We’ve worked extensively with WordPress, but we understand why users often consider Wix instead, especially with its appealing TV commercials.
WordPress is the world’s most popular website builder, and it has earned that reputation through flexibility and features. But it’s not the only choice, and many newcomers wonder if Wix might be a better fit for their needs.
In this article, we will dive into a side-by-side comparison of Wix vs. WordPress, covering the pros and cons of each. With our insights, you’ll get a clearer view of which platform suits your project best.
Note: This article compares Wix vs. self-hosted WordPress.org, NOT WordPress.com. See the difference between self-hosted WordPress.org vs. WordPress.com sites.
We have broken down this comparison into different categories:
- Pricing and Costs
- Ease of Use Comparison
- Design and Layout in Wix vs. WordPress
- Plugins and Apps
- Wix vs. WordPress – Which One is Better for Blogging?
- Wix vs. WordPress eCommerce Comparison
- Data Portability Options in Wix vs. WordPress
- Final Verdict: Wix vs. WordPress – Which One is Better?
- Frequently Asked Questions – Wix vs. WordPress
Let’s see how Wix and WordPress stack up into each of these categories.
Pricing and Costs
The cost of building a website is a major factor when choosing a platform. We know how important it is to find a solution that meets your needs and stays within budget. Our goal here is to help you get the best value for your investment.
Let’s compare the pricing of Wix and WordPress to see which option gives you more flexibility for the cost.
Wix Pricing Comparison:
Wix offers a free basic website builder. However, we found two major limitations with this free plan.
First, Wix adds branded ads at the top and bottom of your website. Second, you’re limited to a Wix subdomain, so your site address will look like username.wix.com/sitename rather than a custom domain.
Additionally, the basic plan doesn’t include essentials like Google Analytics, favicons, or eCommerce features. To remove ads and access premium features, you’ll need to upgrade to one of their premium plans.
Each Wix premium plan comes with different storage and bandwidth limits.
The best value plan from Wix is their Core plan at $29 per month.
If you need eCommerce capabilities, their Business plan at $36 per month includes standard eCommerce features.
Note that these costs do not include additional apps from the Wix App Market that you may want to purchase to expand your site’s functionality.
WordPress Pricing Comparison:
The WordPress software is open source and free to use, which is one of the reasons it’s so popular.
We often get asked why WordPress is free and if there’s a catch.
The main thing to remember is that you’ll need a domain name and web hosting to use WordPress.
There are several great hosting options available. For more information, see our guide on choosing the best WordPress hosting company.
For those starting, we recommend a basic plan from Bluehost, which starts at $1.99 per month and includes a free custom domain name.
Why We Recommend Bluehost
- We’ve used Bluehost ourselves and found it reliable and fast. (See our Bluehost review for more details)
- It’s affordable and offers a free domain name.
- It provides 24/7 customer support, which is great for beginners.
If your budget allows, you may want to consider a managed WordPress hosting provider like SiteGround (Starting at $2.99).
WPBeginner and many of our partner companies are hosted with SiteGround. See our case study explaining the reasons for switching to SiteGround.
For more WordPress hosting recommendations, see our pick of the top WordPress hosting companies.
Your total WordPress costs may increase if you opt for premium themes or plugins (similar to apps for WordPress).
However, thousands of free themes and plugins are available, allowing you to add features to your site without upgrading your hosting plan.
For more details, see our guide on how much it costs to build a WordPress website.
WordPress also supports eCommerce out of the box. You can use the free WooCommerce plugin to create an online store on your WordPress site.
For a detailed cost analysis, see our article on how much it costs to build an eCommerce website.
Conclusion:
WordPress outshines Wix with flexible plans from multiple hosting providers. Your choices determine your costs, and WordPress offers full control over customizing your website.
Ease of Use Comparison
Most beginners choose Wix or WordPress because they don’t want to hire a website designer. Both Wix and WordPress allow you to create websites without learning to code.
Let’s examine which one is easier to use for beginners with no coding experience.
Wix:
Wix comes with powerful and easy-to-use tools to build your own website. It offers a simple drag-and-drop interface where you can select any element on your site and start editing it in a WYSIWYG interface.
You can drag and drop items anywhere on your site, rearrange things on your pages, write content, and add media in a user-friendly environment. Many beginners would find this feature a blessing as it saves them from dealing with code.
WordPress:
WordPress comes with an incredibly powerful WordPress block editor that allows you to edit your pages with a live preview.
