Shopify vs. Wix: Which one is right for you?
Wix and Shopify are undoubtedly the best choices when it comes building a website to promote your business or project. They may appear to have the same tools and features at first glance. There are many key differences between the two platforms.
Before you sign up to build your online business, take some time to learn which platform is best: Wix or Shopify. What platform is right for you?
Wix vs. shopify: A general overview
Wix began its journey as a website builder for people who want content-based websites. It was also used to create news websites, blogs and brochure websites. It was an excellent choice for freelancers or small service-based companies.
Shopify, on the other hand, was specifically designed to allow businesses to manage and create online stores. It was therefore popular among entrepreneurs, dropshippers, and ecommerce businesses.
Since then, both platforms have expanded their feature offerings to provide a wide range of tools. Both Shopify and Wix allow you to create a website and sell products online. Shopify also offers an integrated point of sale (POS) solution that allows you to sell products in person. You can also use either the Wix or Shopify platforms to create an ecommerce or content-based website.
Shopify remains primarily focused on business tools while Wix is a website builder with ecommerce capabilities.
Shopify’s homepage headlines clearly show this — Shopify states, “Anyone can start a company.
Wix, on the other hand, says, “Create Websites You’re Proud of.”
Pricing and Value: Wix vs. shopify
Let’s now compare Shopify and Wix’s pricing plans.
Wix offers many pricing options. You can choose from 5 different plans to build a website.
- Limited features and Wix ads not included
- Combo: $14 per month
- Unlimited: $18 per month
- Pro: $23 per month
- VIP: $39 per month
There are also 4 Business and Ecommerce Plans.
- Business Basic: $23 per Month
- Business Unlimited: $27 per Month
- Business VIP: $49 per Month
- Enterprise: Custom pricing
Shopify offers 5 pricing options. However, there are 3 core plans available:
- Basic Shopify: $29/month
- Shopify: $79 per month
- Shopify Advanced: $299 per month
Shopify Plus, the platform’s enterprise solution, and Shopify Lite are two other options. Shopify Lite allows you to accept online payments but does not provide an ecommerce website.
Wix’s plans have significant limitations. The 3 business plans have a limit on the storage space you can use, which is 25GB, 35GB and 50GB respectively. The 2 business plans that are less expensive limit the amount of video hours you can upload, to 5 hours and 10 hour respectively. Wix also allows users to upload 100 webpages.
Shopify, however, offers unlimited storage, bandwidth, website pages, and other features on all plans.
Wix’s free plan might seem appealing at first glance. This plan has very few 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. It’s still a great way for you to learn about the platform.
Shopify, on the other hand, offers a 14-day free trial to allow you to test it out before you commit.
What’s the bottom line?
Wix is more affordable if you are looking to create a general content-based website. Wix is slightly cheaper than Shopify if you want to create a business website.
To determine if Wix or Shopify is more valuable, you will need to compare the ecommerce features offered by each platform. Shopify offers some powerful tools in this area.
Shopify vs. Wix: Payment Gateways & Transaction Fees
It is important to consider pricing when evaluating your website. You should also understand the transaction fees charged by each platform. This can have a major impact on your monthly costs.
Wix can integrate with more than 50 payment portals, such as Stripe and PayPal powered by Braintree. It also offers Wix payments which charges 2.9% of transaction amount plus a fixed fee of $0.30.
Shopify, on the other hand, integrates with over 100 payment gateways. Shopify also has its own, Shopify payments.
Wix Payments are only available in 14 countries, while Shopify Payments can be found in 17.
Transaction fees for the Basic Shopify plan are 2.9% plus $0.30 per transaction. This fee drops to 2.6% and 2.4% respectively when you upgrade the Shopify or Shopify Advanced plans.
You could also integrate third-party gateways. However, Wix Payments or Shopify Payments are the best ways to accept payments through these platforms.
Shopify seems to have the advantage here — you will save money by reducing transaction fees as your company grows.
Shopify vs. Wix for Ecommerce
This section is important if you are looking to start a company, go online and make money with your website.
What’s the deal?
Wix’s Business or Ecommerce plans only offer ecommerce capabilities, while every Shopify plan includes ecommerce functionality.
Wix offers everything you need to make an online sale. Shopify, however, offers more advanced ecommerce functionality because it is exclusively dedicated to ecommerce.
Selling to customers in other countries, for example, has become easier in recent years. Cross-border ecommerce offers exciting opportunities for online businesses.
Wix makes it easy to show prices in local currency. Website visitors can’t checkout in their local currency, which is an essential part of selling online. Shopify’s multicurrency features let shoppers view prices and make purchases in their local currency.
Shopify is the preferred platform for brands such as Gymshark and Fitbit, KKW Beauty and Wholefoods.
Shopify offers ecommerce features that allow you to start small, grow your business and then become a global brand.
Wix vs. shopify: Themes & Design
Design is an essential part of building your website.
