Home Website Comparisons Wix vs WordPress In 2023: Everything You Need To Know

Wix vs WordPress In 2023: Everything You Need To Know

by Matt Turner
Published: Last Updated on
Wix vs Wordpress comparison

Wix vs WordPress is not an easy decision – especially if you’re new to building websites.

We’re dealing with two huge names here: Wix has soared in popularity in recent years and boasts many celebrity fans including Karlie Kloss. WordPress, meanwhile, powers a third of the websites live today.

They’re both great platforms, but they’re actually very different. Wix is a website builder, which means it’s easy to use, and any technical issues will be handled for you. Meanwhile, WordPress is a powerful content management system (CMS) that offers more scalability and demands more technical know-how.

To accurately assess each platform, we’ve used a combination of our own in-depth knowledge and the concerns of real-life users to identify six key areas of investigation: ease of use, features, value for money, design flexibility, help and support, and customer score. These six categories have guided our meticulous research.

To help you better understand Wix and WordPress – and work out which one works for you – we’ve put together this handy guide that digs into eight key areas.

Wix vs WordPress: What’s the Key Difference?

Wix is an all-in-one website builder perfect for beginners and non-coders, whereas WordPress is a self-hosted open-source CMS. This means that with WordPress you build your site totally from scratch, while with Wix everything comes built-in and ready for you to start building.

WordPress is more powerful than Wix, but requires more technical know-how to use – knowing how to code is particularly helpful if you want full flexibility. In contrast, Wix makes everything as easy as possible – it even has design assistance that can build a personalized site for you!

Wix lets you build a professional-looking website quickly and easily, providing pre-designed templates, built-in security, and in-house features. On the other hand, WordPress is ideal for creating complex sites and gives you full flexibility and control. You’ll need to find hosting (we recommend Bluehost), install plugins, run updates, and more.

Wix vs WordPress: Pros and Cons

PlatformProsCons
Wix1. Easy to use. It’s aimed at non-technical users, so no coding is required.
2. Includes a dedicated support team.
3. Includes built-in sales features with all eCommerce plans.
1. More complex website features may be missing or limited.
2. Users have less control overall, as a trade-off for ease of use.
3. Less dedicated blogging resources than WordPress.
WordPress1. Has broad functionality and complex features.
2. Great template designs with advanced customization options.
3. Offers good native blogging features including a commenting section.
1. Learning curve can be rough.
2. No dedicated support team; only online guides and a forum.
3. Must install an eCommerce plugin if creating an online store.

Ease of Use: Which Has a Gentler Learning Curve?

When it comes to ease of use, the learning curve for WordPress is definitely steeper. A lot of people choose WordPress for its flexibility, but with this flexibility comes complexity.

If you have some coding knowledge, WordPress makes the world your oyster. You can edit just about anything, but you will need advanced technical knowledge to make adjustments.

Alternatively, you can always hire a skilled developer, but that can prove fairly pricey.

While there are limits to Wix, it is designed and built specifically so it’s easy for non-developers to use. You can learn how to use Wix a lot quicker.

Wix is a What-You-See-Is-What-You-Get (WYSIWYG) website builder, so you can drag and drop paragraphs, pictures, slideshows, shopping cart buttons, and more anywhere on your web pages. You can also resize anything in a few simple clicks.

As for WordPress, the downside is that whatever content you insert into the editor, you won’t see what it looks like “live” until you preview or publish the page.

This is by no means a major issue, but you will have to continuously click back and forth between edit and preview modes, just to see how it’s all coming together.

WordPress adds extra steps to another category, too: hosting and domain names. You’ll need to buy each separately for WordPress, but both are packaged into Wix plans, saving Wix users the time and effort that WordPress users will need to invest in finding the best hosting service and purchasing a custom domain name.

Wix vs WordPress: Ease of Use – Verdict

Wix is much easier to use than WordPress! Wix makes building websites easy for anyone thanks to its simple drag-and-drop editor. On the other hand, WordPress is the more powerful platform, but it also comes with complexity. You’ll need to spend a lot more time learning how to use WordPress.

Design and Customization: How Creative Can You Get?

Design and customization are things that WordPress prides itself on. There’s practically no limit to how much you can customize your site… but as you now know, it’s not overly simple to do.

Provided you’re comfortable with coding, WordPress allows you to make wholesale changes to its themes, and really put your own stamp on your site.

