Wix vs BigCommerce Comparison: Which One is Better?
Last Updated | December 1, 2023
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These days, one of the most significant impacts of Covid-19 is working from home. Individuals around the globe have to find ways to get the work done without leaving the house. However, it is easier said than done. But none more so than in the case of retailers.
Although eCommerce existed long before the pandemic started, it has grown in significance as the only viable medium through which to sell both goods and services. Therefore, in this article, we discuss two commonly used eCommerce platforms available today and try to determine which, in the case of Wix vs BigCommerce, is the better option.
What are Wix and BigCommerce?
Wix and BigCommerce are two of the most popular eCommerce platforms available. However, each differs in the manner of service delivery. i.e. Wix is a software company that provides simplified, cloud-based web development services. Through a drag-and-drop interface, you can build a professional website with the option of expanding into and online store. On the other hand, BigCommerce is a dedicated eCommerce platform focused on providing a feature-rich environment and tools geared for increasing sales.
Compare Wix vs BigCommerce
In comparison, Wix and BigCommerce each have their pros and cons. Where BigCommerce excels in features and flexibility, it falls a little short in terms of pricing. On the other hand, Wix surpasses the competition in terms of ease of use and a balanced pricing plan. Therefore, to aid you in selecting an eCommerce platform, we compare Wix vs BigCommerce in terms of crucial aspects that affect performance over time, such as:
| Aspect | Description |
| Functionality; | How well the platform is suited to its purpose |
| Design; | The platform’s structure. |
| Themes; | Quality of the built-in themes. |
| Development Time; | How long it takes to publish the store. |
| Features; | Appropriateness of features |
| Payment Gateways and Fees; | The flexibility of payment methods |
| Budget and Pricing; | The cost |
| Marketing Tools; | The quality of marketing tools available |
| SEO; | SEO capabilities |
| Customer Help and Technical Support; | Quality of support provided |
| Integration; | How well the platform integrates with other apps |
| Mobile Responsiveness; | The adaptability of the store to the various hand-held devices |
| Application Integrations. | Real-time data integration capabilities |
Functionality
In terms of overall functionality, you have to keep in mind that although you can use both Wix and BigCommerce for eCommerce, the original purpose of driving each is different. Wix is a website developer with eCommerce add-ons while BigCommerce is a specialist in the field. This difference means as far as business is concerned, BigCommerce will always do it better.
On the other hand, all of Wix’s tools and features focus on ease-of-use. By making it easier to build websites, Wix engages a much larger potential user base. However, as is the case with most drag-and-drop style development tools, the lack of flexibility can become a problem. Even if you have the basics of coding down, making changes to a Wix template is tricky.
Design
Wix’s design is such that the user is always given easy options, and drag and drop features, to do different tasks in the smoothest manner. For example, if you have already chosen a pre-given theme from the options Wix offers, you can still add your own touch to every detail by easy editing and customization options.
No one needs any prior technical skills while working with Wix, because it is a simple platform and it has been designed especially for beginners in the online store business, so it has to be highly user friendly. For this reason, adding pictures or images, deleting any sections that you want, creating new pages and new positions, all that is really easy, anywhere on the website, and can be done by all kinds of beginners who have no past experience with technical work or online stores whatsoever.
Due to giving users the power to edit anything and everything, and making it so easy for them to do so, Wix gives the users a great opportunity to reflect their exact business ideas and brand image to the correct audience. In the case where users need more customization options and a greater degree of design flexibility, Wix also has a Wix Corvid (coding option) which users can use if they are more interested in the technical side of things.
Even with Wix Corvid, the users do not need to do any major coding, rather, it just offers a database for information purposes, which helps in building a more complex website, and can be done by the user themselves with some help from the customer support, and does not need any developer or prior knowledge as such.
All in all, Wix has got all kinds of users covered from all sides and in every case. With a great selection of features, stylish templates and a lot of freedom of customization and freedom, Wix is an amazing choice for beginners and also for the ones who want advanced control over their online store.
On the other hand, we are well aware that Bigcommerce Development Company has a very limited design flexibility, as it does not let the users customize much of the work they want to, and if someone wants to customize furtheror make any more changes to their store to make it non-generic, they need to pay extra fees for plug ins and further options, which can become very costly for BigCommerce users.
Themes
Wix offers multiple pre-designed templates for online stores, which are a great way to start, and much better than starting on a blank canvas. There are more than 500 templates available for the user to choose from, and out of these, 80 are completely trusted for users in the online stores’ category.
