Ecwid and Wix — which one should you choose? Although both come with a plethora of features to support your e-commerce ventures, there are some fundamental differences between the two. Ecwid, for starters, is a software that brings e-commerce functionality to existing websites where it is integrated. On the other hand, Wix is a hosted website builder—not too different from Shopify—that can also be used to start an online store.
But which one is better for your business? Well, it largely depends on the size of your venture, and your overall goals as an enterprise. Here, we take a look at the key features, usability, and overall value for money of both platforms to help you choose the right solution for your business needs.
Ecwid Vs Wix Comparison Chart
| Name | Ecwid | Wix |
 |  | |
| Type | E-commerce plugin | Out-of-the-box website builder |
| Pricing | Free: Free forever Venture: $15 per month Business: $35 per month Unlimited: $99 per month | Business Premium Plans required Basic: $17 per month Unlimited: $25 per month VIP: $35 per month |
| Payment Gateway | Third-party payment options including PayPal, Stripe, WePay, and Square | Wix Payments and third-party payment options including PayPal and Stripe |
| Payment Processing Fees | No transaction fees except for those charged by the third-party payment provider | 2.9% + $0.30 USD per transaction |
| App Integrations | Standalone Ecwid App store | Standalone Wix App Store |
| Fully Customizable | Yes, although customizations are limited and may require installing apps or using CSS | Highly-customizable free and paid-for templates; drag and drop Wix website editor |
| Customer Support | For paid plans only; limited to chat support in Venture plans | 24/7 English language support; limited to report ticket and callback requests |
| Reporting | Available only on paid plans | Available |
| Shipping | Dimensional shipping rates only for Business and Unlimited Plans | Available built-in (with tax calculations) and with third-party support |
Key Differences
Ecwid is designed to be integrated to an existing website while Wix is a full-fledged website builder.
Ecwid’s strength lies in integration. Add to your existing website—whether on WordPress, Squarespace, Blogger or even Wix—and you instantly get powerful e-commerce functions and capabilities. The platform integrates seamlessly with most CMS, so you don’t have to worry about going back to zero when building your online store. It’s basically a plugin that turns ordinary websites into online shopping-ready pages.
In contrast, Wix offers more of an out-of-the-box solution for those starting their digital presence, whether in e-commerce or otherwise. Over the years, however, the platform has enjoyed growing patronage from merchants who use it to sell products and services. And it’s clear that Wix has been taking notes. The web development company currently offers dedicated apps to help create and manage the digital presence of businesses. Wix Store, Wix Bookings, and Wix restaurants are just some of the e-commerce-specific features offered by the platform.
Pricing
Ecwid and Wix offer reasonably-priced plans, although you need to consider hosting and domain expenses with the former.
Ecwid Pricing and Plans
With Ecwid, pricing is a little more straightforward. Essentially, you get to choose from four plans: one, which is free forever, and three other packages that are paid for. Obviously, the free version is the most basic. Nonetheless, it does come with some surprising benefits when you consider you’re not spending on anything. This includes unlimited bandwidth, store customization, and social media promotions.
However, like most free versions of any e-commerce platform, the features you’ll need to actually grow your store is limited or even unavailable. To fully leverage Ecwid, you’ll have to opt for the paid plans. Price ranges from $15/mo for its entry-level Venture plan to $99/mo if you choose their top-tier Unlimited package.
As expected, you access more e-commerce tools and enjoy higher feature limits as you move up through the plans. But because Ecwid is not a fully-hosted solution, you do have to take care of web hosting, bandwidth and domains on your own, including their accompanying costs. Nonetheless, affordable hosting deals are available, most of which have specific plans for Ecwid.
Wix Pricing and Plans
With Wix, you’ll need to sign-up for their Business and eCommerce plans to sell your products on Wix Store. These paid plans, however, cost more than regular website subscriptions. For example, Wix’s entry level offering, called Business Basic, starts at $17 a month compared to the standard Connect Domain at $4.50. The next two plans—Business Unlimited and Business VIP—costs $25 and $35 a month, respectively. While you can still build a website if you opt for the regular plans, you can only accept payments if you upgrade to a Business Plan.
E-Commerce Features
Ecwid and Wix boast of multichannel selling, advertising and promotional features, inventory management, and reporting tools.
Ecwid Features
Since it comes as a full-fledged platform, Ecwid brings plenty of industry-leading e-commerce tools at your disposal. Across all plans, you get unlimited bandwidth, an instant site builder, and the ability to add a store to any website. Plus, there’s a one-tap checkout feature courtesy of Apple Pay. And if you do want to use another payment gateway, you’ll be happy to know Ecwid does not charge additional fees on top of what the third-party provider already does.
In addition, Ecwid has built-in multichannel selling together with a slew of marketing and SEO features. The platform is mobile-optimized too, so you also get Android and iOS store management for the paid plans. If you do subscribe to Business or Unlimited, you will get multi-lingual support, scheduled order pickup, and dimensional shipping rates. But if that still isn’t enough, Ecwid has a good selection of e-commerce tools available on the Ecwid App Market.
Wix Features
Similarly, Wix offers unlimited bandwidth, comprehensive reporting, and multichannel sales features. With its Business Premium plans, you can also connect to your own domain, and enjoy a free SSL certificate. Ecwid, on the other hand, does come with its own SSL certificate but only for your store, and not for your existing website.
Wix also has its own payment channel, Wix Payments. However, the platform also supports a number of third-party options and will automatically connect to the most suitable provider for your region. Of course, where Wix really shines is in its design flexibility. There are loads of customization features that should be easy to leverage, even by non-developers. Unlike Ecwid which largely reflects the design of your existing website, Wix affords you full-control of the branding and aesthetic of your online store.
Customization
Wix has a high-level of customizability unlike Ecwid, which is limited to adapting your existing website’s design.
Indeed, Wix has a clear advantage in terms of design flexibility. There are a myriad of themes to choose from—including nearly 100 free templates—which merchants can readily adapt. Aside from e-commerce functionality, the intuitive Wix website editor allows you to add website elements—like photo grids, menu buttons, and social media icons—through simple drag and drop actions.
Ecwid doesn’t offer nearly as broad a set of features for customization as Wix does. Because it’s designed to be integrated, it will take the pre-existing features of your site. If you do want to finetune how your online store looks, Ecwid offers the Decorator App which allows users with no coding experience to make some minor adjustments to color palettes and font-styles, for instance.
Customer Support
Both Ecwid and Wix come with decent customer support.
Although both Ecwid and Wix offer relatively good customer support, it’s not up to par with the 24/7 assistance you get from Shopify or even Amazon, for example. With Wix, you can only submit a ticket and request a callback. Ecwid, on the other hand, offers chat support across all paid plans. Phone support, however, is limited to Business and Unlimited subscribers.
Verdict
Ecwid is ideal for those who simply want to add an online store to their existing website while Wix is perfect for those who want to start and launch an online store easily.
Small businesses looking for a versatile solution to starting an online store should take a good look at Wix. It offers a broad set of design and e-commerce features that will give you a sense of ownership over your digital presence. While it doesn’t have as much e-commerce features as similar website builders like Shopify, the premium Business Plans are certainly more affordable.
Ecwid, on the other hand, doesn’t offer a high level of customizability. Instead, the platform is suited for small and midsize businesses who simply want to add online store functionality to their existing websites. This allows users to take full advantage of their current CMS features, while bolstering it with Ecwid’s powerful e-commerce functionality.
