Wix vs Woocommerce: What’s the Right Platform for Your Online Store?

With the rising e-commerce boom, everyone has something unique to sell online and there are as many platforms that can help you realize that dream of building an online store. In this competitive landscape, Wix Vs WooCommerce stand out as platforms on the opposite end of the spectrum.

One is very layman-friendly and lets you build a site within a few minutes while the other one is renowned for customization and massive third-party support. So, should you build a Wix website on your own or hire WooCommerce developers to build a custom store? Let’s find out!

Extensive comparison between Wix and WooCommerce:

1. Fundamentally different

Wix is a website builder with a lot of e-commerce tools baked into it. On the other hand, WooCommerce is an open-source plugin for the most popular CMS (Content Management System) – WordPress. With Wix, you get everything from hosting to the necessary eCommerce tools bundled into their different plans.

It’s an easy drag-and-drop website builder for beginners. On the other hand, WooCommecre doesn’t just have basic features necessary for an online store, but also has support from several extensions and you can even tweak the code to customize every aspect of your store. It’s great for those who want granular control for their WooCommerce website design.

2. Design options

Since Wix is designed with the layman in mind, it offers a lot of templates. There are over 800 templates and you can easily find one that suits your industry. It’s easy and simple if you want an e-commerce store as quickly as possible. However, you can’t tweak those templates beyond what Wix allows. That means you risk creating an online store that looks and feels like a competitor’s store.

While Wix has over 800 templates, there are over 1500 themes that have been designed and optimized for WooCommerce. If that’s not enough, you can get WooCommerce developers for hire to tweak one of the tens of thousands of WordPress themes for your store and create something truly unique.

3. Functionality

Wix comes with a set of decent e-commerce features. You get:

• Inventory control
• Payment processing infrastructure that’s secure
• Marketing tools for SEO
• Product management (SKUs and Barcodes can be created with third-party apps)

The Wix app market also boasts over 500 apps that can add more functionality.

While this is a decent list for starting, it’s nowhere near the capabilities of WooCommerce. Its main strength lies in the abundant number of plugins it supports. There are over 1400 WooCommerce plugins that allow you to add all kinds of features including:

• Abandoned cart notification
• Live chat
• Advanced product filtering
• Product variant filter
• Compliance assistants for navigating regulations in different regions, and more.

Since WooCommerce is open-source, it basks in the support of a thriving developer community that creates innovative plugins to help store owners like you. That’s why companies selling Woocommerce SEO services have an easier time since they can install the necessary analytical and optimization tools to push your store up the search rankings.

4. Scalability

Wix has tiered plans that come with scaling limitations. If your site grows, it won’t be able to keep up since the hosting, bandwidth, and storage are bundled with those plans. You are also limited to their app market for adding new features and technologies.

With WooCommerce, you’re in control of everything from the hosting service to the storage, and the extensions of plugins you want to install. Scaling is easy and effortless and that’s why some of the biggest names like UPS and Home Depot use WooCommerce. So, if you have long-term goals, WooCommerce is the best power source for your online shop.

5. Cost

Wix appears to be a more cost-effective solution compared to WooCommerce. After all, it has straightforward pricing features. Pay a monthly subscription fee and forget about it. For WooCommerce, you need to choose a hosting provider, select a domain name, add security and feature plugins along with the theme and some of them may be free or paid. Overall the cost may be as high as the Wix Business Elite plan.

While the slightly higher cost stands as a con, WooCommerce wins out in almost every aspect – granular control, customization, and future-proof. Moreover, when you hire skilled WooCommerce developers they can implement their own set of tricks to bring down the development and maintenance cost of your store.