All of the templates that Wix offers are totally free of cost, so users do not have to worry about any kind of hidden fees or charges, though; some features are only available for subscribers who are paying.
Moreover, Wix gives you the option to preview the template or theme before applying it, for example, if the user likes a theme, they can preview it as an outsider, and see which one suits their online store and their idea in the best way, and then select that one. This feature is very important in the case of Wix, because Wix does not let you change the theme or template once you have selected it, so the users need to preview, understand and make a final selection very carefully.
BigCommerce has a very limited choice of themes and even lesser choices when it comes to free templates and themes. Free of cost, BigCommerce offers very less options, but if the users are willing to pay up, BigCommerce can give better thematic options. Though, only a handful of BigCommerce themes are mobile responsive, and most are very costly.
Development (Store Setup) Time
Speed is always of the essence when it comes to website development. Getting the site or store online and operational faster means getting sales sooner. In terms of development time, Wix offers a wide range of fully customisable design templates. In other words, you can either take the time to create a fresh design or just change the imagery and headings of a template that most closely matches your business and this it.
Furthermore, the Wix Editor enable design changes through a drag-and-drop system which means no coding required.
Finally, if that isn’t enough, you can use the Wix ADI to instantly generate the first draft of your site by answering a few questions. However, keep in mind that you must sign up for the “eCommerce” or “VIP” plan first before you can publish as a store.
On the other hand, Bigcommerce web design company specialises in eCommerce, so all of the available themes and templates have standard eCommerce tools pre-installed. If that wasn’t enough
Features
Both Wix and BigCommerce offer a comprehensive set of features covering all the necessary aspect of eCommerce and more. However, Wix, it seems, focuses on Small and Medium Enterprises (SME) while BigCommerce offers more robust apps and features geared towards larger organisations.
The essential eCommerce tools available with Wix include tracking orders, managing shipping costs and taxes, and modifying payment methods. If you need anything more, you can go through the Wix App Market and find the relevant app. However, most small companies will be excellent using built-in features.
Now BigCommerce, solely being an eCommerce platform offers more versatility in the built-in feature set by including functions like inventory management, abandoned cart recoveries and creating coupon and discount codes.
Furthermore, much like Wix, you have the option of going to the marketplace and getting an app like SurveyMonkey and more. The best part, however, is that BigCommerce offers a very refined selection of apps that work best and the platform handles all of the integrations for you making life much more comfortable. In this case, suffice to say, BigCommerce wins out.
Payment Gateways and Fees
In this case, with Wix, you get a wide range of payment methods and gateways both local and international. Wix also automatically connects your store to the most appropriate payment solution based on your location. Of course, you can change this but then will have to integrate manually.
On the other hand, all BigCommerce templates come pre-equipped with the most common global payment channels such as Amazon Pay and PayPal. Even though you have limited choice, the ease of integration brings its advantages. Furthermore, BigCommerce optimises each gateway for the mobile with no additional transaction fees for third party payment solutions.
In terms of choice, both platforms excel; however, ease of integration with BigCommerce makes it the winner.
Budget and Pricing
The pricing system for Wix and BigCommerce differs significantly. Wix has more distributed pricing plans while BigCommerce simplifies the choice by offering three distinct packages depending on the requirement. Although, both platforms use a monthly subscription model with options for an annual subscription. However, where Wix stands out by starting free, BigCommerce offers quote-based pricing for large enterprises that require tailor-made solutions.
Wix subscriptions range from free to $35.00 at the max. See the table below for more details.
| Plan | Description | Cost |
| Free | Full access to templates, unlimited pages and hosting | $0.00 |
| Connect Domain | Includes all the features in the free version but with more GB bandwidth and 500 MB storage. | $4.50/mo |
| Combo | Mostly for personal use; includes more bandwidth and storage, no ads, free domain and video allowances. | $8.50/mo |
| Unlimited | Intended for entrepreneurs and freelancers; includes unlimited bandwidth, more storage, features offered in the combo package and access to two specialised apps. | $12.50/mo |
| VIP | Includes all the Unlimited features but with priority customer support, access to more specialised apps and more video allowance | $24.50/mo |
| Business Basic | This plan offers the option to accept online payments, unlimited bandwidth, 20GB storage, sales analytics, access to specialised apps and video allowances. | $17.00/mo |
| Business Unlimited | This bundle includes all the features of Business Basics but with access to more storage, video, specialed apps and Pro eCommerce features. | $25.00/mo |
| Business VIP | This package gets you all the features included in Business Unlimited but with 50GB storage and VIP customer support. | $35.00/mo |
| For more details, click here | ||
BigCommerce, on the other hand, ranges from$30 to a whopping $300 per month. See the table below for more details.
