Category: Ecommerce Website Builders

Go to the top

Need to see the provider side-by-side? Look through our helpful comparison table:

Swipe right to see more

0 out of
0

• backward
• forward

SELL ON FREE PLAN	BEST IN TEST
Square Online	Shopify	Wix	WooCommerce
Overall rating 3.8	Overall rating 4.8	Overall rating 4.8	Overall rating 4.2
Starting Price $29	Starting Price $29	Starting Price $29 $26.10 with code “TAKE10”	Starting Price Depends on web host
Transaction Fees 2.9% + $0.30	Transaction Fees 2.9% + $0.30	Transaction Fees 2.9% + $0.30	Transaction Fees 2.9% + $0.30 (+1% for non-US customers)
Free plan or free trial Free plan	Free plan or free trial 3-day free trial, then 1 month for $1	Free plan or free trial Free plan	Free plan or free trial Free to install
Sales features 3.3	Sales features 4.8	Sales features 4.2	Sales features 4.1
Visit Square	Visit Shopify	Visit Wix	View WooCommerce
See our Square Online review	See our Shopify review	See our Wix review	See our WooCommerce review

You can also see where each platform falls in terms of the amount of sales features you get versus the average price. Take a look at the quadrant graph below for a quick comparison; the top left part of the graph is the ideal location!

Here we can see where each provider falls. The top left quadrant is the ideal location. Source: Website Builder Expert

Or try our handy quiz!

Can You Sell for Free?

Short answer: Yes! 

Long answer: It’s not that simple… while Square Online does indeed have a free plan which you can sell on, you will have to pay a fee of 2.9% + 30¢ on every transaction. There are also limited features to deal with, as you’ll have no access to vital ecommerce features like taking PayPal payments or abandoned cart recovery unless you upgrade to a paid plan.

All the builders on this list give you some kind of free access, but to sell and reach each provider’s true ecommerce potential will require paying. There are four different variations of what can be described as a ‘free ecommerce platform’:

Selling for Free

With Square Online, you can sell on its free plan.

Free Trial

Shopify, our best-rated ecommerce provider, offers a 3-day free trial in which you can test out all its features and build your store – but you won’t be able to actually sell till you choose a plan. Shopify also offers a 3-month paid trial of only $1 per month for new customers which you will be able to sell.

Free To Build

Wix allows you to build your online store for free for as long as you want, but cannot accept any payments till you upgrade to a plan.

Free To Install

WooCommerce is an ecommerce plugin for WordPress, which means you can download and install it for free – however, you will have to be responsible for things like hosting and integration of any third-party features you need, all of which have subscription fees.

Go to the top

For food businesses selling online and offline

Upgrade Cost:$29 per month

Square Online

Best for food-related online stores

Very Good

3.8

out of 5

• Quick setup
• Easy to use
• Not very scalable

Free plan available

Paid Plans: $12 – $79 / month

Pros

• Easy to track sales and abandoned carts
• Responsive help and support
• Seamless payments system

Cons

• Limited design freedom
• Few payment processing options
• Not great for large volume selling

Square Online Review

Visit Site

Square Online is the only ecommerce platform on this list that actually lets you sell for free. This is a major advantage for those starting a new online business or wanting a fresh start, as the money saved on start-up costs can now be put wherever else they may be needed.

What also sets Square Online apart is its range of POS systems, providing seamless synchronization between online and offline sales. For this reason, Square Online is perfect for food-related businesses, allowing you to sell your products in person in a store or market stall while still advertising your website.

This is what a finished Square Online site can look like. Key West Cocktail Company uses large, professional images which is great for enforcing your brand image.

While Square Online does indeed let you sell for free, it’s not as strong a platform as Shopify and Wix, only scoring 3.6 out of 5 overall in our research. Its design flexibility is very limited, not letting you choose a store theme till you upgrade. While you do get unlimited items to sell on the free plan, you have transaction fees to pay on each sale – 2.9% + $0.30 on each card payment. Though the plan is advertised as free, there’s always some cost.

Once I uploaded a handful of products, I could then add sections for featured items or categories to the page. Source: Website Builder Expert

Who Do We Recommend Square Online For?

