Shopify vs Wix: Which eCommerce website builder is better?
REACH eCommerce Consulting, Established in 2022
If you are overwhelmed with the amount of website builders available nowadays, you are not alone. We have reviewed two of the most popular platforms and compared their key features, so that you can choose the one that best fulfils your needs. Our independent comparison is broken down into the following 9 categories that you should consider when choosing a website builder:
1) User friendliness
2) Design Capabilities
3) Pricing
4) Product Features
5) Payment Options
6) Shipping Options
7) Marketing
8) App Integrations
9) Customer Support
1) User friendliness
First things first, you do not need any coding skills for either Shopify or Wix. The main difference in user friendliness is that Wix offers an "easy-to-use" drag and drop website builder which allows you to monitor your live changes. On the other hand, Shopify's website editor is more focused on product and inventory features than design capabilities. You can fairly easily build a website in Wix within a day, especially when you use their templates. In contrast, it would probably take you about three days to build a website in Shopify due to its clunkier editor. If you are a offering a large assortment of products, you might want to go with Shopify to avoid the inventory headaches you could face if you chose Wix. If you like to quickly build and manage your website, Wix is your best bet to get up and running in next to no time.
Wix 1 : 0 Shopify
2) Design Capabilities
The good news is that both platform websites are mobile responsive to allow for an optimized mobile experience, which makes both providers a great choice. When it comes to design templates, Wix offers over 100 ecommerce designs that are customizable and free of charge. Shopify also offers a solid amount of templates (just under 80) but most of those are paid themes and can cost as much as $180. While Shopify's templates are designed with selling products in mind, they offer much less freedom to create a website that truly reflects your brand. Shopify might offer templates that suit some brands or businesses better than others and could, therefore, still be a good fit for you.
Wix 2 : 0 Shopify
3) Pricing
When it comes to pricing, we have to consider what each plan offers, instead of solely focusing on which is cheaper. Both Shopify and Wix offer free trials. While Shopify's is limited to two weeks, Wix's is unlimited. After the trials, Shopify's cheapest plan costs $29 compared to Wix's cheapest option at $28, which are both pretty reasonable entry-level plans. When it comes to the intermediate and more advanced plans, that's when the gap between Wix and Shopify widens. At $33 per month, Wix's intermediate plan is considerably cheaper than Shopify's, which is currently priced at $79 per month. Painting a similar picture, the most advanced plan with Shopify costs $299 per month, whereas Wix's is only $56. Both providers also offer an elite "enterprise" package. Shopify's enterprise package starts at $2,000, while Wix provides custom quotes on a case by case basis. One bonus of chosing Wix is that all plans include a free domain for 1 year. While Shopify loads its plans with more powerful features, Wix offers the better value for money for most small businesses or start-ups. If you are an established business and are looking to scale your eCommerce operations, Shopify offers much stronger packages - if you can afford them.
Wix 3 : 0 Shopify
4) Product Features
As mentioned previously, Shopify is the strongest platform on the market when it comes to product features and inventory management. Although Wix provides everything you need to run your online store, your product pages will require multiple apps to allow for zooming in or displaying videos and your inventory management might get out of hand, if you are looking to sell at scale. Small businesses might still prefer Wix's simplicity but any slightly more complex store will be best off chosing Shopify for its powerful product and inventory features that allow businesses to grow.
Wix 3 : 1 Shopify
5) Payment Options
Wix's limited payment options leave much to be desired, especially with e-wallets continuing to gain popularity. No Apple Pay, no Amazon Pay and no Klarna, although Wix does support Stripe, Square and Paypal via its own payment gateway. As a plus, they do not charge transaction fees. On the other hand, Shopify ticks (almost) all boxes when it comes to payments. With its own payment gateway, Shopify supports Paypal, Stripe, Apple Pay, Amazon Pay and Klarna, all without transaction fees. However, if you want to use another gateway, Shopify's transaction fees will apply. As an additional feature, Shopify also allows for tipping at checkout, which can be used for donations to partnering charities or businesses.
Wix 3 : 2 Shopify
6) Shipping Options
Order fulfilment can be one of the more challenging areas for eCommerce businesses, but with Shopify's shipping solutions, you will feel supported every step of the way. The platform enables you to sync with your preferred shipping provider, offer free delivery and facilitate contact-free delivery options, such as curbside pickup and local delivery. Wix enables you to track orders, set tax rules and use dropshipping, but most shipping solutions require workarounds via app integrations. Another area Shopify is better equipped than Wix is international shipping, as Wix requires an app integration to facilitate this feature. All in all, a clear win for Shopify.
Wix 3 : 3 Shopify
7) Marketing
Both Wix and Shopify offer great marketing features, especially when we factor in available app integrations. While Shopify is slightly ahead in terms of multi-channel integration, allowing you to seamlessly connect social media channels like Facebook and Instagram as well as Amazon, eBay or other marketplaces, Wix makes it much easier to build visually appealing blogs. Both providers are head-to-head when it comes to Search Engine Optimization, as they both enable you to add and edit title tags and descriptions, customize URL slugs, add alt text to images and get further SEO best practice insights. Wix, however, does have an additional feature, which helps by suggesting relevant words and phrases to use on your website, in order to strengthen your search ranking. When it comes to Analytics, both platforms are easily linked with Google Analytics, but Shopify does feature more in-platform insights like stock levels and conversions.
Wix 4 : 4 Shopify
8) App Integrations
Shopify takes the win in this category with almost 6,000 available apps compared to Wix's 60 apps. While both platforms offer free and paid apps, the sheer volume of apps on Shopify can't be beaten. From integrating customer wish lists and setting up dropshipping, to adding product reviews or converting currencies, the opportunities with Shopify's app store are almost endless.
Wix 4 : 5 Shopify
9) Customer Support
Both website builders pride themselves in offering excellent customer service and our experience can vouch for that. Shopify offers 24/7 support via various media, including phone, live chat, email, help center, community forum and social media. If you ever need an expert, you can also hire one who will assist you with your store. Wix offers a similarly strong package of support, except for live chats, but the in-editor support is especially useful when you run into roadblocks during your build. Shopify's around-the-clock service compared with Wix's on-page help feature left us no choice but to call it a draw.
Wix 5 : 6 Shopify
10) Conclusion
Despite the narrow win for Shopify, it's not as simple as saying everybody should choose Shopify. Wix can be a great fit for you if you are setting up a small business, want lots of creative freedom, prefer a large variety of templates, plan to run a blog and are on a tight budget. If you are a service provider, Wix is also an excellent choice thanks to the creative freedom it provides. Shopify is a powerhouse when it comes to selling products, an ideal fit for bigger businesses with the best sales tools on the market. Built-in analytics, as well as the vast variety of app integrations and payment options, make Shopify the best eCommerce solution available. If neither of the two platforms have fully convinced you (yet), we recommend reading some additional content on BigCommerce, WooCommerce or Squarespace. We will cover more comparisons on other platforms soon.
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