2023 Square Online Review: Best Free Ecommerce Platform
This article is part of a larger series onRetail Management.
Square Online is an ecommerce platform and website builder that provides an all-in-one online store and payment processing solution. Our Square Online review shows it offers the best free ecommerce platform for small businesses and is ideal for brick-and-mortar retailers that need basic online store functionality.
In our evaluation of thebest ecommerce platformsfor small businesses, Square Online came in fourth with a score of 4.08 out of 5 based on our assessment of 38 data points. We built and tested a demo store as part of our evaluation.
Pros
- Forever-free plan
- All-in-one ecommerce and payment processing
- Very easy to set up and use
- Includes free POS software for in-person sales
- Sell on Instagram and Facebook
- Dynamic shipping rates and discounted postage
Cons
- Expensive premium features
- No advanced inventory functionality
- Must use Square Payments
- Limited customization options
Supported Business Types
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多才多艺的和灵活的
Small retailers, independent sellers, mom-and-pop businesses, cafes and coffee shops, food trucks, breweries, professional services, beauty, and more |
Ecommerce Functions
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Standout Features
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Monthly Software Fees
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Very competitive
$0–$79 No contracts. Month-to-month or annual billing options. |
Payment Processing Options
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Limited
Must use Square Payments.
Certain plans have the option of adding PayPal checkout. All plans can add Afterpay as abuy now, pay lateroption. |
Payment Processing Fees
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Standard
2.9% + 30 cents per transaction
6% + 30 cents for Afterpay transactions
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Third-party Integrations
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Good
Dozens of apps,包括选择航运、成就感、发票entory, and accounting |
Customer Support
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Fair
Need to login to your Square account for fast support.
Default support is an automated chat assistant.
Phone support is difficult to find.
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---|---|---|---|
Best for:
Ecommerce businessesandmultichannel retailers
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Best for:Online retailers with complex inventory |
Best for:Beautiful templates andwebsite builder functionality
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Best for:
Online orderingandPOS for restaurants
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Monthly fees from:$39 |
Monthly fees from:$39 |
Monthly fees from:$35 (for ecommerce functionality) |
Monthly fees from:$0 |
When to Use Square Online
- If you need a free ecommerce platform:Square Online is thebest free ecommerce site builder.
- For curbside delivery and order-ahead functionality:Small shops, cafes, coffee shops, and food trucks can easily accept online orders to-go.
- Service providers:Square also has free online appointment booking via Square Appointments.
- Businesses already using Square POS or payments:Add an integrated online store for free.
When to Use an Alternative
- If ecommerce is the backbone of your business:You’ll outgrow Square quickly.Shopifyis our recommended ecommerce platform.
- Complex inventories:Shopify, Lightspeed, and BigCommerce—all among ourbest ecommerce platforms—are better equipped to handle large and complex product assortments.
- Restaurants:Consider an industry-specific solution for controlled order flow and on-demand third-party delivery.
In addition to coming in fourth overall in our evaluation of the best ecommerce platforms, Square Online is our top pick for thebest free ecommerce website builder.
We have personally found that Square Online is one of the easiest solutions to use, allowing you to create an online store in just a few minutes.
Learnhow to set up a Square Online storeand see our test site.
Square Online also gives you the option to create a website, incorporate checkout pages, and send direct checkout links to customers—while maintaining online and offline sales in sync with its POS system.
However, while Square is free and easy to use, it has significant limitations compared to more sophisticated ecommerce platforms like Shopify. Square’s simple, user-friendly toolset makes it ideal for storefronts wanting to add an online ordering solution for pickup or delivery. However, if you’re serious about selling products online, you’ll likely grow out of Square pretty quickly.
Square Online is just one product among Square’s extensive suite of tools. Learn all it offers in ourguide to Square for small businesses.
In the News:Square Online Rate Increase
(March 1, 2023) Square Online announced aprice increaseand recalibration of its plans from four tiers to three—Free, Plus, and Premium—for its software subscriptions. This new pricing is effective immediately for new sellers. Current Square Online subscribers will be billed at the new rate beginning April 11, 2023.
All the information we list below reflects this price increase.
Square Online earned a perfect score for pricing because of its forever-free plan with unlimited products and transactions and month-to-month billing with no contracts, along with scalable features and add-ons to tailor the solution to your needs.
