If this is your first time hearing about Wix and WordPress, these are the two most popular website-building platforms in the world. So, Wix vs. WordPress: which is better?
Wix has grown in popularity in recent years and is proud to have been chosen by many celebrities, including Karlie Kloss.
Meanwhile, WordPress is the foundation of 1/3 of the currently active websites. These two platforms have completely different operating mechanisms.
Wix and WordPress: Which is the most trusted for eCommerce?
Wix is a type of website builder, which means it provides the necessary tools completely for free to build websites easily without any coding required.
Wix uses an intuitive interface and has pre-built elements or blocks to organize into a web page.
Over the years, this type of website building tool has grown tremendously thanks to its easy-to-use web builder interface for beginners without the need to know how to code. But there are certain limitations when using the website builder editor, which we will explain more clearly in the comparison section.
And what is WordPress? WordPress is a typical representative of a content management system (CMS). This is the term for platforms used to manage large amounts of content, images, articles, videos, etc. CMS also provides the tools you need to host a beautiful website.
Although it started as just a blogging platform, WordPress has grown stronger to become a platform for all types of websites. WordPress itself is also a hosting provider, called WordPress.com instead of the open-source WordPress.org site.
Thus, the biggest difference between Wix and WordPress is that when using Wix, your site will use the Wix provider’s hosting; When using WordPress, you can bring your website to any hosting provider. While this takes a little more work, it gives you more control over performance and security.
And now, we will dig deeper into each aspect to make the most accurate comments!
Wix vs WordPress
Design and layout
The design and layout of the website play a very important role, not only is the web design beautiful but also user-friendly, making the brand stand out. So what is the difference between Wix and WordPress in this feature?
Wix comes with over 1000 pre-made templates for you to choose from. You can easily choose according to pre-categorized categories such as Architecture, Fashion Design, Branding…. Or you can use the search bar in the upper right corner to find the interface you want.
All Wix designs are written in HTML5, using the built-in tools you can add website designs, customize and rearrange items to fit.
However, there is a disadvantage that once you have selected a template it cannot be changed. You can edit and customize it to your liking using the built-in tools, but you cannot switch to another template. So, the warning here is to think carefully before choosing!
When it comes to themes, perhaps Wix can’t match WordPress. This platform has 50 times more themes than its competitors in this article including free themes to choose from or premium paid themes including support from Theme creators like CSSIgniter, Themify, StudioPress, etc. What’s more, if you’re a spendthrift, you can even get an exclusive WordPress theme page just for your business. Most themes have built-in customization. You can also customize it further using your themes and plugins.
Completely different from Wix, you can rebanding or freely explore other themes on WordPress. The theme switch is easy, the components that have been set up on the web will be kept and transferred to the new theme. WordPress experts are always ready to help with editing and support when there are any problems.
Compared to Wix, WordPress has more themes and templates. WordPress users can also easily switch themes or customize them without any restrictions.
Performance
Each platform has a different host, so comparing the speed between Wix and WordPress is a bit difficult. However, we will also filter out the following basic points.
Wix is also a web host like we mentioned above, which means you pay for the website builder and hosting services at the same time. Wix does not allow tweaks to be made to improve the speed of the site.
Instead, the platform will do everything necessary to make the website as fast as possible, at least in theory. During our testing, we found Wix to have very good page load times with their CDN and automatic image optimization technology.
As such, Wix is a good choice for you if you don’t want to worry about website performance. However, since you don’t have control over this, it has the disadvantage that you won’t make much of an improvement to website speed when there’s a need but in an awkward situation.
As for WordPress, you can use any hosting package, so you will be able to learn to choose the most suitable plan based on the resources intended for the website. Hostinger’s web hosting plan, for example, has high-speed support right from the lowest plan and more control than Wix’s Premium plan.
In addition, you can speed up your WordPress website more thoroughly. This CMS does not have built-in image optimization features and CDN integration, so you need to add it by installing plugins like WP Smush.
In short, if you put in the effort to optimize WordPress, the platform will be faster than Wix. If done right, WordPress will always make sure your site runs super fast.
