Shopify Vs Wix – Ecommerce Champion or Website Builder Superstar?

This may come as a surprise, because the Wix store isn’t the first name you’d think of for an online business. But in this in-depth, stamina-filled fight with Shopify, we’ll see if it’s worthy of your consideration. Who knows, the underdog might have a few surprises in store (pun intended).

Rounds Overview

Wix vs Shopify: What’s the main difference?

Wix offers beginner-friendly ecommerce features geared towards small online stores with less than 300 products. Instead, Shopify is suitable for much larger stores as it’s built to easily manage thousands of store items. Wix’s Business Basic plan starts at $23/month whereas Shopify Basic is $26/month.

If you still have some doubts about what’s your best option, read our comprehensive comparison below.

Video Review: Shopify vs Wix

> Try Shopify for free
> Try Wix’s free plan

Round 1: Ease of Use

While Shopify claims to be the best solution for online stores, it never said it was the easiest to use. However, their user experience is so well designed that you need very few clicks to create your first store in minutes. Adding products and variants is a breeze, and we love the way they link to tutorials – very useful for complete beginners. This is particularly helpful, because setting up a Shopify Store is quite a serious affair. You’ll need a good couple of hours minimum to configure everything right.

Wix’s backend

Wix, like many other solutions, also claims to be the best. But one point they really insist on is being super easy to use for creating websites and online stores. We agree. In fact, we’d happily call Wix one of the easiest website builders out there. Their user experience is excellent, and their tutorials and step-by-step guides are well written and easy to use.

Adding an ecommerce module is just as intuitive, by the way. And if you want to create an online store even faster, you can also use Wix ADI that employs artificial intelligence to produce a ready-made template in seconds.

Winner: Wix is hard to beat for ease of use. However, this is probably because their online stores are more basic than Shopify’s.

Round 2: Themes and Flexibility

When it comes to creating your virtual storefront, Shopify certainly makes things easy with their 60+ themes. They are modern, sleek and responsive, so they look good on desktops and mobiles. Want to customize them? The live editor is great fun and gives excellent results. If you know CSS and HTML, you can also tweak them to your heart’s content. The only snag is that you have to pay a one-time fee for most themes ($140 – $180) as only around 10 of them are free (although each has several variants). Veeqo has put together a few nice examples here.

Shopify’s free templates

Wix has 60 completely free ecommerce templates. They look as modern and stylish as Shopify’s, and we really like their catalog galleries. Unfortunately, Wix’s templates aren’t always fully responsive, so you sometimes need to rearrange elements manually to display them on smartphones a certain way (Wix Editor X tries to solve this, although it still hasn’t quite taken off). And while creating a website with Wix generally gives you tons of flexibility, in-depth customization via code such as HTML or CSS isn’t as complete as with Shopify (unless you use the not-so-popular Wix Velo, which is geared towards techy users).

Winner: The Shopify themes take the lead because they are responsive and ecommerce focused. This will allow you to customize the look of your store. Wix isn’t that flexible, especially with product pages.

Round 3: Product Presentation and Features

At first, it might seem strange how Shopify has fewer features than Wix for presenting your wares. You can only add 3 variants in Shopify for size, color or material. Wix gives you 6 variants and up to 100 options, for example, to choose different colors. Both let you create titles, descriptions, and image galleries with cool zoom effects. But Shopify doesn’t support carousel videos in all its themes, or (easily) allow for product customizations, ribbons, size charts or wishlists – while Wix does.

Wix’s Product Images

Having said that, it all changes when you start digging deeper into Shopify’s extra apps. You can find a great range of free and paying add-ons, which will enable reviews, Facebook stores, eBay item importers, and tons more. And there is one really exciting and (so far) unique Shopify feature: Augmented Reality. This allows you to use your smartphone to navigate around the product and view every little detail.

Shopify’s Augmented Reality Demo

It’s worth noting that Wix also has its own App Market; however, its 300 apps probably won’t be able to take customizations as far as Shopify’s 6,000.

Long story short – while you may not be able to customize product pages out of the box as easily as with Wix, Shopify more than makes up for it with its unbeatable range of integrations and add-ons.

Winner: both Shopify and Wix present items nicely, but the Shopify apps give more options and flexibility to the platform.

Round 4: Payment Options

There are a lot of options here, so let’s get a better overview in the following table.

Winner: clearly, Shopify has a lot more options to sell items everywhere. Just be aware that Shopify Payments is only available in certain countries (read review). If you’re outside one of these countries, you’ll be charged up to 2% in additional transaction fees.

