Wix vs WordPress: Unveiling 9 Key Differences

While both are excellent platforms, they come with certain distinct differences. To help you understand Wix and WordPress better and determine the best choice for you, we have conducted a comparison based on 9 key aspects.

Wix vs WordPress: 9 Key Differences You Need to Know
 

1. What are the differences between Wix and WordPress?

Wix is an integrated website building platform suitable for beginners and non-programmers; on the other hand, WordPress is an open-source content management system. This means with WordPress, you can build your website from scratch; whereas with Wix, everything is integrated and ready to help you build your own website.

WordPress operates more efficiently than Wix but requires more technical knowledge to use; especially, if you have programming skills, you can use it more flexibly. In contrast, Wix simplifies everything to the maximum - it even has design support to help you build a personalized website.

Wix allows you to swiftly and easily build a professional website with pre-designed templates, integrated security, and built-in features. On the other hand, WordPress is the ideal tool for creating complex websites, offering flexibility and complete control. You'll need to find hosting, install plugins, run updates, and handle many other tasks.

2. Pros and Cons of Wix and WordPress

3. Which Platform is More User-Friendly?

When it comes to ease of use, WordPress is undoubtedly more challenging. Many opt for WordPress due to its flexibility, but flexibility comes with complexity.

If you have programming knowledge, this is your chance. You can modify anything you want, but deep tech knowledge is required for these changes.

Of course, you can also hire a skilled programmer, but this can be quite costly.

Meanwhile, even though Wix has its limitations, it's designed specifically for non-professional programmers. Therefore, you can learn how to use Wix much more easily and quickly.

Wix is a web-building platform with an instant interactive interface. Thus, you can drag and drop charts, images, slideshows, shopping cart icons, and anything else anywhere on your website. You can also resize any element with just a few simple clicks.

A limitation of WordPress is that you won't know how the content you insert into the editor will look on the official website until you choose to preview or officially publish it.

While not a significant issue, you'll have to constantly switch between the preview and edit modes just to see how this content will be displayed.

WordPress also has additional steps for categories, hosting, and domain names. These need to be purchased separately on WordPress but bundled on Wix. Therefore, Wix users can save time and effort compared to WordPress users who have to search for hosting and buy a custom domain service.

4. How can you unleash your creativity?

Design and customization are what make WordPress proud. With this platform, there are no limits to customizing your website, but you know, nothing is ever simple.

If you have programming knowledge, WordPress allows you to change the entire theme and put your own stamp on the website.

WordPress has a collection of free templates and themes, but if you're truly dedicated to your website, you should invest in premium options.

While you can buy templates and themes for WordPress from various sources, always prioritize those created by the platform itself to avoid wasting money on low-quality products from amateur designers.

Premium WordPress themes range from $25 to $299. They're not cheap, but it's the best choice if you want to design an impressive website and avoid errors during use.

With Wix, you'll have a selection of around 500 different templates. All these templates are categorized by industry and come with accompanying examples, helping you envision how your website will look once completed.

Another plus is that each template will have integrated features related to the industry it's categorized under. This will save you time and effort in searching, such as finding a registration template for your magazine website, for example.

You can access the code snippets of the template forms in Wix, but you shouldn't do this unless you're an IT expert. You can customize everything you need using the drag-and-drop editor.

If you don't care about design and customization, or simply don't have much time, you can use Wix ADI. This is a design-assist tool that helps you create a website for yourself with just a few questions about your purpose and design preferences.

5. Which platform has more plugins?

Both plugins and apps share the same task, allowing Wix and WordPress users to add additional functionalities beyond the basics available for websites.

Additional plugins include functions like adding Facebook or Twitter feeds to the website or vice versa, adding a store section to a Facebook page. Other apps and plugins can help website owners track their SEO or provide contact forms for users to easily send emails.

WordPress is an open-source platform, meaning its code is publicly available for anyone to use and modify. Any programmer or developer can use WordPress to create their own themes or plugins to sell or share with others.

