Best 6 Wix Alternatives For Ecommerce Businesses

There are very many entrepreneurs and businesses keen to use Wix to build an ecommerce store. The platform has a good repute, and you can build a website without much delay using the drag-and-drop interface available. Wix is currently the fifth-largest website builder and third-largest content management system behind WordPress and Shopify.

There isn’t much doubt that Wix is a commendable website builder, but it lacks when it comes to online sellers looking to sell in huge numbers or those in need of innovative ecommerce functionalities. Hence to need to check out Wix alternatives.

There are several platforms to consider before taking a decision. But before that let’s get you through the pros and cons of Wix.

Wix’s pros and cons

Wix is an innovative website builder that can get help you get an attractive website, without much technical expertise. Wix offers more than 800+ templates and 200+ third-party app integrations so as to add advanced website features.

Pros of Wix	Cons of Wix
Drag-and-drop interface	Limited ecommerce capabilities
800+ templates to choose from	Non-interchangeable templates
Beginner friendly	Vendor lock-in
Built-in SEO tools	Lacking customer support
Free domain name for a premium plan	Slow loading times for content-heavy pages

We give you further details of the limitations that you could face by adopting Wix, that could impact your online selling journey.

Limited Ecommerce Capabilities

Wix birthed as a content-focused website builder hence possesses limited ecommerce capabilities. Even though you can run an ecommerce store with many functionalities, it still lacks the robustness proffered by other platforms.

The platform is better suited for low volume sellers as Wix doesn’t support selling products in bulk or wholesale. Wix is not a good choice for online stores with large inventories.

Non-Interchangeable Templates

Wix offers 800+ templates, but you cannot transfer your content to another template after having chosen a template. You can do small tweaks in the design and nothing more.

Vendor Lock-In

Wix offers low startup costs, but then you would have to contend with a Vendor Lock-In clause. This means it would be difficult to migrate to another platform in the future, come what.

Lacks Customer Support

Response from the 24/7 customer support is poor.

Slow Loading Times

Wix websites loads very slow. So it is advisable to keep your website light by reducing videos and product images. Or the make sure to compress them and be sure your website in light.

Top Wix Alternatives For An Ecommerce Online Store

1 – Builder.ai: All-In-One Scalable Option For Without Technical Expertise

The biggest advantage with Builder.ai is you can get your online store up and running within a month, while Wix takes longer. Builder.ai handles the project in-house and does not require any third-party services.

Builder.ai does not communicate the upfront costs including all fees such as servicing, insurance, or maintenance costs. This can come back as a hefty surprise later on. 

With Builder.ai you get the code as well when the project is delivered so as to make any customisations that you require or migrate to another platform. With Builder.ai you can do bulk selling using Builder.ai’s Studio Store package. With builder.ai you can also change your store template at any time.

Builder.ai’s ecommerce package, Studio Store, with both apps and websites starts at $200/month. And the StorePlus option gives you access to more advanced ecommerce features. If you are looking for custom features, Builder Studio is for you.

Pros–

• The all-in-one package includes Apps and Websites  
• Affordable monthly payments
• No transaction fees
• No vendor lock-in
• Own your code
• 2 years Support
• Any number of customisation

Cons–

• No free option
• Range of services is limited
• Communication gaps and poor customer service
• Upfront costs do not include all fees.

2 – Shopify: The fast-performance Wix alternative

Shopify is among Wix alternatives, powers thousands of websites, is quite popular ecommerce website builder known for its simplicity and inbuilt ecommerce tools.

With Shopify you get over 150 themes, customisable templates, and a fast-loading online store – but not all themes / templates are free. Shopify offers many payment modes, third-party integrations, maintenance, and customer support.

Shopify also provides ecommerce peripherals such as content creation tools, email marketing tools, analytics, and logistics to run an ecommerce business efficiently. However, this adds to the bottom line as these tools and functionalities come at additional cost.

Shopify charges customers 2% on a recurring-fee model for each sale, this cuts down profits big-time. Using a third-party payment gateway attracts a 2.9% fee. This can be overcome by using Shopify Payments. Shopify like Wix, has a strict lock-in policy, that means you don’t own the code. So, migrating to another vendor is challenging.

Shopify’s basic plan starts from $39/month. But for $500 a month you can automate manual tasks and can opt or professional reporting.

Pros

• Ease of use
• Built-in ecommerce tools
• Wide payment integrations
• Fast loading speed

Cons

•        No ownership of code
•        High transaction fees
•        Limited free themes and features

3 – Squarespace: Feature rich alternative with crisp design

Squarespace offers a range of ecommerce features compared to Wix making it a better option. Squarespace’s ecommerce features are available with most plans like product variants, integrated payment gateways, inventory management, inventory alerts and more.

This website builder is known for its incredible templates and straightforward drag-and-drop functionality. The monthly subscription includes your site, hosting, security, and redundancies.  So, no worries regarding multiple providers and your uptime rates stay good.

