Shopify vs. Squarespace Statistics
Shopify and Squarespace may both power online stores, but they play very different games.
Shopify is the heavyweight in global commerce, processing more than $292.3 billion in 2024.
Squarespace, meanwhile, generated over $1.1 billion in total revenue last year, with a rising share coming from e-commerce.
But what does an actual statistical difference look like?
This report cuts through assumptions and dives straight into the 2025 data of Shopify VS Squarespace to help you make the right decisions.
Let’s start.
Key Shopify vs. Squarespace Statistics:
- In 2024, over 875 million unique shoppers made purchases through Shopify stores, equivalent to roughly 1 in 6 internet users globally.
- As of Q1 2024, Squarespace had 4.91 million unique subscriptions, an increase from 4.63M in 2023, pushing its revenue run-rate to $1.12 billion.
- Approximately 2.7 million Shopify stores are U.S.-based, representing over half of Shopify’s total active store base and the largest country share
- As of early 2025, there are approximately 3,127,900 live Squarespace websites hosted in the United States, representing about 78% of all active Squarespace sites worldwide.
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Platform Usage & Market Share
Total VS Active Store Counts
Shopify is used to build roughly 9.09 million websites, but about 4.6 million (53%) of them are live storefronts.
Squarespace has powered approximately 8.91 million websites, but only about 6.5 million (74%) of them are currently live.
Share of Top‑Tier Sites
Among the top 1 million e‑commerce websites, Shopify accounts for roughly 3.59% (35,900 stores)
Squarespace Commerce is used by just 0.01% of the top 1 million e‑commerce websites, accounting for roughly 129 live storefronts.
Did You Know? Shopify alone accounts for nearly 29% of all e-commerce platform share in the U.S., whereas Squarespace holds 15% of that same U.S. market segment.
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Merchant Growth Rate & Geographic Spread
Shopify Merchant Count Growth
Shopify stores grew from roughly 2.41 million at the end of Q3 2024 to about 2.64 million by mid‑2025, indicating close to a 9–10% increase in live store count over that period.
Quarter-over-quarter growth in mid‑2025 was 2.1%, showing steady, sustained expansion.
Squarespace’s live ecommerce stores increased from 319,505 at the end of 2024 to 353,410 by mid‑2025, reflecting 16% YoY growth in Q2 2025.
QoQ growth during the same period was 1.4%, showing consistent momentum.
Geographic Spread & Market Distribution
Shopify dominates globally, supporting merchants in 175+ countries and counting over 2.7 million stores in the U.S. alone, which represents more than half of all its live stores.
Squarespace remains U.S.-centric: approximately 78% of its revenue and user base comes from the United States, underlining its strong domestic appeal.
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Revenue, GMV & Business Performance
Gross Merchandise Volume (GMV)
Shopify processed $292.3 billion in GMV in 2024, a 24% increase from $235.9 billion in 2023.
Squarespace does not publicly report GMV figures, as its primary revenue model is subscription-based, not transaction-based.
Annual Revenue (FY 2024)
Shopify generated over $2 billion in Q2 2024 revenue alone, with projections estimating mid-20% YoY growth for the full year.
Squarespace reported $1.11 billion in total revenue for 2024, up from $1.01 billion in 2023, an 18–19% YoY growth.
U.S. Revenue Share
Shopify attributes 57% of its GMV to U.S.-based merchants, making it the company’s largest national market.
As of Q1 2024, U.S. customers contributed about 71.5% of Squarespace’s total revenue ($201 million)
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Cost of Ownership & Pricing Breakdown
Base Subscription & Transaction Fees
Shopify’s entry-level plan starts at $39/month, with transaction fees ranging from 2.4–2.9% + $0.30 per sale unless merchants use Shopify Payments, which waives the fee.
On paper, Squarespace is 41% cheaper at the base level.
However, Squarespace’s Business plan carries a 3% transaction fee, while Shopify waives additional fees if you use Shopify Payments.
If a merchant does $10,000/month in revenue, the 3% Squarespace fee adds up to $300/month, effectively making it 7.7× more expensive than Shopify’s Basic plan if transaction volume is high and Shopify Payments is used.
Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) Estimates
Shopify offers up to 33% lower total cost of ownership compared to peers, due to its integrated hosting, PCI compliance, seamless payment processing, and efficient scaling.
But this advantage applies mainly in the mid-to-enterprise tiers.
For solo founders or small DTC brands, Squarespace may be 50–90% cheaper upfront, depending on add-ons.
Developer & Maintenance Costs
Shopify is developer-light for small brands, but scaling stores often add apps, paid themes, and custom integrations, pushing monthly costs into the $60K–$200K+ range for Shopify Plus implementations.
Squarespace is largely self-service and template-based. Most users build without developer support, keeping developer costs virtually negligible for common builds.
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SEO & Conversion Optimization Statistics
Source: PlumRocket
Page Load Speed & Conversion Impact
Shopify stores average around 1.2s page render time, up to 2.4× faster than other platforms (2.17s).
Additionally, 93% of Shopify merchants report First Contentful Paint (FCP) under 1.8 seconds, meaning most stores fall within Google’s ideal UX thresholds.
Squarespace, in contrast, tends to hit 2.9s page load times, edging outside Google’s preferred window and likely causing higher bounce rates and lower conversions.
Core Web Vitals (CWV)
37.49% of Shopify stores score “Good” on mobile CWV.
22.5% of Squarespace stores earn the same rating, about 40% fewer high-performing stores on what matters for SEO and mobile UX.
Shopify’s built-in CDN, Liquid templating, and optimized themes help a significantly higher portion of stores pass LCP, FID, and CLS benchmarks.
