If you have heard of Wix before, it is probably because of its constant advertising campaigns. The idea it wants to convey is that of a platform that is fast, pleasant to use, and appealing looking. It is a bit like the Apple of site creators, for those who are always up on the latest trends.
In this analogy, WordPress would be like Windows: a popular platform that allows computer geeks and professional programmers to do great things. Well, although there is some truth in what we have just said, the comparison between these two platforms is certainly not so reductive. So we hope that this detailed analysis of ours, but devoid of technical jargon and marketing tactics, can help you figure out which alternative suits your site better, better Wix or WordPress?
What is the difference between Wix and wordpress?
Wix is an easy-to-use site creator with flexible designs, ideal for portfolio-type sites. It is not suitable for creating very large sites as the editor tends to slow down when handling too many pages. WordPress allows you to create large sites but requires more technical knowledge.
The main difference between Wix and WordPress lies in the technical approach: while all Wix packages include hosting and technical support, WordPress is an open-source platform and does not walk you through the creation process. You will have to think about contracting a hosting service yourself and installing your site there. It does not offer assistance should you run into technical problems.
Lately, however, it seems that Wix is trying to move closer to the world of WordPress and establish itself as a performance-focused site creator-especially given recent (unsuccessful) marketing campaigns.
The introduction of features such as dynamic CMS-like sites, and advanced development tools such as Wix Editor X and Wix Velo, are further proof of this. However, between the two, WordPress is still by far the more powerful platform and we believe it will continue to be so for a long time.
Ease of use
Wix is currently one of the most user-friendly site creators on the market. The editor is entirely drag-and-drop, and extremely intuitive, designed for beginners. Should you want to add additional features, the Wix App Center allows you to install them with a single click.
WordPress is known for its extensions and many plugins, but these are not always so easy to install and implement. Likewise, the entire software requires some technical knowledge, or at least the ability to follow tutorials. And when (not if) something goes wrong, it may be complicated to find a solution.
Winner: clearly Wix prevails because of its platform totally designed to be as user-friendly as possible!
Design & Flexibility
The Wix template library includes about 1,000 (yes, 1,000!) free templates. Wix includes about 300 free templates. These are practical, modern, and grouped into categories (photographers, restaurants, blogs, etc…). Unfortunately, however, they are not responsive, so you may need to rearrange the various elements to look good on mobile devices. You yourself could change the code to apply such changes, but if you are able to program then it would be a case of using…
…WordPress–because if you know a little CSS and HTML–or if it’s no problem to invest a few hours to modify the template code–you can get exactly the site you want. What’s more, you’ll find a plethora of templates online at a cost ranging from $30 to $60 (you can get an idea on Themeforest or Template Monster), and most of these are responsive.
However, there is a potential revolutionary element on the horizon. While Gutenberg’s drag-and-drop editor is currently available only for website and blog posts, WordPress plans to extend it to entire websites throughout the year. In this way, WordPress users will soon be able to easily edit any part of their site without having to use additional code or plugins. This makes the editing process similar to that of Wix in terms of ease of use, although you will probably still need some code to get exactly the design you have in mind.
Winner: somewhat of a tie. If you want full control and the ability to edit CSS and HTML codes, choose WordPress. Again, though, Wix is a much better fit for newbies and allows you to customize designs without having to touch the code.
E-commerce
You may have already noticed that Wix has a section completely dedicated to the online store. It is quite sophisticated, with several options for payments, automatic tax calculation, shipping, plus a number of other features that are added all the time. Even more interestingly, it also supports the sale of digital products and a more affordable price than other e-commerce platforms. You can also have different versions of your site for each language (e.g. fr.mystore.com or mystore.com/fr), which is very useful if you have a multilingual store, but unfortunately you don’t have total control over URLs.
Very nice and with a wide range of payment means but has drawbacks that make it more appropriate for small businesses. The options available for taxes and shipping costs are quite limited. Wix sites are generally slower to load due to complex themes, which negatively affects the shopping experience (and can also affect SEO). It is not designed for extremely large online stores because the depth of navigation is limited to a sub-level, making it difficult to organize large product catalogs. Finally, the functionality for international online stores is somewhat limited, for example, it is not possible to sell in other currencies.
With WordPress you don’t have any of these problems. You will obviously have to install an external plugin, but nothing more. We really like the WooCommerce plugin, which really allows you to do anything by programming a little bit. It is also free, but you have to pay separately for additional services such as Authorize.net to handle credit card payments.
Winner: For a small online store Wix is more than enough. But if you have an ambitious e-commerce project or are looking for a more comprehensive solution, the WordPress + WooCommerce combination is unbeatable.
Wix vs. WordPress: SEO
This is another area where Wix excels among the various site creators. You can change the page title, alt attributes, and enjoy a wide choice of headers and more. We only take issue with the fact that images are automatically renamed during upload using random letter combinations (such as d4cccb26731e9~mv2.png), which can adversely affect SEO optimization of image-based sites such as photography blogs. In addition, it is possible to change the URL of blog posts, but only partially, getting results like this: “wixsite.com/mysite/single-post/My-Blog-Post.”
More advanced users will appreciate some built-in tools, such as 301 redirects and “SEO Templates” that allow you to set rules to automatically generate meta-titles and descriptions.
WordPress provides the use of some preconfigured solutions, but we strongly recommend adding a plugin to have full SEO functionality. Yoast SEO, for example, is a free and very powerful tool, and Google Analyticator can be useful in integrating with Google Analytics. Below you will find a comparative table of various SEO features for Wix and WordPress.
Blog
The possibilities offered by the Wix blog are good; it allows you to create categories, tags, schedule posts and highlight them. A very interesting option is one that allows you to choose an alternate title for readers using mobile devices (for those cases where a title that is too long is disproportionate on small screens). The layout editor excites less than the site editor itself, and the post features are decent but limited. You can add images, galleries, videos, gifs, and dividers, but for everything else you need to know how to use HTML, which might intimidate beginners. That’s why we don’t feel like recommending Wix to avid bloggers, as it is simpler and less customizable than a WordPress blog.
WordPress, on the other hand has always focused primarily on blog development and already includes all the features and functions you’ll need, such as tags, categories, RSS, and more. Clearly the look of your blog will depend on the theme (design) you choose, and it is possible that some features will need to be fine-tuned manually. Again, a little technical knowledge will be helpful to achieve exactly the desired result. However, compared to Wix, WordPress’ block-based visual editor will give you much more control over the layout and content of the blog; you will have more options to be able to add tables, galleries, columns, and more.
Winner: We can only choose WordPress. Although Wix is not bad, there are better alternatives on the market such as Weebly.
Support
Wix offers technical phone support (in English), live chat as well as forums, articles and tutorials that are particularly useful for beginners. Even the most technical questions will be answered after a brief email exchange.
WordPress simply does not offer an official technical support service. You may find answers to your questions in communities and forums, but expect to have to sift through dozens and dozens of other comments.
Winner: Wix. WordPress does not offer support.
Pricing
With Wix, pricing is clear and payments can be monthly, annually or biannually. There are 5 packages that include an increasing number of features and services:
Link Your Domain ($5/month)
Combo ($16 / month)
Unlimited ($22 / month)
Business Basic (for online stores) ($23 / month)
Wix heavily promotes its Unlimited package, but the Combo package is more than sufficient for most non-eCommerce sites since it is ad-free and allows you to link your domain.
WordPress is technically free. But separately you’ll have to pay for hosting
Winner: it’s a tough call. Unless you need to hire a developer to work on your WordPress site, in which case the cost skyrockets. Don’t forget that using Wix could save you a lot of time that you can use to focus on other aspects of your business.
