Should I Use Wix Or Wordpress

Wix and WordPress are 2 very different platforms, and you tin can build all types of fabulous websites on both. For pocket-size, service-based businesses — or those that merely sell a few items online, Wix may exist all you need. Businesses with more circuitous east-commerce operations might do better with WordPress. Your best pick really depends on y'all unique business organization needs.

Wix vs. WordPress summarized

Wix is a beginner-friendly all-in-one website platform that lets you lot rapidly build and launch all types of business websites that crave footling-to-no ongoing maintenance. Nonetheless, in terms of pattern options, cost and functionality, you're e'er tied to what Wix supports and what it charges for its services.
WordPress is vastly more flexible than Wix but has a greater learning curve. You'll spend more than time building and launching your outset WordPress website, only in the long run, you lot'll accept far more control over the design and functionality. Toll-wise, WordPress websites can exist more economical than Wix, merely costs tin add upward as y'all expand features and grow your audition.

Compare Wix vs. WordPress

Deciding whether Wix vs. WordPress is best for your business concern comes down to how much fourth dimension you lot programme to spend learning a platform and maintaining your website. How your website fits into your overall concern goals is too a major factor. Is information technology a simple marketing tool for your offline business organisation, an online sales tool to expand your brick-and-mortar store or the cornerstone of your online brand?

Each platform can be used for about every type of business organization, online and off. All the same, they differ greatly when it comes to ease of use, customization, expandability, client support — and, in many cases, cost.

On the front-end, both Wix and WordPress let you create all types of slick, professional-looking websites. Still, these top website platforms differ greatly behind the scenes. Here are the primary points to consider when comparing Wix vs. WordPress for your business organisation.

Ease of use

Winner: Wix

Wix hands tops WordPress in terms of ease of apply. As an all-in-ane website builder platform, Wix delivers everything you need to chop-chop launch a basic business concern website in ane tidy packet. Simply sign up for Wix, and the Wix website builder sorcerer guides y'all every step of the way.

With Wix, you tin can quite literally build and launch a finished website in merely minutes.

In dissimilarity, WordPress websites are made up of several edifice blocks. You'll first need to prepare WordPress website hosting and secure and connect your website'south domain name, or URL. Next, you lot must install and ready a WordPress theme to define your website's blueprint and basic functionality. After that, you need to choose and install various plugins for key business functionality similar eastward-commerce, due east-learning courses or online bookings.

Even a seasoned WordPress user is challenged to launch a new WordPress website in nether an hr, and novice users face up quite a learning bend compared to Wix. WordPress'south vast theme and plugin universe makes information technology the most versatile website solution on the planet, but this power comes at a price — and that'southward ease of use.

Client support

Winner: Wix

Hot on the heels of ease of apply is customer support, and in this, Wix again soundly beats WordPress. As an all-in-one service, Wix has back up staff ready to aid via support tickets and, on some plans, live chat and telephone support.

In contrast, WordPress is open up-source software and offers no direct support. Hosting providers and theme and plugin developers back up their own services and products to varying degrees, just there'south no holistic WordPress technical back up group. Instead, you can notice a large collection of gratuitous WordPress tutorials online and on YouTube. You tin can also find online WordPress courses and coaching academies, but these come with a cost.

Cost

Winner: Depends

Comparing Wix vs. WordPress in terms of cost depends on what you lot need and how you utilize the platform.

If you're starting out on a shoestring upkeep, each platform does offer a limited costless website option. Wix offers a free plan, and you tin launch a WordPress website for free on various hosting providers, including WordPress.org and WordPress.com. Naturally, free Wix and WordPress plans offer limited features and support, plus most run their own ads on your website.

Virtually business organisation websites really need a paid, advertisement-free platform to deliver a branded experience to their audition. Wix websites beginning at $13 per month for a bones website and can cost up to $500 per month for due east-commerce powerhouse websites. Features and support increase at each plan level.

