Wix vs. WordPress: Differences

Facing Wix with WordPress is an interesting "fight". In both cases, its tools are flexible and powerful, and can bring almost any website to life.

On the one hand, the popularity of Wix has grown in recent times, conquering many clients and media around the world. On the other hand, WordPress is the number 1 CMS with its 15 years of development and 60,000,000 sites in the world.

But they are different. And, before you start your site, it is better that you know its peculiarities.

Important note: when we mention WordPress we refer to the CMS that you can install in any hosting and not to the blogging service on WordPress.com

Tell me about Wix…

wix is a site builder: the accent of this service is on simplicity, on the mechanics of dragging and dropping objects to be able to modify templates and design new settings. This software comes with its own hosting service, which is always a double-edged sword. Most of their apps are free, but any premium app (true professional) is paid monthly.

and wordpress?

WordPress is a cms, that is to say a Content Management System o Content Management System. It is free software, installable on a server. It's open source (you can change things in its core, if you know how). It has no limits to scale and become a titanic megasite with varied content, but you better know a little more about websites compared to Wix's simpler service.

Fundamental differences

Wix is a comprehensive solution, hosting included, to design your site if you don't know how to do it, if you don't program a single line, and if you want to do it fast. everything is prefabricated. Not in WordPress, with the advantage that it is a much more versatile and powerful tool. WordPress does not limit you; on the contrary, it gives you complete control over your site and infinite flexibility.

Comparison table

One of the big differences is that, to install a WordPress, you must hire a hosting service, while with Wix the hosting service is included.

That the hosting service is included in Wix can be convenient in many contexts, but the truth is that we are losing flexibility along the way.

With WordPress and an optimized hosting service, you will be an administrator with absolute control of all aspects of your site, both aesthetic and technical. You will be able to make modifications without any limitation if you get the hang of it or if you have a hosting company like Duplika and its specific support for WordPress.
With Wix, your possibilities for action are limited to what this service allows, Without exceptions. When you want to scale, incorporate something specific and necessary for your site or add features that require a particular programming, you will realize that this is not allowed or can be achieved by paying... But even paying the offer is limited and, again , you will find yourself “prisoner” of what Wix allows and the way in which it allows.

Choosing between Wix and WordPress is choosing between simplicity or complete freedom.

But be warned, just because Wix is so much easier to use doesn't mean WordPress is a hassle or makes things difficult. No way. Just admit that the learning curve is more immediate in Wix, but more productive in WordPress, especially in the medium and long term.

Wix: “what you see is what you get”

Wix works like this: drag and drop. There is no more science than that, nor does it hide secrets or tricks anywhere. Drop photos, shopping carts, slideshows, reorder, resize, and do it all with mouse gestures.

WordPress requires you to update the changes made to see them online (well, it's done with a button, anyway). It has a more “director” approach, but not because this system “plays hard”, but simply because the projects you can carry out are as complex and enormous as your imagination reaches.

Nevertheless, WordPress will need you to take care of getting your domain Y hire hosting on your own, something that Wix and its all-in-one package pays for.

(If for some reason WordPress excites you but buying a domain or installing WP in your contracted hosting is an obstacle, do not hesitate to write to us at [email protected] because we are going to make your WordPress project the easiest thing in the world).

But I want to design!

If you are creative, curious, meticulous; If you like to play with colors and shapes, try and modify at will and customize every detail, WordPress is waiting for you.

WordPress is the best friend of entrepreneurs who like to learn, because your effort will be richly rewarded. Their free templates are useful on their own, but the paid ones cover anything you have in mind, from a restaurant page to an online art gallery. WordPress has much more variety and professionalism in the templates that exist for it, and, in addition, you can modify at will according to your creativity and whims.

In this sense, Wix is more “structured”. Do not expect to have the boat with the exact cut sails you wanted, the exact meters of length, the colors, the shape of the hull or the carpentry with the wood of your dreams, but you will have an excellent sailboat.

With WordPress, you will be able to achieve exactly the “boat” of your dreams. WordPress is fit for hackers.

Can't design with Wix?

Wix allows fine manipulation only if you know or dare to modify your template code, which in the case of Wix it is not recommended.

Let's remember: the Wix user is expected to manipulate objects by dragging and dropping. It is not the ideal service for finicky people, artists or people who want to open the hood of the car to see what is inside.

But…

The good news at Wix is that there is a “smart assistant” that, based on questions (and your answers) will point you in the right direction so that your site resembles the image of it that exists in your mind. This kind of tutorial will understand your site based on the information it gets from you. His name is Wix ADI.

Wix ADI is the effort on the part of this service so that any individual, well removed from graphic/web design, can obtain a site that meets their requirements or needs.

Applications and components: which of the two has the more generous offer?

Plugins and apps are born to complete specific functionalities on our site. For example, a professional purchase form is solved with a plugin, as is adding a calculator that, for example, provides the cost of installing a floor based on square meters. Another example: something very important in any website, be it WordPress or Wix, is to have an SEO plugin.

Both WordPress and Wix have a repertoire of additional apps and components.

The great advantage of WordPress is that, as its programming is open source, anyone who knows can create plugins and components without restrictions. And not only that: they can also be modified to taste. The result is that countless individuals and companies offer their creations for WordPress, the vast majority for free.

As you might imagine, this freedom that WordPress has made it part of more than 75 million websites (a third of the world's sites use WordPress today).

