If you’re looking for the best eCommerce website builder to launch your business, you should consider all platforms as potential options. Our goal is to help you figure out which one works well for you, and even stay with you when implementing your SEO strategy.
Both OpenCart and Wix platforms provide the necessary eCommerce features you need to place your product on the market. Wix takes a larger part of the market share, but according to many, OpenCart is easier to use, especially for beginners. Regarding eCommerce SEO features, both platforms are comparable, so this Wix vs OpenCart battle makes sense. While OpenCart is an open-source solution, Wix comes with more built-in features we will discuss later in this blog post.
But, before we go any further, we must briefly explain:
Table of Contents
- What is Wix and How to Use it?
- What is OpenCart and How to Use it?
- How Easy are OpenCart and Wix for Beginners?
- Tools and Features to Scale Your eCommerce Business
- A Control Over Your SEO Strategy
- How Good are Wix vs OpenCart Site Designs?
- Choose the Pricing Plan that Fits Your Business Budget
- OpenCart vs Wix: Final Thoughts
- FAQs
What is Wix and How to Use it?
Wix is one of the most popular cloud-based web builders you can use to create a website. You don’t need advanced development skills to assemble the blocks together and register your small or medium eCommerce business. It’s an Israeli platform that gained popularity because of its flexibility, customization options, affordable plans, and specific business tools.
It’s easy to manage your content and resolve ongoing issues using the intuitive dashboard. You can create a powerful online store that would rank on Google and attract your target audience all the time.
What is OpenCart and How to Use it?
OpenCart is a web eCommerce platform to sell and purchase online products. As a website owner, you can customize the site’s looks, making it more attractive for visitors. Feel free to add all the categories you cover by maintaining a simple but functional design. It’s a free, open-source platform you can customize with extensions.
The basic version is enough for new businesses, even though OpenCart can become pretty costly to maintain, depending on the third-party extensions.
How Easy are OpenCart and Wix for Beginners?
Ease of use and flexibility are probably the essential comparison criteria because why would someone choose something complex to maintain when they don’t feel comfortable with that? The Wix vs OpenCart ease of use means you can save time and resources and gain profits in a shorter period. Owning an eCommerce store is a day-to-day job because sometimes technical issues appear overnight, and you need to fix them immediately.
OpenCart Ease of Use
OpenCart comes with an intuitive dashboard and a library full of plugins and extensions. You don’t need to be a professional web developer, but you still need some basic knowledge or experience. OpenCart is simple to use, but if you don’t feel comfortable resolving everyday issues, you can consider Wix as a better option.
Wix Ease of Use
Wix can easily win the OpenCart vs Wix ease of use battle because it’s intuitive and offers advanced customization issues. The number of features seems frightening for many, but you can choose to use the exact ones you need for your business.
It’s an exceptional website builder, and even inexperienced users can create new pages in a few minutes. Additionally, Wix comes with customer support, which improves the whole process. OpenCart is an open-source solution, which means you hold onto online resources.
The Verdict: If you prefer the ease of use and constant customer support, go for Wix. If you are ready to experiment with different elements until you assemble an online store, OpenCart can be a great solution for you.
Tools and Features to Scale Your eCommerce Business
Both Wix and OpenCart are popular, but for different reasons. Many people consider Wix a website builder and CMS primarily, while OpenCart associates them with eCommerce.
The good thing is that both come with a wide variety of eCommerce features. For example, Wix offers a personal domain name, powerful SEO features, 24/7 support, social media integration, and many payment methods while being mobile-friendly at the same time.
OpenCart comes with even more advanced eCommerce features such as reviews, ratings, currencies support, email templates, abandoned cart recovery, shipping options, discount and voucher generation, and analytics reports in a given period.
Even though you can easily handle a Wix eCommerce site, it seems like OpenCart offers more in this Wix vs OpenCart comparison.
A Control Over Your SEO Strategy
Wix websites come with an SEO wizard that allows you to modify titles, meta tags, and URLs and add other SEO elements you find important. You also have flexible URL redirects you can fix manually. You can even import a bulk of URLs to redirect to fix one of the most common SEO issues many oversee.
