Comparing Squarespace Payment Processor Options
About this Squarespace video tutorial
Curious how to get different payment options going on your Squarespace website? While Squarespace will push their proprietary system, there are multiple integrations that business owners can use to tailor their eCommerce experience to their needs.
Timestamps
0:00 - Intro
0:26 - Squarespace Payments
1:25 - Stripe
2:17 - PayPal & Venmo
3:05 - Square
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In this video, I want to talk to you about what your options are when it comes to accepting payments on your Squarespace online store.
I’ve done a few Squarespace Payments tutorials on this platform before, and actually recently shared a bit of a hot take about the current payments setup.
If you’re considering Squarespace Payments, maybe watch that first and then come back to see what your other options are.
Squarespace Payments
Your first option is going to be Squarespace Payments, and of course that’s what they want you to use. It’ll be right up in your face as the first option that you’ll have to click out of if you don’t want to use it.
If you first get to a page and it looks like you can only continue with Squarespace Payments, hit the little ‘x’ or settings gear there is in the top right to get out of it and get to the other page with all available options.
If you do decide to do Squarespace Payments, you can turn it on and accept credit cards, Apple Pay, ACH payments, all sorts of things.
Your rate depends on what plan you have for your Squarespace site.
Stripe
If you don’t want to use Squarespace Payments, you other credit card option is going to be Stripe. Under the ‘PayPal’ and ‘Square’ sections (we’ll get to those later), you should see a small line of text that says, ‘Connect an existing Stripe account’.
This is how you can accept credit cards through Squarespace. As of today, that is going to be my recommendation. Depending on your plan it might be the same rates as Squarespace Payments, so there isn’t a major financial penalty for using Stripe.
As far as running an actual online business and managing your money, I still recommend Stripe. It’s the best option as it stands, and I love Squarespace as a platform.
Note: turning Stripe on also turns on Apple Pay functionality.
Note: you cannot use Squarespace Payments and Stripe at the same time. You HAVE to pick one or the other.
PayPal and Venmo
Another option is to use PayPal, which also allows people to pay via Venmo through their phone.
Venmo can’t be turned on specifically, it has to be turned on with PayPal.
Just keep in mind that if you use PayPal, I recommend you pair that with Squarespace Payments or Stripe (but again, of the two I would choose Stripe). Some clients don’t want to use PayPal for various reasons, so having options is smart.
Square
Last but not least, Square is an option, but Square is different. Square is not how you’re going to accept online orders. You can only use it if you accept orders in person and you have one of those dedicated card readers that connect to the platform. It is a point-of-sale system for offline payments.
This is only necessary for if your Squarespace site is connected to a business that makes in-person sales. Totally different but an option if your business structure needs that.
Hopefully this post helps you decide what payment processors you need to set up for your business and the strengths and weaknesses of each option. If you’re leaning towards using Squarespace Payments, I have posts on how to set up and activate that, so you know how to get started!
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Curious how to get different payment options going on your Squarespace website? While Squarespace will push their proprietary system, there are multiple integrations that business owners can use to tailor their eCommerce experience to their needs.