In such an immense context, there are almost 60,000 WordPress plugins with an average download of 1.2 billion times. Did you want to think big? There you have a good example.

Since Wix is a service that is provided online and within a private platform, No it is (and could not be) an open source platform.

In other words, the tools it provides as extras or additional components are produced by its developer team. As a result, Wix tools are fully integrated into the website builder, with the only advantage that they are 100% compatible with each other (In WordPress, a sum of components that "get bad with each other" could cause a conflict).

Wix's catalog of components and plugins, compared to WordPress, is almost non-existent. But either way, Wix is expected to accompany its growth with more offerings and possibilities in the not too distant future. And since these are fully integrated applications, you never have to worry about installing them; they will simply appear in the interface as floating elements to add or as offers in the Wix App Market.

On the other hand, the plugins and components in Wix are backed by technical support from Wix itself. In WordPress, components and plugins are supported by their independent developers.

I want to sell online: which is better, Wix or WordPress?

In WordPress, a third-party plugin is required to set up a store and sell online, but here it is impossible not to mention WooCommerce, the number 1 component of e-shops in the world.

WooCommerce is free and, again, an option Open Source; however, there are extensions (additional features) that are paid, but everything will depend on your specific requirements.

If you are interested in knowing more about this tremendous free component, be sure to read our woocommerce quick guide.

Other plugins to set up stores are BigCommerce and Shopify.

Wix's e-shop features fall short of its more specialized competitors...

While Wix does a pretty decent job of providing you with tools to sell online, it really can't compare to WooCommerce or Shopify. For casual sales, or when the main purpose of your site is not to sell, Wix is a good option. But if your store is of outright importance or you don't want to be limited, Wix is no longer a recommended option.

The WooCommerce plugin is incredibly more powerful. Again, it may take longer to set up than when using alternative systems, but the rewards for learning how to use it, and the benefits you'll gain, are unmatched.

My idea is to make a blog, write notes of interest, news, analysis or comparisons...

Clearly, both Wix and WordPress cover this aspect, but Wix does it in a basic way. Why? Because WordPress covers aspects that Wix leaves out.

Both will allow you to write notes, place photos, labels and create categories to publish. But an important aspect of the notes is the feedback, that is, the comments and questions that people interested in your content can ask. Wix lacks this possibility, while WordPress comes with a whole system built in, both to support comments by default as well as to be able to edit them, ban them, reply to them, delete them, sort them and anything you can think of.

If your blog will be on Wix, you will need to use a third-party service, such as Facebook or Disqus, in order to support comments on your site. And honestly, they don't look that good.

One advantage of Wix (although whether or not it's really an advantage is up for debate), is that it offers you a media library copyright for you to decorate your contents. Example: a handful of photos of dogs, flowers, houses, horizons, skies, and so on. WordPress does not offer this type of service because in general content creators obtain their own photos, or use those of others mentioning their author. There's not much science to it, but as we always say, Wix makes it easy for you when speed or accuracy isn't a priority.

Again, we affirm that if we want our blog to have no limits, and have a more professional appearance, WordPress has a great advantage since it was originally created for that.

SEO: what happens when optimizing my search results?

Here's a lucky draw– Both Wix and WordPress rely on third-party components to manage goals and optimize content for SEO.

SEO is the technique to increase the chances that our content will appear as “high” as possible in Google/Bing results.

One of the most used components in WordPress is Yoast; He was one of the first though. SeoPress recently appeared as an alternative equal to or better (we have analyzed several tools related to SEO here).

Wix has several third-party tools dedicated to SEO, and one of the most used is Site Booster.

As we mentioned, the SEO components for both WordPress and Wix perform the same functions in order to facilitate communication between internet search engines and the content of your site. What is certain is that you are going to have to resort to a third-party SEO plugin for both Wix and WordPress.

Updates

WordPress is a CMS; it is operating software, and is governed by the rules of any management system: every few months there are updates significant ones that increase its security, its speed and its functionalities. When your site is built on WordPress, you are eagerly awaiting the next update, knowing that your site will run better.: faster, safer and more aesthetic.

Depending on your hosting service, however, you may need to update WordPress manually. At Duplika, however, the service wordpress-hosting that we offer will update your entire site as soon as improvements are made, and in a matter of seconds. This is what Wix does, in fact: all enhancements are applied automatically without you having to lift a finger. In conclusion, having your own WordPress hosting from a company like Duplika, Wix and WP will update themselves without any action.

Last conclusions

Wix is the comprehensive solution for immediate sites, with modifiable prefabricated templates and a repertoire of extras, mostly paid, to solve features that do not come from the factory. It has an integrated solution for ecommerce and blog, but, like WordPress, it lacks a native SEO tool. Wix is suitable when the priority is not personalized, original design, nor is a large eshop intended.

If you want something exclusive, without borders, scalable, versatile, released so that it can be modified even in the most intimate aspects, WordPress is the option. The thousands of plugins to add functionality are mostly free, and everything that goes through WordPress is open source. Although for someone far from the cyber world WordPress could be challenging, the truth is that the community (forums, specialized sites) is full of people willing to help. When you have a question about WordPress and you type it into Google, in 99% cases you will arrive at an answer (or thousands) within a forum because someone has already asked it before.

Youtube is full of guides, and blogs too (including us).

When a Wix site grows a lot, the truth is that it ends up moving to WordPress.

If you still have doubts about what is best for your case, write to us at [email protected]

We are here to advise you.

Success in your endeavors, and thanks for reading.