Shopify vs Wix for e-commerce is an apples-to-oranges comparison.
Shopify is intended for e-commerce businesses, having the complete functionality to help manage an online business’ day-to-day. It also provides features that help enterprising merchants scale beyond their service area.
Wix, on the other hand, is marketed to anyone who needs a website. Freelancers, blog writers, marketing gurus, fitness coaches, and restaurants, just to name a few. However, it also offers some e-commerce capabilities, making it an enticing choice for both start-ups and SMEs.
This guide explores both options in depth. We’ll outline the crucial differences between Shopify and Wix and provide our recommendations as an e-commerce SEO agency that has worked with hundreds of online stores.
Key Takeaways
- Shopify is a specialised platform for running and scaling online shops, while Wix is a versatile website builder with e-commerce capabilities.
- Wix offers a more intuitive experience for beginners through its drag-and-drop editor and AI-powered store builder, whereas Shopify utilises a more rigid and structured theme system.
- For merchants in Singapore, Shopify allows for transaction-fee-free processing via Shopify Payments, whereas Wix Payments is unavailable to Wix users in Singapore.
- Shopify provides superior tools for global expansion, including multi-location inventory tracking and the ability to customise catalogues and tax settings for specific regional markets.
- Although Wix offers more staff seats on its entry plan, Shopify provides a significant advantage by allowing unlimited collaborator accounts for external partners across all plans.
Shopify vs. Wix: General Overview
At a glance, Shopify vs Wix for e-commerce can be best summarised with the chart below:
| Shopify | Wix | |
| E-commerce Features |
|
|
| Beginner Friendliness |
|
|
| Website Builder |
|
|
| Payment Options |
|
|
| Global Reach & Expansion |
|
|
| SEO Features |
|
|
| Back Office Functionality |
|
|
| Pricing |
|
|
| Ideal For |
|
|
Wix vs. Wix Studio: Clarification
Before jumping into the rest of this guide, we’d like to clarify what we’re comparing. We’ll be comparing Shopify against Wix, not Wix Studio.
Wix and Wix Studio, though they share similar functionality, are separate services under Wix.
- Wix and Wix Studio each have their own tiered pricing plans and are marketed to different audiences.
- Wix is geared toward general entrepreneurs, whereas Wix Studio is marketed to marketers, consultants, website builders, and other professionals and agencies that provide e-commerce services to clients.
As such, we’ve decided to compare Shopify and Wix, as Wix is the more familiar service that newer, enterprising merchants may gravitate towards.
Shopify vs. Wix: E-commerce Features Comparison
When it comes to basic e-commerce functionality, both Shopify and Wix deliver on those features. However, the capabilities of Shopify and Wix vary across e-commerce management aspects. Here’s how they both perform across product management, inventory tracking, website building, payment options, hosting, and order management.
| Shopify | Wix | |
| Product Management |
|
|
| Inventory Tracking |
|
|
| Website Building |
|
|
| Payment Options |
|
|
| Hosting |
|
|
| Order Management |
|
|
Right away, Shopify presents itself as the feature-rich e-commerce solution it is.
Shopify vs. Wix: Beginner Friendliness
Like any other SaaS, both Shopify and Wix have their own learning curves that merchants must overcome.
Wix
Wix is more beginner-friendly and easier to get started with than Shopify. For one, it includes an AI companion that lets merchants build their store layout through prompts. In a few minutes, merchants will have a complete, appealing e-commerce website template they can use for their business.
Wix’s dashboard and UI are also less overwhelming. Their visually appealing design and emphasised buttons make website building and store management more intuitive for first-time users.
In addition, each store template includes sample products. These sample products serve as examples, showing merchants how to enter products into the Wix system.
Wix’s beginner-friendly philosophy is also evident in the tips shown to customers on the website builder’s loading screen. These tips offer merchants ideas for beautifying their stores.
