When it comes to finding yourself a reliable website creation tool, a comparison like Wix VS WordPress is probably among the most interesting ones that you might come across.
Why is that the case? Simply due to the fact that, while both tools are significantly different from one another, both WordPress and Wix are also industry-leading website building platforms, too. It’s truly interesting how they compare!
If you’re trying to decide - Wix or WordPress? -, and are having a hard time doing so, don’t fret - that’s what this article is here for! Today, we’ll be taking a closer look at both website builders in question (even though, technically, WordPress isn’t really a website builder), discussing their pros and cons in relation to each other, and finding out which one might suit you best!
Also, don’t forget to take a look at our shorter, exclusively data-based comparison, too - it should help you put everything that we’ll discuss below into perspective!
Table of Contents
Wix VS WordPress: Comparison Criteria
Now, then - before we get into the nitty-gritty details of the Wix VS WordPress comparison, there are a few things that we need to establish beforehand. Well, one, really - the aspects via which we’ll compare both website building tools.
While I understand that you might want to “get to the point” ASAP, it’s important to check out some core criteria that will allow us to have a fair and comprehensive review of both platforms!
Table: Some general information on Wix and WordPress
Who decides on those criteria, you might wonder? Well, while everyone is going to have some different aspects that they think are important to them, there are a few things that are essential to discuss, no matter what type of a builder it is that you’re looking for. In no particular order, these aspects are uptime & site speed, pricing, ease of use, eCommerce functionality, feature variety, and templates. Let’s elaborate on each one of those even further.
- Uptime & Site Speed. Undoubtedly, both uptime and website loading speed are the two criteria that you’ll want to look into first, no matter if you’re looking through Wix VS WordPress comparisons, or else. It’s probably rather self-evident, but without proper uptime, your website is as good as if it was not to exist! Site speed, on the other hand, is a bit trickier - you see, it does heavily depend on you, and not only on the website creation tool provider. That said, there are certain benchmarks that should still be met, and certain numbers that shouldn’t be crossed.
- Pricing. Pricing is, usually, a pretty touchy topic to consider. While it’s certainly one of the core, deciding factors for many people (when it comes to using a particular builder, or not), at the same time, the price tags of various builders might sway significantly. In all honesty, as far as this Wix VS WordPress comparison is concerned, the aspect of pricing is likely going to be one of the most unique points that we’ll be evaluating, strictly due to the fact that WordPress doesn’t really have a set price tag that would be associated with it. More on that later, though!
- Ease of Use. The simplicity of a builder is undoubtedly the most subjective topic that we’ll be covering - that’s rather evident! It depends heavily on your prior experience with website creation, your skills in the realm of coding (if there are any, to begin with), and your general proclivity to use such technology, too. Having said that, though, when comparing Wix versus WordPress, or any other two builders out there, there are still some general notions among users that can be followed and evaluated - some builders are simply easier to use than others!
- eCommerce Functionality. Without a single doubt, eCommerce is one of the main reasons why people want to build websites nowadays - whether it be Wix VS WordPress, Shopify, or any other high-end site creation tool, long-gone are the days when these platforms would primarily be used for blogging or some artistic expression. It makes sense, though - eCommerce is extremely popular! That said, the companies behind the builders know this, too - that’s why they implement a wide variety of eCommerce features, all of which we shall evaluate!
- Feature Variety. Feature variety refers to the general number of different features that you might come to expect from a particular website builder. In other words, it’s an aspect that shows you just how many things you can do with the tool, and the directions that you could take your website, if you only so wished to. Yet again, it’s a very important point to consider, and this WordPress VS Wix comparison is no exception - looking to a website builder long-term, you’d probably want the tool to be versatile and feature-heavy, and not one that’s only good for a single purpose!
- Templates. Website templates are undoubtedly “up there” in regards to their importance when choosing the best website builder for yourself. Think of templates as the foundation of any site creation tool out there - without a proper template, your website design process is going to be doomed straight from the start, and you’ll end up having to jump through hoops in order to make your website look even remotely trustworthy. On top of that, these templates are vital when considering things such as SEO, too - we’ll get to that in a minute, but it’s certainly a noteworthy point in this Wix VS WordPress comparison!
