Squarespace vs BigCommerce: Comprehensive comparison guide for 2024

Final verdict

Squarespace and BigCommerce both offer robust platforms, but they cater to different needs and user bases.

• 
  Squarespace (Overall Grade: 7.9/10)
  
  is ideal for users seeking a user-friendly website builder with a strong focus on design and ease of use. It offers a wide range of templates and a straightforward drag-and-drop editor, making it perfect for creatives, small businesses, and personal websites. Squarespace’s built-in marketing tools and comprehensive learning resources further enhance its appeal for those looking to create a professional online presence without extensive technical knowledge.
• 
  BigCommerce (Overall Grade: 7.9/10)
  
  excels in providing a comprehensive e-commerce solution for businesses of all sizes. With its extensive range of built-in features, advanced SEO tools, and multi-channel selling capabilities, BigCommerce is well-suited for merchants looking to scale their online presence. Its robust set of integrations, superior hosting quality, and strong customer support make it a powerful choice for serious e-commerce businesses.

Best for ecommerce

Verdict

: When comparing Squarespace vs BigCommerce, BigCommerce emerges as the stronger contender for ecommerce, thanks to its extensive features and scalability. Squarespace, while user-friendly and aesthetically pleasing, is better suited for smaller stores or those prioritizing design over advanced ecommerce functionalities.

• 
  Squarespace
  
  : Squarespace offers a user-friendly interface and a range of built-in marketing tools, making it ideal for small to medium-sized businesses. Its ecommerce features include secure payment processing, SEO optimization, and website analytics. However, when comparing Squarespace vs BigCommerce, Squarespace’s ecommerce capabilities are less robust, making it more suitable for businesses that do not require extensive product management or advanced ecommerce functionalities.
• 
  BigCommerce
  
  : BigCommerce stands out with its comprehensive set of ecommerce tools, including unlimited products, streamlined single-page checkout, and advanced SEO tools. It supports over 65 payment gateways and offers extensive customization options for product pages. For businesses looking to scale and manage a large inventory, BigCommerce is the superior choice in the Squarespace vs BigCommerce comparison.

Best for informational & business websites

Verdict

: Squarespace is the superior choice for informational and business websites, offering a more user-friendly experience and a higher score in this category compared to BigCommerce.

• 
  Squarespace
  
  : Squarespace excels in creating professional and visually appealing informational websites. With a score of 8.4, it offers a user-friendly drag-and-drop editor, a wide range of templates, and essential features that make website creation hassle-free. Squarespace is ideal for users who prioritize ease of use and design flexibility.
• 
  BigCommerce
  
  : While BigCommerce is a robust e-commerce platform, it scores 7.5 for informational and business websites. It offers a comprehensive set of tools and customizable templates, but its focus on e-commerce functionalities may be overwhelming for those looking to create simple informational sites. When comparing Squarespace vs BigCommerce, Squarespace stands out for its simplicity and ease of use.

Detailed comparison

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Winner: Squarespace.

Squarespace edges out BigCommerce in this category with a slightly higher score.

Squarespace boasts an impressive variety of website templates, offering over 120 pre-designed options to choose from. These templates cater to a wide range of needs and industries, from creative portfolios and sleek online stores to professional business websites and personal blogs.

Squarespace Themes

On the other hand, BigCommerce offers a variety of design templates for creating ecommerce websites, with a total of 240 themes available. Most of these themes come with up to four styling options, providing users with flexibility in design choices to match their brand’s aesthetic.

BigCommerce Themes

🏆 Winner: Squarespace

. Scoring 8.3, Squarespace is well-regarded for being easy to use, with a drag-and-drop editor, straightforward navigation, and real-time preview. BigCommerce, with a score of 7.3, offers a user-friendly interface and a comprehensive set of built-in features, but its wide array of features and pricing may be overwhelming for beginners or small businesses on a tight budget.

Learning Resources

Both Squarespace and BigCommerce provide extensive learning resources for users. Squarespace offers a comprehensive Help Center, clear video tutorials, live webinars, an informative blog, and an active community forum. BigCommerce provides a wide range of learning resources designed to support e-commerce businesses at various stages of growth, including articles, guides, webinars, podcasts, and reports, along with specific training through BigCommerce University.

When it comes to ecommerce, both Squarespace and BigCommerce offer robust solutions. However, BigCommerce, with a score of 9.0, edges out Squarespace, which has a score of 8.2.

Squarespace ecommerce features:

• Intuitive interface
• Secure payment processing
• Built-in marketing tools
• SEO optimization
• Website analytics

BigCommerce ecommerce features:

• Unlimited Products
• Streamlined Single-Page Checkout
• Order Management
• Abandoned Cart Recovery
• Marketing and Sales Tools

Ecommerce themes & templates

Squarespace provides a diverse selection of around 50 ecommerce templates, catering to various industries like fashion, beauty, home goods, and technology. These templates range from clean and minimalist to bold and colorful, accommodating different brand aesthetics and product types. Offering unique layout elements such as product sliders and featured collections, these templates enhance visual interest and engagement.