This allows you to create visually stunning layouts by adding blocks. There are blocks for all common elements like text, headings, buttons, background images, galleries, and more.
WordPress also gives you access to thousands of themes (website templates) to use on your site.
Each of them is also completely customizable using the live theme customizer or the full site editor.
Need even more code-free ways to edit your website visually? WordPress has some of the most intuitive drag-and-drop page builder plugins. These drag-and-drop editors provide you with even more tools to create professional-looking websites without writing code.
For example, you can use a page builder like SeedProd or Divi that lets you build completely custom websites without writing any code.
These options give you many more choices and tools to edit your website.
Conclusion:
Wix and WordPress are tied in terms of ease of use. Both offer easy, code-free ways to write content, create pages, and manage business and eCommerce websites.
Wix does a great job with its editor interface, but it lacks advanced capabilities. WordPress offers ease of use that can be extended with a slight learning curve, which is great in the long run.
Design and Layout in Wix vs. WordPress
Your site’s design and layout play an important role in your success. Every site owner needs a web design that’s not only good-looking but also user-friendly and makes their brand stand out.
Wix:
Wix comes with more than 900+ pre-made templates to choose from. All Wix designs are fully responsive and written in HTML5.
Using the built-in tools, you can further tweak your site design, change the layout, and rearrange items as you see fit.
Designs are available for every kind of site. Templates are divided into categories like business, eCommerce, hobbies, arts & crafts, personal, and more.
One big disadvantage is that once you have selected a template, you cannot change it. You can modify it and customize it as much as you want using only the built-in tools, but you cannot switch to another template.
WordPress:
There are thousands of free and paid themes available for WordPress.
Free themes come with limited support, but they also go through a strict review process. Paid themes generally offer more features and come with premium support options.
WordPress themes range from small personal sites to full-fledged eCommerce sites. Most themes come with built-in customization options of their own. You can also use one of the many styling plugins to further style or customize your WordPress themes.
Users can download free themes from the WordPress.org directory. For paid themes, there are several WordPress themes and theme shops like Astra, StudioPress, Themify, CSSIgniter, and more. See our list of the best commercial WordPress theme shops.
Furthermore, you can hire a developer or learn to create a custom theme for your company.
You can also use a plugin like SeedProd, the best drag-and-drop website builder, to easily create custom WordPress themes without coding.
You can also create landing pages, sales pages, product pages, or even a coming soon page, regardless of your theme.
For more details, see this tutorial on how to easily create a custom WordPress theme using SeedProd.
More importantly, you can change your WordPress theme and use a different theme anytime. This allows your website design to grow and evolve with your business.
Conclusion:
WordPress has a much larger range of themes and design layouts than Wix. WordPress users can also easily switch themes or customize them as much as they want without restrictions.
Plugins and Apps
Plugins and apps are like third-party extensions you can use with your platform to add more features.
Wix calls them apps, and in the WordPress ecosystem, they are called plugins.
Let’s compare apps and plugins available on both platforms and what you can do with them.
Wix:
Wix comes with 500+ apps that you can add to your site. These apps offer a wide range of features like adding contact forms, an image gallery, comments, social media buttons, email marketing, and more.
Many of the apps are free or have a lite version. Other apps require monthly payments and vary in price. Even though there is a limited collection of apps, they cover the most commonly requested features by site owners.
WordPress:
At the time of writing this article, more than 59,000+ free plugins are available in the WordPress.org plugin directory alone. Not to mention, premium plugins are available on other marketplaces.
The saying goes: if you can think of a feature, a WordPress plugin probably makes it happen.
Whether you want to create a contact form, install Google Analytics, build a membership website, or sell online courses, there’s a plugin for that.
You can do just about anything you like with WordPress. There are plenty of plugins, both free and paid, which you can use to build the website of your dreams.
Check out our list of the best WordPress plugins for more recommendations.
Conclusion:
WordPress easily beats Wix in this area as well. Even though Wix’s app library is growing, it is still limited compared to the huge choice available to WordPress users.
Wix vs. WordPress – Which One is Better for Blogging?
Many users are looking for an easier platform to start blogging. Wix and WordPress can both be used to create blogs. Let’s take a look at which one does it better.
Blogging with Wix
Wix allows you to easily add a blog section to your website. It has all the basic blogging features you’ll commonly use. For example, categories and tags, photos and videos, archives, etc.
Comments on Wix blogs are slow and not as easy to manage as WordPress. Many users end up installing third-party commenting systems like Facebook or Disqus, both of which require users to create accounts.
