Wix vs Shopify: Complete Comparison 2025

Not so long ago, comparing Wix and Shopify would seem a little pointless. While both are known for creating online spaces for businesses, Wix was seen as the go-to place for creating powerful websites for all purposes, whereas Shopify specialised in just creating online stores. So while there was some crossover, it was limited.

Fast forward to 2025, and the comparison is much more justified. Wix has evolved into a service that offers highly-intuitive, effective ecommerce platforms where businesses can sell their products and services.

And while we aren’t here to suggest that Wix is about to completely disrupt Shopify as a market leader, it’s definitely worth comparing the two to see which is best for your specific business needs.

In this article, we’ll be matching Wix and Shopify across a wide range of different features and metrics, providing you with all the information you’ll need to determine which is the better option for you.

Quick Comparison Table: Wix vs Shopify at a Glance

Before we take a deep look at the two contenders, we thought it’d be a good idea to give a quick breakdown on the types of metrics and features we’ll be comparing, and how Wix and Shopify stack up in each regard.

As you can see, there are some important crossovers between the two platforms which highlights why Wix has been able to gain some notable traction in the ecommerce space. However, there are also some key differences that may influence which one is best for your business, which we’ll discuss in more detail as this article progresses.

Core Differences Between Wix and Shopify

Fundamentally, while the two platforms have several similarities in 2025, the core difference between the two sites is their main purpose.

Ecommerce Platform vs. Website Builder

While its overall traffic has shrunk a little over the last few years (largely thanks to the high number of competitors and alternatives now available), Shopify remains the most popular website within the host provider sector. Founded in 2006, its main objective was always to be an online space where individuals could set up their store and sell their products across the world.

And as the internet grew larger and the world of online commerce grew more complex, Shopify was able to evolve with it. As such, each store now comes with a whole range of powerful ecommerce optimization tools and features such as inventory management, shipping integration, marketing automation, and analytics.

Coincidentally, Wix was also founded in 2006 and born out of a frustration surrounding complex website building and development. The goal was to make things as easy as possible for anyone to set up an online space to promote their business, create a blog, show off outfits, and any and all other reasons why someone might want a website. However, initially, it was not a place for online selling.

It wasn’t until 2020 when Wix began to really make its presence known in the ecommerce sector. But even with this slight shift, it still maintained its core purpose as the go-to place for building business websites rather than transitioning fully into the ecommerce sector.

So while it does offer key ecommerce tools such as integrated inventory management, built-in analytics features and a ‘buy-now-pay-later’ option, it lacks the depth of tools that you can find on Shopify specific to ecommerce.

Ease of Use

As mentioned, Wix’s entire existence came about when the site’s creators became disillusioned with how difficult it was to set up a website without having in-depth development knowledge. Unsurprisingly, its ease-of-use (particularly for beginners) is excellent. It uses a simple drag-and-drop design tactic to allow users to add features without the need for complex coding.

Once you’ve selected your initial template, you can add your chosen features using the icons on the left-hand side. All text boxes are editable and moveable, giving a high level of control and customization throughout. Additionally, Wix comes with dozens of easily digestible tutorials in case you get stuck.

Shopify is also very user-friendly when it comes to beginners. You can find yourself up and running in a very short space of time.

However, what quickly becomes apparent is that the more multi-faceted your store is, the more complex the process becomes. Running an online store, by its very nature, is much more difficult than maintaining a website. There’s a lot more to configure, which can make Shopify feel a little overwhelming at times.

One advantage that Shopify does have is the ability to change your website theme without losing content. With Wix, you’ll need to manually transfer data and features onto your new template, which can be a time-consuming process.

Onboarding Experience

Shopify is excellent for creating tailored user experiences when first starting. This is made possible by a series of survey questions during the onboarding process that progressively delve deeper into what your store is and what it does. It allows you to tell Shopify which specific features you will need (dropshipping, affiliate marketing etc.) as well as where your existing audience is primarily located.

Wix also has a very straightforward onboarding process that offers some tailoring during the initial steps. Like Shopify, it will take you through a series of survey questions where you can let it know what you want your website and store to achieve. It also gives you the opportunity to add features at this early stage.

