Shopify vs Wix for an Online Store

Choose Shopify if the store is the business: its structure, theme system and app store are built for commerce first. Choose Wix if the store is one part of a mostly-content site that you want to run in one editor. Shopify was built as a store platform first, with a theme system and app store built for commerce. Wix is a general website builder where the store is one app among many, running inside the same editor as your pages, blog and forms. Both charge real payment-processing fees, both have documented catalog limits, and both now ship their own AI tools. Here's what each vendor's own documentation says.

How do their product catalogs compare?

Both platforms cap options and variants per product, and the numbers differ. Shopify's help documentation states directly: "Each product can have up to three options" and "you can create up to 2,048 variants for a product" (Shopify Help Center, "Adding product variants", checked September 2026). Wix allows more options but fewer variants per product: "Each product can have up to 6 product options (e.g. color, size, material)," each with "up to 100 option choices," and "you can create up to 1,000 variants per product" (Wix, "Wix Stores: Limits & Recommended Guidelines", checked September 2026). The same Wix article also states a store-wide cap: "You can upload up to 50,000 products from the Wix Stores Dashboard manually or by CSV import" (same source).

A store selling shirts in 4 sizes and 10 colors (40 variants, 2 options) fits comfortably on either. A store with many independent option types — say, a custom-furniture builder with wood, fabric, leg style and finish — needs 4 option types, which is over Shopify's 3-option limit but inside Wix's 6. A product with thousands of combinations goes the other way: Wix caps variants at 1,000, Shopify at 2,048. Check both limits against your actual catalog shape rather than assuming either one is simply "bigger."

What do payments actually cost?

Wix's own pricing page states plainly: "Prices and currency vary by location. USD prices displayed for reference only" (Wix, plans page, checked September 2026), so we aren't quoting Wix plan prices here — check Wix's plans page for your own currency. Wix does require a paid tier to sell at all: "You must upgrade your site to a Premium or Studio plan that supports payments in order to accept payments" (Wix, "Accepting Payments: An Overview", checked September 2026). For US card payments through Wix Payments specifically, Wix states the rate as "2.9% of the transaction amount + 0.30 USD" (Wix, "Wix Payments: Service Fees", checked September 2026); Wix's fee page shows different rates for other regions, so check that page for your own country.

Shopify's pricing page (yearly billing view) lists Basic at $29/mo, Grow at $79/mo, and Advanced at $299/mo, with card rates "from" 2.9% + 30¢ USD on Basic, 2.7% + 30¢ on Grow and 2.5% + 30¢ on Advanced (Shopify, pricing page, checked September 2026). Unlike Wix, Shopify also charges extra if you use a payment processor other than its own: Shopify's help documentation says third-party transaction fees are charged "when you use a third-party payment provider to accept customer payments," and, on stores created on or after May 12, 2025, on orders paid with store credit or gift cards (Shopify Help Center, "Third-party transaction fees on your Shopify bills", checked September 2026). Using Shopify Payments avoids the first case, not the second. Wix's documentation doesn't describe an equivalent surcharge for using an outside payment provider instead of Wix Payments.

What's the app and theme ecosystem like?

Shopify's own App Store describes itself with "over 16,000 apps for all the different ways you want to customize your store" (Shopify, App Store homepage, checked September 2026) — shipping, reviews, upsells, loyalty, subscriptions and more, almost all built for commerce specifically. Wix's App Market is broader in scope and smaller: Wix's own help center describes it as "filled with over 800 popular web apps, powerful services, and great features to enhance your website and grow your business" (Wix, "About the Wix App Market", checked September 2026), covering marketing, forms, bookings and design tools alongside store-specific apps. If your store needs a specific commerce function — subscriptions, wholesale pricing, a particular shipping carrier — Shopify's larger, commerce-focused app catalog is more likely to have a purpose-built option; Wix's market skews toward general site features with store apps as one category among them.

