Wix vs Big Cartel: Comprehensive comparison guide for 2024

Final verdict

Wix and Big Cartel both offer unique advantages, but they cater to different types of users.

• 
  Wix (Overall Grade: 8.5/10)
  
  excels with its user-friendly interface, extensive design functionalities, and robust ecommerce features. It is ideal for users who need a versatile platform that can handle a variety of website types, not just ecommerce. When comparing Wix vs Big Cartel, Wix stands out for its advanced marketing tools, comprehensive customer support, and superior AI capabilities, making it a great choice for those seeking a flexible and powerful website builder.
• 
  Big Cartel (Overall Grade: 5.8/10)
  
  is tailored for artists and small business owners who need a simple, affordable solution to sell their creations online. It offers a straightforward setup process and essential ecommerce features, making it perfect for independent creators. In the Wix vs Big Cartel comparison, Big Cartel is favored for its simplicity and cost-effectiveness, but it lacks the advanced features and flexibility that Wix provides.

Best for ecommerce

Verdict

: Wix is ideal for those seeking a comprehensive and flexible ecommerce platform, while Big Cartel is perfect for artists and small businesses looking for simplicity and ease of use.

• 
  Wix
  
  : With a user-friendly interface and a range of customizable templates, Wix is suitable for small to medium-sized ecommerce ventures. It offers features like an intuitive store builder, Wix Payments, multi-channel sales options, and basic analytics. However, when comparing Wix vs Big Cartel, Wix may require more manual adjustments for mobile display and lacks in-depth customization options without coding.
• 
  Big Cartel
  
  : Tailored for artists and makers, Big Cartel provides a straightforward setup process and essential ecommerce features like inventory tracking, sales analytics, and social media integrations. It is favored by small businesses for its simplicity and affordability, but it may not offer the advanced features needed for larger or more complex online stores.

Best for informational & business websites

Verdict

: When it comes to creating informational and business websites, Wix is the superior choice compared to Big Cartel. Wix’s higher score of 8.3 reflects its robust features, ease of use, and extensive customization options, making it ideal for a wide range of informational sites. Big Cartel, with a score of 7.2, is more tailored to artists and small-scale sellers, offering simplicity but lacking the advanced features and flexibility that Wix provides.

• 
  Wix
  
  : Wix is a versatile website builder platform that enables users to create and customize websites without any coding knowledge. It offers a user-friendly interface, a wide array of templates, and numerous features for building and managing an online presence. With its drag-and-drop editor and Artificial Design Intelligence (ADI) tool, Wix makes it exceptionally easy for users to design visually appealing and functional informational websites. Its extensive template library and customization options cater to various business needs, making it a top choice for those looking to create professional and engaging informational sites.
• 
  Big Cartel
  
  : Big Cartel is designed specifically for artists and makers to sell their creations online. It offers a straightforward setup process and a variety of free, customizable templates that ensure online stores look appealing on all devices. While Big Cartel is easy to use and perfect for small businesses and independent creators, it lacks some of the advanced features and flexibility found in Wix. Its focus on simplicity and affordability makes it a good option for those who need a basic online presence, but it may not be the best choice for more complex informational websites.

Detailed comparison

Winner: Wix.

If you’re looking for a platform that offers more creative control and a wide array of design features, Wix is the preferred choice.

Wix stands out with its wide range of highly customizable templates suitable for various website types, not just ecommerce. It offers creative freedom in design, appealing to a diverse user base. While Wix doesn’t have a premium template marketplace, it has 3-rd party theme shops that allow you to get more sophisticated design choices.

Wix Themes

Compared to Wix, Big Cartel provides a variety of free, customizable templates designed to ensure that online stores look appealing on all devices. These templates are geared towards artists, creators, and small business owners, offering features like high-quality product displays and adjustable product grids without the need for coding knowledge. With over 15 different styles to choose from, Big Cartel’s templates allow for easy customization to fit any brand’s aesthetic, making it simple for anyone to start an online store quickly.