Conversion Impact of Speed
Shopify stores loading within 1s see up to 3× higher conversions compared to 3-5s load times.
Based on typical load differences, Squarespace stores (loading in a 3–5 s range) likely suffer a 32% drop in conversions due to slower performance and higher bounce rates, consistent with broader benchmarks.
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Ecosystem and App Dependency
App Store Size & Ecosystem Scale
Shopify hosts approximately 15,900+ apps as of early to mid‑2025, supported by over 7,000–9,800 third‑party developers.
The ecosystem payout to developers has exceeded $1.5 billion lifetime, with top developers earning up to $167,000/year.
In comparison, Squarespace offers around 24‑46 official Extensions, based on audit data and company reporting, over 99% smaller than Shopify’s app ecosystem.
Merchant Dependency on Extensions/Apps
On Shopify, 87% of merchants install at least one third‑party app, averaging six apps per store on standard plans.
On Squarespace, there’s no such practice due to the unavailability of apps.
Conversion & Business Impact from Apps
Shopify merchants using specialized apps like 3D product displays or upsell tools often see conversion rate lifts of up to 250% above stores without such tools.
Squarespace lacks a comparable third‑party app market, so users are largely limited to built-in features, with no available data on equivalent conversion gains.
Did you know? Nearly 9 in 10 Shopify merchants rely on apps, compared to over 60% of Squarespace users who install zero extensions. Shopify’s app ecosystem may cost more, but it delivers modular power that Squarespace simply doesn’t offer.
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User Demographics & Business Type Breakdown
Business Type & User Focus
Shopify primarily powers B2C and direct-to-consumer (DTC) merchants, and around 74% of Shopify Plus users are SMBs selling physical products
Squarespace skews toward creative professionals, service-based freelancers, and solopreneurs. 65% of Squarespace Commerce users sell services over physical products (portfolio sites, coaching, bookings).
Visitor Demographics & Mobile Behavior
Shopify shopper demographics: 55–60% are aged 25–44 years old, and 79% of traffic comes from mobile devices, with 71–81% of purchases made via mobile as of late 2024–2025.
On Squarespace, reports indicate a 56% female user base, with the largest age segment being 25–34 (30.6%), aligning with its appeal to creative and lifestyle users.
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Did You Know? Nearly 60% of Squarespace merchants are women, and over one-third fall into the 25–34 age group, painting a clear picture: Squarespace is the platform favored by creative, female-led brands and solopreneurs
User Satisfaction & Experience
Overall G2 Satisfaction Score
Both platforms hold a 4.4 out of 5 rating on G2, based on verified user reviews.
However, Shopify’s rating comes from 4,694 reviews, while Squarespace’s comes from just 1,082.
Shopify has over 334% more reviews, suggesting broader adoption and stronger user consensus across diverse merchant types.
2. Cross-Platform Ratings
Shopify consistently scores 4.5+ out of 5 on platforms like Capterra, TrustRadius, and G2, with praise for reliability, support, and scalability.
Squarespace performs well on Capterra and G2 but takes a major hit on Trustpilot, where it averages just 1.2 out of 5 across 1,400+ reviews, due largely to billing, domain, and customer support complaints.
Squarespace’s Trustpilot rating is approximately 73% lower than Shopify’s average rating across the board, pulling down its overall sentiment.
3. Ease of Use & Onboarding
Shopify is known for its clean UI, fast onboarding, and helpful learning curve. Most users report going live in under 48 hours, especially with pre-built themes.
Squarespace may offer 25–30% faster setup times for basic sites, but Shopify is often preferred for more complex store builds due to its scalability and long-term flexibility.
4. Customer Support & Resolution
Shopify provides 24/7 live chat, email, phone support, and access to its Expert marketplace, giving merchants a strong safety net.
On G2, Shopify scores 18–22% higher in support-related categories, indicating faster resolution times and more comprehensive service options.
Sources:
- Shopify Reviews G2
- Squarespace Reviews G2
- Squarespace Review (2025) — All The Key Pros and Cons
- Shopify Review (2025): Pros & Cons
- Squarespace Reviews TrustPilot
Wrapping Up
If you’re looking to build a beautiful brochure site, portfolio, or simple online service business, Squarespace gets the job done quickly and affordably.
But if your goal is to build a serious online store, scale globally, and drive revenue, there’s only one platform that delivers on every metric, and that’s Shopify.
Head-to-Head Comparison:
| Category | Shopify | Squarespace | Winner |
|---|---|---|---|
| Active Stores (2025) | 4.82M | 353K e-commerce stores | Shopify |
| Revenue (2024) | $8B+ (est. from Q2) | $1.11B | Shopify |
| Ecosystem (Apps/Extensions) | 13,900+ apps, 87% merchant usage | 46 official extensions, 60% never install | Shopify |
| Load Speed | 1–2s average | 3–5s average | Shopify |
| Conversion Potential | 3× higher with <2s load | 30% drop at 3s+ load | Shopify |
| SEO Capabilities | Advanced tools, structured data, app support | Basic metadata & redirects | Shopify |
| User Demographics | Product/DTC, SMBs, global | Creators, solopreneurs, U.S.-centric | Tie (Different use case) |
| Support Quality | 24/7 live chat + phone, expert marketplace | No phone support, mixed reviews | Shopify |
| G2 + TrustPilot Satisfaction | 4.4/5 G2 + 4.5/5 avg | 4.4/5 G2 + 1.2/5 Trustpilot | Shopify |
| Total Cost of Ownership | Lower at scale, better ROI | Cheaper upfront, but limited extensibility | Shopify |