On the other hand, BigCommerce provides a wide variety of eCommerce templates designed to enhance online shopping experiences and cater to different industries. These templates feature advanced functionalities like quick view, product suggestions, and complex search filters but may require performance optimization for maintaining speed. The selection ranges from free to premium options, ensuring businesses can find a suitable design that aligns with their brand and product offerings.

Product page customization

Customizing Squarespace product pages offers options for layout, design, and interactive elements. Choose templates, customize colors, fonts, and content. Enhance engagement with features like customizable buttons, wishlists, comparisons, reviews, and related products. Advanced options include custom code injection and third-party app integrations. Limitations include fixed core page structure and the need for technical expertise. Free templates have fewer customization options than premium ones.

In BigCommerce, you can extensively customize product pages to enhance customer experience and improve sales. This includes the ability to create detailed product variants, customize options like custom fields, and upload multiple images or videos for each product.

Payment processing

Squarespace provides flexible payment processing for online stores with integrated gateways like Stripe and PayPal. External gateways can be set up for specific needs. Transaction fees may apply depending on the plan and payment method. Security measures include PCI compliance and fraud prevention. Additional features include payment links, support for subscriptions, and the ability to accept international payments in various currencies.

BigCommerce supports over 65 pre-integrated online payment solutions, serving customers across 230 countries with more than 140 currencies, without charging additional transaction fees for using third-party payment gateways. This approach provides merchants with the flexibility to choose the best payment solution for their business needs, including the option for custom integration to cater to specific regional payment preferences. Furthermore, BigCommerce’s integration with various POS systems allows for seamless online and in-store sales management, offering a comprehensive solution for businesses looking to maximize their sales channels.

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Winner: Squarespace

. Squarespace, with a score of 8.3, offers a user-friendly editor that allows easy drag-and-drop website creation without coding. With visually appealing templates and customization options, it caters to beginners and pros alike. The real-time editing experience ensures instant previews. Prioritizing content, it’s mobile-responsive and offers functional features like forms, social media integration, and online stores. Squarespace seamlessly integrates with tools for extended capabilities.

BigCommerce’s editor, scoring 7.9, offers an extensive set of tools designed for creating professional and engaging online stores without requiring coding knowledge. It provides a user-friendly drag-and-drop interface, robust eCommerce capabilities including product management and secure payment processing, and customizable templates to match brand aesthetics. The platform also features powerful SEO and marketing tools, app integrations for extended functionality, and comprehensive analytics to track website performance. These features make it an ideal solution for businesses of all sizes looking to establish or expand their online presence.

Mobile editor/app

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Winner: Squarespace

. Both Squarespace and BigCommerce offer mobile apps for managing your website, but they cater to different needs. Squarespace’s mobile app allows for content editing, website analytics, online store management, and social media scheduling. However, it doesn’t offer the full range of functionalities available on the desktop version, limiting the ability to perform complex tasks such as advanced design customization or creating new page layouts.

On the other hand, BigCommerce’s mobile app doesn’t allow website editing. It only provides access to the dashboard, analytics, orders, and the ability to add or edit products. This limited functionality may not be sufficient for users who need to make significant changes to their website on the go.

In summary, Squarespace receives a higher rating due to its broader range of mobile editing capabilities, while BigCommerce’s mobile app is more limited in its functionality.

Overall Result

:

Squarespace wins

. Squarespace scores slightly higher than BigCommerce with a score of 7.4 against 7.3. Both platforms offer a 14-day free trial, but Squarespace provides a full refund within 14 days for annual subscriptions, while BigCommerce does not offer a money-back guarantee. In terms of premium feature testing, Squarespace allows testing of most features, except for custom code, premium integrations, and removal of Squarespace branding. BigCommerce, however, allows testing of all premium features during the free trial period.

Squarespace offers more affordable plans, while BigCommerce provides more advanced features for larger-scale ecommerce operations.

Winner: BigCommerce

. Both Squarespace and BigCommerce offer cloud hosting with a 99.9% uptime guarantee. However, BigCommerce stands out with its scalable hosting, making it a more suitable choice for growing businesses. The lack of disclosed data center locations for BigCommerce is a minor drawback, but its overall hosting quality is slightly higher than Squarespace’s.

🏆 Winner: BigCommerce

Both Squarespace and BigCommerce prioritize website performance and page speed, but BigCommerce’s robust set of built-in features and tools for Core Web Vital improvements give it an edge over Squarespace.

Squarespace focuses on responsive design, image optimization, CDN, code minification, and lazy loading of images to optimize website speed. It has an average load time of 2.9 seconds and a PageSpeed score range of 20/100 to 93/100, with an average of 62.7/100. Squarespace also emphasizes improvements in Largest Contentful Paint (LCP), First Input Delay (FID), and Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS) to enhance user experience.