Round 5: Point of Sale (POS) Capabilities

We briefly mentioned Shopify and Wix’s POS capabilities in the previous round, so let’s dig into that a bit further.

If you have a physical store, you’ll be glad to know that both Shopify and Wix offer their own POS solutions for integrating online and offline experiences. There are a few key differences, though.

Shopify POS is an app that allows you to sell in-store using just your iPhone or iPad. If you’re in the US, Canada, UK or Ireland, you can also purchase hardware such as card readers and receipt printers directly from Shopify (otherwise, you can use your own hardware, as long as it’s compatible). You can use Shopify POS in any country where Shopify has supported credit card payment providers.

The Shopify POS app

The app is powerful, letting you sell products, customize checkout screens, accept payments, track inventory, set up customer profiles, and more. You can even send digital receipts, and allow customers to browse in-store and buy online by sending shopping carts via email.

The best news? If you opt for the POS Lite plan, it’s free. The not so good news? If you want to access advanced features such as in-store pickup, staff logins and smart inventory management, the POS Pro plan will set you back $89/month. It is free if you have Shopify Plus, however.

Wix POS offers a similar list of features with their free app, with added bonuses such as local delivery, curbside pickup, and unlimited staff accounts. But, there are a few big caveats. For one thing, Wix POS is currently only available in the US, and only for supported business types. For another, you’re required to purchase Wix’s hardware as other types of hardware aren’t supported – and with POS kits starting at $550, they aren’t cheap.

The Wix POS app

If you’re not in the US, there is a workaround available – you can sell via mobile using the Wix Owner app, and accept payments through either Square or SumUp. This isn’t really ideal for a physical store though, as you’ll be missing out on a lot of important features.

Winner: no surprises here – with more features, optional extra hardware, and wider availability, Shopify takes out the POS round. If you’re located in the US however, Wix POS might still be worth looking into because it offers free extras (e.g. local delivery, staff accounts) that Shopify will charge for.

Round 6: Sales Channels

Of course, online selling isn’t just about selling through a store. Nowadays, ecommerce owners know that they can significantly increase their revenue through additional online channels, such as social media and online marketplaces.

So, which of these channels do Shopify and Wix integrate with? Natively, you’ll be able to set up the following sales channels with each platform. (By ‘natively’, we mean that means that it just takes a couple of quicks to set the integration up, and you’ll automatically be able to see your Shopify store products in that channel once they’re integrated):

Beyond native integrations, you can also access additional sales channels via Shopify and Wix’s respective app stores. The Shopify App Store allows you to sell via Google, TikTok, Pinterest, eBay, Walmart Marketplace, LYST, Etsy and more (note that referral or subscription fees are sometimes charged).

Wix App Market doesn’t offer quite as many (we could really only find an Etsy integration, with mixed reviews). It does allow integration with Multiorders, which gives you access to additional marketplaces, although it’s probably not worth it for just the extra sales channels alone, as plans start at $49/month.

Winner: unless Wix adds more sales channels to its app store, it can’t really compete with Shopify on this one.

Round 7: Customer Logins and Checkout Options

Shopify gives you great options if you want your users to register before going to the checkout. It can be mandatory, optional, or prohibited, and it’s easy for users to subscribe by filling in some basic information.

Customers can benefit from being able to access order history, order statuses, and pre-filled delivery and payment information during checkout. Orders are also retroactively associated with accounts (based on email addresses), in case a customer makes a purchase and then creates an account later on.

From your side of things, you can add users manually or import a list via CSV. You can sort them through a tag system.

Wix also lets you add a members area to your checkout process so repeat buyers save time by logging in. Much like Shopify, it also allows customers to view order status, track orders, manage addresses, view subscriptions and save payment information. One extra bonus – it lets customers view wishlist products they have saved.

Winner: Shopify and Wix are both pretty even in their customer account features, so this round’s a draw.

Round 8: Shipping Cost Settings and Carrier Integration

Another wide range of options that’s easier to compare in a table here:

While both provide some decent options for shipping, Shopify takes it even further with its own Shopify Shipping service. Store owners in the US, Canada and Australia can offer calculated shipping rates and buy discounted shipping labels, thanks to Shopify’s partnership with carriers such as USPS, UPS, DHL Express, Canada Post and Sendle.

On top of that, there’s also the Shopify Fulfillment Network, which lets retailers in the US and Canada pack and ship products from fulfillment centers located around the US. Advantages include same-day delivery, free packaging, and discounted shipping rates.