WordPress has a selection of free templates, or ‘themes’, you can work off – but if you’re serious about your site’s aesthetic, you’ll want to purchase one of its premium options.

While you can buy WordPress themes from a variety of sources, we’d recommend sticking to ones made by the platform itself. This is to avoid paying for a dodgy theme some amateur designer has knocked together.

WordPress premium themes cost between $25 and $299. They’re by no means cheap but are the best option if you want a slick design that’s protected against bugs and updates.

Wix lets you pick from a massive range of over 500 templates. All these templates are categorized by industry and come pre-populated with example content, to give you an idea of what your final site may look like.

Another nifty thing is that each template will have built-in features which are relevant to the industry in it’s categorized under. This can save you time and effort trying to find something like a subscription form for your magazine site, for example.

You can access the code of a Wix template, but it’s not recommended unless you’re technically advanced. You should be able to customize everything you need simply by using the drag-and-drop editor.

If you aren’t bothered about design and customization, or simply don’t have the time, you can always use Wix ADI. This is a design-assisted tool that will create your website for you, simply by asking you a few questions about your site’s purpose and your design preferences. To learn more about Wix ADI, read our Wix review here.

Wix vs WordPress: Design and Customization – Verdict

WordPress has better design and customization options than Wix. Wix’s flexible drag-and-drop editor makes it easy to move and position elements on your website template, but for pure design and customization, WordPress is unrivalled. You can edit just about anything to your exact liking with advanced coding, and have an array of both free and premium themes to choose from.

Apps and Plugins: Who Has The Best Extras?

Plugins and apps both do the same thing: they let Wix and WordPress users add extra functionality beyond the basics to their websites. 

Common add-ons include functions – like adding Facebook or Twitter feeds to a website – or the reverse, like adding a Store section to a Facebook page. Other apps and plugins might help a website owner track their SEO or offer a contact form to let their audience email them with ease.

WordPress is an open-source platform. This means that its codes are open to everybody to use and modify. Any programmer or coder can use WordPress to create their own themes or plugins for others to purchase or download for free.

This is one of the main reasons why the WordPress community has expanded to more than 75 million websites (with most recent stats saying it now powers around 30% of all websites on the internet).  As more people and businesses build websites, WordPress is expected to continue growing.

There are over 55,000+ WordPress plugins, which have been downloaded more than 1.2 billion times, giving you an idea of how extensive the WordPress community really is.

WordPress plugins

The fact that WordPress is so large is also a potential problem, though. As you can imagine, anyone with a little bit of coding knowledge can build a theme or plugin for WordPress – which carries its own set of risks.

The quality of these tools could be excellent, or they could be junk.

So from this perspective, while WordPress gives you tons of flexibility with tools, a lot of them are mediocre. This is not to say there aren’t any good WordPress plugins available – in fact, there are lots – but you will need to sift through a lot of them to see which ones stand up.

Wix is not an open-source platform. This means that only its private development team can produce website-building tools. As a result, Wix’s tools are fully integrated into the website builder, and have a much lower chance of being “buggy”.

Wix is also expanding its Apps Market, so you can add a lot more functions to a Wix website. These Apps are fully integrated, so you don’t have to worry about installation – see our full Wix App Market review here.

If you experience technical issues with Wix’s tools, Wix will fix them for you.

Wix vs WordPress: Apps and Plugins – Verdict

Wix offers better security on its apps than WordPress. With Wix, everything is tested and controlled by a private development team to ensure quality, and it also has good, centralized support functions. In contrast, the main concern with WordPress is that a lot of its tools and plugins may not be built by skilled developers and contain malicious code.

E-commerce: What’s Better For Selling Online?

The major difference to cover here when deciding on WordPress or Wix is that Wix has e-commerce built-in. You’ll have to sign up for one of Wix’s dedicated eCommerce plans, but from there, everything you need to sell online is ready and waiting for you.

wix vs wrodpress: wix store

With WordPress, you’ll need to install an eCommerce plugin in order to sell online. WooCommerce is the most popular option: it’s free to install, but there are some additional costs involved, such as transaction fees. Other plugins in the category include BigCommerce and Shopify, as well as specific eCommerce plugins like the subscription-focused MemberPress or the digital download plugin Easy Digital Downloads.

Wix’s eCommerce features are relatively advanced but don’t compare to pure eCommerce platforms like Shopify. Wix eCommerce is really for people who want a website that’s capable of selling the odd product here and there. It’s not recommended for full-blown online stores.