This is one of the main reasons why the WordPress community boasts over 75 million websites (most recent statistics suggest it holds about 30% of the total websites on the Internet). As more individuals and businesses want to build their websites, WordPress is predicted to continue growing.

There are over 55,000 WordPress plugins that have been downloaded over 1.2 billion times. These numbers surely give you a glimpse of the vastness of the WordPress community.

However, the fact that WordPress is so widely accessible can lead to certain issues, as anyone with a bit of coding knowledge can build a theme or plugin for WordPress. The quality of these tools is excellent, but they can also contribute to clutter.

While WordPress can offer you a plethora of flexible features, many of them can be cumbersome. This doesn't mean there are no good WordPress plugins. In fact, there are many good plugins, but you'll have to sift through them carefully to find what truly suits your needs.

Wix is not an open-source platform, so only its own development team can create website-building tools. Therefore, Wix's tools are seamlessly integrated into the website builder and are less prone to errors.

Wix is also expanding its market, so you can add many functionalities to a website created on Wix. These apps are fully integrated, so you won't have to worry about installation issues.

If you encounter technical issues using Wix, Wix will assist you in resolving them.

6. Which platform is better for online selling?

One significant difference here is that Wix integrates e-commerce features. Just sign up for one of Wix's dedicated e-commerce plans, and everything you need for online selling is ready.

With WordPress, you'll need to install an e-commerce plugin if you want to sell online. WooCommerce is the most popular choice, installed for free but with additional associated costs, such as transaction fees. Other plugins in this category include BigCommerce and Shopify, as well as e-commerce plugins like MemberPress (focused on subscriptions) and Easy Digital Downloads (digital downloads plugin).

Wix's e-commerce features are also quite advanced but cannot be compared to platforms like Shopify. Wix eCommerce is a perfect choice for those who want to own a website selling unique products. However, it may not be suitable for rapidly growing online stores.

Plugin WooCommerce is much more advanced. However, you'll need to invest some costs and require technical knowledge to use it. WordPress with WooCommerce remains the top choice if you need a website solely for online selling, although you can entirely use an e-commerce platform if that's your sole purpose.

7. Which platform is more suitable for blogging?

Both Wix and WordPress provide comprehensive support for a blog.

Wix offers most features of a basic blog: post support, including categories and tags, and has a free media storage repository for images, videos, and GIFs.

Wix Blog app allows you to add authors and write blog posts directly from your mobile device.

However, Wix lacks a separate commenting function; you may have to use Facebook comments, which may not be visually appealing and could attract spammers. In contrast, WordPress, originating from blogging, provides most essential features like Wix and adds some more, including the option to feature an image at the top of a post, the ability to back up or set it to private mode that readers can't see.

WordPress, rooted in blogging, provides most necessary features like Wix and adds some more, including the option to feature an image at the top of a post, the ability to back up or set it to private mode that readers can't see.

But WordPress lacks a significant advantage that Wix offers: it doesn't have a built-in free media library for posting. Instead, WordPress users will have to find free images online on sites like Pexels or Pixabay.

8. Which platform is more SEO-friendly?

Before delving into which platform excels in this area, let's take a moment to understand what SEO is.

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is the process of making changes to your website to improve its ranking in search engine result pages.

There are various methods to enhance a website's SEO, all carefully considered by search engines like Google or Bing when they create ranking algorithms.

WordPress and Wix share some commonalities when it comes to SEO, relying on applications or plugins.

For WordPress, you need to install a plugin called Yoast. Yoast is the number one SEO plugin on WordPress, utilized by over 5 million websites. It offers both free and premium services, with the free service having some limitations.

The Yoast Premium version is priced at $69 for use on a single WordPress site and comes equipped with excellent SEO features, including:

Edit meta-data: Alter text appearing on search result pages.

Suggested Internal Linking: A guide to the best pages to link to on your website when creating a new site.

Redirection: Automatically send someone a new URL when changing the slug on the current page.

