May 13, 2020/Edvins Gailums/For Web Designers, For Web Developers, For Webmasters, Infographics, WooCommerce

You might have seen a lot of people suggesting Wix websites nowadays. On the other hand, WordPress has always been the number one choice for people for the past many years. If you are confused between choosing one platform, this article is for you. It is a complete comparison on WordPress vs Wix. We will see some of the most important things that mater. We will talk about the functionalities, pricing, ease of use, design, and various other possible factors that you should see while choosing a platform.

To begin with, we will start the journey with the overview of WordPress vs Wix.

Overview of WordPress vs Wix

WordPress is an open-source software using which you can create pretty much any website you want. More than 27 million active websites are running on WordPress which gives it 34% of market share. It is a self-hosted platform and completely free to use. You just need to handle the hosting side.

On the other hand, Wix offers a complete drag and drop website builder hosted by them. It offers a freemium model. In other words, they have various plans from which you need to choose one. One of the plans is free whereas you will have to pay for the upgrade. The basic plan doesn’t give you enough features. We will see more about it later. The total websites hosted in Wix are more than 3.8 Million making over 0.64% of the market share.

If you consider active websites, the popularity of both of them is growing. There were roughly 18 million WordPress websites in 2016 and 2017. Wix has only 1 million websites in 2016 and 2017, they somehow reached more than 2 Million.  In 2018, WordPress crossed 220 Million marks and Wix crossed 2.5 Million. As of now, there are 3.8M Wix websites and more than 27 million WordPress sites.

If you directly compare the overview with each other, WordPress seems a lot more popular than Wix, right? Well, we will discuss more it in this WordPress vs Wix comparison where we will consider all the factors and later on, get the exact answer on which is better.

Share this infographic on your website:

<a href="https://www.wpservices.com/2020/05/13/wordpress-vs-wix-which-platform-to-choose/" target="_self"><img src="https://www.wpservices.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/WordPress-VS-WIX.png" alt="WordPress WIX Infographics" height="9633" width="1240"></a>

Pricing and costs

The next thing is about pricing and total costs. WordPress is free to use but you will have to get your hosting account to host the script. The hosting and domain won’t cost you much. Also, once you get it up and running, you can extend the functionality of your WordPress site.

Wix is kind of different here. They do give the basic plan for free but there aren’t more things you can do in the free plan. Also, there are Wix ads and Wix domain name whereas you can remove the branding in WordPress. Further, there are some premium plans in Wix but it will cost you way more than the WordPress hosting services.

So, if you compare the pricing and the costs, WordPress is the clear winner.

Ease of use

The next thing that you need to see on a website is the ease of use. The platform you are going with must be easy to use.

Let’s start with hosting and setting up the website. In WordPress, you will have to get the hosting and install WordPress yourself. Although, WordPress can be installed in just one click the point is that you will have to do it by yourself. Whereas, in Wix, you will have to create an account and everything will be done for you.

Talking about building pages and design, Wix gives everything you need such as a drag and drop page builder and all the options. On the other hand, WordPress doesn’t have an in-built browser, you will need to install the page builder plugin if you want a drag and drop builder. However, you do get the visual editor and block editor.

Overall, Wix is easier as compared to WordPress. In WordPress, you will need to invest a couple of hours knowing the technology. You can also hire somebody to do it for you. However, if you want to do it yourself, Wix seems to be easier.

Design and layout

Designing is everything. The first impression of your website or business depends on the theme and the design of your website. SO, this section is all about the theme and the design of the platform.

Both of them offer enough themes and templates for you to start importing and customizing but what about the quality and the numbers?

Well, WordPress has thousands of free themes, and premium themes are also available. You can get some of the free themes from the official theme directory. The rest of them are available via the third party. Whereas, Wix has more than 500 pre-made templates where you can choose from.

No doubt, whether you are talking about quality, several themes, or customization options, WordPress wins this race in WordPress vs Wix comparison. Both of them offer mobile-friendly themes. SO, that’s not an issue with the theme.

Maintenance and updates

The next part is maintenance and updates. Building a website might be easy, but you will need to maintain the website and do regular updates to ensure the safety of the website.

WordPress provides you automatic updates option but it has some of the limitations, you won’t be able to update everything here. So, the only option left here is to manually update the theme, plugins, and the WordPress version. Don’t worry, it’s just a one-click work but you will have to hit one update button. This is not a one-time thing, you will have to make sure that the website is updated every time. There are many vulnerabilities found in WordPress, to be safe from the loopholes, they give the security updates. So, you need to make sure that you are the latest version of the software. Other than this, there isn’t anything to worry about. If you are using managed WordPress hosting, they will do it for you.