WooCommerce is far more advanced. That said, it’s another cost you need to keep track of, and will again require some technical knowledge to set up. WordPress with WooCommerce is better if you need a website just to sell online, although you may find it easier to use an eCommerce platform if that’s your goal.

Wix vs WordPress: Ecommerce – Verdict

WordPress is better for eCommerce than Wix! If you don’t mind the additional cost and higher technical demands of an ecommerce plugin, then WordPress is the way to go for its power and scalability. However, Wix’s built-in ecommerce functions are great for smaller stores.

Blogging: Which Is Best For Blog Posts?

Some websites work like brochures: they host nothing but a handful of unchanging web pages, from the ‘About’ page to a ‘Contact Us’ page. But a blog is different. Any website that regularly features new installments in a series of posts comes with its own features.

Both Wix and WordPress offer comprehensive support for a blog. Here’s what that looks like for each service.

Wix offers the most basic blogging features: it supports articles, includes categories and tagging, and has an archive of free media like images, videos, and GIFs.

A “Wix Blog” app lets you add contributing authors and lets you blog directly from a mobile device.

However, Wix doesn’t include a great commenting functionality: you’ll likely need to use Facebook comments, which don’t look as clean and might even attract spammers. In contrast, WordPress comes with a native commenting section available only to people with WordPress accounts.

WordPress, which has its roots in blogging, offers almost all the same blogging features as Wix, and adds a few more – including the option to feature a single image across the top of a blog post, and the ability to backdate a post or put it in a private mode that makes it invisible to your readers.

But WordPress is missing one big perk that Wix offers: it doesn’t have a free library of media ready to drop into a post. Instead, WordPress bloggers will need to locate their own free and copyright-free images online at sites like Pexels or Pixabay.

Wix vs WordPress: Blogging – Verdict

WordPress is a better choice for blogging than Wix. Features like native commenting, private posts, and featured images make WordPress the better blogging option of the two.

SEO: Is One More Optimized Than The Other?

Before we dig into which platform is better in this area, let’s take a step back and understand what SEO actually is.

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is the process of making changes to your site to improve its chances of ranking highly on search engine results pages.

There are many tweaks you can make to improve your website’s SEO, and all of these are factored into search engines, like Google and Bing, when they create ranking algorithms.

WordPress and Wix actually have something in common when it comes to SEO – both rely on apps or plugins.

On WordPress, you need to install a plugin called Yoast. Yoast is the number one SEO plugin for WordPress and is used by over 5 million websites. It offers both free and premium services, although the free option is very limited.

WordPress Yoast
Yoast is the number one WordPress SEO plugin.

Yoast premium costs $69 to use for one WordPress website and comes with great SEO features like:

  • Editing metadata – Changing the text that appears on search result pages.
  • Internal linking suggestions – Guidance on the best pages to link to on your website when creating a new web page.
  • Redirects – Automatically redirect someone to a new URL when you change the slug on an existing page.

Wix also has a bunch of dedicated SEO apps, the most popular of which is Site Booster. Site Booster is free if you’re signed up to Wix’s Unlimited plan or higher, but will cost Free and Combo plan users $3.44/month.

Wix Site Booster
Site Booster comes as a free add-on for Wix’s users on the Unlimited plan or higher.

Site Booster also has tons of cool SEO features, such as embedding your company address in search results, targeting keywords, and performance tracking. You can read more about Wix’s full SEO capabilities in our dedicated Wix SEO review.

Wix vs WordPress: SEO – Verdict

Wix and WordPress both offer solid SEO. Both Wix and WordPress have basic, built-in SEO tools, and both offer apps or plugins that give you access to more advanced SEO features. We’d say Yoast is slightly better, although Site Booster is included in the cost of most Wix plans at no additional charge.

Maintenance: How Much Maintenance Is Required?

From a maintenance perspective, WordPress is always updating itself to improve security and fix bugs. When this happens (a few times a year), you’ll also need to update your WordPress website.

Some web hosting providers will carry out any needed updates for you so you don’t have to. For example, daily automatic updates of your WordPress website come as standard on Bluehost’s WordPress plans. In addition, most larger, more reputable theme and plugin developers will update their products for you, but that’s not always the case.

WordPress updates

If the theme and plugins you use are not updated by the WordPress developer, you may risk these tools conflicting, and potentially hurting, the performance of your website.

WordPress plugin updates

For this reason, we’d recommend thoroughly vetting the WordPress themes and plugins you use. After all, you don’t want to be caught out.