With Squarespace you can create ad campaigns, generate advanced reporting, manage content, enhance SEO and more using inbuilt tools. Google Analytics is available with most plans, while Wix offers this only with their paid plans. This robust platform has higher subscription cost but then there’s no transaction fees.

With Squarespace you cannot alter the code to make it load faster. Blogging features are limited with Squarespace. Customisations in Wix are limited to the template you choose and it can be challenging while making changes such as changing colours, images and texts or trying to add or move elements.

Squarespace is among Wix alternatives and offers three price plans: $23/month (plus a 3% transaction fee) for Business, $27/month for Basic Commerce and $49 for Advanced Commerce with merchandising and advanced shipping.

Pros

• Powerful built-in tools.
• Payment gateway integrations.
• No transaction cost for ecommerce plans.
• Unlimited storage and bandwidth.

Cons

• No phone support.
• Business plan is drab with a 3% transaction fee.
• Basic inventory management options and POS features.
• Lacks third-party apps, plugins and extensions.

4 – BigCommerce: Scalable Alternative with Tiered pricing

BigCommerce is not for small businesses as even basic functionalities like syncing your tech stack through APIs are expensive Those ready to afford costly plans to grow can choose BigCommerce that has plenty of built-in features and you can change templates too.

With BigCommerce you can build a highly scalable platform without coding knowledge. This drag-and-drop page builder helps you to quickly create and customise an online store.

The inbuild app store allows you to add additional features like marketing, payment gateways, logistics services, accounting and more. Those aiming for multichannel sales and social media selling go select BigCommerce.

With BigCommerce you can change your themes unlike Wix. This scalable option supports multi-channel commerce. BigCommerce plans are decided by the amount of revenue an online store generates and there isn’t any transaction fees. 

You pay $29/month for $50k yearly sales in the Standard Price Plan. $79/month for $180K yearly sales in the Plus plan. For $400k yearly sales, $299/month called the Pro plan.

Pros

• Drag-and-drop functionality
• Highly scalable
• No transaction fees
• Integrated payment gateways
• Great marketing and SEO tools

Cons

• Expensive themes
• Plans limited by sales cap

5 – WooCommerce: For WordPress fans

WooCommerce is the top ecommerce platform with 38.6% market share. This is an open-source ecommerce plugin with WordPress. The free WordPress plugin ‘WooCommerce checkout’ is highly flexible letting you add as many plugins as possible you want. Compared to Wix you get better control over the design and functionality.

WooCommerce Checkout can be a great platform for those with a WordPress website to make a basic online store. This is ideal for businesses of all sizes as it supports various payment gateways and shipping methods. WooCommerce has a huge library of customisable templates and design options.

Customise your online store, but don’t expect any help. Good technical knowledge only can help you to leverage WooCommerce. The plugin may be free, but custom domain name, a hosting plan, an SSL certification and integrations are to paid for.

Pros

• The standard platform is free and open-source.
• Integration with WordPress
• Plenty of free and premium plugins
• Many design options
• More access to payment options

Cons

• Need a WordPress website to start
• Premium plugins are costly
• Large learning curve
• Need paid WordPress hosting   

6 – Magento: Best community focused, open-source

Magento or Adobe Commerce, is a flexible ecommerce platform where you use Magento Open-source or Magento Commerce to create an ecommerce website. 

Magento Open-Source demands technical skills or experienced developers. It’s free to download and install offering excellent community support. The platform is highly customisable with a range of themes and takes time to set up.

Magento Commerce delivers a consistent omnichannel experience hence is suited for established businesses. Use Magento to build multilingual websites and proffer multi-channel experiences. Magento is scalable and flexible offering advanced features that Wix isn’t capable of.

Magento is higher priced than Wix and you need technical knowledge to use the open-source version. Or then pay $15,000+ for a Magento Commerce website. Those looking inventory management, product recommendations, account management, data analysis, etc Magneto Commerce is for you.

Magento can cost you up to $2000 a month, which is much higher than Wix. But then Magento offers consistent after-sales support and 24/7 live representative access, email support, FAQs and online forums.

Pros

• Open-source platform with excellent community
• Highly scalable platform
• Powerful plugin marketplace
• Limitless customisation
• Robust community

Cons

• Requires technical skills

Conclusion: Wix Alternatives

While Wix offers a wide range of templates and features, it’s clear that other options on the market are worth looking out at. We know that Wix’s limited when it comes to ecommerce capabilities and the inflexibility that exists in the design.

An entrepreneur with reasonably good technical skills or a business with a team of developers at hand can opt for open-source platforms like WooCommerce.

Small businesses with scalability in mind and without a leash on the budget can train their sights on BigCommerce or Shopify.

Entrepreneurs and small businesses with basic coding skills can aim at Studio Store by Builder.ai which is a competitive option.