Ease of Use
Most beginners don’t want to spend too much time learning new skills. And this seems to be an advantage for Wix.
Wix is a web-building platform with an instant interactive interface. So 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 through. I have a feeling Wix provides me with both an image editor for page editing and element styles. It all happens smoothly in the WYSIWYG interface.
WordPress is also not too difficult to access. Once you are done with the installation on the web host of your choice, you will be taken to the WordPress administration. Creating articles and websites takes just a few clicks of your mouse. However, it will take a lot of work to edit these pages and make them look good.
WordPress comes with a visual editor for writing content and theme customization that allows you to edit theme properties in a WYSIWYG environment. However, there is no drag and drop Page Builder available for WordPress by default.
To have full control over the interface, users have to be familiar with some different sections such as customizer, navigation menus, visual post editor, etc. This means the WordPress platform requires a bit of knowledge for beginners.
In terms of ease of use, it is clear that Wix has the upper hand over WordPress. Users don’t need to spend a lot of time learning the platform or installing any plugins before they start building a website.
In addition, with WordPress, users are required to have a basic understanding of it and may need to install plugins to build websites.
Security
The best condition is that you should choose an impenetrable platform. No one can access your sensitive data without your permission. However, in today’s modern internet world, there is no 100% secure platform. What you can do is keep the risk to a minimum by choosing a platform with a reputation for security or by using different methods.
Website builder platforms like Wix often have built-in security, because users can’t touch the main functionality of the original code, so security weaknesses are less. These platforms are automatically updated, so you won’t be using outdated software that fixes out-of-date software that contains discovered security holes.
However, that does not mean that Wix is perfect in terms of security. It is also affected by past security holes. Even so, Wix is still considered a highly secure platform because this is not the case.
As for WordPress, the situation is a bit more complicated. This platform is used the most on the website, so it is the object that hackers like to touch the most. Just finding a small security hole can cause hackers to attack millions of sites.
However, in reality, the WordPress platform itself is very secure. If you take some small precautions such as always updating your site, themes, and plugins whenever possible, you should be fine. WordPress and the community that uses it often publish patches to combat the latest threats.
Plus, you can install additional plugins and configure advanced security. This also enhances the level of security for the website much more.
When comparing security, I think both Wix and WordPress are tied, both are very secure. Wix has the strength of being a closed system, so you don’t need to worry about security issues and passively depend on Wix’s technical team. As for WordPress, it can be strong in a system with additional security features at any time, but you need to put in a bit of research and configuration.
Ecommerce Support
Selling online is the important feature that most beginners look for. Let’s compare Wix and WordPress to build a sales website.
With Wix, you have the option to add an online store to your website. However, you can only add eCommerce when purchasing a paid plan. This means that without upgrading to the Business $eCommerce Plan (as low as $17/month) you won’t be able to sell. This package includes all the features needed to sell products, although it has fewer add-ons than its direct competitor Shopify. There are a few third-party apps that help with online sales, but it costs you more because of the monthly fees. Not to mention you don’t have an online payment gateway and the functionality is limited.
Besides Wix Payments – Payment gateway built directly by Wix, users can pay via cash and credit cards, except UnionPay which is only available to some users. WixStores only supports a handful of payment gateways such as PayPal or Authorize.net.
As for WordPress, it is very easy to create an online store using a plugin from WooCommerce. Currently, this application is running 42% of all e-commerce stores in the world. Besides, WordPress has other free eCommerce plugins to help users sell everything from services, products, subscriptions, events, and so on. Most e-commerce plugins for WordPress have dedicated themes, and many are specifically designed to work with those plugins.
Compared in terms of e-commerce, it is clear that WordPress has the upper hand. If you want to build yourself an online store suitable for growth, this platform offers more flexibility and a variety of options.
Creating blogs
Both Wix and WordPress have their own advantages to support users who intend to create blogs.
Wix offers most of the basic blog features: supports posts including categories and tagging, and has a free media archive like photos, videos, and GIFs. The Wix Blog app will allow you to add authoring and blogging directly from your mobile device.