It also lacks features like backdating posts, creating private posts, and more.
The writing interface for blog posts differs from that of the Wix website builder. Instead, it uses a plain text editor, which is very limited in formatting options.
Blogging with WordPress
WordPress started as a blogging platform and evolved into a full-blown website builder. Today, it powers over 43% of all websites.
It has all the blogging features you’ll need, like a native commenting system and all the advanced features that Wix lacks.
It comes with the powerful Gutenberg block editor, allowing you to create beautiful layouts for your blog posts.
Most importantly, you can extend your blog using plugins and add any feature you can think of.
Conclusion
WordPress outshines Wix as a blogging platform. Wix blogs are too basic and lack several important features. If you are thinking about starting a blog, then Wix doesn’t even come close to WordPress.
Wix vs. WordPress eCommerce Comparison
Selling things online is another important feature that most beginners look for. Let’s see how WordPress and Wix compare in eCommerce.
Wix:
Wix offers eCommerce with their paid plans. This means users with the free plan cannot run their eCommerce store on Wix without upgrading to a paid plan.
With Wix Stores, you can accept payments using their native payment system or third-party apps to connect to different payment gateways, including PayPal, Authorize.net, and more.
If you choose to use Wix Payments, they charge 2.9% of the transaction amount + 0.30 USD for the US region. As you sell more products, this processing fee becomes substantial.
There are a few third-party apps that you can use to help promote your store and sell things online. The overall features of the eCommerce platform are limited, too.
WordPress:
WordPress makes it super easy to create your online store using WooCommerce, which is the most popular eCommerce platform in the world.
WooCommerce supports popular payment gateways like Stripe, PayPal, Klarna, direct bank transfers, and more.
Plus, there are no additional transaction fees. You only have to pay your payment processor fees, which you have to pay with any platform.
Plenty of other eCommerce plugins are available for WordPress that you can use to sell physical or digital goods, services, events, subscriptions, and more.
WordPress is also the best platform for selling digital subscriptions using MemberPress. It allows you to sell online courses, pay-per-view content, and membership plans for your online community.
Alternatively, you can use the WordPress plugin Easy Digital Downloads to sell digital downloads like eBooks, music, software licenses, and more.
If you don’t want to use a full-fledged shopping cart plugin, you can use WP Simple Pay. It provides the easiest way to accept online payments.
Most eCommerce plugins for WordPress even have their own dedicated themes and add-on plugins. See our list of best WooCommerce themes for some excellent examples.
Conclusion:
If you want to build a proper online store and be ready for growth, WordPress + WooCommerce offers much more flexibility, freedom, and choices than Wix.
Data Portability Options in Wix vs. WordPress
Data portability allows you the freedom to move your content away when you need it. Let’s look at how Wix and WordPress help you move your content and use it elsewhere.
Data portability options in Wix
Wix offers very limited options for moving your content to another platform. You can only export your blog posts in XML format. You’ll have to manually download your pages, images, videos, and other content.
According to Wix documentation, all your content is hosted exclusively on Wix’s servers and cannot be exported elsewhere.
Moving your content to another platform, if needed, makes it a bit difficult. However, you can still transfer some of your content atleast. See our article on how to switch from Wix to WordPress for more details.
Data portability options in WordPress
WordPress is a proper content management system that makes it extremely easy to export content. Its one-click exporter allows you to download your content in XML format.
Since it is a self-hosted platform, you can create complete WordPress backups, download your media files, and even manually export your WordPress database.
You can then easily move your WordPress site to a new host if you are not satisfied with your current WordPress hosting company.
Conclusion:
WordPress is a lot better when it comes to downloading and moving your data. Wix, on the other hand, makes it quite difficult to move your content away.
Final Verdict: Wix vs. WordPress – Which One is Better?
WordPress is far superior to Wix as a web publishing platform for any website. While Wix offers an easy-to-use website builder, you can accomplish much more with WordPress over the long run.
See our guide on how to make a website using WordPress for step-by-step instructions.
Want a Custom WordPress Design? We’ve Got You Covered!
If you’re considering WordPress because of its flexibility and control, our WPBeginner team can help you create your dream site.
With our WordPress Site Design Service, we’ll create a professional, unique website explicitly tailored to your brand and goals.
Skip the limitations of other platforms and enjoy a website that’s designed to grow with your business.
Frequently Asked Questions – Wix vs. WordPress
Do you still have a few questions? Here are some of our users’ most commonly asked questions when deciding between Wix vs. WordPress.
