Farm Website Platforms
Comparing GrazeCart, Shopify, & Square
Last updated: September 25th, 2023
At Grapevine Local Food Marketing, we’ve spent seven years building websites just for farms, and we’ve spent plenty of time carefully comparing tools!
For purposes of this comparison, we’re focusing solely on platforms that will enable you to have both your website (blog, about page, recipes...) and your online store together under one roof. So, we’re zeroing in on GrazeCart vs. Shopify vs. Square for farm websites.
The comparison tables below will give you all the information you need at a glance, so you can:
Compare platforms based on sales models, including variable weight meat, turkey pre-orders, bulk beef, CSAs, recurring subscriptions, etc.
Explore whether each website platform will work for your fulfillment models, including local delivery, drop points, shipping, etc.
Understand which website platforms will best support your farm’s marketing needs, including SEO, email marketing, blogging, recipes, etc.
Learn how needs such as Quickbooks integrations and routing software fit in.
Scroll to the end to see the real monthly cost for GrazeCart vs. Shopify vs. Square — including apps!
Before we jump in, a couple quick answers…
Where’s Wordpress?
We design Wordpress websites, too, but after developing custom comparisons for dozens of farms over the years, we’ve found that Wordpress never wins out over other platforms for farm websites. The POS is a wildcard, and even if your farm is only selling online, Wordpress doesn’t offer any functionality that you can’t get in Shopify. For these reasons, we typically only recommend Wordpress for food councils, government entities, and local food initiatives who want custom website functionality but don’t need to sell online.
What about Squarespace?
We 💚 Squarespace as a website platform for farms who are already using a separate online sales platform like Local Food Marketplace, Farmigo, Local Line, etc. Squarespace makes it easy to develop a beautiful farm website as a companion to their online store. But for farms who are looking for a single platform for website + sales, all in a single platform, Squarespace falls short in its e-commerce functionality — Grazecart, Shopify, and Square blow it away on every count, so it’s just not in the running. (Yes, Squarespace and Square are two different things!)
Farm Sales Models
| GrazeCart |
Shopify | Square | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Variable weight meat (sell exact weight by the pound) |
✅ GrazeCart is the only platform that has this functionality and a complete website, all on one fully integrated platform, so all of your site lives under a single domain name |
🟡💰 Can be accomplished with an app, perfect for special cuts, but not recommended for use across all products |
❌ |
| Buy-down CSA (online only) | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ |
| Buy-down/ market-style CSA w/POS support | ❌ | ✅ | ✅ |
| Pre-order (Bulk beef, turkeys, etc. — charge a deposit & collect full payment later) |
✅ | ✅ Use built-in functionality (no extra fee), or add a paid app for additional functionality |
✅ |
| Recurring subscriptions subscribe & save |
✅💰 Requires app: $1.99 per subscriber per month (compare functionality to the $99/mo Shopify option) |
✅💰 Requires app: $5-8/mo based on order volume, or more robust app: $99/mo + 1.25% + 19¢/ order new July 2023: Shopify has realeased a free app, with limited access — will eventually be available for all users |
✅ new June 2023: Square now has built-in subscription support at no additional cost, however they are still building it out and it is currently limited to shippable orders only. |
| Bundles w/shared inventory (So when a customer buys a bundle, the inventory of component parts is reduced accordingly) |
✅ | ✅ new July 2023: Bundling is now available free (For more robust needs, you may still require an app: $24/mo, or free if < 3 bundled products) |
✅💰 Requires app for robust inventory: $39+/mo depending on order volume |
| Product drop-down choices (Variants like small roast vs. large roast, bone in vs bone out, 1lb ground vs 5-pack, etc.) |
✅💰 Requires app: $25/mo |
✅ | ✅ |
| Customer payment plans | ❌ | ✅ 5.9% + 30¢ with Shopify Shop Pay Installments |
✅ 6% + 30¢ Afterpay |
| Wholesale | ✅ | ✅💰 $0-24/mo, TBD based on your specific needs |
🟡💰 Not as smooth as other platforms. $0-39+/month, TBD based on your specific needs |
If variable weight meat is your primary concern and you’re not shipping, you can also check out storefront platforms like Local Food Marketplace and Eat From Farms.
What about traditional CSAs? If your farm is looking for a CSA platform to support a traditional CSA model, consider taking advantage of a specialized farm CSA platform like Farmigo, CSAware, or others that have the functionality you need, built right in.
