Elementor vs Square Online: Comprehensive comparison guide for 2024

Final verdict

Elementor and Square Online both offer robust website building solutions, but they cater to different needs and user preferences.

• 
  Elementor (Overall Grade: 7.4/10)
  
  is a powerful website builder plugin for WordPress, known for its extensive customization options and flexibility. It excels in design functionalities, offering a wide range of templates and widgets, making it ideal for users who want creative control over their website. With a user-friendly interface and strong learning resources, Elementor is suitable for both beginners and professional web designers. However, it may require a learning curve and additional plugins for advanced ecommerce features.
• 
  Square Online (Overall Grade: 7.2/10)
  
  is tailored for businesses looking to establish an online presence with ease, particularly retailers, restaurants, and service businesses. It offers a comprehensive suite of ecommerce features, including product listing, inventory management, and integrated payment processing. While it may not offer the same level of design flexibility as Elementor, Square Online provides a seamless transition from brick-and-mortar operations to online sales, making it an attractive option for businesses looking to manage their online presence efficiently within a single ecosystem.

Best for ecommerce

Verdict

: Elementor offers greater design flexibility and customization, while Square Online provides a more integrated and user-friendly ecommerce experience.

• 
  Elementor
  
  : Known for its seamless integration with WooCommerce, Elementor is ideal for those who want extensive design control and customization options. It supports a variety of ecommerce-specific widgets and templates, making it suitable for both beginners and professional web designers. However, when comparing Elementor vs Square Online, Elementor may require a learning curve and additional plugins for advanced features.
• 
  Square Online
  
  : This platform is tailored for businesses looking for a comprehensive suite of ecommerce features with easy product addition, inventory management, and integrated payment processing. It is particularly beneficial for retailers, restaurants, and service businesses transitioning from brick-and-mortar to online sales. However, it has limitations in design flexibility and customization compared to Elementor.

Best for informational & business websites

Verdict

: Elementor is the superior choice for creating informational business websites, offering extensive customization and design flexibility, while Square Online is more tailored for businesses needing integrated e-commerce solutions.

• 
  Elementor
  
  : Elementor excels in providing a highly customizable and flexible platform for building informational websites. Its visual drag-and-drop interface, wide range of widgets, and extensive template library make it ideal for users who want complete control over their website’s design. With a score of 8.9, Elementor is particularly suitable for both beginners and professional web designers looking to create visually appealing and responsive websites.
• 
  Square Online
  
  : Square Online, scoring 7.4, is designed to help businesses establish an online presence with ease, focusing on e-commerce functionality. While it offers customizable templates and integrates seamlessly with Square’s suite of payment processing and business management tools, it may not provide the same level of design flexibility as Elementor. Square Online is best suited for retailers, restaurants, and service businesses looking to manage their online operations efficiently within a single ecosystem.

Detailed comparison

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Winner: Elementor.

If you’re looking for a platform that offers more creative control, a wider range of templates and designs, and greater customization flexibility, Elementor is the preferred choice.

Elementor offers an extensive range of templates and designs, with over 100 responsive website kits covering various categories like business, creative, education, and more, directly available through Elementor’s platform. Additional sources like Envato Elements, Template Monster, and others provide a wider selection, including free and premium options, catering to diverse web design needs.

Elementor Themes

Compared to Elementor, Square Online offers a flexible website builder with a focus on e-commerce, providing a variety of design options through integration with platforms like Weebly. Users can customize their sites extensively, choosing from themes and preset styles to best represent their brand. While the exact number of templates available directly from Square is not specified, the integration with Weebly provides about a hundred themes, including 15 for online stores, emphasizing professional design and mobile responsiveness.

Square Online Themes

🏆 Winner: Elementor

. With a score of 8.8, Elementor edges out Square Online (8.4) in terms of ease of use. Elementor’s user-friendly interface and drag-and-drop functionality make it a flexible and intuitive platform for building websites. Square Online, while also user-friendly, may not offer the same level of customization and flexibility as Elementor.

Learning Resources

🏆 Winner: Elementor

. Both platforms offer solid learning resources, but Elementor goes a step further with its Elementor Academy and a wide array of free resources such as blogs, eBooks, and YouTube channels. Square Online also provides high-quality resources, but Elementor’s extensive and diverse learning materials make it the winner in this category.

Elementor and Square Online both offer robust ecommerce capabilities, but they cater to different needs. Elementor, with its seamless integration with WooCommerce, provides extensive design flexibility and a variety of ecommerce-specific widgets. However, it may require a learning curve and additional plugins for advanced features. On the other hand, Square Online offers a comprehensive suite of ecommerce features suitable for both online and physical stores, with easy product addition, inventory management, and integrated payment processing. However, it has limitations in design flexibility and customization.