Once you’ve completed the initial survey, you’ll be taken through your dashboard where you can complete each section of your store individually.

Templates & Design Flexibility

There’s no question that when it comes to pure aesthetics and design flexibility, Wix is the clear winner with over 2500 free templates. Wix understands that every business is different, and so every website should be different. The big reason for this flexibility is because Wix remains a place for all websites and creators, not just those involved in ecommerce.

Wix has also incorporated AI effectively into the design process. With Wix Artificial Design Intelligence (ADI), you can ask for a fully designed website to be generated based on a series of questions related to your preferences.

Where Wix suffers a little is the lack of flexibility between changing templates. Once you’ve selected one for your website, it’s an unwieldy process to change in the event of a business rebrand. There are also some reservations as to how effectively its design features translate from desktop to mobile.

Shopify also offers a large number of themes - however, most of them come with steep one-time prices (sometimes up to $500) which isn’t ideal for small businesses or sole traders. They are all stylish and highly responsive though, so if you have it within the budget, the upgrade is worth it.

There is perhaps less diversity in terms of design preferences with Shopify. Unlike Wix, all themes are centered around ecommerce and creating online stores, so you’ll quickly find that many share similar layouts and features. However, if you do know your CSS and HTML, you can use the live editor to make some quite nuanced changes.

Ecommerce Features: Which One Powers Your Store Better?

We’ve touched on some of the fundamentals for each site and how they measure up against one another. Now let’s take a closer look at ecommerce specifically.

The simple answer to the question is that Shopify has been built for ecommerce, so it can make the claim for being the obvious choice. However, Wix is not without its strengths. And in certain situations, you might find that Wix is actually the better solution for powering your online store.

Product Management & Inventory

One of the key advantages that Shopify has over Wix is related to the number of products that can be listed on the site. While Wix is still very generous - its upper limit is 50,000 - Shopify allows for an unlimited number of products, making it the better choice for businesses with huge and varied operations.

However, Wix maintains its edge in terms of customization over Shopify. While the total number of products is limited, the variants available for each product is 1,000, superior to Shopify’s 100.

In terms of inventory management, Shopify allows for a far more in-depth and nuanced experience with advanced analytics and reporting features, allowing shop owners a far broader overview of their stock performance and forecasts. While it covers all of the basics such as updating and adding inventory, bulk edits, and multi-location tracking, its easy integration with third-party apps allows for massive control over large-scale operations.

Additionally, Shopify’s native POS service allows store owners to sync inventory levels across both online and physical locations to create a dynamic omnichannel system.

Wix comes with everything you need to get started with basic inventory management, including the ability to manually list products as out of stock. It’s quite effective at automatically updating quantities, but a lack of automated alerts can hinder fast-paced operations. There is also no centralized inventory system in place, though this can be enabled with third-party apps.

Payment Gateways & Transaction Fees

Both Wix and Shopify come with their own in-built payment gateways (Wix Payments and Shopify Payments), and both will charge a processing fee for each payment you accept from customers. However, Shopify offers a wider range of additional payment gateways (over 100), giving customers a good deal of flexibility. For Wix, you’re looking at around 80 payment gateways, which is still a considerable number.

Wix Payments is currently available in 15 countries and is perhaps the better option for merchants within Europe, since their transaction fees are much lower (€0.30 flat fee plus 1.9% per transaction). Wix also has the additional advantage of no added transaction fees when using a third-party processor (though you’ll still have to be aware of the processor’s fees).

For native US transaction fees, both charge $0.30 plus 2.9% per transaction. However, these rates reduce with Shopify depending on which plan you opt for. At the highest tier plan, Shopify Plus, you’re looking at $0.30 plus 2.15% per transaction, with additional reductions when using Shopify Payments.

However, if you don’t choose to use Shopify Payments, you could end up running into quite substantial additional fees, as Shopify adds a 0.5%-2% transaction fee when using a third-party provider.

Shipping & Fulfillment Options

Without the use of third-party apps, many of which are quite pricey, Shopify is the far superior option when it comes to shipping and fulfillment.

