Wix vs Shopify: Battle of the Web Shops

Wix vs Shopify: which ecommerce platform is better for your online business? Truth be told, Wix is better for small scale businesses and Shopify is best if you want to scale up your medium to large businesses.

We’ve conducted in-depth testing of Wix vs Shopify. This means we score each one out of five on: sales features, website features, value for money, help and support, and a customer delight score (relating to UX and brand recognition).

We found that Shopify has much better sales-specific features, scoring 4.7/5, compared to just 3.9/5 for Wix. That was the biggest differentiator – but read on to find out the other ways you can sell better with Shopify over Wix.

Wix vs Shopify: A Quick Comparison

Wix vs Shopify: Head-to-Head

Our unique research scores (out of five) are calculated from dozens of individual questions about each ecommerce platform. Here’s a summary of which one came out on top in each of the main categories:

Now, these platforms are pretty evenly matched, so it’s clear we’ve got some more digging to do.

Shopify has better fraud detection, much wider multichannel integration, slightly more payment options (17 vs 11) and better stock monitoring than Wix. These are essential features for scaling an ecommerce business, particularly one that’s growing in complexity as well as size. These are the main reasons we ranked Shopify higher than Wix, but there are a range of other factors that fed into this.

Web shop software can be a little tricky to get to grips with and, even if you’re highly skilled, things can still go wrong. For that reason, it’s important to consider the level of customer care you can expect from your ecommerce platform provider. When it comes to help for customers, Shopify fares better than Wix because it has advanced specialist support available.

Shopify may be the better platform, but can it fit within the budget of your business? To help you answer that question, let’s look into the Wix vs Shopify pricing plans.

Wix vs Shopify: Pricing

Both Wix and Shopify offer a free trial but no free ecommerce plan. However, Wix is much better value for money overall because you get way more features for your monthly subscription fee compared with Shopify.

That said, it’s still worth looking into price plans so that you know exactly what you’re getting:

If you’re running a large business, it may seem like Wix is better value for money because it’s so much cheaper than Shopify. However, we don’t recommend Wix ecommerce for larger businesses because Shopify is better set up to handle complex operations. By the time you’re integrating inventory management systems, such as asset tracking software, you should choose a highly-powered platform, such as Shopify, over Wix.

Wix Web Shops: Who, What, Why?

Wix Quick Summary

What: Drag-and-drop web builder with a reliable ecommerce platform
Who: Small business leaders and entrepreneurs starting an online business
Why: Affordable subscription with no transaction fees

When it comes to website features, Wix scores much higher on functionality than Shopify because of its superior features around forms, calendar, bookings and social media integration. In our research, Wix scores 28/30 for website functionality, compared with Shopify’s 19/30. This goes to show that event planners, music festival and concert managers are better off with Wix over Shopify, for instance.

One drawback, though, is Wix’s minimal storage space compared with Shopify’s. So, if you are running in-person events, such as conferences, special ceremonies and festivals, don’t expect to show off loads of video content on your Wix website. It’s also worth noting that both Shopify and Wix score almost exactly the same in site speed tests, though. So, no matter the amount of multimedia content you expect to host online, it’s an even match between Shopify or Wix when weighing up which platform can run it faster.

How about discounted rates? If you’re a student, educational facility, or non-profit organisation, then you can take advantage of some extra money off Wix’s ecommerce plans. As always, it’s a case of planning ahead and paying for a longer subscription plan to get the best savings.

We’ve done some digging and found a -70% discount for non-profits on a two-year subscription to the Wix Business Unlimited plan. You could pay third-party services to access this discount deal. However, we recommend you approach Wix directly and simply ask for it.

There’s also 50% off annual subscription fees for students through Student Beans. And don’t forget the free Wix Education platform for those teaching web development in classrooms.

Despite its easy-to-edit website features, Wix is a less popular website builder than Shopify among web store owners. We measured this in a couple of ways, including keyword research, which found around 56% greater search volume for Shopify over Wix. Using the statistics website, BuiltWith, we discovered a greater number of websites are made with Shopify over Wix, too. In a “Likely to recommend” questionnaire we conducted, Shopify scores 19/25 while Wix scores 17.5/25.

If you’re anything like us, you want to know that other professionals in your niche use and approve of the products you’re interested in. There must be good reasons business owners choose Shopify more often than Wix. Let’s look at some of those in detail now:

Shopify Online Shops: Who, What, Why?

Shopify quick summary

What: Website builder with powerful ecommerce functions
Who: Medium and larger businesses which are scaling up
Why: Strong sales features with good multichannel integrations

While Wix has great sales features, Shopify’s are even better. Shopify has a highly customisable check-out page, including the options to amend image backgrounds and logos, or adapt the colour scheme. This fine attention to detail ensures you can personalise the checkout experience to target your ideal customer, just the way you need to.

We reckon this gives you a better chance at closing sales in that tricky, final purchase phase. A scary 70% of customers abandon their shopping carts before making payment, so you’ll need to make all the persuasive tweaks possible to secure those sales. Therefore, it pays to choose an ecommerce platform, like Shopify, that’ll support your ability to do so.

Our users found Shopify a little tricky to use at first, but were able to understand it well enough after a while. “It’s the inverse of Wix, where the inventory stuff is really good, but the design is more difficult to do,” noted one test user. Our research also found that design tools are somewhat restrictive when compared with Wix, and a little less intuitive.

The trouble you may face using Shopify as a beginner means the platform is best suited to serious medium to large business operations. So, if you’re selling handmade bracelets, feel free to use a less complicated program than Shopify.

Yet the strength of Shopify’s apps and multichannel integrations make it well worth the effort. With close to 8,000 apps,  Shopify has enough plug-ins to let you achieve just about anything with your online shop. You should be aware, however, that Shopify has fewer built-in features than Wix. For example, you’ll need an app to sell digital products or have customer wishlists through Shopify, which you don’t with Wix.

As 40% of Shopify’s apps are paid-only (and its monthly subscription fees are higher), your monthly costs will definitely be higher than if you were using Wix.

Uniquely, Shopify has better environmental policies than most other ecommerce platforms on the market. Shopify’s Sustainability Fund spends at least $5 million annually on the most promising, impactful technologies and solutions to fight climate change globally. So if your company, startup, or NGO is centred on green values, then Shopify is the way to go.