Picking the best platform for your website is one of the best and most important things to do for your business, brand, or individual creative work. Two common and popular choices today are WordPress and Wix. Both allow you to build a website without needing to have deep technical knowledge. However, they both work very differently from each other, deliver different features, and are designed to serve different needs for different types of users. Understanding the differences between WordPress and Wix will help you save time, money, and frustration in the long run.
In addition to being an easy-to-use website builder, Wix is a cloud-based website builder with a focus on speed and simplicity. Wix manages everything for you: hosting, security, updates, etc. To build a website using Wix, you sign up for an account, select a template, drag and drop your content, and it will go live.
WordPress, on the other hand, is an open-source content management system (CMS) that gives you total control over your website, including how you host it and manage its ongoing development. You can use a web hosting service of your choice and install WordPress, customize it, and manage all of your updates (or get a freelance developer to help).
The Difference
Wix and WordPress differ significantly in the degree of flexibility provided by both platforms. WordPress provides the most flexibility when it comes to customizing a site. Its ability to create any number of different types of websites (blogging, learning management systems (LMSs), ecommerce sites, or membership-based websites), as well as develop completely unique/customized solutions, is its greatest strength. It allows for unlimited customization; users can modify the website’s appearance easily, create custom features, combine different third-party applications, or design/build completely unique solutions. Wix does offer customization options, but they are restricted; once you have selected a template, it may be difficult to switch layouts and make major customizations down the road.
Wix has a clear advantage over WordPress regarding ease of use. If you are a beginner with no technical background, you will likely find Wix easy to use and very intuitive. You have the ability to see how changes will look before making them, drag-and-drop your way through the design process, and get a site published in just a few mouse clicks. WordPress, however, is a bit more complicated. While you can set up a basic WordPress site relatively quickly, managing your themes and plugins, creating backups, and making performance tweaks all require additional time and attention; once you get the hang of the WordPress user interface, you will realize that it is a robust, long-term website-building tool.
Wix provides a large selection of pre-made, aesthetically pleasing designs that are tailored to many industries, including beauty salons and coffee shops, as well as portfolios of art and photography, and also accommodate small business needs. Though WordPress also offers thousands of free and paid theme options, it is considered a better choice for businesses looking to create their own custom brand identity since WordPress theme files can be edited and customized to suit your specific needs.
The SEO Margin
Another important area where WordPress has a clearer edge in comparison to Wix is search engine optimization (SEO). SEO functionality is one of the main reasons why most experts consider WordPress to be the best CMS out there for optimizing your website for search engine visibility. WordPress provides significant control over metadata, URL structure, Site structure, Schema, and Performance Optimization. Plugins like Yoast SEO and Rank Math provide user-friendly solutions to implementing best practices for search engine optimization within a WordPress website. Although Wix has been working hard to enhance its functionality in SEO over the last few years, the truth still remains that Wix does not provide the same degree of detailed control that WordPress does. Therefore, for businesses looking to create an online presence for the long term through organic growth, WordPress is typically a better alternative to Wix.
The costs of using WordPress and Wix are often confused and misunderstood. Wix uses a subscription model, where you purchase hosting, security, and maintenance together. This sounds straightforward; however, this increases in cost as you add more features, storage space, and e-commerce capability. On the contrary, your only expense with WordPress is purchasing hosting, themes, plugins, and if necessary, development. Even though WordPress may look and feel more complicated initially, in the long run, WordPress will typically be less expensive than Wix and is particularly beneficial for growing businesses.
Another reason that WordPress is superior to Wix in terms of ecommerce capabilities is that it allows you to build anything from a small online store to a large ecommerce business, thanks to the use of WooCommerce. With WooCommerce, you have complete control over how you accept payments, ship products, calculate taxes, manage inventory, and customize the checkout process. Although Wix may work well for small online stores and is great for basic sales functionality, it may restrict your ability to expand or offer advanced functionality such as customized checkout flows or integration with other services as your business grows.
When thinking about which platform you want to go with, it is also essential to consider the amount of ownership and control you have. If you choose to use WordPress, you will completely own your website. You will have full control over your data, hosting, and content and can move your website freely as you desire. On the other hand, Wix is a proprietary platform.
Security and maintenance differ as well. Wix handles security updates, backups, and server maintenance automatically. This is convenient for users who do not want technical responsibility. With WordPress, security and maintenance depend on you or your developer. While this means more responsibility, it also means more control over how secure and optimized your website is.
In many cases, we suggest that small businesses use WordPress as an option for developing a scalable solution for increased website performance and, therefore, digital growth. Ultimately, the right choice between Wix and WordPress will always depend on your goals, the financial resources available to you, and your overall plans for the future. Your website is more than just another piece of digital real estate. It is a critical part of your overall success online. Making the right choice regarding your content management system (CMS) will provide a significant advantage in terms of time and money.
If you are still uncertain about whether WordPress or Wix is the right solution for your business, consider contacting a qualified web design professional to help you eliminate any potential risks associated with these two platforms.
