Wix Vs Shopify - Overview
Wix is a popular drag-and-drop website builder for all kinds of websites, not just online sales. Shopify is an e-commerce platform specifically designed to build online stores and offers excellent content management features.
Both are best to kick off an online business, but Wix is easy to use because it isn’t as powerful as Shopify.
Wix Vs Shopify - Ease of use
Wix helps users create any website, be it a static site or an online store. It is easy to build a site with the drag and drop functionality, where a user can simply click and drag elements to create a site. Wix makes managing the front end interface easy for users.
Wix is designed for everyone, but specifically for business owners with little to no technical skills.
The Shopify e-commerce website builder is pretty user friendly, making the entire process a lot simpler than it may sound when you’re starting to build from scratch. Shopify is used to create powerful e-commerce websites as it takes care of technical aspects that make a website work.
Wix Vs Shopify - Templates and Design Flexibility
Shopify wins over Wix in terms of themes and design flexibility. Unlike Wix, Shopify is explicitly built for e-commerce and has more templates to choose from for making your online shop.
Every theme featured in the Shopify store looks elegant and is guaranteed to be portable and responsive that works well on desktop and mobile.
But Shopify offers ten free themes only, whereas Wix provides more than 700 free templates. To choose a premium template in Shopify means spending a few dollars on the template purchase.
The downside of Wix is that a user cannot change the design of the website once created. Therefore, the user has to start over by switching the entire site to his preferred theme as they can't access HTML and CSS.
Shopify users can quickly redesign their website with the powerful premium features provided by the platform.
Wix Vs Shopify - Applications and add-ons
Integrating with third-party apps will support your online store with more resources and functionalities that improve your store's performance. Both Wix and Shopify have app stores with many free and paid apps to support e-commerce in all domains.
Shopify has thousands of powerful apps in the Shopify App Market with various pricing plans. Shopify App Store has over 4,100 apps to add even more features and functionality to your store, from cross-selling to handling returns. Though few apps are free, most apps charge a monthly subscription.
On the other hand, Wix can’t match Shopify when it comes to e-commerce specific apps. Although the Wix ADI is a great tool and gives you many building options, your extensibility is limited with apps.
Some of the features that Shopify provides but Wix does not,
- No Google Shopping Feed
- No Facebook Product Feed
- No Native Integration With Email Marketing
Wix Vs Shopify - E-commerce Tools
Shopify is a powerful and robust e-commerce solution for larger stores. Wix, in contrast, serves a small business, offering standard feature development and support. Shopify offers highly commendable and vital store management features with beautiful and engaging product pages.
Shopify provides more than 70 payment gateways, including Stripe, PayPal, PayMill, and Authorize.net. Shopify also offers social media integrations where merchants can connect their Shopify store with social media accounts like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and more.
Wix currently offers 17 payment gateways, including Stripe, PayPal, and Square, but Wix payments do not support mobile options like Amazon Pay, Apple Pay, and Android Pay.
Wix also offers some advanced e-commerce tools like abandoned cart recovery, which helps identify customers who have left items in their checkout. However, to add products, such as custom mugs, on a vast scale, Shopify will suit your business better. Wix offers most of the functionality that a user may need to run a basic shop.
Wix Vs Shopify - Similarities
- They provide 24x7 support to clients through emails and phone calls. Shopify also has live chat support.
- Wide range of templates, range of payment options
- Provides built-in marketing features like email marketing campaigns to manage email campaigns.
- Point of sale functionality
- Multiple language support where users can use different languages to support other regions.
- Content management systems
- Both Wix and Shopify offer Search Engine Optimization that enhances a website’s performance and ranking on search engines.
Wix Vs Shopify – Pricing
Most of the business owners sign up for Wix over Shopify because of the price. Wix is cost-effective and offers a free plan to build a non-sales website as they do not have access to e-commerce features.
The features are extremely limited that you can not use your own domain or sell online. You can upgrade to premium plans that provide additional features to build an online store with Product Zoom Functionality where customers can view the product in detail.
Meanwhile, Shopify provides a 14-day free trial for users to test and understand its features. With Shopify free, you can create your online store, add unlimited products to the cart, product photos, product options, product descriptions, product reviews, product category, customize the store layouts and dashboard settings.
The only limitation in free trial is that you can not publish your domain, but Shopify offers a default primary domain in the form of “examplestore.myshopify.com”.
Wix’s Paid Plans
Wix offers eight plans that are divided into two categories as Websites and Business and E-commerce accordingly.
Wix offers Business and E-commerce plans starting from $23 to $500 per month.
