Wix vs. WordPress

Creating a quality website generally implies spending thousands of dollars on a professional web designer’s services. Thankfully, some website platforms, like Wix and WordPress, can become affordable and accessible options for various sizes of businesses.

These are two industry-leading platforms catered to the different needs of a user. They are both robust and feature-rich solutions.

Which of them to choose depends on your specific website-building needs and experience in this business.

For instance, while the WordPress content management system is great for those who value complete creative control and independence over the site, Wix is a perfect variant if you have little to no technical experience but need an all-in-one solution.

Furthermore, WP is offered for free, leaving you to pay only for hosting and extra features via extensions, while Wix requires a small monthly fee that encompasses both site management and hosting.

As you can presume, the tech knowledge of the user plays a significant role in deciding between Wix and WordPress.

However, we’ll dig deeper into comparing these two solutions to highlight even more differences while not bypassing the similarities. Stay tuned to learn more.

Overview of Wix and WordPress

Wix and WordPress are powerful content management systems. Whether you choose one or the other, you will get a virtual, fully-featured site builder to set up a modern, super-slick website through customizable themes.

Wix

Wix is a website builder known for its ease of use and simplicity. It offers a drag-and-drop interface that allows users to create a website without any coding knowledge. It provides everything in one package – hosting, templates and add-ons handling all the tech issues like security and maintenance.

Read also: Wix Review.

WordPress

WordPress has won global popularity as a powerful CMS that offers advanced flexibility and customization. It’s an open-source platform, meaning it’s free to use and you have complete control over every website aspect. WordPress requires more technical know-how, especially if you want to fully customize your site, as it often involves dealing with HTML, CSS and sometimes even PHP coding. While WordPress itself is free, you need to arrange your hosting, and there might be additional costs for premium themes and plugins.

Read also: WordPress Review.

Overall, the choice between Wix and WordPress largely depends on the user’s technical skills, the level of customization required and the desired control over the website.

Ease of Use

When it comes to website creation, ease of use is one of those factors that have to be initially considered by users. Wix and WordPress differ a lot in this respect. Let’s see what exactly they can offer.

Wix: Easy-to-Use Website Builder

Creating a website with Wix is as simple as creating a blog. It uses a WYSIWYG editor to enable users to drag and drop pictures, paragraphs, slideshows, buttons, etc., anywhere on the page with no predisposed areas for page elements. Moreover, you can even resize anything in a couple of clicks – a dream for a beginner!

Editing with Wix is similar to looking at your site. Whatever changes you apply by dragging and dropping various elements will appear on your site in real-time. Generally, Wix prioritizes ease of use and a short setup time. These features make this CRM an accessible variant for beginner and mid-level website creators who need to build a website quickly with no hassle. On the other hand, Wix users lack the creative freedom available to WP users. You can’t set up a Wix template from scratch or bring to life your site visions.

WordPress: Professional Web Design Software

WordPress has a learning curve not found in Wix. Although WP allows installing some drag-and-drop website-building tools, HTML knowledge will save you from many issues. So, coding is an inseparable part of the experience of editing a WP website.

At the same time, the open-source WordPress CRM gives a user plenty of room for website customization. You can start from an empty blank and scheme the website you dream of – just implement your coding knowledge.

In contrast to Wix, WordPress has fewer “ready-to-launch” features, although the array of available extensions is huge. Again, the overall setup time takes longer, depending on the user’s skill level.

So, in terms of ease of use, the pros of Wix outweigh the cons. If you need to launch a site quickly with minimum effort and no coding knowledge, give Wix a go. But if you need a completely customized site with every detail throughout out meticulously, WordPress is your best option.

Design and Templates

Wix and WordPress have much to offer in terms of design customization. It’s just that their approach to the process of website creation somewhat differs and you have to be aware of such nuances when picking the platform to get started.

Wix Design Customization Features

Wix features a huge selection of around 900 beautiful templates, which are all intuitive for site visitors to navigate. They are all categorized by industry and come with sample content to get an overall picture of what your site can look like.

Furthermore, suppose you don’t even have time to choose a pre-made template and customize it to your content. In that case, Wix offers a special Wix ADI design-assisted tool that automatically sets up a website by asking the client questions regarding the design preferences and the website’s purpose.

Also, Wix features a user-friendly Mobile Editor – mobile optimization tool. Whichever template you choose and customize will automatically be optimized for a mobile device regardless of screen size.

