Wix vs Shopify is a match-up between two very popular ecommerce website builders.
In the blue corner, Shopify: a dedicated ecommerce heavyweight that’s helped 600,000 businesses generate revenues of over $55 billion.
And in the red corner, Wix: website building’s drag-and-drop king with the ability to sell online.
Have you read up on both, but still been left scratching your head?
Fear not – in this detailed comparison, we’ll break down our research, tell you exactly what Wix and Shopify can do, and reveal who each is best suited to.
So how do you decide whether Wix or Shopify is right for you?
Here’s a quick rule of thumb to help:
- If you want to keep things simple and sell fewer than 10 products, pick Wix.
- If you want to sell over 10 products or generally grow your ecommerce business, go with Shopify.
This distills the Wix vs Shopify question down to the basics. Our comparison will go into more depth on Shopify and Wix’s pricing, SEO, customer support, ease of use, theme quality, and much more.
By the end, you’ll know whether Wix or Shopify is right for you.
First, here’s a quick snapshot of Wix vs Shopify. You can compare each platform and sign up for a free trial.
Wix vs Shopify: Head to head
| Scores out of five | Wix | Shopify |
|---|---|---|
| Ease of Use | 3.6 | 4 |
| Design | 4 | 3.7 |
| Sales Features | 2.6 | 4.7 |
| Customer Support | 4.7 | 4.1 |
| Pricing | 4.5 | 4.4 |
Wix and Shopify: Pros and Cons
| Wix Cons | |
|---|---|
| #1 | Limited scalability
Wix isn’t designed for you to sell in bulk. It’s an incredible website builder, but its sole purpose isn’t ecommerce. |
Which has the best Sales Features?
Shopify Sales Features
This is where Shopify flexes its ecommerce muscles. Shopify is like an ecommerce Swiss Army knife – it’s a one-stop-ecommerce-shop.
Basic Shopify plans provide Abandoned Cart Recovery, discount code creation, and multi-channel integration (more on that last point coming up).
Upgrade your Shopify plan and you’ll unlock gift cards and detailed reporting, plus sophisticated third-party shipping rates.
Shopify’s App Store gives you even greater scope to grow your store. You can add a customer wishlist, set up dropshipping, add product reviews and use currency conversion – and that’s just the start!
Shopify knows what helps merchants like you sell online. Take abandoned cart recovery – this lets you email customers who have left your website with items still in their cart before checking out.
By recovering lost sales, research claims you can increase revenue by 25%! Think of it like sealing the holes in a leaky boat.
Currently, abandoned cart recovery is only available with Wix through a third party app. It’s far simpler to integrate with Shopify.
Wix Sales Features
While Wix isn’t as powerful as Shopify, you still get impressive ecommerce features. Highlights include:
- A ribbon advertising sales or limited stock
- Customized thank you messages to customers
- Secure shopping bag item on every page
A big plus of Wix is that it doesn’t stand still. It rolls out new features all the time: for example, in May 2018, it brought out new checkout customization functionality.
You can choose which fields to display, such as company name and address. Building a distinctive checkout page is great for your brand and your bottom line.
To sell on Wix, you need to sign up to its eCommerce plan and add the Wix Stores app. This unlocks Wix’s ecommerce tools.
How do They Match Up?
One deal-breaker between Shopify and Wix is Shopify’s multi-channel integration. This is where you can connect your store to social media accounts, like Facebook and Instagram, and marketplaces, like Amazon and eBay.
These days, 48% of people’s searches for products begin on marketplaces. It’s great that Shopify allows you to sell across different channels, and it’s something that Wix can’t match.
Wix vs Shopify – Sales Features: The Verdict
Shopify is the clear winner here, but context is key. Wix includes what you need to sell online. If you don’t want to build a business or sell heaps of products, you’ll like this simplicity.
Which has the better Design?
Design matters. If you walked past a disordered shop window, you’re less likely to go in the shop, right? It’s no different with online stores.
Both platforms provide a great range of free and paid templates. The big advantage to Shopify’s themes is that they’re geared towards helping you sell.
39% of online shopping in the US is now done on a mobile, and this number is only going up. Both Shopify and Wix’s themes are mobile responsive, meaning your store will work just as well whatever device your customer is using.
Independent designers ensure Shopify’s 60+ themes are up-to-date and cover a range of industries. At $180, some of Shopify’s paid themes are on the expensive side, but it’s a one-off payment that you should see as an investment in your store.
Wix, meanwhile, offers over 500 templates. Most may not be designed for ecommerce specifically (there’s still 57 that are!), but they do cover nearly every industry imaginable. They’re also super easy to edit (more on this in our next section), so you can turn any of them into an online store.