• Square Online is recommended if you run a restaurant or business in the food industry. You can use its POS integrations to sync your online and offline sales, making it easy to keep track of all your payments in one place
• However, avoid Square Online if you run a very large store. Compared to platforms like Shopify, you’ll have fewer ways to sync your store across multiple sales channels

Limitations

• Ads – Large, unmovable footer at the bottom of your website.
• No custom domain – On the free plan, your site’s URL will have a .square.site/ following your website’s name.
• No website themes
• No PayPal integration
• No abandoned cart recovery
• No product reviews

All free plan Square Online users will have to contend with a large Square Online-branded footer for their website.

Upgrade Cost: $29 per month

Square Online’s pricing has two paid plans available:

• Plus – $29 per month billed annually
• Premium – $79 per month billed annually

The Plus plan gives you everything the free plan lacks, like PayPal access and the removal of ads, as well as a custom domain name (free for one year). It also includes important sales features like product reviews, subscriptions, item badges, and gifting options – making it ideal for small businesses.

The Premium plan is meant for larger stores and has all the features the Plus plan offers but with additional customer support, real-time shipping rates, and a lower transaction fee of 2.6% + 30¢.

Read our fullSquare Online Review for more.

More Information

Let us walk you through How to Customize a Square Online Website so you can your online store up and running

Go to the top

For selling manufactured products online

Trial Length: 3 Days (free), 1 Month (paid)

Upgrade Cost:$29 per month

Shopify

Best for fast-growing stores

Excellent

4.8

out of 5

• Built for large stores
• Great inventory tools
• Recommended by real users

Free trial available

Paid Plans: $29 – $299 / month

Pros

• Sell across many social media channels
• Abandoned cart recovery on all plans
• Easily track stock levels and orders

Cons

• Some features come separately as apps
• Transaction fees for most payment tools
• Switching themes is a hassle

Shopify Review

Visit Site

Shopify has the highest sales feature score in our research with 4.7 out of 5. If you are looking for the ultimate ecommerce solution – Shopify may well be it. While it does not have a free plan, Shopify does have two trials new customers can use: one free and one paid.

The free trial lasts for three days, and users will get access to all of Shopify’s store-building features, but you won’t be able to sell till you upgrade. The other trial is paid, costing only $1 for your first month. With this trial, you’ll get full Shopify access and be able to sell, which in our recommendation makes it the better of the two – but you won’t have to choose, as you can use one trial after the other.

Shopify is truly the full package. The aesthetic for this website, Lucky Dog Design, totally suits the product, plus owners can advertise deals with banners.

When you’re on the trial, you’ll get to choose a well-designed and ecommerce-optimized Shopify template. Be warned that most of them cost a one-off payment of between $170 – $320 – but there are 15 free themes.

Shopify’s internal sales and product features are some of the best we’ve tested, with unlimited products, abandoned cart recovery, discount codes, currency conversions, POS systems, marketing automation, and many, many more. If that’s not enough, you will also get access to over 8,000 Shopify apps to add to your store to cover any blind spots you may have.

In summary, Shopify is a one-stop platform for all online stores, though can sometimes be overkill if your store isn’t big enough.

When designing my test website, I added a range of elements to make my products pop on the homepage. Source: Website Builder Expert

Who Do We Recommend Shopify For?

• Shopify is ideal if you’re at the helm of a large or scaling business that sells manufactured products online. Its key sales features, from inventory management tools to integrations across multiple sales channels, will help you manage your store
• Avoid Shopify if you’re only selling a few products. Paying for an upgraded plan will be a waste of money if you don’t need the powerful sales features offered to run your store

Limitations

• Free on trial only – Free trial ends after three days and paid after one month
• No selling for free – You cannot sell on Shopify’s free trial and must choose the paid trial or upgrade
• No custom domain – Your free trial store will have a .myshopify.com at the end of it

The domain name automatically created for my trial store was pretty clunky and unprofessional, and ends in .myshopify.com. Source: Website Builder Expert

Upgrade Cost: $29 per month

Shopify’s pricing has three paid plans, plus the social media-only Starter plan:

• Starter – $5 per month billed annually
• Shopify Basic – $29 per month billed annually
• Shopify – $79 per month billed annually
• Shopify Advanced – $299 per month billed annually

While the Starter is the cheapest option, you do not get a full store, just a link you can attach to a social media page. If you want an online store to design and run your business out of, we recommend the Basic plan as it offers all the essential quality features you get to use during the trial.