Winner: while Wix has improved the options in recent years,  Shopify is still in the lead.

Round 9: Tax Settings

Shopify gives you plenty of freedom to include, or exclude taxes from the prices displayed on your store. They also support automatic tax rates for different countries and registration-based taxes. A cool trick that can save you time, but worth double-checking.

Wix lets you enable or disable taxes, and set them on a region-basis. Using the free Avalara app, your Wix store will also calculate tax rates automatically. You can even define product categories for special tax rates (e.g. many EU countries charge lower VAT for food). Note that this app is only included in the Business Unlimited ($27/month) plan and above.

Tax setting with Wix

Winner: surprisingly both Shopify and Wix are pretty level in the tax arena.

Round 10: Multilingual Capabilities

This has been a sore point of Shopify users for a long time. In the past, you had to buy either a pricey multilingual theme or third-party app, as there was no native support for this. It wasn’t the most straightforward (or cheapest) solution.

That’s now changed, as Shopify now allows you to enable additional languages, and also let visitors select their preferred language (provided your theme is compatible – many of the free themes are). These will get added as a subfolder to your URL (e.g. yourstorename.com/es).

It’s a big improvement, but it’s not perfect – you’ll still need to use third-party apps to be able to add/display translations, which will set you back another $20 a month on average. Most Shopify plans allow for up to 5 language versions. Or if you want to fork out a whopping $2000 a month for the Shopify Plus plan, you can get up to 20 languages.

Wix does have a multilingual feature but it’s not SEO-friendly unfortunately (it uses the same URLs for all languages). Better than nothing but we’d not recommend it.

Winner: Shopify is by far better at multilingual sites, although there’s still plenty of room for improvement – it would be great if a third-party translation app wasn’t required.

Round 11: SSL

Winner: both Shopify and Wix offer SSL encryption with all their plans. Both ecommerce builders also allow your customers to check out on your own domain, which builds trust. This is a win-win for everyone.

Round 12: SEO

Both Shopify and Wix are pretty good when it comes to search engine optimization practices. You can modify your page titles, descriptions, headings, alt texts and redirects. Sitemaps are available under yourdomain.com/sitemap, and you can also add a Facebook Pixel code to track your ecommerce conversions on social media.

Wix Products’ SEO Options

The only strange things worth mentioning are that Shopify and Wix don’t play so nice with URLs. Shopify adds “/collections/” or “/products/” to some of them. Wix adds “/product-page/” to product pages so you cannot get full control over your URL. However, if you modify a URL, Shopify lets you click a box to automatically create a redirect from the old page. Wix only reminds you to do it.

Winner: Both are fairly good, except for the way they handle (some) URLs.

Round 13: Shopify or Wix, which one is faster

Our GTmetrix test with a Shopify website gave an A rating (92%) and a score of 85 with a Pingdom test. These are very good results, especially with a loading time of between 1 and 4 seconds.

Wix, seemed a little bit slower with a GTMetrix Test score of 65% (D ranking) and a Pingdom test result scoring 82. The load time took up to 9 seconds in some tests, which isn’t ideal for your users or SEO. Wix also didn’t score particularly well in our big speed test of 11 different website builders.

Winner: The tests give Shopify a bit of an edge, although Wix isn’t bad either. But the point should still go to Shopify because you can access the source files to optimize the code manually (if you know how).

Round 14: Support

Shopify offers 24/7 support via chat, email and phone. Their tutorials are generally clear and helpful, and the large community means you are likely to find answers in the numerous forum threads. The cherry on the top is Shopify’s excellent marketing blog, where you can find good info on how to grow your business.

Shopify Live Chat

Wix also has a great marketing blog and well-written tutorials. However their support is only offered via phone (specifically, a callback service) or forums, and it is limited to business hours. On the plus side, the community is also huge, so you won’t feel alone with your problems.

Winner: After testing both options, we have to say we received better answers from the Shopify support. They are also accessible through more channels.

Round 15: Market Place / App Store

Shopify and Wix have huge market places, with tons of apps (we counted close to 6,000 for Shopify) from third-party developers and from the platforms themselves. In both cases, some apps are free, some aren’t.

Wix’s App Market

The main difference is that Shopify’s apps are all related to ecommerce. With Wix, you are also looking at apps designed to enhance your website or blog. These can be industry-specific, for instance, related to hotels, restaurants or event planning.

