As an eCommerce retailer, you will find yourself making a lot of choices.
Which theme would be appropriate: free or premium? Which of the eCommerce niches is more profitable? Is the HubSpot CRM plugin more useful than Sendinblue? Should I go for Shopify or Wix? Which one is better?
Of all the questions, the most crucial one is to select the appropriate eCommerce platform. Shopify and Wix have been going head to head when it comes to winning the battle of the best eCommerce website builders. Whether you are doing Shopify website development services or Wix, both platforms impressively score high. While Shopify is more powerful as compared to Wix, Wix is known for the creative freedom it offers.
If you are a small business owner and willing to get brand recognition without investing much, you can go for Wix. But if you prefer scalability and are running a large number of stores, Shopify eCommerce development services are ideal for you.
Still confused? Let’s help you choose the best option for your online store.
Pricing – Wix vs Shopify
One of the biggest differences between Shopify and Wix is the approach to the pricing model offered. While Wix offers an entirely free plan, Shopify offers only a two-week trial. However, the free plan of Wix offers a limited set of functionality. You can not sell anything with it. Instead, you will be bombarded with Wix advertising on it. However, if you want to try the platform, you can do it.
Wix Pricing Model
Website Plans
- Combo – $125/Month
- Unlimited – $185/Month
- VIP – $325/Month
- Connect domain – $80/Month
Business & eCommerce Plans
- Business Basic – $23/Month
- Business Unlimited – $27/Month
- Business VIP – $49/Month
- Enterprise Plans
- Wix Enterprise – Starting from $500/Month
The main difference between each plan is in terms of storage apps, access to apps, video hours, eCommerce features, and the level of support.
Shopify Pricing Model
- Shopify Lite – $9/Month
- Basic Shopify – $29/Month
- Shopify – $29/Month
- Advanced Shopify – $299/Month
- Shopify Plus – Somewhere between $2000/Month (negotiable)
The key differences between each of the Shopify plans involve the number of user accounts, professional reporting, 3rd party shipping rate calculations, and multi-currency and multi-lingual features.
For these charges, you may have to consider paying additional charges for transaction and credit card processing fees.
Template – Wix vs Shopify
Templates are at the heart of Wix and Shopify website development services. You can choose any of the pre-designed templates and add some text and images to them. This forms the basis of your site. With a Wix account, you can get access to more than 800 bundled templates.
On the other hand, Shopify brings 2-3 different flavors of themes to choose from. If you are not willing to go for a free Shopify theme, you can always go and choose from 71 available premium themes. So, in terms of the design aspect, Wix is winning the game here.
Quality of Templates – Wix vs Shopify
In terms of the quality of templates, both platforms are on par. However, with Shopify, you can find themes that are crafted carefully for the eCommerce business and are undoubtedly more robust as compared to Wix. On the other hand, Wix offers a wide range of general-purpose themes to choose from. So, if you are a hardcore eCommerce fan, Shopify has something for you.
Content Management – Wix vs Shopify
With Wix, you can get different interfaces to build a website, including Wix ADI, Wix Editor, and Velo by Wix. The drag and drop interface of Wix makes it incredibly user-friendly. People with any level of skill can easily use this platform to manage content on their site. You can easily leverage the mobile editor to review and edit your site for mobile devices. On the other hand, with Shopify, you will only get one interface.
Based on the plan you’ve chosen, some features may be hidden from you. With Wix, you can gain a lot of flexibility and see the information in front of you. But with Shopify, you have to edit content in the back end and need to click preview to see the changes you’ve made.
Blogging – Wix vs Shopify
Both of the platforms offer you the flexibility to create a blog for your eCommerce site. Wix and Shopify have blogging features that are similar in that you can create posts and categorize them. However, with Wix, you can easily avoid losing your content in the event of system failure due to its autosave feature.
Mobile Apps – Wix vs Shopify
Shopify and Wix both allow you to manage your store on the go with mobile apps. While Wix offers Wix Owner, Shopify offers Shopify and Shopify Point of Sale. The Shopify app is a general-purpose app to help you manage your site with ease. And the Shopify POS is for users working in a point of sale context.
Concluding Remarks…
Both, Shopify and Wix, are getting into the neck-to-neck competition. However, if we look at the comparison, Shopify wins in terms of eCommerce features, fluid themes, greater flexibility, custom domain names, faster checkout options, more payment options, and built-in analytics. On the other hand, Wix wins the battle in terms of several template collections, intuitive drag and drop interface, free plan, efficient SEO, and tons of extra features.
In a nutshell, Wix is best for flexibility and customization, whereas Shopify is best as an overall eCommerce platform.
