Shift4Shop vs. Square Online

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
Shift4Shop
Score 1.2 out of 10
N/A
Shift4Shop (formerly 3dcart) is a customizable eCommerce platform designed to build an online store. Some features include Level 1 PCI security compliance, the same level used by banks and large financial institutions, along with search engine optimized templates and no transaction fees. The former 3dcart was acquired by Shift4 Payments in November, 2020.
$39
per month
Square Online
Score 7.4 out of 10
N/A
Square Online (formerly Weebly) is a basic content management system with blogging and eCommerce features. It can be utilized for building standard websites or specialized webpages for online stores.
$13
per month
Pricing
Shift4ShopSquare Online
Editions & Modules
Platform Fee
$39
per month
Personal
$13
per month
Professional
$16
per month
Performance
$29
per month
Free
Free
Free
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
Shift4ShopSquare Online
Free Trial
NoNo
Free/Freemium Version
NoYes
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoNo
Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
Additional DetailsShift4Shop offers a free enterprise-grade plan for US customers who use their payment processing.Pricing decreases when paid annually: Personal - $10/Month Professional - $12/Month Performance - $26/Month
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
Shift4ShopSquare Online
Features
Shift4ShopSquare Online
Online Storefront
Comparison of Online Storefront features of Product A and Product B
Shift4Shop
1.0
Ratings
155% below category average
Square Online
-
Ratings
Product catalog & listings1.00 Ratings00 Ratings
Product management1.00 Ratings00 Ratings
Bulk product upload1.00 Ratings00 Ratings
Branding1.00 Ratings00 Ratings
Mobile storefront1.00 Ratings00 Ratings
Product variations1.00 Ratings00 Ratings
Website integration1.00 Ratings00 Ratings
Visual customization1.00 Ratings00 Ratings
CMS1.00 Ratings00 Ratings
Online Shopping Cart
Comparison of Online Shopping Cart features of Product A and Product B
Shift4Shop
2.0
Ratings
117% below category average
Square Online
-
Ratings
Abandoned cart recovery2.00 Ratings00 Ratings
Checkout user experience2.00 Ratings00 Ratings
Online Payment System
Comparison of Online Payment System features of Product A and Product B
Shift4Shop
2.0
Ratings
122% below category average
Square Online
-
Ratings
eCommerce security2.00 Ratings00 Ratings
eCommerce Marketing
Comparison of eCommerce Marketing features of Product A and Product B
Shift4Shop
1.7
Ratings
128% below category average
Square Online
-
Ratings
Promotions & discounts1.00 Ratings00 Ratings
Personalized recommendations2.90 Ratings00 Ratings
SEO1.00 Ratings00 Ratings
eCommerce Business Management
Comparison of eCommerce Business Management features of Product A and Product B
Shift4Shop
2.9
Ratings
94% below category average
Square Online
-
Ratings
Multi-site management1.00 Ratings00 Ratings
Order processing6.80 Ratings00 Ratings
Inventory management1.00 Ratings00 Ratings
Shipping4.90 Ratings00 Ratings
Custom functionality1.00 Ratings00 Ratings
Security
Comparison of Security features of Product A and Product B
Shift4Shop
-
Ratings
Square Online
5.4
Ratings
40% below category average
Role-based user permissions00 Ratings5.40 Ratings
Platform & Infrastructure
Comparison of Platform & Infrastructure features of Product A and Product B
Shift4Shop
-
Ratings
Square Online
6.4
Ratings
17% below category average
API00 Ratings6.40 Ratings
Internationalization / multi-language00 Ratings6.40 Ratings
Web Content Creation
Comparison of Web Content Creation features of Product A and Product B
Shift4Shop
-
Ratings
Square Online
7.5
Ratings
3% below category average
WYSIWYG editor00 Ratings8.70 Ratings
Code quality / cleanliness00 Ratings6.70 Ratings
Admin section00 Ratings7.30 Ratings
Page templates00 Ratings6.40 Ratings
Library of website themes00 Ratings7.00 Ratings
Mobile optimization / responsive design00 Ratings9.30 Ratings
Publishing workflow00 Ratings7.30 Ratings
Form generator00 Ratings7.40 Ratings
Web Content Management
Comparison of Web Content Management features of Product A and Product B
Shift4Shop
-
Ratings
Square Online
6.7
Ratings
9% below category average
Content taxonomy00 Ratings6.70 Ratings
SEO support00 Ratings7.70 Ratings
Bulk management00 Ratings7.40 Ratings
Availability / breadth of extensions00 Ratings5.70 Ratings
Community / comment management00 Ratings6.40 Ratings
Best Alternatives
Shift4ShopSquare Online
Small Businesses
Ecwid by Lightspeed
Ecwid by Lightspeed
Score 10.0 out of 10
ManageWP
ManageWP
Score 10.0 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies
Shopify Plus
Shopify Plus
Score 9.0 out of 10
RWS Tridion Sites
RWS Tridion Sites
Score 9.0 out of 10
Enterprises
IBM Digital Commerce
IBM Digital Commerce
Score 9.0 out of 10
RWS Tridion Sites
RWS Tridion Sites
Score 9.0 out of 10
All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
User Ratings
Shift4ShopSquare Online
Likelihood to Recommend
1.0
(0 ratings)
7.4
(0 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
1.0
(0 ratings)
10.0
(0 ratings)
Usability
4.0
(0 ratings)
6.0
(0 ratings)
Availability
2.0
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Performance
5.0
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Support Rating
4.0
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Implementation Rating
2.0
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Product Scalability
2.0
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
User Testimonials
Shift4ShopSquare Online
Likelihood to Recommend
At this point I would recommend looking elsewhere - 8 years with a platform and finally have to switch due to the unreliability is not something a business likes to do! They should sell the platform to a company that actually cares about owning an ecommerce builder. Research Shift4 - the parent
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Weebly is a great platform if you need a brochure-ware website. It's got some great features and you can't beat how easy it is to use. On the downside, the blog and e-commerce functionality is limited. Although there are several fairly easy to use platforms out there, I use it for many of my clients that are just starting out or need one they can eventually manage and update themselves as their businesses evolve -- which is especially true in the beginning or at the startup of a business. However, it can also scale, since you can create almost any number of pages and add content like audio and video. Additional functionality may be added through embeds.