1. Which one is cheaper, Wix or WordPress?
Wix offers free plans with a branded domain name and advertisements. Paid plans allow you to remove the branding and use your own domain name. They start at $16 per month and have very limited storage and features. Your costs increase if you want to upgrade to more feature-rich plans.
On the other hand, WordPress just needs hosting and a domain name. For instance, you can start with Bluehost for $1.99 monthly with a free domain name and SSL certificate. Considering that it also gives you the flexibility to add any feature to your website, WordPress becomes much cheaper in the long run.
2. Can I transfer my domain away from Wix?
Yes, you can transfer your domain away from Wix. However, Wix makes transferring your website files and content a bit difficult. For more details, see our article on transferring a website from Wix to WordPress.
3. What are the pros and cons of using Wix?
For a quick comparison, here are some advantages and disadvantages of using Wix over WordPress.
Pros:
- You don’t need to install software or manage updates on Wix.
- It offers a simpler and easy-to-use interface to edit websites.
- Wix is a hosted solution, so you don’t need to worry about backups and security.
Cons:
- Wix is more expensive than WordPress in the long run.
- It is very limited in terms of functionality when compared to WordPress.
- It has fewer design choices and third-party integrations.
- The eCommerce and business features are nowhere near what other platforms like Shopify and WooCommerce offer.
4. Which platform offers more storage and bandwidth?
Most WordPress hosting companies offer unlimited storage and bandwidth. Compared to Wix, which limits the storage space based on your chosen plan. For instance, their basic plan gives users just 500 MB storage, 1 GB bandwidth, and no video hours.
5. Which one is better for SEO: Wix vs. WordPress?
WordPress is better for SEO as you can use SEO plugins and tools to add open graph meta tags, create advanced XML sitemaps, perform on-site SEO analysis, and more.
We recommend using the All in One SEO (AIOSEO) plugin to improve your rankings.
Wix offers some search engine optimization features built into their platform. This allows you to perform basic SEO for your website.
We hope this article helped you compare Wix vs. WordPress and learn their pros and cons. You may also want to see our article on easy-to-start online business ideas and how to increase your website traffic without spending too much money.
If you liked this article, then please subscribe to our YouTube Channel for WordPress video tutorials. You can also find us on Twitter and Facebook.
Olaf
Wix is a solid solution. I quite like it, though I don’t build websites on it myself. If I were to compare it to WordPress, Wix is ideal for someone who doesn’t want to constantly handle backend maintenance. WordPress is like a pet, you enjoy having it, but it requires care, attention, and time. With Wix, that’s less of a concern since the platform provider handles updates and security patches. So, if you’re looking for something straightforward that doesn’t demand a lot of maintenance, Wix can be a comfortable alternative to WordPress. But each system has its pros and cons, and you’ll need to jot down your requirements first and see which one fits best.
Jiří Vaněk
Wix isn’t a bad platform. I’ve tried it several times, but I always ended up going back to WordPress. The reason was that over time, I would always encounter a requirement for the website that Wix couldn’t handle, but WordPress could, thanks to plugins. It can be frustrating to build an entire site and then, after a few weeks or months, realize you need to implement something that simply can’t be done. That doesn’t happen to me with WordPress because of the plugins, which is why I prefer it and have never returned to Wix after these experiences.
Hajjalah
Great detailed comparison indeed. Although Wix is some how inferior to giant WordPress, Wix is at least better for reasons such as; no need to manage updates or worry about backups and security which are some of the serious measures a WordPress user has to worry and focus about every time.
But still, WordPress superior features like extensive customization by plugins and themes plus its free software ultimately outrank Wix. From my view, WordPress will remain superior CMS for decades to some.
Moinuddin Waheed
No denying the underlying benefits of using wix such as security, updates and backups but that in itself is a limitation and is felt when we witness our website growing.
Security, backups and updates are crucial aspect of any website and can’t be depended on someone else when we want to have full control of the business we are running.
And tightly said about the control of the data, there is no control on data and customisation options which are most important part for running a business.
Moinuddin Waheed
I have used wix free plan and can say that it offers very flexibility when to comes to drag and drop page building.
But it comes with a cost, one can not run a blog or buisness website on the free plan. there are much limitations and free ads which will ruin visitors peace of mind.
whereas wordpress comes tons of options with minimal investment.
one can start a blog or website with just a pocket money and scale into a huge business.
Thanks wpbeginner for bringing this comparison. it helps a lot knowing different platforms.
