Wix vs Shopify

Wix vs Shopify: Which Should You Choose to Set Up Your Ecommerce Store?

If you are looking for a content management system for your eCommerce store, you will have heard of both Wix and Shopify. Both platforms aim at those looking to take the DIY route and those working with website designers, but besides this, which offers the best features and is a better fit for eCommerce? This blog will delve into the pros and cons of both and give you the information you need to make an informed decision based on your business.

Wix vs Shopify: Pricing

It has to be said that Shopify comes out on top for pricing, not only in terms of value but also for simplicity. Wix has varying levels of plans and deciding which one is best for you could be a minefield, whereas Shopify keeps it simple. The only exception to this is that Wix offers a free plan; the reason this is not a winning factor is, your site will have ads on both Wix ads and ads from other companies, some of which could be directly from your competitors. 

• Wix Cost: Free to $500 per month.
• Shopify Cost: $9-$2000 per month. 

Both for the standard price offer off the shelf solutions and can process transaction payments for you. Shopify comes out on top again as its fees are 2.4% compared to Wix at 2.9% of the total transaction. However, if you are looking to use a third-party payment processor such as PayPal or Stripe, Wix does not charge any fees, whereas Shopify will still charge up to a 2% fee per transaction. 

On paper, from a pure cost perspective, you would say that Wix comes out on top, and if that is your primary focus, then Wix is the platform for you. As with most things, however, the cost is only one factor, and we would advise you to look at the overall project both now and in the future before making your decision. 

Templates & Themes

Shopify is light years ahead of Wix when it comes to customisation, themes and templates. There are two significant other benefits aside from this, too: you get access to the HMTL and CSS files with Shopify, and that they make it much simpler to switch themes – with Wix, you do not always get access, and when moving templates, you need to remake your entire site. 

Wix indeed has more initial templates to choose from in its database with something like 850+, and Shopify has 3-4 to begin with. However, it has hundreds if not thousands of variant themes and templates to choose from provided by third parties on their store or websites such as Themeforest. The added benefit is that Shopify templates are always geared towards eCommerce, whereas Wix’s are more generalist. 

Both offer responsive templates that work out of the box to ensure that your eCommerce store is mobile-ready and 100% responsive across device sizes. Although using Wix, this is not an automatic process, and you create two versions of your site, one for desktop and one for mobile, and you need to make manual adjustments to the mobile version to ensure it’s working correctly. 

Content & SEO

Wix is a clear winner for content-based websites and offers much more flexibility in having blogs and structure for content marketing. This is because it is a more generalist CMS, whereas Shopify is purely designed around one thing – eCommerce. 

Both Wix and Shopify are making continual improvements towards being much more SEO friendly and working with SEO experts and Google to create code and systems to get away from their bad reputation among the SEO community. 

Wix vs Shopify Summary

Like most things, it is not as clear cut as saying Wix or Shopify; it is down to what you need and want from your website. For us here at Morgan Branding, we recommend using Shopify if you have an online store. It is designed with eCommerce in mind. Its seamless integration with other apps like Facebook, Instagram, and Google Merchant centre makes life much easier and more automated for your products and eCommerce journey. 

Benefits of using Wix over Shopify

• Wix provides a free plan without a time limit (featuring advertising for Wix).
• Wix is a better CMS for creating a general-purpose website.
• It’s generally a bit cheaper to use than Shopify.
• There are no transaction fees to worry about in Wix if you use a third-party payment gateway.
• Its drag-and-drop interface makes it easier to create bespoke page layouts.
• You can create ‘cleaner’ URLs in Wix; this is good from an SEO point of view.

Benefits of using Shopify over Wix

• Shopify’s templates are fully responsive; Wix’s aren’t.
• You can allow users to check out in multiple currencies.
• Shopify’s dropshipping features are more comprehensive.
• The SEO functionality is much better in Shopify than Wix.
• You can switch templates easily with Shopify 
• There is a much more extensive range of apps and integrations available for Shopify.
• A wider range of payment gateways is available for Shopify.

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