Dive into this comprehensive comparison of Square Online vs Strikingly. We’ll delve into the key features, pros and cons, and overall performance of these two popular website builders. Whether you’re a budding entrepreneur or a seasoned business owner, this article will help you make an informed choice.
Overview
Square Online and Strikingly are two popular website builders that cater to different needs. Square Online offers powerful e-commerce features and seamless integration with Square’s payment processing, making it ideal for businesses looking to sell products online. On the other hand, Strikingly focuses on simplicity and ease of use, with a strong emphasis on creating stunning single-page websites. Whether you’re looking for an e-commerce solution or a simple website, both platforms have their unique strengths that can help you achieve your goals.
Square Online
Free Plan: Yes
Free Trial: No (but has refund policy)
Price: From $36 per month
Official website: www.squareup.com
Square Online Online is best suited for small to medium-sized businesses seeking to establish an online presence or sell products and services online.
Strikingly
Free Plan: Yes
Free Trial: Yes
Price: From $6 per month
Official website: www.strikingly.com
Strikingly is best suited for individuals, entrepreneurs, and small businesses looking for a user-friendly platform to create and manage simple, stylish, and mobile-optimized websites with no coding required.
Square Online has revolutionized my business operations! Their intuitive interface, seamless payment processing, and robust features have significantly improved efficiency. Exceptional customer service too. Highly recommend for businesses seeking a reliable online platform. – Mark X
Strikingly offers an intuitive and user-friendly platform for website creation. High-quality templates and excellent customer service make it a top choice. It’s perfect for beginners and pros alike. Highly recommend for seamless, striking website design! – George Q
Efficient platform, user-friendly interface. Square Online simplifies transactions. Few minor issues, but customer service was responsive. Highly recommended. – Jackson
Strikingly offers intuitive design, rich templates, and excellent customer support. A few glitches, but overall a solid website builder. – Amelia
Square Online simplifies e-commerce. Its intuitive, user-friendly interface and robust features streamline business operations. Exceptional customer service tops off a stellar platform. Highly recommended for all businesses. – Samuel
Strikingly exceeded my expectations! User-friendly interface, stunning templates, and excellent customer support. Made website creation a breeze. Highly recommended for stress-free, professional results. Great value for money. – Sophia
Pros & Cons
This section explores the strengths and weaknesses of these two website builders.
Winner is:
Square Online and Strikingly are both website builders with their own set of pros and cons. Square Online offers robust e-commerce features, integrated payment processing, and seamless inventory management. However, its design options are limited, and customer support can be slow. On the other hand, Strikingly excels in simplicity and ease of use, ideal for beginners. It offers excellent customer support and modern templates. However, its e-commerce capabilities are limited. Overall, Square Online is the winner for businesses looking for a powerful e-commerce solution, while Strikingly is great for simplicity and quick setup.
Square Online
Pros:
- Free plan: Square Online offers a free plan that includes all the basic features you need to create a website, including a domain name, hosting, and SSL certificate.
- Easy to use: Square Online uses a drag-and-drop interface that makes it easy to create a website even if you don’t have any coding experience.
- Built-in eCommerce features: Square Online includes all the features you need to sell products online, including product inventory management, shipping and tax calculation, and payment processing.
- Free SSL certificate: Your Square Online website will come with a free SSL certificate, which ensures that your website is secure for customers to use.
- SEO tools: Square Online includes built-in SEO tools to help you improve your website’s ranking in search results.
- Integration with Square POS: Square Online integrates with Square POS, so you can easily manage your inventory and sales across all channels.
- Accept multiple payment methods: Square Online accepts all major credit cards, as well as PayPal, Apple Pay, and Google Pay.
- 24/7 customer support: Square offers 24/7 customer support to help you with any issues you may have with your Square Online website.
Cons:
- Limited design flexibility: Square Online’s templates are limited in terms of design flexibility. You can’t make major changes to the layout or colors of your website.
- No advanced features: Square Online doesn’t offer some advanced features that are available on other website builders, such as abandoned cart recovery and CRM tools.
- Transaction fees: Square Online charges transaction fees for all sales, even on the free plan.
