Shopify vs Wix (2026): Which Costs Less for an Online Store?

Shopify is the safer pick for a product store in 2026. Its Basic plan costs $29 a month billed yearly, and Wix Core costs $29.77 on the same billing, so the entry plans cost nearly the same. Shopify publishes its card rate and third-party fees for every plan. Wix's plan and eCommerce pages print no card rate, so a Wix store's sales cannot yet be priced from Wix's own figures. Prices were verified on 10 October 2026.

Wix still has a case. Its paid plans include a free domain for a year, and it suits a site that sells a few products next to a lot of content, bookings or a portfolio. The sections below compare the plans, the card fees at three sales levels, and the seats and limits that decide the choice.

Toolradar data: Toolradar ranks 104 e-commerce platforms, and 34 of them (33%) have a free plan. Both vendors have their own Toolradar entries: Shopify and Wix.

Which wins on each point

Pick Shopify if you sell many products, expect to add staff, or want to model the card bill before you launch. Pick Wix if the site is content-first with a few products and you want a free domain for a year. Our Shopify pricing guide lists every Shopify plan with its fees, and cheaper Shopify alternatives prices the rivals on plan fees plus card processing.

What do the plans cost per month?

Shopify publishes monthly and yearly prices. Yearly billing is cheaper.

Wix prints only the price for yearly subscriptions paid in full. It says prices and currency vary by location and shows USD "for reference only", so treat its figures as a reference point for a US budget.

Core and Basic are the same kind of entry plan, and a $9.24 gap a year is noise. The gap that matters comes at the next tier. Shopify Grow costs $948 a year with up to five staff accounts, while Wix Business costs $477.24 a year with ten collaborators. On plan fees alone, Wix looks about half the price at that level. The plan fee leaves out the card rate, and at volume the card rate is the figure that decides the total.

The card rate decides the real bill

Card fees rise with sales, so they soon outweigh the plan. This table uses one US store, a $50 average order, Shopify Payments and Shopify Basic billed yearly. Wix does not publish its card fees, so this table cannot total a Wix Core store. Add the Core plan to whatever card fees Wix charges.

At $2,000, 2.9% of sales is $58, and 40 orders at 30¢ add $12, so the card fees come to $70. Add the plan fee and the total is $99 a month. At $10,000, the card fees run about 12 times the plan fee, so the card line is where a budget goes wrong.

If you route sales through a gateway other than Shopify Payments, Basic adds its 2% third-party fee on top: $40 a month at $2,000 in sales and $200 at $10,000. That line is easy to miss in a launch budget, and it grows with every sale.

Grow lowers the card rate to 2.7%, but on yearly billing it costs $50 a month more than Basic. The two break even at $25,000 a month in sales. Below that, Basic is the cheaper store. Above it, Grow pays for itself. At $2,000, Grow totals $145 a month against Basic's $99. Each 0.1 percentage point of card rate is worth $10 a month at $10,000 in sales.

Products, staff and the free domain

Products. Shopify Basic allows unlimited products. Wix's eCommerce page prints no product count for any plan. Its one published limit is 1,000 variants for each physical product, which matters for a single item with a very large grid of sizes and colours, not for a catalogue of many products. Once the catalogue grows, price stock tools in our best inventory management software guide before you pick the platform.

Staff. Wix calls them site collaborators, and Shopify calls them staff accounts. The two may count seats differently, so compare headcount with care. The Shopify table lists 5 staff accounts on Grow and 15 on Advanced, and no number for Basic.

Domain. Each paid Wix plan includes a free domain for one year. Shopify's pricing page lists a custom domain name among its hosting features but gives no domain credit, so budget for the domain on Shopify. When Wix's free year ends, check the renewal price before you assume it stays the same.

Trial. Shopify's current offer is three days free, then $1 a month for three months, so check which price applies after those three months before you sign.

Where each one fits

A product seller, one to five people, planning to grow. Shopify. Its card rates are published, Basic includes unlimited products, and Grow adds staff seats and a lower card rate once sales pass about $25,000 a month. If the store is also a dropshipping test, the how to start dropshipping guide prices the first 90 days on Shopify Basic, and the best dropshipping apps for Shopify ranks the apps on rating and plan tiers.

A content-first brand with a few products. Wix Core or Business. The free domain year, the collaborators and the built-in site builder cover the non-shop pages. Our Shopify review covers the platform in depth if you want the Shopify side first.

One product with a very large size and colour grid. Check Wix's 1,000-variant cap first. It is the only hard product limit Wix publishes.

Gotchas before you buy

• Shopify Basic adds 2% on every gateway other than Shopify Payments, so a store on another gateway pays it on every sale.
• Wix's yearly plans are paid in full at purchase: $357.24 for Core, $477.24 for Business.
• Shopify's three-month $1 offer is a promotion with terms. Put the end date in your calendar on the day you start.
• Apps add to either bill, so price each one before you install it. The best Shopify apps list shows which categories are worth paying for, and the best email marketing apps for Shopify compares them on price and contact limits.
• A weak checkout costs more sales than the plan fee does. Our cart abandonment guide lists the checkout fixes to make before you spend on traffic.

How we built these numbers

• Prices. We read Shopify's pricing page, Wix's plans page and Wix's eCommerce page on 10 October 2026, in USD. Wix shows its prices "for reference only" for yearly subscriptions paid in full.
• Scenario. One US store, $50 average order, US cards, Shopify Payments, billed yearly, for one year, at the three monthly sales levels in the card table.
• Toolradar data. The category count comes from Toolradar's e-commerce platforms ranking, updated October 2026.
• Left out. Wix's card rate, Wix's monthly-billing prices, Shopify Plus's yearly price and domain prices, because the vendor pages print no figure for them.
• Refresh. Every 60 days. The Wix card rate is the first figure to check again.

FAQ

Is Shopify or Wix cheaper in 2026?

On plan fees they cost nearly the same at the entry tier: Shopify Basic is $29 a month billed yearly, and Wix Core is $29.77. Shopify publishes its Basic card rate and Wix does not print one, so the full cost of a Wix store cannot be compared yet.

Does Wix have a free plan for an online store?

Wix has a free plan, but it lists no eCommerce feature, and accepting payments requires a paid subscription. A store that takes payments starts on Core, the entry eCommerce plan in the table above.

Does Shopify have a free plan?

Shopify's only $0 plan is Agentic, which sells through AI channels. The online store starts on Basic, the first plan in the Shopify table, billed yearly or monthly.

How many products can I sell on each platform?

Shopify Basic allows unlimited products. Wix's eCommerce page prints no product count, only a limit of 1,000 variants for each physical product.

Does Wix charge a transaction fee on sales?

Wix's plan and eCommerce pages print no transaction or card rate, so the fee cannot be quoted. Wix Payments is built in, and a store can also connect PayPal, Stripe and more than 70 other providers.

Bottom line

For a product store, Shopify is the lower-risk choice in 2026. The entry plans cost nearly the same, and only Shopify prints the card and gateway fees that set the monthly bill. Wix suits a content-first site with a few products and a free domain year, with 5 or 10 collaborators on Core or Business. Model your monthly sales first, then the card fee, then the plan. The full field of builders is in the best ecommerce platforms review.

Cite this: Retailpresso, "Shopify vs Wix (2026): Which Costs Less for an Online Store?", October 2026.

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