Wix vs. Shopify: which is best for your needs?
Undoubtedly, Wix and Shopify are two of the best options available when it comes to building a website for your business or project. And at first glance, they might seem to offer pretty much all the same features and tools. However, there are plenty of crucial differences between these two platforms.
So, before you sign up and begin building your online business, it's worth taking some time to understand which is better: Wix or Shopify? And what's more, which platform is best for your specific needs? In this guide, we'll compare Wix vs. Shopify in 9 key areas:
- General overview
- Pricing and value
- Payment gateways and transaction fees
- Ecommerce
- Themes and design
- Apps
- POS
- Customer support and guidance
- Dropshipping
Let's jump in!
(Disclosure: This website is a part of Shopify inc. media properties. Although we strive to publish objective, accurate, and factual content, this article may contain biased opinions.)
Wix vs. Shopify: General Overview
Wix started its journey as a website-builder for people who want to build content-based websites. As such, it was used to build brochure websites, blogs, and news sites. For this reason, it was a good choice for freelancers and small service-based businesses.
In contrast, Shopify was explicitly built to enable businesses to create and manage online stores. As a result, it was favored by entrepreneurs, ecommerce businesses, and dropshippers.
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Both platforms have since extended their feature sets to offer an enormous amount of tools today. Wix and Shopify both allow you to build a website without coding skills, sell products online, and provide an integrated point-of-sale (POS) solution to sell products in person. And you can use either platform to build a content-based or ecommerce website.
Still, Shopify is still entirely focused on business tools, whereas Wix casts a wider net as a website builder that also has ecommerce features.
This can be seen clearly in their homepage headlines — Shopify writes, "Anyone, anywhere, can start a business."
On the other hand, Wix writes, "Create a Website You're Proud Of."
Wix vs. Shopify: Pricing and Value
Now, let's compare Wix vs. Shopify's pricing plans.
Wix has plenty of pricing plans to choose from. There are 5 plans for building a website:
- Free (with limited features and Wix advertisements)
- Combo: $14 per month
- Unlimited: $18 per month
- Pro: $23 per month
- VIP: $39 per month
And there are 4 Business and Ecommerce plans:
- Business Basic: $23 per month
- Business Unlimited: $27 per month
- Business VIP: $49 per month
- Enterprise: Custom pricing
Shopify has 5 pricing plans, but there are 3 core plans to choose from:
- Basic Shopify: $39 per month
- Shopify: $105 per month
- Shopify Advanced: $399 per month
The 2 other plans are Shopify Plus — the platform's enterprise solution — and Shopify Lite, which allows you to take payments online but doesn't provide an ecommerce website.
It's worth noting that Wix's plans contain significant limitations. For example, the 3 business plans limit the amount of storage you can use to 25GB, 35GB, and 50GB, respectively. The 2 cheaper business plans also limit the number of video hours you can upload to 5 hours and 10 hours, respectively. Also, Wix allows users up to 100 pages per website.
In contrast, Shopify provides unlimited storage, bandwidth, and website pages on every plan.
Ultimately, Wix's free plan may seem like a winner at first. But it’s important to know that this option has very limited features. For example, you can't connect a domain name, so your site address will be "mywebsite.wixsite.com" and Wix ads will be shown on every page. That said, it's a great way to learn more about the platform.
In comparison, Shopify offers a free trial for you to experience the platform first-hand before committing.
So, what's the takeaway?
Well, if you want to build a 'general' content-based website, Wix is cheaper. And if you're going to make a business website, Wix has slightly more affordable plans than Shopify.
However, to determine whether Wix or Shopify offers more value, you'll need to evaluate the ecommerce features each platform provides. And in this arena, Shopify has some incredibly powerful tools.
Wix vs. Shopify: Payment Gateways and Transaction Fees
When considering pricing, it's also important to understand each platform's transaction fees which can have a significant impact on your website’s overall monthly cost.
Wix integrates with more than 50 payment gateways, including Stripe and PayPal Powered by Braintree. It also has its own payment gateway, Wix Payments, which charges 2.9% of the transaction amount, plus a fixed charge of $0.30.
On the other hand, Shopify integrates with more than 100 payment gateways and has its own, called Shopify Payments.
Notably, Wix Payments is only available in 14 countries worldwide, whereas Shopify Payments is available in 17.
On the Basic Shopify plan, transaction fees are the same as Wix — 2.9%, plus $0.30 per transaction. However, this fee decreases when you upgrade to the Shopify and Shopify Advanced plans as your business grows, becoming 2.6% and 2.4%, respectively.
Although you could integrate one of the third-party gateways, Wix Payments and Shopify Payments are the easiest ways to start accepting payments through these platforms.
So, it seems that Shopify has the edge here — the money saved from a decrease in transaction fees as your business grows will add up.
Wix vs. Shopify for Ecommerce
If you want to start a business, take your business online, or earn money through your website at some point, this section is particularly important for you.
So, what's the deal?
Well, ecommerce features are only available on Wix's Business and Ecommerce plans, whereas every Shopify plan comes with ecommerce functionality out-of-the-box.
Wix provides virtually everything you need to sell online. However, in general, it's fair to say that Shopify provides more advanced ecommerce functionality, as the platform is entirely dedicated to ecommerce.
For example, selling to consumers in other countries has become increasingly easier in recent years. As a result, cross-border ecommerce is an exciting opportunity for online businesses.
To help, Wix allows users to display prices in the shopper's local currency. However, website visitors aren't able to checkout in their local currency — which is an important part of selling online. On the other hand, Shopify's multi-currency features allow shoppers to view prices and checkout in their local currency.