- No custom domain name on free plan: You can’t use a custom domain name with your Square Online website on the free plan. You’ll need to upgrade to a paid plan to use a custom domain name.
Strikingly
Pros:
- Ease of Use: Strikingly offers a user-friendly drag-and-drop interface, making it accessible for beginners with little to no coding experience.
- Mobile-Responsive Design: All Strikingly templates are designed to be responsive, ensuring your website looks good and functions well on various devices.
- Quick Setup: You can have a basic website up and running in a relatively short amount of time due to the streamlined design process.
- One-Page Websites: Strikingly is well-suited for creating simple, one-page websites or landing pages for specific purposes.
- Template Designs: The platform provides a range of professionally designed templates across different categories, allowing you to find a style that fits your needs.
- E-Commerce Integration: Strikingly offers e-commerce functionality, enabling you to set up an online store and sell products.
- Domain Registration: You can register a new domain through Strikingly or connect an existing domain to your site.
- SSL Security: Strikingly provides SSL certificates to secure data transmission between your website and visitors.
- Customer Support: Strikingly offers customer support through various channels, including live chat, email, and a help center.
- App Integrations: The platform supports integration with third-party apps and plugins to enhance your website’s functionality.
Cons:
- Limited Customization: While the drag-and-drop interface is user-friendly, it might be limiting for users who want more advanced customization options or specific design tweaks.
- Template Restrictions: The templates, while visually appealing, can sometimes impose design constraints that may not align with your exact vision.
- Scalability: Strikingly might be less suitable for larger or more complex websites with extensive content or intricate structures.
- E-Commerce Limitations: While it offers e-commerce, Strikingly’s e-commerce capabilities might be less comprehensive compared to dedicated e-commerce platforms.
- SEO Constraints: The level of SEO customization and optimization might be less robust compared to other website builders or content management systems.
- Integration Limitations: While there are third-party integrations available, the range might be more limited compared to platforms with extensive app marketplaces.
- Membership Features: While Strikingly offers membership features, these might be basic and might not fulfill advanced membership site needs.
- Platform Lock-in: Transferring your website from Strikingly to another platform could potentially be challenging due to proprietary design elements.
Website Building Features
This section compares the overall features of Square Online vs Strikingly.
Winner is:
Square Online and Strikingly both offer user-friendly drag and drop interfaces, allowing beginners to easily create websites. Square Online provides more template options and designs, giving users more customization options. In terms of value for money, Square Online offers competitive pricing plans with advanced features like SEO and email marketing. Strikingly, on the other hand, offers a free plan with limited features. Both platforms prioritize security and provide SSL certificates. Square Online offers 24/7 customer support, while Strikingly offers email support. Overall, Square Online is the winner due to its extensive features and better value for money.
Square Online
- Free website hosting and domain for one year: You can create a free website with Square Online and get a free domain for the first year.
- Easy-to-use website builder: Square Online uses a drag-and-drop interface that makes it easy to create a website even if you don’t have any coding experience.
- Built-in eCommerce features: Square Online includes all the features you need to sell products online, including product inventory management, shipping and tax calculation, and payment processing.
- Free SSL certificate: Your Square Online website will come with a free SSL certificate, which ensures that your website is secure for customers to use.
- SEO tools: Square Online includes built-in SEO tools to help you improve your website’s ranking in search results.
- Integration with Square POS: Square Online integrates with Square POS, so you can easily manage your inventory and sales across all channels.
- Accept multiple payment methods: Square Online accepts all major credit cards, as well as PayPal, Apple Pay, and Google Pay.
- 24/7 customer support: Square offers 24/7 customer support to help you with any issues you may have with your Square Online website.
Strikingly
- Easy-to-Use Interface: Strikingly offers a user-friendly drag-and-drop interface that makes it simple for users with little to no technical skills to build a website.
- Mobile-Responsive Design: All templates provided by Strikingly are designed to be responsive, ensuring that your website looks great and functions well on various devices, including smartphones and tablets.
- Customizable Templates: Strikingly provides a range of professionally designed templates that you can customize to suit your brand or personal style.