Jiří Vaněk
The biggest disadvantage of WIX is its built-in solution. Once you build a website on it, you will never physically own the data of that website. You can’t just decide one day to switch to another provider because they offer better prices or performance. You would lack the underlying infrastructure, making it impossible. Personally, for websites that have the potential to develop and grow, I would be wary of such a solution. I don’t want to criticize WIX; it’s a good system but comes with significant limitations. At least, that’s my opinion.
Paul
Wonderfully detailed article on pros and cons. It is obvious you took the time to reseach and lay it out for the average reader like myself. Thank you!
WPBeginner Support
Glad you felt our comparison was helpful!
Admin
Radek
What if I’m looking for a solution that is simple to write articles only.
I don’t have time for updating and other technical work. I just want to write an article, upload a photo and not be interested in the rest. What will be better?
WPBeginner Support
That would depend on your comfort level with each, both can handle what you are asking about roughly the same as a WordPress tutorial site we prefer and normally recommend WordPress.
Admin
Jonny
Well, after reading these various comments, I consider returning to WordPress. I’ve tried both. I am left with the same feeling that someone writes. Wix is easy to use but has major shortcomings. And not to mention hidden expenses that pop up that are really annoying. WordPress is more demanding to get acquainted with, but I think it pays off in the long run.
WPBeginner Support
If you do decide to return, we hope you find our guides helpful!
Admin
JOhn
But which one you used for this site ????
WPBeginner Support
We use WordPress, you can learn about our site on our blueprint page below:
https://www.wpbeginner.com/blueprint/
Admin
Kandice
Just moved over from wix to WP.
Wix was visually appealing, however, WP functions at a superior level.
I have a lot to learn, but the speed of the WP loading time is way better by far.
Looking to learn the ins and outs of WP.
WPBeginner Support
Glad you’re enjoying WordPress, we hope our tutorials are able to help you learn anything you’re having trouble with
Admin
Mark
WordPress is much better then Wix, but, can you create a business intranet (collaboration tool for employees only) using WordPress?
WPBeginner Support
We have a guide on how to do that below:
https://www.wpbeginner.com/wp-tutorials/how-to-create-a-wordpress-intranet-for-your-organization/
Admin
sadaf
I was actually looking for it , thanks.
WPBeginner Support
You’re welcome
Admin
Tkboris
now i was looking for this
WPBeginner Support
Glad our article was what you were looking for
Admin
K.fatima
I love this site, ty for this informative post
P.S keep up the good work!
WPBeginner Support
You’re welcome, glad you found our posts helpful
Admin
Mike Keiser
Very informative article. It contained a great deal of clear information and answered some questions for me. Well done!
WPBeginner Support
Thank you, glad you found our article informative
Admin
Martin Ruskov
Very good content kept me engaged until the very end without skipping a single sentence.
Thank you for the amazing comparison. I now do feel a lot more confident to start my second website with WordPress again. I am looking to build something like an online magazine.
WPBeginner Support
You’re welcome, glad you like our content
Admin
The Indian Nomad
I have a Wix site and I am ok with it. I had purchased a Wordpress account as well but the learning curve was really high. So shifted to a Wix site and it is solving my requirements. Only downside is that the entire webpage loads at once, so the website may seem a little slow compared to wordpress sites.
WPBeginner Support
Learning a new method to create a site can be difficult once you know one method already. Hopefully in the future you’re willing to try WordPress again
Admin
Rich
A few probably really stupid questions:
1) Is there any way to build a wordpress site before you actually invest in getting a server to just try it out without publishing or going live or what have ya? See how it would look a test the possibilities?
2) These services and cheap plans you mention that you have struck deals with to get good prices for WP creators, I am assuming those are shared servers with also limited control over many things you can do with your site being on their shared server. What kind of server does WP require?
Ty!
WPBeginner Support
1. You could create a local installation using the method from our article here:
https://www.wpbeginner.com/how-to-install-wordpress/#installlocal
2. Shared servers don’t limit what you can do other than how large the site can be before needing to upgrade your plan to handle the load of the site. For the WordPress requirements, you would want to take a look at our page here:
https://www.wpbeginner.com/wordpress-hosting/
Admin
Karl
One of your “really stupid questions” is my favourite question and the one I’ve been wanting to ask for awhile now! Thank you for asking it!
Colin
WordPress wins all the time with me. Not an IT geek, but I can easily use and create a half decent site using WordPress.com. The problem is deciding what theme to use as there are so many good ones.