So - those are the core, essential aspects that everyone should consider when picking out a website creation tool for themselves, no matter what that tool might actually be. Now, with that being said, let’s move on to the actual WordPress VS Wix comparison, shall we?
Wix VS WordPress: The Comparison
To start things off with our Wix VS WordPress comprehensive review, let’s take it from the top, and turn our sights towards the uptime and site speed stats of both platforms.
Uptime & Site Speed
As I’ve mentioned at the beginning of the Wix VS WordPress comparison, uptime and site loading speed are the first couple of things that you should be looking at when evaluating a builder of any type.
I’ve also told you about uptime - why it’s important, and why it needs to be taken seriously. However, what about site speed - is this aspect really worth naming as one of the “core features” of a reliable builder?
Well… Yes, very much so.
You see, there are two types of speed that you could look into - the general site loading speed, and something that is known as Time Till First Byte. The latter, while being important for a few different reasons, isn’t something that we’ll be focusing on in this WordPress VS Wix comparison - instead, we’re looking at the loading speed.
WITH proper loading speed, your website is going to be able to load and open pages in a matter of milliseconds. You shouldn’t underestimate how important this is - people nowadays are used to website opening instantly after they click on them or press “Enter” in their search bars! Any delays can impact your website’s performance.
In regards to both of the aforementioned aspects, Wix is amazing. You can expect your website to see uptime of around 99,98%, which is nearly perfect as far as website uptime is concerned. Site speed-wise, Wix’s stats are around 550ms - superb! In simpler terms, it means that your visitors won’t experience lag spikes, and your website should load almost immediately after they access it.
Naturally, you should also keep in mind the fact that the site loading speed depends heavily on you, too. If you don’t optimize the content on your website, or upload gigabytes of videos to your homepage, chances are that even the fastest website builders on the market aren’t going to help you.
Now, when it comes to WordPress, things start to get a bit more interesting.
Table: The speed statistics of Wix and WordPress
As far as this Wix VS WordPress comparison is concerned, WordPress does not have any uptime, nor site speed. That’s because it’s a content management system that can be used offline - in order to receive some numbers in regards to the above-mentioned aspects, you will need to find a hosting service provider.
In other words, it means that the uptime and site speed of your WordPress-made website are going to depend exclusively on you, and your choices. That’s a very interesting point to consider!
Ease of Use
Just so you know, we’ve skipped pricing intentionally - it’s something that we’ll discuss at the end of this Wix VS WordPress comparison.
Ease of use is, obviously, important. I’ve pointed out earlier, though, that it’s also an aspect that’s rather peculiar to evaluate and talk about - every person understands the term “simplicity” through their own frames of reference.
That being said, though, if you know anything about Wix or WordPress, this aspect probably jumps from being subjective, to becoming obvious.
Starting off with Wix, it’s often hailed as one of the easiest-to-use website builders on the market. This is something that they advertise very adamantly, and it’s also a point that’s mentioned rather often among various online-based user Wix reviews, too.
Is Wix really as simple to use as it’s made out to be? Yes, yes it is.
Wix is an extremely beginner-friendly website builder option. You are able to jump from the registration process to the actual dashboard of your builder in a matter of a couple of minutes - the process is streamlined and simplified, exponentially.
The true simplicity of the website builder in question lies within the actual builder interface itself, though. All features are placed and displayed in intuitive spots around the page, the builder feels modern to use, and you shouldn’t find yourself in a situation where you’d need to search for help, or face some struggle.
With that said, though, WordPress is kind of the opposite. Hear me out.
WordPress is an old-school website creation tool. Its interfaces are a bit clunky, it doesn’t come with a drag-and-drop editor (sure, there’s Elementor, but that’s a plugin), and the process of building your website is far from being as intuitive as it is with Wix.
You could say - surely there’s some sort of a catch, and WP has some amazing feature or function up its sleeve to outweigh this? To that I answer - well, yes - this Wix VS WordPress comparison wouldn’t exist if that wasn’t the case, now would it?