The Basic plan is perfect for small businesses, and if you find your store getting larger, the Shopify and Shopify Advanced plans await, bringing further support and stronger features.

Read our fullShopify Review for more.

Shopify isn’t shy about showcasing its $1 for your first month scheme. It’s a great way to dip your toes into this ecommerce platform if you’re not sure. Source: Website Builder Expert

More Information

• Wix and Shopify both score similarly in our research, but which is truly better? Find out in our Wix vs Shopify article
• See which ecommerce platform comes on top with our Square Online vs Shopify article
• Got your store but don’t know how to ship? Read our Shopify Dropshipping guide for a full breakdown

Go to the top

For selling hand-crafted products online

Free forever plan for building but not selling

Upgrade Cost: $29 per month (or$26.10 with our TAKE10 code at checkout)

Wix

Best for smaller stores

Outstanding

4.8

out of 5

• Plenty of design freedom
• Powerful features
• Easy to use

Free trial available

Paid Plans: $17 – $159 / month

Pros

• Can sell Wix products on Instagram
• Product videos add credibility
• Mobile editor for on-the-go changes

Cons

• No automated low stock alerts
• Not the best for very large stores
• Can’t change templates once site is live

Wix Review

Visit Site

Like Shopify, you cannot sell on Wix without upgrading to a paid plan. However, Wix differs in that it allows you to have a free website for an indefinite period of time. The Wix free plan will let you create and design an online store for as long as you want, which is great for really hammering out those final branding choices.

You can choose from over 800 free templates across a range of industries, or use Wix’s ADI to let its AI website builder design a template for you. In our research, Wix scored the highest for design functionality for online stores with 4.3 out of 5.

Wix has great design capabilities across a whole host of templates, even eco-based ones like this website, WasteX.

However, while you can have a free website with Wix, the free plan is beset with limitations. Your site will have Wix ads and a Wix domain, plus a 500MB storage limit – not to mention no selling till you upgrade.

Once you do upgrade, Wix has a solid range of sales features, and you’ll be able to sell up to 50,000 products, send abandoned cart recovery emails, send out branded gift cards, and dropship up to 25 items thanks to Wix’s integration with Modalyst.

I could work my way through Wix’s checklist of steps to help set up my online store. Source: Website Builder Expert

Who Do We Recommend Wix For?

• With its flexible design customization tools, Wix is a great option if you’re selling hand-crafted products online. You can use the editor to design a site that matches your unique style as an artisan
• Avoid Wix if it’s likely that you’ll want to switch templates further down the line. You can’t switch designs once your website has gone live

Limitations

• Ads – On the free plan, Wix places a banner ad at the top of your website, which is quite distracting and looks unprofessional

A banner ad on our Wix demo site. As you can see, it takes up a lot of space and distracts away from your website’s design. Source: Website Builder Expert

• No custom domain – You can’t have a personal domain unless you upgrade. Your site’s URL will follow a yourusername.wixsite.com/yoursitedomain instead
• No selling for free – You can’t sell on Wix unless you upgrade to one of its ecommerce plans
• Limited storage – Wix only gives you 500MB of storage on its free plan, reducing the amount of images you can have. This is especially a problem for online stores that need many product photos.

Upgrade Cost: $29 per month

Wix’s pricing has three commerce plans to choose from:

• Core – $29 per month billed annually
• Business – $36 per month billed annually
• Business Elite – $159 per month billed annually

Upgrading to a Wix plan will let you sell, as well as remove ads, use a custom domain, and raise your storage allowance to 50GB on the Core plan. Each plan increases in size and support to accommodate larger and larger businesses, so we recommend the Core plan to begin with if you are starting a new business.

If you just can’t wait to try out the premium plans, then Wix does offer a 14-day money-back guarantee, meaning you can test out some of the ecommerce features, but you can only receive payments once you upgrade. Additionally, if Wix’s plans seem too expensive, then we’re proud to reveal that you can get 10% off Wix if you use our exclusive code TAKE10 at checkout.