Elementor ecommerce features:

• WooCommerce Integration
• Customizable Product Pages
• Ecommerce Widgets
• Product Categories and Filters
• Shopping Cart Customization

Square Online ecommerce features:

• Product Listing and Inventory management
• Payment Processing and POS features
• Shipping and Fulfillment
• Marketing features

Ecommerce themes & templates

Elementor offers a diverse range of ecommerce-specific templates suitable for various online stores. These templates are designed to be mobile-responsive and SEO-friendly, ensuring optimal performance across devices and search engines. Square Online, on the other hand, offers a range of eCommerce templates designed to meet various business needs, enabling users to customize their sites to match their brand identity. However, it may offer limited design flexibility compared to Elementor.

Product page customization

Elementor offers extensive customization options for WooCommerce product pages, including custom layouts, WooCommerce widgets for various product elements, and options for styling product galleries and ‘Add to Cart’ buttons. In contrast, Square Online allows you to add up to 250 variations per item, like different sizes or versions, through “Selectable Options” in the item details section of your online store.

Payment processing

Elementor supports several payment gateways, notably through plugins and integrations, with Stripe and PayPal being prominent options for simple and widespread use. These gateways charge their own transaction fees, typically around 2.9% + $0.30 per transaction, but Elementor itself does not impose additional fees for transactions. Square Online supports a variety of payment options including Square Pay, Apple Pay, Cash App Pay, Google Pay, and Afterpay, catering to diverse customer payment preferences. The platform charges a transaction fee of 2.9% + 30¢ per online transaction for its free plan, with a discounted fee available on the Premium plan.

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Winner: Elementor

. Elementor, with a score of 8.5, offers a drag-and-drop interface that makes it easy to customize layouts, add content, and style websites visually in real-time. With a wide array of widgets and templates, users can effortlessly design complex elements such as sliders, forms, and animated headlines. Additionally, Elementor provides responsive design options, ensuring websites look great on all devices, alongside advanced features like custom CSS, role-based access control, and integration with a variety of marketing tools.

Square Online’s website builder, scoring 6.6, is designed for businesses looking to establish an online presence with ease, focusing on e-commerce functionality. It offers limited customization options, aiming to simplify the design process, yet includes essential e-commerce and marketing tools suitable for a variety of business needs. The platform supports an unlimited number of products and integrates with Square’s payment processing, albeit with limited external payment options. While Square Online is user-friendly and efficient for quickly setting up a website, it may not cater to those seeking extensive design flexibility or advanced e-commerce features.

Mobile editor/app

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Winner: Square Online

. Both Elementor and Square Online lack a dedicated mobile editor app. However, Square Online allows users to manage and edit their website using the mobile browser version, albeit with certain limitations. This gives Square Online an edge over Elementor, which does not provide any mobile editing capabilities. Therefore, despite its limitations, Square Online is the winner in this category.

Overall Result

:

Square Online wins

. Square Online scores 7.8, offering a 30-day free trial with the possibility to test premium features. However, users are required to enter their billing information for the free trial. On the other hand, Elementor scores 5.6, offering a free version but only for self-hosted WordPress.org. It does not offer a trial version, but it does allow testing of all premium features during the refundable period and provides a 30-day money-back guarantee.

Elementor and Square Online both offer a range of pricing options to suit different needs, with Elementor offering more flexibility in terms of the number of websites and storage, while Square Online offers a free plan and a custom pricing option for larger businesses.

🏆

Winner: Elementor

Both Elementor and Square Online offer hosting included in their plans, but Elementor edges out with its Google Cloud powered hosting, daily auto backups, and a clear uptime guarantee. Square Online, while offering unlimited bandwidth, lacks transparency about its hosting type and data center locations.

🏆 Winner: Elementor

Both Elementor and Square Online have similar strategies for website speed optimization, including lazy loading, code minification, and caching. However, Elementor has a slightly higher website speed optimization score.

Elementor, a popular website builder plugin for WordPress, focuses on website speed optimization strategies such as lazy loading, code minification, caching, and CDN. However, the load times and PageSpeed scores vary depending on the optimization and complexity of the website. Elementor does not disclose any information about its Core Web Vitals improvements.

On the other hand, Square Online, a comprehensive website builder designed for businesses, also employs similar strategies for website speed optimization, including lazy loading, code minification, caching, and image optimization. Like Elementor, the load times and PageSpeed scores of Square Online also vary depending on the optimization and complexity of the website. Square Online does not provide any information on their Core Web Vitals improvements.

🏆 Winner: It’s a tie.

Both Elementor and Square Online score 7.6 in plugins and integrations. Elementor, a popular website builder plugin for WordPress, offers a wide range of widgets and templates, and integrates with various WordPress themes and plugins. It provides both free and premium add-ons to enhance website building, with prices starting from around $33/year. Key integrations include email marketing platforms like MailChimp, AWeber, and ActiveCampaign, WordPress plugins such as WooCommerce and Yoast for SEO, and social networks like Facebook SDK and YouTube.