Being complicated to use, WordPress actually has a very steep learning curve. The people who pass that curve are, admittedly, mostly developers - if you want to utilize the full functionality of WP, you’ll need to know how to code. However, if you’ve got that covered, too, WordPress becomes the best tool for website making on the planet, period.
This is the case simply due to the fact that you can literally build absolutely anything with the CMS in question - the only limitations are your skills and patience! If, however, simplicity is what you’re after, Wix remains the obvious choice in this regard.
eCommerce Functionality
eCommerce is important even if you’re not planning to launch an online store straight from the get-go. Whether it be this Wix VS WordPress comparison or some other review on a specific website builder, you’d always want to look at the tool’s eCommerce features, simply as a guarantee for the future.
What do I mean by that? Well, you never know what sort of a turn your website might take - even if you’re just creating a personal blog for the time being, maybe it will blow up, and you’ll want to add additional revenue streams by selling your book, or something similar?
With proper eCommerce functionality, this is going to be simple to do (integrate into your already-existing website), and you won’t have to worry about changing website builders in order to do so!
So - where do the builders in this Wix VS WordPress comparison stand, in regards to eCommerce?
Table: The pros and cons of Wix and WordPress
Starting from Wix, the builder does obviously have some strong eCommerce-related features. In fact, Wix actually has a whole dedicated pricing route for those who are interested purely in the business side of things - you could purchase one of the business plans, and focus on making an online store or business with Wix!
That aside, though, there are surely multiple eCommerce features available with Wix. The builder allows you to sell all types of products, including physical & digital ones, subscriptions, online-based services, and so on.
Naturally, you can expect things such as high numbers (for business clients - unlimited) of product placements, automated tax calculations and information, shipping options, gift cards for customers, cart recoveries, and so on.
In a very general sense, Wix is surely one of the better options as far as eCommerce website builders are concerned. While it may not be the *best* option (since it’s not an eCommerce-dedicated builder), it’s still pretty high up the list.
On the other side of this Wix versus WordPress comparison, WordPress is, yet again, an oddity in this regard. The content management system does not come with any particular eCommerce functionality when you just install the very basic version of it. However, with the help of plugins (an absolutely essential part of WP - we’ll talk more about that in a minute), you can actually make WordPress into an eCommerce giant.
Namely, you will need to look at a single plugin - WooCommerce. With the help of this tool, you’ll receive all of the possible eCommerce features that you might need - everything from product placements up to sales reports and cart recoveries.
Then, there are other plugins to help you out with cookie policies, contact forms, and so on.
The short conclusion here is that, if you want to keep things simple, but have much fewer customization features, Wix is the way to go. If you have more time on your hands, though, and are keen on learning how to use WordPress to its fullest extent, the WP could be the right tool for you!
Feature Variety
As the term itself might imply, feature variety concerns all of the different features that you might come across with a particular website builder, no matter what that builder might be.
Think of it this way - with either of the site creation tools in this Wix VS WordPress comparison, feature variety references all of the different paths that you might be able to take with your website, at any given point in time. To be completely honest with you, WordPress does actually take the lead here.
With WP, you can literally create any type of website that you’d like - we’ve established that multiple times in this WordPress VS Wix comparison already. The thing about the platform is that, whether it be eCommerce, blogging, or any other type of direction, thanks to the community plugins available for you to download and install, you can make changes with your website in a mere instant.
Table: The variety of features of Wix and WordPress
This is, for example, even more so true with Wix VS WordPress SEO. WordPress is super SEO-friendly, in all possible ways. Thanks to the above-mentioned plugins, you could even install some SEO-specific tools on your dashboard, and they will help in evaluating how well your content is optimized for search engines - amazing!
Now, don’t get me wrong - Wix does also possess a lot of different features to offer to its users. You have everything from your generic SSL certificates and domain names (both of which are going to be handled by your hosting provider, if you choose to go the WordPress route), all the way to some unique tools, such as the Wix ADI - the fastest way to create a website facade, and start working from there.