On the other hand, BigCommerce uses image optimization, code minification, optimized templates, AMP, and caching as key strategies for speed optimization. The load times and PageSpeed scores vary depending on the level of optimization and the complexity of the website. BigCommerce also provides users with many tools for improving Core Web Vitals (CVW) of their websites, which is a crucial factor in website performance and user experience.

🏆 Winner: BigCommerce.

With a score of 7.7, BigCommerce offers a wider array of apps and integrations, including ERP and CRM systems, 3PL services, POS systems, and various marketing tools. This makes it a more robust platform for enhancing eCommerce functionalities. Squarespace, scoring 6.8, also offers a range of integrations, but falls short in comparison to BigCommerce’s extensive offerings.

Squarespace Applications

BigCommerce Applications

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Overall Winner: Squarespace

. Squarespace edges out BigCommerce with a slightly higher score, offering a more comprehensive suite of marketing tools. Both platforms offer SEO tools, email marketing, blogging, social media integration, analytics and reporting, and ads and promotions. However, Squarespace’s built-in email marketing and detailed analytics give it a slight advantage.

🏆 Winner: BigCommerce

. In the comparison of Squarespace vs BigCommerce, BigCommerce takes the lead with a higher customer support score of 8.7. BigCommerce offers 24/7 support through phone, email, and live chat, ensuring users can get help whenever they need it. The platform also provides dedicated phone lines for various regions and requires a support pin for personalized assistance, which enhances the support experience. Additionally, BigCommerce’s extensive knowledge base and active community forums are valuable resources for users seeking solutions and advice.

Squarespace, with a customer support score of 7.8, provides various support options, including live chat, email, a community forum, and a comprehensive help center. While live chat and phone support are available only on weekdays from 6 AM to 6 PM PST, email support is accessible 24/7. The community forum and help center offer round-the-clock access, and support is available in multiple languages. Despite these features, Squarespace’s support hours and availability are not as extensive as BigCommerce’s, which may be a consideration for users needing constant support.

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Winner: BigCommerce

. Both Squarespace and BigCommerce prioritize data privacy and security, but BigCommerce edges out with a slightly higher security score of 8.9 compared to Squarespace’s 8.8. BigCommerce adheres to international regulations like GDPR and CCPA, employs data encryption for transmissions and at-rest storage, and hosts on secure data centers with robust access control. The platform conducts regular security audits and continuous monitoring to preempt vulnerabilities.

Squarespace, on the other hand, uses secure server storage, encryption, strict access controls, and compliance with regulations such as GDPR and CCPA. For website security, Squarespace uses built-in features, including secure hosting, SSL certificates, vulnerability scanning, malware and spam filters, two-factor authentication, data encryption, and compliance with security regulations like PCI-DSS and GDPR.

BigCommerce employs a robust array of security measures to safeguard online stores, including compliance with international standards like the EU-US Data Privacy Framework, SOC1 & SOC2 reports, PCI DSS, and ISO certifications for data and privacy management. It also enhances security through technical measures such as GDPR compliance, PCI/DSS adherence, and the use of TLS, SSL, and HTTPS for secure data transmission. A partnership with Cloudflare further bolsters security.

🏆 Winner: Squarespace

. Squarespace, with a score of 7.5, offers a more comprehensive set of AI capabilities, including AI-powered copywriting, SEO optimization guidance, and related product suggestions for cross-selling. While BigCommerce, with a score of 7.3, also offers AI capabilities, it does not have an AI website builder and its AI features are primarily integrated through apps.

🏆 Winner: BigCommerce

. Both Squarespace and BigCommerce offer different approaches to user management.

• Squarespace’s user management varies by plan. The Personal Plan allows one owner, Business and Commerce Plans permit 2 collaborators with different access levels, and the Enterprise Plan offers unlimited users, each with customizable access privileges.
• BigCommerce allows an unlimited number of staff accounts with various roles and permissions.

Squarespace User Roles and Access Levels:

BigCommerce User Roles and Access Levels:

Additional Features

User Feedback

Squarespace is well-liked for its easy-to-use interface and versatile tools, making it ideal for those who aren’t tech-savvy. It offers various features like website creation, SEO, online selling, and more, catering to different users. Customers appreciate its good customer support and visually appealing templates, creating a professional online presence. However, some users find issues with domain transfer/setup, limited customization options, and consider the pricing slightly higher. There are also occasional concerns about customer service and technical limitations like template rigidity and missing features.

User feedback on BigCommerce highlights a mix of experiences, with positive remarks on its ease of use, SEO configuration, and strong support team. However, significant criticisms include its lack of suitability for businesses with brick-and-mortar locations, due to issues with POS integration and sales tracking, as well as its inflexibility with customization and additional costs for necessary features. Additionally, concerns were raised about the platform’s steep learning curve for beginners, limitations in product variation and design options, and difficulties with order management. Despite these challenges, some users appreciate the platform’s ability to quickly launch and reliably host stores, alongside its potential for scalability and e-commerce growth.

FAQ