Shopify vs Squarespace
Both are credible choices — here's where they genuinely differ.
Some links on this page are affiliate links. They never affect our verdict.
Pricing — including renewal
| Shopify | Squarespace | |
|---|---|---|
| Intro price | ~£25/mo (Basic) | ~£13/mo |
| Intro requires | Monthly; discount on annual | Annual billing for best rate |
| Renewal | Flat published pricing — plus transaction fees unless you use Shopify Payments | Broadly flat published pricing |
| Money-back | Free trial period | 14 days |
Features compared
| Shopify | Squarespace | |
|---|---|---|
| Unlimited websites | — No | — No |
| Multiple websites | — No | — No |
| Free SSL | ✔ Yes | ✔ Yes |
| Unmetered bandwidth | ✔ Yes | ✔ Yes |
| Email included | — No | — No |
| Free daily backups | — No | — No |
| Free domain (1st yr) | — No | ✔ Yes |
| CDN included | ✔ Yes | ✔ Yes |
| Staging environment | — No | — No |
| NVMe/SSD storage | — No | — No |
| UK data centre | ✔ Yes | — No |
| No long contract | ✔ Yes | — No |
| Support | 24/7 chat | 24/7 email, live chat in hours |
Plan details — what you actually get
Shopify
Websites: 1 store per plan
Storage: Unlimited products & files
Bandwidth: Unlimited
Email: Forwarding only (no mailboxes)
SSL: Free, automatic
Backups: Platform-managed (export your data too)
CDN: Global CDN included
Staging: Theme preview / duplicate themes
Squarespace
Websites: 1 per plan
Storage: Unlimited (fair use)
Bandwidth: Unlimited
Email: Via Google Workspace (paid)
SSL: Free, automatic
Backups: Platform-managed; duplicate pages
CDN: Global CDN included
Staging: Limited (duplicate site)
The verdict
Both Shopify and Squarespace are credible for selling online, beginner-friendly. For those needs you won't go far wrong either way.
Choose Shopify if your priority is growing / high traffic.