On the next side, Wix offers automatic updates. You will just have to sit back and relax. Wix will update the platform and the website’s version automatically without disturbing you. This also applies in the free-version. So, you don’t need to worry about anything when it comes to the Wix platform.

Overall, Wix provides better features when it comes to maintenance and updates.

Plugins and apps

The next thing is about extending the functionalities by various apps and plugins. The plugins will somehow make your website better depending on the work. Some plugins are useful for the design, some are better for marketing, and some plugins will simply increase the functionality of the website. So, you will need various plugins if you are not looking for a simple website.

WordPress has more than 55,000 free plugins. No to mention, there are also thousands of premium plugins available. Most of the premium plugins also have a lite version that you can use. You will only get the basic features in the lite version. With these many plugins, you can update your website to anything you want. Not to mention, you can also create your plugin if you know to code or you can simply modify the code of the existing plugin to use it on your website.

Wix calls them apps instead of plugins. Wix only has more than 200 apps. Most of the applications are free here but you will have to upgrade to a newer version for some plugin. Not to mention, even here you will get the lite version in most of the plugins. So, you can try out the premium apps before you use them on your website.

In this WordPress vs Wix comparison for plugins and apps, WordPress is the clear winner here.

eCommerce

The next feature you might require is the eCommerce feature. You will eventually need to set up an eCommerce store if you want to use it. Even if you don’t have any plan right now, you should see the features.

WordPress offers various free extensions using which you can create an eCommerce store. The most famous plugin is the WooCommerce plugin. It provides the basic functionality of eCommerce. If you want more add-ons, you can get it for free from the plugin directory store. So, you don’t need to worry about any single thing. You can create an amazing eCommerce store using WordPress. This is the primary reason why WooCommerce is the most used plugin.

Talking about Wix, you also get the eCommerce feature here. However, you will need to upgrade your plan to a higher one. The features are not as attractive as WordPress but you will still get the basic features that are necessary for the eCommerce store. The usage and handling of the store using Wix are easier.

So, it depends on your requirements. If you want more features, WordPress is the best. However, if you are looking for an easy to operate eCommerce store with fewer features, you can surely go with the Wix platform. Therefore, depending on your requirements, you can choose one of the platforms. Let’s see the next thing that is data portability.

Data portability

Data portability is where we will discuss the data export. You can export the complete website in WordPress with just one click. There is an in-built export tool that you can use to download the data.

If you want more, you can also use one of the backup plugins. Many plugins allow you to take the complete backup including the backup of WordPress core files, user data, and the database. So, in this way, you will get complete data easily.

In Wix, you will only get the XML export option for blog posts. You can only export the blog posts in XML format. You will have to download the other data manually. This becomes quite irritating if you have a huge website. however, most people won’t need to export the data in Wix.

WordPress users might need to back up the data when they are changing their hosting provider and similar things. So, in such cases, you will have to back up your data and restore it in another hosting. Also, you don’t need to worry here, you can also use the migration plugins. These plugins do the complete migration work in seconds with the least clicks and efforts. So, you can also use it.

Final words

To conclude WordPress vs Wix, you might have got the idea about which is better.

Wix is the platform where you don’t need to handle any technical things and the company will handle all things for you. It is easier to use but you will end up paying more money with fewer functionalities. It is a limit in everything and also you can’t say that you fully own the website.

On the other hand, WordPress offers powerful options to handle the website. You can make pretty much any website using WordPress. This is the primary reason why WordPress is the best platform you can go with. All you need to do is invest a couple of fo hours in learning the basics of WordPress.

If you go with the service, you will spend roughly $200 setup fee and then you will have to pay some regular monthly costs depending on the service. Wix will cost you $49 a month if you want all the features. Overall, even if you go with WordPress services, WordPress will affordable for you. That’s the primary reason why WordPress is dominating the internet with the highest number of active websites.

Unless you want to create a simple website without any high-level features, you should go with WordPress. Wix is better only for simple websites. Many customizations can’t be done when it comes to Wix. So, you need to take the steps accordingly.

However, it is up to you which one you want to go with. You can have a look at the above-given factors in our WordPress vs Wix comparison and choose one of the platforms accordingly.

Why Website Maintenance is Important?

Importance of website maintenance is always the question for any business, regardless of its size. Owning a website is just like owning a brand new car.

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