Read our fullWix Ecommerce Review to find out more.

More Information

• See our best tips for building a Wix site with our How to Use Wix guide
• Take a look at our best Wix Website Examples for some inspiration

Go to the top

For international sellers

Upgrade Cost: $6.99 per month for hosting, plugins cost an estimated $50 per month and annual $10-$15 for a domain name

WooCommerce

Best for large online businesses

Very Good

4.2

out of 5

• Very WordPress-compatible
• Extremely scalable
• Helpful setup wizard

Free plan available

Paid Plans: $12.95 / month

Pros

• Huge variety of plugins
• Lots of payment options
• Tools for selling internationally

Cons

• Have to install most features yourself
• Cost of plugins and tools can add up
• Only works with WordPress

WooCommerce Review

Visit Site

WooCommerce is an ecommerce plugin for WordPress, meaning you will need to download WordPress in order to use it. Like WordPress, it is free to download and use…theoretically. The truth is that you will have to be in charge of finding a hosting provider, obtaining security licenses, and downloading whatever themes and features you will need for your website – WooCommerce doesn’t even come with abandoned cart recovery.

In regards to a hosting provider, we (and WordPress) recommend Bluehost for any WooCommerce online stores, as it has WooCommerce-specific hosting plans that take care of a lot of site management, making it perfect for beginners.

This website, Grill Party BBQ, uses WooCommerce for its store. WooCommerce is a WordPress plugin, meaning you will have to use code to design your site, but you have more freedom than with other platforms. Source: Website Builder Expert

Online store-wise, WooCommerce can be both a blessing and a curse. On one hand, it is the most versatile builder on this list. If you know a bit of code you can endlessly edit and add specific features you want to your store down to the finest detail. This makes it especially good for selling internationally, as you get access to tools like automatic currency calculators and multilingual options.

On the other hand, many beginners have found WordPress and WooCommerce to be too complicated to use confidently, with many of the features and plugins used to create your store needing subscriptions. On average, you could be spending $79-$299 per year for a website.

I could quickly fill out basic product details to start building my store inventory. Source: Website Builder Expert

Who Do We Recommend WooCommerce For?

• Opening an international store? WooCommerce is a strong fit, since it gives you multilingual capabilities alongside automatic currency converters, making it much easier to sell to global audiences
• Avoid WooCommerce if you’re not comfortable with more technical skills like coding. You’ll need to have a good grip of these to add the key features you need to your website

Limitations

• No built-in hosting – You will have to provide your own hosting for your online store from a hosting provider like Bluehost

Bluehost is the number one recommended hosting provider for WooCommerce and WordPress by WordPress itself. Source: Website Builder Expert

• No security – Most website builders include an SSL certificate in their plans. For WooCommerce, you may have to buy it yourself
• No storage – When choosing a hosting provider, you will have to decide how much storage to allocate to your store
• No help and support – WordPress doesn’t have a formal help center like Shopify or Wix. You will have to rely on third-party guides or forums for help
• Complicated editor – WordPress is not a drag-and-drop builder like Wix or Shopify. Users must use code to edit their site

Upgrade Cost: $6.99 per month

Bluehost’s pricing has two plans for WooCommerce-specific plans:

• Online Store: $6.99 per month billed annually
• Online Store + Marketplace: $12.95 per month billed annually

The Online Store plan comes with WooCommerce, analytics, 40GB storage, a free domain, a free SSL certificate plus Yoast SEO. With the +Marketplace plan, users get 100GB of storage and multichannel selling.

While both these plans seem great value, remember that a WooCommerce store is not only more work to make but more work to upkeep than a regular website builder.

There’s also the cost of securing your own domain name and all the plugins you’ll need. While a domain can be relatively cheap, only costing $10 – $15 per year, some domains can cost up to the thousands if they’re highly sought after. Plugins can be free to use, but if you are looking for quality then a monthly subscription of around $10 – $20 will be expected, and that’s just for one. In total, your WordPress store could cost nearly $200 per month.

Read our fullWooCommerce Review for more.

More Information

• See who’s the better ecommerce platform with our Shopify vs WooCommerce article

Go to the top

Before we summarize this list and you can make your verdict, let’s go over what the most important factors are for picking a free commerce platform. We’ve condensed all the factors to look for into three vital questions you need to ask yourself before making your decision:

• Can I sell for free?
• Do its limitations outweigh its benefits?
• Is it suited for the products I want to sell?