Other Wix highlights that refer to website design and customization include Wix Velo platform, Editor X (read here in detail) and Wix Studio. All these solutions have recently been introduced by the system to bring the web creation experience to the brand new level.

Wix Editor X is a high end website creation platform that unveils multiple opportunities to use innovative tools and solutions to let subscribers set up, manage and customize projects.

Wix Velo allows the system users to apply their programming knowledge to launch full-featured projects that display great on all devices.

Wix Studio is another design solution that mostly targets professional web developers. It ensures advanced website creation services along with the opportunity to work with proficient web developers and order customer projects that come with high end branding/customization opportunities.

WordPress Designs and Customization Tools

As far as it refers to WordPress, there’s practically no limit to the customization options at your disposal. Choosing WP over Wix, you get only around 200 ready themes (the platform refers to them as themes rather than templates), 5K WP-approved third-party themes (both free and paid options), and an immense bunch of plugins with over 55K options.

Note that free themes look rather basic and not professional. If you care about your website aesthetics, go for premium options between $25 and $299.

To sum it up, Wix is way better for website design due to the large selection of stunning templates and easy editing tools. In the meantime, WordPress appears a step ahead in terms of customization tools.

That’s why whether Wix is better for website design and customization or WordPress depends on what you’re searching for.

If you have the knowledge, practice, and time, you can choose WordPress and scheme your one-of-a-kind website from a blank canvas.

But if you need more flexibility, ready templates, and simple customization tools, Wix will earn a higher spot.

Features and Functionality

In terms of integrations and extensions, Wix and WordPress offer distinct approaches, catering to different user needs and technical proficiencies. In fact, these approaches differ a lot considering the essence and implication of both platforms.

Wix’s App Market

Wix offers a wide range of in-house and third-party applications available in the App Market. This marketplace provides a variety of add-ons that can enhance website functionality. You can find multiple free and premium widgets for eCommerce, social media feeds, analytics, blogging and marketing here. These integrations can be added to your Wix site with just a few clicks, without requiring any programming skills. This is a real advantage for beginners who prefer a more streamlined, straightforward website building process. The range of apps, however, is not as extensive as that offered by WordPress. The same is about the level of project customization.

WordPress Integrations

As an open-source platform, WordPress offers a vast and diverse plugin ecosystem developed by its community. As a result, the system subscribers gain almost limitless customization and integration possibilities. Whether it’s for SEO optimization, social media integration, eCommerce or complex database management, you will surely find a suitable WordPress plugin. Mind, however, that correct plugin integration and management require a deeper degree of tech awareness. This especially concerns complex integrations or when there is the need to connect multiple plugins.

Summing it up, Wix provides a more controlled and user-friendly integration experience, while WordPress offers greater flexibility and a wider range of features for those willing to dive deep into tech details.

Pricing and Costs

Wix and WordPress content management systems come free to use. Wix has a free plan that does not expire at all, while WordPress is a completely free software. In both cases, however, there are issues that have to be taken into account when getting a premium subscription.

Wix’s Pricing Plans

As mentioned above, Wix’s free plan comes with a number of limitations. This is enough to test the service and to improve your skills yet it is not enough to set up a full-featured website. Thus, it makes sense to consider upgrading to the paid plan right from the start. Have a look at them below.

If you don’t like the selected plan for some reason, you can get the financial refund during 14 days. Each plan includes 24/7 customer support and comes with no brand ads.

WordPress’s Pricing Plans

WordPress open-source content management system is free to download and use but requires a custom domain name, which costs $10 per year and more and hosting to go live. For instance, one of the best hosting options for a WP site is HostGator.

The latter starts at $2.75; hence, the annual cost of running your WP website (the tier offers a free custom domain for one year) will be around $33.

Add the cost of a premium theme to make the site professional-looking and plugins, without which you can’t run an effective WordPress site, let alone a web store and you will spend up to $1000 and more per year.

When it tackles the pricing aspect, Wix and WordPress have diverse approaches and price formation strategies. While Wix has fixed rates, it is easier for its subscribers to calculate the final website cost. As opposed to it, WordPress does not offer fixed prices, so it is more difficult to define the final project price at once.

SEO and Marketing

Both companies offer basic in-built search engine optimization tools and access to functional SEO plugins. Actually, they both rely on plugins and apps regarding SEO. Wix and WordPress have dedicated marketplaces with extensions that can greatly improve website functionality.

