Photo by Tima Miroshnichenko
You’re ready to move your business online. Kudos! In the post-pandemic world, where people can’t go out and visit physical shops, having an online presence has become more critical than ever.
But as you venture into the online world, you’ll need a website first. And while there’re many ways to build a website, the easiest one is to use a website builder like Wix or Shopify. These are two of the best options to create a website for your business and sell online without coding.
But which one is better? You’ll have the answer to this question by the end of this article. First, let’s compare some features and functionality of these two website builders.
Wix vs. Shopify — Comparison
Multiple things set Wix and Shopify apart from each other. But in this article, we’ll discuss the 3 most essential features every small business owner needs to look for in a website builder.
Ease of Use
Wix offers 3 interfaces for building a website:
Wix ADI
Wix Editor
Editor X
Wix ADI refers to Artificial Design Intelligence. It automatically creates a fully customizable website with custom text and images. All you have to do is pick a theme and template, and you’ll have a ready-made website.
Wix Editor allows you to choose a template and customize your own website by creating structure and adding content and images. This option gives you more control over your website design.
Editor X offers more advanced design and layout capabilities that you can use to create complex website designs for any device. Its advanced design features include grid layout, docking, text scale, advanced sizing control, flex layout, etc.
Regardless of which interface you choose, you’ll get an easy-to-use drag-and-drop editor, and you’ll work on a front-end interface. This means you can view and edit the elements on the webpage simultaneously.
Whereas Shopify’s interface is quite different from Wix. Firstly you’ll get the dashboard and the editor separately. You’ll have to move the front and back to make changes and view them on the website.
Shopify also has a drag-and-drop editor and over 70 store themes. But their editor is relatively rigid as compared to Wix. You’ll get pre-defined blocks as per the theme you choose and can move the sections up and down on a page.
Cost
Wix price plans are divided into 3 categories: Website Plans (great for building a professional site), Business and eCommerce plans (great for accepting online payments), and Enterprise Plans (great for custom-tailored solutions).
You can also use Wix for free to design a simple website with a URL and ads that Wix’ll serve up. It gives you up to 500MB of storage and bandwidth, which is great for hobbyists and small businesses.
Shopify, on the other hand, allows you to build eCommerce websites. Hence their prices are pretty straightforward. It starts at $9/month for Shopify Lite and goes up to $299/month for Advanced Shopify.
They also offer Shopify Plus as an enterprise-grade solution for high-volume merchants. It starts at $2,000/month.
Unlike Wix, Shopify doesn’t have a free plan for small businesses. But you can try Shopify with 14 days free trial.
eCommerce Functionality
Wix is generally not an obvious choice for business owners looking to build an online store. It’s because Wix was initially launched for building content-based websites. But since 2020, a new version called Wix eCommerce has allowed many small businesses to build their online storefront.
Today, Wix offers storefront themes and its payment option called Wix Payments. Additionally, it integrates with over 80 payment gateways and doesn’t charge any fees for using a third-party payment gateway.
You can also add unlimited products to your store, track orders, set tax rules and shipping discounts, and more. But it has a few limitations, like you cannot display prices in different currencies.
Shopify is a better option for building an eCommerce website. It allows you to add unlimited products, manage inventory, add multiple sales channels, send abandoned cart reminders, create customer profiles, and more. It also facilitates end-to-end multi-currency payments.
Shopify integrates with 100+ payment gateways for payment options, but you’ll have to pay additional transaction fees. And just like Wix, Shopify also has its payment gateway called Shopify Payments.
Final Thoughts
It’s clear from the start that Wix and Shopify both target very different audiences. While Wix is an excellent choice for professional portfolios, service-oriented businesses, small eCommerce businesses, and personal blogs, Shopify is made for businesses looking to scale their product-based online stores.
You should choose Wix if…
You’re on a budget and looking for an affordable option to create a website.
Do you want to create a blog or showcase your portfolio
You want an easy-to-use website interface
You run a service-oriented business
You want more creative control on the desktop and mobile design
You should choose Shopify if…
You want to scale your eCommerce store.
You’re looking for a more mobile-responsive website
You want higher bandwidth in terms of the speed of your online store
You wish to sell in multiple currencies
This was our take on Wix vs. Shopify. But if you have any other questions, don’t hesitate to contact us. Book a call with us, and we’ll help you choose the right website builder for your business.