Wix vs. WordPress


While turning your website project into reality, you might have used one of the top popular tools, Wix or WordPress. Although the instruments are different, they serve one goal: both Wix and WordPress let users create effective websites, and both cope excellently with the task.

Yet, if you don’t measure your needs accurately, you may choose the wrong site builder. The first thing to consider is the complexity of the planned website. That is, how complex and unique the design should be, which plugins to use, and so on.

One more question to answer beforehand is how easy-to-manage your ready website should be in the future. A possible source of disappointment for a WP user can be a too complex website’s maintenance, while Wix may not satisfy their need for design freedom and plugin diversity.

So, which platform to choose? Or do you need to migrate from WordPress to Wix as soon as possible? Let’s get all these questions answered in our Wix vs. WordPress comparison.

Pros and Cons

Wix is a comprehensive website builder that has been present in the market since 2006. It was designed to let non-coders create their online sites as easily as coding specialists can. The platform has the following benefits and drawbacks:

Pros
  • easy–to-use editor;
  • hosting included;
  • 700+ templates;
  • 500+ apps;
  • good SEO;
  • SSL security included in all plans;
  • easy maintenance.
Cons
  • limited design options when compared with WP;
  • limited cheaper plans.

WordPress.org is a CMS that can be downloaded, set up, and used for free. Since 2003, this platform based on open-source code has been evolving, and you can realize digital projects of whatever complexity with its help today. However, factor in both pluses and minuses of the solution:

Pros
  • a free platform;
  • complete freedom of designs & functionality;
  • 10,500+ themes;
  • a huge number of plugins for SEO, security, eCommerce, blogging, and whatever.
Cons
  • a user must ensure hosting, security, SEO, etc., themselves;
  • it can be hard to calculate the website’s final cost (it can skyrocket);
  • the website’s complicated maintenance.

So, WordPress is a great platform for techies who can easily benefit from all the potential of the CMS and for whom constant updates and accurate management are not a problem.

Wix is ideal for those who wish to build an effective, professionally-looking website without beating their brains over coding. The site builder allows users to maintain their sites with ease.

Features and Design

Wix offers a convenient way of building and running websites. The process is based on your choice of a template. Then, you customize its design, connect necessary apps, and here you are – your website is ready to bring profits to you.

Wix has a diverse collection of over 800 templates. If you are a skilled coder, you can opt for a black theme and set up your project from scratch. Otherwise, at your disposal will be perfectly structured templates with smooth designs fitting various categories.

The Wix template bank is well-organized: you can quickly access the necessary category and choose items from piles of subcategories like Art & Illustrations, Real Estate, Wellness, Finance & Law, Online Education, and more. There’s a big choice of eCommerce themes.

Wix features include mandatory attributes like a free SSL certificate, the ability to connect a custom domain, built-in SEO, and 24/7 customer care. All Wix plans come with these options, together with access to all templates, app integrations, and free hosting.

All Wix features are designed to simplify the processes of creating and managing a website. Let’s list the main of them:

  • Wix Editor to build websites with fully-customizable designs and structures;
  • Wix ADI Editor – to let users create simple websites with the help of AI;
  • Velo by Wix to create web applications;
  • tools for analytics;
  • social marketing instruments;
  • professional mailbox;
  • online store tools;
  • the Wix mobile app.

As to design features, Wix is the most beneficial platform for those who wish to get a predetermined structure with the ability to customize it, hands down. Each of the Wix 800+ templates is mobile responsive, supplied with SEO tools, and ready to serve as an appealing design for your website.

You’ll only have to define its navigation settings, add images, and customize fonts, colors, and styles. The next step is to extend your website’s functionality, which is also an easy matter.

When it comes to WordPress, your design and feature freedom will be even broader than with Wix. However, you always need to know what you’re going to do and how. The whole project should be worked out in your mind or prepared by a WordPress expert.

WordPress will offer you a choice of over 10K themes (free and paid) and about 60K plugins with all possible functions. You can choose a theme or create your own, customize its code, and get a fully original design and infrastructure for your website. Add all the necessary plugins, and your project is ready to be published.

Simple? However, be ready for challenges, especially if you have limited knowledge of web development. You’ll need to ensure hosting and a domain for your future site. You’ll have to think about security tools, SEO, analytics, and all other aspects yourself.

Website Management

While Wix gives you more limited but well-thought-out solutions with all the necessary features ready to work on you, WordPress provides you with the broadest choice of possibilities. However, you should pick all the must-have features yourself.

One more WordPress drawback is that the more complex website you create on the platform, the more complicated its maintenance will be. In many cases, such complexity isn’t necessary and even decreases WP websites’ productivity.

Wix, in its turn, offers support and takes the best part of the job upon itself. You won’t ever need to worry about plugins’ proper state and automated updates. If you don’t know how to use a feature, you can ask for assistance from the Wix team.

