers were unable to checkout, or connect to our payment processor. We put in like 3 to 5 hot tickets to get fixed and day after day nothing was fixed and support got ruder and ruder with us! We lost thousands of dollars online with this company and now they are chasing us for a renewal payment! Simply put, this is bad software with a poor customer care staff!
Read full review
Squarespace
Overall, as a designer, it makes perfect sense for small to large businesses to use a site such as SquareSpace. Costs are relatively reasonable with the ability to go in and do custom code.
The issue is certain aspects of it, depending on the plan, you can't do. So, if you want to do API to the site, you need to use the top-tier program to do so. Even at custom code, you won't have access to the API section.
As well, like all templates and themes, everybody is using the same style too.
Read full review
Return on Investment
Shift4
  • Because 3dcart ended up not being the best for our business, we decided to go with BigCommerce instead.
  • It was an excellent platform to consider, and we tried it for a time but quickly realized it did not provide what our business needed.
Read full review
Squarespace
  • The key positive impact on my overall business objectives is how simple Squarespace sites are to implement new information. Whenever our services change, we can quickly update pages or even change how the website flows, in a very short window of time. This allows me to get back to more urgent work sooner.
  • Our Squarespace site for Club Swim Show helped present our web series to potential partners; Club Swim Show went on to partner with a popular swimming magazine and reach a larger audience through that magazine's hosting thanks to the professional design of our original website.
  • Squarespace does not bring in customers to my storefront, which is fine for me, since I sell things infrequently and it is not my main business, but might work against someone who is expecting a Shopify or Etsy level connection with buyer markets.
Read full review
ScreenShots

Shift4Shop Screenshots

Screenshot of Screenshot of