Big Cartel Themes

🏆 Winner: Wix

. Scoring a solid 9.0, Wix stands out for its exceptional user-friendliness, featuring an intuitive drag-and-drop interface and an Artificial Design Intelligence (ADI) tool for effortless website creation. Big Cartel, with a score of 8.0, offers a straightforward and user-friendly experience but lacks some of the advanced features found in Wix. If ease of use is a priority, Wix is the clear winner in this category.

Learning Resources

🏆 Winner: Wix

. Both platforms offer solid learning resources, but Wix provides a larger collection of articles, video tutorials, and live chat support with a broader focus, making it easier for users to learn and adapt.

When it comes to ecommerce, Wix and Big Cartel cater to different types of users. Wix offers a comprehensive platform for individuals and businesses, with features such as an intuitive store builder, Wix Payments and various gateways, basic inventory tools, multi-channel sales options, abandoned cart recovery, and basic analytics and SEO tools. On the other hand, Big Cartel is tailored for artists and makers, offering features that support small businesses in setting up an online store. Its ecommerce capabilities include easy product listing, customizable themes, inventory tracking, and sales analytics.

Wix ecommerce features:

• Intuitive store builder
• Wix Payments and various gateways
• Basic inventory tools
• Multi-channel sales options
• Abandoned cart recovery
• Basic analytics and SEO tools

Big Cartel ecommerce features:

• Inventory tracking
• Sales analytics
• Social Media integrations
• Marketing tools

Ecommerce themes & templates

Wix provides around 120 free templates for ecommerce. However, these templates are not fully responsive and may need manual adjustments for mobile display. Wix allows for flexible website design but has limited options for in-depth customization using HTML or CSS. For advanced users, Wix Velo offers more detailed customization possibilities. In contrast, Big Cartel offers around 20 templates, each specifically designed to cater to the needs of ecommerce stores, providing a variety of options for creating an online store.

Product page customization

Wix permits the inclusion of six options per item with a total of 1000 unique variations for products. However, the potential complexity of having customers choose six attributes for a single item is acknowledged, and it is recommended to consider splitting products with extensive options into different listings for a more user friendly experience. Wix stands out for its ease of customization, allowing users to add features like ribbons, size charts, wishlists, and more. While Wix supports product videos in its themes, incorporating 3D models on Wix requires coding.

Big Cartel enables merchants to customize their product offerings with the Product Variants feature, supporting up to 150 variants per item, such as sizes, colors, and more, allowing for specific pricing and quantities for each variant. Additionally, for products with complex attributes, the Advanced Product Options offer a structured way to present multiple variations through up to three option groups per product, simplifying the shopping experience.

Payment processing

Wix provides versatile payment options, generally around 2.9% + 30¢ per transaction, without additional commission fees. This makes Wix an attractive option for businesses using diverse payment processors. Wix Payments allows Wix users to manage transactions directly on their site, also supporting various payment methods and currencies.

Big Cartel supports payment processing through PayPal and Stripe, allowing a variety of payment methods including credit/debit cards and mobile payments like Apple Pay and Google Pay. The platform itself does not charge additional transaction fees, but standard processing fees from PayPal and Stripe apply. Big Cartel also offers POS capabilities, primarily through Stripe terminal for Android and iOS for in-person sales, enhancing flexibility for both online and offline business operations.

🏆

Winner: Wix

. Wix, with a score of 8.5, offers multiple editors catering to different user needs. Its standard editor is renowned for its drag-and-drop simplicity, allowing for extensive customization without needing to code. Additionally, Wix provides the ADI (Artificial Design Intelligence) editor, which creates a personalized website based on user responses to a few questions, and the Corvid by Wix editor, which allows for advanced web development with JavaScript and Wix APIs.

Big Cartel’s website builder editor, scoring 6.8, is designed with simplicity in mind, catering primarily to artists and small-scale sellers. Users can easily customize their online store’s look and feel without needing advanced technical skills, thanks to its user-friendly interface. The editor allows for the customization of themes, addition of products, and setup of different pages like home, about, and contact pages. Additionally, it offers basic SEO settings and integration options with social media and other tools, making it a straightforward solution for those looking to sell their work online with minimal fuss.

