Shopify vs Wix and Squarespace for ecommerce

Wix and Squarespace began as tools for building attractive websites without code. They added ecommerce on top, and for a small catalogue they work. Shopify began as ecommerce software, and its design and content tools were built around the shop.

That history shows. A builder gives you a lovely page and a simple checkout. Shopify gives you a checkout, inventory, discounting, shipping rules and an app ecosystem, and expects you to work a little harder on the website bits. Neither approach is wrong. The right choice depends on what you sell and how many orders you expect.

Shopify's Australian pricing is published in AUD. As of late 2026, Basic is $56 a month, or $42 a month billed yearly. Grow is $149 or $114, and Advanced is $575 or $431. Details are in Shopify pricing in Australia.

Wix and Squarespace both sell a range of plans, and the ecommerce features you get depend on the plan. Wix's own page, when we checked it, showed a Business plan with price including GST but displayed US dollar figures for reference and said prices and currency vary by location, so we are not printing a Wix price. Squarespace's pricing page listed two commerce plans, one with a 2% fee on online store sales and one with none. That page showed prices in a non-Australian currency when we loaded it, so we are not printing a Squarespace price either. Check both vendors' pages from an Australian address and read the current prices.

This is where an Australian store should check the details first. Shopify Payments is available in Australia, with online card rates from 1.7% + 30 cents on Basic to 1.35% + 30 cents on Advanced. See Shopify Payments in Australia.

Squarespace's FAQ on its pricing page lists Squarespace Payments as available in the US, the UK and several European countries. Australia was not in the list we read, so confirm which payment options it offers to Australian merchants. Wix's page says additional payment options may be available in your location and does not name the Australian options, so check at checkout setup which gateways it offers for an Australian business and what they charge.

Do this before you build. A site designed around a payment method you cannot use is a rework.

On buy now pay later, Afterpay connects to Shopify through its own setup in your payment settings, and Shop Pay Installments launched for Australian merchants in August 2026. See Afterpay and Zip on Shopify.

Most stores that arrive from Wix or Squarespace come to us for the same reasons.

• Shipping rules. Australian stores need zones, weight and price rules, free-shipping thresholds and live carrier rates. Shopify does this natively and with apps. A builder often needs workarounds. See shipping with Australia Post on Shopify.
• Variants and inventory. A product with size, colour and stock per variant is normal for fashion and homewares. Check the variant limits and inventory tools of any builder before you load 500 products.
• Discounts and promotions. Tiered offers, bundles, automatic discounts and gift cards are standard on Shopify.
• Marketing tools. Shopify works with Klaviyo, Meta and Google shopping feeds. Check each connection before you rely on it.
• Search. Shopify gives you control over page titles, redirects and structured data. Wix and Squarespace have SEO tools, but you will hit limits on URL structure and technical control sooner. See the Shopify SEO checklist.
• Wholesale and multi-market selling. Neither builder is designed for it. Shopify is. See Shopify B2B.

We are a Shopify studio and we still think the builders have a place.

• You sell a few products, or services with a few products attached. A photographer selling prints, a studio selling a few workshops or merchandise.
• Your website is the main thing and the shop is a side feature. Design flexibility and a beautiful portfolio matter more than order management.
• You do not ship much, you do not need complex rules, and a flat shipping charge is fine.
• You are testing an idea, and a cheap, quick site is worth more than a tidy foundation.
• You already have a site on one of them that works, and you are not hitting its limits.

If that is you, do not spend a Custom build on it. Our Launch package is a good fit when you are ready, but if a builder does the job, keep it.

• Your catalogue has grown past a few dozen products with variants.
• You are working around the platform to handle shipping, taxes or discounts.
• You want Afterpay, Zip, Shop Pay and a checkout shoppers already know.
• You want email flows, product feeds and reporting that talk to your store.
• You want to sell in New Zealand or further afield with local pricing.
• Fees on sales are adding up on a lower plan.

See our guides to moving from Wix to Shopify and from Squarespace to Shopify for what carries across, including products, customers, blog posts and URLs.

Wix and Squarespace use their own URL patterns, and those pages may be ranking in Google today. A move without redirects drops them from search. These are the steps we follow.

1. Step 1

   Step 1

   Crawl the current site and export every URL, plus your top pages from Search Console.

2. Step 2

   Step 2

   Build the new store with matching product titles, descriptions and page content where they are performing.

3. Step 3

   Step 3

   Map every old URL to its new equivalent with a 301 redirect. Our migration checklist lists what to check.

4. Step 4

   Step 4

   Move your domain once the new store is tested, and submit the new sitemap.

5. Step 5

   Step 5

   Watch Search Console for crawl errors and fix them as they appear.

If you want a plain view on whether to move, tell us what you sell. Sometimes the answer is to stay where you are.

If you are unsure, answer these honestly.

• How many products will you have in a year? A handful points to a builder. A few hundred with variants points to Shopify.
• How much do you ship, and to where? Occasional flat-rate parcels are easy anywhere. Zones, weights and live carrier rates are easier on Shopify.
• Do you need Afterpay, Zip or wallets at checkout? Confirm that each builder supports them for an Australian merchant before you build.
• Will you sell wholesale, subscriptions or bundles? Those lean towards Shopify.
• Is your website mainly a showcase, or is it mainly a shop? A showcase suits a builder. A shop suits Shopify.

Be wary of deciding on price alone. A cheaper plan that charges a fee on every sale, or that forces you to bolt on extras, can cost more than a plan that looks dearer on the page. Add up a real month of orders under each option before you decide.

If most of your answers point one way, that is your platform. If they split, start on the builder you already know and write down the trigger that would make you move, such as 100 products or a second sales channel. Having the trigger in writing stops the decision being made in a panic during a busy week.

When you reach that trigger, the cost of moving is a build plus a redirect plan. Our Launch package covers a store of up to 150 products, and the Custom package covers larger or more designed builds with migration.