While these questions can help inform your choice of a free ecommerce website builder, a free ecommerce plan is not really sustainable for long-term growth or profit. Most of the builders on this list don’t even let you sell till you’ve upgraded your plan. And if you are committed to only selling for free, you’ll find the limitations will start to cause frustration as your business picks up.

Most users would benefit from choosing the platform that best suits their products and then upgrading to a paid plan. Selling for free is a great tagline, but in actuality, it tends to not work out as intended.

Is It Worth Upgrading?

Upgrading to a paid plan will upgrade your business. Like any subscription, if you pay more, you get more. Below, we’ve listed five of the best features you can get on a paid plan:

1. No Ads

You may have a really small or totally new business, but customers don’t have to know you’re on a budget. They’ll only suspect you’re a newbie if you’re using a free plan as your site will be plastered with ads. There’s an element of ‘fake it till you make it’ as a new business, and an unprofessional website isn’t going to give off the right signals.

2. Better Sales Tools

A paid plan won’t just make you a website that looks more professional – it will make you a website that acts more professional, too. Ecommerce platforms withhold premium features, like the ability to send abandoned cart recovery emails, for paying members – and with good reason. In fact, 70% of online carts are abandoned (i.e. the customer leaves the site without paying for the items they have collected in their cart). Emails sent to these customers can have an impressive open rate of 45% and are hugely effective in re-engaging these customers.

3. Sell More Products

Most free ecommerce plans put a cap on the number of items you can sell. By opting for a paid plan, you’re giving yourself more freedom, and offering your customers more choice.

4. Get Better Support

Paying customers tend to be able to access support in more ways, such as over the phone. Even if you get the same help and support options as premium customers, you better believe you’re not going to be on top of the priority queue when you need help. Don’t wait until your site is down, or until you can’t get an answer to something that’s driving you nuts before you upgrade – do it now, and your future self (and site) will thank you!

5. Increase Payment Methods

Paid plans typically allow you to connect more payment methods. This, in turn, makes for an easier shopping experience for your customers, increasing the likelihood that they’ll come back.

Go to the top

While free plans make perfect sense for money-conscious business owners, they do have their limitations. Square Online provides the best deal by letting you sell for free, but you are cut off from a lot of essential features and have to feature ads with no custom domain. This will make your site look unprofessional to consumers.

With other platforms like Wix or Shopify, you can only build your store for free, but to actually make money through your online store, you’ll need to spend some money. Overall, we recommend signing up for a free ecommerce plan today – or testing a free trial – to really get the most out of selling your products online.

That’s all from us! We wish you well on your ecommerce journey!

In this side-by-side comparison, I’ll review pricing, sales features, ease of use, and more. But you can view the table below for a top-level overview:

Swipe right to see more

0 out of
0

• backward
• forward

Wix	Shopify
Overall rating 4.8	Overall rating 4.8
Starting Price $29 $26.10 with code “TAKE10”	Starting Price $29
Free plan or free trial Free plan	Free plan or free trial 3-day free trial, then 1 month for $1
Number of templates 900+	Number of templates 200+

Wix is best for small businesses looking to build an online presence and sell a few products, whereas Shopify is better for large and expanding businesses, particularly if you have an extensive inventory.

You can take our quick four-question quiz to receive a personalized website builder recommendation based on your needs.

When it comes to value for money, Wix is the more cost-effective optionof the two. Wix’s pricing ranges from $17 to $159 per month (billed annually). There are four premium plans to choose between, but you’ll need the $29 per month Core plan or above if you want to sell online.

You canget 10% off your Wix plan with the code “TAKE10”.

Wix also offers a free plan that you can stay on forever, but it comes with ads and limited storage – not ideal for a small business looking to build a professional brand.

Shopify’s plans are generally more expensive than Wix, but you can sell across all plans – with Wix, you’ll need to choose an appropriate ecommerce plan. Shopify’s pricing ranges from $29 to $299 per month (billed annually), but you can get your first month for just $1, softening the cost at the start.

