Wix Headless vs Shopify Headless Commerce

Wix Headless connects your AI-built project to powerful business tools and infrastructure, giving you a complete backend. Plug in ready-made headless solutions for your website include eCommerce, scheduling, event tools, a headless CMS and blog. Instead of piecing together separate services for your store, bookings and content, you can manage these business functions through one integrated Wix backend. That means less infrastructure to build and maintain and more of your time spent creating the frontend experience.

Shopify's headless toolkit centers on commerce. Hydrogen and the Storefront API give custom frontends access to core commerce capabilities such as products, carts and checkout, while Oxygen provides hosting for Hydrogen storefronts. Shopify also supports additional functionality through its broader app ecosystem, so businesses can extend their storefront with tools for scheduling, events and other needs.

Bottom line: If your project needs more than a store, such as bookings or events, Wix Headless includes these business capabilities natively in the backend, without requiring additional apps.

Wix Headless gives you two simple ways to get started, so you don't need to be an experienced developer to launch a headless site. You can create your frontend with an AI coding tool such as Claude or Base44, then point it to wix.com/headless/skill.md. With a single prompt, your project can connect to a live Wix backend with business capabilities already in place. Or, you can bring an existing frontend: simply drag and drop your project files to deploy them on Wix and get a hosted, shareable site live. From there, you can connect Wix business solutions to your project as needed.

Shopify Headless Commerce also supports AI coding agents through its Shopify AI Toolkit, which connects tools like Claude Code and Cursor to Shopify's docs, APIs and CLI. Building a Hydrogen storefront still runs through the terminal: you scaffold a project with a CLI command, link it to your Shopify store and pull environment variables before you can preview it locally.

Bottom line: Wix Headless gives you a straightforward starting point whether you're building with AI or bringing a project you already have. You can go from an idea or existing frontend to a hosted site without setting up a traditional headless development environment first.

Wix Headless takes care of the infrastructure behind your site, so you can focus on the frontend without managing servers yourself. Wix Headless runs on Wix's multi-cloud hosting, while connecting a custom domain gives you SSL and DNS setup without having to configure it yourself. You can also handle domain registration through Wix, while free website hosting keeps your hosting and domain management in one place. The same infrastructure powers Wix sites at global scale, with more than 300 million users across 190-plus countries.

Shopify deploys Hydrogen storefronts on Oxygen, its free global hosting layer for headless projects. Oxygen handles the infrastructure for your storefront, so you don't need to manage servers or uptime yourself.

Bottom line: Headless doesn't have to mean managing infrastructure. With Wix Headless, you can keep your hosting, domain and site infrastructure in one place, while Shopify provides managed hosting for Hydrogen through Oxygen.

Every Wix Headless project runs on the same payments infrastructure that powers Wix's live stores, including Wix Payments, not a separate or lighter setup. As Itay Shmool, Wix's VP and Chairman of Payments, put it: “People ask me whether the headless setup is the same infrastructure or some lighter version, and the answer is yes, it's the same thing. Same rails, same monitoring. We didn't build a separate system for headless, there was no reason to.”

Shopify's checkout for a Hydrogen storefront also runs on its core commerce engine, and Shopify backs headless projects with dedicated technical support to help launch and optimize a Hydrogen storefront.

Bottom line: Your headless frontend doesn't mean starting over when it comes to payments. With either platform, checkout runs on established commerce infrastructure, so you can focus on the customer experience while the platform handles the payment infrastructure behind it.

Wix Headless lets agencies build multiple client sites in parallel, including making a website from prompts, then hand over a clean, self-serve dashboard so clients can manage their own CMS, blog and business tools. Billing stays on the same predictable Wix plans, with no developer pricing or enterprise tier to negotiate.

Shopify's headless commerce page points agencies toward Shopify Plus Partners to build custom storefronts, and moving to a Shopify Plus plan is what raises the headless storefront limit from 1 to 25, which fits agencies running several client projects on one account.

Bottom line: Wix makes the agency handoff straightforward: build multiple client sites, give each client their own dashboard and keep pricing on the same standard Wix model. Shopify can also support larger agency workloads, but its headless storefront allowance scales with the merchant's Shopify plan, reaching 25 storefronts on Plus.

Wix Headless uses the same pricing model as regular Wix, including a full Free plan. You can build and test your project, connect your frontend to the Wix backend and use its business solutions without paying for a headless-specific plan, developer fees or API calls. You can upgrade to a Premium plan to accept payments, connect a custom domain and unlock advanced features. Wix's paid plans start at $17/month, billed annually, with the Light plan. Plans that include capabilities such as accepting payments are available on higher-tier plans, starting at $29/month, billed annually. There are no separate headless, developer or API fees.

Shopify offers a three-day free trial, with the entry plan starting at $29/month when billed annually. Hydrogen itself is free to use, but you still need a Shopify plan for the underlying commerce platform.

Bottom line: Wix Headless gives you a $0 Free plan to build and test before you pay for the features that turn your site into a business. Upgrade when you need to accept payments, connect a custom domain or unlock advanced features. Shopify also offers free Hydrogen and Oxygen, but its headless storefront is tied to your Shopify plan.