Order Fulfillment Options
| GrazeCart |
Shopify | Square | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Allow COD or offline payment (Choose if you want to let customers submit a complete order without credit card payment.) | ✅ | ✅ | ❌ |
| Local delivery | ✅ Can define delivery zones by zip or by state |
✅ Can define delivery zones by zip or by radius Requires app if you want date and time scheduling (same app as below for inventory sync) ~$10-15 per month |
✅ Can define delivery zones by zip or by radius |
| Pick up at farm |
✅ | ✅ Requires app if you want date and time scheduling (same app as below for inventory sync) ~$10-15 per month |
✅ |
| Drop points / pickup locations |
✅ | ✅ See note below |
✅ See note below |
| Sync inventory across pickup / delivery locations (not an issue for shipping zone inventory) |
✅ Automatic |
✅💰 Requires app: ~$10-15/mo if more than 1 location |
✅💰 Requires app: $35-39+/mo if more than 1 location (same as the bundling app in previous table) |
| Shipping | ✅ Can define shipping zones by zip or by state |
✅
Can define shipping zones by state, or pay for an app ($10+/mo) to define by zip codes |
✅ Can define shipping zones by state |
| Shipping extras | ✅ GrazeCart has a partnership with ShipFare for special negotiated shipping rates |
✅ Real time carrier rates are built in, no extra fee |
✅💰 Real time carrier rates are built in but requires an upgrade to the $79/mo Premium plan (instead of the regular $29/mo Plus plan) |
| Set product prices based on geo zone |
✅ | ❌ | ❌ |
| Set order fees based on geo zone | ✅ | ✅ |
✅ |
| Sales tax (We do not consult on sales tax.) |
🟡 You can manually enter sales tax rates based on zones you set up. If you’re shipping nationally, you may need to include tax in purchase price and calculate your tax responsibility offline. Products can be set as taxable vs. not taxable, but no way to set different rates for based on product type. |
🟡 Built in calculations, but does not distinguish between food and non-food items. If you’re shipping nationally, you may need to include tax in purchase price and calculate your tax responsibility offline. |
🟡 Built in calculations, but does not distinguish between food and non-food items. If you’re shipping nationally, you may need to include tax in purchase price and calculate your tax responsibility offline. |
| Integrated POS (You can always use a separate POS; just consider the effect on inventory management.) |
✅💰 Requires app: $49/mo + $249 card reader Transaction fee: 2.7% + 5¢ Details at grazecart.com/pos |
✅ $0/month for Lite plan + $49 card reader Transaction fee: 2.7% + 0¢ USD Details at shopify.com/pos. Requires app to enable selling by the pound, +$20/mo |
✅ $0/month Free basic magstripe card reader, or + $299 for a terminal (recommended) Transaction fee: 2.6% + 10¢ Details at squareup.com |
What about food hubs, farm stops, farmers markets, & other aggregators? If your business is aggregating food from multiple producers, and you want producers to be able to login and manage their own inventory, check out specialty farm software like Local Food Marketplace, Local Line, and others. Otherwise — if you want to simply label or categorize products as being produced by partner farms, that can be handled easily in GrazeCart, Shopify, and Square.