WPBeginner Support
Glad you’ve been enjoying using WordPress
Admin
Bamidele
I have used both Wix and WordPress and there is no comparison between the two. If you need a flexible and scalable platform , then WordPress is the platform. With tons of free plugins and themes in WordPress repository, you will be able to make your website look the way you want.
WPBeginner Support
Thanks for sharing your opinion
Admin
Jo Far
Just beginning research on making a small business webpage. This was very helpful, especially the comments from those who’ve used both….able to compare both in a way that seemed more objective.
WPBeginner Support
Glad our article and the recommendations from the community could help
Admin
Kristen
Wix is waaaaay easier to use. Sure, WordPress has more plugins, but they’re confusing to use, not all of them work together, and the price adds up as you need more an more plugins to do what you need.
WPBeginner Support
Thanks for your feedback, not all WordPress plugins require a purchase but it is an understandable concern
Admin
Mark Harris
Exactly!
For photographers, for example, Wix is a LOT easier to setup and get fantastic looking portfolios.
Simon
Wordpress all they way.
Maybe if Wix tones down on their annoying ads I may have a look, but its very of putting.
WPBeginner Support
Thanks for sharing your opinion
Admin
Ram
I have used both but wordpress if far better and flexible compare to redefine formats of wix.
Also coding flexibility and customization where wix in many corners fails. This is the reason i switch to wordpress from wix
WPBeginner Support
Thanks for your added input on this
Admin
Lex Dunn
I have used both wordpress and wix. My feeling is that I would choose wordpress again only if I was threatened to have bamboo shoots imbedded under my fingernails. It is beyond awkward to use, virtually impossible to design it the way you want and looked totally different on Safari than it did on Chrome. It’s clunky and ugly. Wix is easy, elegant and, yes Virginia, you can have your own URL if you select to host your site with them. You have to pay to host your site with somebody, anyway. For me, there is no comparison. Just because something is more popular doesn’t make it better – Madonna had bigger sales than Aretha Franklyn … I rest my case.
bhawana
Thank you for sharing this. It was a great help.
Daniel
Looking at the comparison between Wix and wordpress, wordpress is the outstanding platform to build a website because the interface is user friendly. An d it enable its user to customize their website with the help of plugins and widgets on like Wix it does not provide these features.
MichaelQ
Fairly unfair to compare Wix vs Wordpress dot org, and just assume more is better (themes & plugins). Would be a much better comparison with Wordpress dot com as surely that is what Wix is comparable to?
Sutalesia John
After endlessly reading about blogging I decided to go with wordpress dot com and will gradually transfer to wordpress dot org when i have enough money to do so. So many thing to ponder and to do but i think by making this decision i will help me grow seamlessl6y without any major hassle in the future. Thank you for the post. It really is a major help for me.
Angeles
Hi, I understand the advantages of wordpress – which is the default platform chosen by most bloggers. Still, I’m surprised by some comments, as I tried free workpress and found it ugly and hardwork, not user-friendly at all (I’m used to customise platforms for private communities) and I tried Wix and loved the templates, found it super-easy to customise them, to supervise its mobile version (someone said here that it’s not developed when it’s really easy to manage both versions and spot what doesn’t work on mobile), and reasonable in price by comparison (I have an ecommerce platform with a limit on how many products I can sell for £10 a month). I am aware that I couldn’t move my site to another platform and I did buy a domain as well – a year ago it was far cheaper for me to buy these features here than in squarespace, which I don’t recommend either. I see the potential for growth that wordpress offers but you have to get there first and pay for it while you grow too. I don’t know whether different people find different platform designs easier, to me wordpress was hard work and it looked ugly, while wix templates were much nicer and flexible. The only thing I’d say is that I choose the manual option over the AI one, which I found a nightmare in Wix. I had my website there for a year, people like it and I had never had server problems.
claire
I am very disillusioned with wix and am thinking of cancelling after reading all these glowing reviews on various sites I chose them, it took me ages to work out how to do the site in the first place, there were several reviews saying no hidden costs, utter rubbish when I signed up it came up with different options I chose ecommerce and paid for the month when I had almost finished it they contacted me to say I had to upgrade if I wanted to sell anything on it even though that is what I paid for in the first place, and then you have to buy a domain separately because the domain name they gave me was my email address which is a ridiculous thing, they charge quite a bit for their domain name usage, then there is the fee for having the payment option with them which does work out quite a lot if added up, wix I think is a bit of a rip off and not very good, this is the English site I am referring to and the prices are a lot dearer than the American site
Stan Moore
Word press is far superior and deiivers much better solutions than Wix. Wix has many hidden charges which do not become evident until you actually subscribe to designing a website with them… the third party developers charge over the top prices for poorly designed plug ins. Wix should monitor these designers more closely and and only allow well designed apps at more realistic prices.
