Wix vs Shopify – Which Is Best for Ecommerce?

When it comes to Wix vs Shopify, Wix is a better overall ecommerce website builder for small businesses, thanks to its great value and being slightly easier to use than Shopify. However, Shopify may be the better choice for larger ecommerce businesses with more inventory, due to its advanced features.

Ecommerce sales are rising every year and, at this point, businesses without online stores are leaving money on the table. But picking the right ecommerce builder for your online presence can be the difference between wasting hundreds of hours and dollars on features that don’t match your needs, and a streamlined system that elevates your sales and helps you break new profit records.

• Wix is best for smaller businesses that have diversified needs
• Shopify is best for larger online stores that have a lot of inventory

In this guide, we’ll stack Wix and Shopify against each other to give you a full picture of their features, prices, ease of use, and ecommerce benefits to help you make the most informed decision possible.

In this guide:

• Wix vs Shopify: Head to Head
• Best Value: Wix
• Best Features: Both
• Best for Ease of Use: Wix
• Best for Ecommerce: Shopify
• Best for Help & Support: Wix
• Other Ecommerce Alternatives
• Methodology: How We Tested Wix vs Shopify
• Verdict: Which Website Builder Is Better?
• Frequently Asked Questions 

Wix vs Shopify: Head to Head

We compared Wix to Shopify with a series of hands-on tests, and neither service came out with bad results. Both Wix and Shopify are among the best website builders out there – but they are better suited to different audiences.

Wix is traditionally thought of as a general website builder, for portfolios or marketing, rather than an ecommerce platform, and it prioritizes ease of use so that any beginner can get started quickly and successfully. Nonetheless, it can be used for selling products and services, and performed well in our range of our ecommerce functionality tests, although Shopify’s ecommerce features are slightly better.

Shopify, as you might guess from the tool’s name, is built with ecommerce functionality in mind, first and foremost. This gives it the advantage when it comes to sales abilities, although it’s aimed at a more experienced user than Wix caters to, so isn’t quite as intuitive. It’s also slightly more expensive than Wix, but customers tend to be satisfied that it meets their needs.

Here’s a summary of the results from our impartial testing:

• Wix has a better value for its cost than Shopify, with 4 stars to Shopify’s 3 stars.
• Shopify has better ecommerce features than Wix, with 4.6 stars to Wix’s 4.4 stars.
• Wix and Shopify have about the same number and quality of website features – both 4.1 stars.
• Wix is easier to use than Shopify, as Wix has 4 stars while Shopify has 3.5 stars.
• Wix has better support options than Shopify, with 3.8 stars against Shopify’s 3.6 stars.

As the star ratings reveal, the two services are comparable. But Shopify has a lower ease of use as well as better ecommerce tools, which makes it a better option for a larger operation, which can handle Shopify’s more difficult learning curve, while benefiting from ecommerce-specific benefits like Shopify’s more complex inventory tools.

Wix, meanwhile, comes out on top overall and is an easier option for smaller operations that won’t have time to waste on more complex interfaces, and can benefit from a more hands-on help and support team.

Wix Overview

Wix sits at the top of our recommended ecommerce solutions, thanks to robust features, great help and support, admirable ease of use, and great prices that start at $16 per month.

Even Wix’s relatively lesser showings when it comes to server response time, limited SEO guidance, and the complexity of its website editor aren’t large drawbacks. Wix does what you need, it’s easy, and it’s inexpensive — the holy trifecta for an ecommerce website builder.

We’ve rated Wix as our top recommended service overall, and it’s a particularly good choice for those creating a smaller store. Thanks to its amazing templates and intuitive system, even a non-expert can create a professional-looking site with ease using Wix. The Wix platform gives you a helping hand right from the word go, drafting up a dummy-online store that will look good enough to publish, even before you adjust it with your own imagery, text and product database – all of which can be done with ease via Wix.

