Shopify vs Wix for a New Online Store in India

Shopify and Wix both let you open an online store without writing code, and both look easy in a demo. The difference shows up after launch, in the parts that matter most to an Indian seller: which payment gateways work, how cash on delivery is handled, how GST is charged and how orders reach a courier. This guide compares the two on exactly those points, with each platform's own documentation, so you can pick the right one before you build.

Platform details are from Shopify's India pricing page and Help Centre, the Wix Help Center and plans page, and the Razorpay, Cashfree and Shiprocket documentation, all checked on 9 October 2026. Both platforms change plans and features often, so recheck anything that decides your choice.

What is the real difference between Shopify and Wix?

Wix is a website builder that added ecommerce. Shopify is an ecommerce platform that added a website builder. Both are hosted, so neither needs you to manage servers, and both give you a visual editor and templates.

That starting point shapes everything else. Wix is strongest when the website is the product: a portfolio, a service business, a restaurant, a brand site that sells a handful of items on the side. Shopify is built around the catalogue, the checkout and the order, and most of its app ecosystem exists to make selling and fulfilling orders work better.

For an Indian D2C founder, the useful question is not which one is "better" in general. It is which one handles payments, COD, GST and shipping for your kind of business with the least workaround.

Which Indian payment gateways work on Shopify and Wix?

Both platforms connect to the main Indian gateways, so this is closer than many comparisons suggest.

Wix's own list of payment providers by country shows eight options for India: PayPal, Razorpay, PayU India, Cashfree Payments, Paytm, Easebuzz, airpay and Nimbbl.

On Shopify, Indian stores use third-party gateways because Shopify Payments is not available in India. Razorpay's documentation describes its "All-in-one Razorpay Payment Gateway" app for Shopify, supporting UPI, cards, wallets and netbanking, and notes that your website must be reviewed by Razorpay before you integrate. Cashfree publishes its own plugin for Shopify covering UPI, cards, netbanking and wallets. Our comparison of Razorpay and Cashfree on Shopify covers the choice between them.

One cost difference matters here. Shopify charges a third-party transaction fee when you use an external gateway, on top of the gateway's own fee. Shopify's India pricing page lists it as 2% on Basic, 1% on Grow and 0.6% on Advanced. Wix's plans page, as we loaded it, did not mention a platform transaction fee either way, so check the current terms in your Wix dashboard before you compare totals.

How does cash on delivery work on each platform?

This is the clearest gap between the two for Indian sellers.

Wix states it plainly in a help article on COD in India: "Currently, it is not possible to accept payments using cash on delivery / collect on delivery." The article marks it as a feature request and suggests the manual payment method instead. Wix's manual payments setup does let you title the method "Cash on delivery" and add instructions. But the same help page notes that manual payments only appear in the Payments tab once marked as paid, that you must mark orders as paid yourself, and that "it is not possible to refund, delete or change the status of any manual payment" from the Payments tab.

Shopify's Help Centre lists cash on delivery as one of its suggested manual payment methods, switched on from Settings, then Payments. It also states, "You aren't charged third-party transaction fees for manual payments," so the 2% on Basic does not apply to COD orders.

The bigger difference is what sits around COD. Indian stores need to verify COD orders, restrict COD by pin code or order value, and reduce return to origin losses. Far more of those tools are built for Shopify. Our guide on cutting COD RTO losses explains what they do. If a large share of your orders will be COD, this point alone usually decides the platform.

How do Shopify and Wix handle GST?

Neither platform does GST end to end for you, but they start from different places.

Wix's help page on automatic tax calculation says its automatic tax partner, Avalara, "is not able to calculate tax in Brazil, India, and a few other locations." For India you use the manual method: you choose the locations where you collect tax, enter the rates yourself, and update them yourself when rates change.

Shopify's India GST help page describes charging CGST and SGST on orders within your state and IGST on orders to other states, based on your business location and the customer's state. You store the HSN code in the HS tariff code field on each product, and that field needs a code of at least six digits. Shopify is also clear that it "doesn't create a GST-compliant bill", so Indian stores add a GST invoicing app.