Jane
I do NOT know code nor am tech savvy… after reading the article, I decided to go with WIX; but after reading all the comments, I decided to go with WordPress… and hope i can do what I need there without having to pay smart-tech people for endless help.
George Websst
You have probably already seen that WP.org environment it’s not much different than the one you described for Wix
Daniel Russell
ONE thing that wasn’t mentioned here is that with Wix your site is NOT mobile friendly. You have to adjust each and every page you build in their “mobile editor ” which is a pain in the ass. I own a construction company and have been using Wix for several years now for our company website. After doing the research on WordPress I am making the switch. Basically having to start from scratch because Wix sites CANNOT be transferred to WordPress.
Michael Bryner
Another downside to Wix is you still pay high price of their top price of almost $30 a month and total of 50gb space, which today is very low, especially when using images on a website or doing a blog. For big sites, that is a little pricey for shared hosting. You can do a heck of a lot better and cheaper else where. WordPress and on hosting site is even cheaper and more flexible too. Hell, there is even hosting for WordPress and more space and bandwidth, than what Wix offers. Wix to me is very limited for almost $30 a month premium.
Momo
Good job, you saved me time with your article
Cheryl Haynes
Thanks for the article, I had wondered at this when I signed up with Wix. I will more than likely go ahead and switch to WordPress… Wix is really easy to use but since I have just started playing with it to get an idea of how I want my page laid out, with all this advice and advice from a friend of mine that uses WordPress, I think I will go ahead and make that change.
Tomasas
I have tried both and I think wix is better, but now I made my personal page very easy, quickly and for free with site pro
I realy enjoyed creating my website and recomend to try it.
Tara
Most reviews you find about how fabulous WIX is, are fake.
WIX also pays bloggers to endorse their product. So when you go on a tech site doing a review on WIX, it is normally pro WIX.
Just keep in mind that you DO NOT have ownership of your website when using WIX.
You have 100% ownership of your website on wordpress
Anton
Hi Tara, does it mean I would not have the ownership on the contents I publish on my website as well?
Chris McElroy
Make sure you back up all of your content if you’re using Wix. Violate their terms of service and they can close it down and you won’t have access.
With Wordpress and your own domain, you own everything and you write your own terms of service.
There are 0 upsides to running your business through Wix vs Wordpress on your own domain.
Dia Patatoukos
Wix code base is not optimal for SEO and does not allow the control necessary for ongoing search engine marketing. So regardless of the inability to scale the website, even a small business needs to be competitive in search results. If your business can not be found in search then there is no point in building a website at all. Wix haven’t gotten any better either. For less cost than a premium Wix plan, you can have a Wordpress website, self hosted that will perform in search results and will also grow with your business.
D..
I thought this as well. But there is information out there dispelling this myth. Google search “wix vs wordpress seo” and notice that within the top 3-4 results they give clear indication as to how little significance a particular website builder has on search engine rankings.
Virgil
No Google does not favor what type of website builder you use.
However, the search engine factors in everything – including speed, the type of content whether its relevant to your industry, keywords and description, your domain authority, headlines, pictures, headlines, categories, tags, etc.
Wordpress also have many great tools and plugins to insure your site is fully optimized for SEO.
Wix doesn’t offer such tools to what Wordpress has available. There is a reason why the top bloggers recommend and use Wordpress. Google just loves Wordpress because of integrated, supported and premium features thats dedicated to ranking on Google. Wix is lacking in this regard.
Thus Wordpress wins hands down in this regard.
Jorma
Im a graphic designer that makes easy sites that dont need huge SEOs and sing ins. For example, To make a site for a restaurant or a freelance photographer that needs only pictures and text, WIX wins by far. Simple and neat.
Its like comparing apples and oranges or better yet APPLE and PCs.
Sameer Panda
I was using Wix previously, I shifted to WordPress last year. WordPress is much more cheaper and featured than Wix.
Lana
Hi Sameer, Thanks for your comment! When you shift your website from Wix to WordPress, did you take your domain over too? I am curious because I am just in an middle of creating a site using Wix, but looks like in the long run, I will be better off with Wordpress
I don’t need a feature to accommodate E-commerce, just something people can book my coaching sessions. Thanks for any help or suggestions.
