Comparing Wix vs. Shopify pits two e-commerce-friendly website builders against each other. Both Shopify and Wix allow you to create a website relatively easily and quickly and both let you sell products and services online. So which platform is best for your website or online store? That depends on your exact business requirements.
Forbes Advisor analyzed Wix and Shopify, looking at important features such as cost, e-commerce capabilities, customer support, ease of use and scalability. Each platform has its pros and cons, which we explain in depth in this review.
Featured Partners
1
Wix
$17 per month
Yes
Yes
2
Shopify
$29 per month
3 days free + First Month for $1
Drag & drop editor, AI Tools, Customize with 8k+ apps, Sell everywhere
3
Bluehost
$1 per month
Yes
Yes
4
IONOS
$1 per month
Yes
Yes
5
Squarespace
$16 per month
Yes
Yes
Wix vs. Shopify: At a Glance
Wix
Pricing
$0 to $159
per month
Free trial
14
days
Term lengths
Month-to-month
$0 to $159
per month
14
days
Month-to-month
- Extremely user-friendly
- Free plan available
- Wide variety of plans
- 900+ design templates
- Large Wix App Market
- No live phone support; call-back only
- Not great for large online stores
Shopify
Pricing
$39 to $399
per month (paid annually)
Free trial
3 days + 3 months for $1
Term lengths
Month-to-month, annual
$39 to $399
per month (paid annually)
3 days + 3 months for $1
Month-to-month, annual
- Strong scalability
- Excellent customer support
- 8,000+ integrations
- Extensive e-commerce features
- Strong reporting/sales analytics
- Higher-tier plans are pricey
- Limited number of free templates
- Not as intuitive as more basic website builders
- E-commerce features limited on lowest-tier plan
How Wix and Shopify Stack Up
| Wix | Shopify | |
|---|---|---|
| Price | $0 to $159 per month* | $29 to $299 per month** |
| Online Payment Processing Fees | Wix Payments: 2.9% + 30 cents; other fees vary by region and payment gateway | Shopify Payments: 2.4% to 2.9% + 10 to 30 cents; other fees vary by payment gateway |
| Free Plan | β | - |
| Free Trial | 14 days | 3 days |
| Custom Domain Included | β | β |
| SSL Certificate | β | β |
| Checkout on Your Domain | β | β |
| Abandoned Cart Recovery | β | β |
| Unlimited Products | - | β |
| E-Commerce Analytics | β | β |
| Accept Payments on Facebook, Instagram and Amazon | β | β |
| Customer Accounts | β | β |
| Gift Cards | β | β |
| Discount Codes | β | β |
| Sell Digital Goods | 2GB to unlimited | Unlimited |
| Multilingual Capabilities | β | β |
| Real-Time Shipping (U.S.) | USPS only | USPS, UPS and DHL Express |
| Automatic Tax Calculations | On Business and Business Elite plans | Built-in functionality for United States, European Union, United Kingdom and Canadian users |
| Product Options and Variants | Six product options; 100 variants per product; manage 1,000 total variants | Three product options; 100 variants per product |
| Transaction Fees | - | Shopify Payments: none External payment gateways: 0.2% to 2% |
| Dropshipping Options | On Core, Business and Business Elite plans | Extensive options via third-party apps |
| Mobile Apps | Wix Owner for iOS and Android | Shopify and Shopify POS for iOS and Android |
| Integrations | 750+ | 8,000+ |
| Customer Support | Online help center, plus call-back and email Monday through Friday | 24/7 online help center, chat, email and phone |
| Read our Wix review | Read our Shopify review |
There are several differences between the two website builders. Wix offers a free plan; Shopify does not. Shopifyβs gift card feature is built into the platform, while youβll need a third-party app to offer gift cards on your Wix site.
Wix does not charge transaction fees and neither does Shopify if youβre using Shopify Payments, but it charges 0.2% to 2% for other payment gateways.
Ease of Use
Wix and Shopify are both built with user-friendliness in mind; however, that doesnβt mean theyβre both super easy to use. To understand which website builder is right for you, itβs helpful to know how each evolved.
Wix is built for those who need a professional online presence but have limited coding and design skills. The Wix platform is rich with features that help you create website content, such as βAbout Usβ business descriptions, blogs and articles. Wix offers e-commerce functionality, but it was not originally designed to host online stores.
Shopify is, and always has been, a tool to create online stores. Content features such as blogs and business description pages are available with Shopify, but they are not the platformβs key focus.
The reality is that building a basic business website is much easier than building a full-fledged online store; thatβs because there are fewer choices you need to make. With an online store, you need to make decisions about payment gateways, tax calculation, product variations, shopping cart functionality, shipping options, return policies and proceduresβand thatβs just to get up and running.
Both Wix and Shopify are relatively easy to use. Shopify is easier if youβre building an online store, particularly if you plan to scale it. Wix is easier if youβre building a content-rich website that also offers basic e-commerce functions, such as collecting payment for services or selling a limited number of items.
Pricing
Wix offers a free plan as well as four paid plans. The free plan comes with limited features, contains Wix branding and is not e-commerce-enabled.
The four Wix basic website plans are designed for those who need a professional website but donβt plan to accept online payments. These plans all include a free custom domain, an SSL certificate and 2 GB to unlimited GB of storage. The Core, Business and Business Elite plans also come with abandoned cart recovery and an events calendar app. Here is the pricing breakdown for these basic website plans:
- Light: $17 per month
- Core: $29 per month
- Business: $39 per month
- Business Elite: $159 per month
If you want to build a fully functional, e-commerce-ready website with Shopify, youβll need to choose from four plans, three of which are more likely to suit small business needs. All Shopify plans come with unlimited products, 24/7 support, the ability to sell on online marketplaces and social media, discount codes, abandoned cart recovery, gift cards, shipping labels, fraud analysis and Shopify POS.