Shopify
Shopify, on the other hand, isn’t as beginner-friendly as Wix. Upon signing up, Shopify will provide users with the step-by-step instructions to build the foundation of their store. This will include adding products, registering a domain name, adding pages, and adding payment methods. However, after that, merchants are on their own to explore Shopify’s vast range of tools and settings.
Shopify’s interface is also optimised to contain more content. This means smaller text, which may not make for an open-arms welcome to new users. Also, Shopify doesn’t have an AI-powered website builder. Shopify’s website builder is more structured and rigid, unlike Wix’s drag-and-drop builder.
Shopify vs. Wix: Website Builder
Wix is primarily marketed as a website builder for a wide range of purposes—e-commerce is only one of them. Shopify, on the other hand, is marketed solely for running an online shop. So, unsurprisingly, Wix would have the more intuitive website builder.
| Shopify | Wix | |
| Drag-and-drop |
|
|
| How many website designs can a store have? |
|
|
| Pages and Navigation |
|
|
Wix website building
When building a website with Wix, merchants start by choosing a template. These templates are not just visual layouts. They also include starter products and prebuilt pages, so it’s important to select one specifically designed for an online store.
Wix’s builder is designed to be beginner-friendly:
- Every on-screen element can be edited using drag-and-drop
- Wix’s AI assistant, Aria, helps guide users through the setup process
- Adding new pages and editing menu navigation are built into the same editor
- The entire website can be created and managed without leaving the builder
However, Wix has a major limitation when it comes to templates:
- Once a template is chosen, users cannot switch to another one
- To change templates, they must create a new store
- This means re-adding products, reconfiguring settings, and rebuilding the site
Shopify website building
With Shopify, the process starts by choosing a theme. A theme provides the store’s starting design and functionality, and different themes offer different layouts, features (such as animations or custom sections), and levels of developer customisation.
Shopify is more flexible than Wix when it comes to design changes:
- Each store can have multiple themes
- Merchants can switch themes at any time
- Products, orders, customers, and store settings are not affected by theme changes
However, Shopify’s website-building workflow is more fragmented:
- The Theme Editor is separate from Pages and Menus
- To add an “About Us” page, the page must be created in Shopify Pages first, then added via the Theme Editor
- To edit navigation, menus must be created or changed in Shopify Menus before being applied in the Theme Editor
Because of this separation between tools, building and managing a website on Shopify is generally more cumbersome than on Wix.
Shopify vs. Wix: Available Payment Options
Both Shopify and Wix allow merchants to accept PayPal and manual payments. Manual payments are offline methods such as cash on delivery, bank transfers, or other offline settlement options, and both platforms allow merchants to provide specific instructions at checkout.
Where Shopify and Wix differ is in their proprietary payment channels and fees:
Shopify Payments (available in Singapore)
- Accepts major credit cards, Google Pay, Apple Pay, and PayPal
- No third-party transaction fees, helping merchants improve margins
- If unavailable in a region, merchants can use third-party providers (e.g., Adyen, Alipay, Billease)
- Shopify charges 3.2% + 0.50 SGD per card transaction through third-party providers (depending on plan)
Wix Payments
- Not available for Singapore merchants
- Even when eligible, Wix charges transaction fees ranging from 1.9% + 0.30 EUR to 6% + 0.30 GBP
- Singapore-based Wix merchants can use providers such as:
- Stripe
- PayPal
- AliPay
- Oceanpayment
- Rapyd Payments
- Triple-A Crypto Payment Gateway
- HitPay
- Atome
- Braintree
For Singapore-based merchants seeking long-term savings and lower fees, Shopify is the better choice.
Shopify vs. Wix: Global Reach and Expansion
E-commerce platforms need to provide their merchants with tools to scale if they decide to expand into global markets.
- Both Shopify and Wix sites can utilise a multilingual menu that lets site visitors switch to a language they’re more familiar with.
- They both allow merchants to offer variable shipping rates based on the customer’s order region.