Michael Bryner
You are right about WordPress cheaper and I never used Wix even once. Just seeing their prices is obvious. Just look for a hosting for WordPress and you will be paying a lot less. Your site will also expand to heck of a lot bigger too for cheaper.
Greg Schudel
What about Wordpress Vs. SquareSpace? Or The Grid? That would be an interesting comparison, yes?
WPBeginner Support
See our comparison of WordPress vs SquareSpace.
Admin
Michael Bryner
Just looking at the pricing for Squarespace is enticing for a personal or business site. Unlimited space is a catcher there. The only problem or thing to worry about is shared hosting is there plans, and if your site gets really busy, then probably start upping the price. Same goes for WordPress on web hosting companies. I never used Squarespace but with using WordPress, and not on paid hosting. WordPress is still my first choice, even when I do have money to pay for a website. WordPress is so universal to all coding, it is that nice. Anything that has their own built site builder, more likely is not as easy as WordPress.
Brian Loebig
Another element that was not addressed in the article is about security. WP is the most hacked platform on earth. Wix wins on that front and the thousands of plugins available for WP are a very mixed bag. Some will bring your site crashing to its knees, not function as advertised, or end up not being supported by the original developer over time. Wix apps are more likely to be safe and supported since they are integrated into the CMS. That being said, I still think a thoughtfully designed WP site with careful consideration of the webhost, apps and theme is often a better solution, but at a significantly higher cost and learning curve than Wix. (my 2 cents).
Ray
This maybe the case because its also the most popular platform in the world by far. If you are a hacker why would you concentrate on small fish?
Wix is limited – you cant make your wix site any faster. You cant change many things because it breaks the back end. Its hard to make your website with custom functions. You cant run multiple logins to modify different parts of your site from different users. You cant create accounts. As a small time user of websites you might not think it significant.
But when you need your site to perform, to allow multiple levels of security for editing, to be able to fine tune SEO and to make your site run like a freight train through tuned hosting and actually create custom databases and functions – then wordpress and other opensource cms kill wix
Michael Bryner
There is so many things you can do to protect WordPress, it is just so many people make a big deal about the security.
Virgil
If you don’t need security than Wix is the way to go. Because its nothing more than a simple website that really doesn’t need to be secured.
However, if you really need security because your running an online store and accept online payments, then Wordpress is the way to go. Thats because you can add so many different ways to protect your website that it also hacker proof.
Many Wordpress sites get hacked because someone didn’t protect their site and its their fault. Its not the fault of Wordpress.
rapunzelo
A very important feature is that you have the design WP “always”, whereas with Wix, you lose if you do not continue with the hosting.
tazimahmed
I think wordpress is easier than wix as throgh wordpress we can create websites manually.
Gerard
A somewhat superficial article and, though containing fair conclusions, hardly subjective since you guys are in the Wordpress business and not in the Wix business.
Brian
Agreed Gerard.
Bud Hines
This is good information to know for those of us who are not familiar with either of these products. Further, it provides us with the true cost and limitations of Wix and the strengths of WP.
Thank you for providing this comparison.
Izham
Well said there. I’ve been curious to know what is Wix all about. I’ve seen its adds all around adsense and wonder those it superior to Wordpress? Or blogspot?
For beginner, yes it will be the best. But wordpress learning curve isn’t that hard. The beginner just need a real teacher teaching them the real way of handling wordpress.
Michael Bryner
You don’t need a teacher for WordPress, it is that easy to use. If you need a teacher for it, then something is wrong with that person. I started without even asking questions or anything and it was installed and ran just perfectly. WordPress to me is the easiest platform and looks awesome with any theme.
Mohsin Alam
Wix is easy drag & drop system but has limited feature, where WP has unlimited possibility! It better not compare between Wix & WordPress.
It’s better to compare Wix with other platform like Weebly, Webs, Webdone Etc
Jeff
I was hoping to see something on Wix security.
Suzy
I just cancelled my Wix account because all my products disappeared. I contacted them and they said it looks like I deleted them. More importantly, they couldn’t get them back. I started adding products again just to see those disappear a couple days later. What I found really strange was that I lost the product app. I compared my site to a template I downloaded and I lost quite a few tools. They did an update on November 1st and this started happening on the 2nd. Again, they couldn’t help and said it looked like it was the fault of the user. I thought, maybe I did delete weeks of work accidentally but when it happened again and I lost access to their tools, I knew it wasn’t me. I don’t feel secure using them anymore.