· Giraffe
Shopify vs Wix for new online sellers
You're picking a place to sell online, and the shortlist keeps coming back to Shopify and Wix. Both are hosted, both take cards, both get you a store without renting a server. The useful question isn't which one is "better" — it's which one matches how you plan to sell.
Who this is for
This is for someone deciding between platforms before the first product goes live: a small catalogue, maybe a service mixed in, and no full-time developer on staff. If you already know you need deep custom code and own the server, skip ahead to the WooCommerce note below.
How they differ in practice
Wix is a website builder with ecommerce bolted on. The drag-and-drop editor is the star: you can place almost anything anywhere, and plenty of templates lean brochure-first with a shop attached.
Shopify is an ecommerce platform with a themeable storefront. Hosting, SSL, PCI compliance and checkout come with the plan. The editor works in sections inside a theme, not freeform canvas mode — which feels stricter at first and steadier when you're iterating on products, discounts and orders every day.
Both handle hosting for you. Neither asks you to patch servers. Check current plan prices on Shopify's pricing page and Wix's plans page; figures move often enough that quoting them here would age badly.
Storefront and apps
Wix gives you more visual freedom out of the box. If your brand needs a site that looks like a magazine or a portfolio with a few products in the corner, that editor is hard to beat. Shopify's themes are built around product pages, collections and cart — fewer freeform layouts, more commerce-shaped ones. Shopify cites 70+ no-code themes; Wix's template library is larger overall, with a smaller slice aimed at online stores.
When you need a feature the platform doesn't ship, you reach for apps. Shopify's App Store is deep on ecommerce tools — shipping, subscriptions, reviews, wholesale — and Shopify cites thousands of apps. Wix's App Market is smaller and broader: bookings, restaurants and site widgets sit next to shop tools. Wix also ships more marketing pieces natively, so you may install fewer add-ons early on.
Payments and selling
Both offer their own payment processor (Shopify Payments and Wix Payments) plus third-party gateways. Card processing fees always apply. On Shopify, using a gateway other than Shopify Payments can add a platform transaction fee that varies by plan — check the pricing page for your country rather than trusting an old comparison chart. Wix generally doesn't layer an extra platform fee on top of third-party gateways the same way, but availability of Wix Payments and local methods still depends on where you sell.
Shopify leans harder into multi-channel and international selling: markets, multi-currency and sales channels are first-class. Wix can sell across currencies and languages too, and it has a neat edge if one cart needs to mix physical products with bookings or services — something Shopify doesn't do out of the box. At small scale both handle inventory and orders; Shopify's admin tends to feel more like a warehouse once volume grows.
SEO and ownership
Both give you the basics: editable titles and meta descriptions, custom URLs, automatic sitemaps. Shopify handles a lot of technical ecommerce SEO for you (canonicals, product-friendly URL patterns). Wix adds guided checklists that help if search is new to you. For a brochure site with a small shop, either is fine. For a catalogue you expect to rank on product queries, Shopify's ecommerce-first structure is usually the safer default.
You're renting either platform. Export products and customers before you need to leave. Migration is doable both ways — just never fun — so pick for the next few years of selling, not the next afternoon of design.
When WooCommerce still fits
If you want full ownership of the stack, custom checkout code and plugins that run on your own server, WooCommerce on WordPress is still the usual answer — with the hosting and maintenance trade-offs that come with it. We've covered that trade-off in a short series: cost, maintenance, checkout and apps vs plugins.
Who each one suits
Choose Wix if the website is the product — design-led brand, services or bookings alongside a small catalogue, and you want a polished site fast without learning a commerce-shaped editor.
Choose Shopify if selling is the product — growing SKU count, discounts and apps you'll swap as you scale, multi-channel or multi-currency plans, and an admin built around orders rather than pages.
Neither "wins" in the abstract. Try the free trial on both with the same three products and one real payment method. The platform that feels boring after an hour of admin work is usually the one you'll still like in a year.
FAQ
Is Shopify better than Wix for ecommerce?
For a growing catalogue, discounts, apps and multi-channel selling, Shopify is usually the safer default. Wix can sell online fine — it's a website builder with ecommerce bolted on — but Shopify's admin and App Store are built around orders rather than pages.
Can I switch from Wix to Shopify later?
Yes. Export products and customers before you leave. Migration is doable both ways — just never fun — so pick for the next few years of selling, not the next afternoon of design.
Which is cheaper, Shopify or Wix?
It depends on how you sell. Both are hosted plans with payment processing on top. Check current prices on Shopify's and Wix's own pricing pages — figures move often enough that quoting them here would age badly. Factor in apps on Shopify, and whether you need bookings or services mixed with products (a Wix edge).
When is Wix enough?
When the website is the product: a design-led brand, services or bookings alongside a small catalogue, and you want a polished site fast without learning a commerce-shaped editor.
If Shopify fits how you plan to sell, try it with the same three products you'd put on Wix.