Shopify’s plans are more expensive than Wix but you can sell across all three plans. Source: Website Builder Expert

Shopify also has a three-day free trial – this provides a much shorter window than Wix’s free plan to get familiar with the platform, so I’d argue that it’s not a very effective trial period.

Shopify’s $29 per month Basic plan is good for businesses finding their feet – it includes unlimited products and up to 10 inventory locations. However, I recommend the standard Shopify plan ($79/mo) for larger businesses because of its additional staff accounts, so you can delegate work to multiple people, and its reduced processing fees with Shopify Payments.

Unfortunately, neither builder is really great value for money, so I wouldn’t recommend Wix or Shopify if you’re a budget-conscious business. Instead, opt for GoDaddy or Squarespace which offer affordable plans and quality features for a lower price point.

The Winner

Wix’s range of ecommerce plans are more affordable

You can start selling online with Wix for just $29 per month with its Core plan, the same as Shopify’s cheapest Basic plan. But, Wix’s most expensive $159 per month Business Elite plan is roughly half the cost of Shopify’s Advanced plan which costs $299/mo. So, upgrading through Wix’s plans is cheaper in the long-run than Shopify.

Shopify is our top-rated ecommerce website builder for a reason – it has the best sales features on the market, scoring an impressive 4.8 out of 5 in our research. Shopify is ideal for online stores with substantial inventories, whereas I’d only recommend Wix if you’re looking to sell a small handful of products.

Multichannel Selling

Want to broaden your reach beyond your website? Shopify has the best multichannel integration options, allowing you to connect your store with marketplaces and social media channels. This is a great way to target customers on platforms that they’re already engaged with.

I could easily integrate additional sales channels from Shopify’s backend, such as TikTok or Facebook. Source: Website Builder Expert

Wix offers fewer options than Shopify in this regard. You can sell to customers via similar marketplaces, such as Amazon, but considerably fewer social media platforms. For example, Shopify lets you sell with TikTok, whereas Wix sticks to the classics, like Facebook and Instagram. If you want to connect your Wix store to TikTok, you’ll need to download the TikTok Shop app in the app market.

It’s also worth noting that Shopify has a cheap Shopify Starter plan which costs $5 per month – this plan is designed to help you start selling across social media and messaging apps. If you want to start selling quickly and don’t need a fully polished storefront, the plan is a good alternative to Shopify’s more expensive website builder packages.

Payment Options

Both Wix and Shopify provide a variety of payment options, giving you flexibility when serving customers at the checkout stage.

Shopify offers 100+ payment methods, such as PayPal and Apple Pay. Comparatively, Wix lets your website connect with over 70 providers. In addition to these third-party options, you can choose Shopify or Wix’s native solution to simplify the process. Wix doesn’t charge any transaction fees, whereas Shopify charges 2.9% + $0.30 per transaction (pay less in fees if you upgrade beyond Shopify’s cheapest plan).

I could add or remove payment options from my Shopify Payments settings page. Source: Website Builder Expert

Shopify Payments automatically accepts payments from all major providers, and it removes third-party transaction fees. Wix Payments also charges no transaction fees. The easiest way to take payments online is by using either of these payment gateways, designed by the builders themselves.

Shopify also rolled out the Buy with Prime button in late 2023, allowing merchants to sell directly to Amazon Prime customers with all of the benefits of Prime, such as free delivery.

Security

A website needs dependable and robust security in place to protect your business and customers from malicious attacks. Wix and Shopify offer freeSSL certificates, two-step verification to keep your account secure, and built-in fraud detection to help businesses flag untrustworthy orders.

App Market

Both Wix and Shopify have app markets so you can add further functionality to your website, but the difference in scale is notable. Wix’s App Market features around 500 third-party apps, whereas Shopify offers over 8,000 apps to merchants, such as Linkpop which lets you add ecommerce links to your social media bios.

Unfortunately, Shopify is more reliant on its app store to enhance a website’s capabilities than Wix – Wix provides a lot more features in-house so you don’t need to waste additional time searching for the right apps. For example, you’ll need to download a tool like Easy Appointment Booking to take appointments or set events online with Shopify. Wix offers scheduling software as a built-in feature.