On the other hand, Square Online supports a wide array of app integrations to facilitate various aspects of business operations, including eCommerce, accounting, marketing, and employee management. These integrations span from free options to premium services, with pricing varying widely depending on the app’s features and capabilities. Key integrations include platforms like WooCommerce and BigCommerce for seamless eCommerce operations, software such as Xero and QuickBooks for streamlined accounting processes, and effective marketing campaigns via Mailchimp.

Both platforms offer a wide range of plugins and integrations, making them versatile tools for web design and marketing strategies.

Elementor Applications

Square Online Applications

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Overall Winner: Elementor

. Elementor edges out Square Online with a slightly higher score, thanks to its flexibility and wide range of integrations. However, Square Online’s integrated approach and direct link with Square’s business tools make it a strong contender, especially for businesses already using Square’s services.

🏆 Winner: Elementor

. In the comparison of Elementor vs Square Online, Elementor takes the lead with its 24/7 customer support availability. Elementor offers support through ticketing and live chat, ensuring users can get help at any time, which is particularly beneficial for users in different time zones or those who need assistance outside of regular business hours.

Square Online, on the other hand, provides customer support through phone, live chat, and email, but its availability is limited to specific hours. General inquiries are handled from 6 AM to 6 PM Pacific Time on weekdays, and account issues are addressed Monday to Friday from 9 AM to 9 PM EST. While Square Online offers more extensive support for higher subscription tiers, including 24/7 phone support for premium plan users, its overall support availability is not as comprehensive as Elementor’s.

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Winner: Elementor

. Elementor’s security measures are robust and comprehensive, leveraging Google Cloud’s infrastructure for high security, including end-to-end encryption. They also offer advanced hosting features, including the use of Google Cloud Platform’s C2 servers and integration with Cloudflare’s Enterprise CDN, to deliver fast loading times and global reach. Elementor employs both active and passive security measures, including 24/7 monitoring, regular updates, backups, and specialized security protocols to protect against common threats. Their commitment to security is further emphasized by their ISO 27001 certification and a proactive Bug Bounty program.

Although it may not offer the same level of specialized ecommerce security features as Elementor, Square Online is committed to maintaining a secure platform for all types of websites. This includes regular monitoring and updates to protect against the latest cyber threats, ensuring that users’ websites are safe and their visitors’ data is protected. They provide free SSL security for every site created with their platform, which is crucial for encrypting data transferred between web servers and browsers. However, compared to Elementor, their security measures are not as comprehensive.

🏆 Winner: Tie

. Both Elementor and Square Online have strong AI capabilities, each with their own strengths. Elementor’s AI builder is particularly useful for eCommerce websites, while Square Online’s AI algorithms offer personalized product recommendations to customers. Both platforms also use AI for content generation, with Elementor’s AI offering text and code generation, including HTML and CSS customization, and AI-based image solutions, while Square Online uses AI to create photo environments, personalized email copy, website content, and menu generation.

🏆 Winner: Elementor

. Elementor and Square Online offer different approaches to user management.

• Elementor operates on WordPress, and the number of users who can edit or manage a website depends on the roles and permissions set within WordPress. Administrators have full access to edit any part of the site, including Elementor settings, while Editors can manage posts and pages made with Elementor. Authors and Contributors have limited capabilities. Elementor Pro offers a Role Manager feature, enabling further customization of what different roles can do within Elementor.
• Square Online allows multiple staff accounts, however the platform does not specify how many accounts are supported.

Elementor User Roles and Access Levels:

Square Online does not provide specific user roles and access levels.

Additional Features

User Feedback

Elementor is widely appreciated for its intuitive drag-and-drop interface, enabling rapid creation of professional and responsive websites without coding skills. It offers a vast range of templates and compatibility with WordPress, making it a go-to for diverse users. Despite its benefits, concerns arise regarding website loading times, subscription costs, and occasional compatibility issues. Feedback on customer support and legacy plan management is mixed, with some users experiencing dissatisfaction. Overall, Elementor is valued for its efficiency in web development, although some aspects, particularly support services, could be improved.

Users appreciate Square Online Store for its ease of setup, no initial payment requirement for registration, and dependable payment processing. The platform is lauded for its simple user interface, which allows for quick product sales and efficient inventory management. However, some users express dissatisfaction with the limited design customization options and the simplicity of the store layouts, noting that they do not match the design quality of competitors like Wix, Squarespace, or Shopify. Additionally, limitations in scheduled order processing and a desire for more advanced features and better support for custom HTML and SEO were highlighted.

FAQ