Wix Vs. Shopify For E-Commerce Businesses

There are several differences between the two website builders. Shopify does not give you a free custom domain, but Wix does. Shopify’s gift card feature is built into the platform, while you’ll need a third-party app to offer gift cards on your Wix site.

You can sell digital goods on both platforms, but you’re restricted to a 1 GB file size limit with Wix, while Shopify allows files of up to 5 GB. Shopify offers more real-time shipping options than Wix, but Wix offers more product options and variations. Wix does not charge transaction fees and neither does Shopify if you’re using Shopify Payments, but it charges 0.5% to 2% for other payment gateways.

Wix and Shopify are both built with user-friendliness in mind; however, that doesn’t mean they’re both super easy to use. To understand which website builder is right for you, it’s helpful to know how each evolved.

Wix is built for those who need a professional online presence but have limited coding and design skills. The Wix platform is rich with features that help you create website content, such as “About Us” business descriptions, blogs and articles. Wix offers e-commerce functionality, but it was not originally designed to host online stores.

Shopify is, and always has been, a tool to create online stores. Content features such as blogs and business description pages are available with Shopify, but they are not the platform’s key focus.

The reality is that building a basic business website is much easier than building a full-fledged online store; that’s because there are fewer choices you need to make. With an online store, you need to make decisions about payment gateways, tax calculation, product variations, shopping cart functionality, shipping options, return policies and procedures—and that’s just to get up and running.

Both Wix and Shopify are relatively easy to use. Shopify is easier if you’re building an online store, particularly if you plan to scale it. Wix is easier if you’re building a content-rich website that also offers basic e-commerce functions, such as collecting payment for services or selling a limited number of items.

Wix offers four paid plans, plus customized enterprise plans.

The four Wix basic website plans are designed for those who need a professional website but don’t plan to accept online payments. These plans all include a free custom domain, an SSL certificate and 2 GB to unlimited storage. The Core, Business and Business Elite plans also come with a professional logo and an events calendar app. Here is the pricing breakdown for these basic website plans:

• Light: $15 CAD per month
• Core: $25 CAD per month
• Business: $36 CAD per month
• Business Elite: $149 CAD per month

To accept online payments on your Wix website, you’ll need to choose from one of three Wix e-commerce and business plans. Pricing for these plans is as follows:

• Core: $25 CAD per month
• Business: $36 CAD per month
• Business Elite: $149 CAD per month

All Wix e-commerce plans come with the following features:

• Accept secure online payments (single payments and recurring)
• Customer accounts
• Free custom domain
• 2 GB to Unlimited of storage
• Unlimited products
• Abandoned cart recovery

The Wix Business and Business Elite plans also come with 100 to 500 automated sales transactions, subscription sales, marketplace selling, dropshipping by Modalyst and product reviews by KudoBuzz. The Business Eliteplan includes priority custom care, customized reports and a loyalty program by Smile.io.

Shopify has a low-price plan called Shopify Starter, which lets you add e-commerce functionality to your existing website for $7 CAD per month. You can add Buy Buttons to your Squarespace, Weebly, WordPress or even Wix website through Shopify Lite. You can also use Shopify Lite to accept credit card payments in person via the point-of-sale (POS) app that you can add to your iOS or Android device.

If you want to build a fully functional, e-commerce-ready website with Shopify, you’ll need to choose from three plans. All Shopify plans come with unlimited products, 24/7 support, the ability to sell on online marketplaces and social media, discount codes, abandoned cart recovery, gift cards, shipping labels, fraud analysis and Shopify POS Lite.

The chart below illustrates some of the key differences among the three Shopify plans.

With over 800 design templates, Wix offers far more design flexibility than Shopify. Wix comes with a user-friendly drag-and-drop editor so you can tailor your site to your business needs. If you prefer, you can opt to use the Wix Artificial Design Intelligence (ADI) editor instead. With the ADI, you simply answer a few questions regarding the purpose of your site and basic visual preferences—such as which font options and colours you prefer—and the Wix ADI designs your website for you.

Shopify has only 10 free design templates, though each of those comes with two to three variations for a tad more design flexibility. There are another 70+ Shopify themes available, though you’ll pay a one-time fee ranging from $150 USD ($208.10 CAD) to $350 USD ($485.50 CAD) (or more) to access those premium themes.

The Wix App Market lists 300+ third-party integrations that allow you to add advanced features to your Wix website. Many of these apps are free, while others come with steep price tags.

Integrations can help you perform several business functions including collecting leads, analyzing traffic, improving visitor engagement, selling more online or enhancing your website’s design. Popular third-party apps that sync with Wix include Privy, Overtok Call Conversion, MarketPush Cart Recovery, Shippo, SKU IQ Inventory Sync, Printful, Birthday Club, Low Stock Alerts, Gifted, Etsy Shop and Compare Ninja.

Shopify has a lot more third-party integrations than Wix; all 6,000-plus Shopify integrations are related to marketing and operating an online store. Here are just a handful of the most popular apps available for Shopify:

• UpPromote affiliate marketing
• Facebook channel
• AfterShip order tracking and short message service (SMS)
• Trustpilot reviews
• TikTok
• Back in Stock: Customer alerts
• Klaviyo Email marketing and SMS
• One-Click Upsell – Zipify OCU
• Bulk discounts now
• QuickBooks sync
• Amazon Fulfillment By Amazon (FBA) shipping
• Easy digital products
• Snapchat ads
• Return magic
• Wishlist plus
• DSers – AliExpress dropshipping
• Printful
• Hotjar

The Wix Help Centre features an extensive knowledge base that is adequate for finding answers to frequently asked questions and addressing common technical issues. Wix offers call-back and email support for all its paid plan customers. Support is available in English, Spanish and Portuguese from Monday through Friday between 5 a.m. and 5 p.m. PT. Customer inquiries are usually addressed within 24 hours, except on weekends. Priority support is available for Wix Business Elite plan customers.

Shopify offers true 24/7 live support via email, chat and telephone. Shopify also gives you access to an extensive online help centre that features guides, FAQs and tutorials. In addition, Shopify has nearly 900,000 members in its online forum, where you can also turn for support. The contest between Wix and Shopify for best customer support is not even close; Shopify wins.

Bottom Line

In the contest between Wix vs. Shopify, the best solution for you comes down to what you intend to do with your website. Hands down, Shopify is the one of the best e-commerce platforms if you need a feature-rich, scalable online store. While Shopify’s plans get pricey, it’s money well spent when you consider all the built-in e-commerce features plus the 6,000+ third-party integrations.

Wix is the right choice if you need a content-focused website builder that, at most, needs basic e-commerce functionality. Wix offers affordable website plans, more design flexibility and is exceptionally user-friendly.

Canadian specific editing and research (including pricing) conducted by Anna Rey.

Related: Woocommerce Vs. Shopify