Wix SEO Features

Wix is particularly praised for its user-friendly SEO approach, making it accessible even to those with limited niche knowledge. The SEO Wiz tool is what you should start with, when working out the search optimization strategy for your website. This is a kind of step-by-step plan customized for your project that helps improve its visibility. Here is the list of baseline SEO features Wix offers:

• Mobile Optimization: The system ensures that your site is mobile-friendly, which is a key factor for Google’s ranking;
• Customizable Meta Titles and Descriptions: Allows optimizing each website page;
• URL Customization: Offers the ability to customize page URLs;
• Alt Text for Images: Lets you add alt text to images, helping with image search optimization;
• SSL Certification: Provides secure browsing, which is another important ranking factor;
• Structured Data: Makes it possible to add structured data to your website, enhancing search engine understanding;
• Google Analytics and Search Console Integration: Easy integration for simple and hassle-free website performance tracking.

WordPress SEO Parameters

Due to the availability of multiple plugins and customization options, WordPress is often regarded as the more powerful platform in terms of SEO. Mostly, this is because the CMS has a broad range of SEO plugins that allow for deep website customization. One of the most popular plugins is Yoast SEO. Its integration, however, requires more tech proficiency compared to the more straightforward tools provided by Wix. Major WordPress features related to SEO are as follows:

• Advanced Customization: The ability to edit website code provides more control over SEO aspects;
• XML Sitemaps: Automatic sitemap generation and customization;
• Social Media Integration: Availability of plugins to enhance social sharing and optimization;
• Rich Snippets and Structured Data: Plugins allow for easy addition of structured data, improving SERP display;
• Google Analytics Integration: Seamless integration for tracking and analyzing website traffic.

Both Wix and WordPress are SEO-friendly platforms. The thing is, however, that they offer diverse strategies, approaches and tools to the process of search engine optimization.

Performance and Speed

When comparing Wix and WordPress in terms of performance and speed, each platform features unique characteristics affected by their structure and user control levels.

Wix Performance Features

As a hosted website builder, Wix offers a number of built-in factors that affect the performance and speed of its projects. These include server response time, data compression and image optimization. Wix websites generally guarantee worthy loading speeds, especially for basic to moderately complex projects. However, the drag-and-drop nature of Wix can lead to heavier page loads, particularly if the site is laden with media or complex features.

WordPress Performance Parameters

Being a self-hosted platform, the performance of WordPress websites can vary widely based on the hosting service chosen, the theme and plugins used as well as the way the website is optimized by its owner/developer. With the right combination of a good hosting provider, well-coded themes, effective caching, and regular maintenance, WordPress sites can achieve superior loading speeds and performance. However, this requires more hands-on management and a deeper understanding of website optimization issues.

As a result, Wix offers a more user-friendly approach to performance for users who appreciate simplicity, while WordPress allows for greater optimization and speed, which will certainly appeal to users willing to invest time and resources into performance improvement.

Security

Security approach of both systems is also affected by their type, structure and implication. It should be noted, however, that both platforms pay much attention to this aspect, and thus, websites created with them are mostly secure.

Wix and Its Security Parameters

As a DIY website builder, Wix includes the following security-related features:

• automatic updates;
• secure hosting;
• SSL certificates for secure connections;
• regular security audits;
• protection against common threats like DDoS attacks etc.

Wix subscribers generally don’t have to worry about manual updates of plugins or software in general. This is a significant advantage for those with limited tech skills. However, this also means users have less control over specific security configurations.

WordPress Security Measures

WordPress website owners regularly face the need to update their core software, themes and plugins to detect and prevent security vulnerabilities. The vast array of plugins and themes available for WordPress can also pose security risks if not carefully selected and maintained. To enhance security, users can employ various security plugins, implement strong password policies and choose reliable hosting providers that offer security features like firewalls and regular backups.

All in all, WordPress websites are quite secure due to the platform’s flexibility yet this typically requires a higher level of expertise compared to the more managed security environment provided by Wix website builder.

Support and Community

Wix’s support and community are not the same provided by WordPress. Again, this is the result of notable differences between the systems’ structure and overall performance.

Wix’s Customer Support and Community Resources

Wix provides structured and direct support to its users. This support comes in various forms, namely:

• a comprehensive Help Center with articles and video tutorials,
• email support,
• phone support,
• live chat for instant inquiries,
• Wix Marketplace for common users and Wix pros,
• social network communities etc.

Additionally, Wix has an active user forum where members can share advice and solutions. A blog with numerous articles and tips is available here as well.