That said, though, while Wix is a feature- and app-heavy website builder, WordPress does still have the upper edge when it comes to the variety of its features, especially seeing as the plugin hub is something that’s constantly being updated with new and improved plugins from the WP community. So, whether it be Wix VS WordPress SEO, or any other feature, this is worth keeping in mind!
Templates
While we have already established the importance of website templates at the beginning of this Wix VS WordPress comparison, it’s worth mentioning that there are basically two big aspects that you need to look into, website theme-wise - just how modern and mobile-friendly the templates are.
On the modern side of things, it’s all pretty self-explanatory - if you want visitors to come to your website and not feel like they’ve been blasted right back to the early 2000s, it’s important that you pick a website builder (or a site creation tool, in general) that will provide you with professional-made, high-quality and modern templates. Just take a look at Squarespace, for example - the company has some of the most beautiful and intuitive-to-use, but also modern website templates on the entire market!
On the mobile-friendliness side of things, as time goes on, search engines (i.e. Google, Bing, etc.) are becoming increasingly more aware of the fact that there are huge numbers of people around the world who are using their mobile devices even more than their PCs or laptops, at least when it comes to online shopping, casual browsing, and so on.
This, in turn, means that, if your website is going to be mobile-friendly, it will surely rank higher among user search results, which is obviously amazing for any type of website that wants and needs more traffic (hint: all of them do).
Wix is truly amazing when it comes to templates. The company has over 500 different website themes to offer to its users - all of which are optimized for the different wants and needs that you might have, and the different websites that you might want to create. The templates have great layouts, are modern and intuitive, and beautiful to look at, too.
Table: The design element information of Wix and WordPress
As far as WP goes, for this part of the WordPress VS Wix comparison, I’d have to say - Wix is the better alternative! While WordPress has a huge selection of themes - most of which are made by the community and available to be downloaded and used for free -, they can feel somewhat lackluster, and require a lot of attention and care from you in order to maintain a personal and modern touch.
When it comes to Wix VS WordPress SEO, though, WP’s themes are perfectly SEO optimized, too!
All in all, though, if you’d like to simply pick a template and then start working on the rest of your website, Wix is the better alternative here. WordPress is still decent but will require a lot more attention, time, and effort.
Pricing
As the final point of this Wix VS WordPress comparison, let’s take a look at the pricing options of the two website building tools in question. As you might expect, though, even this section is full of surprises on the WordPress side of things.
With Wix, you can expect these pricing options:
While it may not be the most affordable website builder out there, Wix is still priced in a very decent manner, granted all of the awesome features that it provides to the user.
WordPress, on the other hand, is completely free to use. Yup, you’ve read that right - FREE. However, evidently, there’s a catch - while you are free to create your own website, if you want it to go live on the internet, you’re going to have to pay for website hosting (and an SSL certificate, and a domain name, if these features aren’t included in your hosting plan).
Table: The pricing options of Wix and WordPress
Hosting prices vary drastically, depending on a variety of different factors. Thus, once again - if you'd like to keep things simple, and aren’t too keen on going out and searching for a hosting provider, then Wix remains the better option, as far as the pricing part of this Wix versus WordPress comparison goes!
Conclusions
So, then - which of the two Wix VS WordPress website creation platforms is the better pick?
Well, to sum things up, it’s pretty simple, really - while both tools are absolutely amazing in what they have to offer to the user, Wix is going to be suitable for those who want to take the traditional website builder route, and create a website in a fast and simple manner. It’s also a better pick for anyone who’s not web development-proficient, too.
Table: Company information of Wix and WordPress
WordPress, on the other hand, is going to be great for individuals who have a lot of time and patience on their hands, and want to create a completely custom website with some intricate and high-end features. Again - both tools are awesome, but they are aimed at very different target audiences!
If you’d like to learn more, do remember to check out our alternative comparison of the two platforms. Also, if you DO choose to go the WordPress route, make sure to take the time and look into the different web hosting providers out there, and find a reliable alternative for yourself!