- Domain Registration: You can register a new domain or connect an existing domain to your Strikingly website.
- E-Commerce Integration: For those looking to sell products online, Strikingly offers e-commerce functionality, allowing you to set up an online store with product listings, shopping carts, and payment gateways.
- Blogging Tools: Strikingly includes blogging capabilities, enabling you to create and manage a blog directly on your website.
- Social Media Integration: You can easily integrate your social media profiles and feeds into your Strikingly website.
- SEO Optimization: Strikingly provides tools and features to optimize your website for search engines, helping you improve your online visibility.
- Analytics and Insights: You can integrate website analytics tools to track visitor data and gain insights into your website’s performance.
- Membership and User Registration: Strikingly allows you to create membership-based websites with user registration and login features.
- App Integrations: The platform offers integrations with third-party apps and services, allowing you to add extra functionality to your website.
Ease of Use
This section focuses on ease of use and how beginner-friendly Square Online and Strikingly are.
Winner is:
Both Square Online and Strikingly offer user-friendly drag-and-drop interfaces, making it easy for anyone to build a website without any coding knowledge. However, in terms of ease of use, Strikingly takes the lead with its more intuitive and streamlined interface. Its simplicity and straightforwardness make it ideal for beginners. While Square Online is also user-friendly, it has a slightly steeper learning curve. Therefore, Strikingly emerges as the overall winner for its exceptional ease of use.
Square Online
- Intuitive interface: Square Online’s user-friendly design enables quick learning and effortless navigation.
- Drag-and-drop feature: This tool simplifies website creation, no coding required.
- Customizable: Offers myriad design options to personalize your site, matching brand style seamlessly.
- Seamless product addition: Easy-to-use tools for adding and organizing products.
- Integrated payment system: Quick setup for secure transactions.
- Mobile-friendly: Automatically optimizes your site for mobile devices.
- Comprehensive dashboard: Manage and monitor your business with ease.
- SEO tools: Simple, embedded tools to boost your online presence.
- 24/7 customer support: Always available to answer any queries.
- Free trial: Risk-free opportunity to test its user-friendliness.
Strikingly
- Intuitive interface: Strikingly’s clean, user-friendly design makes website building a breeze.
- No coding required: Users can easily create professional-looking sites without any technical knowledge.
- Drag-and-drop feature: This functionality simplifies the design process, enabling quick rearrangement of elements on a page.
- Customizable templates: Strikingly boasts a wide array of customizable themes to fit any brand or purpose.
- Seamless editing: Real-time editing allows users to see changes as they happen, enhancing the design experience.
- Clear instructions: The platform provides straightforward guidance, making the building process smooth.
- Flexibility: Strikingly caters to all, from personal blogs to e-commerce sites, with its diverse tool set.
Templates & Designs
This section looks at the themes of Strikingly and Square Online in terms of in terms of customization, the number of templates, and templates for websites, and e-commerce sites.
Winner is:
When it comes to templates and designs, both Square Online and Strikingly offer a decent selection, but there are some differences to consider. Square Online provides a range of customizable templates for both websites and e-commerce sites. They offer a good variety, but customization options are somewhat limited. On the other hand, Strikingly offers a more modern and visually appealing selection of templates. They have a smaller number of templates overall, but they are highly customizable and great for creating stunning websites. Overall, Strikingly takes the lead in terms of template customization and design aesthetics.
Square Online
- Offers range of customizable templates.
- Designs cater to various sectors like retail, food, services.
- Mobile-optimized templates for on-the-go shopping.
- Drag-and-drop website builder for easy design.
- Templates support eCommerce features.
- Integrated with Square POS system.
- Options for SEO-friendly, clean, and modern designs.
- Includes free and premium templates.
Types of Templates:
- Ecommerce:
- Online Ordering Page: This template is a simple way to sell products online without the need for a full website.
- Multi-Page eCommerce: This template allows you to create a full website with multiple pages, including a product catalog, a blog, and a contact page.
- Personal:
- Artist: This template is perfect for artists and creative professionals who want to showcase their work online.
- Photographer: This template is perfect for photographers who want to share their photos with the world.