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Pros
  • 3dcart is a more basic website tool that can get customers started quickly.
  • It only has a certain amount of options, making it an ok tool to use if you don't need a particularly large website.
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  • Weebly makes it easy for users who are not very tech savvy to create a site that looks professional and well thought out.
  • Weebly provides users with a variety of templates for creating new pages quickly and efficiently.
  • The software allows users to make updates to their site and pages quickly and changes are published immediately.
Read full review
Cons
  • 3dcart does not connect to many of the POS systems my clients use so we need to manually update inventory daily/weekly.
  • There are many modules available to do many different things, but it makes you feel like you are being tickled and died to death to get the site to do exactly what you want. Also can be confusing if you don't know what you actually need.
  • It's a little difficult/confusing to upload products with multiple variations - ie: color and size - especially if there are multiples colors and multiple sizes.
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  • Plugins leave a lot to be desired. Not a ton of custom options and many require additional subscriptions.
  • SEO options are also pretty elementary - if SEO if a focus for you, avoid Weebly
  • Overall templates are pretty boring compared to something you could create on WordPress
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Likelihood to Renew
Because they are, in my experience, unable to maintain a working environment . Client contact us telling us the site is not letting them place orders . We have to check multiple times a day our store is still working . In my experience, they have removed email support , and we had to find a 3rd party to use it with our store at an extra cost , let alone the resource to make it happen. In my experience, they basically abandon you and send you instruction on how to make it work .
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Weebly is consistently adding features that line up with our needs. The ease of use makes it the perfect program for us since we have users of multiple age brackets and knowledge of web design. We love that we can give users access to only the pages they are affiliated with
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Usability
If you are looking for ultra basic interface ...
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Very easy to use and intuitive to design after all of our business needs. From the website and POS system to how we represent ourselves internally and to our customers... Square is second-to-none in helping our business and others in our same boat become the kind of businesses we want to be when it comes to our inventory and sales of these kinds of products.
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Reliability and Availability
regular updates braking our site
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No answers on this topic
Support Rating
You always manage to fins someone, but, in my experience, resolving issues are not an easy task. Why do we pay for a service , and then spend time trouble shooting constantly with them ?? In my experience, they eliminate features , send you an email what you can use instead, with instructions most people cant do without an IT guy . It feel more like an open source than a true integrated service.
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No answers on this topic
Implementation Rating
Initially it was difficult to manage the UI to the client, and then hard to change anything , unless you used the boring and too generic templates . Their template selection is very limited , that are basically all the same with different background images and colours . If you are unfortunate to have been a long-time client, you will have to completely rebuild your store, because old templates are not supported anymore
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No answers on this topic
Alternatives Considered
I would put 3dcart (now Shift4Shop) on the same level of AspDotNetStorefront. Its primitive, old hat, but still works. Lightspeed and Pinnacle cart are a little better, as they are a little more polished but also not as fine-tuned as an Enterprise System. Squarespace and WooCommerce are very simple to use, but also require some additional integrations to make fully functional. BigCommerce has most of the functionality built in for an ecommerce site, but comes with an enterprise price. If you're on a budget, you're better with going off something widely supported, but budget-minded.
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Overall, Weebly is a fantastic app to integrate into the classroom or school setting. I usually give students an option when designing web pages/websites and Weebly is often the choice. However, when it comes to pure blogging and older students learning how to track their digital footprint, I usually lean toward having them use WordPress. But Weebly is simpler with less time needed to get started as opposed to WordPress. Students need to understand simple HTML, embedding other tools/apps, and the basics of web design without the coding/HTML background and Weebly helps support this.
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Return on Investment
  • We have seen an increase in sales of 440% since starting with 3D cart.
  • We find that the 3D features of promotions, coupon codes, rewards points all make customers want to come to us or come back to us.
  • They made mobile conversion pretty easy, and our mobile traffic went from 33% to 54%.
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  • Weebly has saved us a lot of time with site maintenance - if we need to make a change, it's easy to get in and out without spending a lot of time trying to code.
  • Weebly is cost effective, and right now we're getting just about everything we need from the tool so we're saving money (compared to other products).
Read full review
ScreenShots

Shift4Shop Screenshots

Screenshot of Screenshot of