Its pricing has three tiers: Free, Plus and Premium. All tiers include unlimited products (digital goods, physical products, services, and events), hosting bandwidth, and storage.
Every plan also includes integrations with Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Google, and Square POS; a free SSL certificate; a one-click checkout option; and the ability to accept payments via Square, Afterpay, Apple Pay, and Google Pay.
All plans have the same rates for these charges:
- Afterpay transaction fees:6% + 30 cents
- In-person payments:2.6% + 10 cents
- On-demand delivery:$1.50 per order
- In-house delivery:50 cents per order
Free |
Performance |
Premium |
|
---|---|---|---|
Monthly Fees
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$0 |
$29 |
$79 |
Online Transaction fees
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2.9% + 30 cents |
2.9% + 30 cents |
2.6% + 30 cents |
Included features
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Social media sales
Manage multiple websites
Age confirmation
Shipping label printing
Shipping discounts
Automatic tax calculator |
All Free plan features, plus: Expanded site customization Self-serve (QR code) ordering Customer accounts Personalized ordering Advanced item settings Accept PayPal |
All Plus features, plus: Real-time shipping rates Lower processing fees |
Square Online’sFreeplan includes all the basic features you need to build your ecommerce website. However, if you want to use your own custom domain and remove Square branding from your website, you must subscribe to a Plus or Premium plan.
Signing up forPlus给你更多的营销功能,如角色雷竞技applized ordering. With this feature, you can offer logged-in customers easy three-tap reordering, personalized item recommendations, exclusive discounts, and loyalty and reward status.
Premium, on the other hand, adds a shipping calculator to your dashboard on top of every feature included in other plans. You also get the lowest processing fee rate for transactions.
One of the main drawbacks of Square Online is that you can only use Square as your payment processor. However, Square does support PayPal, Google Pay, and Apple Pay payments. You’ll also benefit from accepting Cash App payments and buy now, pay later payments through Afterpay.
Though Square’s payment processing fees aren’t the most competitive on the market, they are average. And, once your business grows to process more than $250,000 annually, you may be eligible for custom rates.
Square earned a 3.5 out of 5 in our evaluation of site builder tools. Its website builder earned points for unlimited bandwidth and storage, a free SSL certificate, and a free domain. However, limited design functionality, flexibility, and customization options lowered Square’s website builder score.
Since Our Last Update:
Square now requires all sellers toset up two-factor authenticationfor their accounts in 2023.
You can create and publish your store with the help of Square’s site builder and immediately start selling online, as seen in the options outlined in the image below.
Additionally, you can ship orders to customers, offer local delivery, or provide curbside pickup, all while ensuring that both the in-store and online sides of your operations are in sync.
Overall, Square Online is one of our top free website builders as it lets you manage your online store, accept payments, and create a website with multiple pages—contact forms, email sign-ups, and more—complete with your logo and branding colors.
However, there is minimal drag-and-drop functionality. And, you cannot access the code to make custom changes. Note, though, that this simplicity also means Square is incredibly easy to set up.
Square acquired Weebly to strengthen its online store solution. As such, navigating and setting up a Square Online store is straightforward. Your dashboard offers video tutorials and step-by-step instructions on building your single-page or multipage online store.
Since our Last Update:
Square Online added 81 new fonts to its website builder, allowing customers to have 130 font options for their online store.
It allows you to choose the features you need, such as pickup orders, collecting emails, shipping products, or displaying a contact form.
You can add sections or features to your pages from the available blocks provided by Square Online. It is easy to just drag and drop too. You can also use its Styles tool to help customize your branding. With Styles, you select a general color and font scheme to help design your website even faster.
As mentioned earlier, you cannot fully edit the layout or add integrations as you can with Shopify. You also cannot access coding to adjust your Square website. If you are on a free plan, Square branding is also displayed on your website footer.
Use checkout links to enable your customers to purchase anything you want to sell online without creating an ecommerce website. You can send clients a checkout link through email, your Square Marketing campaign, a QR code, a checkout button on your website page, or by posting on social media or your blog. The service is free, and you will only need to pay the standard processing fee of 2.9% + 30 cents per transaction.
