A battle is raging in 2022. The contenders? WordPress and Wix.
A business website is crucial in the modern age and can give your business more credibility while also helping it generate new sales. There are many online platforms that can be used to build a website, but two of the most popular options are Wix and WordPress.
But which one of these site builders is the best choice for your new website? Keep reading to learn everything that you need to know about WordPress vs Wix.
Wix Vs WordPress: The Basics
While both WordPress and Wix can help you create a great website for many different purposes, they have a lot of differences between them.
Generally speaking, Wix is a site builder that is ideal for small sites with just a few pages. It’s extremely easy to use and there are good design options that work well for simple portfolios and basic websites that don’t need advanced customizability.
WordPress, on the other hand, is a bit more difficult to use than Wix but is also more fully featured as well. You can create large websites with plenty of pages in a fairly simple way. However, the learning curve for WordPress is a bit more extensive.
Another major difference between these two platforms is that Wix automatically includes hosting and technical support. WordPress, on the other hand, is completely free and open-source so you’ll need to find a separate host for it. You won’t get much support unless you choose a host that offers managed WordPress hosting plans.
Overall, WordPress tends to be the more fully-featured option while Wix remains a great choice for beginners who simply need a clean and simple website that’s easy to create and manage.
Comparing Important Website Builder Factors
So how do WordPress and Wix compare on some of the most important factors? Here’s what you need to know.
Ease of Use
When it comes to ease of use, Wix tends to be the better option. The website builder is easy to learn, requires no technical knowledge, and is a drag-and-drop builder.
WordPress has a steeper learning curve. It’s best to know at least some basic coding to get the most out of the platform.
Design Customization and Flexibility
WordPress wins when it comes to design flexibility and customization.
While Wix has more than 800 professionally-designed templates to use, it’s hard to switch between them, and doing so will require you to redesign your site. WordPress provides users with unlimited flexibility and also allows you to change a site’s theme fairly easily without having to redo anything.
Available Apps and Plugins
WordPress wins in this category as well. WordPress offers plenty of plugins that can add extra functionality to your site and you can do just about anything with these plug-ins that you can think of.
Wix has free and paid apps available to expand your site as well, but there aren’t as many of them. Wix also makes many of its own apps and these can be very reliable, but the selection is much more limited.
SEO Tools
When it comes to search engine optimization (SEO), Wix and WordPress are on pretty equal footing. Both platforms offer plenty of SEO functionality and tools.
With Wix, you’ll get basic SEO functionality automatically and can get advanced features with a better plan.
WordPress has plenty of SEO plugins available, with Yoast being one of the most popular options. Yoast offers great free functionality but you can also purchase the premium plugin to get advanced features as well.
Blogging Functionality
WordPress is well-known as a blogging platform and wins out in this category.
While Wix has good blogging functionality, WordPress is more fully-featured and customizable. You’ll have all of the power and features you need to write blog posts and customize them all to your heart’s content. You’ll have the ability to use tags, categories, and RSS functionality while also adding tables, columns, galleries, and more.
E-Commerce Capabilities
If you’re trying to launch an e-commerce business, WordPress is once again the better option.
While Wix has some pretty good e-commerce features and plans, they’re really only ideal for smaller stores. If you want to sell a higher amount of items, it will get difficult quickly.
For fully-featured e-commerce sites, WordPress is the better choice and you can choose to use an integrated plug-in such as WooCommerce or Shopify to get all the features and functionality you need.
Site Builder Support
One area in which Wix excels is in the help and support that it provides. Wix has a dedicated support team that you can get in touch with using a variety of methods and also has helpful support information that is organized well.
WordPress, on the other hand, is used far and wide so there is plenty of information you can find online. However, it is a bit more difficult to get support from the WordPress team or to find the answers that you’re looking for without sifting through a whole lot of information.
Pricing
When it comes to pricing, your choice will depend on a number of different factors.
Wix has many different plans and they range in price from $16 per month to $59 per month. All of these plans include many features for one price and include 1 year of a free domain. These plans do have limits on things such as storage space and video hours, however.
With WordPress, the actual pricing can vary by quite a bit but WordPress itself is free to use. It’s open-source, so the money that you spend will go towards website hosting and paying for premium themes, plugins, and web development services if needed.
The benefit to using WordPress is that you can shop around for pricing and hosting features and you’ll have many more options available. You’ll be able to choose the perfect web design team and website host provider to help you with your needs.
Settling the WordPress Vs Wix Debate
While the debate between WordPress vs Wix is still going strong, the truth is that there isn’t a clear winner. You’ll need to consider the needs of your website or business carefully when making your choice to determine which site builder will be right for you.
WordPress is the better choice if you want more power and functionality. However, you still may want to choose Wix if you need to build a simple site and prefer its improved ease of use and support.
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