But Wix blogs after the public do not have their commenting system. Having to use Facebook comments looks unsightly and will attract spammers.
WordPress itself comes from the ground up for blogging, so the platform offers most of the essential features like Wix and adds a few more, including the option to feature an image at the top of a post, the ability to back up the article or make it private so that readers cannot see it. With the recent version of WordPress 5.0, WordPress also integrates Gutenberg editor to help you create your layout for posts.
But WordPress is missing one big 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 on their own on online sites like Pexels or Pixabay.
Pricing
The cost of a platform is very important and so you need to know what you pay for. Wix and WordPress have very different payment methods. Let’s take a look.
Wix has four premium plans for personal websites and four premium plans for Corporate and eCommerce. Each plan starts with the cheapest price so you can upgrade in features and size as your work grows better.
As with most packages, the longer you subscribe to the plan, the lower the monthly price will have to be. For example, the popular Wix Unlimited plan is $22/month, but the annual plan will be $17/month.
If you do not choose to rent a Wix plan, you will be placed ads on the top and bottom of the page, and you will not be able to use your domain. For premium features like eCommerce, you’ll need to upgrade to a rather expensive plan.
WordPress is open-source, which means it’s free for all users. However, with WordPress, you need to rent hosting and buy your domain name. The cost depends on your actual needs.
With the provided themes, you will save quite a bit of money. If you want to buy a premium WordPress theme and a premium plugin, that price goes up.
Thus, in terms of price, Wix has something that will cause dissatisfaction for customers. WordPress is more flexible and can choose cheap or expensive web hosting depending on you, while Wix is limited to a certain number of plans for you to choose from.
Data Migration
Moving a website or switching from one platform to another is quite an important issue. Because sometimes after a period of use you will feel it is not suitable or want to upgrade. Let’s take a look at Wix and WordPress which are easier website migration platforms.
With Wix, data migration to another platform is very limited. You can only export posts to XML format. You need to manually download your pages, videos, images, and other content.
According to Wix documentation, all your content will be stored exclusively on Wix’s servers and cannot be output elsewhere. In order to re-platform, you need help from a reliable shopping cart migration service.
As for WordPress, data migration is too easy. Just click to backup all content in your website to export all content in XML format afterward.
Since it’s a self-hosted platform, you can make complete backups of everything you’ve uploaded, done… You can download articles, images, source code, or even your website’s database. Moreover, with the current backup plugin, backing up or moving the database is quite simple. Therefore, it is very easy for you to switch hosting, nothing difficult.
WordPress completely wins Wix in shopping cart migration. This service is available at Next Cart.
Summary
Advantages of Wix
A lot of people think of Wix as a platform just for beginners. But in my opinion, its features far exceed expectations:
- Extremely easy to use.
- Designed to help create attractive websites with a website builder with a convenient interface.
- Automatically secure and optimize performance.
- The platform has integrated 3rd party applications and good customization support.
When comparing WordPress vs Wix, we recommend Wix if you need to quickly create a website without too much management.
Advantages of WordPress
It is no coincidence that WordPress rose to be the CMS with the largest market share in the world. Some of the reasons are their following advantages:
- An easy-to-use platform for newbies, but also supports many features for experienced programmers.
- The platform is infinitely scalable, thanks to its open-source nature and a large number of themes and plugins.
- There are many options to manage large amounts of content.
- You have full control over security, performance, and hosting.
“WordPress vs Wix: Which Is Right For You?” This is really a difficult question when each platform has its own advantages. Besides, depending on your own goals and qualifications, I hope the information I give is useful!
Closing Thought
Creating a website takes work, of course, but if you choose the right platform, the process can be more fun than you think. Wix, helps you create websites quickly, thanks to its powerful and intuitive page builder tool. But, you will have a hard time using it for a high-end project or requiring special features. On the other hand, researching using WordPress will be better because surely the effort you spend is not much compared to what you create in the future. This platform is suitable for you to build any website.
Those are my opinions on Wix and WordPress comparison. Thanks for reading!