WordPress Community and Support Options

The WordPress community is a good destination for users who need support. It offers extensive forums, specialized blogs, online tutorials and meetups. This community-driven support is invaluable for solving specific issues, learning new skills, or discovering innovative ways to use WordPress.

However, unlike Wix, WordPress does not offer direct, official support since it’s a free software. Instead, users often rely on community forums, third-party blogs and the extensive documentation available on the official WordPress website.

As you see, the scope of community-driven support in Wix is not as extensive as in WordPress, largely due to the platform’s closed nature and focus on simplicity. However, the website builder offers live and instant support options, while WordPress does not have any official support sources at all.

eCommerce Capabilities

Wix and WordPress both make it possible to set up, customize and manage online stores. However, they use different tools for this purpose, which is also due to the systems’ nature and initial objectives.

Creating a Web Store with Wix

Integration of the Wix Stores widget is what you should start with, when you decide to set up an online store. It provides a number of niche tools and features that make it possible to launch a small-to-medium shop. If you need a large one, then it makes sense to use WordPress or another DIY website builder like Shopify (read review), for example. Currently, Wix offers the following features:

• trading options in multiple currencies,
• reliable online payments (including Authorize. net and PayPal),
• the possibility to sell from five to 5,000 products depending on the chosen tier,
• the ability to sell on marketplaces,
• automated sale tax,
• a $100 worth ad voucher,
• a minimum of 20 GB storage,
• eCommerce templates etc.

Aside from these incorporated features, Wix Stores can be integrated with some quite powerful plugins to enhance different aspects of your online store. These include forms, chat forms, analytics, social media, blog, etc.

Apart from using Wix Stores widget, you can integrate the Online Store free plugin by Ecwid. It, however, is quite limited in terms of integrated features.

Starting an Online Shop with WordPress

eCommerce capabilities of WordPress are significantly more advanced, though not available via in-built features. You will have to install multiple plugins here before starting to sell online.

Perhaps the most popular WP plugin is WooCommerce. It will add such capabilities to your store as automatic tax calculation by region, multi-currency selling, etc.

Other than this, you can obtain free and paid plugins to add chat functionality, collect information from the site visitors through forms, make the site more visible to search engines through SEO tools, boost email marketing, store site backups in case the website goes down unexpectedly, and make the security of the platform more robust.

However, since WP and WooCommerce are open-source platforms, expect some associated costs to cover the hosting, theme, and domain name.

Both Wix and WordPress offer eCommerce features that cover a user’s basic SEO needs. However, despite a few advanced eCommerce tools and included options, Wix still can’t compare with WordPress.

Making Your Decision

Wix and WordPress are two quite different platforms, each offering a standalone set of features, tools and web design approaches. They are also quite powerful systems, which are worth user attention. Consider the points listed below when making the final choice.

Considerations for Choosing Wix

Wix has quite a long list of features that make it stand out from the crowd. The major points are mentioned below:

• Two website editing options;
• AI integration;
• App Market;
• Wix Velo platform, Editor X and Wix Studio;
• 900+ free responsive templates;
• Freedom of design customization;
• eCommerce/blogging functionality;
• Versatile pricing solutions;
• Built-in customer support;
• Integrated security and hosting.

Considerations for Choosing WordPress

WordPress is a more complex CMS offering a range of built-in features, such as:

• Deep website customization and control;
• Extensive plugin library;
• Template versatility;
• Community support options;
• SEO flexibility;
• Scalability;
• Need for coding proficiency;
• Cost variability.

Ultimately, the choice between Wix and WordPress depends on your personal or business needs, technical proficiency and the specific goals you have for your website. Wix is often favored by those seeking simplicity and an easy start, while WordPress is preferred by those requiring greater flexibility and control over their site’s design and functionality.

Conclusion: Final Thoughts on Wix vs WordPress

If you have a small business and need a website to move it online, both WordPress and Wix can serve the purpose well. They are secure and reliable content management solutions with tons of features.

The difference comes down to how much effort and money you can put into it and the level of website customization you seek. Both companies offer free options, though neither has enough functionality to run a successful website.

Managing a WordPress site can be more expensive since you have to pay for the hosting, domain, and plugins. In the case of Wix, meanwhile, you pay the monthly fee and get an all-inclusive CMS.

So, if you don’t have much tech experience in website creation and are searching for an easy-to-use solution with no coding required, go for Wix unconditionally.

But if you are tech-savvy, want the power and flexibility of website customization, and are ready to pay ongoing monthly fees, you can go on using WordPress.