Since Our Last Update:
- You can now offset operational or overhead costs by adding a fixedservice chargeto any Square Online Checkout transaction.
- Automatically collectsales taxfor your checkout links.
- Let employees create payment links, track payments, and manage other Square Online Checkout settings by setting upPermissions.
Your website is mobile-responsive—essential for Google ranking—and SEO headers and descriptions can easily be set up per product.
Square Online’s SEO tools are basic but enough to help your pages get indexed on Google, which is all most small businesses need, especially if ecommerce is not your primary sales channel.
You can edit a site page or item’s permalink, title, and page description easily in your page details. Square also recently added 301 redirect capabilities, which you can set up under the Website section in your Square Online dashboard.
In our evaluation, Square Online store earned a 4 out of 5 for its product and sales features. It earned high points for social media selling, multichannel sales (thanks to its top-notchSquare POS system), and fulfillment options like curbside pickup, local delivery, and built-in shipping labels with discounted rates.
Every Square Online plan also allows for unlimited products, sales, and native functions for selling digital products, tickets, and food and beverages. With its recentcustomer account feature, customers can log in to track the status of their orders, view order history, set favorites, and manage their payment information.
However, while Square has great in-store inventory management features for small shops, its ecommerce inventory functionality is very basic and not as user-friendly as its flagship POS products.
广场还缺少integrations for marketplace sales like Amazon, Walmart, or eBay.
Its product, sales, and order management tools are fine for small storefronts, but if you need a scalable ecommerce platform, consider Shopify or BigCommerce, which scored much higher for sales and product features.
The integration with Square POS automatically keeps online and in-person purchases and inventory in sync. Square Online’s inventory features are very rudimentary. You can update your stock to reflect the following changes: stock received, inventory recount, restock return, and stock loss due to damage or theft.
However, Square Online does offer the ability to add unlimited products, variants, and modifiers—even the free version. Most free website builders have a cap on the number of products you can sell.
Since Our Last Update:
Sellers can now set upproduct modifier imagesin their listings (paid upgrade required).
The basic Square Online store has no barcode, supplier, or purchasing features. If you need advanced tools (such as kitting or bundling items, vendor and purchase management, COGS tracking, and cross-location inventory tracking), we recommend you go with Square for Retail ($60 per month).
Read ourSquare for Retail reviewto learn more about the platform’s advanced retail features.
We still consider Square the best fit for retailers looking to manage inventory for free and sell in-store, online, via invoice, or through mobile.
What’s great about Square Online is the seamless experience you can provide your customers whether they are shopping in-store or online. You can set up click-and-collect options (like curbside pickup), specific pickup hours and order windows, order prep times, customer notifications for when their order is ready, and whether or not shoppers can schedule pickup times.
You can also send order-status text alerts to customers with details such as order confirmation, pickup location/time, and shipping carrier.
Interested to learn more about setting this up for your store? Learn how toset up click and collectand curbside pickup.
Square Online’s shipping tools are not as comprehensive as those of other platforms since it requires you to set up your own shipping rates (which can be flat-rate or based on weight)—unless you upgrade to the Premium edition ($79 per month), which lets you charge the actual prices from mail carriers. US-based merchants can get discounts with USPS and DHL.
You can manage the order status for your products in bulk or individually. You can print a shipping label, mark items as “canceled” or “shipped,” and even process refunds. All of these need to be done manually.
If you would like to process orders automatically, integration with a shipping platform such asShipStation可以是一个很好的解决方案,就可以自动管理and track online orders for you. If your business gets high-volume orders, you may be better off considering otherecommerce platformslike BigCommerce.
You can configure and manage taxes straight from the Square app and Square Online dashboard. With Square Online, payment processing fees are taken out of each transaction, including tax and tips. It also lets you track your taxable and non-taxable sales in your dashboard.
You can create multiple tax rates, set up sales tax per item, and disable taxes for custom amounts. If your business is based in the US, Square Online’s automatic tax calculator will charge sales tax based on all store addresses you have configured (when you were setting up your settings) and where you ship an order to.
(Note: Tax-exempt items in Square only apply to Square Online pickup, delivery, or self-serve orders.)
Square Online has different built-in integrations to social channels and Google My Business.
