Updated October 2026: prices and features checked against the Shopify and Wix pricing pages.
A well-designed, easy-to-use website is essential for any online business. Wix and Shopify are two of the most popular platforms for building and running an online store. Both offer plenty of features and design options, but they differ in who they are built for, how easy they are to use, what they cost and how well they scale. In this post, we compare Wix vs Shopify so you can choose the right e-commerce platform for your business.
What are the criteria for choosing a good e-commerce platform?
When choosing an e-commerce platform, a few factors matter most. Here are the essentials to consider:
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- Ease of Use: Look for a platform with a friendly interface and intuitive tools, so you can manage and customise your store without technical knowledge.
- Design and Customization: Check the design options, including attractive templates and how far you can change the look and feel of your store to match your brand.
- Payment Options: Make sure the platform works with a good range of payment providers, such as PayPal, Stripe or popular local options, so customers can pay conveniently and securely.
- SEO Friendliness: Consider the platform’s built-in SEO features and whether it works with third-party SEO tools. Good SEO helps your store get found and brings in organic traffic.
- Security: Security is critical for any online store. Look for SSL certificates, secure payments, data encryption and regular security updates to protect your customers’ data.
Wix vs Shopify: Background
Wix
Wix is a cloud-based website builder that lets you create and customise websites without coding. It was founded in 2006 by Avishai Abrahami, Nadav Abrahami and Giora Kaplan to give individuals and businesses an easy way to build a website.
The platform became popular for its drag-and-drop editor, which lets anyone design an attractive website with little effort. Wix offers a large library of customisable templates and an interface that suits users of all skill levels.
Shopify
Shopify was also founded in 2006, by Tobias Lütke, Daniel Weinand and Scott Lake, to give businesses an easy way to set up and run an online store. It started as an online snowboard shop called Snowdevil. The founders found the existing e-commerce tools inadequate, so they built their own platform.
Shopify has since become one of the most trusted e-commerce platforms. With its friendly interface, wide range of features, scalability and 24/7 support, it gives entrepreneurs an all-in-one way to create and manage an online store. Whether you are a beginner or an experienced seller, Shopify has the tools you need to grow.
Wix vs Shopify: Key differences
Ease of use
Both Wix and Shopify are designed to be user-friendly, but that doesn’t mean they are equally easy for every task. To help you decide which suits you better, let’s look at how each one works.
Wix is known for its intuitive drag-and-drop website builder, which makes it beginner-friendly and needs no coding. You choose a template from Wix’s library, then customise your site by clicking and dragging elements wherever you want them. Wix also gives you fine control over where content sits on each page, so you can adjust the layout freely.
Shopify, in contrast, has a setup process built specifically for online stores. It may take a little longer to learn than Wix, but it guides you step by step so you can launch quickly. You pick a theme made for e-commerce and then customise its colours, fonts and layout with sections and blocks in the theme editor. Shopify’s design freedom is not as broad as Wix’s, but it is flexible enough for most stores.
Shopify also makes product management simple. Its admin has clear sections for adding and editing products, organising inventory, setting prices and variants, and managing orders. That makes day-to-day store tasks quick to handle.
Both platforms are easy to use, but they suit slightly different people. Wix’s drag-and-drop editor and wide design freedom make it a great choice for beginners and anyone who puts design first. Shopify’s streamlined store setup and specialised e-commerce features make it the easier option if your main goal is selling online.
Design options
Wix offers more than 2,000 website templates covering many industries and niches, so it is easy to find a design that suits your brand.
As mentioned above, Wix’s drag-and-drop editor makes customisation simple. You can change everything from the header and footer to individual page layouts without writing code. The Wix App Market also has many design-focused apps to add features and improve the look of your site.
If you’d rather not design it yourself, Wix’s AI website builder can do the first draft for you. You answer a few questions about your site and your style preferences, and it creates a starting site that you can then edit.
Shopify offers a selection of professional themes built specifically for e-commerce. They are designed to show off products and give shoppers a smooth experience. Shopify has fewer themes than Wix has templates, but they focus more on selling. There are free themes, and paid themes are a one-off purchase from the Shopify Theme Store or from independent theme developers.
You may not get quite the same design freedom as on Wix, but Shopify themes follow e-commerce best practice and are mobile-responsive, so your store looks right on every device. Modern themes use sections you can add and rearrange on any page, and if you need more layout control, a Shopify page builder app can fill the gap.
Both platforms make it easy to customise how your site looks. In this round, though, Wix wins: it has more templates and gives you more design freedom.
App Market and Integrations
The Wix App Market offers a good range of apps and integrations across categories such as marketing, social media, services and events, and media and content. It has fewer apps than Shopify, but it covers the most popular integrations.
Many Wix apps are built by Wix itself or by approved third-party developers. There is a decent selection, but it doesn’t have the same depth and specialisation as Shopify’s ecosystem.
Shopify, on the other hand, has thousands of apps in the Shopify App Store, covering marketing, sales channels, customer support, analytics and much more. This depth is a real advantage for e-commerce businesses, because you can add almost any feature as your store grows. Popular examples include UpPromote Affiliate Marketing, Facebook & Instagram, AfterShip order tracking, Trustpilot Reviews, TikTok and Klaviyo.
