Square For Small Business: How Payments, Pos, And Online Sales Work
Square Selling AcademyShopify Square Integration
| TL;DR: Square Online is the easier fit when you already use Square and need to add online ordering, pickup, delivery, or shipping. Shopify costs more, but gives an online-first store more control over design, apps, sales channels, and international selling. |
Square Online is like adding a web counter to a business that already runs on Square. The products, stock, payments, customers, and locations stay inside the same system.
Shopify gives the website a larger job. It suits sellers who expect the online store to become a main sales channel rather than a simple extension of the physical shop.
Square Online Is Now Called Websites
Square renamed Square Online to Websites. Square says the product still has the same online-store capabilities and that only the name changed.
Sellers still search for Square Online, so this article uses the familiar name. Square Online and Square Websites refer to the same product. For hardware, POS features, and in-person selling, read our Square vs Shopify comparison.
Square Online Vs Shopify Main Difference
Square Online keeps the website close to the rest of a Square business. Shopify gives the storefront more room to change through themes, apps, sales channels, and market settings.
| Area | Square Online | Shopify |
|---|---|---|
| Best for | Businesses already using Square | Online-first and growing ecommerce stores |
| Starting price | $0 per location | $29 per month with annual billing |
| Website design | Basic layouts, with more control on paid plans | Themes, templates, sections, blocks, and apps |
| Payments | Square processes online payments | Shopify Payments or supported third-party providers |
| Fulfillment | Shipping, pickup, and local delivery tied to Square locations | Shipping, pickup, local delivery, and wider market tools |
| Apps | Smaller integration range | Larger app ecosystem |
| International selling | Better for simpler selling regions | Local currencies, languages, pricing, domains, duties, and taxes |
| In-person connection | Built into Square | Shopify POS or an integration with Square |
Square supports a multi-page store, unlimited products, shipping, pickup, local delivery, customer accounts, SEO tools, and automatic syncing with Square POS.
Shopify uses themes, templates, sections, and blocks to shape different product, collection, and content pages. Compatible apps can also add storefront functions through app blocks and embeds.
Square Online Vs Shopify Pricing
Square now operates with its broader plan structure: Free, Plus, and Premium rather than the individual Square Online pricing. Shopify’s primary ecommerce plans now are the Basic, Grow, and Advanced plans. The previous Shopify plan was rebranded in April 2025 to Grow. For a closer breakdown of Square plans, hardware, and payment fees, read this Square POS system cost guide. These are current US prices checked on August 4, 2026.
| Plan | Software Cost | Online Card Rate |
|---|---|---|
| Square Free | $0 per location | 3.3% + 30¢ |
| Square Plus | $49 per location | 2.9% + 30¢ |
| Square Premium | $149 per location | 2.9% + 30¢ |
| Shopify Basic | $29 per month yearly, or $39 monthly | From 2.9% + 30¢ |
| Shopify Grow | $79 per month yearly, or $105 monthly | From 2.7% + 30¢ |
| Shopify Advanced | $299 per month yearly, or $399 monthly | From 2.5% + 30¢ |
Square Plus and Premium are charged for every active location. The current US online rates are 3.3% + 30¢ on Free and 2.9% + 30¢ on Plus and Premium.
Shopify’s listed card rates apply when using Shopify Payments and can vary by payment type. Stores using an outside payment provider may also pay Shopify a third-party transaction fee of 2% on Basic, 1% on Grow, or 0.6% on Advanced, on top of the provider’s own fee.
Square has the cheaper entrance. Shopify can incur extra costs through paid themes and apps. Square’s paid plans can also become expensive when the business has several active locations. The pricing-page total is only the first receipt.
Square Online Keeps An Existing Square Setup Together
A business already using Square POS can publish its Square catalog online instead of recreating every product in another system. Online and in-person sales can share inventory and customer information across Square locations.
That works well for businesses such as:
- A bakery taking orders for collection
- A florist offering local delivery
- A gift shop adding shipping
- A restaurant putting its menu online
- A retailer selling the same stock online and at the counter
Square supports in-store pickup, curbside pickup, local delivery through staff or third-party couriers, shipping labels, and shipping discounts.
Its free plan includes basic site layouts, design options, blog content, and SEO tools. Paid plans add features such as expanded customization, custom fonts, themes, video, animations, product reviews, bundles, subscriptions, and more advanced item settings. Premium includes real-time shipping rates at checkout.
The appeal is not that Square has every ecommerce feature. It is that fewer parts need introducing to one another.
Shopify Gives The Storefront More Control
Shopify gives sellers more ways to shape product pages, collections, landing pages, and other parts of the storefront.