The chart below illustrates some of the key differences among the three Shopify plans that are suited for small businesses (Plus plan is for larger businesses and therefore not displayed here).
| Basic Shopify | Grow | Advanced Shopify | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Price per Month* | $39 | $105 | $399 |
| Staff Access Number | 1 | 5 | 15 |
| Inventory Locations (such as warehouses, pop-ups, retail stores or anywhere else you store your goods) | Up to 10 | Up to 10 | Up to 10 |
| Reports | β | β | β |
| Third-party Calculated Shipping Rates | - | - | $ Add-on |
| Shipping Discount | Up to 77% | Up to 88% | Up to 88% |
| USPS Priority Mail Cubic Pricing | - | β | β |
| Online Credit Card Rates | 2.9% + 30 cents | 2.7% + 30 cents | 2.5% + 30 cents |
| In-Person Credit Card Rates | 2.6% + 30 cents | 2.5% + 30 cents | 2.4% + 30 cents |
| International Domains | - | β | β |
| International Pricing | - | β | β |
| International Per-Variant Pricing | - | - | β |
Design Options
With over 900 design templates, Wix offers far more design flexibility than Shopify. Wix comes with a user-friendly drag-and-drop editor so you can tailor your site for your business needs. If you prefer, you can opt to use the Wix Artificial Design Intelligence (ADI) editor instead. With the ADI, you simply answer a few questions regarding the purpose of your site and basic visual preferencesβsuch as which font options and colors you preferβand the Wix ADI designs your website for you.
Shopify has only 10 free design templates, though each of those comes with two to three variations for a tad more design flexibility. There are another 70+ Shopify themes available, though youβll pay a one-time fee ranging from $150 to $350 (or more) to access those premium themes.
Featured Partners
1
Wix
$17 per month
Yes
Yes
2
Squarespace
$16 per month
Yes
Yes
3
Shopify
$29 per month
3 days free + First Month for $1
Drag & drop editor, AI Tools, Customize with 8k+ apps, Sell everywhere
Integrations
The Wix App Market lists 750+ third-party integrations that allow you to add advanced features to your Wix website. Many of these apps are free, while others come with steep price tags.
Integrations can help you perform several business functions including collecting leads, analyzing traffic, improving visitor engagement, selling more online or enhancing your websiteβs design. Popular third-party apps that sync with Wix include Privy, Overtok Call Conversion, MarketPush Cart Recovery, Shippo, SKU IQ Inventory Sync, Printful, Birthday Club, Low Stock Alerts, Gifted, Etsy Shop and Compare Ninja.
Shopify has a lot more third-party integrations than Wix; 8,000-plus! Here are just a handful of the most popular apps available for Shopify:
- UpPromote affiliate marketing
- Facebook channel
- AfterShip order tracking and short message service (SMS)
- Trustpilot reviews
- TikTok
- Back in Stock: Customer alerts
- Klaviyo Email marketing and SMS
- One-Click Upsell β Zipify OCU
- Bulk discounts now
- QuickBooks sync
- Amazon Fulfillment By Amazon (FBA) shipping
- Easy digital products
- Snapchat ads
- Return magic
- Wishlist plus
- DSers β AliExpress dropshipping
- Printful
- Hotjar
Customer Support
The Wix Help Center features an extensive knowledge base that is adequate for finding answers to frequently asked questions and addressing common technical issues. Wix offers call-back and email support for all its paid plan customers. Support is available in English, Spanish and Portuguese from Monday through Friday between 5 a.m. and 5 p.m. PT. Customer inquiries are usually addressed within 24 hours, except on weekends. Priority support is available for Wix VIP plan customers.
Shopify offers true 24/7 live support via email, chat and telephone. Shopify also gives you access to an extensive online help center that features guides, FAQs and tutorials. In addition, Shopify has nearly 900,000 members in its online forum, where you can also turn for support. The contest between Wix and Shopify for best customer support is not even close; Shopify wins.
Bottom Line
In the contest between Wix vs. Shopify, the best solution for you comes down to what you intend to do with your website. Hands down, Shopify is the one of the best e-commerce platforms if you need a feature-rich, scalable online store. While Shopifyβs plans get pricey, itβs money well spent when you consider all the built-in e-commerce features plus the 8,000+ third-party integrations.
Wix is the right choice if you need a content-focused website builder that, at most, needs basic e-commerce functionality. Wix offers affordable website plans, more design flexibility and is exceptionally user-friendly.
Further reading: Top Wix Competitors in 2025.
Frequently Asked Questions
Which is easier to use: Wix or Shopify?
While both Wix and Shopify are generally regarded as user-friendly content management systems for e-commerce, Wix is much more beginner-friendly. This is due to its intuitive drag-and-drop site editor and prebuilt online store templates.
How does Wix compare to WordPress?
While WordPress is one of the worldβs most popular content management systems, Wix is much easier to use making it better for beginners. However, since WordPress is code-based it offers far more customization capabilities, making it better for those building a site with unique requirements. Learn more about Wix vs WordPress.
What are some ways that my business can benefit from a website builder?
A website builder makes it simple for you to design a website that meets your specifications and allows you to host where you choose when it comes time for the site to go live. If your budget allows, Shopify and Wix offer features that meet your needs.
How scalable are website builders?
Website builders are highly scalable, and your plan can be easily modified to meet the needs of your growing team. If you outgrow even the top-level package of your service, many vendors offer enterprise-level functionality with customized pricing. It may be worthwhile to get in touch with your systemβs customer service team to learn more.
