Shopify vs WIX: Which is the Absolute Best? (April 2018)
If you're someone who has a wonderful idea for a product to sell online, or your current online (or offline) store could use a stronger presence, you are most likely in the market for a new ecommerce platform. Lucky for you, some high-quality options exist (hence this Shopify vs WIX comparison), allowing for you to play around with each and decide which one is right for you.
Shopify is the clear leader in terms of popularity, but WIX also tends to come up in the conversation, since over 68 million users are utilizing the WIX platform. That's not to say that all WIX users are selling items online, but it's worth noting that WIX does indeed provide ecommerce tools that compete with Shopify.
That's why I'm going to give you an in-depth comparison of Shopify vs WIX, based on items like features, cost, and ease of use. Keep reading to find out whether Shopify or WIX is right for your online store.
Shopify vs WIX: The Main Features
Basic online store functionality
While both Shopify and WIX have some quality basic features, in terms of selling online, Shopify is the clear leader with incredible store management features and super clean product pages.
Inventory management
WIX is quite clean when it comes to inventory management, but Shopify has it all so nicely organized in one area. Access a product creation page, inventory tab and an area for your gift cards right from the same module.
A recent update has made it even easier to find products, with a search bar at the top of the dashboard. You punch in whatever keywords you want (like for a collection, a piece of inventory, customer or discount,) and it delivers the results you need without having to search everywhere.
Coupons and discount codes
Discounts and coupon codes are both included without any extra charge from WIX or Shopify. It's tough to distinguish between the two since you can specify which products are available for discounts on each platform and there isn't much work involved for either.
Payment gateway options
Over 70 payment gateways are available through Shopify , including PayPal, Stripe, Authorize.net and PayMill. WIX has improved over the years, but it still doesn't quite match up with its 17 payment gateways including PayPal, Stripe, Square, Wirecard, Braintree, and Authorize.Net.
Themes and templates
Since Shopify is targeted only towards ecommerce businesses, the themes are all built to cater to you. Shopify themes are also very flexible, since you can hide certain sections within the theme editor without having to remove them, opening up the possibility to customize certain sections without having to duplicate the theme, say, on a staging server.)
Although WIX has quite a few online store themes, the quantity hasn't quite reached that of Shopify. However, the company is making some rather beautiful online store themes that focus on certain niches like jewelry and furniture.
Apps and add-ons
The WIX app store is packed with cool integrations, but once again, they aren't all catered towards online stores, so you have to sift through the ones that may be more useful for brick and mortar shops.
Shopify is the way to go if you're looking for targeted ecommerce apps.
Multilingual capabilities
WIX has a powerful multilingual app which turns your site into any language you want. Shopify struggles in this area, but a few themes are designed to support two languages. WIX is the clear winner here.
SEO tools
SEO settings are built into both WIX and Shopify, so it's tough to find a winner. Basically, you can let the systems automatically create metadata for you, or you can type it in yourself. Each of these systems ping the search engines when new content is created.
Blogging features
Even though I think Shopify has a cleaner content management area for your blog, both WIX and Shopify have integrated solutions for your blogging needs.
The main benefit to blogging in WIX is that it offers a true drag and drop design area.
Customization capabilities
Shopify has always been friendly to developers who want to get in there and implement their own code. The only problem is that you need to learn Shopify's Liquid programming language. So, basic HTML and CSS won't help you here. Most people end up hiring a Liquid developer. WIX, on the other hand, is designed primarily for basic webmasters who don't have much design experience. This means that the themes are cookie-cutter and you shouldn't expect much in terms of customization.
WIX, on the other hand, is designed primarily for basic webmasters who don't have much design experience. This means that the themes are cookie-cutter and you shouldn't expect anything too advanced in terms of customization.
Shopify vs WIX: Ease of Use
This is where it gets interesting because WIX is absolutely built for non-developers who feel intimidated by messy interfaces and hefty coding responsibilities. WIX provides useful templates, add-ons and a decent drag and drop editor for making your pages look professional without much design experience.
However, part of this “ease of use” section also caters to developers or even people who want at least some sort of customization for their store. Since Shopify is built just for online shops, you can't beat it in terms of ease of use. Uploading products, managing inventory and handling customers is all rather simple. So although WIX is pretty easy to use, it may be too rudimentary.
Shopify vs WIX: Costs
WIX:
Shopify:
One thing's for sure, the WIX pricing is more confusing than Shopify. However, that shouldn't make you rule it out.
Setup Fees
Neither WIX nor Shopify makes you pay any setup fees for your first online store.
Monthly Fees
Although WIX offers yearly plans for decreased pricing, I'm not a huge fan of this since you're stuck with one platform for some time. Therefore, let's stick to the monthly fees. It's impossible to start an online store with WIX unless you opt for the $17 per month eCommerce plan or the $25 per month VIP plan.
The Lite Plan from Shopify is $9 per month, and the Basic plan is $29 per month. I would argue that the Shopify Starter plan is best for those just getting started out, and since the Basic Shopify plan and eCommerce Wix plans have no transaction fees and unlimited products, Shopify has more templates, so it's a better deal.
However, the $17 WIX Ecommerce plan might serve you well if you're interested in a full online store (not available in the Shopify Lite Plan) for less than Shopify Basic.
Bandwidth Charges
No bandwidth charges are implemented from either solution.
Transaction Fees
Transaction fees are never charged from WIX or Shopify, but you will have to consider credit card processing fees. Since Shopify has over 70 options to choose from, you should be able to find a better deal with them.
Free Trials
Both WIX and Shopify offer a free 14 days trial , so if you're still not sure which way to go, I would strongly encourage you to quickly open a free account with both and see which UX you like most.
Shopify vs WIX: The Winner
The WIX Ecommerce plan is a pleasant surprise, but it's still difficult to recommend it over Shopify since the Shopify brand has been around for so long and they are focused directly on helping online stores. The themes are much better, and it's rather simple for a first-time developer to make a professional site on the Shopify platform. Not to mention, you don't save much money by going with WIX.
Let us know in the comments section if you have any questions about this Shopify vs WIX comparison.
Shopify Rating: 5 - Review by Joe Warnimont
Original Article written by Joe Warnimont