If you’re running your own small business and need a professional-looking website to support your goals, Squarespace and Shopify are two solid options. But naturally, they each have their strengths and weaknesses.
Squarespace, for example, has well-designed templates, a lot of integrated e-commerce tools, and customer support that you can contact via Twitter—just in case you feel the most comfortable interacting with customer service where anyone on the internet can see. But the platform doesn’t do search engine optimization (SEO) quite as well as Shopify.
Shopify, on the other hand, offers 24/7 live chat support and is optimized for businesses with online stores, so it’s a great way to showcase your products. But it charges transaction fees if you use a third-party payment gateway, and there’s a bit of a learning curve when using it.
Long story short: the best site builder for you depends a lot on your business. So let’s get into the nitty-gritty of what Shopify and Squarespace do best (and worst).