CommerceV3 vs. Squarespace

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
CommerceV3
Score 9.0 out of 10
N/A
CommerceV3 is an all-in-one eCommerce platform that will both build and host store platforms.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.
$25
per month
Pricing
CommerceV3Squarespace
Editions & Modules
No answers on this topic
Basic
$25
per month
Core
$36
per month
Plus
$56
per month
Advanced
$139
per month
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
CommerceV3Squarespace
Free Trial
NoYes
Free/Freemium Version
NoNo
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoNo
Entry-level Setup Fee$1,995 per storeNo setup fee
Additional Details28% to 36% discount available for annual pricing.
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
CommerceV3Squarespace
Considered Both Products
CommerceV3
Chose CommerceV3
In my view, CV3 meets our needs better by allowing us a much easier way to manage the front end the way the templates are structured. BigCommerce recommended using an FTP tool to download, modify, then upload. Shopify has some very sophisticated templates, which, in my mind, …
Squarespace
Chose Squarespace
Each website platform has a place. Squarespace is great for simple informative websites, especially small or local businesses that are not ecommerce. Shopify is the leader for ecommerce website. Wordpress is my favorite for website that need more features and flexability. My …
Chose Squarespace
We used Squarespace simply because it had the domains available that other providers said were already taken.
Chose Squarespace
Squarespace is more user-friendly and sleek. I'd recommend it over Freenom for beginners and those who are more interested in running a website (instead of caring about their DNS).
Chose Squarespace
I like Squarespace better if you are starting from scratch. I was able to use Wordpress when it was an existing site and I just had to make updates, but would have a difficult time starting from the beginning and building a Wordpress site.
Chose Squarespace
Blackbaud DonorCentral, Donorbox, Alaya by Benevity, Intuit Mailchimp, monday CRM and monday.com
Chose Squarespace
In my opinion, Squarespace beats Wix all day. We have used both for microsite development. We use Wordpress for our main site as the featureset is open source and is considered the industry best practice. You can do a lot more specific features with WordPress that are sometimes …
Chose Squarespace
Squarespace if much less work than WordPress, plus hosting and security are not an issue. GoDaddy and Wix are okay, but nowhere near the flexibility or advanced feature set that you can get with Squarespace. Compared to the other products that I have used, Squarespace …
Chose Squarespace
We picked Squarespace for a specific use case because it was easy to spin up the promotional content we needed.
Chose Squarespace
Squarespace is easy to use, webflow can feel clunky (though I haven’t tried it recently), and Wix is very similar, but I preferred the Squarespace aesthetic. Also, Squarespace has clear, transparent pricing - you know what you get, and I like the design styles. I’m not in a …
Chose Squarespace
Squarespace was the quickest to get up and running for a basic website, and with the GoDaddy integration it simplified rapid setup. A plugin for basic language translation allowed us to be compliant from day one.
Chose Squarespace
Squarespace was quicker to set up and more accessible to manipulate the theme, pictures, and content. The page layouts are more versatile and fluid. With Wordpress, more time-consuming efforts go into making a template work the way you want it to (because of the lack of the …
Chose Squarespace
Submittable and Squarespace serve different functions but Squarespace is by far the easier and more user friendly platform.
Chose Squarespace
Wordpress is for more advanced users and allows more functionality to be built into the website. However, Squarespace is easy to use and you will be able to get a functioning website up and running on your own. That is their main point and purpose for their mission. However, …
Chose Squarespace
I would choose Squarespace over all the competition unless I wanted a website builder/host that had an online course portal. Squarespace has the easiest website builder. It's relatively cheap. It automatically updates. It is easy to integrate with third-party services such as …
Chose Squarespace
Both of my fields are visual, so design is as important as functionality. Unbounce looks great, but it's not set up for the same full functionality. I've also been quite familiar with Squarespace and felt comfortable with them.
