Choosing the right platform for your website can be overwhelming, especially with so many options available. Two of the most popular website builders are WordPress and Wix. While both platforms have their strengths, WordPress often stands out as the superior choice for serious website owners, businesses, and developers. In this post, we’ll explore the reasons why WordPress offers more flexibility, scalability, and control compared to Wix.
WordPress Provides Better Ownership and Control Than Wix
WordPress is an open-source platform, meaning you have full control over your website’s content, structure, and design. Once you install WordPress, you own everything, and no third-party company can restrict your access or make significant changes without your consent. If you need to move your WordPress website from one hosting company to another, you have the ability to download your entire website’s files and move them. Wix, on the other hand, is a closed-source platform. With Wix, you are renting space on their servers, and while they allow customization, your control is limited to the features and tools Wix provides. You do not have access to a Wix website’s files and it cannot be migrated to another platform. Wix websites can only live on Wix’s servers.
Key Difference:
- WordPress: Full ownership and control over your website, hosting, and data.
- Wix: Limited control tied to Wix’s ecosystem, with fewer options for custom development.
WordPress Provides Better Customization and Flexibility Than Wix
WordPress offers unmatched flexibility when it comes to design and functionality. With thousands of themes and plugins, the possibilities for customization are nearly endless. Whether you want to create a simple blog, an online store, or a complex membership site, WordPress has the tools you need.
Wix, while user-friendly, offers limited customization options. Although it has a drag-and-drop builder, the designs are more restrictive. Wix templates, once chosen, are difficult to change without starting from scratch, and customization options beyond basic design elements require coding knowledge—at which point WordPress becomes the easier and more powerful option.
Key Difference:
- WordPress: Over 60,000 plugins and endless theme choices provide unmatched customization options.
- Wix: Pre-set templates and basic customization options, with fewer advanced tools.
WordPress Is More Superior In Regards To Scalability
WordPress excels in scalability, making it ideal for businesses that plan to grow. Since WordPress is self-hosted, you can start small and grow into a high-traffic website without changing platforms. It can handle everything from a personal blog to a multi-million visitor e-commerce store (check out the WooCommerce e-commerce platform). Whether you need a custom-coded solution or want to use advanced caching, there’s nothing you can’t do on WordPress.
Wix is more suited for smaller websites. If your website grows beyond a certain point or you need advanced features like custom eCommerce functionality, membership sites, or large-scale content management, Wix’s limitations will become apparent. Scaling on Wix often requires moving to another platform (like WordPress) to avoid performance issues or design constraints.
Key Difference:
- WordPress: Ideal for websites of all sizes, scalable to meet growing traffic and needs.
- Wix: Limited scalability, best suited for small websites or personal projects.
Wix’s SEO Capabilities Are Limited Compared to WordPress’s
Search engine optimization (SEO) is crucial for driving traffic to your site. WordPress offers a wide range of SEO plugins like Yoast SEO and Rank Math, which allow you to optimize everything from meta tags to sitemaps. Moreover, WordPress is inherently more SEO-friendly because it gives you full control over your site structure, URLs, and the way search engines crawl your site.
Wix has improved its SEO capabilities in recent years, but it still falls short compared to WordPress. Its automatic URL structures and lack of fine-grained control can hinder SEO performance. For users who are serious about search engine visibility and long-term organic traffic growth, WordPress is the better option.
Key Difference:
- WordPress: Advanced SEO tools and greater control over on-page optimization.
- Wix: Basic SEO tools, suitable for small-scale sites, but lacks advanced options.
WordPress is King When It Comes to Large Scale Content Management
WordPress was originally designed as a blogging platform, and it excels at content management. Whether you’re publishing articles, managing media files, or organizing pages, WordPress offers a user-friendly and robust content management system (CMS). You can easily manage thousands of pages and posts, making it ideal for both content-heavy sites and simple blogs.
