2022 is the best time to start e-commerce stores, especially when millions of new businesses are expected to come online. Shopify and Wix are the two most popular and consumer favorite platforms for e-commerce stores in the world right now. Shopify, no doubt, has an upper edge as one of the best e-commerce platforms right now, but Wix is not to be left behind.
Especially if you are a new startup, you might find it user-friendly. Wix is becoming the new favorite for people diving into eCommerce in 2022. According to the latest insights, more than 7 million websites are hosted on Wix. The company had 200 million worldwide users till 2020, and the numbers have multiplied. On the other hand, Shopify remained at 100 million in 2022. So, Wix is also scalable and scalable, exactly like Shopify.
But Reposts from W3tech reports Wix is the third most used platform to create websites while Shopify tops the results in the research with a whopping 65% share. So, Shopify is leading, but you can’t neglect Wix if you are looking for an inexpensive platform to start your e-commerce business. But how does it fare with Shopify, the leading eCommerce platform in the market right now?
Is it a worthy competitor for Shopify? Let’s find out.
Should you invest in Shopify or Wix? Which platform is right for e-commerce businesses in 2022? Both platforms have similar features, but they also have some distinctive features that make them stand out. We will explore both platforms and understand their pros and cons regarding crucial elements like eCommerce website design, selling tools, SEO compatibility, pricing, customer support, and much more to help you make an informed decision in 2022.
So, let’s begin our comparison.
You can also read: Ecwid vs Shopify: Which is Better in 2022?
Shopify vs. Wix: Which is Better for Ecommerce in 2022?
Shopify lets you create a primary e-commerce store with ease. It helps you start selling online without knowing to code or hiring a developer. Shopify is an optimized e-commerce platform that allows you to launch your online store within a few hours. While Wix has a broader horizon of features, it helps you create any website for any purpose, including an e-commerce store. In the beginning, Shopify was created to be an online platform for sellers, so it was rich in features required explicitly for selling online, while Wix was more of a content-driven platform.
But over the years, both platforms have evolved. Shopify’s content features have improved, while Wix has added amazing e-commerce features making both the platforms a lot more advanced than they used to be. But integrated with History, Shopify remains at the top for online stores while Wix has the upper hand in content-driven websites.
Here are some similarities between Shopify and Wix that both platforms share.
- Both have drag & drop user interfaces
- Both are founded on open-source technologies
- Cloud Hosting
- Both help you create, launch, and run your e-commerce business
- SEO friendly
Apart from these similarities, there are some key differences in features that you need to know between Shopify vs. Wix.
Let’s understand that with this table:
Features | Shopify | Wix |
Rating | 4.3/5 | 4.2/5 |
Shipping | More options | Cheaper than Shopify |
Check-out & Payment Gateways | 100 Payment gateways | 75 Payment gateway |
POS | Internationally Available | More support in the US than in other countries |
Dropshipping | Better service | Fewer Options |
Social Media | Shopify connects with most social media channels | Wix only connects with Facebook and Instagram |
Ecommerce | Unlimited products, speed optimization, | A limited number of products and slow speed optimization |
Pricing | Expensive | Cheaper option with all the necessary features |
SEO | Fully responsive site, automatic | Responsive |
Security | SSL Certificates, PCI compliant | Free SSL, PCI compliant, |
So, this table is an eye-opener for people confused between Shopify vs. Wix. Both have unique features as well as specific functions that make them stand out. Now let’s talk about pricing and other business aspects.
Shopify vs. Wix: What’s the Pricing?
We give an upper hand to Wix when it comes to pricing. Wix offers a basic plan to users, which is free. Though it has limited functions, it’s good to start with your website. While Shopify only offers 14 days of a free trial, and after that, you will have to pay $29 monthly. If we compare both platforms in terms of being expensive or cheap, Shopify is still quite costly. Wix offers a good website for $29 to $50 a month, while with Shopify, you pay $29 to $200 a month. So, Wix is the winner here. It offers you a good website at low prices. Shopify works out to be expensive when comparing the price of their plans with Wix.
Transaction and Credit Card Fee Comparison:
Wix wins here too. It doesn’t charge any fee for processing transactions. It is free of cost for all users. On the other hand, Shopify charges 2% – 3% if you choose any payment gateway other than Shopify Payment. However, both platforms charge credit card processing fee, which is as below:
- If you use Wix Payments: The fee is 2.9% + 30c in the US
- If you use Shopify Payments: The fee is 2.4% to 2.9%. The fee also depends on the type of plan you have.
Also, Shopify limits the members who can manage the store while Wix allows unlimited members to manage it. However, there is no setup fee involved to use both platforms.