- Both also allow merchants to offer tiered shipping options.
However, Shopify has more robust market management options.
First, Shopify supports multi-location stores better than Wix.
When setting up an e-commerce business, Shopify allows merchants to add their store and warehouse locations to its database. Merchants can also track and manage inventory across all locations, providing insight into each location’s inventory and consolidated stock.
Shopify also lets merchants set rules to determine which warehouse will fulfil an incoming order. For example, the warehouse in Zimbabwe, the boutique store in Malaysia, or the showroom in Clarke Quay.
In addition to multi-location functionality, Shopify lets merchants manage markets. A Shopify Market pertains to a specific set of regions. Southeast Asia can be one market, the Spanish-speaking population another, and the United States another.
Merchants can set the following for each market:
- The catalogues that each market has access to. Perhaps a merchant wants only specific items shown to specific markets.
- The online store they are brought to. Different markets might see a different version of the store. Perhaps one version of the store has culture-specific content tailored to that market.
- The language they’re seeing. The website might translate the existing store for non-local visitors.
- Taxes and duties. The merchant can display different tax and duty costs based on the market.
Shopify also provides segmented analytics for each market to inform future business decisions and marketing strategies. Between Wix and Shopify, Shopify is the clear winner in global reach and expansion capabilities.
Shopify vs. Wix: SEO Features
Both Shopify and Wix allow merchants to:
- Edit the Title Tag and Meta Descriptions of their pages
- Leverage blog content to improve SEO
- Optimise their robots.txt files
Where they differ:
Wix SEO Features
- Built-in section to manage the website’s SEO
- Dedicated dashboard powered by Google Search Console to view traffic, impressions, and AI crawl counts
- Dashboard includes Wix learning content to help users improve SEO knowledge
- Guides users through an easy-to-follow checklist of SEO best practices
- All SEO-related items are located in one central place, making it beginner-friendly
Shopify SEO Features
Source: https://www.shopifyacademy.com/page/catalog?q=SEO
- Does not explicitly label or categorise features as ‘SEO & GEO’
- Provides blog posts, videos, and tutorials on SEO via the Help Centre, blog, and Shopify Academy
- No central dashboard or checklist for SEO tasks, so users must navigate multiple resources
- Some users report faster and more reliable server connections, which can benefit technical SEO
Wix offers more guided, beginner-friendly SEO tools with a central dashboard and learning resources, while Shopify provides robust infrastructure but less direct guidance for SEO implementation.
Shopify vs. Wix: Back Office Functionality
When you’re running an e-commerce store, you’ll need staff to assist you in updating product listings, updating inventory, and making website changes, among many other day-to-day tasks. Shopify and Wix both allow you to add additional seats to your business account.
| Shopify | Wix | |
| Staff Account |
|
|
| Collaborator Account | Unlimited collaborator accounts, regardless of which plan is used. | No distinction between staff and collaborator accounts. They are one and the same. |
Shopify
- The Basic plan (39 SGD/mo) does not include additional staff accounts.
- The Shopify plan (132 SGD/mo) allows five staff accounts, each with customizable store permissions.
- All Shopify plans include unlimited collaborator accounts for external partners (e.g., site builders, marketing professionals, consultants) who can make changes directly to the store.
- With the right setup, Shopify merchants can effectively support unlimited concurrent users by combining staff and collaborator accounts.
Wix
- The Core plan (36 USD/mo) includes five collaborators, an advantage over Shopify’s Basic plan at a similar price.
- Wix does not distinguish between staff accounts and collaborator accounts, so the maximum is five concurrent users regardless of role.
Shopify offers more scalable access for larger teams through staff and collaborator accounts, while Wix limits the number of users, making it better suited for smaller teams.
Shopify vs. Wix: Pricing
Despite the differences outlined in this guide, Shopify and Wix have neck-and-neck pricing.