Mobile editor/app

🏆

Winner: Wix

. Both Wix and Big Cartel offer mobile apps for managing your website, but they cater to different needs and skill levels. Wix’s mobile app excels in general website editing, offering a user-friendly, drag-and-drop interface that is particularly beginner-friendly. This versatility and ease of use give Wix a higher rating for its mobile editor.

On the other hand, Big Cartel’s mobile app is more focused on managing an online store. It allows users to add and edit products, process orders, check inventory, and view store statistics. However, it does not allow for website design changes, which can only be done on the desktop version. While this makes it a convenient tool for store owners to manage their business on the go, it does limit its functionality compared to Wix’s more versatile mobile editor.

In summary, Wix receives a higher rating due to its versatility in general website editing and a more beginner-friendly interface, while Big Cartel is strong in ecommerce management but may be better suited for users with some experience.

Overall Result

:

Wix Wins

. Wix scores 8.1 in product testing options, significantly higher than Big Cartel’s 5.9. Wix offers a free plan with basic features for an unlimited duration and occasionally offers opportunities to test premium features through promotions or limited-time trials. It also provides a 14-day money-back guarantee. On the other hand, Big Cartel offers a free plan and allows testing of some features, but it does not offer a trial version or a money-back guarantee.

Wix offers a wider range of pricing options and discounts for annual subscriptions, while Big Cartel provides a simpler pricing structure with a free plan available.

Winner: Wix

. Wix offers a variety of hosting plans to suit different needs, with up to 50GB of storage and unlimited bandwidth. It also has 10 global data centers and an uptime of 99.95%. On the other hand, Big Cartel does not disclose specific information about their hosting, uptime, or data centers, which makes it difficult to assess the quality of their hosting services.

🏆 Winner: Wix

Wix outperforms Big Cartel in website speed optimization. While Wix has a clear strategy for speed optimization and has shown significant improvements in Core Web Vitals, Big Cartel does not provide any specific information about its speed optimization strategies or Core Web Vitals improvements.

Wix has a clear strategy for speed optimization, focusing on media optimization, code simplification, content distribution networks, lazy load techniques, and mobile-first designs. Wix’s infrastructure includes globally distributed CDNs, improving content delivery. Wix has also shown a 25% increase in sites with good Core Web Vitals scores over a year. Real-world performance analysis of Wix websites showed a wide range of page speed scores from 34/100 to 98/100, averaging 81.9/100, with the Largest Contentful Paint an important metric for website loading, ranged from 0.8 seconds to 3.5 seconds, with an average of 1.6 seconds.

On the other hand, Big Cartel does not provide any specific information about its speed optimization strategies or Core Web Vitals improvements. The load times and PageSpeed scores for Big Cartel websites vary depending on optimization and website complexity. Without a clear strategy for speed optimization, Big Cartel falls behind Wix in this aspect.

🏆 Winner: Wix.

Wix scores 8.2, offering over 500 apps in its App Market, covering a wide range of functionalities. These apps come with various pricing options, including free, paid, freemium, and one-time payment models. Wix’s plugins and integrations extend its functionality across various domains, including advanced ecommerce tools, SEO optimization, social media integration, email marketing, website analytics, appointment scheduling, customer support, enhanced media galleries, blogging features, custom forms and surveys, diverse payment processing options, website localization, improved security measures, and the addition of custom widgets. Wix’s top integrations include Google Analytics, Mailchimp, social media platforms, Wix Stores, Wix Bookings, Wix SEO Wiz, Wix Blog, Wix Forms, PayPal, Wix Chat, Wix Events, Zapier, Wix Video, Wix Music, and Google Ads. These enhance website functionality in analytics, marketing, ecommerce, SEO, blogging, payments, and customer engagement.