- Personal: This template is a great option for anyone who wants to create a simple, personal website.
- Business:
- Restaurant: This template is perfect for restaurants who want to take their business online.
- Salon: This template is perfect for salons and spas who want to reach a wider audience.
- Retail: This template is perfect for retailers who want to sell their products online.
Strikingly
- Strikingly offers modern, responsive templates.
- Wide array of design options for all sectors.
- Customizable layouts for personal touch.
- Designs offer seamless navigation experience.
- E-commerce ready templates available.
- Blogging and portfolio designs offered.
- Event and product launch templates.
- Social media integration options.
- SEO-friendly designs for better visibility.
- Unique one-page website designs.
Types of Templates:
- Business and Corporate Templates: These templates are suitable for businesses, startups, and corporate websites. They often feature professional designs with sections for showcasing services, portfolios, team members, and client testimonials.
- Portfolio and Creative Templates: Designed for artists, designers, photographers, and other creatives, these templates emphasize visual appeal and provide spaces for displaying your work in an organized manner.
- Personal and Blogging Templates: Ideal for individuals, bloggers, and writers, these templates focus on content presentation and may include different post formats, featured images, and options for social sharing.
- Online Store and E-commerce Templates: Tailored for selling products online, these templates include product listings, shopping carts, checkout processes, and other e-commerce functionalities.
- Event and Wedding Templates: Suitable for creating event websites or wedding invitations, these templates often have sections for event details, RSVP forms, photo galleries, and more.
- App and Software Templates: Geared towards showcasing apps or software products, these templates may include sections for features, screenshots, testimonials, and download links.
- One-Page and Landing Page Templates: These templates are designed to create single-page websites or landing pages with focused content and clear call-to-actions.
- Nonprofit and Charity Templates: Ideal for nonprofit organizations, these templates often highlight causes, donation options, volunteer information, and impact stories.
- Restaurant and Food Templates: Tailored for restaurants, cafes, or food-related businesses, these templates might feature menus, reservation forms, and high-quality images of dishes.
- Travel and Tourism Templates: Suitable for travel agencies, tour operators, or personal travel blogs, these templates often showcase destinations, itineraries, and travel tips.
- Education and Course Templates: Designed for educators, schools, or online course creators, these templates may include sections for course descriptions, enrollment forms, and lesson materials.
- Health and Wellness Templates: Geared towards health practitioners, wellness coaches, or fitness centers, these templates might highlight services, schedules, and client testimonials.
- Real Estate Templates: Tailored for real estate agents or agencies, these templates often include property listings, contact forms, and interactive maps.
Apps & Integrations
This section explores what apps, plugins, and integrations Square Online and Strikingly come with.
Winner is:
When comparing Square Online and Strikingly, both platforms offer a range of apps, plugins, and integrations to enhance your website’s functionality. Square Online provides seamless integration with Square’s point-of-sale system, making it an excellent choice for businesses looking to manage both their online and physical stores. On the other hand, Strikingly offers integrations with popular tools like Mailchimp and PayPal, enabling you to easily handle email marketing and payment processing. While both platforms have their strengths, Square Online edges ahead as the overall winner due to its comprehensive e-commerce features and powerful integration with Square’s robust POS system.
Square Online
- Marketing:
- Mailchimp: This app allows you to integrate your Square Online website with Mailchimp, so you can easily send email newsletters to your customers.
- Facebook Pixel: This app allows you to track the activity of your website visitors on Facebook, so you can target them with ads.
- Google Analytics: This app allows you to track the traffic to your website and see how visitors are interacting with your content.
- Sales:
- WooCommerce: This plugin allows you to sell products on your Square Online website using the popular WooCommerce platform.
- Amazon Pay: This plugin allows you to accept payments from Amazon customers on your Square Online website.
- PayPal: This plugin allows you to accept payments from PayPal customers on your Square Online website.
- Other:
- LiveChat: This app allows you to add a live chat widget to your Square Online website, so you can chat with visitors in real time.
- Yoast SEO: This plugin helps you optimize your Square Online website for search engines.
- TrustPulse: This app displays social proof on your Square Online website, such as customer testimonials and product reviews.