You can integrate any Wix website with Google Search Console to track down every keyword performance. Additionally, Wix comes with an SEO API for developers, Google Business integration, AMP for blogs, image optimization tools, SEO analytics, and SEO for multilingual site versions.
OpenCart SEO is possible, especially when you know how to enable the proper features. So, go to your Settings page, and adjust the store settings. You also have functional extensions available, making optimization an easy task for you. OpenCart allows you to generate an XML sitemap, add an SSL certificate, manage the 301 redirects, and set an understandable website hierarchy.
We must note that all SEO efforts are ongoing, and you need to track the site’s performance, no matter if you use Wix or OpenCart.
And when it comes to the Wix vs OpenCart SEO battle, we can say that it’s pretty tied. Both platforms have similar SEO features, with Wix being easier to use, and OpenCart requiring extensions for the same purpose.
How Good are Wix vs OpenCart Site Designs?
If you prefer minimalistic themes and can edit the source code, OpenCart offers affordable website templates. You have to keep in mind it’s not a website builder like Wix, but it still is pretty convenient when it comes to customization. You can even purchase a theme that fits better to your business plan, and maintain it regularly.
On the other hand, Wix comes with exceptional design freedom and flexibility, and you don’t even need to know any coding. All the features are easy to control and apply. More ambitious business owners can hire developers to improve the basic design. Still, even if you use a template, it would work great.
We can say that Wix wins the design flexibility Wix vs OpenCart eCommerce battle.
Choose the Pricing Plan that Fits Your Business Budget
OpenCart is an open-source free eCommerce platform, but the free plan is quite limited when it comes to advanced features. You can contact OpenCart for premium eCommerce features, which will cost you up to $99 per month. They won’t directly advertise their different pricing plans, for the simple reason they don’t have any.
You can easily grasp the free version concept and get an initial impression of how things work. Depending on which extensions and functionalities you add later, OpenCart’s price may vary.
How is Wix different from OpenCart?
Wix comes with three business and eCommerce pricing plans, including:
Business Basic for $17/month
With the Basic plan, you get an advanced online payment solution, customer accounts, a website with no Wix ads, and 24/7 customer support.
Business Unlimited for $25/month
This is probably the most popular Wix pricing plan because it features many eCommerce tools and functionalities. You only have 10 video hours limitation.
Business VIP for $35/month
This plan is quite similar to Business Unlimited. What do you get more? With VIP, you get more storage, unlimited video hours, and priority customer care.
These plans offer you a complete eCommerce solution, no matter your business size.
OpenCart vs Wix: Final Thoughts
It seems like we did a fair Wix vs OpenCart SEO and eCommerce comparison. Both platforms are great for business newbies who want to offer something more to their online audience.
This comparison will help you see the differences and detect both strengths and disadvantages when it comes to Wix or OpenCart choice.
If you want to know how Wix and OpenCart compare to other eCommerce platforms, don’t miss these comparisons:
- OpenCart vs WooCommerce
- Shopify vs Wix
- WordPress vs Wix
- Weebly vs Wix
- Magento vs Wix
- WordPress vs Magento
FAQs
Is OpenCart a forever free eCommerce solution?
OpenCart’s concept is to be free for all users. Still, those who want to pay for more functional extensions and plugins can get an extensive offer specially tailored for them. OpenCart doesn’t list the pricing plan, so you have to contact them for a quote.
Wix vs OpenCart: Which one to choose?
Both Wix and OpenCart offer many eCommerce and SEO tools. Wix is primarily a website builder, and many aren’t aware of its eCommerce features. OpenCart is specifically dedicated to online businesses, making it an all-inclusive eCommerce platform. Make sure you read our guide to choose appropriately.
Which Wix pricing plan is the best for me?
Wix offers three business pricing plans. We suggest you review them carefully, so you can find the one that fits your business. Your choice should be based on your real business needs. Don’t spend your money on the most expensive plan if you don’t really need all those features.