With Wix, all updates are carried out by its technical team, and automatically deployed to your site – you don’t have to lift a finger (and you probably won’t even know the updates took place). This is a real benefit, especially if you are not technically savvy.

Wix is also constantly creating new templates and apps for you to use. The apps can be added to an existing website at any time, but it’s important to know you can’t switch your website’s templates without having to design the whole thing from scratch again.

Wix vs WordPress: Ongoing Maintenance – Verdict

Wix requires much less ongoing maintenance than WordPress! Honestly, neither WordPress nor Wix are perfect in this area, but Wix wins due to its automatic, in-house app and feature updates. With WordPress, you’ll have to keep an eye on any updates that the platform makes so that you can make sure your site is up-to-date with those changes.

Help and Support: Which Is Better For Additional Assistance?

WordPress has an enormous community of users and an overwhelming amount of tutorials to help you. Again, there’s plenty of great information out there, but separating the good from the bad isn’t always simple.

image 2

One option is to hire a skilled WordPress developer to help you set up, configure, or modify your website – but this can quickly get expensive. However, some hosts, such as Bluehost, give you 24/7 access to their in-house WordPress experts when you sign up for one of their plans.

If you’re comfortable learning on your own, WordPress’ online guides can walk you through common problems. The searchable guides are split into topics from “Getting Started” to “Security,” making the right article a little easier to find.

Community forums are also available for anyone using WordPress to discuss their troubles with more experienced WordPress users. But the WordPress user base is simply too large for the service to have a valuable dedicated support team.

Wix has a dedicated support team to help its users troubleshoot. It’s also created a lot of helpful articles and videos, and forums to support you in building your website.  Wix also offers email and scheduled phone support as well.

Wix help
Wix’s help center is clear and concise, and you can also receive help via phone or email.

Wix’s support team will save you precious time – since everything used in its website builder is built by Wix itself, the chances of your website running into serious issues will be minimal.

Wix vs WordPress: Help and Support – Verdict

Wix provides a lot more help and support than WordPress. Powerful as WordPress is, it’s more difficult to find relevant, worthwhile help. On the other hand with Wix, you can always get good help by reaching out to its dedicated support team. Support is also available through a variety of services, including phone, email, and a help center.

Pricing and Ongoing Commitments: Where Is The Value For Money?

The amount of money you want to invest in your website is an important consideration, and this can vary wildly, depending on if you use Wix or WordPress.

Wix offers seven premium pricing plans and one free plan. As you move up the packages, you get access to more features.

If you sign up for an annual plan, you can save between 17% and 24% per year, depending on which package you select:

Wix Pricing PlansMonthly ($/month)1-Year ($/month)Savings (%)
Combo$17$1323%
Unlimited$22$1722%
Pro$27$2218%
eCommerce*$28$2317%
VIP$47$3917%

* This price reflects the Business Basic plan, which is the cheapest of the three eCommerce premium plans.

For the Combo, Unlimited, Pro, eCommerce, and VIP plans, Wix gives you a one-year free domain name (valued at $10 – $12) and $300 in advertisement vouchers (Google Adwords and Facebook Ads). So if you use the vouchers, you can make your annual fee back very quickly.

With WordPress, you’ll need to get your own hosting service (we highly recommend Bluehost) for around $4/month. You’ll also likely need to purchase a theme since WordPress doesn’t come with attractive free templates.

A pre-made WordPress theme costs around $25 – $299, depending on how reputable the theme developer is (general rule of thumb: the higher the price, the more reliable it is).

If you want to add more functionality to your WordPress site (such as fancy slideshows, widgets, etc), you can install some free or paid plugins, which may cost around $15 – $70 per plugin. Again, this will depend on the reputation of the developer.

Plus, you’ll need to purchase your own custom domain name when using WordPress, which costs about $10 – $12 per year. You can search for and buy a domain from well-known domain registrars such as Domain.com.

This means the initial investment for a WordPress website could range from $140 to $200, or higher, depending on how many paid plugins you pick up.

This doesn’t factor in the cost of hiring a WordPress developer if you want to make customizations to your site.

Wix vs WordPress: Pricing and Ongoing Commitments – Verdict

Wix’s prices are cheaper and easier to budget for than WordPress’ pricing.  While Wix charges a set monthly price, WordPress can vary drastically. WordPress will almost always cost more than Wix when factoring in all the extra costs, such as hosting, plugins, and a domain name.