Here is how the pricing looks for both the platforms:
Here are the additional features you get with each pricing plan:
Shopify Features:
Wix Features:
What’s the difference?
In all the above features, Shopify is on top. It offers more additional features than Wix, but we compare the pricing, Wix is the winner. It offers low price plans and additional features as well. Shopify has better features, but Wix is cheaper, and it offers you a website for free!
Who provides Better Shipping Options?
Now let’s move to the shipping comparison on Shopify vs. Wix. Shopify offers you the lowest shipping rates and has more options than Wix. The platform is integrated with Express, DHL, FedEx, USPS, and many more companies. That’s why Shopify, most of the time, offers customers free packaging, free shipping, and other discounts.
Using the Shopify calculator, you can build your strategy to understand shopping costs and shipping options. In short, Shopify is customer-friendly and has the upper hand in international and domestic shipping. We don’t enjoy these perks with Wix as you need to use third-party apps to offer these services.
Templates and Design
Both the platforms offer free themes, but Wix provides you around 800+ free themes to use, while Shopify offers you only 71 free themes with 2 to 3 different variants for each theme.
So, Wix offers more free themes with more paid themes to get. But in terms of quality, Shopify themes are more robust and have better functionality. Shopify also lets you set the tone, color, and other website design elements. On the other hand, Wix offers a custom-built platform to its users. This means that it only provides a basic framework, and the rest is up to you.
Wix and Shopify both offer various range of industry themes – which means you can select the theme based on the industry of your business.
Shopify Themes:
Wix Themes:
Themes Functionality:
Shopify themes are more functional as compared to Wix. Shopify also lets you customize the website’s code, while Wix restricts its users from using custom codes.
If you want to switch templates, Shopify gives you access to coding and HTML, and you can easily switch the templates, while Wix doesn’t have this functionality. If you want to switch a theme, you will have to create a website from the start.
So, Shopify has the upper hand in themes functionality and template designs.
Which Platform has Better Cart, Inventory, and Management Features?
Shopify provides better cart, inventory, and management features to its users. You can manage your customers through Facebook Messenger using Shopify. You get to manage your tax rates on Shopify. On the other hand, Wix only provides basic functionality to its users.
Following are the features that give an advantage to Shopify users:
- Buy Button feature for already built website
- Discount code creation
- Product life cycle management
Shopify is better than Wix regarding cart, inventory, and management features. However, Wix lets you two reminders while Shopify sens it once in terms of cart abandonment recovery.
Tax Options:
Wix only provides you with limited tax options, while Shopify provides you with more tax options to choose from and has tax calculator tools to manage your taxes.
Payment Options and Gateway: Which Platform is Better?
Shopify provides over 100 payment gateways and 50+ alternative payment options. It also provides Verified by Visa and Mastercard Secure codes. In comparison, Wix has 75 payment gateways. On the other hand, Shopify also provides a better user experience. Since it allows customers to access order history, order status, shipping status, and refund history. You can also add the feature to the check-out form, making it optional or mandatory a better option to track customers. Wix only can track customers but doesn’t have any other functionalities.
This table makes it easy to understand features associated with both platforms:
Shopify | Wix |
100 payment gateways (PayPal, Stripe, Apple Pay, Amazon Pay, Klarna) | Main Payment Gateways: PayPal, Stripe, Square, |
100 currencies | Multiple currencies |
Transactions fee | No transaction fee |
Shopify (In-house) Payments | Wix (In-house) Payment |
Shopify has more options, but it has a transaction fee on each transaction. Wix has fewer options, but it doesn’t take any transaction fee when using a third-party payment gateway.
Blogging Feature:
Both the platforms share an equal advantage in blogging features. While Shopify has strong blog functionalities, Wix also provides similar blogging functionality. You can create a blog and create categories to manage it.
Blogging lets you scale your business and reach more customers. It also helps you maintain your followers on social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and Google Plus.
Mobile Apps Associated with Both Platforms:
Both the platforms have native apps. Wix’s app is called Wix owner and has a better rating and functionality than Shopify App.
Shopify has two main apps; Shopify and Shopify POS. Shopify is for the store owners to manage their business and sell online. Shopify POS is more user-generated, and it lets you create a better experience for your customers.
Wix App Market vs. Shopify Store: Which is Better?
Wix App Market has around 300 apps to choose from. You can use the app to design your website. On the other hand, Shopify has about 7100 apps to choose from. Since Shopify has more apps, you get more functionality to add to your website.
Shopify Store:
Wix Store:
Most important apps on both stores are for communication, design elements, email marketing, product reviews, rating management, shipping, delivery, SEO-related functions, etc.