| Plan | Description | Cost |
| Standard | This package gets you unlimited bandwidth, storage, products, sales channel tools, mobile apps, marketing and shipping tools and 24/7 live agent support;
Annual sales limited to $50k |
$29.95/mo |
| Plus | This plan includes all the features in Standard but with added marketing tools such as customer group segmentation and an abandoned cart saver;
Annual sales limit up to $180k. |
$79.95/mo |
| Pro | Includes all the features of Plus but with Google customer reviews, product filtering and faceted search;
Annual sales limit of $400k. |
$299.95/mo |
| Enterprise | Includes all the features of Pro with additional priority Bigcommerce Support Services, custom product filtering, price lists and the lowest credit card ;
Custom annual sales limit. |
Quote-based, pricing |
| For more details, click here | ||
Marketing Tools
Wix gives you a variety of marketing tools to choose from and use in order to gage maximum audience for your online store. It also gives you a web stat option, which is free and has an online premium version which helps in tracking and analysing the origin from where most of the customers are coming in from and their movement.
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This is also a great way to see where most of the profits are rolling in from, so that the users are aware of which market to target the most and where exactly their buyers and the right target market lies. The businesses can then also use their sales campaigns with that area and origin in mind, and use techniques based on that information.
BigCommerce uses a WYSIWYG editor for added marketing tools, otherwise, all of their packages contain ample marketing and sales features that the online stores would ever need along the way. Since most of these tools come under the same pricing packages, there is no additional cost and no need to buy any further plug ins or tools as such.
Customer Help and Technical Support
Regardless of a platform’s scale, the user will require support services, especially when it comes to the digital world. For customer help and technical support to be effective, help has to be readily available at all times and in as many forms as viable.
In the case of Wix vs BigCommerce, both offer the same level of service equally. Building an online store in either platform gets you customer support via email, phone, live support, training and tickets.
However, the platforms differ in the fact that Wix provides tooltips for each element in their website editor which BigCommerce sorely needs. On the other hand, BigCommerce gives new users a complete and thorough guided tour for each step and process.
In the end, although there are mixed reviews regarding the quality of these services, every user will find something they can use.
Integration
Any successful online store builder must provide some form of capacity for integrations. When it comes to Wix vs BigCommerce, there exists a marked difference. Wix offers a wide range of integration options including Hubspot, MailChimp and Quickbooks and many more.
On the other hand, BigCommerce allows integration with a far narrower selection of third party applications. BigCommerce believes in a more curated experience in which customers know what to expect in terms of reliability and stability of any app connected to their online store. Nonetheless, you can find some of the most common
Mobile Responsiveness
Wix is great when it comes to mobile responsiveness, as all of the templates that Wix provides its users are mobile responsive. Not only this, but the Wix platform also has a dedicated feature, that it, mobile editor, so that the users can make their website looking great and user friendly on all the present devices, so that all kinds of customers can access it easily.
BigCommerce is known to have only a few of its themes and templates as mobile responsiveness and the rest are not.
If users of BigCommerce do want a higher degree of mobile responsiveness, they will have to purchase additional plug ins and tools, which can have multiple hidden costs and become very expensive for the users.
Application Integrations
Wux has a huge app market, where many features and tools are already available; free of charge, but Wix is itself a platform that has great integrative services with many of the big names like Facebook, Instagram, Amazon, etc. Moreover, if users of Wix want to integrate any third-party apps into the Wix platform where they already have an online store, even that is easily possible, with highly efficient drag-and-drop options.
BigCommerce is also a very friendly platform when it comes to application integrations, as it already has many of the integrative capabilities built into it within each of the pricing packages it offers. Moreover, BigCommerce is also very effective when it comes to application integrations with big names such as Facebook, Amazon, Google, and other marketplaces.
E-Commerce Security: Wix vs. BigCommerce?
| E-Commerce Security Features | Wix | BigCommerce |
|---|---|---|
| SSL Encryption | Yes | Yes |
| PCI Compliance | Yes | Yes (Level 1) |
| Security Updates | Automatic | Regular |
| DDoS Protection | Yes | Yes |
| Data Centers | Secure | Secure |
| User Authentication | Yes | Yes |
| Backup and Recovery | Yes | Not specified |
| Data Security Features | Not specified | Fraud detection, IP blocking, CAPTCHA, etc. |
| Third-Party Integrations | Limited | Available |
Please note that while both platforms offer essential e-commerce security features, the level of PCI compliance and additional security measures may vary. Always consult the respective platform’s documentation and security guidelines for the most up-to-date information on their security features and practices.
