Square Online Review 2024: Is the Free Plan Worth It?

Square Online is suitable for small businesses looking to establish an online presence with an all-in-one solution.

As a point-of-sale (POS) system, Square has a range of tools to help businesses grow. One of these tools is Square Online, a web builder and robust ecommerce platform. The seamless integration with Square POS makes it an attractive choice for managing sales on multiple online and in-person channels.

However, Square Online does have limitations. The free plan doesn't include key features like site analytics. It also doesn't have built-in ecommerce and marketing tools to help your online store grow. The web builder also doesn't provide customization with coding, so you may find it difficult to modify your website.

Overall, Square Online is best suited for small businesses looking to quickly create an online storefront, even if they don't have extensive technical knowledge.

Square Online review at a glance

Price	Free or $79.00/mo (billed annually)
Free plan	Yes, with Square branding
Free trial	Yes — 14 days
Money-back guarantee	No
Storage space	Unlimited
Custom domain	Free for one year for Plus and Premium plans
Site analytics	Starting with Plus plan
Ecommerce tools	Yes, for all plans
AI tools	Ye,s for all plans
Learn more	Get Square Online

We last tested Square Online on December 3, 2024.

Our experience

Although the advanced ecommerce features may intimidate a new entrepreneur, Square can help your business grow. The paid plans have several built-in ecommerce and marketing tools to make visitors happy and create repeat customers.

Signing up for Square involved answering a few basic questions about your business and how customers will receive their orders. Then you're asked to choose between moving forward with Square Online or Weebly.

Weebly was acquired by Square in 2018. Square announced its intentions to move all Weebly accounts to Square, but it appears it still allows new customers to use the Weebly web builder for basic portfolio sites.

Weebly may be an appropriate web builder if you only need a basic site and won't be selling products or subscriptions. But you may want Square instead so you can receive the latest design and tech updates for your website.

Once you've decided between Weebly or Square Online, you pick a template for your website. Square Online has many contemporary designs for its templates. You can choose a blank template if none of the designs work for your business.

After choosing a template, you can start customizing the layout and design. Square makes an interesting choice by making the mobile view the default editor. Other web builders choose a desktop view for their web builder, and you can see the responsiveness to other devices in previews. But Square makes the case that most people shop on their phones, so its mobile-first design can help increase conversions.

It can feel a bit overwhelming to start Square Online because there are so many features. Beyond designing a website, there are also several tools to help manage an online store, including fulfillment and multiple sales channels. Luckily, Square Online has broken down how to get started step by step. It makes creating an online storefront more manageable.

Overall, Square Online is a robust platform for selling products online and in person. It's easy to create inventory, sell items, market your products, and collect payments.

If you don't have any plans to sell products or subscriptions, Square Online may have too many unnecessary features for your needs.

Square Online prices and subscriptions

Square Online has a vast range of plans from Free or $79.00/mo (billed annually). Each tier provides additional features such as advanced site analytics, ecommerce tools, and built-in marketing tools. As your business grows, an upgraded plan is necessary to manage demand and ensure a positive customer experience.

Features	Free	Plus	Premium
Price	Free	$29.00/mo (billed annually)	$79.00/mo (billed annually)
Money-back guarantee
Storage space	Yes, unlimited	Yes, unlimited	Yes, unlimited
Custom domain
Site analytics
Ecommerce tools
Customer accounts
Display real-time shipping
Sell subscriptions
Marketing tools
Abandoned cart emails
AI tools
Customer support			Yes, Premium support
Learn more	View plan	View plan	View plan

The free plan can provide some insights into whether Square Online is the right choice for you, but you won’t get a lot of core features like basic site analytics and advanced ecommerce and marketing tools.

Many online stores may find the Plus plan sufficient for their business operations. It contains nearly all the same features as the Premium plan. The main difference between the two plans is that Premium has the following:

• Displays real-time shipping
• 24/7 phone customer support
• No in-house delivery fees
• Online payment fees are 2.6% + 30 cents per transaction (the other plans are 2.9% + 30 cents)

Premium plans may be suitable for online stores with high volume since the lower fees could lead to more overall savings.

Square Online features

Square Online’s main highlight is its compatibility with other Square tools, like the POS system. It makes it simple to have all of your online and in-person transactions recorded within one system. There are also several built-in marketing tools to help grow your audience and retain customers.

Free plan

Square Online has a free plan that is suitable for new store owners who aren't ready for the full commitment yet.