This is largely thanks to its dedicated Shopify Fulfillment Network (SFN), which all of its customers gain access to. This will allow you to set up a robust dropship ping service, which Wix will be hard-pressed to replicate. Shopify also has close connections with well-established third-party fulfillment services such as Ship Bob and Ship station.

Additionally, Shopify easily facilitates other types of fulfillment methods, such as on-demand printing, thanks to its wide range of apps and partners that are available through the Shopify App Store.

With Shopify, you can take care of everything in-house. You’ll be able to print your own shipping labels and monitor deliveries, while receiving huge discounts from many of the leading couriers in the US, including UPS and DHL. You’ll also gain access to more advanced and nuanced shipping logistical strategies, such as split shipping and order rerouting, as well as offering additional benefits to your customers such as free shipping and carrier-calculated rates.

Wix allows for all of the key functions that will allow you ship your products to where they need to go. But it’s more practical than extensive. You’re able to calculate real-time shipping rates based on a number of key metrics such as size and weight, and you are able to offer free shipping to give your customers the best possible deal.

Despite these solid options, Wix offers no native fulfillment network, meaning that you will have to rely heavily on third-party integration which only adds to the complexity.

Sales Features & Conversion Tools

The ultimate goal of any online store is to convert leads into sales to drive revenue, so which platform is better at achieving this?

It’s difficult to look beyond Shopify in this instance. Its in-built, one-click checkout system, Shop Pay, offers a streamlined experience for customers when making their purchases. On top of standard features such as native payment support and abandoned cart recovery, users can also add additional features such as ‘You May Also Like’ recommendations to deliver a highly customizable experience and to try and secure additional sales.

Additionally, it’s possible to create post-purchase surveys for useful insights and loyalty programs through Shopify. And Shopify is also highly-optimized, making it the ideal choice for mobile shopping.

Wix struggles to offer anything that you won’t find on Shopify, instead relying on a solid set of reliable purchasing and conversion features that are user-friendly for beginners. There is point-of-service (POS) functionality available for both, though it’s currently only available for US customers with Wix, adding further evidence to the notion that Shopify is your best bet if you have an international customer base.

One area that Wix does have a slight advantage in is that Wix offers in-built multichannel selling through avenues such as Google, eBay, Amazon, and social media sources. You can integrate this into Shopify with minimal fuss, though it can cost extra.

SEO, Blog & Content Capabilities

A vital factor linked to a store’s overall success is its SEO functionality and how easy it is for users to find the store through search queries. Businesses can also drive additional traffic to their sites through effective content marketing and an engaging social media presence. So which platform integrates these factors into their infrastructure better?

Blogging Tools & Content Management

It’s here where Wix starts to offer a considerable fightback when comparing the two platforms. Its versatility in that it was never intended as just a means to build an online store really comes into play, with artificial intelligence (AI) being used effectively to bolster Wix’s blogging and content capabilities.

In a recent press release, Wix unveiled exactly what users could now expect from them when it comes to blog creation and idea generation, with AI-drafting, keyword optimization, and integration into Wix Business Solutions all key features. As with everything related to Wix, it's easy to use and highly intuitive.

You’ll also find that you can design and arrange your content using a variety of styles with Wix, such as galleries, media players, and content strips. This gives a huge level of flexibility and customization for Wix, but can sometimes impact the CMS’s responsiveness and loading times.

Shopify’s blogging features are much more pragmatic without additional third-party apps - they are present, but they’re all geared around promoting products and services. There is less flexibility in terms of design, but this simplicity often makes the transition from desktop to mobile a lot smoother.

On-Page SEO Features

As both platforms are designed to drive traffic to your store, it’s not surprising that both are very strong when it comes to on-page SEO optimization.

At a basic level, both Wix and Shopify offer simple and effective customization options for meta titles, meta descriptions, and URLs. However, URL structure is an area where Shopify needs improvement. It forces keywords to come at the end of the URL, which can hurt SEO performance, and there are elements of the URL that cannot be removed. This is not an issue for Wix, which offers full URL customization.

