Shopify and Squarespace both let an Australian business sell online, but they start from different places. Shopify is a dedicated commerce platform, built first to run a store and grow it. Squarespace is a design-led website builder with a capable shop attached. The right pick depends far more on how large your store will get than on which name you have heard of.
Pricing and total cost
Shopify is the cheaper way in. Its Basic plan starts at about $42 a month on annual billing against Squarespace's $56 Commerce Basic plan. The two draw close in the middle, where Squarespace's $100 Commerce Advanced sits just under Shopify's $114 Grow plan, before Shopify's Advanced tier climbs to $431 for high-volume stores. For most new stores, Shopify is the lower platform subscription, and it scales further at the top.
The platform subscription is the directly comparable number, and the calculator above splits each provider into three lines: the platform cost, a processing fee, and the total. The processing line is not the same kind of figure for both. Shopify has its own processor, Shopify Payments, with a published Basic rate of 1.75% plus $0.30 per transaction, so its processing line is a real figure. Squarespace does not publish a native rate, because it routes payments through a third-party gateway, so the calculator estimates its processing as the average of the rated platforms across the category. Treat Squarespace's processing line as a guide, and compare the platform subscriptions where you want a like-for-like number.
Who each one is built for
Shopify is built for the store that will grow. If selling is the point of your site and you want room to add channels, staff and features over time, Shopify is shaped for exactly that. It rewards an owner willing to manage a little more in exchange for far more commerce capability.
Squarespace is built for the brand that leads with design. If your store is an extension of a visual identity, a creative portfolio or a focused product line where presentation does the selling, its polished templates and structured editor do much of the design work for you, with a smaller catalogue in mind.
Selling power and scale
This is where the two separate most clearly. Shopify is a serious commerce engine. It sells across multiple channels, including Amazon, eBay, Facebook, Instagram, Google, TikTok and Pinterest, so one catalogue reaches buyers wherever they are. Shopify POS extends the same store to in-person sales, which suits a business that sells online and at markets or a shopfront. Products are unlimited, and the platform is built to keep working as order volume grows. Squarespace covers the essentials of an online store well, but it is not aimed at multichannel, high-volume selling in the same way.
Design and ease
Squarespace wins on design and simplicity. It offers around 100 award-winning templates built on a tight grid, so spacing, type and layout look professional by default with little effort. The editor is structured and easy to keep tidy. Shopify's themes are solid and commerce-focused, with about 13 free options, but a distinctive look usually means more hands-on work or a paid theme. For a design-first brand that wants a polished result fast, Squarespace is the gentler, better-looking build.
Apps and extensibility
If your store needs to do more than the core platform offers, app choice is decisive. Shopify runs an app ecosystem of roughly 10,000, covering shipping, reviews, loyalty, subscriptions, advanced marketing and almost anything else, so feature gaps can be filled without leaving the platform. Squarespace's extension library is far smaller, around 40, which keeps it simple but means you are likelier to hit a wall on a niche feature. For a store with real growth plans, Shopify's depth is a major advantage; for a straightforward shop, Squarespace's smaller set is rarely a problem.
Australian considerations
Both platforms work for an Australian store. Shopify Payments is available to Australian merchants and settles to local bank accounts, and Shopify publishes its pricing in AUD, which removes the currency guesswork. On Squarespace you connect a third-party gateway such as Stripe, which supports AUD and settles locally, so your processing rate is set there. Each lets you price in AUD, display GST-inclusive pricing and collect the details for tax invoices. The takeaway is that your processing decision sits alongside, not inside, your platform choice.
Pros and cons for this matchup
Shopify wins on the lowest entry price, a native processing rate, multichannel selling, built-in POS and by far the largest app ecosystem, which makes it the commerce engine for a store that will scale. Its trade-off is that it is more to manage and you assemble more of the store yourself.
Squarespace wins on design polish and simplicity, with award-winning templates and a 0% platform transaction fee on Commerce plans. Its trade-offs are a higher entry price, a much smaller app count and an estimated processing line, since it relies on a third-party gateway.
The verdict
For a serious or scaling Australian online store that wants the lowest entry price, multichannel reach, in-person selling and a deep app ecosystem, Shopify is the pick, and the platform built to grow with you. For a design-first brand, a creative or a portfolio with a modest catalogue, where a beautiful store with little effort matters more than raw commerce power, Squarespace earns its higher price. Both drop their platform transaction fee to zero on the right setup, so neither decides it on that. It comes down to one question: do you want a commerce engine built to scale, or the best-looking store with the least effort? Answer that and the choice is clear.