Wix offers more 800 templates than Shopify’s 9 themes free and 72 paid themes. There are more than 1,200 Shopify themes on Theme Forest, which is a third-party site.
Wix’s 800 templates are still more diverse than Shopify’s.
Shopify’s themes can be adapted to any screen. This is a wise thing to remember. Wix’s themes, on the other hand, use “absolute positioning” which means that elements are arranged by pixels. This means that you will need to set up three versions of your design for desktop, mobile, and tablet — this can take a lot longer to create new pages, or make changes.
Shopify also allows you to easily change your theme within a matter of seconds. You will need to rebuild your entire Wix website if you wish to change the theme.
Shopify is clearly the winner when it comes to design flexibility.
Shopify themes are more optimized for ecommerce. Shopify is a good choice if you are looking for an optimized eCommerce website.
Wix vs. shopify: Apps
Shopify and Wix both offer app stores that provide additional tools and features to help you add products to your store.
Wix’s AppMarket offers over 250 apps and integrated services.
Shopify’s App Shop offers more than 6,000 apps, integrations, and other tools that can be used to enhance your website or POS.
Wix vs. shopify: POS
Let’s now compare Shopify and Wix’s point-of-sale (POS) solutions.
These systems enable you to sell in person through the integration of hardware that syncs both your online and offline inventory, sales management and customer data.
Shopify offers an all-in-one solution with ShopifyPOS and a variety of POS hardware.
Wix also offers its own system, WixPOS.
Wix POS was launched in June 2021, and is currently available only to U.S.-based merchants. Wix users will have to integrate their POS system with a service such as Square or SumUp.
Shopify POS, on the other hand is a feature that has been around for a while and is a crucial part of the platform. Shopify POS is included in all pricing plans, including Shopify Lite at $9 per month. Shopify offers dedicated POS support and reporting.
Shopify POS has been integrated more seamlessly into Shopify than Wix’s offerings.
Wix vs. shopify: Customer support and guidance
Shopify and Wix have steep learning curves that new users must overcome in order to make the most of the platforms. It’s important to evaluate the customer support and resources available for each service.
Wix offers a help centre, blog posts and a forum. You can also contact customer service via email or phone.
Shopify offers a comprehensive help centre as well as numerous blog resources. Shopify, unlike Wix offers three methods of customer service: email, phone and live chat.
Both platforms offer 24/7 support. It’s important to note that Wix offers customer support only in 9 languages, while Shopify provides support in 21 languages.
Shopify also offers free online courses by experts and influencers like Daymond John and Tim Ferris. The Shopify Masters podcast contains actionable marketing strategies and advice. A highly active Shopify forum is also available. This forum is a great place for learning and connecting with others.
Shopify is the clear winner because of its community and support.
Wix vs. shopify: Dropshipping
Dropshipping allows you to source products quickly and fulfill orders without having to manage logistics or purchase inventory. It’s an excellent way to launch a business and expand product lines quickly.
This image illustrates dropshipping in action:
Dropshipping can be done online for all types of products. You can also use Printify or Printful to print products with your logo or design.
Both platforms allow users to dropship – but which platform is better Shopify or Wix for dropshipping,
Wix offers dropshipping through third-party apps such as Spocket and Modalyst. To dropship, however, you will need to upgrade the Business Unlimited plan. This plan restricts the number of dropshipping products that you can sell to 250. This plan is not ideal for budding entrepreneurs who want to scale their business while keeping overheads low.
Shopify offers a variety of dropshipping apps that are available with all plans, without any product limit, such as Modalyst Spocket Printify and Printful.
Shopify also offers a dropshipping app called Oberlo. That’s us! Oberlo allows you to quickly add thousands of dropshipping items to your store and then start selling them online.
Shopify offers more dropshipping options than any other platform and has no product limit. Oberlo offers dropshipping with a simplified approach.
Last Thoughts
Shopify and Wix both offer great platforms for building websites and growing businesses.
What’s the verdict? Shopify’s emphasis on commerce is the best way to sell online, start a company, or grow your business. These are the key points to remember:
- Shopify offers unlimited bandwidth and storage on all plans — Wix has limitations.
- Shopify Payments transaction fees decrease as your business grows, and you upgrade to higher plans.
- Shopify allows customers to check out in multiple currencies. This feature is not available on Wix.
- Shopify lets you change templates without having to redesign — Wix will require you to redesign your website if you wish to modify templates.
- Shopify’s templates for websites are responsive, but Wix’s aren’t.
- Shopify’s POS solution can be used by all users and is more user-friendly than Wix’s third party integrations.
- Wix does not offer as many educational resources to Shopify.
- Shopify offers access to over 6,000 apps and integrated services, which is far more than Wix. It also has more dropshipping options.
- Shopify offers live chat support, Wix does not.
Which platform do YOU like the most? We’d love to hear your opinions in the comments!