So, Wix serves as the #1 alternative to WordPress. Many WP websites migrate to Wix because its features are still sufficient, and any website’s management is easy to run here.

eCommerce

Want to develop an effective online store? Wix is ready to help you with it, no matter if you plan to create a Wix website from scratch or move your existing site to the platform. Wix offers enough instruments to create and grow your eCommerce project:

  • hundreds of professional online store templates;
  • 80+ payment methods;
  • inventory management and tracking tools;
  • built-in SEO and Analytics;
  • the Wix Point of Sale;
  • multichannel sales tools;
  • Facebook & Instagram advertisements;
  • automated taxes;
  • shipping & fulfillment tools;
  • Wix solutions for dropshipping partnership with the whole world;
  • native marketing instruments;
  • scheduling tools;
  • Wix gift cards;
  • the Wix Owner application.

This impressive list of features shows how consistent Wix is in terms of eCommerce functionality. Even a newbie with no experience in site building can cope with any of these tools and run a powerful online store.

WordPress will let you build anything with the only condition that you know how to do this. The platform has many useful plugins designed for eCommerce. For example, you can connect your WP site to WooCommerce, an efficient app with a huge pack of specific features for online stores.

You can also choose an adequate theme for your site from over 10,000 themes. Many of them are free, but chances are you’ll need a premium variant if you wish to get an accurate layout and design for your online store. Checking the responsiveness and safety of your chosen WP theme will be your own responsibility.

You can add all the tools offered by Wix as well. Again, you’ll need to pick the right plugins yourself on WordPress. There won’t be hints or guidance on how and what to connect to your site.

Wix is a more reasonable choice in this respect since the platform is ready to guide you through the whole process of creating your eCommerce website. You can manage many things intuitively thanks to the Wix convenient interface.

SEO

The good news about Wix is that it provides all its templates with good SEO. That is, you can base your website on any of them and be sure that your online site will be ranked high by top search engines. Want more? No problem! Wix allows editing the following elements important for your pages’ SEO:

  • meta tags;
  • canonical tags;
  • URL structure;
  • structured data markup;
  • the robots.txt file, etc.

The site builder’s SEO instruments also include 301 redirects, the ability to create patterned meta tags for all your pages, instant Google indexing, and many more.

WordPress is also great in terms of SEO. Its power is, as always, in a massive choice of plugins. The best of them, like Yoast, will be at your disposal and let you customize your website’s SEO settings just the way you want.

In case you know little about how SEO tools work, WordPress will be a doubtful solution for you. You either need to hire a WP expert to do the job instead of you or choose a more beginner-friendly site builder like Wix.

Wix and WordPress Cost Comparison

Wix is also convenient in terms of subscription. You choose a suitable plan and get all the features you need. In case more addons are needed, you purchase them for an extra cost. Wix is one of the best site builders also because it offers a huge choice of plans, each having its audience. You can choose from the following options:

Website Plans:

  • Combo: $16/mo., 2 Gb disc space, free domain, free SSL certificate;
  • Unlimited: $22/mo., 5 Gb disc space + all previous perks, unlimited bandwidth, Google Ads budget, Site Booster app, visitor analytics app;
  • Pro: $27/mo., 50 Gb disc space + all previous perks, events calendar app, professional logo, and social media logo files;
  • VIP: $25/mo., 100 Gb disc space + all previous perks and priority customer care.

Business & Online Store Plans:

  • Business Basic: 27$/mo., 50 Gb disc space;
  • Business Unlimited: $32/mo., 100 Gb disc space;
  • Business VIP: $59/mo., unlimited disc space.

All business packages go with unlimited bandwidth. Moreover, all plans include free SSL, a free domain for a year, and around-the-clock support. Wix can also work out your personal plan if you need more capacities and features.

The status of an open-source platform makes WordPress a free site-building solution. Yet, the creation of a professional website with its help usually requires significant investment. Even if you can build and manage your website with free WP themes and plugins only, you’ll need to purchase at least hosting and a domain.

If developing a serious business or eCommerce website, you’ll also need a professional theme from the premium set, reliable online store applications, security tools, SEO, and many other things. So, the final cost of your WP site may range from a hundred bucks to $100,000+.

Moreover, your WordPress website will require constant updates and careful maintenance. This may add another $10-$1,500 a month to your expenses.

From this perspective, Wix is a more convenient site builder. It will let you calculate your website’s price more accurately. Moreover, you don’t need to bother with hosting plans and updates in case you base your website on Wix.

Tech Support

Wix offers comprehensive support, from online chat to Wix communities on social media. There’s the Help Center on the platform with loads of tutorials, too. Wix has its own Marketplace where you can contact other users and Wix experts to get help.

WordPress unites the largest community of WP specialists. Yet, there’s no such thing as WordPress support on the platform.

Conclusion

WordPress will fit complex projects created and managed by a team of web development professionals. The platform requires deep knowledge, and the management of a website based on it will take much time. It also may cost you pretty much money.

Wix is an affordable website builder that will suit most present-day projects. Wix websites are easy to create and manage. The platform offers multiple plans with ensured security, hosting, and enough features.