Chose Squarespace
Not even comparable. I was hacked within 2 years with WordPress in a brute force attack. Since going to Squarespace, I have had zero security issues. I feel the two platforms, though similar, are incomparable.
Chose Squarespace
I found it easier for me to use square space myself rather than have a middle person between me and my website. It was a lot easier for me to access and change something and when I wanted to change something on my site. It gave me flexibility and more options to utilize my …
Chose Squarespace
Squarespace's most attractive feature in comparison to WordPress and Wix is its library of themes available to use. WordPress has a neverending supply of options but that's WordPress, the industry-standard however the limited options for Squarespace is nice so you aren't …
Chose Squarespace
Squarespace offers better SEO options and ease of use than Wix/Weebly site builders. Squarespace is easy to manage and easy to track inventory and sales. For companies with lower skill sets in-house, it is also very easy to train staff to manage the platform.
Chose Squarespace
I liked the usability of Squarespace better than Network Solutions for the type of website we were looking for. I found it was easier to create and customize and I liked the overall look of the website in Squarespace better than what the end result of the Network Solutions site …
Chose Squarespace
Myself and my team have used more robust web development platforms for bigger organization presence on the web. However that has always required more time, effort and talent by using web developers to setup and add content to the sites. With squarespace, a site can be setup in …
Chose Squarespace
Squarespace is the best option relative to other web hosting and design platforms we initially reviewed. It was a bit more expensive than some of the free models we looked at but those sites often came with hidden fees if we wanted to customize anything and Squarespace has …
Features
CommerceV3Squarespace
Online Storefront
Comparison of Online Storefront features of Product A and Product B
CommerceV3
8.1
Ratings
4% above category average
Squarespace
-
Ratings
Product catalog & listings9.10 Ratings00 Ratings
Product management7.30 Ratings00 Ratings
Bulk product upload8.20 Ratings00 Ratings
Branding6.40 Ratings00 Ratings
Mobile storefront7.30 Ratings00 Ratings
Product variations9.10 Ratings00 Ratings
Visual customization9.10 Ratings00 Ratings
Online Shopping Cart
Comparison of Online Shopping Cart features of Product A and Product B
CommerceV3
7.7
Ratings
0% above category average
Squarespace
-
Ratings
Abandoned cart recovery8.20 Ratings00 Ratings
Checkout user experience7.30 Ratings00 Ratings
Online Payment System
Comparison of Online Payment System features of Product A and Product B
CommerceV3
9.1
Ratings
8% above category average
Squarespace
-
Ratings
eCommerce security9.10 Ratings00 Ratings
eCommerce Marketing
Comparison of eCommerce Marketing features of Product A and Product B
CommerceV3
8.6
Ratings
11% above category average
Squarespace
-
Ratings
Promotions & discounts9.10 Ratings00 Ratings
SEO8.20 Ratings00 Ratings
eCommerce Business Management
Comparison of eCommerce Business Management features of Product A and Product B
CommerceV3
8.6
Ratings
7% above category average
Squarespace
-
Ratings
Order processing8.20 Ratings00 Ratings
Inventory management8.20 Ratings00 Ratings
Shipping9.10 Ratings00 Ratings
Custom functionality9.10 Ratings00 Ratings
Security
Comparison of Security features of Product A and Product B
CommerceV3
-
Ratings
Squarespace
8.3
Ratings
1% above category average
Role-based user permissions00 Ratings8.30 Ratings
Platform & Infrastructure
Comparison of Platform & Infrastructure features of Product A and Product B
CommerceV3
-
Ratings
Squarespace
6.6
Ratings
16% below category average
API00 Ratings7.10 Ratings
Internationalization / multi-language00 Ratings6.10 Ratings
Web Content Creation
Comparison of Web Content Creation features of Product A and Product B
CommerceV3
-
Ratings
Squarespace
7.6
Ratings
3% below category average
WYSIWYG editor00 Ratings9.20 Ratings
Code quality / cleanliness00 Ratings6.90 Ratings
Admin section00 Ratings7.40 Ratings
Page templates00 Ratings7.10 Ratings
Library of website themes00 Ratings7.30 Ratings
