Wix and WordPress are both very popular these days, a lot of customers come to us and have the same question, Wix or WordPress, which one should they choose?
Apparently, Wix has been running a lot of commercials through different channels, and that caught our customers’ eyes.
In this article, I will compare them in 8 categories
- Cost
- Template options
- Scalability
- Ecommerce
- Data portability
- Process speed
- SEO
- Easy to use
Let’s see how they are doing in each of these categories.
1. Cost
In this case, if you are a developer, like me, you should absolutely choose WordPress. The reason is, WordPress is open source and free.
Although, to run your website on a server could cost some money. Below is an example for 1and1 server.
If you do want to setup your own server, I recommend 1and1, they’re price is only $1/month for the first year, even after that it’s not gonna cost you a lot, also you can setup your business email with your own domain for free on 1and1, which on Godaddy it’s $6.99/monther extra.
If you wonder about why you need an enterprise email? We have another topic covers that.
Now let’s take a look at how much Wix cost
It definitely cost more money if you are building our own website. On the other hand, if you want to hire someone, it could be cheaper in the short term.
In conclusion, if you want your website keep running for more than 2 years, you should choose WordPress. If it’s a short term thing, you should go with Wix.
2. Template options
Wix:
Wix has more than 400 pre-made templates to choose from. All written in HTML5 and all responsive. You can do some configuration with these template.
All templates are divided into categories and you can choose from the one close to your business.
However, once you selected your template you can never change to a different one again.
WordPress:
Thousands of templates you can choose from, some are free some are paid. Too many of them that I can’t even give you a number for that.
A disadvantage is some of these template may look nice, but you have to test it on different device and see if they are always responsive, cause sometimes they are not.
The good thing is, you can always change to a different template if you want. You can even hire someone to customize or develop a template if you want.
3. Scalability
Plugins and Apps are what’s really gonna make them different.
Wix:
Has over 200 apps you can choose from. You can search them through different categories. 200+ is not even close to a big number.
Some of these apps are free, most of them have a premium version that require fees.
They are easy to install and you don’t have to worry about compatibility, in fact there should be no compatible issue at all.
WordPress：
I did some research, and I find different numbers on how many plugins does WordPress has. There are too many people can count.
Base on my experience, every time I need some new function for a WordPress website, someone already build the plugin and ready install.
The one issue is, you have to update your WordPress plugin whenever there is a new release. If you forgot to do that for a long time(usually one year), loop holes can be used by hackers to attack your website.
Conclution
If you have a plan for your business and that plan involves new functional requirements for your website or other online platform that connect to your website. You should choose WordPress.
4. Ecommerce
Wix:
Wix offers eCommerce plans, but it cost a little more and the payment methods are limited. By the time this article is written wix support Stripe, Square, Paypal, Moolah, MercadoPago, PagSeguro, LeumiCard
Also you have to think about shipping, Wix provide EMS as shipping solution.
WordPress:
WordPress offers WooCommerce for you to build up your online store and it’s free.
With over 50 different payment method already build in and a lot more plugins you can install, you can work with any payment methods with any currency you want.
For shipping, all major shipping companies has plugins for WordPress, and a lot plugins for people who want to provide shipping service by themself.
Conclusion
If you want to sale through online, go with WordPress
5. Data portability
Wix:
Wix provide vert limited options to move your content to another platform. You can export your blog post in XML format, and that’s it.
In other words, if you are not a developer and you decide to move your website to a different platform, get ready to say goodbye to your content or get ready to say goodbye to your money and time.
WordPress:
It’s very easy to deal with WordPress, since it’s open source and you have fully control over it. You can export it whenever you want and however you want. There are even plugins to help you export your data and move to a different platform.
6. Process speed
Some of our customers came to us and ask if we can help them with their website, it’s every slow. The answer is if you are using Wix, no.
Nothing against Wix, Wix is easy to use, all functions are build in, and has a lot of advantage in many ways. Compare Wix with WordPress is like compare iPhone with android phone. It’s simpler to use but it just don’t grand you the freedom to modify it. For an iPhone when it’s slow, there’s not much thing you can do other than delete some data from your phone or get a new phone, for an android phone you can install a different version of android that runs smoothly on your phone. Same thing with Wix and WordPress. On wix if you feel your website is loading slow the only thing you can do it to delete some content, for wordpress you can analyse your website and make it faster or you can even move your entire website to a faster server.
Conclusion:
With wix, if your website is slow, there’s not too much thing you can do about. For WordPress, since you can total control over the server and the website, there are so many ways for you to adjust your website.
7. SEO
When a search engine find your website, search engine only read your website’s code.
Since Wix don’t need you to do any coding, you also don’t get to modify the code of your website. Therefor, SEO on Wix is every hard to do.
On the other hand, WordPress it self is designed to be search engine friendly, and there are a lot of SEO plugins you can use to increase your rank on search engines such as Google and Bing.
8. Easy to use
For this part there is no doubt that Wix is easier to use. For me as a developer it took me about a month to learn how to use WordPress, but Wix is so easy to use it only takes about 10 mins to pick up.
Although, the reason for that is Wix doesn’t have that much function to learn.
Conclusion
WordPress and Wix are both good platforms, they are focusing on different area.
Who should choose Wix over WordPress:
- Want to get a website done fast.
- Don’t want to update your website very often.
- Won’t have too many content on the website.
- Temporary website.
Who should choose WordPress over Wix:
- Have a business plan that related to your website
- Plan to to marketing through online
- Want to sale through online
- Planning to keep the website for a long time
- Plan to post lots of articles and portfolio