Shopify Overview

What makes Shopify best for larger companies? Shopify has more in-depth sales features than Wix, especially when it comes to accounting and shipping. The service’s inventory tools are complex, which will be a boon for any ecommerce operation with a lot of quantities, suppliers, and locations to track and manage.

Shopify also allows you to sell across more sales channels and has a level of depth as an ecommerce platform that Wix can’t quite match, like a slightly greater array of payment options — Shopify supports PayPal, Stripe, Square, Apple Pay, and Amazon, while Wix supports just the first four. Shopify also has more diverse multi channel integration options than Wix.

Plus, some of Shopify’s downsides are less of an issue for a larger company that can afford a longer learning curve. Shopify has a more restrictive and less intuitive design than Wix, but in time, workers will be able to figure out how to navigate it just fine.

In the end, however, the two services are so close in quality that your business will likely be happy with either one.

Best Value: Wix

When it comes to value, the amount of features you get for your monthly fee is just as important as the literal dollar amount you’re paying for them. In this comparison, Wix has both lower prices and a better value for what you get.

Wix’s plans start at a lower price point than Shopify’s plans, with simple website plans starting at $16 per month and ecommerce-equipped websites starting at $27 per month. In contrast, Shopify’s comparable ecommerce plans start at $29 per month with Basic Shopify, while the Advanced Shopify plan costs $299 per month.

That said, we did find Shopify to surpass Wix when it comes to the quality of its ecommerce features in particular, such as the Shopify POS, which supports real-world selling, a range of customizable shipping rates, and granular reporting tools. Here’s what to know about each service’s price plans.

Wix Pricing

Wix has four pricing plans — Light, Core, Business, and Business Elite. Check out the pricing table below to see how they match up against each other on everything from price and support to reporting and ecommerce functionality.

Light plan

Light costs $16 per month and allows for two staff accounts. It comes with all of Wix’s website building tools including the editor, templates, and third-party integrations. You’ll get 2GB storage, a (low) 2GB bandwidth, and a free domain voucher with an annual subscription.

Core plan

Wix’s first pricing plan with ecommerce functionality is Core, available for $27 per month and comes with five staff accounts. You’ll get unlimited bandwidth and 50GB of storage, plus the Site Booster and Form Builder apps. Ecommerce tools include inventory, sales, social channels, and abandoned cart recovery. Like all the other Wix Business plans, Basic won’t take any commissions from your sales.

Business plan

Next up is the Wix Business plan, for $32 per month, which allows for 10 staff accounts. New features include the Wix logo builder, a 100GB storage cap, and the ability to upload up to 10 hours of video. The big jump in functionality comes with the new ecommerce features: You’ll get support for multiple currencies and subscriptions, Automated sales tax (for 100 transactions per month), and access to selling on other online marketplaces.

Business Elite plan

Finally, the Business Elite plan is available for $159 per month, allowing for 15 staff accounts. New features include unlimited video uploads, 100 GB of storage, custom reports, and priority customer support.

Shopify Pricing

Shopify’s three ecommerce plans are a break after dealing with all seven of Wix’s plans. Here, you’ll just have to worry about Basic, Shopify, and Advanced.

Basic

The cheapest ecommerce plan is Basic, at $29 per month billed annually. For monthly billing, you’ll have to pay $39 per month. You’ll get unlimited products, two staff accounts, sales channels for both online marketplaces and social platforms, up to four inventory locations, discount codes, abandoned cart recovery, and gift cards.

Transaction fees will be 2.9% + 30¢ for online credit cards, 2.7% + 0¢ for in-person or debit cards, and 2% if not using Shopify payments.

Shopify

Next up is the curtly named “Shopify” plan, which costs $79 per month billed annually. For monthly billing, you’ll have to pay $105 per month. It comes with all the perks Basic has to offer, plus more: Five staff accounts, up to five inventory locations, standard reporting, and the ability to use custom international pricing and domains.

Transaction fees will be 2.6% + 30¢ for online credit cards, 2.5% + 0¢ for in-person or debit cards, and 1% if not using Shopify payments.