Wix is less suited for large-scale content management. While it is fine for managing small blogs or websites with a few pages, Wix’s backend system can become cumbersome when dealing with a large number of pages or posts.
Key Difference:
- WordPress: Superior content management system for both large and small websites.
- Wix: Basic content management, best for smaller websites.
WordPress is Better for Large-scale e-Commerce Applications
If you’re planning to run an online store, WordPress with WooCommerce is a powerhouse combination. WooCommerce is the most popular e-commerce plugin for WordPress, powering over 20.1% of all online stores worldwide. It’s incredibly customizable, allowing you to add advanced functionality, integrate payment gateways, and manage product variations seamlessly.
Wix does offer e-commerce functionality through Wix Stores, but it’s more limited in terms of features and customization options. It’s suitable for smaller stores with a limited number of products, but for larger e-commerce sites or those requiring advanced features (like subscription services, international shipping, or custom checkout experiences), WordPress with WooCommerce is a far superior solution.
Key Difference:
- WordPress + WooCommerce: Highly customizable e-commerce platform that can handle complex online stores.
- Wix: Basic e-commerce options for small stores with limited functionality.
This infographic by Academy LMS.
WordPress Wins When It Comes to Cost Effectiveness
While both platforms have free versions, WordPress can be more cost-effective in the long run. With WordPress, your main costs are domain registration, hosting, and premium themes or plugins if needed (if you don’t want to pay for themes and plugins, there are tons of free options for themes and plugins in the WordPress repository). You can choose from a wide variety of hosting providers based on your budget and website needs.
Wix offers a free tier, but it comes with Wix ads and branded subdomains. To get a professional domain and remove Wix’s branding, you need to upgrade to a paid plan. Additionally, as your website grows, you may need to switch to more expensive plans to access additional features, making Wix potentially more costly as you scale.
Key Difference:
- WordPress: Flexible pricing with the ability to choose your hosting, themes, and plugins based on your budget.
- Wix: Free tier with limited features, escalating costs as you upgrade plans for more functionality.
Wix Lacks A Major Community and Support
WordPress has a vast community of developers, designers, and users who contribute to the platform’s continuous improvement. With such a large user base, finding solutions to problems, tutorials, and custom development help is easy. Moreover, WordPress provides extensive documentation, and most hosting providers offer specialized support for WordPress sites.
Wix has a smaller community and relies primarily on its customer support team. While Wix does offer helpful documentation and customer support, it doesn’t have the same level of community-driven resources as WordPress. If you want access to a wider pool of knowledge and expertise, WordPress is the better choice.
Key Difference:
- WordPress: A large, active community with extensive support options and resources.
- Wix: Smaller community with limited third-party support, primarily relying on Wix’s own resources.
Long-Term Viability
WordPress has been around since 2003 and has grown to power over 40% of the web. It has established itself as a long-term, reliable platform that evolves to meet user needs. With a massive ecosystem of themes, plugins, and developers, WordPress offers long-term viability for businesses, blogs, and personal websites.
Wix, while popular, is a more recent platform that may not offer the same longevity or development flexibility. For users looking for a platform that can adapt to future trends and remain reliable over the long term, WordPress is the safer bet.
Key Difference:
- WordPress: Established platform with a proven track record of growth and innovation.
- Wix: Newer platform with limited long-term development flexibility.
Conclusion: Why WordPress Wins
While Wix is a moderately decent platform for beginners who need a simple website quickly, WordPress is the superior option for users looking for flexibility, control, scalability, and long-term growth. WordPress offers full ownership of your website, unmatched customization, advanced SEO capabilities, and extensive e-commerce support. If you want a website that can grow with your business and adapt to your needs, WordPress is the clear winner.
Whether you’re launching a personal blog, a business website, or an online store, WordPress provides the tools, support, and community you need to succeed.
We only work with WordPress at Creativity Design Group. If you are in need of a beautiful, sleek, modern WordPress website, why not contact us today for a FREE consultation.