你可以连接条目库元account to make your Facebook and Instagram posts shoppable and eventually turn your followers into buyers. If you have a food and beverage business, you can also connect your Facebook account to set up online ordering. You can use “Order Food” call-to-action buttons to direct customers to your Square Online ordering site.
To start, you will need a Facebook or Meta Business account. Simply connect your Facebook account and manage your Instagram and Facebook shop from your Square dashboard. And, you can message customers through Facebook Messenger via Square as well.
Square also has a TikTok integration to sell and promote products via the social media app. Its Google integration allows retailers to manage their Google My Business profile right from Square, enabling retailers’ products to appear in Google search results for local searches like “near me” or “where to buy.”
However, Square doesn’t have native integrations to marketplaces such as Amazon, eBay, and Walmart. If you plan on expanding to these marketplaces,BigCommerceis a better option.
- Intuitive user interface
- Easy set up and guided prompts
- Seller community forum
- Comprehensive help guides
- Developer platform
- Customer support: Email, live chat, and phone support; Mon–Fri, 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. Eastern time; Sat–Sun 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. ET. Email responses in 24–48 hours, per its website.
Square Online earned a 4.25 out of 5 in our ease of use evaluation thanks to its easy setup flow and comprehensive help center. Limited live support hours and difficulty reaching phone support prevented Square from earning a perfect score.
Its dashboard is easy to navigate, intuitive, and straightforward. Once you sign up, you are given a setup guide, easily viewable from your dashboard. The guide outlines the steps to launch your store through automated prompts—allowing you to build your store without any technical assistance. You can choose to watch video tutorials before setting up your store (all accessible from the user dashboard) or go straight to building the website using the setup guide.
Building a Square Online website requires no technical knowledge. You are given choices to add or remove from an existing template, with real-time changes reflected—so you can easily change your choices if needed. In our guide, we outline the steps onhow to set up a Square Online store.
Overall, Square Online offers an incredible value—after all, it’s a completely free ecommerce platform with few limitations. And, Square as a whole is extremely popular for small businesses and has a great reputation.
When considering our expert score, we also looked at Square Online’s features: What do we expect an ecommerce platform to have? Does Square offer anything unique or do anything exceptionally well?
而广场在线与它有不足的地方design flexibility and product and order management, it does have excellent multichannel tools via its POS and local delivery options through Postmates, Shipday, and in-house management. Most platforms designed specifically for online sales don’t have such strong tools for catering to local shoppers.
What Users Say in Square Online Reviews
Users agree with our assessment of Square Online being one of the best ecommerce platforms, highlighting its ease of use and great payment processing fees. Its biggest drawbacks, however, are limited customization and inconsistent customer support. At the time of publication, Square Online reviews earned the following scores on popular user review sites:
When reading through Square Online reviews, I noticed these trends:
Users Like | Users Don’t Like |
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Easy-to-use platform | Limited customization |
Low-cost all-in-one platform (for website, ecommerce sales, and payment processing) | Few payment processing options |
Can include a checkout link on social media pages | Customer support |
Square Online Store Examples
Square Online is best for storefronts that want to expand their presence online. The brands we cite below are perfect examples of brick-and-mortar stores that added online store functionality to their businesses.
Stay Golden
Stay Golden是一个明星的酒吧、餐厅和咖啡年代hop that set up a Square Online ordering page to adapt to customers’ needs during the COVID-19 pandemic. It was so widely accepted that the company will continue with it for the long term. Customers can order online and do curbside pickups.
Botanic and Luxe
ForBotanic and Luxe, a boutique offering beauty and wellness products, high-quality photos and stellar product descriptions are important to help it present its curated items. It noticed that customers often buy products with detailed product descriptions and photos.
Ray’s Cutz
Ray’s Cutzis a barbershop that expanded its presence online using Square, allowing clients to book appointments and buy branded merchandise and hair products. Its owner admits that clients still buy more products in-store, but adding an online component gives them options in case they want to try something new or restock their items.
Two Roads Brewing
Two Roadsis a large craft brewery that uses Square Online to offer online ordering for beer and merchandise. Although Two Road’s main website is built with WordPress, the company opted for Square for online product sales. Customers can order beers that can be picked up in-store or curbside, while merchandise can be picked up or shipped.
Methodology: How We Evaluated Square Online
We evaluated Square Online by testing the system ourselves.