Big Cartel, with a score of 5.8, offers a variety of apps and integrations to enhance ecommerce store functionality, including marketing, shipping, and store management tools. Integrations with services like MailChimp, Printful, Zapier and Elfsight allow for automation and expansion of store capabilities, though the total number of direct apps and integrations is around 27, which may be fewer than other platforms offer. While some integrations come at no additional cost, others, especially those through Zapier, might incur extra monthly fees and require technical configuration. Big Cartel’s platform offers enhanced functionality through key integrations, such as Mailchimp for email marketing, Art of Where and Printful for print-on-demand services, and a suite of shipping solutions like Pirate Ship and ShipStation. Additionally, analytics tools like Google Analytics and customer engagement apps such as Power.io and Elfsight improve store management and customer interaction capabilities. These integrations enable store owners to automate marketing, streamline shipping, expand product offerings, and gain deeper insights into customer behavior, significantly enriching the e-commerce experience beyond Big Cartel’s core features. Integrations can be accessed directly through website editor.

Wix Applications

🏆

Overall Winner: Wix

. Wix stands out for its advanced marketing tools, especially in SEO, email marketing, and ad campaign management. Big Cartel, while offering basic marketing features, lacks in blogging and relies on third-party integrations for email marketing and ads and promotions.

🏆 Winner: Wix

. When comparing Wix vs Big Cartel, Wix stands out with a higher customer support score of 8.2. Wix offers a comprehensive support system that includes 24/7 live chat in multiple languages, phone support (via callback service during business hours), and a large community forum. This extensive support network ensures that users can find help whenever they need it, making it a reliable choice for those seeking robust customer support.

Big Cartel, on the other hand, has a customer support score of 5.4. Its support team is available Monday through Friday from 8am to 6pm EST, and users can reach out via email for assistance. While Big Cartel’s support is praised for its simplicity and focus on helping small businesses and independent creators, it lacks the 24/7 availability and extensive resources that Wix provides. Additionally, Big Cartel does not offer enterprise-level support, which may be a limitation for larger businesses looking for more comprehensive assistance.

🏆

Winner: Wix

. Wix’s security measures are more comprehensive than Big Cartel’s. Wix prioritizes website and data security through secure servers, encryption, and compliance with privacy regulations. It also has strict access controls, regular security audits, and additional features like two-factor authentication.

Big Cartel also emphasizes the protection of private data through comprehensive measures such as SSL encryption for all shops and custom domains, and strict data processing protocols in line with data protection legislation. However, it’s important to note that while Big Cartel facilitates secure payment processing via third-party PCI-compliant gateways like PayPal and Stripe, it does not achieve PCI compliance on its own.

🏆 Winner: Wix

. Wix’s AI capabilities are extensive and user-friendly, offering a wide range of features to assist in website creation and management. These include an AI builder, AI ecommerce features, AI content generation, and additional AI features. On the other hand, Big Cartel does not have any AI capabilities.

🏆 Winner: Wix

. Wix and Big Cartel have different approaches to user management.

• Wix allows unlimited editors regardless of the plan, but caution is needed with 50+ editors to avoid potential
  backend performance issues. It excels for large, collaborative teams.
• Big Cartel, on the other hand, allows only one user to build and edit a website.

Wix User Roles and Access Levels:

Big Cartel does not provide information about user roles and access levels.

Additional Features

User Feedback

Wix, though well-regarded, caters to a diverse set of website requirements beyond just ecommerce. This inclusive strategy attracts a broad user audience but might not align as closely with individuals prioritizing advanced ecommerce features. With a G2 rating of 4.2/5 from 1641 reviews, users appreciate its user-friendly interface and range of customization options, though some may find it lacking in specialized ecommerce functionalities.

User feedback on Big Cartel highlights its simplicity and affordability as key advantages, making it a popular choice for small businesses and startups looking to establish an online presence quickly. Users appreciate the ease of setting up and customizing their online stores, the flat monthly fees without per-item charges, and the platform’s intuitive design and mobile management capabilities. However, limitations in features compared to more comprehensive platforms, restricted customization options, and lack of advanced integrations or inventory management for specific items are noted drawbacks. Despite these concerns, Big Cartel is praised for its cost-effectiveness and user-friendly approach, particularly for those new to e-commerce or with smaller inventories.

FAQ