Theme editor or all-in-one editor?

Shopify separates the storefront's design (a theme, built from sections and blocks, edited in the Online Store editor) from your product and order data. Shopify's help documentation frames themes as commerce-specific: "Different themes provide unique styles, layouts, and experiences tailored to the specific products you sell" (Shopify Help Center, "Themes", checked September 2026). Switching themes changes your storefront's look without touching your catalog.

Wix has no separate theme layer for stores: your whole site, including product pages, is built in the same drag-and-drop Wix Editor (or Wix Studio, or the newer Harmony Editor, depending on which your site uses) that builds your other pages. There's no "store theme" you install and swap independently of the rest of the site's design — the store pages are sections of your one site design. That makes Wix simpler for a single small store bolted onto a content site, and makes Shopify's separation more useful once the storefront's design work outgrows a page-by-page editor.

What does each platform's own AI do for a store?

Shopify's built-in Magic tools write product descriptions, blog posts and email subject lines, and handle image work like background removal and new hero banners, "available for free, regardless of your subscription plan" (Shopify Help Center, "Shopify Magic", checked September 2026). Sidekick, Shopify's conversational assistant, can analyze data, help manage orders and products, and draft content, and Shopify states it "presents changes for your review before applying them" (Shopify Help Center, "Sidekick", checked September 2026). Our full breakdown of Shopify's AI tools covers Magic, Sidekick, theme-code editing through Shopify CLI, and where checkout stays off-limits to any agent.

Wix's AI differs by which editor your site uses. Wix's AI tools overview lists generation tools for text, images, site sections and product descriptions (Wix, "About Wix's AI Tools", checked September 2026), and in the Harmony Editor, an assistant called Aria can add sections, change colors and revise text on request — though Wix warns "Aria is powered by AI and as such may produce unexpected or inaccurate results" (Wix, "Wix Harmony Editor: Creating a Site with AI", checked September 2026). Our guide to AI on Wix covers Wix Editor, Harmony, Studio, and Wix's developer MCP server in full.

Can I move a store from one to the other?

Yes, with real gaps either direction. Shopify's own free Store Migration app can connect to a Wix store and pull products and customers automatically; for Squarespace or for order history on any platform, the import is CSV-based, and orders, navigation, and SEO data don't transfer through the app at all. Our guide to moving your store to Shopify covers the Wix and Squarespace exports, the app's exact import list, product URL redirects, and the pre-launch checklist in full — read that instead of starting a move from this page. Going the other direction, into Wix, means rebuilding the storefront in the Wix Editor by hand; Wix's help center states plainly that a Wix site "must run on Wix's servers" (Wix, "Exporting or Embedding Your Wix Site Elsewhere", checked September 2026), so there's no equivalent one-click importer moving a Shopify catalog into Wix.

Is Figment a fit for either kind of store?

No. Figment publishes designs from Figma as websites through a Figma plugin, and its AI editor is a preview with an access-request form, not a production tool. Neither is a commerce platform: product catalogs, checkout, payments and order management stay Shopify's or Wix's job either way. If you want a separate landing page built from a Figma design, Figment can publish that; the store itself still runs on whichever of the two you choose here. For changing an existing site with AI, see can AI edit my website.

Which should I actually pick?

• Pick Shopify if you're running a catalog with real variant complexity, expect to need a specific commerce app (subscriptions, wholesale, a particular carrier), or plan to grow past a handful of products.
• Pick Wix if the store is a small, secondary part of a site that's mostly content, pages, and forms, and you'd rather manage everything — pages and products alike — in one editor.
• Check both platforms' current fee and plan pages before committing, since Wix's prices vary by location and both vendors change plan details over time.

Bottom line: Shopify's variant, app, and theme systems are built around commerce as the main job; Wix's store is a capable app inside a general site builder. Both charge real payment-processing fees and cap your catalog somewhere — check the actual numbers against your product line, not just which platform "feels" more like a store.