Shopify’s pricing varies by region. However, if you’re in Singapore, the pricing is as follows:
- SGD 39/month for their ‘Basic’ plan (SGD 29/month if billed annually)
- SGD 132/month for their ‘Shopify’ plan (SGD 99/month if billed annually)
- SGD 531/month for their ‘Advanced’ plan (SGD 399/month if billed annually)
- SGD 3150/month for their ‘Plus’ plan (SGD 2900/month if billed on a three-year term)
Wix, on the other hand, displays their pricing in USD.
Their starting plan, Light (USD 17/mo), does not support e-commerce. The next viable option is the ‘Core’ plan.
- USD 36/month for their ‘Core’ plan (USD 29/month if billed annually)
- USD 46/month for their ‘Business’ plan (USD 39/month if billed annually)
- USD 172/month for their ‘Business Elite’ plan (USD 159/month if billed annually)
When it comes to e-commerce solutions, Shopify’s entry-level plan is more affordable than Wix’s. Not to mention the transaction fees Wix incurs for merchants, compared with those for Shopify in Singapore.
Shopify’s pricing plans cost more and offer more capabilities than Wix’s, making Shopify not only the more accessible entry point but also the more scalable option.
Who is Shopify Ideal For?
Shopify is designed as a specialised platform for running an online shop. It is the ideal choice for online merchants, SMEs, and established enterprises that require robust tools to achieve global reach and scalability. If you’re an online store, Shopify is the clear choice.
Who is Wix Ideal For?
Wix is primarily marketed as a versatile website builder suitable for a vast range of purposes beyond just e-commerce. However, in its attempt to serve the general entrepreneur niche, it spreads itself too thin, leaving its e-commerce capabilities punching below its weight. When it comes to e-commerce, other options outperform it, such as Shopline and BigCommerce. That’s not to say it doesn’t have its use, however.
Wix’s drag-and-drop functionality and ease of use make it excellent for traditional businesses, such as parlours, restaurants, and resorts. It can also handle freelancer portfolios and blogs. It’s for first-time users who want to build a complete website layout without an overwhelming learning curve.
Partner with an E-commerce Agency Today!
In addition to an e-commerce platform, you have the option to source experts and professionals who can assist you in finding success on that platform.
Both Shopify and Wix offer a Partners program that connects users with experts for SEO, website development, marketing, store management, and custom solutions, including apps and themes.
Here at MediaOne, we’ve helped hundreds of e-commerce businesses gain increased traffic from their target market. We leverage our SEO expertise and AI tools to strategically position your store in front of a high-converting audience.
Get in touch with MediaOne today! We offer a free strategy call to provide you with SEO insights from our team of tenured SEO and marketing experts.
Level up your e-commerce store’s reach with us.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the difference between Wix and Wix Studio?
Wix is designed for entrepreneurs and small business owners, while Wix Studio is a separate service marketed specifically to professionals, such as agencies and consultants, who provide e-commerce services to clients.
Does Shopify allow me to test new store designs without losing my data?
Yes, Shopify allows a store to have multiple “themes,” which are separate website layouts that a merchant can switch between.
How difficult is it to migrate my existing store from Wix to Shopify (or vice versa)?
Migrating between these platforms is not a “one-click” process because they use different data structures. While you can usually export and import product CSV files to migrate your products and customers, your website design will also need to be rebuilt from scratch on the new platform.
How do the app marketplaces compare in terms of cost and variety?
The Shopify App Store is significantly larger, offering thousands of specialised tools for scaling, but many of the most powerful apps require monthly subscription fees. The Wix App Market is smaller and more focused on general website features (like event bookings or hotel reservations), but it often features more free or “one-time purchase” tools for basic functionality.
Does my platform choice affect my site’s mobile load speed?
While both use global CDNs, Shopify is generally optimised for mobile commerce “out of the box.” Wix’s highly flexible drag-and-drop builder can sometimes lead to code bloat, which may result in slower mobile loading times if your site is heavily customised.
