Trying to decide between Wix vs WordPress is not easy. WordPress is the most popular website builder and platform, but it’s not the only option. Wix is also very popular, and easy to get started with.
We’ve received a lot of questions in the past few months, many from readers who ask us what our preferred website builder is. As with everything, it depends. We asked our experts to do a deep dive into both Wix and WordPress, and to share our experiences with both.
We’ll go over the pros and cons for Wix vs WordPress and hope our guide will help you make the right choice for your website. Note, we’ll be going over Wix vs self-hosted WordPress.
Here’s what we ranked:
- Pricing comparison
- Getting started
- Features
- Themes and design quality
There’s a lot of information to go over, so let’s get started!
Pricing
There are a lot of factors and things to consider when getting a website online. One of the first things anyone should think about is pricing. How much does it cost to put a website online? Let’s take a look into Wix and WordPress pricing.
Wix pricing
Wix offers numerous plans, with pricing to match nearly any budget. The interesting part of Wix pricing is they also offer a free tier. It’s fairly limited in what it offers, however, it’s a good way to test Wix before committing to their website builder platform.
Here’s a look at their plans:
Out of their website builder plans, the Unlimited plan at $14.00 per month is a great option. It unlocks all the features you need for a website, while keeping the price within an affordable range.
You’ll get all the main features, like a domain name, no ads, a good amount of storage and access to all the Wix themes and designs. If you need a logo created for your website, the VIP plan at $29.00 per month is also a good option.
Wix also offers Ecommerce plans, however, they are much more expensive, and their features don’t quite compare well to other platforms.
WordPress pricing
WordPress itself is free to use, since it’s open sourced and community based. Where there are some costs, is finding a WordPress hosting company to bring your site online.
There are a lot of companies that host WordPress, so we’ve chosen to focus on the top WordPress hosting company, ranked by our own experts.
Skystra offers WordPress hosting, starting at $7 per month for 1 website. Generally speaking, that’s about the price most companies will charge to host a WordPress website.
The main difference between Wix pricing and WordPress hosting pricing is feature-locking. While some features are locked behind a higher pricing tier on Wix, on WordPress, all WordPress features and options are available on WordPress plans.
For example, if you wanted to install a plugin or a new theme, you can do that on any WordPress plan.
Pricing summary
When it comes to pricing, WordPress provides the best value. Wix pricing is affordable, however, the features being locked at their lower pricing tiers does reduce its appeal. No matter where you host WordPress, it is completely open and unlocked.
Getting started
How to get started with WordPress or Wix is a big question. Which one is easiest to start with? Which one is easiest to use? Does WordPress have everything you need? Does Wix have all the features you need? This is where we look into how easy it is to get started with Wix and WordPress.
Wix
Wix comes with hundreds of website designs, ready for you to use and customize. Starting up with Wix is easy, and you’ll have a website running in no time. Wix is a drag-and-drop website editor, and because of that, you only need to select the theme you’d like for your website, move some pieces around, and your website is online for the world to see.
Moving the blocks back and forth is easy, and you can build a whole website in just a couple of minutes. We were able to build our test site in just under an hour with Wix.
WordPress
WordPress comes with an incredibly powerful block editor, called Gutenberg. With it, you can create new blocks (website sections), each with certain functions and designs. You can move each block up and down, so it shows up on your website the way you’d like.
The block editor on WordPress is the main way to create and edit your website. Select any of the thousands of free WordPress themes, and then modify your content via the WordPress block editor.
Getting started summary
WordPress wins here. Not only does WordPress come with thousands of free themes to get started, it also comes with a number of easy to use page builders that all rival the simplicity found in Wix.
Features comparison
Apart from the designs made available by both platforms, there is one more core item to look at: plugins and apps. Both do about the same thing, they extend the functionality of the platform by adding third-party features and enhancements.
Wix
Wix comes with its own proprietary app market. It contains about 250+ apps that extend the functionality of your Wix website. Most of them are paid, either as a one-time fee, but most are subscription based, so you will need to consider their monthly cost, in addition to your Wix subscription.
Most of the Wix apps add small features, such as social media icons, contact forms, and photo galleries.
Most of the applications on the Wix App Market come with free trials, so you can try them out before subscribing to them.
WordPress
The WordPress plugins marketplace is extremely diverse. There are over 60,000+ plugins, ranging from contact forms and photo galleries, to email marketing and website builders. There is a WordPress plugin for nearly any function you want in a website.
Most WordPress plugins have a free version, and some come with “pro” versions that charge either a one-time fee or a small monthly subscription to continue using them.
Features summary
Features are a personal choice. If you have very simple website requirements, Wix offers something that is simple to use, reliable and has enough apps to give you most features you need.
WordPress, on the other hand, offers such a wide-range of plugins, with functionality that mirrors some of the most advanced websites online today.
Final verdict
WordPress is a far superior website platform, because of its community based architecture, open sourced nature, access to thousands of themes and a huge library of plugins. WordPress has a slightly higher learning curve, but that is easy to learn, and once you do, you have access to the same software that powers over 42% of all websites on the internet.
Wix is a solidly built, simple to use website builder. Its main advantage is its simplicity and access to a few hundred themes. You don’t need to know anything about website building to build a website with Wix.
In the end, it’s hard to emphasize just how many options exist within the WordPress ecosystem, and that’s why we recommend using WordPress, coupled with hosting companies that auto-install it for you, as your web publishing platform.
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