Advanced

Finally, there’s the Advanced ecommerce plan, for a hefty $299 per month billed annually. For monthly billing, you’ll have to pay $399 per month. Feature limitations are expanded again, to fifteen staff accounts, up to eight inventory locations, and advanced reporting. Other perks include calculated shipping rates, USPS priority mail pricing, and more complex international pricing.

Transaction fees will be 2.4% + 30¢ for online credit cards, 2.4% + 0¢ for in-person or debit cards, and 0.5% if not using Shopify payments.

Wix vs Shopify: Which has the best free plan?

Neither Wix nor Shopify offer any ongoing plan for free.

Shopify does have a 3-day free trial, as well as a Starter plan that only costs $1 per month for the first three months, which is a useful way for interested parties to try out the service and all the features it has to offer. We’d recommend starting with the free trial first, though you may want to write a list of all the features to test-run beforehand, in order to get the most out of your trial period before you’re forced to make a decision as to which plan you might actually pay for.

Wix offers a 14-day free trial that lets new users try out what the service has to offer. It’s not long, but you’ll be able to see whether or not Wix is right for you.

Best for Features: Both

Both Shopify and Wix logged 4.1 stars out of 5 in our testers’ look at their overall website features, making this category a rare tie. And since both services offer more and better features than the industry average, we don’t have any complaints to raise, either.

Here’s a quick look at how the services compare when it comes to the top features for each.

Abandoned Cart Recovery

Both Wix and Shopify include an abandoned cart recovery function across all plans — this is a great ecommerce feature to have, as it reduces the possibility that someone will fail to checkout their cart once they’ve already started the process by reminding them through email.

Not every ecommerce platform includes abandoned cart recovery, so it’s nice to see that both of these services do.

Page Security Features

Online security is more important than ever with the rise of threats like scammers and ransomware, and ecommerce operations in particular will need to keep their customers’ credit card details safe.

Wix and Shopify both support one of the biggest website builder security functions, password protection. This lets users set a sturdy password to ensure that only the right people can access their website’s backend through either Wix or Shopify.

Wix also includes a member’s area, while Shopify supports a customer login option.

Payment Options

Shopify has a broader range of payment options: It supports PayPal, Stripe, Square, Amazon, and Apple Pay. In contrast, Wix supports PayPal, Stripe, Square, but not Amazon or Apple Pay.

Wix did, however, just add the ability to accept contactless payments on an iPhone in March 2023, with a new Tap to Pay feature that requires no additional hardware.

Analytics

Users will get different reporting functions under different plans, but both Shopify and Wix grant users access to Google Analytics, a website tracking tool that logs page views and highlights which products are the most popular. Shopify also includes conversion tracking metrics outside of Google’s analytics, something that Wix does not support.

SEO

Both Shopify and Wix offer a decent variety of search engine optimization tools including editable meta tags and auto-generated title and canonical tags, as well as many SEO add-ons.

However, Wix’s recent partnership with Semrush, a global SEO database containing over 21 billion keywords, and its new SEO settings, which give users a granular level of control over the process, make the platform more capable than Shopify at improving search rankings.

Third-Party Integrations

Both services also offer extensive app stores, to allow users to fill in any gaps in their website’s features through a (usually paid) third-party service.

Wix’s store includes categories for Marketing, Sell Online, Services & Events, Media & Content, Design Elements, and Communication, while Shopify’s app store comes with a similar array of categories such as Sourcing and selling products, Marketing, and Store design.

Best for Ease of Use: Wix

Shopify ranks 3.5 out of 5 stars for ease of use, compared to Wix’s 4 stars. That makes Wix the clear ease of use winner and second only to Squarespace’s 4.2 stars in our ratings.

Read our Shopify vs Squarespace guide to learn more about how the builders compare.