Winner: hard to judge here, it will depend on the kind of products you are selling. But generally speaking, Shopify’s apps are more likely to extend your store, and Wix’s apps will help your website as a whole.

Round 16: Prices

Although there is a Shopify plan called Lite, a shopping cart plugin for existing websites, at $9 a month, most people will need the Basic Shopify Plan, starting at $26 per month. For Wix, your first option is Business Basic, which starts at $23 per month. For more in-depth comparison of the respective plans, please refer to our Shopify Pricing guide and Wix Pricing guide.

But broadly speaking, the main things to keep in mind are:

• Unless you use Shopify Payments (as mentioned above in Round 4), you will need to pay fees on all transactions, even offline sales. There are no such fees with Wix.
• Shopify limits the amount of staff accounts you can create. It’s 2,5 or 15 depending on the plan. There is no limit with Wix.

For everything else please check this handy table (prices shown are monthly costs for an annual subscription):

For $23 a month	N/A	Business Basic plan: Unlimited physical products. No sales fee Also around 2.9% + 30¢ per transaction (Wix Payments, Stripe Paypal, etc.) Free domain for a year Abandoned cart recovery Real-time carrier shipping (USPS only) Gift cards (via external app)
For $26-27 a month	Shopify Basic: Unlimited products. No free domain. 2.9% + 30¢ card fee with Shopify payments Extra 2% gateway fee if you don’t have Shopify Payments Abandoned cart recovery Automated sales tax (USA) Digital products Print shipping labels & get shipping discounts POS Integration Dropshipping (Oberlo)	Business Unlimited: Adds advanced ecommerce features Same 2.9% + 30¢ per transaction Free domain for a year Subscription and recurring payments Automated sales tax internationally with Avalara app (up to 100 transactions/month) Label printing and advanced shipping apps Dropshipping (Modalyst, Spocket and 365Dropship) Product reviews
For $49 a month	N/A	Business VIP: all ecommerce features Automated sales tax for up to 500 transactions/mth Custom reports Loyalty program (Smile.io) Priority support
For $71 a month	Shopify (that’s what the standard plan is called): 2.6% + 30¢ card fee with Shopify payments Extra 1% gateway fee if you don’t use it Same features as above, plus gift cards and pro reports. The ability to use international domains for different countries, and set international pricing (based on percentage)	N/A
For $266 a month	Advanced Shopify: 2.49% + 30¢ card fee with Shopify payments Extra 0.5% gateway fee if you don’t use it. Advanced report builder Real-time carrier shipping Up to 15 staff accounts International pricing per product variant	N/A

Winner:  Overall you can see that Wix is generally the cheaper option but Shopify’s features are more refined most of the time. But overall we prefer Wix’s lower prices. 

Our Side-by-Side Comparison

Now, let’s take a real deep look inside Shopify and Wix eCommerce. Check out the direct comparison:

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Select Ecommerce Platform

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Shopify

BigCommerce

Wix Ecommerce

WooCommerce

Squarespace Ecommerce

Ecwid

Weebly Ecommerce

Volusion

Jimdo Ecommerce

Done

Conclusion

If you are just looking at the end result of this battle, Shopify clearly wins 14:7! They know ecommerce inside out as that’s what they do day in, day out.

But not that fast. While Shopify is the best solution for a sizeable online store, Wix can also be the right choice for many use cases. Here’s where we would recommend either platform.

Choose Shopify if:

• You need a solution for a serious ecommerce to scale and sell everywhere around the globe.
• You need all the bells and whistles (international currencies, full range of marketplaces, etc.)
• You need multilingual stores
• You want more payment gateways and superb POS features
• You need live support

A Wix store is best if:

• You want an easier (and cheaper) way to build an online store
• The store isn’t the main goal of your website
• Creating content is the main way for you to acquire traffic (blog, landing pages etc…)
• You want more design flexibility

And there you go! Hopefully, this should clarify a few things for you. Just don’t forget to compare these two platforms with Squarespace, WooCommerce, and the other ecommerce solutions out there.

Let us know if you have any questions in the comments!

Latest updates:
02 Jul 2021: Multilingual feature updates
16 Apr 2021: General update, POS and sales channel comparisons added
28 Dec 2020: Wix now also supports gift cards
19 Oct 2020: New pricing structure for Wix
24 Feb 2020: Video review added
15 Jan 2020: Supported sales channels and other smaller updates
22 Aug 2019: Tax rate settings updated.
22 Apr 2019: Wix added store logins and a few other updates.
26 Oct 2018: Side by side comparison added.