Conclusion
Wix is a great platform when it comes to beginners, who are starting their new websites and online stores, and has a drag-and-drop outlook that is far easier to use than any other platform in the whole eCommerce industry.
In addition, it has multiple built-in features, has a variety of free options to choose from, its themes and templates are super easy to use and very effective in mobile responsiveness, and it offers multiple payment and fee gateways, along with a friendly atmosphere for integrations and application integrations, as well.
BigCommerce, though, good for beginners, at times does need a little bit of help from the technical and support staff, and some things that are available in the BigCommerce platform may be a little difficult to understand for first-time users, such as the language used, or some input options, etc.
Their mobile responsiveness of the themes and templates is also relatively low, and though they offer great technical and customer support, which is available around the clock, the same type of help and assistance is also offered by Wix, so, this is not a clear difference as the level of assistance is the same.
BigCommerce can be proclaimed a winner in places such as providing more gateways for payment methods, giving more marketing and sales features, and maybe even giving a larger market for integrations, but Wix is a clear winner when it comes to pricing, as it has a free of cost plan in place as well that gives complete access to all its tools and features.
Wix also has more variety of templates and themes to choose from, all these themes and templates have great mobile responsiveness, and using Wix cannot have gotten any easier, as it works on a drag and drop premise, making Wix a highly easy and friendly platform to start your online business with.
What big companies use Wix?
Wix has a global user base consisting of companies of all shapes and sizes. Some of the most prominent clients include NetMD (a computer and network security company), Kel and Partners LLC (a marketing and advertising company) and TAVHealth (a hospital and healthcare company). All three operate from within the USA and employ between 10 and 200 employees.
Who uses BigCommerce?
The user base of BigCommerce consists of small, medium and large enterprises and organisations in all industries. Some of the many success stories include the National Baseball Hall of Fame, Skullcandy, Woolrich, Hush Puppies, PayPal Here, Gillette on Demand and Fujitsu.
Is Wix good for eCommerce?
Wix eCommerce is good for startups and low maintenance business that require something quick and easy to setup. The ease of use and speed of installation allows users to get online and selling faster than anyone in the competition. However, that said, Wix is not a flexible platform. Since you have to choose everything from a standard set of templates, making changes is tedious.
Is a Wix website worth it?
Whether something is worth anything, all depends on what you require as a business and as an individual. In this case, if what you need is what Wix offers, you’re in the black. For example, if you ave no prior coding experience, and this is your first time running a business, Wix is the best option for you.
As a startup, Wix provides a drag-and-drop website builder at a low cost and a wide range of payment options. However, as your business develops, you might consider more durable platforms such as BigCommerce.
What are the disadvantages of Wix?
The only real disadvantage of using Wix lies in its inflexibility. In most everything else, it is an excellent contender in the website builder, eCommerce industry.
Is Wix bad for SEO?
Wix SEO used to be weak back in 2016. Now, however, the company has worked hard to catch up with the competition and offers a range of practical SEO tools geared to get your website at the top of the search results. You still have to write effectively for SEO, though.
Why is Wix so expensive?
Wix is relatively cheaper than the competition. Given that it has a free model for basic use, you can learn and practice how to use the site before making a purchase. But therein lies the clincher. As an online store, you cannot stick to the free of basic plans. You have to upgrade to Pro at least to have some power in your website. Furthermore, to accept any online payments, you need to subscribe to the business plans, nothing else. That said, even the most expensive Wix plan with all the features is within 5$ of cheapest BigCommerce plan ($29.99).
Has anyone recommended Wix for eCommerce?
Wix has been recommended for first time eCommerce builders, who are building their first store online, because it is easy to use with its drag and drop options for editing purposes. Once your website is up and running, you can also take it a notch up through Wix. Its level of integrations available and the extensive app market that I caters to, make it a great choice for online store building and development.
Can we hire website designers for developing the BigCommerce and Wix websites?
To be honest, developing websites through these platforms is extremely easy, but you can hire website designers because they can focus on small details and design a high-performance and effective website. However, before you finalize the website designers, make sure to compare the BigCommerce, Wix to make the right decision (it’s important to get the right outcome and high ROI, but it shouldn’t be too expensive).
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