Mobile optimization / responsive design00 Ratings8.10 Ratings
Publishing workflow00 Ratings8.30 Ratings
Form generator00 Ratings6.60 Ratings
Web Content Management
Comparison of Web Content Management features of Product A and Product B
CommerceV3
-
Ratings
Squarespace
6.1
Ratings
21% below category average
Content taxonomy00 Ratings7.30 Ratings
SEO support00 Ratings6.40 Ratings
Bulk management00 Ratings5.80 Ratings
Availability / breadth of extensions00 Ratings5.50 Ratings
Community / comment management00 Ratings5.70 Ratings
Best Alternatives
CommerceV3Squarespace
Small Businesses
Ecwid by Lightspeed
Ecwid by Lightspeed
Score 10.0 out of 10
ManageWP
ManageWP
Score 10.0 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies
Shopify Plus
Shopify Plus
Score 8.9 out of 10
RWS Tridion Sites
RWS Tridion Sites
Score 9.0 out of 10
Enterprises
IBM Digital Commerce
IBM Digital Commerce
Score 9.0 out of 10
RWS Tridion Sites
RWS Tridion Sites
Score 9.0 out of 10
All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
User Ratings
CommerceV3Squarespace
Likelihood to Recommend
9.1
(0 ratings)
8.6
(0 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
-
(0 ratings)
10.0
(0 ratings)
Usability
-
(0 ratings)
8.5
(0 ratings)
Support Rating
-
(0 ratings)
10.0
(0 ratings)
User Testimonials
CommerceV3Squarespace
Likelihood to Recommend
I believe CommerceV3 (CV3) is best suited for small to mid-level catalog companies. You would want to make sure to integrate CV3 with your back end system or you'll be doing a lot of manual entries or manipulating data for table uploads. You can easily manage the templates in CV3 with a basic knowledge of HTML and work up from there
Read full review
We've found Squarespace perfect for quick, well-designed websites that you can literally design and launch in a day. However, if you want to get more complex with your website, including custom backend integrations or code, Squarespace presents a bit more of a challenge when it comes to what they will allow you to modify on their platform (especially using third-party integration apps).
Read full review
Pros
  • CV3 provides us a plethora of marketing tools to customize offers and campaigns to our customers. I've used BigCommerce and Shopify and neither comes close to the capability of fine tuning sales, offers, and discounts by product, category, customer and more.
  • The purpose of partnering with any e-commerce platform is to provide a secure site and stable checkout process for our customers. CV3 has been amazing at keeping our site up and running through peak traffic and attempted hacks. The checkout process has been rock solid and also integrates seamlessly with PayPal. I've used Amazon Payments in the past without incident, but decided to end that option due to Amazon's policies.
  • CV3's architecture on the back-end is designed to be plain and simple which provides an easy-to-use interface to streamline our work. The template driven structure to manage the front-end will become a favorite for most programmers in no time at all. In fact, I'm not a programmer, but do customization and design changes almost on a daily basis with ease. Any changes made to a template may be viewed on a staging server before pushing live. Templates, as well as other data may be downloaded any time for backups. Exports and imports of product data is simple and powerful allowing me to change massive amounts of data easily.
  • Customer support is always a contentious issue with most providers, however, CV3 has by far been the best I've encountered in over 30+ years of experience with software vendors. They are very responsive and escalate the issue to the proper person without having the redundancy you experience with so many other companies. They understand the issue the first time, and tell you the truth.
  • Any e-commerce business is about shipping. CV3 has the most powerful tools to control shipping. It will challenge the most creative minds on how to best merchandise products based on weight, dollar amount, global geographical location, dimensions, category, exception rules, by carrier, all the way down to the sku level which can have it's own set of rules. It gets complicated, but it works great and ties in with the promotional features as well.
