This easy, cost-effective eCommerce solution makes payment processing easy by integrating directly with Square POS, but how does it stack up to the competition in terms of features?
WRITTEN & RESEARCHED BY
Lead Staff Writer
UPDATED
| Total Rating | 4.5 |
|---|---|
| Pricing | Good |
| Features | Good |
| Customer Service | Excellent |
| Reviews | Good |
Cost
Free to $79/monthContract
NoneEquipment Cost
$0-$799Get a free card swiper from Square at no cost when you create a free account. Claim your card reader.
Table of Contents
Square Online is a website builder within Square’s platform of products with a free plan available that lets you create your own eCommerce site. Setting up a Square store with Square Online is intuitive, with no coding experience necessary, and offers scalable payment tiers with additional features.
| Square Online Plans | Price | When To Use |
|---|---|---|
| Free | $0/month | If you need a quick and easy eCommerce platform |
| Performance | $29/month | If you need to accept payments through PayPal |
| Premier | $79/month | If you have advanced needs and are looking for processing discounts |
Square Online has a unique pricing structure. Many merchants can use the platform completely free of charge. If you only need 500MB of storage, and you don’t mind processing your payments exclusively through Square, you can use the Free plan. You’ll pay only the usual credit card processing fees.
All Square Online plans, including the Free plan, include free web hosting, SSL certificate, and unlimited bandwidth on your Square site. But if you need more storage, want to use a custom domain, or want to remove the Square advertisements from your site, you’ll need a paid pricing plan. Each step up in pricing gives you access to more features. If you want to save a bit of cash, you can pay for a full year of service upfront and get discounted rates but is often very difficult or downright impossible to get refunds on annual subscriptions.
Here’s a quick breakdown of pricing for Square Online.
Square Online’s Free plan costs $0/month and includes:
Square Online’s Performance plan costs $29/month and includes everything in the Professional plan, plus:
Square Online’s Premium plan costs $79/month and includes everything in the Performance plan, plus:
| Square Online Extra Costs | Price |
|---|---|
| Square Loyalty | 0-500 visits $45/month, 501-1500 visits $75/month, 1,501-10,000 visits $105/month |
| Square Online Features | Availability |
|---|---|
| Retail Equipment Available | |
| International Sales | |
| Currency Conversion | |
| Shoppable Social Posts | |
| Gift Cards | |
| Customer Loyalty | |
| Marketing Tools | |
| Hosted Platform | |
| Reports | |
| Staff Accounts | |
| Buy Buttons | |
| Multi-Platform Integrations | |
| Shipping Tools | |
| Shipping Discounts | |
| Free Themes | |
| Unlimited Products |
Square Online offers enough features to get the majority of small businesses moving. While features on the free plan may be too limiting for most merchants, offerings significantly improve on the paid plans. Without further ado, here are the main features you’ll get with a Square site:
Inventory Management: Track inventory across your online store and physical locations. Inventory totals update with each sale. Square Online also features low stock alerts and automatic reordering options for when inventory gets low.Like Square’s other products, Square Online is designed with the user in mind. It is easy to create a store, import products, and adjust your site to fit your brand.
You can add items from your storefront view or your admin panel. You can also import products from your Square POS to make the setup process just a little bit easier.
It is also easy to fill out the product details. This is also where you can add variants, such as multiple colors or sizes, and select a category for your product. Scroll down a bit further, and you’ll see some more of Square’s advanced options, such as modifiers and SEO settings. You can also disable or enable an individual item’s visibility in the store if you’re not quite ready to launch a particular item.
Square is constantly updating and expanding its services.
Here are a few new features for Square Online:
Customer support is available to all users, whether you’re on the Free plan or a paid plan. You can access this support primarily through phone, email, live chat, and the help center. Here’s a full list of support options:
Square comes with its own payment processing platform, and its rates are 2.9% + $0.30, with a discount at the Premium plan level of 2.6% + $0.30. This is relatively competitive pricing when compared to similar services. However, those fees can add up if you are a high-volume seller to the point where Square Online might not be your best option.
Square Online does not require you to sign up for any long-term contracts, allowing you to pay for its services on a month-to-month basis. There is a price discount if you do sign up on a year-to-year contract, however.