Wix vs WordPress: Conclusion and Recommendation

You should now have a strong idea of what Wix and WordPress are, and how they work. We’ve covered the main differences between the two platforms, and you should now have an idea of which one is better suited to your needs.

Wix is an easy-to-use, all-in-one website builder designed to help anyone create a stunning website. Meanwhile, WordPress is a powerful, flexible platform that gives you ultimate control over your site, from design to security. Wix is best for beginners, while WordPress is more technically challenging.

WordPress is ideal for creating complex sites but takes longer to get to grips with. On the other hand, Wix is much easier to use but doesn’t have the same level of flexibility that WordPress offers. Still, this means Wix is better if you need an attractive site to live quickly.

As a recap, here’s a summary table of our comparison above, along with some final thoughts below:

Wix vs WordPressWixWordPress
Ease of UseWinner: WixA very user-friendly drag-and-drop website builder. You don’t need to know how to code, as Wix is catered to non-technical users.Steep learning curve (not beginner friendly). It’s best if you know how to code and you are technically savvy. If not, you might need to hire someone who is.
Design and CustomizationWinner: WordPressOver 500 professionally designed templates for you to work off, but you can’t switch templates without redesigning your site.Almost limitless control over your site’s aesthetic (if you have advanced coding knowledge). Remember we recommend you use WordPress themes built by the platform itself.
Apps and PluginsWinner: WixLimited customization, but all the features and functions are closely controlled, monitored, and tested to ensure they work properly.Very flexible and customizable, but could be problematic if your custom tools or plugins break down.
EcommerceWinner: WordPressBuilt-in sales features in any of its eCommerce plans. Perfect for selling a few products.Must install a plugin like WooCommerce to create an online store. Better for pure eCommerce sites, or for selling in bulk.
BloggingWinner: WordPressSupports categories, tagging, mobile blogging, and contributing authors. Includes a free media library.Also supports categories and tagging, along with featured images, post backdating, and private posts.
SEO: It’s a tie!Basic SEO functionality, with advanced features included via Site Booster on the Unlimited plan or higher.Basic SEO tools, with Yoast plugin providing advanced features at a premium cost of $69 for one website.
Ongoing MaintenanceWinner: WixSince Wix doesn’t open its platform to external developers, it controls all aspects of the platform – meaning it manages all the updates and maintenance work for you.Requires frequent maintenance and monitoring, especially if there are updates to the platform, theme, or plugins. You are responsible for maintaining your website.
Help and SupportWinner: WixDedicated support team with organized tutorials. You can also get help via phone or email.Large community forum full of discussions, but not well organized. Getting a timely response is also inconsistent.
Pricing and Ongoing CommitmentsWinner: Wix7 premium plans, ranging from $13 per month to $49 per month (based on annual plans). You can also use Wix for free, but it has certain limitations.Could range from $200 – $15,000, depending on various factors (hosting, themes, plugins, hiring help, etc.)

Wix vs WordPress is a very personal choice – WordPress is more powerful and flexible, but it also takes time to sort through all the tutorials and plugins to find the right tools.

Wix, meanwhile, manages all its own updates and support. Despite not being as flexible as WordPress, Wix makes the whole website-building experience easier, and much more pleasant – especially for non-techies.

You Should Use Wix If…

Wix is right for you if you don’t have a lot of technical experience in creating websites, and want an easy-to-use platform with no coding required. If you don’t use Wix’s free plan – which comes with tacky advertisements – it will cost you between $13/month and $49/month.

You Should Use WordPress If…

WordPress is right if you’re a little more tech-savvy, and want power and flexibility. Be mindful – some coding knowledge is needed, and you’ll have to maintain your website when WordPress updates. Costs vary, but generally, you’ll be looking at around a $200 setup fee with ongoing monthly costs in place after that.

Just be aware that time and resources are the key considerations here:

  • Wix – less maintenance and lower cost in the long term
  • WordPress powered by Bluehost – more flexibility, but more maintenance, steeper learning curve, and costs more in the long run

In conclusion, if you are a one-person team or don’t have dedicated technical resources to help you build, maintain or troubleshoot a website, we recommend using Wix.

If you’re still unsure, try signing up for a free trial and taking Wix for a test drive.

We hope that this discussion about the difference between Wix and WordPress has been helpful to you! If have any other questions – that aren’t answered in our FAQs – drop us a comment and we’ll get back to you.

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