Read full review
  • Squarespace is very easy to use, this is a super helpful thing as small business owners we have to wear many hats and being a full blown website developer doesn't need to be one of them.
  • Squarespace has quick and simple plugins.
  • Squarespace allows you to easily expand as you need to.
Read full review
Cons
  • An area I'd like to see enhanced is the sku level pricing calendar. You can set specials prices to start and stop at certain dates and times, but it's fixed to certain years. You can't have your chosen items go to seasonal pricing every year at the same time, you have to change the years each year.
  • There are multiple product setups: basic, parent with children, and sub-products. Each type exports on the same datasheet all intermingled and this can be tedious isolating the different types for editing and re-import.
  • Vendor and Brand are data points on each item, but they are not controlled by a table. We end up with the same vendor or brand misspelled multiple times.
  • There is no FTP capability (PCI issue?) and no blog site with the parent domain. These have to be handled using a separate sub-domain.
  • The shipping calculator for customers should be available anywhere there is a shipping option presented during checkout.
  • Faster live times. Currently, it takes about 5 to 10 minutes to see template/product changes pushed to the live cdn.
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  • Customizing the sites can be highly UN intuitive
  • Navigation for editing the sites can be difficult and frustrating
  • Squarespace has different versions and it's hard to know which version you're on. You can't switch after you start making a site with one version.
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Likelihood to Renew
No answers on this topic
It's a great CMS tool. Easy to use and maintain. It looks great and the support is excellent.
Read full review
Usability
No answers on this topic
It's dead simple to use. There are no over complicated controls or tons of menus to screw things up. People with bad taste couldn't make an ugly website. While it may be frustrating for the pro designer to get exactly what they want, it prevents the uninitiated from making something ugly
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Support Rating
No answers on this topic
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
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Alternatives Considered
In my view, CV3 meets our needs better by allowing us a much easier way to manage the front end the way the templates are structured. BigCommerce recommended using an FTP tool to download, modify, then upload. Shopify has some very sophisticated templates, which, in my mind, required a senior level programmer or lots of outsourcing for even minor changes. Neither of the other systems come close to CV3's marketing capabilities through their promotional tool without any add-ons. Shopify, for example, is stripped down and if you want a certain feature you have to find one of their approved partners, sign-up, integrate the feature and hope it works. To purchase all the features we're currently using in CV3 you'd have quite a list (and expense) of partners. Examples would be enhanced shipping capabilities or the ability to customize a product purchase. CV3 has features specifically geared for a catalog company, like request forms and capturing key codes. Plus, built-in rewards program, wishlist, gift certificates, bulk email, and data feeds for Google Shopper, Channel Advisor and SingleFeed.
Read full review
Squarespace if much less work than WordPress, plus hosting and security are not an issue. GoDaddy and Wix are okay, but nowhere near the flexibility or advanced feature set that you can get with Squarespace. Compared to the other products that I have used, Squarespace definitely offers more options, customization, advanced features and design options than others, for a great price.
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Return on Investment
  • One positive impact has been the use of product reviews. This feature has helped us weed out bad products and promote good ones while allowing customers to share their experience.
  • It's a fixed fee user agreement which favors increasing sales.
  • The stability of the checkout process has helped conversions and lowered support.
  • Having integrated inventory with our back end has helped meet customer expectations.
  • The promotional capabilities of CV3 has allowed us to provide new and different offers keeping customers engaged.
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  • I can see how squarespace can improve efficiency since it's so quick to build a site on there.
  • For those who don't want to hook up a bunch of different stuff to their website and make it work...they most likely have whatever plug in you need and you can add it. Worst case scenario, they have developers you can hire who can make what you need.
  • As your business grows you can add an online storefront to your site and make more money that way! Easy peasy!
  • They have an easy system for adding special SEO words/phrases so you don't have to learn SEO at all!
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ScreenShots