Another area where Wix excels is related to keyword data, thanks to its partnership with Semrush. This allows for optimized content for each post, with all SEO data readily available to view on the Wix dashboard. Additionally, Wix offers an excellent SEO checklist tool which covers all aspects of a site’s SEO performance, which is something that Shopify lacks.

Technical SEO & Performance

A customer’s attention is everything, and it’s often fleeting. That’s why you should always take a close look at a platform’s performance metrics in terms of speed and uptime to make sure your customers aren’t left frustrated by slow or unresponsive store fronts.

Shopify seems to have the edge in this area, particularly in out-of-the-box implementation with automated image optimization and a Mobile Largest Contentful Paint (LCP) score of 3.9 seconds, compared to an LCP score of 5.1 seconds for Wix. This rises to 2.1 seconds and 2.8 seconds respectively when optimized.

It’s a similar picture when measuring the Time to Interactive (TTI) metric across both platforms. Research indicates that Shopify holds the edge, with a score of 4.1 seconds compared to Wix’s score of 5.3 seconds.

Though Wix does seem to struggle in this regard against its competitors, it has been noted that the platform is making consistent improvements with a performance increase of 73% across all major metrics since 2020. Mobile optimization remains a key area that still needs further work, with mobile scores around 47% lower than when tested for desktop.

App Ecosystem & Integrations

While both platforms have excellent base-level infrastructures, Wix is considered to be the better option in terms of in-house functionality and native features. This is perhaps because creating and running a large-scale online store is a highly complex process, and many of Wix’s features aren’t directly related to ecommerce.

As a result, Shopify has a much wider range of third-party apps and systems (over 8,000) that can be easily integrated into your store, compared to Wix’s more modest total of around 800. Additionally, there are over 36,000 registered Shopify Partners who are working to bring new and exciting features that will be available to all Shopify stores.

This sheer number does sometimes feel a little overwhelming, so it can take a little time to find the apps that are exactly what your business requires.

While Wix does have considerably less to offer in terms of app integration, particularly considering not all of what they offer is related to ecommerce, its recent acquisition of Base44 indicates that it is actively looking to increase these numbers to give its customer base more choice and scope.

Pricing Comparison: Which Platform Offers Better Value?

Now let’s take a look at what is often one of the biggest factors involved in choosing a platform - the cost.

Starting with Wix, there are currently four plans available, with the cheapest starting at just $17p/m and the most expensive setting you back $159p/m.

Unlike Shopify, Wix does offer a free plan, giving its users a considerable opportunity to test out features before committing to payment. Though while there is technically no time limit on how long you can keep the plan for, the presence of ads and storage limitations might not make it a viable long-term option.

Wix offers discounts on annual billing when compared to monthly payments (around 24% on the core plan), with the goal to incentivize a long-term commitment. It also offers a free domain name for one year, though it’s essential to note that this will turn into an annual payment starting around $14.95 per year once expired.

You should also be aware that the Light plan doesn’t offer ecommerce features. So if your goal is to create an online store, you’ll need to begin with the Core plan. You’ll also need to spend an additional $6/mo if you wish to acquire branded email accounts.

Shopify plans start at $29/mo which come with all the core ecommerce tools you’ll need to run a functional online store. However, Shopify was built to handle large-scale, highly complex stores, which is why its most comprehensive and expensive plan will set you back a whopping $2300/mo.

While it doesn’t offer a free plan, it does offer a free 3-day trial for customers to get a feel for the system and test out its functionality.

So which one is better in terms of value for money?

To help find the answer, we’ll compare Shopify’s Basic plan with Wix’s Core plan, as this is the first offering from Wix to offer ecommerce features.

Based on this comparison, even at its most basic level Shopify seems to be the winner in terms of overall features. And for only $2/mo extra, it would seem to be the better value.

However, payment fees can quickly add up if not monitored carefully, which makes the lack of additional fees from Wix very appealing.