In practice, both need setting up properly product by product, and both need an invoice solution your CA is happy with. Shopify's built-in split between intra-state and inter-state tax saves some manual work. Our GST setup guide for Shopify walks through the settings.

Which platform connects better to Indian couriers?

Both connect to Shiprocket, which many new Indian brands start with.

Shiprocket's support centre documents a Wix channel integration, and the Shiprocket app on the Wix App Market is listed as available for India only, with 17+ domestic courier partners, automated order sync, return management and branded tracking pages. On Shopify, Shiprocket's App Store listing describes 25+ courier partners on one platform.

Beyond Shiprocket, the Shopify App Store has a wider spread of Indian logistics, COD verification, checkout and WhatsApp apps, because the Indian D2C ecosystem has largely been built around Shopify. Whether you need that range depends on your order volume. If you are weighing an aggregator against a direct courier contract, our guide on choosing a shipping aggregator covers that decision on Shopify.

How do Shopify and Wix pricing compare in India?

Shopify shows rupee pricing on its India pricing page. As of 9 October 2026:

Shopify's page also offers a trial: 3 days free, then Rs 20 a month for 3 months.

Wix's plans page says "Prices and currency vary by location" and showed USD prices "for reference only" when we loaded it, so we cannot quote a verified rupee price here. Check the plans page while signed in from India to see your local price. The page does make one thing clear: only the Core, Business and Business Elite plans include accepting payments. The Free and Light plans cannot take online payments, so a store needs at least Core.

When you compare, add up the plan, any platform transaction fee, the gateway fee, and the apps you will need for COD, invoices and shipping. The cheaper plan is not always the cheaper store.

What about design, apps and growing later?

Wix's editor gives a lot of visual freedom on day one, and many founders find it easier to lay out a brand site with it. Shopify themes are more structured, but are built around product pages, collections and checkout. If design is the worry, our note on custom versus premium themes explains how far a Shopify theme can go.

The bigger question is what you will need in a year. A brand that plans to add a large catalogue, B2B or wholesale pricing, multiple sales channels, ERP or accounting integrations, or a custom checkout flow will find more ready-made options on Shopify. A business where the website is mostly content with a small shop attached may never need any of that.

Switching later is possible but not free. Your design does not transfer between the two platforms and every URL changes, so it is worth choosing with the next two years in mind.

When is Wix enough for an Indian seller?

Wix is a reasonable choice when most of these are true:

• The website matters more than the shop, for example a service business, studio or brand site with a few products.
• You sell a small catalogue and expect modest order volume.
• Most customers pay online, so the lack of native COD is not a problem.
• You already know Wix and the store does not need Indian-specific apps.

Shopify is usually the better fit when:

• Ecommerce is the core of the business, not a side feature.
• COD will be a meaningful share of orders and you need to control RTO.
• You expect to grow the catalogue, add channels or integrate with accounting and logistics tools.
• You want access to the Indian checkout, COD, shipping and WhatsApp apps most D2C brands use.

What if you are already selling on Wix?

Then the question changes from "which platform" to "is it time to move". If your Wix store works, sells and is not holding back operations, there is no need to rush. If COD handling, GST invoices, courier sync or missing apps are slowing you down, a move can make sense. Our guide on moving from Wix to Shopify covers what transfers, what has to be rebuilt and how to protect your Google rankings during the switch.

Not sure which platform fits your store?

Free platform check. Get in touch or email hello@exactwhy.com with the subject "Shopify vs Wix" and your current website URL if you have one. Tell us what you sell, roughly how many products, how many orders you expect to be COD and which gateway you plan to use. We reply within 4 hours with a straight recommendation, including when Wix is the better call, and the setup steps that matter for your choice.

If you go ahead. We set up your Shopify store for Indian selling: Razorpay or Cashfree, COD rules, GST settings and invoicing, Shiprocket or your courier, theme build and launch testing.