Wix has a straightforward drag-and-drop functionality that lets users build the website components they want without a lick of coding knowledge required, and Wix makes sure that the advanced features are just as easy. Newbies will be able to craft a website that works for them and will be able to wring the most out of the impressive array of features that Wix has to offer, with a minimum of technical effort. Wix also recently launched the ability to add custom breadcrumbs to your site, making it easier to navigate from page to page.

Shopify uses a similar editor and includes a nice setup tour to guide new users through the process. It’s also added a new feature called Shopify Magic in April 2023, which will use AI to write product descriptions for you in an instant.

Wix vs Shopify for Ecommerce: Shopify

Shopify combines top class sales channel integration with a simple and intuitive UI, plus great reporting tools to help optimize your sales. Through its Shopify Payments system, you’re able to track everything from sales on Instagram through to Google Shopping, and even real-world point of sale transactions.

Wix does offer some solid sales features, most notably the ability to sell unlimited products and advanced CRM functionality. As with most of the categories we compared Wix and Shopify in, both services are above average.

Ecommerce sales channels

Shopify lets you sell your products and services through loads of different sales channels. For example, you can sell through social media sites such as Instagram or Facebook, or global ecommerce sites such as eBay or Amazon.

All the sales information from the channels is managed by Shopify, meaning that you can keep track of stock levels, and analyze the sales performance on these different channels. Wix, on the other hand, only allows you to sell products through its online store templates.

Managing products

Shopify makes it super easy to add to and manage the products you sell. For a start, you’re able to add new products in bulk, rather than one-by-one. This is helpful if you’ve got a new line of similar products, for example. Shopify also has excellent product management features which make it easy to track and amend stock levels, as well as analyze the way customers interact with your products when they come to purchase them.

What’s more, many of Shopify’s built-in inventory features are only available for Wix through third-party apps, which can vary in quality. Shopify also just improved inventory tracking by adding two new states for products: On hand and Unavailable.

Accounting

Another big ecommerce feature is accounting — tracking sales and logging data for tax season. Shopify nails this again: Its built-in invoice generator makes it super-easy to create invoices but allows you the option to change and customize them without restraint.

Similarly, Shopify will automatically calculate the tax rates on your products. However, these automatic tax rates can be changed and customized, so you can ensure any quirks – such as state tax exemptions in the US, or VAT exempt items in Britain – don’t fall through the cracks. Any changes you make are applied to your online sales and any sales made with Shopify POS. If that’s not enough, Shopify also has a wide range of accounting apps available for installation.

Best for Help & Support: Wix

Shopify nabs a total of 3.6 stars out of a possible 5 in our tests for the support options it gives its customers, but Wix tops it with 3.8 stars.

Wix has established itself as a popular ecommerce platform for a reason: It gives 24/7 support to all of the customers in its paid plans. Online support options include a detailed knowledge base that customers can consult for text and video walkthroughs to common concerns.

The Shopify online knowledge base isn’t bad, either — it’s right around the industry average, with all the typical questions answered in detail. In the end, both services will give all their paying customers 24/7 support by email and live chat, which should be more than enough for most situations. Shopify even just announced the ability for customers to requests returns on their own, freeing up users from tedious tasks. While we give Wix the edge in this comparison, Shopify holds its own just fine.

Other Ecommerce Alternatives

While Wix is our top-rated ecommerce platform, and Shopify is our most popular option for larger businesses, they’re not the only website builders out there. In fact, the market is filled with some of the best ecommerce builders out there depending on your needs — you just have to find the right one.

Square Online, for example, is an excellent choice if you need to get started on a tight budget, as the platform is completely free. You will, however, have to deal with transaction fees, but those won’t kick in until you actually make a sale. BigCommerce is another solid option, as it offers a lot of different channels to sell your products, providing a lot of scalability for growing businesses.

We’ve done tons of in-depth research to bring you all the information you need to make an informed decision about ecommerce website builders. Take a look at the table below for a snapshot of your options and read on for more specifics about our top picks.

How We Tested Wix vs Shopify

Frequently Asked Questions