- Business Basic – $23 per month
- Business Unlimited – $27 per month
- Business VIP – $49 per month
- Enterprise – $500 per month
All of these plans contrast by parameters like,
- Storage — More storage with more expensive plans
- Access To Apps — The free applications like Site Booster and Visitor Analytics are not effective and should not affect your decision-making process.
- Support — The Wix Business VIP package upgrade provides users with priority responses and VIP assistance.
Shopify Paid Plans
Shopify offers five premium plans to choose from,
- Shopify Lite – $9 per month
- Basic Shopify – $29 per month
- Shopify – $79 per month
- Advanced Shopify – $299 per month
- Shopify Plus – $2000+ per month
You need to contact a Shopify Plus Expert to know the Shopify Plus plan details. Shopify Lite is suitable only for websites, blogs where users can add products, accept credit card payments, create invoices, and get paid.
Wix is the best choice for building a website with limited e-commerce features. It is for small companies, entrepreneurs, bloggers, and individuals.
If you intend on building a large store, Shopify is the best platform as it offers robust features that make it a complete e-commerce platform.
Wix Vs Shopify - Transaction Fees
In case you do not use the built-in payment platform provided by Shopify, you will be taxed an extra transaction fee for every sale that is 2%, 1%, or 0.5% for basic plan, Shopify regular, and Advanced Shopify plans, accordingly.
Shopify payments are supported only in a limited number of countries. Hence, if your country is not on the list, you will be charged an additional fee of 2% for every sale. These include,
- Australia
- Hong Kong SAR China
- Ireland
- Canada
- Denmark
- Germany
- Italy
- New Zealand
- Singapore
- Spain
- Sweden
- United Kingdom
- Japan
- The Netherlands
- The United States Shopify Payments are not available to US territories except for Puerto Rico.
Wix does not impose any additional charges for sales. Use Shopify Payments to avoid the transaction fee levied on every sale. Wix offers payment solutions, including Stripe, PayPal, and Square, but digital payments like Apple Pay and Amazon Pay are not supported.
Shopify provides more than 100 payment types but currently does not support Square.
Wix Vs Shopify – Which Is Cheaper?
To Build an e-commerce store, Wix basic costs $23 per month, whereas Shopify basic costs $29 per month.
To build a powerful e-commerce platform, Shopify offers some Shopify apps and plugins that Wix does not provide.
Wix may seem cost-effective when you compare the pricing plans. But Shopify provides powerful tools that enhance your e-commerce store.
Wix Vs Shopify – Blogging
Shopify is an e-commerce platform, whereas Wix is a content management system designed to build websites.
But if you have to compare the platforms in terms of blogging and content creation, Wix has an advantage over Shopify because it offers easy-to-use design functionality. But neither platform is as good as WordPress.
Wix Vs Shopify - Managing A Blog
Shopify also offers a blogging platform. In terms of content creation, both platforms are relatively similar. It allows users to create blog posts, add blog photos and categorize them.
Wix has a lot more beneficial built-in blogging add-ons. Wix provides an extensive collection of images, videos, and music for free. Images are crucial as it improves your blog and Wix's readability offers access to a vast collection of stock images and videos.
You can easily share music from Spotify to your site and stream videos from YouTube, Vimeo, or Facebook. Wix offers add-ons to create forums, manage blog events, display images and create custom forms that Shopify does not have.
To conclude, Wix's blogging content features are better than Shopify. But WordPress is the best platform for creating and managing a blog. If you want to create a blog, WordPress is the tool.
Why Choose Wix instead of Shopify?
- Suitable for small websites that sell few products
- Offers a broad range of creative control
- More template choice available for free
- More blogging features
- Wix is free
Why Choose Shopify instead of Wix?
- Suitable for enterprises and larger businesses
- Supports Facebook sales across multi-channels and a lot more
- Social media integration and ability to sell on marketplaces
- Get real-time shipping quotes, shipping rules.
- Flexible design options that improvers customers design experience
- The best optimal sales tool in the market
- Integrated analytics tools
- More payment gateways and app integrations
- Shopify's Multi-Channel Integration to increase sales
- Plugins with the ability to provide All-In-One Marketing Solution
Conclusion
The comparison between Wix and Shopify has always been a tough battle, as both platforms offer advanced features for building e-commerce sites.
Other popular e-commerce solutions include Squarespace, BigCommerce, WooCommerce, Magneto, and more. Each platform has its own pros and cons, but deciding which platform you build your e-commerce depends on store sizes, features, budget, requirements, store design, and more.
Wix and Shopify are web-based platforms with e-commerce capabilities, and e-commerce functionality developed to build websites and reach more potential customers. Shopify is best for enterprises, larger businesses, whereas Wix is best for small businesses that act as social proof for the brand. Shopify offers essential features for large stores that Wix does not provide. Now, choosing the right e-commerce platform is your pick based on the online store.