WordPress website hosting is very economical, as low as $3 per month, but is just i of several potential costs of running a WordPress website. The just-right themes and plugins often carry a cost and can run anywhere from $x to hundreds per year. Even so, in that location are plenty of free WordPress themes and plugins that deliver useful features, so y'all can realistically run a WordPress website for less than the monthly price of Wix.

Ongoing maintenance

Winner: Wix

As an all-in-i service, Wix takes care of the technical details for yous. This includes website security and malware protection, automated backups and Wix app compatibility assurance. Essentially, Wix is a prepare-it-and-forget-it website solution. Other than adding new content or products to your website, you don't need to maintain anything to keep your site up and running.

With WordPress, website maintenance is up to yous. Elevation-rated WordPress hosting providers such as Bluehost, WPengine and GoDaddy offer feature-packed services to rival Wix. About plans include born website security, automated backups and WordPress platform updates. However, you however demand to maintain your theme and plugin updates and bargain with any compatibility issues yourself.

Pattern customization

Winner: WordPress

Wix has over 500 design templates on which yous can build a snazzy website, merely that doesn't compare to the tens of thousands of WordPress themes on the market. Plus, Wix templates offer limited customization options while WordPress themes offer near limitless pattern options, peculiarly when paired with drag-and-driblet page architect plugins. Ultimately, you can customize websites on both platforms to suit most needs, but WordPress delivers the about customizable website solution by far.

Website functionality

Winner: WordPress

WordPress is known for its virtually unlimited functionality, which is powered by the vast universe of WordPress plugins. Everything from east-commerce stores, online academies, chapter income websites, dropshipper stores, event marketing websites and more can be congenital on WordPress by simply calculation functional plugins.

You lot can also add all types of marketing, website performance and call-to-action tools to any WordPress website using gratuitous or low-cost plugins. These include search engine optimization (SEO), email and social media marketing, multichannel sales, retargeting and remarketing, popup forms and much more.

That said, Wix website functionality tin can be expanded by calculation Wix apps. Wix offers nearly 300 apps that cover many improver needs from event tickets and online bookings to powerful e-learning portals and add together-on marketing tools. Some Wix apps are gratuitous, merely some can add hefty monthly fees to your Wix website.

1 do good of using Wix apps versus the WordPress plugin universe is compatibility. Wix apps are all tested for reliability, so y'all won't find yourself with a cleaved website due to incompatible apps. In contrast, WordPress plugins are made past all sorts of developers and some merely don't play well with other plugins and themes. When that happens, it'due south upward to y'all to solve the trouble.

Blogging and content management

Winner: WordPress

At its core, WordPress is a content direction system, and it sets the standard for blogging features and protocols. No other small-business-friendly website platform — including Wix — comes close to WordPress in blogging features and overall content management capabilities.

You tin define post and page templates; add or restrict blog annotate and mail tracking features and organize your posts, pages, videos and imagery any way you lot wish on WordPress. In fact, many multi-contributor news portals and social influencer websites are simply highly glorified WordPress blogs, thanks to the fully integrated content controls that WordPress delivers.

Wix does offer sound blogging features every bit well, but it pales in comparison to WordPress in terms of content presentation and controls. Wix blog sections take an add-on feel, whereas WordPress blog content is easy to insert as an integrated element of whatsoever WordPress website.

Website ownership and portability

Winner: WordPress

When yous build a Wix website, you're edifice it on Wix servers, using Wix templates and Wix apps and add-ons. Essentially, Wix "owns" everything only the content and images you insert. It all works great until yous make up one's mind to try another website solution. Ultimately, if you lot're not happy with Wix's options or pricing, moving your website to a new platform will take some work.

Unlike Wix, your WordPress website is "owned" by you, which makes it easy to transfer to some other hosting solution. WordPress websites are "portable," significant it'south like shooting fish in a barrel to consign and import as-is to other WordPress hosting solutions. You tin besides easily export your WordPress website elements, content and data to external backups if you wish.

That's the big difference between WordPress and all-in-ane website platforms similar Wix, Weebly and Squarespace. All-in-one providers run their own unique systems, and then moving to another platform is a task. In contrast, WordPress is a common platform supported past many different hosting providers. Their prices and perks may vary, simply the platform is the same.