Square Online users raise a few negatives, including these:
The majority of user reviews had mostly positive things to say about Square Online. Here’s what they mention:
As we’ve mentioned, Square Online is best suited for smaller to mid-sized businesses and those who are just getting into eCommerce or who are on a strict budget. Here’s how Square’s online selling platform stacks up to a couple of other big names.
Shopify is one of the biggest names in eCommerce and is really a one-stop solution for website building and selling online. Shopify is similar to Square in that it is highly scalable and comes with its own built-in payment processing, but you can also go with a third-party processor. Shopify’s feature set is considerably more robust than Square’s, especially when you get into its higher-paid tiers, and it shines when it comes to shipping and SEO tools.
Shopify is also one to consider if you’re looking for a wide variety of templates and customization options for your website. Similarly to Square Online, Shopify has loads of integrations and an incredibly intuitive interface.
BigCommerce is broad online shopping cart software that can be used by businesses of all sizes. It is also scalable, but its higher tiers are considerably more expensive than Square Online, although you also get a lot more for your money. BigCommerce integrates with dozens of payment processors, giving you the option to choose your provider, and, similar to Shopify, it has a wide range of themes and templates to choose from.
BigCommerce only offers buy buttons as an add-on, and, again, the service can get spendy depending on what you need. Its feature set is extensive, however, offering excellent marketing features and no limit on the number of products you can sell.
Creating a Square Online store is an extremely simple process and one that Square walks you through on its website. Once you’ve created your Square account, can click the Online button from your dashboard. From there, you will select whether you want a single or a multi-page website. Square will then walk you through customizing your site, giving you the ability to choose your features, and add your own logo and header.
Square then helps you add items, either by importing existing items or creating new ones to create your library and organize it how you want. Then create your checkout options and any shipping or delivery options your business will feature. Finally, you can set up your taxes, and after you’ve previewed the site, you can create your domain, which Square offers for free. Square Online also works with Afterpay and with CashApp.
If you don’t think you need a full-fledged eCommerce website, you can still sell your products online through Square Online Checkout. This is another free service from Square, and payment fees are 2.9% + $0.30 per transaction. To get started, you can send a Square Online Checkout link through an email to customers, or you can simply create a link on your social media site or blog.
You can create links to collect a payment, sell an item, or accept a donation. Like Square Online, checkout links are customizable, allowing you to set up your own taxes and allow tipping options. You can also increase your branding by adding your logo, and you can add buy buttons. All of your Square Online Checkout sales can be monitored through your dashboard.
For smaller sellers, and especially for those already using Square products, the Square website builder can provide an easy entrance into online selling with useful options, such as delivery capability, that aren’t found in all eCommerce solutions. Overall, we think Square Online is an excellent solution for those types of merchants. A Square site will integrate seamlessly with Square’s other products, and if you only need 500MB of storage, you can get the software, plus hosting and support, completely free of charge.
For merchants who are looking for a stand-alone eCommerce solution, we suggest looking beyond Square Online. While it’s a solid eCommerce solution, Square Online is somewhat limited in its features and design options, and even the paid plans don’t include enough functionality to justify the cost. So, while it bears repeating that Square Online store can be a good choice for certain types of merchants if you are hoping to build your online platform into your primary sales channel, you should look elsewhere. Take a look at our top recommendations for eCommerce software to get started.
The Merchant Maverick Seal of Approval 🏆
Square Online |
|---|
After hours of in-depth research and evaluation, we can confidently recommend this brand to our readers. Get started today and see Square Online for yourself.
The Merchant Maverick Seal of Approval 🏆
Square Online |
|---|
After hours of in-depth research and evaluation, we can confidently recommend this brand to our readers. Get started today and see Square Online for yourself.
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Merchant Maverick’s ratings are editorial in nature, and are not aggregated from user reviews. Each staff reviewer at Merchant Maverick is a subject matter expert with experience researching, testing, and evaluating small business software and services. The rating of this company or service is based on the author’s expert opinion and analysis of the product, and assessed and seconded by another subject matter expert on staff before publication. Merchant Maverick’s ratings are not influenced by affiliate partnerships.
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Our team of experts spends hours on every review so that we can find the best companies to recommend to our readers. Square Online made the cut.
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