Major Points about Shopify Store:
- Include Shopify and third-party apps
- It has nine categories
- Free apps
- More than 7100 apps
Major points about Wix Market:
- Free apps
- Up to 300 apps
- It has six categories
- Include Wix apps and third-party tools
Shopify is the leader here since they provide more apps on their platform. You can use these apps to improve website functionality and improve sales.
Content Management System (CMS) Feature: Which Platform is Better?
Both Shopify and Wix have their own CMS tool. Wix has its in-house developed CMS tool, while Shopify uses multiple systems for content management of websites. While Wix uses only one CMS, Shopify uses three different CMS tools.
The three stages of CMS are:
Content creation, content management, and content delivery.
While using Wix, you can only use their CMS, which is slightly difficult for non-technical users to create good quality content in a short time. On the other hand, Shopify provides you with a variety of CMS tools that helps create and modify content fast and easily. You can also get more resources from their store to create content.
Which Platform Provides Better Email Marketing Support?
Both platforms help you connect with your customers via email marketing. Wix lets you send three email news better to your up to 5000 customers without causing you anything. While Shopify has 2500 emails per month limit for free accounts, you pay $1 for more than 1000 emails sent in the month for advanced plans. However, no platform has an ideal email marketing automation setup. If you have basic email marketing requirements and you rarely depend on emails, Wix Email Setup can provide you with better facilities on their paid plans.
Wix or Shopify: Which is Better in SEO?
Businesses often ask this question, “Which platform is better for SEO?” The answer to this question is both Shopify and Wix are equally good in SEO. Shopify got a better rating for SEO since it has more features and options for natural search optimization. On the other hand, Wix has more features for the website to become visible on social media.
They handle basic SEO requirements like meta descriptions, titles, alt tags, meta keywords, etc. However, Wix lagged as their websites aren’t mobile-friendly, and Shopify has its plus point, i.e., mobile-friendliness. Since Google prefers mobile-friendly platforms and ranks them better, Shopify is the winner. It doesn’t end here. Shopify also lets you use Accelerated Mobile Pages, which further assist you in growing your website in organic searches.
Accelerated Mobile Pages AMP is a new Google-backed technology that enables you to create web pages lightning fast. When you use this technology in product pages, Google will prefer your page over the others in mobile-friendly searches. Though AMP isn’t free, you would need to use third-party developers to integrate it.
Wix also offers a unique feature, i.e., SEO Wix – if you are new to SEO and don’t know anything about it. SEO Wix will help you to improve your website ranking.
Security: Which is Better?
Both Shopify and Wix have their own security features, and you need to compare them on your own. Both platforms are far better than WordPress because, with Shopify and Wix, you don’t worry about adding any plugins or code to the website. You get SSL certificates, PCI Compliance, and 2-factor authentication. SSL certificates are necessary to encrypt user information on retailers’ sites; PCI compliance is also impotent for eCommerce retailers.
Wix vs. Shopify: Which is Better in Customer Support?
Customer support is another deciding factor when choosing a platform. Both platforms provide excellent and quick support to their customers. Wix includes support via chat, phone, and email, while Shopify has a chat widget, phone support, and online documentation. Shopify customer support is better than Wix. Shopify offers a wide range of community, blogs, and video tutorials to get help from other experts worldwide. They also have a well-established FAQs section on their website for quick reference.
But the point is both platforms fail to provide stellar customer service because none of them integrate AI into their system. Since Human-Centered support can’t handle queries these days, AI chatbots have become necessary to solve these problems.
AI-Powered Chatbot – the Future of Stellar Customer Support
This is where Clepher has been winning the race. Because Clepher helps clients create AI-powered chatbots that can support chat support on holidays. Chatbots can easily handle queries like, “Where is my order?” and “When will my order arrive?” and can even take orders for you. With Clepher, you can create personalized chatbots on all channels available on Shopify and Wix, including web chat, email, Facebook Messenger, Instagram Direct Message. You can even create mobile-optimized chatbots for Shopify and Wix mobile apps.
Conclusion
To conclude, both platforms have their features, functional benefits, and pros and cons. You can choose your platform by keeping your business requirements in mind. If you need an advanced eCommerce website, then Shopify is the better option for you as it provides more options than Wix to manage and market your online store effectively.
On the other hand, if you need a medium or small-scale eCommerce website with more focus on content creation, you are looking at a low-budget platform. Wix is the best option for you as it offers you basic features and benefits along with a reasonable price. If you integrate AI-powered chatbots with your Shopify and Wix websites, you can expect to get even better customer service. You should definitely try Clepher for this purpose.
Wix vs. Shopify: Which is Better for Ecommerce in 2022? Both platforms are coming up with new features to handle eCommerce better than before. We believe that both platforms will be equally good for eCommerce in 2022.
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