Both Wix and WordPress are two most popular options in building websites nowadays. They are both great platforms aiming to provide an easier time to build a website, but both have different approaches with each other, as we will discuss below.
WordPress VS Wix: What Are The Main Differences?
WordPress and Wix both have similar core functionality: a website builder that anyone can use. However, their approaches are the complete opposite from each other.
To summarize, here are the main differences to consider:
1.Ease Of Use:
With Wix, no coding knowledge is required at all, as Wix uses a fully visual builder where you can design everything with just drag and drop. On the other hand, although WordPress is still relatively easy to use, you will need to know at least the basics of CSS and HTML.
Both WordPress and Wix offers a huge library of templates or themes for various usage. However, learning to work with WordPress themes and various plugins is relatively harder than Wix.
Part of why Wix is easier to use is the visual builder itself, you can see everything and edit everything in real time with just a drag and drop approach. With WordPress, you have to hit the “preview” button or publish the page before you can see the changes you’ve made.
Winner: Wix wins in this department with its easy to use visual builder. However, this will directly correlate to versatility and depth of customization, which we will discuss further below.
2. Customer Support
Another core difference is the fact that WordPress is an open-source platform while WIX is a full-service SaaS. Meaning, with WIX you have access to a very responsive and fast customer service if you are a paid subscriber. On the other hand, WordPress is free, but there is no dedicated customer support. However, WordPress has a huge community with great support forums and plenty of resources (blogs, YouTube videos, etc.). You can still get the required information and the answer to most questions with WordPress, but it would require more effort.
Winner: Wix wins on the surface, but WordPress offers more resources and community (because more people are using WordPress. A tie, depending on your preference.
3. Versatility
While WIx is very easy to use with the visual builder and and no coding required, it will also mean less versatility, since you can’t edit the CSS and HTML of the templates.
On the other hand, with WordPress you have the absolute freedom to edit everything. If you are willing to spend time and effort, you can customize a WordPress site to suit your exact needs with virtually limitless versatility.
Also, WordPress offers thousands of plugins to enhance your site both in functionality and aesthetics. Some of them are free.Wix does offer “applications” (its version of plugins), but they are fairly limited compared to WordPress’ —at least at the moment—, and you would need to pay additional monthly fees.
Winner: WordPress. In fact, WordPress arguably offers the most freedom and versatility compared to other website builders available today. If you have the coding and design knowledge—and time—, you can develop any kinds of site with WordPress.
4. Overall Costs (Setup and Maintenance)
At first glance, the difference in cost between Wix and WordPress is fairly simple: WordPress as an open-source platform is totally free. On the other hand, Wix offers a free plan with 100 templates and 500MB storage, but to get more storage and analytics report you would need to pay a monthly fee starting from $4.5/month.
However, it is worth noting that with Wix, you will get a domain name and hosting service even with the free version, while with WordPress, you would need to pay for them separately. Yet, getting a hosting service with domain name is fairly affordable. Bluehost, for example, starts from just $2.95/month.
Depending on your particular needs, for example, if you need a dedicated server, the cost of website maintenance with WordPress can greatly vary. In general, you get more versatility in cost with WordPress.
Winner: WordPress, which can be totally free, and you can adjust your spending according to your exact needs rather than committing to a monthly package.
5.E-Commerce Support
Ecommerce are growing bigger than ever, and while both Wix and WordPress offers the ability to build e-commerce sites, their approaches are quite different from each other.
With WIx, you will need to first subscribe to its Business and Ecommerce plans, starting from $17/month. You’ll get access to e-commerce templates and other e-commerce features like payment gateway integration, database, and reporting.
With WordPress, the e-commerce features are not built-in, but you will need to install additional themes and plugins. However, some of them—like the popular WooCommerce, are totally free.
In general, this is again the question of ease of use vs versatility: Wix’s ecommerce plans are easier to use with responsive customer service and useful templates, but you’ll get more freedom and depth with WordPress’ ecommerce plugins.
Winner: Another tie, Wix offers more simplicity and ease of use if you are willing to spend the extra monthly fees, but WordPress offers more versatility (and affordability).
6. Plugins and Applications
Technically, plugins (for WordPress) and Applications (for Wix) are part of the versatility department we have discussed above. In general, since WordPress is an open-source platform, any programmer can develop a WordPress plugin, so we have more options and versatility. To date, there are over 55,000 WordPress plugins compared to ‘only’ 250 Apps for Wix.
However, every single one of Wix’s Applications are natively integrated to the website builder and each has gone through strict quality control. Meaning, they are generally more secure and reliable.
With WordPress, you always have the chance of running to buggy or even malicious plugins.
Winner: Wix for ease of use, security, and reliability. However, you have (a lot) more options with WordPress. It’s a matter of quality vs quantity.
7. Blogging Features
Not all websites are designed for blogging purposes. With blogging, we will need a reliable way to upload content regularly along with other features like analytics and comment management.
Both WordPress and Wix offers blogging features. WordPress was initially a blogging platform, so it does offer basic and advanced blogging features, some of them are not available on Wix like the ability to private a post, backdate publishing, better comment management features, and so on.
Wix, on the other hand, offers rather basic blogging features, but it does offer a copyright-free library of media that you can directly use. On WordPress, you will need to look for your own media and check for the copyright.
Winner: WordPress offers more features and versatility, but again Wix is relatively easier to use.
8. Maintenance
Both WordPress and Wix update themselves frequently to add more features, fix bugs, and improve site security.
However, with Wix, everything is handled by its technical time and will automatically patch your site. On the other hand, with WordPress, you will need to update your site by yourself, which can lead to various issues (i.e. conflicting updates between two plugins).
With WordPress, you’ll need more technical knowledge and you’ll need to choose plugins and themes carefully.
Winner: Wix. Although it’s not perfect (there can be buggy updated, etc.), everything is automatic with Wix and won’t require any technical knowledge.
TL;DR: Summary
Above, we have discussed all the main differences between Wix and WordPress, and the winners between each aspect.
Here is the summary between all the differences:
| Difference | Wix | WordPress |
| Ease of Use | Very user-friendly with a drag-and-drop visual builder. | More complex, will require at least basic programming knowledge. |
| Customer Support | Dedicated technical support, built-in guides and tutorials | No dedicated customer support, but very large community forum and a lot of tutorial resources. |
| Versatility | You can’t edit the coding aspect, so less versatility in customizations. | If you have the technical and design skills requirements, you have the absolute freedom to create anything. |
| Overall Costs | You can use Wix for free, with limited features. Premium plans range from $4.5/month to $35/month | Initially free, but you’ll need to invest on hosting services, premium themes, plugins, etc. You might also need to hire professional help to help build your WordPress site. |
| E-Commerce Support | Easier to build an e-commerce site, but you will need to pay extra fees monthly (ecommerce plans starts from $17/month) | Many ecommerce plugins to choose from with varying price ranges. Will require more technical knowledge but will provide more freedom. |
| Plugins and Applications | Less choice, but all are stable and reliable | More options, but some are unstable and low-quality |
| Blogging | Basic blogging features, but easier to use | More features dedicated for blogging, but will require a bit of learning |
| Maintenance | Everything is automated, included in your monthly subscription | Might require manual update and will need some technical proficiency |
Conclusion
If you know your programming skills, WordPress is almost always the better choice, offering more flexibility in customization, functionality, and budget. Wix, however, is a great platform if you want simplicity and ease of use or if you don’t have any programming knowledge.