Shopify gave me recommended apps to browse based on my type of store. Source: Website Builder Expert

The Winner

Shopify has the best sales features on the market

As our top-rated ecommerce website builder, it’s not surprising that Shopify has the best sales features for business owners. All plans include unlimited products, multiple sales channels (such as TikTok or Amazon), abandoned cart recovery, discount codes, localized selling tools, and more.

Selling isn’t the only consideration when setting up an online store. Wix has the best website features to help you promote your business online, from email marketing tools to keyword support.

You can watch our detailed Wix review video to learn more about Wix’s high-quality features:

Play

Marketing Tools

Wix offers a robust marketing suite that improves as you upgrade plans. The Light marketing suite is available on Wix’s cheapest plan – this includes automated workflows, four lead-capture forms, and up to 10 fields in forms, such as contact details or payment information. Once you upgrade to the Core plan or above, you’ll get additional forms and fields, as well as a site chat functionality so you can engage with website visitors directly through your website.

Shopify lets you seamlessly integrate marketing into your website through apps like Facebook and Instagram, helping you identify and reach your target audience. I was particularly impressed by the Shopify Inbox functionality when testing the builder since this lets you answer customer questions quickly and efficiently, increasing the likelihood of sales.

I could choose from pre-designed email marketing templates or create my own using Wix’s editor. Source: Website Builder Expert

Both Wix and Shopify offer great email marketing tools as well. With diverse templates, customization options, and automations, you can easily set up email campaigns to reach out to your market or reengage customers with abandoned cart recovery emails. You can also connect your store to popular email marketing solutions, such as Mailchimp.

SEO

Improving and optimizing your website for search engines is important when building an online presence – SEO helps direct the right customers to your store and product pages.

Since Wix and Shopify are highly-rated website builders, it’s no surprise that they excel in this category, both scoring 5 out of 5 in our SEO testing. You can expect the standard SEO features from either option, such as sitemaps and mobile optimization.

When testing Wix’s SEO, I loved the personalized SEO checklist it created for my test website – this is a useful tool to get real-time feedback on your site’s content and settings. And, the AI Meta Tag Creator(available for premium plan owners only) helps businesses optimize their pages by automatically generating meta titles and descriptions for you.

I couldn’t access Wix’s AI Meta Tag Creator with Wix’s free plan so had to create meta titles and descriptions manually. Source: Website Builder Expert

Internationalization

If you’re looking to expand your online store internationally and connect with customers from different regions, you need to consider a website builder’s internationalization features. Wix supports 180 languages and automatically translates your site’s content for visitors from around the world. This is something Wix handles for your business, whereas you’ll need the Translate & Adapt app to translate your Shopify content into one of its 30+ supported languages.

Shopify is set to remove its Geolocation app as of December 2024 – this is because Shopify has made some recent improvements to itsecommerce localization features, such as automatically redirecting visitors to a localized site based on their browser language.

Wix continues to make advancements in this area as well, announcing a new partnership with Global-e in February 2024 to help businesses sell products across multiple markets.

The Winner

Wix’s features are the best to help promote your site

Wix provides a suite of impressive tools to help boost your site’s visibility and encourage customers to shop with you, such as custom SEO support, auto-translation, and email automation.

It’s pretty closely tied but Shopify is slightly easier to use than Wix. When it comes to building an online store, you have to take a few factors into account: the setup process, designing your website, and how easy it is to oversee and manage your store from the backend.

With Wix, I was presented with a couple of setup options – an AI chatbot (Wix’s AI website builder) or choosing a template. I recommend using Wix’s AI chatbot to get a customized website for your business needs. When testing it myself, I was impressed by how it picked up on my fake slime company’s target audience just from my answers about the brand.

I mentioned that my fake slime company had a big TikTok presence and Wix’s AI chatbot expertly guessed the site’s target audience. Source: Website Builder Expert

To get started with Shopify, the builder asks if your business is in the early stages of life or if it’s already an established business. From there, you simply answer a few more questions based on your needs.

If you’re a new business:

• Where would you like to sell?
• What do you plan to sell first?
• Where will your business be located?

If you run an existing business already, you’ll be asked the additional question of where you’re currently selling (e.g. Amazon, eBay, Wix).