The downside of Wix templates is when you’ve chosen one, you can’t switch. This can make it hard if you want to rebrand your store further down the line.
Wix vs Shopify – Design: The Verdict
Wix just edges this one. The simplicity of editing its templates make it a great option if you’re a small trader. Wix’s templates are packaged to help you do the basics straight away. But if you want a more powerful online store that’s optimized for sales, Shopify’s themes are for you.
Wix or Shopify: Which is the easiest to use?
If you’re selling online, time is money. The easier you find running your store, the more time you can spend attracting and serving new customers.
So is Wix or Shopify easier to use?
Let’s cut to the chase: ease of use is central to Wix’s business model. It’s a drag-and-drop builder; to create an online store, you click on a feature (an image, for example) and drag it to where you want. It’s that simple.
That’s fine when you want to get a website up, but when it comes to online stores, more structure can be helpful.
We tested Wix and Shopify by getting everyday people to build their own online store. The general consensus was that although it’s incredibly easy to edit Wix’s templates, it’s a little harder to actually get the ecommerce side of things set up.
Here are some of their thoughts:
Wix was good because it provided more creative freedom, but was slightly more confusing when adding products and creating categories in comparison to Shopify.
I had no real issue with Shopify as a platform – it was super easy and effective to add products. I can’t imagine it being as simple as Wix’s drag-and-drop interface, but sometimes you just need more structure – and this is where Shopify works better.
Shopify keeps its editing interface and dashboard separate. You can add products, manage sales, and create email marketing campaigns, all away from the editor. And although Shopify’s editor is more restrictive than Wix’s, the themes are already set up to help you sell.
You’ll find Shopify has a steeper learning curve than Wix. But in the long run, that extra structure will actually make the process of creating your entire online store easier.
Wix vs Shopify – Ease of Use: The Verdict
All square here. For pure editing simplicity, Wix is hard to beat. The trade-off is that you get less backend control than with Shopify, which makes the overall process harder. If you’re looking to build an advanced online store, Shopify is the best platform available.
Which is better for SEO?
When it comes to SEO, Wix and Shopify are neck-and-neck. Both provide great support in getting your store discovered online.
First Things First: What is SEO?
SEO stands for search engine optimization. It’s the practice of making sure your store appears in a strong position in Google’s rankings.
Let’s say you sell vintage cars. When people type ‘buy vintage cars’ into Google, the higher your store appears, the more traffic – and sales – you get. That all comes down to good SEO.
After all, what’s the point in creating a great online store that no one visits? It would be like writing a book no one reads.
Shopify and Wix make it easy to:
- Add and edit meta titles/descriptions – the headline and text underneath it that appears in Google
- Customize URL slugs – the text that comes after your domain e.g. www.websitebuilderexpert.com“/ecommerce-website-builders/comparisons/wix-vs-shopify/”
- Attach alt text to images – text that Google reads to know what your images are
- Get further guidance with ‘SEO best practice’ prompts
These are the building blocks of good SEO. In Wix’s editor, you can preview how these will look in Google:
Ranking highly in search results takes time. You’ve got to play the long game when it comes to SEO.
Shopify is strong on in-built SEO functionality. For instance, Shopify avoids duplicate content through automatic tagging; Google hates repeat content, and will come down hard if two products are listed with the same name and description.
What Wix and Shopify do well is help you tick off the SEO boxes. Both also have in-depth SEO resources to help you optimize your store.
Wix vs Shopify – SEO: The Verdict
It’s another tie. As we said, it’s incredibly tight. If we’re splitting hairs, Wix offers keyword support – advice on which words or phrases to use to help boost your ranking – which Shopify doesn’t. Other than that, the pair cancel each other out.
Which has the better Customer Support?
One massive point in Wix’s favor is its in-editor help. It can be frustrating having to click back and forth between a guide and your store, but with Wix, you can receive help directly within the editor.
Hover your mouse over the editor’s question marks and you bring up small speech bubbles, which answer common problems. In Shopify, this process is clunkier and requires you to visit a separate page.
Wix’s Help Center has hundreds of articles and videos to support you. The layout is clearer than Shopify’s Help Center, which doesn’t include videos. That said, both hubs have more than enough information to answer your questions.
Wix vs Shopify – Customer Support: The Verdict
We’re giving this one to Wix. Having around-the-clock support with Shopify is great, but it’s the quality of Wix’s support which makes it the winner. A more comprehensive help center and support directly in the editor mean Wix edges Shopify here.
Which has the better Payment Options and Fees?
Which is better Value for Money?
No Wix vs Shopify comparison is complete without a look at pricing. Let’s find out which one offers better bang for your buck.
