CMS options on a mobile
Dylan Fernandez January 28, 2022 A 9 minute read

Battle of the CMS’s : Is WordPress better than Wix?

Are you trying to decide between Wix and WordPress for your website? Though WordPress is the most popular website builder out there, it’s not the only one.

In this article, we’ll compare Wix and WordPress and explain the pros and cons of each. It’s our hope that after reading this Wix review and comparison, you’ll be able to decide whether Wix is right for you.

In this article, we compare Wix vs Self Hosted WordPress.org, NOT WordPress.com.

Below are seven categories we compared:

  • Cost of Wix vs WordPress
  • Usability
  • Difference in Design
  • Suitable for blogging?
  • How about eCommerce?
  • Portability of data
  • The verdict: WordPress or Wix?

In each of these categories, let’s see how Wix and WordPress rank.

Cost of Wix vs WordPress

The cost of building a website is a very important factor to consider when choosing your platform. You will have to determine how much it will cost you to develop and maintain your site. Our goal is to make sure you get everything you need while staying within your budget.

Let’s compare Wix and WordPress in terms of pricing to see which one offers the maximum value for your money.

Wix Pricing Comparison:

There is a free version of Wix’s website builder. However, there are two major drawbacks.

It adds Wix branded advertisements to the top and bottom of your website. The second is that you cannot use a custom domain name for your site, so the address will be: username.wix.com/sitename

The basic plan does not include necessary add-ons such as Google Analytics, Favicons, eCommerce, etc. You must upgrade to one of their premium plans to remove ads and gain access to their apps market.

Wix premium plans have different storage and bandwidth limitations. Monthly or yearly plans are available.

Wix’s Unlimited plan ($12.50 / month) offers the best value. You should choose a Business & Ecommerce plan if you need eCommerce and business features. Small businesses can start with just $17 per month for websites and eCommerce plans.

No matter which plan you choose, this cost does not include any apps you later purchase from the Wix app market for your website.

WordPress Pricing Comparison:

Anyone can use the WordPress software since it is open source and free. We are often asked why WordPress is free and what’s the catch?
The biggest catch is that you need your own domain name and web hosting. You can choose from a number of WordPress hosting providers. We offer hosting and support packages (here). In addition to domain names registration. If you decide to use premium WordPress themes or plugins (similar to WordPress apps), you will have to pay more for your WordPress site.
Nonetheless, there are thousands of free WordPress themes and plugins that you can use to reduce costs. Using a plugin, you can add any feature to your WordPress site without upgrading your hosting plan. WordPress comes with full eCommerce support out of the box. Create an online store on your website by installing the WooCommerce plugin. Like WordPress, WooCommerce is free and open source.
You can learn more about how much an eCommerce website costs by speaking to the team who can also discuss headless commerce options such as BigCommerce!
Final thoughts:
The flexibility of WordPress plans offered by a variety of web hosting companies beats those of Wix. You can use your WordPress website in any way you like for free, but the cost depends on how much resources you use.

Usability

Wix or WordPress are popular with beginners because they don’t need to hire a designer. They make it easy to create websites without knowing any coding.

Take a look at which one is easier to use for beginners without coding experience.

Wix:

Creating your own website is easy with Wix thanks to its powerful tools. It provides 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. Beginning users will appreciate this feature since it eliminates the need to deal with code.

WordPress:

With WordPress, you have an incredibly powerful block editor that lets you edit your pages with a live preview.

By adding blocks, you can create visually stunning layouts. All the elements you need, like text, buttons, backgrounds, galleries, and headings, are in the blocks. In addition to the themes (website templates) available for use on your website, WordPress gives you access to thousands more. The live theme customizer allows you to fully customize each of them as well.

Are you looking for even more code-free ways to edit your website? With its drag-and-drop page builder plugins, WordPress has some of the most intuitive ones available. You can now create professional-looking websites without writing code with these drag-and-drop editors. With all of these options, it is easier than ever to make changes to your website.

The conclusion:

WordPress and Wix tie when it comes to ease of use. Content can be written, pages can be made, and business and eCommerce websites can be managed without coding knowledge. Despite having a great editor interface, Wix lacks advanced features. The ease of use of WordPress can be extended with a little bit of a learning curve, which is great in the long run.

Difference in Design

The layout and design of your website have a profound impact on its success. An effective web design will make a site owner’s brand stand out not just by looking good, but also by being user-friendly.

WordPress:

WordPress has thousands of free and paid themes. Free themes come with limited support, but they’re also reviewed. Generally speaking, paid themes offer more features and support.