Marketing Support
| GrazeCart |
Shopify | Square | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Custom website design | ✅ When you hire Grapevine, we’ll go beyond the standard GrazeCart template look to craft a polished final website for your farm. |
✅ When you hire Grapevine, we’ll go beyond the standard Shopify template look to craft a polished final website for your farm. |
✅ When you hire Grapevine, we’ll go beyond the standard Square template look to craft a polished final website for your farm. |
| SEO | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ |
| Integration with Google Analytics & Facebook Pixel | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ |
| Mobile-friendly, responsive design | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ |
| Automated abandoned cart emails |
🟡 Not built in, but can be configured easily via Drip integration |
✅ |
✅ |
| Email marketing & automations |
✅ 💰 Full Drip integration is built in. See pricing options in the final table at the end of this article. |
✅ 💰 There are many integration options, but our fave is Klaviyo. See pricing options in the final table at the end of this article. |
✅ 💰 Use Square’s email marketing tools (extra fee) or use Mailchimp integration for more robust functionality. See pricing options in the final table at the end of this article. |
| SMS text message marketing & automations | 🟡💰 Drip has paused SMS for new customers, but is expected to bring it back in mid or late 2023. Alternatively, you can use a separate platform, but you'll miss out on fully integrated automations. |
✅ 💰 SMS is built right in to Klaviyo. Since it's fully integrated with email, your automations will be smart enough to choose email vs. SMS for each contact, and avoid overcommunicating. See pricing options at the end of this article. |
🟡💰 Use Square’s SMS marketing tools. It's fully inetgrated with email, automations are limited. See pricing options at the end of this article. |
| Loyalty program |
✅ Can develop w/email automations |
✅ Can develop w/email automations |
✅💰 Built in, but requires extra fee, starting at $45/mo (see details at squareup.com) |
| Blogging |
✅
When Grapevine builds your site, we build on the flexibility of GrazeCart's blog to enhance the browsing experience and increase customer engagement. |
✅ When Grapevine builds your site, we build on the flexibility of Shopify’s blog to enhance the browsing experience and increase customer engagement. |
🟡 Square currently has very basic blog functionality, with no way to add tags or pull a feed into the homepage. We expect this to improve in 2023-2024. |
| Recipes | ✅ Built in recipe functionality even lets you use your products as ingredients. |
✅ When Grapevine builds your site, we’ll extend the blog functionality to include a dedicated recipe section with custom styling. |
🟡 Square’s limited blog functionality translates to very limited support for farm recipes. It’s not a fit if you plan to have 10+ recipes. |
A note on SEO: The framework is there in all three platforms — it's up to you or your web designer to make the most of it! If you hire Grapevine for a budget-friendly farm website template package, we'll provide a text template with SEO tips for you to fill out. If you hire us for a Custom Website package, we can include more in-depth SEO support based on your needs.
What about transactional emails like the order confirmation? Basic transactional emails are built right in to every e-commerce platform — no extra fees or apps needed. (Some sales models may warrant additional customized transactional emails, which can be configured separately in your email marketing platform.)
Wondering if SMS is a fit for your farm? It is! Find out why.
Administration
| GrazeCart |
Shopify | Square | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pick lists (Get total quantity of each product needed to pack all orders) |
✅ View directly in backend report or download CSV |
✅ 💰 We can show you how to generate pick lists with a workaround (free), or use an app: $10/mo |
✅ Download CSV |
| Packing lists | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ |
| Shipping labels | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ |
| QuickBooks Online | 🟡 Manual export/import |
✅ 💰 Full integration w/app: $22/mo for up to 100 transactions, $44/mo for up to 500 transactions |
✅💰 Full integration w/app: $0-12.99/mo depending on feature needs |
| Routing software |
🟡💰 Manual export/import to multiple platforms, $30-45/mo |
✅ 💰 Full integration available with multiple platforms $30-45/mo (add’l drivers will incur add’l costs) |
✅ 💰 Full integration available with multiple platforms ~$30/mo for up to 300 orders, additional orders at $0.10 |
| Reporting | ✅ Farm-tailored reporting. See GrazeCart reporting |
✅ Robust e-commerce reporting. See Shopify reporting |
✅ See Square reporting |
| Invoicing | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ |
Full cost comparison
Monthly fees for Grazecart vs. Shopify vs. Square, including apps
| GrazeCart |
Shopify | Square | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pricing link |
grazecart.com/pricing | shopify.com/pricing | squareup.com |
| Core fee |
$149/mo for revenue up to $500k $399/mo for revenue up to $2M |
$29/mo Basic Plan is a fit for many farms. $79/mo Shopify Plan includes enhanced reporting and 5 staff seats. |