Wix also has a range of specialized SEO apps, with the most popular being Site Booster. Site Booster is free if you subscribe to the Unlimited package or higher. However, Free and Combo package users will need to pay $3.44 per month.

Site Booster offers a variety of useful SEO features, including embedding your company address in search results, target keywords, and performance tracking.

9. Which platform is easier to manage?

From a maintenance perspective, WordPress constantly updates to enhance security and fix bugs. When this happens (a few times a year), you'll need to update your WordPress website.

If you're using Managed WordPress hosting, your server will handle all necessary updates. Additionally, most reputable developers of major plugins will update their products for you, but it's not always the case.

If the themes and plugins you use aren't updated by the WordPress developers, you may run into issues and compromise your website's performance. For this reason, you should carefully check the themes and plugins you're using on WordPress.

With Wix, all updates are handled by the technical team and automatically deployed on your website - you won't have to do anything (you won't even need to worry about when the update will happen). This is a real benefit, especially when you're not tech-savvy.

Wix also continuously introduces new templates and apps for users. Apps can be added to your current website at any time. The important part is that your website can evolve without the need for a complete redesign.

10. Which platform provides better support?

WordPress has a massive user community and plenty of tutorials for you. There's a wealth of information, but distinguishing between good and bad isn't as straightforward.

Opting to hire a skilled WordPress developer to assist you in setting up, configuring, or modifying your website is one choice. However, it can be quite expensive.

If you have the time to self-learn, WordPress online tutorials can help you address common issues. Tutorials are searchable and categorized into various topics, from basics to security, making it easier for you to find relevant articles.

Community forums are also always available for anyone using WordPress to discuss issues encountered during usage. However, the WordPress platform is too vast for this service to have a specialized support team.

Wix has a dedicated support team to help users troubleshoot issues. It also creates numerous articles, videos, and forums to assist users in building websites. Wix also provides email and phone support.

Wix support team will save your precious time - everything used is built by Wix, so the likelihood of serious issues with your website is very limited.

11. Which platform is more competitively priced?

The amount you want to invest in your website is also a significant consideration and can vary greatly depending on whether you use Wix or WordPress.

Wix offers 7 premium packages and one free package. The higher the fee you pay, the more features you can use.

Opting for an annual subscription can save you 17-24% per year, depending on the service package you choose:

For Combo, Unlimited, Pro, eCommerce, and VIP plans, Wix allows you to use a free domain for one year (valued at around $10-12) and provides a $300 advertising voucher (Google Adwords and Facebook Ads) for Unlimited, Pro, eCommerce, and VIP plans. Thus, with the voucher, you can quickly recover annual costs.

With WordPress, you'll have to use your own hosting service. You'll also need to purchase a theme, as WordPress doesn't come with attractive free templates.

A pre-made WordPress theme will cost around $25-299, depending on the developer's reputation (higher prices indicate higher reputation).

To add more features to your WordPress website, you'll need to install some plugins, either free or paid, which can cost between $15 - $70. This also depends on the developer's reputation.

Additionally, you'll have to purchase a custom domain for your WordPress site, costing around $10 - $12 per year.

This means the initial investment for a WordPress website can range from $140 - $200 depending on the number of paid plugins you need. This cost doesn't include hiring a WordPress developer if you want to make customizations to your site.

Conclusion

Now, you've likely grasped what Wix and WordPress are and how they operate. We've also clarified the differences between these two platforms to help you choose the one that suits your needs.

Wix is an integrated, user-friendly website building tool. In contrast, WordPress is a flexible, efficient platform that gives you maximum control over your website, from design to security. Wix is more suitable for beginners, while WordPress presents more technical challenges.

WordPress is the ideal tool for building complex websites, but it takes time to familiarize yourself with and use. On the other hand, Wix is easier to use but lacks the same flexibility as WordPress. This also means you should use Wix if you want to create a visually appealing website.

With the information provided, we hope you make the most informed choice when building your website. If you have any questions or concerns related to the article on ways to make money on WordPress, please comment below, and we'll respond as soon as possible.