For reasons like these, Shopify is the platform of choice for successful brands like Gymshark, Fitbit, KKW Beauty, and Wholefoods.
All in all, Shopify provides ecommerce features that enable you to start small and grow into an enterprise brand.
Wix vs. Shopify: Themes and Design
Design is an important part of building a website.
Wix provides more than 800 templates, which is considerably more than Shopify's 9 free themes and 72 paid themes. That said, there are also more than 1,200 Shopify themes available on Theme Forest from third-parties.
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Still, Wix's 800 free templates offer more choice out-of-the-box than Shopify.
It’s wise to note that Shopify's themes are all responsive — this means they automatically adapt to whatever screen they're viewed on. In contrast, Wix's themes use 'absolute positioning,' which means the elements are arranged by pixel. As a result, you'll need to configure 3 versions of your design for desktops, mobiles, and tablets — this means a lot more time is required to create new pages or make changes
Additionally, Shopify allows you to change your theme in just a few clicks. If you want to redesign your Wix website, you'll need to rebuild your entire website.
So, Shopify is the clear winner in terms of design flexibility.
Shopify's themes are understandably more geared to ecommerce, too. So, if you're looking for an optimized ecommerce website, Shopify may be the better choice.
Wix vs. Shopify: Apps
Both Wix and Shopify have app stores featuring additional tools and features that you can add to your store.
Wix's AppMarket provides over 250 apps and integrations.
Shopify's App Store has more than 6,000 apps and integrations that you can use to improve your website and POS.
Wix vs. Shopify: POS
Now, let's explore Wix vs. Shopify's point of sale (POS) solutions.
These systems allow you to sell in-person through integrated hardware that syncs your online and offline inventory, sales management, and customer data.
Shopify provides an all-in-one Point of sale (POS) solution and a range of POS hardware.
Wix also has its own system — Wix POS.
However, Wix POS just launched in June 2021 and is "currently available to select U.S.-based merchants only." So, most Wix users will need to set up a POS integration with a service like Square or SumUp.
On the other hand, Shopify POS is a key feature of the platform that's been around for a while. This is why Shopify POS is available on every pricing plan — including Shopify Lite for $9 per month. Shopify also offers dedicated POS reporting and support.
As a result, Shopify POS is more streamlined and integrated into Shopify than Wix's offerings are.
Wix vs. Shopify: Customer Support and Guidance
Wix and Shopify have learning curves that new users will need to overcome to get the most from the platforms. So, it's essential to consider the resources and customer support that each service has on hand to help.
Wix has a help center, blog posts, and a forum. It also provides customer support via email and phone.
Shopify also provides a comprehensive help center and countless blog resources. And unlike Wix, Shopify offers 3 methods of customer support: email, phone, and live chat.
Both platforms provide 24/7 support. However, it's worth mentioning that Wix only provides customer support in 9 languages, whereas Shopify offers 21 languages.
In addition, Shopify provides a wealth of free online courses from experts and influencers, such as Daymond John and Tim Ferris. The Shopify Masters podcast is also jam-packed with actionable strategies and marketing advice. There's also a highly active Shopify forum which is a great place to connect with others and learn.
The community and support that surrounds Shopify make it the clear winner here.
Wix vs. Shopify: Dropshipping
Dropshipping is a method of sourcing products and fulfilling orders without purchasing inventory upfront or managing logistics. Consequently, it's a fantastic way to start a business or extend product lines fast.
The image below illustrates how dropshipping works:
You can dropship all kinds of products online or use print-on-demand services like Printify and Printful to sell products featuring your brand or designs.
Both platforms enable users to dropship — but which is better, Wix or Shopify?
Wix provides dropshipping capabilities via third-party apps like Modalyst, Spocket, and Printify. However, you'll need to upgrade to the Business Unlimited plan to dropship — and, confusingly, this plan limits the amount of dropshipping products you can sell to 250. This isn’t ideal for budding entrepreneurs looking to scale while keeping overheads to a minimum.
Shopify has a host of dropshipping apps available on all its plans with no product limits, including Modalyst, Spocket, Printify, and Printful.
Shopify also provides dropshipping apps that make it easy to sell online without inventory. Apps like DSers enable you to add thousands of dropshipping products to your store quickly and start selling them online.
Ultimately, Shopify provides more dropshipping options and no product limits. Not only that, but DSers also offers a highly streamlined approach to dropshipping.
Final Thoughts: Is Wix or Shopify Better?
Shopify and Wix are both fantastic platforms for building a website and growing a business.
So, what's our verdict? If you want to sell anything online, start a business, or grow a business, you can't beat Shopify's focus on all things commerce. Here are some key takeaways to keep in mind:
- Shopify provides unlimited storage and bandwidth on every plan — Wix has limits.
- Shopify Payments' transaction fees are reduced as your business grows and you move to higher plans.
- Shoppers can check out in multiple currencies with Shopify — this feature isn't available on Wix.
- Shopify allows you to switch templates easily without redesigning — Wix requires you to redesign your site if you want to change templates.
- Shopify’s website templates are responsive — Wix’s aren’t.
- Shopify's POS solution is available to every user and is a more streamlined approach than using Wix's third-party integrations.
- Wix doesn't provide as many educational resources as Shopify.
- Shopify provides access to 6,000 apps and integrations, offering far more than Wix — including more dropshipping options.
- Shopify provides live chat support — Wix doesn't.
Which platform do you like most? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below!