Support, Community, & Learning Resources

When it comes to business support, neither seems to have universal acclaim, although Shopify does appear to have the edge. There are a number of channels that customers can choose from if they require support, including an AI assistant which seems to be well-regarded. There is  also email support and, in the event of urgent issues, phone support, as well as a dedicated community support.

Wix offers many of the same forms of support, though you need to be on one of the higher-tiered plans to receive priority callbacks. There is a Help Centre available, though no real evidence of community support forums.

Both platforms offer additional learning resources which is good to see, with extensive tutorials and guides to help users through most common issues.

Hosting & Security

Both platforms offer high levels of robust security features, which is unsurprising given the sensitive nature of customer payments and data protection.

Let’s take a look at some of the core security features you would expect to find on all reputable platforms.

As you can see, there is little to separate the two when it comes to site security, which is highly reassuring for all new users.

Migration: Moving Between Wix and Shopify

There might come a time when you feel like a change of platform is necessary for the benefit of your business. A common question that will often pop up is whether it is possible to fully migrate your store from Wix to Shopify, or vice-versa. Is it something that can be done?

The short answer is yes, particularly if you’re moving from Wix to Shopify. As we’ve covered, Wix is a great option for small- to medium-sized businesses or sole traders that are just starting out. But in terms of scalability, it is a little lacking. So many businesses that are looking to expand and grow considerably will likely need a new platform like Shopify.

You are able to transfer datasets on areas such as product information, customer details, historical orders, and content by way of manually exporting from Wix and importing into Shopify, often with the help of third-party apps such as Matrixify. These types of apps usually require a fee, but the time and hassle they save can be enormous.

What won’t transfer directly over is the external infrastructure. Wix apps won’t work on Shopify, so you’ll need to find an equivalent for your new site. And while Shopify will most likely have what you need, it might take some time to get used to the new functionality or processes.

Another major challenge is the transfer of URLs for SEO purposes. Wix and Shopify URLs are structured differently, so you will need to carry out 301 redirects on all of your site links to make sure they work with your new store.

While you can complete this process manually, it is often recommended to hire a professional service for something this important to make sure everything is done correctly. This could set you back up to $500 or more, so you’ll need to factor this into any budget or cash flow considerations before committing.

Can I Use Wix or Shopify for Free?

Wix offers a free plan that you’ll be able to use indefinitely. It is the most basic plan available, and as such, comes with considerable restrictions on storage amounts and features. But for a very small store, it still often does the job.

Shopify doesn’t offer a free plan but you are able to use a free 3-day trial across all plans to get a taste of whether it is the right platform for you.

Which Platform is Better for International Sales?

Both platforms present the ability to cater for international audiences. Shopify has the most in-depth, robust features with Shopify Markets offering multi-currency checkouts and automated duties collections. Thanks to its massive third-party app ecosystem, it’s quite easy to set up other things such as prepaid labeling and Delivery Duty Paid (DDP) shipping.

Wix is actually the better option when it comes to multi-lingual support and the fact that you can customize URLs much more easily makes it effective at delivering global SEO performance.

Is Shopify Good for Drop shipping in 2025?

Dropshipping is still a valid fulfillment option with Shopify. This is largely thanks to its massive network of third-party apps to automate much of the heavy legwork and supplier integration. It’s also still one of the easiest methods of selling products for beginners, with no coding required to launch a store.

And with Shopify’s huge user base and stellar reputation, it’s very possible to scale and expand quickly on the platform.

The Bottom Line

Setting up your own online store is both empowering and rewarding, with the potential for huge revenue gains and financial freedom.

While Wix has made huge strides in the last five years to become a genuine player in the online store sector, it’s clear that Shopify still leads the way. It was built with the specific purpose to power online stores, and with a vast network of apps and programs to support its out-of-the-box infrastructure, it’s difficult to see it being toppled anytime soon.

If you have an online store set up, or if you’re thinking of doing so in the near future, then why not consider working with Influize? We are a full-service, digital marketing agency that’s been helping customers enhance their online businesses for over 20 years. We can assist with anything from content planning and idea generation, all the way through to in-depth website development and everything in between.

If you’re ready to take your business to the next level, then contact us today and let’s see what we can do for you.