However, the free plan is missing many crucial features to help manage your online storefront. It doesn't have basic analytics on metrics, like which pages were visited. It also won't let you connect to a custom domain; your free site will contain noticeable Square branding.

If you want to create a professional website or are already an established company, the free plan doesn't have what it takes to establish a strong online presence.

Building a website

Square Online presents beautiful and functional website templates. I picked one and was immediately impressed by how easy it was to customize. The drag-and-drop builder is clearly labeled, and you can quickly navigate through each section to alter layouts, colors, images, and texts.

I also liked how you could choose a template when building a new page or you can create a blank page and add sections yourself. It gave me the flexibility to design the web pages the way I envisioned without or without the aid of templates.

Square Online also has an "Embed Code" section so that you can install third-party applications like OpenTable reservations.

The builder is intuitive, but Square Online has an "Editor Tips" button to help you create and edit your website. The guides were extensive and easy to follow, which is a huge plus for beginners.

Using and editing media

Square Online can host videos of up to 100MB. Alternatively, you can insert a YouTube video. You can also upload images, but there isn't a built-in photo editor. You could use Square's Photo Studio app to create product images for your online store. It works only on iOS, so this isn't a great option for everyone.

Widget library

One of the most important aspects of running an ecommerce store is the ability to integrate with other third-party applications. Third parties can add overall functionality to your store that web builders don't have intuitively.

While Square has many ecommerce and marketing tools by default, you still have the flexibility to work with other applications. Square has an app store with several extensions that add a lot of value to your site.

Most of the apps involve the behind-the-scenes functionality of ecommerce, like fulfillment and shipping. You may need to pay extra for these apps, but it could be worth the overall cost.

Ecommerce tools

Square Online is set up to help you sell anything from subscriptions to physical products. Since the web builder is part of the overall Square product suite, it's easy to have an all-in-one solution for online and in-person sales with the Square POS.

The platform has everything you need to set up shop through multiple sales channels and market your products. There are even advanced analytical tools to collect data on your sales.

When it comes to adding new product items, Square Online provides several tools to modify them to your business operations. For example, I could add multiple options for the same product (like different colors) and add low-stock alerts. Sometimes, web builders make these additional modifications a premium feature, but Square Online includes them in all of their paid plans.

SEO and blogging tools

Since Square Online is heavily an ecommerce platform, I was surprised it had a blogging feature. Square Online also has guides on basic SEO. Overall though, Square Online isn't a good option if you want to focus on blogging and SEO. It lacks the advanced features to be successful in this area.

Marketing tools

Many of the marketing tools for Square Online are meant to promote your products and gain loyal and repeat customers. Some of the tools you can use include creating gift cards, affiliate programs, and discount codes.

It also provides automated email campaigns to share these promotions with your audience. And there’s a valuable abandoned cart email campaign to connect with customers who didn't finish their purchase.

Security and bandwidth

Square handles customer payment information and other personal information. Before you use any ecommerce store, you should ensure they have the necessary security protocols to protect customer data from malicious threats.

The industry standard is the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS). Square Online claims it's compliant with this protocol, which is designed to reduce data breaches and guard consumer data. Square also provides services like:

• Expert dispute assistance with payments.
• Account protection with two-factor authentication, account permissions, and strong passwords.
• Monitoring payments for fraudulent purchases.

Create a free cookie policy for your ecommerce business

As a business owner, you need a cookie policy to disclose what you do with user data. You also need privacy policies, a refund policy, and others. With TermsFeed, you can quickly create legal provisions for GDPR, CCPA, CPRA, and more.

Square Online customer support

Support type	Square Online
Email or live chat	Yes — both live chat and email are available
Phone	Yes — (855) 700-6000. You need to provide your customer code to verify a Square account.
Online guides or forums	Yes — both online guides and forums are available

All plans offer email, live chat, and phone support. You also have access to extensive online guides. I found the guides easy to follow, and they answered a lot of my questions as I used Square Online. I also appreciate the forums where I could connect with other users and find answers to more niche questions.

24/7 support is available only on the Premium plan by phone. The live chat continues to operate during business hours, regardless of your plan.

FAQs

Bottom line: Is Square Online good?

Small businesses that need to create an ecommerce site should consider Square Online. 

The web builder is user-friendly and simplifies the process of designing a website. Square Online provides extensive step-by-step support to help you add your items and manage your site. Overall, Square Online is a good choice for stores that already use the Square POS and want to launch an online store quickly.