I appreciated being able to select multiple options with Shopify’s onboarding questions. Source: Website Builder Expert

Once you’ve got through the setup process for either Wix or Shopify, you can start designing your website. Wix uses an easy drag-and-drop editor which is incredibly beginner-friendly – you get total creative freedom since you can drag elements anywhere you’d like on the page. Wix has also recently introduced an AI Theme Assistant to support you at the design stage and share suggestions.

As soon as you have more than a few products to sell, building your inventory is much easier with Shopify, especially if you sell multiple variants of the same product.

Lucy Carney
Deputy Editor

Shopify takes a different approach with a section-based editor. While this is more restrictive creatively, it does make it easy to add and reorder sections as you simply stack them on top of each other.

Shopify also recommends adding your products first, before editing your template. From my experience with Shopify, this makes complete sense since you’ll benefit from having the products in the backend to display on your website’s pages. Plus, you can use AI tools like Shopify Magic to generate product descriptions and simplify the process of adding new items or variants to your inventory.

The Winner

Shopify’s editor and simple product backend are user-friendly

There’s a lot to do when setting up an online store, and Shopify’s editor and dashboard are simple to navigate. You can easily add products or tweak information, such as sizing, with Shopify’s inventory management tools, and Shopify’s section-based editor lets you build your pages from the ground up.

First impressions matter, and Wix has the best templates for your online store. Choose from over 900 Wix templates, covering a wide range of business needs, such as “Arts and Crafts” and “Pets and Animals”. While Shopify offers more dedicated ecommerce support and features, Wix effortlessly combines sales features with high-quality designs so you can create a unique website.

I could filter Wix’s template library to show designs for online stores or specific industries. Source: Website Builder Expert

Shopify, in comparison, has a limited number of free templates available. At the time of writing, there are currently 13 free template options. Most of Shopify’s templates come with a price tag, ranging from around $100 to $500 – this is an additional one-time cost on top of your core plan. They’re aesthetically pleasing and designed by professionals, but you can get a similar quality of templates from Wix for free.

The Winner

Wix has over 900+ templates for a variety of industries

I was impressed by the sheer number and variety of Wix’s templates. Not only are they modern and stunning to look at, but businesses of all kinds can find a suitable match for their site, whether you’re running a restaurant or selling clothes online. And, the best part is every Wix template is free to use.

If you think you’ll need a helping hand with setting up your online store or managing your business website, Wix has better help and support than Shopify. With Wix, you can use the following support channels:

• 24/7 phone support
• Live chat, available Monday to Friday
• Engagement from social media accounts
• A knowledge center and SEO Learning Hub full of expert guides

Unfortunately, Wix doesn’t offer email support so if you prefer that style of communication, we’d recommend choosing Shopify which includes this support option.

The only reason Shopify is let down in this testing area is because of its lack of tutorials when editing – I found it took some time to feel confident and comfortable with the Shopify editor and backend dashboard because of this.

The Winner

Wix offers responsive 24/7 support to businesses

Wix offers more help options for businesses, such as 24/7 phone support and guidance from within the website editor itself. This level of support, especially for beginners or business owners who don’t know where to start when building a site, is incredibly useful.

We want to make sure our comparisons are fair and reflective of the website builders in their current state, which is why we carry out regular testing and data collection.

Our thorough research process assesses an ecommerce website builder’s ability to support your online store – we review seven core areas of investigation to do this:

• Sales Features
• Website Features
• Help and Support
• Design Functionality
• User Experience
• Customer Score
• Value for Money

Each category has a unique weighting based on what our readers value the most. For online stores, we know that sales features are incredibly important so this makes up the majority of the website builder’s overall rating alone. Wix and Shopify both receive a star rating out of five for each category – when combined, this creates their overall score.

After comparing the two website builders in areas like pricing, sales features, and ease of use, Shopify is my top choice for online stores because of its unbeatable ecommerce capabilities, including an extensive app store and 100+ payment options.

That said, it’s a close call between the two. Shopify is ideal for established businesses looking to grow online, and I highly recommend it if you’re managing a large inventory. Wix, on the other hand, is better for smaller businesses looking to take their first step online.

If you’re still not sure which to choose, take a look at our list of the best ecommerce website builders to see how Wix and Shopify compare with other platforms.