Strikingly
- Ecwid: An e-commerce platform that enables you to easily add an online store to your Strikingly website, manage products, inventory, and process payments.
- Eventbrite: Integrate Eventbrite to promote and manage events directly from your Strikingly site, allowing visitors to purchase tickets or register for events.
- SoundCloud: Embed SoundCloud audio tracks or playlists on your website to showcase music, podcasts, or other audio content.
- Google Maps: Integrate Google Maps to display your business location, event venues, or other points of interest with interactive maps.
- OpenTable: Allow visitors to make restaurant reservations directly through your Strikingly website using the OpenTable integration.
- Mailchimp: Integrate Mailchimp to collect email subscribers, send newsletters, and manage your email marketing campaigns.
- LiveChat: Add live chat functionality to your website, enabling real-time communication with visitors and potential customers.
- YouTube and Vimeo: Embed videos from YouTube or Vimeo to showcase video content directly on your site.
- Facebook Pixel: Integrate Facebook Pixel for tracking website visitor behavior and running targeted advertising campaigns on Facebook.
- Google Analytics: Integrate Google Analytics to track and analyze website traffic, user behavior, and other valuable insights.
- Stripe: Enable online payments and transactions through credit cards with the Stripe integration.
- Zapier: Connect Strikingly with other apps and automate workflows using Zapier’s integration capabilities.
- Chatra: Add a live chat widget to your website for instant customer support and interaction.
- Tawk.to: Incorporate another live chat solution to engage with website visitors in real time.
- Disqus: Enable commenting and discussion on your blog posts or content using the Disqus commenting system.
- HubSpot: Integrate HubSpot’s marketing and sales tools to manage leads, customer interactions, and inbound marketing efforts.
Customer Support
This section explores the strengths and weaknesses of the customer support provided by Square Online versus Strikingly.
Winner is:
When it comes to customer support, both Square Online and Strikingly offer reliable assistance. Square Online provides 24/7 phone and email support, ensuring that you can get help anytime you need it. On the other hand, Strikingly offers live chat and email support during business hours, ensuring prompt responses. While both platforms have responsive and knowledgeable support teams, Square Online takes a slight edge with its round-the-clock availability. Overall, Square Online provides better customer support, making it the winner in this category.
Square Online
- 24/7 phone support: Square offers 24/7 phone support for all customers, regardless of their plan.
- Email support: Square also offers email support for all customers.
- Live chat: Square offers live chat support for customers on the Business plan and above.
- Knowledge base: Square has a comprehensive knowledge base that covers all aspects of using Square Online Website Builder.
- Community forum: Square has a community forum where users can ask questions and get help from other users.
- Tutorials: Square offers a number of tutorials that can help you learn how to use Square Online Website Builder.
Strikingly
- 24/7 Support: Strikingly provides around-the-clock customer support to address any issues or questions you may have, ensuring that help is available whenever you need it.
- Live Chat: The live chat feature allows you to connect with a support representative in real-time for immediate assistance and guidance.
- Email Support: You can contact Strikingly’s support team via email to receive personalized help and answers to your inquiries.
- Responsive Support: Strikingly’s support team should be responsive to inquiries, ensuring timely assistance for any issues you encounter.
- Ticket System: You might have the option to submit support tickets for specific issues, which allows you to track the progress of your request.
- Social Media: Strikingly may provide support and updates through their official social media channels, offering another way to stay informed and connected.
- Help Center: Strikingly’s help center includes a comprehensive knowledge base with articles, tutorials, and step-by-step guides to assist users in using the website builder effectively.
- Community Forum: Strikingly may offer a community forum where users can interact, ask questions, share tips, and learn from each other’s experiences.
- Video Tutorials: Video tutorials and guides may be available to visually walk you through various tasks and features within the website builder.
- Webinars and Workshops: Strikingly might organize webinars or workshops to provide in-depth training and insights on using their platform effectively.
- In-App Help: The website builder interface may include tooltips, pop-ups, or contextual help to guide you through different features while building your site.
- Feedback and Suggestions: Strikingly may encourage users to provide feedback and suggestions, helping them improve their platform based on user needs.
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