$29/mo Plus Plan is a fit for many farms. |
| Per-transaction fees for online sales | 2.9% + 30¢ (via Stripe) | 2.9% + 30¢ | 2.9% + 30¢ |
| Pre-order (bulk beef, turkeys…) |
$0 | $0 | $0 |
| Subscriptions | $1.99/mo per subscriber |
$5-8/mo or robust app: $99/mo + 1.25% + 19¢/ order (free app available soon with limited functionality) |
$0 |
| Bundled products w/shared inventory | $0 | $24/mo (or free if < 3 bundled products) | $39+/mo |
| Product drop-down choices (variants / upsell) |
$25/mo | $0 | $0 |
| Wholesale | $0 | $0-24/mo, based on your needs | $0-39/mo, based on your needs (same app as above) |
| Sync inventory across drop points &/or local delivery zones | $0 | $~10-15/mo | $35-39+/mo (same app as above) |
| Pick lists | $0 | $10/mo | $0 (CSV download) |
| POS | $49/mo | $0/mo for Lite plan +$20/mo if selling by the pound in person |
$0/mo |
| Routing software | Based on 3rd party platform you choose - many options | Based on 3rd party platform you choose - many options | Based on 3rd party platform you choose - many options |
| Quickbooks integration | $0 (manual export/import) | $22/mo for up to 100 transactions, $44/mo for up to 500 transactions |
$0-12.99/mo depending on feature needs |
| Email marketing | via Drip - based on # of subscribers: 1000: $39/mo 2000: $39/mo 3000: $49/mo 4000: $69/mo 5000: $89/mo See pricing at drip.com/pricing |
via Klaviyo - based on # of subscribers: 1000: $45/mo 2000: $60/mo 3000: $80/mo 4000: $100/mo 5000: $100/mo See pricing at klaviyo.com/pricing |
via Klaviyo - based on # of subscribers: 1000: $45/mo 2000: $60/mo 3000: $80/mo 4000: $100/mo 5000: $100/mo See pricing at klaviyo.com/pricing |
| SMS marketing | TBD if/when Drip brings back SMS, but meantime one option is YetiText: SMS: $0.06 per message MMS: $0.08 per message See proicing at yetitext.com/pricing |
via Klaviyo SMS: $0.01 per message MMS: $0.03 per message See pricing at klaviyo.com/pricing |
via Klaviyo SMS: $0.01 per message MMS: $0.03 per message See pricing at klaviyo.com/pricing |
Other considerations
We’ll leave you with a few final thoughts on these farm website platforms…
GrazeCart was developed by a farm family to fill their needs for selling direct to consumer. It’s the only platform that offers the ability to sell by weight and have a complete website, all on one platform, all under a single domain name (e.g. yourfarm.com). Some farms feel GrazeCart isn’t a fit because they’d like a more polished design, but that’s an easy fix! One of our specialties is building completely custom-designed GrazeCart websites using custom code. Our custom GrazeCart websites are still just as easy for the farmer to update and maintain as a non-custom site. Example websites: thelogcabinranch.com and togetherfarms.com.
Shopify is endlessly customizable. Unlike Square and GrazeCart, Shopify has an app store with thousands of plugins. Plus, a Shopify developer can build just about any custom functionality you can imagine (except variable weight meat — we checked!). On the flip side, that means you can rack up a big monthly bill with plugin fees if you’re not careful, and plugins don’t always play well together. If you work with Grapevine, you’ll benefit from our app experience, and we’ll make sure the apps we set up will work together. Example websites: applecreekfarm.me and shop.wildharmonyfarm.com.
Square is a simple, user-friendly choice. It can be an easy choice for farms who already use Square POS, because you’ve already got all of your farm’s inventory right there, and you won’t need to change to a different POS in order to achieve streamlined inventory tracking. Square has a modest app store with a handful of core apps, but it is not infinitely customizable the way Shopify is. Its blog functionality is currently very limited. Example websites: brightideacres.com and fullhandfarm.com.
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Which farm website platform should you choose?
Still not sure which platform is right for your farm? Talk through the options with a pro!
Book a free demo with these direct links:
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If we’re already connected, just reply to your contact to get started, or click the link in the PDF. Otherwise, reach out to get started.
Ready for a new website?
You have enough to do — let us take care of your farm website! Our team has backgrounds in everything from farming and butchery to Master’s Degrees in graphic design and marketing. We invest heavily in ongoing training and professional development, so you know you’re getting top-notch expertise. We’ve built dozens of websites for small farms as well as websites for food hubs, food councils, and state ag/nutrition initiatives. Local food is our passion and the reason that we choose to do what we do!
Whether you’ve never had a website before or it’s time for a refresh, a strong website will form the foundation for your farm’s marketing. Your website serves as a hub that influences the success of all other marketing tactics you use, so it’s worth getting right. Choose a budget-friendly package based on our farm website templates, or have the Grapevine team build a turnkey, fully custom website. We’ll send a PDF with all the details on both options:
Already have our PDF? Reply to your Grapevine contact to schedule a call, or let us know that you’re ready to get started, and we’ll send an invoice for your downpayment.