Wix Pricing
The three Wix plans which let you sell online are:
- Business Basic – $20/month
- Business Unlimited – $25/month
- Business VIP – $35/month
All come with unlimited bandwidth, 20GB-50GB storage, and $300 in ad vouchers. Upgrading to Wix’s Business VIP plan gets you priority response and VIP support.
Shopify Pricing
Shopify’s three main plans are:
- Basic Shopify – $29/month
- Shopify – $79/month
- Advanced Shopify – $299/month
Unless you’re a large store, Shopify Basic will be able to cater to your needs. You’ll get discount codes, unlimited products and storage, and multi-channel integration. Upgrading to Shopify or Advanced Shopify gets you better analytics and reporting.
How do They Compare?
The fairest comparison is between Wix’s Business Unlimited and Shopify Basic as they’re similarly priced. These are the two plans you should be looking at if you’re building your first online store. Wix Business Unlimited comes in cheaper at $25/month versus $29/month for Basic Shopify.
Both plans are a great way to get online and selling. Which one is right for you will depend on the scale of your business, and your ambition.
Wix offers fantastic value for money. For the price of a few Starbucks coffees and a sandwich, you get ecommerce tools, hosting, security, storage, and enough bandwidth to handle 2 million visitors per month. If you’re working to a budget or want to keep things simple, Wix is a stellar option.
Wix vs Shopify – Value for Money: The Verdict
Because of the tools included as standard, Shopify is the better investment if you plan to grow a fully-fledged online store. The more advanced your store, the more you will enjoy being on a Shopify plan. But Wix eCommerce is a great entry level platform for fresh online sellers.
Wix vs Shopify Conclusion: Which is better?
What About Alternatives to Wix and Shopify?
When it comes to building your online store, Wix and Shopify are both great options. But if neither are calling out to you, there are plenty of alternatives to explore, too.
Why not check out our comparison of the 5 best ways to build a online store, or the top 7 ecommerce platforms?
Or, if you’re keen to see how Wix and Shopify fare against other competitors, check out some of the reviews below:
- Wix vs Weebly – the battle of the builders.
- Shopify vs Squarespace – sophisticated inventory meets sophisticated design. Who will win?
Wix vs Shopify: FAQs
Is Wix or Shopify better for businesses?
If you’re planning on building a website for the sole purpose of selling online, Shopify is the better choice. Wix is brilliant for basic websites which sell the odd product here and there, but for true ecommerce excellent, you need a powerful platform like Shopify.
What’s cheaper, Wix or Shopify?
You can sell online with Wix at lower cost than with Shopify. With Wix’s Business Basic plan, you can sell online for as little as $20/month whereas Shopify’s cheapest plan is $29/month. Shopify do have a 14-day free trial though, so you can try before you buy.
Can I code on Shopify and Wix?
Yes! Shopify has its own template language called Liquid which you can access to make advanced customizations to Shopify’s themes. Wix code can be accessed through Wix’s editor and also lets you make advanced changes to its templates.
Do Wix and Shopify have a multilingual capacity?
Wix allows you to set up multiple versions of the same page in different languages – in fact, it makes it very easy to do so. You can translate text, links, SEO settings and Wix Stores with a click of a button. Shopify also offers multilingual apps, such as GTranslate, but they aren’t quite as user-friendly.
Do Wix and Shopify have a discount functionality?
Yes! With both Wix and Shopify you can create discount codes for your customers. With Wix, this has to be a specific amount of money, though. Shopify is a bit more advanced here, in that you can offer percentage discounts.
English
I’ve read lots of comparison of website builders, but there are no words about website loading time. I understand that it depends on many factors like theme template, pics size, animations and etc., but it will be great if you add some information about it.
In my experience I paid for Wix 1 year e-commerce plan. But when I spent a lot of time on customizing template, connecting to my own domain, adding products I have found that my websitе’s loading time is 14 seconds! It is extremely long time for ecommerce.
Then I started to search info about this problem and found that lots of people faced with that problem. It was the reason why I’m searching another platform now.
Another reason was in currency symbol of my country. Wix is supporting Kazakhstan national currency called “Tenge”. The symbol is letter “T” with second line above the “T”. But in fact when you start your website you will see just square symbol like “[]” instead of correct symbol. When I tried to reach support the answered me by email and said that it is well known problem for them and they cant do anything with it.
This is my experience of using Wix.
Thank you for this interesting article’s they are really helpfull!
Hi Daryn, load times are, as you point out, a difficult one to measure. Wix has fairly limited storage, which is a key reason load times can be slow. Hope you sort out your currency problem!
I really appreciate your objective, non-biased comparison between Wix and Shopify. Very helpful and informative.
Thank you for this extensive write up on Wix and Shopify! It was extremely helpful.