There are a ton of WordPress themes out there, from small personal sites to eCommerce sites. Each theme has its own customizable features. In addition, you can further style or customize your WordPress themes using one of the many styling plugins.

The WordPess.org directory offers free themes for users. For paid themes, there are several WordPress theme shops available.

Additionally, you can hire a developer (such as us here at OBM) or create a completely custom theme for your business.

Wix:

There are more than 900 pre-made templates available in Wix. Every Wix design is fully responsive and written in HTML5. It’s possible to tweak your site design, rearrange items, and change layout using the built-in tools.

Various designs are available for different kinds of sites. Among the various categories of templates, you will find business, eCommerce, hobbies, arts & crafts, and personal.

A major disadvantage is that once you select 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.

In summary:

Wix has a much smaller selection of themes and design layouts than WordPress. Furthermore, WordPress users can freely switch themes or customize them as much as they like without any restrictions.

Suitability for blogging

Blogging platforms that make it easier for users to start are in high demand. The two most popular blogging platforms are Wix and WordPress. Let’s find out which one offers more features.

Blogging on Wix

You can easily add a blog section to your website with Wix. It has all the most common blogging features. They include categories, tags, photos, videos, archives, etc.

Comments on Wix blogs are slow and not as easy to manage as those on WordPress. Many users install third-party comment systems like Facebook or Disqus, both of which require users to create accounts.

Additionally, it lacks several features like backdating posts and creating private posts. The Wix website builder’s writing interface differs from that of the blog. It instead uses a plain text editor with very few formatting options.

Blogging on WordPress

Originally designed as a blogging platform, WordPress has evolved into a full-featured website builder. Over 40% of the Internet is powered by WordPress. It has all the blogging features you need, such as a native commenting system and other advanced features that Wix lacks.

It features a powerful Gutenberg block editor that allows you to create beautiful blog layouts. In addition, you can extend your blog by using plugins to add any feature you can imagine.

Optimistic conclusion:

As a blogging platform, WordPress completely outshines Wix. A lack of several key features makes Wix blogs limiting. If you are looking to start a blog, Wix isn’t even close to WordPress.

How about eCommerce?

The ability to sell things online is another important feature that most beginners look for. Find out how WordPress and Wix measure up in eCommerce.

WordPress:

The most popular eCommerce platform in the world, WooCommerce, is offered by WordPress.

You can also use other eCommerce plugins for WordPress to sell physical or digital goods, services, events, subscriptions, and more.

With MemberPress, WordPress is also the best platform for selling digital subscriptions. You can sell online courses, pay per view content, and membership plans for your online community.

WordPress eCommerce plugins often come with their own themes and add-ons. We suggest WooCommerce themes or alternatively contact the team here at OBM to bespoke create your website’s store theme.

Wix:

With their paid plans, Wix offers eCommerce. With the free plan, users cannot run their eCommerce store on Wix without upgrading.

Wix Stores allow you to accept payments using their native payment system, as well as third-party apps that connect to payment gateways such as PayPal, Authorize.net, and more.

You will pay 2.9% of the transaction amount + 0.30 USD if you choose to use Wix Payments. This fee can add up quickly if you sell a lot of products.

It is possible to promote your store and sell items online using third-party apps. eCommerce platforms have limited features as well.

As a result:

As compared to Wix, WordPress + WooCommerce offers more flexibility, freedom, and choices if you want to build a proper online store and be ready for growth.

Portability of data

The ability to move your content whenever you need it gives you the freedom to do so. Now let’s see how Wix and WordPress can help you move your content and use it elsewhere.

Portability options in Wix

Wix offers very limited options for moving content. Only XML files can be exported from your blog. Your pages, images, videos, and other content will need to be manually downloaded.

In Wix’s documentation, all your content is hosted exclusively on Wix’s servers and cannot be exported.

If you need to move your content to another platform, it will be difficult to do so. If you have a Wix site, you can still transfer it.

You can find more information on switching from Wix to WordPress by speaking to our design and development team.

Portability options for WordPress

The WordPress content management system is extremely user-friendly and makes exporting your content extremely simple. You can download your content in XML format with just one click thanks to the one-click exporter.

Using a self-hosted platform, you can also create complete WordPress backups, download your media files, and manually export your WordPress database.

It is then possible to move your WordPress site to a new host if you are dissatisfied with your current WordPress host.

Summary:

When it comes to downloading and moving data, WordPress is a lot better. However, moving your content away from Wix is quite challenging.

The verdict: WordPress or Wix?

There is no doubt that WordPress is an outstanding web publishing platform for any kind of website that you may wish to create. Ultimately, Wix has a lot to offer in terms of ease of use and functionality, but you can accomplish a lot more with WordPress in the long run.