Now, you're never completely stuck with one platform. You tin discover converters, apps and services that help you motion a website from Wix to WordPress, WordPress to Wix, Weebly to Wix and so on. Withal, by comparison, swapping a WordPress website from one hosting provider to another is a elementary thing.

Best for service concern websites: Wix

Service businesses typically demand a simple local marketing website. For this, a basic Wix website plan is ideal. In minutes, you can have a great-looking website that you can set and forget. You tin can likewise add blogging, online booking and even prepaid service features by simply upgrading your Wix plan.

Of grade, y'all can do the aforementioned with a WordPress website, but in that location'southward a large learning bend and ongoing maintenance to consider. This added fourth dimension might not pay off in the terminate if you merely need a simple and effective marketing or service-booking website.

Top pick for serious due east-commerce brands: WordPress

Wix e-commerce plans offer solid online selling features that are simple to employ. However, Wix online stores don't compare to the e-commerce powerhouses that you tin can build using WordPress. Plus, by pairing low-cost WordPress hosting with a free or low-price e-commerce plugin, yous can harness a ton of online selling power for less than the toll of a Wix e-commerce program.

More than importantly, you can easily grow a WordPress store into a multichannel online sales machine, equally many major online brands have washed. Several WordPress e-commerce plugins can efficiently connect sales from your website and other channels like Amazon, Facebook Shop and eBay to dorsum-end services, including fulfillment warehouses, print-on-demand services and dropship vendors. This lets y'all efficiently aggrandize your sales across superlative online marketplaces and support growth.

Add to this WordPress'due south incredible blogging potential. Y'all can easily market place your products and brand through media-rich weblog posts and drive these to your social channels. You tin can even promote affiliate links in your marketing posts for added income using the Amazon Affiliates WordPress Plugin (AAWP) or similar options.

Ultimately, you can build and run a full-featured online store on both Wix and WordPress. Still, WordPress is, hands-down, the best no-holds-barred multichannel/multipurpose e-commerce sales solution.

Winning choice for local restaurants and issue promotion: Wix

Beyond the standard Wix website builder, Wix Restaurants has restaurant-specific templates and features to support online menus, online ordering for delivery and pickup and online reservations. Of course, there are WordPress plugins that back up this, too. However, a busy restaurant needs a solution that works without unexpected reanimation. Wix Restaurants does but that.

Ditto Wix Events , which is an add-on app that supports all types of event management, including online result showcases, upshot marketing tools, online reservations, ticket purchases and attendee networking. There are plenty of result support plugins for WordPress too, merely Wix Events is a quick solution for a business that needs a no-fuss event direction website that works.

Best for combination businesses: WordPress

If your business combines several sales channels, business sectors or income streams, then WordPress is the all-time website platform for y'all. Using plugins, you lot can easily add functionality to have your business into new directions in just a few clicks.

For example, pair a WordPress website with an e-learning and membership plugin like MemberPress to sell online courses, membership access and digital products. Then, add an e-commerce plugin like WooCommerce to expand into related physical product sales. Don't forget, you tin also earn chapter income by featuring affiliate links in your marketing and members-only blog posts and articles. WordPress affiliate plugins simplify the entire process.

Forth that aforementioned vein, you can build an influencer website using WordPress'southward highly versatile blogging tools and brand coin through affiliate links using an affiliate plugin. Every bit your audience grows, yous tin can easily expand into branded clothing or accessories sales with no upfront costs. Merely add an due east-commerce plugin like WooCommerce that connects to print-on-demand vendors like Printful and CustomCat.

As well, if you have a retail brick-and-mortar store, you lot can easily expand into online sales using WordPress with the costless WooCommerce plugin, which connects to many popular retail point-of-auction (POS) systems like Foursquare , Lightspeed and Vend. This lets you expand online and efficiently manage both online and in-store sales within 1 streamlined system. Desire to add blog posts for marketing and perchance expand into a customer rewards programme? The adequacy is in that location when you need information technology.

A version of this commodity was first published on Fundera, a subsidiary of NerdWallet.