Email marketing tools
Wix has a built-in Email Marketing tool (formerly called Wix ShoutOut) that lets you create and send newsletters, promotions and other campaigns. It also supports basic automations, such as welcome emails and abandoned cart reminders. How much you pay depends on how many emails you send, so check Wix’s current email marketing packages.
Shopify’s own tool, now called Shopify Messaging (previously Shopify Email), lets you design and send branded email, SMS and WhatsApp campaigns. Your first 10,000 emails each month are free, and after that pricing starts at $1 per 1,000 emails. You can also segment your customers, use ready-made templates and set up automations.
Shopify Messaging also shows detailed results for your campaigns, such as click-through rates, conversion rates and sales. That gives you a clear overview so you can make each campaign more effective.
Shopify also works with many third-party email marketing apps, such as Mailchimp, Klaviyo and Omnisend, which gives you more flexibility.
Both platforms offer email marketing, but Shopify has more advanced features and integrations, plus a generous free monthly allowance. So in this round, Shopify is the winner.
Payment Gateways
Payment gateways let your store take payments online. Here is how Wix and Shopify compare:
Wix has its own payment solution, Wix Payments, which lets you accept credit and debit cards directly on your site. Wix also works with third-party providers such as PayPal and Stripe, which gives your customers more ways to pay. Note that you need a Core plan or higher to accept payments on Wix.
Shopify’s own solution, Shopify Payments, lets you accept major cards such as Visa, Mastercard and American Express in supported countries. Shopify also works with a large number of third-party payment providers, including PayPal. For more options, see our guide to Shopify Payments alternatives.
The biggest difference is fees. Wix doesn’t add its own fee when you use a third-party payment provider. Shopify does, unless you use Shopify Payments: the extra fee is 2% on Basic, 1% on Grow, 0.6% on Advanced and 0.2% on Plus. This is on top of whatever the payment provider charges.
Support
Both platforms offer help through live chat and other channels, and both have detailed help centres to guide you while you build your store. Shopify offers 24/7 support, and Plus merchants get priority 24/7 phone support.
Shopify also has a large community forum where you can ask other merchants and experts for help. Wix has its own community forum and a large library of help articles and video tutorials.
Both platforms provide support in several languages. Check each platform’s help centre for the languages and hours available in your region, as these can vary.
Pricing plans
At the time of writing, Wix offers four premium plans. Prices below are per month, billed yearly, and they vary by location:
Light: About $17 per month. It includes a free domain for one year and 2 GB of storage, but it can’t accept online payments, so it doesn’t suit an online store.
Core: About $29 per month. It adds 50 GB of storage, online payments and basic e-commerce features.
Business: About $39 per month. It offers 100 GB of storage, standard e-commerce features and more site collaborators. Wix recommends this plan for most businesses.
Business Elite: About $159 per month. It includes unlimited storage, advanced e-commerce features and an advanced developer platform.
Wix also has a free plan, but it shows Wix branding on your site and doesn’t let you connect your own domain. All premium plans come with a 14-day money-back guarantee.
Wix’s entry plans look cheaper than Shopify’s, but they have limits. For example, storage is capped at 50 GB on Core and 100 GB on Business, and you need at least Core to sell online.
Shopify, on the other hand, doesn’t cap storage or bandwidth on its plans. You can choose from these packages:
Basic: $39 per month, or $29 per month billed yearly
Grow: $105 per month, or $79 per month billed yearly
Advanced: $399 per month, or $299 per month billed yearly
There is also Shopify Plus for large businesses, starting at $2,300 per month. When you sign up, Shopify gives you a 3-day free trial with no credit card required, then $1 per month for the first 3 months on most plans. After that, you move to the standard price of your chosen plan. These are US prices; Shopify charges less in some countries, so check the pricing page for yours.
So which platform offers more value? It depends on the e-commerce features you need, not just the monthly price.
Pros and cons
Wix
| Pros | Cons |
| Intuitive drag-and-drop editor
Lots of help and support A good range of app integrations Easy to use No extra fee for third-party payment providers Free domain for one year on yearly premium plans |
Switching templates later is difficult
The free plan shows Wix branding Each premium plan covers a single site The Light plan can’t accept payments You depend on Wix as it is a hosted platform Less suited to large, fast-growing stores |
Shopify
| Pros | Cons |
| Support in multiple languages
A wide choice of store themes A huge app store with plenty of extensions Many payment options Secure and reliable Sell in multiple currencies Easy to import and export products and content |
Less design freedom than Wix
Some features need third-party apps Moving away from Shopify takes effort Some SEO settings, like URL structure, are fixed Extra fees if you don’t use Shopify Payments |
Wix vs Shopify: Which one is better?
Both Wix and Shopify are trusted platforms for building a professional online store. Which one is better for you depends on your needs and how much e-commerce experience you have.
We recommend Wix if you want an affordable, easy-to-use platform and you don’t plan to sell a large number of products.
If you want to build a serious online store with a large catalogue, Shopify is the smarter choice. It also has advanced features such as point of sale, selling in multiple currencies, dropshipping support and much more, so it suits businesses that need room to grow.
What do you think? Do you prefer Wix or Shopify? Let us know in the comments below. If you are also considering WooCommerce, read our Shopify vs WooCommerce comparison.
And if you are looking for a well-designed theme for your new store, take a look at our collection of Shopify themes.