Next, we graded it against the criteria we use to evaluate thebest ecommerce platforms. Here, we considered price, how powerful the site builder is, and whether or not the sales and product features can accommodate a growing business.
Finally, we also looked at ease of use, customer support, and the overall value each system offers.
Click through the tabs below for a more detailed breakdown of Square Online review criteria:
15% of Overall Score
We graded ecommerce platforms based on whether they offer a free plan and monthly scalable pricing options under $100 because most small businesses operate on a budget. We also gave points to platforms that integrate with mobile wallets and popular payment solutions, with bonus points for buy now, pay later financing options and one-click checkouts, as these are revenue-driving options for small businesses.
Square Online earned a perfect score here thanks to its forever-free plan.
20% of Overall Score
We considered the available templates, customization options, and overall flexibility of the website builder. We also reviewed the quantity and quality of third-party extensions compatible with the software and whether it includes a free domain and SSL certificate, unlimited storage, and built-in SEO tools and site analytics.
Square Online earned a 3.5 out of 5 here because of its customization limitations and somewhat basic SEO and site analytic tools.
25% of Overall Score
We evaluated features essential to online stores, including easy product set up, inventory and fulfillment options, tools for mobile and in-store selling, integrated social media selling, marketplace selling (such as Amazon), and the ability to sell unlimited products (including downloadable files). Since most small businesses take care of marketing themselves, we considered the availability of marketing tools, such as abandoned cart recovery, promotions, and discounts.
Square Online earned a 3.88 out of 5 here with high marks for mobile, in-store, and social selling, and its ability to handle lots of different product types. The lack of marketplace sales and basic product management tools prevented Square from earning a perfect score.
20% of Overall Score
Because online stores operate 24/7, we prioritized platforms that offer 24/7 customer support and have multiple customer touchpoints, such as phone, email, and chat. We also awarded points to easy solutions to set up or have guided prompts and a comprehensive help center.
Square earned a 4.25 out of 5 because the platform is incredibly easy to use. The lack of quality phone support prevented it from getting a perfect score.
20% of Overall Score
Finally, we considered any standout features and whether or not the software offers an excellent overall value for its price. We also rated the tool’s popularity with small businesses and its compatibility with other small business software. We also awarded points based on our personal experience interacting with the platform and the company’s customer support.
Square earned a 4.06 out of 5 here. Overall, we love Square for small businesses, and Square Online is no exception. It offers great value, though it does come with limitations if you’re serious about scaling an ecommerce retail business.
Square Online Review Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
Square Online is best for storefronts that want to offer online ordering, hobby or budget-conscious sellers that want a free solution, and businesses that need a hybrid online store and appointment booking portal.
Square Online is our top pick for thebest free ecommerce website builder. We have personally found that Square Online is one of the easiest solutions to use, allowing you to create an online store in just a few minutes. And, it syncs with Square’s POS and other software.
Learn more inour guide to Squareand why small businesses love it.
Consider alternatives in the following scenarios:
- Ecommerce is your business’ backbone and online sales is your profit driver:Square Online has limited inventory management tools and overall basic functionality that a scaling ecommerce business could quickly outgrow. You’d likely be happier with Shopify or BigCommerce. Learn more in ourShopify vs BigCommerce comparison.
- Businesses that manage complex inventories:Businesses with thousands of SKUs and assembled products, as well as those needing to manage work orders, would be better served by Lightspeed, ourtop-rated POS for inventory management, which also has a powerful ecommerce solution.
- You need a more customized website:Square’s website builder has limited customization options, and if you need a personalized website, then consider choosing from ourbest website builders.
- Restaurants that need a comprehensive online ordering system:Restaurants needing controlled order flow or on-demand third-party delivery riders will be better served by one of our other recommendedrestaurant online ordering software.
Bottom Line
Square offers some of thebest POS systemsfor small businesses, and Square Online is an easy-to-use, low-cost, all-in-one ecommerce and payment processing solution that is a natural extension of Square’s POS products.
It is best for those that want to add online ordering to brick-and-mortar stores such as cafes, retail outlets, and professional service shops.
In its free plan, Square Online has very few limitations compared to other budget ecommerce solutions. It’s our top recommendation if you want to create a complete and professional online store without needing to enter a credit card.