Each theme will offer you different templates and sections for various types of pages. Compatible apps can give your theme the functionality to provide such things as customer reviews, subscription payments, product recommendations, size charts, better search, product bundles, rewards programs, and many more features.
That matters when the website helps explain and sell the product.
A café menu needs to be clear and correct. A furniture store may also need room collections, material options, buying guides, delivery details, and related products. Both are online stores, but they are asking the website to do different work.
Shopify also provides more control for selling across regions. Markets can adjust currency, product availability, pricing, languages, domains, theme content, duties, and tax settings for different customer groups or locations. Some functions require Shopify Payments or a higher plan.
More control brings more maintenance. Themes, apps, and custom changes need to be chosen, tested, updated, and paid for. A small store can end up buying a workshop when it only needed a good hammer.
Payments, Pickup, And Delivery
Square Websites utilizes the existing Square system for processing online payments and will accept most major cards, as well as: Apple Pay, Google Pay, Square Pay, Cash App Pay, and Afterpay. It is not possible for the seller to substitute Square for an alternative integrated payment provider. If payment choice is a bigger concern than the store builder itself, the Square vs PayPal comparison explains how POS, online checkout, hardware, and payment options differ.
Shopify can use Shopify Payments or supported third-party providers. Shopify says stores can choose from more than 100 credit card providers, although availability depends on the store’s country.
Both platforms support pickup and local delivery.
Shopify can offer local delivery by distance or postal code and pickup from eligible store locations. Inventory must be available at the location handling the order. Some third-party shipping apps can conflict with Shopify’s built-in local delivery method.
Square has the cleaner path when those orders already belong to Square locations. Shopify offers more room when shipping, apps, and wider market settings are becoming part of the daily operation.
SEO Is Not The Main Divide
Both platforms cover the basic work needed to make an online store crawlable and manageable.
Square includes SEO tools, blog content, custom domains, social integrations, and website analytics. Shopify includes editable themes, templates, blogs, custom domains, SSL, redirects, and market-specific language and domain settings.
Shopify gives a content-heavy store more ways to build collection pages, buying guides, campaign pages, and different market experiences.
That does not make every Shopify store good at SEO. A thin product page does not become useful because the theme has more settings.
Using Shopify Online And Square In-Store
A seller can run the website on Shopify while keeping Square for in-person payments.
The catch is that the two platforms do not natively keep their products, inventory, orders, customers, and gift cards aligned. Without an integration, staff may need to update the same information in both places.
A Shopify Square Integration can import, export, and link products, sync inventory between connected locations, bring eligible Square orders into Shopify, sync new customer records, and support Square gift cards. Sellers can also choose whether Shopify or Square controls titles, descriptions, prices, and images.
Decide which platform owns each type of data before turning on automatic updates.
Two systems trying to correct the same product record is not a sync plan. It is an argument with timestamps.
Choosing the Right Platform: Square Online Or Shopify
Choose Square Online when:
- The business already uses Square
- The website mainly adds ordering, pickup, delivery, or simple shipping
- You offer the same products online and in your store
- A free starting plan matters
- The team wants fewer systems to manage
Choose Shopify when:
- Online selling is a main part of the business
- Product presentation affects the buying decision
- The store needs a wider choice of apps
- Different markets need their own currencies, prices, languages, or domains
- The website is likely to change often as the business grows
Using both can work when Shopify has a clear ecommerce role, and Square still has a useful job in the physical store.
FAQs On Square Online Vs Shopify:
Is Square Online the same as Square?
No. Square is the wider commerce platform. Square Online, now called Websites, is its website builder and online-store product.
Is Square Online really free?
Square Free has no monthly software fee. Online card payments cost 3.3% + 30¢ in the US.
Which is cheaper, Square Online or Shopify?
Square costs less to start. The long-term cost depends on payment volume, active Square locations, Shopify apps, and the plan the store actually needs.
Which is better for SEO?
Both cover the basics. Shopify gives a larger content-led store more control over themes, templates, apps, and international storefront settings.
Can Square and Shopify share inventory?
Yes, with an integration. DPL’s Shopify Square Integration can sync inventory between connected locations and lets the seller choose the primary inventory source.
Can Square Online use Shopify apps?
No. Shopify apps are built for Shopify stores. A seller who needs those apps can run Shopify online and keep Square for in-person sales.
Final Thoughts
Square Online is easier when the website is joining an existing Square business. Shopify is easier to justify when the website needs to do more selling, explaining, and adapting.
Before choosing, test one real product. Add its variants, change its stock, place a pickup and shipped order, then process a refund.
That will expose more than a polished demo. If the setup requires a spreadsheet to clarify the stock’s location, then it’s not fully complete.
