With over 10 years of website development & digital marketing experience, the team at Today’s Business has pretty much seen it all when it comes to possible website issues, successes and failures. Over these 10 years we’ve seen content management systems come and go and have tested and worked with them all. One of the most common questions we get at Today’s Business is what content management system is best for my business? Particularly, our customers usually ask what is the difference between WordPress and Wix? In this blog we plan to cover the pros and cons of each platform at a high level and provide you with some feedback from our web development & SEO experts. Read on to learn more about the differences between WordPress and Wix.
WordPress Pros
- Free Open Source software
Unlimited customization ability! - Huge community of developers
- Built with SEO in mind
- Allows for change in template
- Plugins
Over 50,000 plugins with unique functions and capabilities available and many are free or have a low one time fee - Hosting
You control where you host your WP website which means you can host on a fast and secure platform for a very low monthly rate
Wix Pros
- No previous development experience needed
• Drag and drop website builder with 500+ existing templates
• Great for people with no or little experience in creating a website - Wix Artificial Design Intelligence
Creates custom websites through simple questions - Official 24/7 support team
WordPress Cons
- Requires Experience
Requires previous development experience for advanced and professional applications - Monthly Updates
Requires monthly software updates which can occasionally cause issues with older plugins on the website - Vulnerability
Because of its open-source platform it requires knowledge of best security practices to stay safe from bots and hackers
Wix Cons
- Lacks customization ability
Creates custom websites through simple questions - Not SEO Friendly
Creates custom websites through simple questions - Hard to transfer your site content
While Wix might be cheap now it could cost you in the future! - Website template cannot be changed
WIX only has two breakpoints for mobile responsive design which means you only have a desktop view (small monitor) and a mobile view. WordPress allows you to have a many breakpoints as needs so you can have large monitor view, laptop view, tablet view, and mobile view - Limited design
Because WIX is designed to be easy to use by people who don’t have experience with development or design it is very limited in the way you can design (or setup) your website - Cannot use custom domain or remove ads on free version
Because WIX is designed to be easy to use by people who don’t have experience with development or design it is very limited in the way you can design (or setup) your website - Tracking analytics requires a paid plan
• You can not control where you host your WIX website which means you have to host on their platform which uses shared servers that can get bogged down and run slow.
• You don’t own your own files or overall website when you use WIX because you can not move them to another hosting provider. Technically you’re just leasing your entire website.
Takeaways from the Team:
“Wordpress is an open source platform and that has helped it skyrocket in popularity (about 40% of the entire internet runs on WordPress). We have unlimited ability to design and develop on top of the WordPress CMS which means we can always successfully create stunning websites that bring our client’s visions and goals to life. There is no other platform available today that compares to the security, longevity, power, and flexibility of WordPress”
Benjamin Johnstone
Director of Website Development
“When it comes to SEO Wix has definitely made some strides, which at one point was an afterthought for them. Unfortunately, the benefits of Wix lie in its ease of use; that ease of use comes at a cost of losing some granular control over different aspects of a webpage that may impact SEO. Because of this lack of control, I still can’t recommend Wix for SEO purposes. WordPress is harder to work with but so much more versatile. Aspects such as creating dynamic linking structures, fully optimizing page speed, customizing the markup of your html for relevance purposes… it’s all boring stuff, but at the end of the day you don’t want to be pigeonholed into a website platform that ‘is what it is’ like you’ll inevitably be with Wix.”
Forrest Old
Senior SEO Strategist
Conclusion: WordPress is a more robust platform than Wix
As you can see from the chart and the opinions of our experts, WordPress is a much more scalable and robust solution than Wix. Although Wix may be a simpler and more affordable option, if you are looking to build a professional website that has the ability to implement custom functionality and designs then WordPress is your best option.