Every business needs an online presence. But while we’ve been stating this fact consistently since the last decade, now is the time when it has become almost urgent.

Today, if your business doesn’t have a website, it suffers. Period.

However, there’s a catch. Now, when everyone is rushing to have their website built and designed, they are bombarded with a ton of choices and options of website building platforms that make it seem all too easy and simple to have their website done. One of those choices is Wix, which has become immensely popular, thanks to its budget busting marketing campaigns.

But before you hit the sign up button on Wix, you must gather all information about it and decide if it’s a good fit for your business.

Here, we have compared the two platforms – WordPress vs. Wix. This comparison will give you the insights you need to make an informed decision and find out if Wix is a good WordPress alternative.

What’s the Major Difference Between Wix and WordPress?

Before you compare Wix with WordPress, it’s important to understand the basic difference between the two platforms.

Wix is basically a SAAS (Software as a Service) company that you sign up for. It’s fully hosted and managed. When you sign up for Wix, you get the infrastructure you need to host your site and a feature rich website building editor where you can design your site without any coding skills.

WordPress is open-source software that you can download for free. You need to install this software on a web server before you can use it to build your site. This means you need to get the infrastructure or web server space to host your site before you can use WordPress.

Unlike Wix, which is truly a website builder, WordPress is a Content Management System. And out of the box, WordPress features only a bare-bones content editor that can be populated with text, media and links.

However, being so versatile and flexible, WordPress can be used to build any kind of website whether it’s a small portfolio site or a full-fledged online store featuring thousands of products.

How Easy is Wix vs. WordPress?

To start off, Wix is designed specifically for non-techies and beginners while WordPress involves quite a steep learning curve and may be intimidating for a new user.

When it comes to building and designing a site, the process is quite straightforward in Wix. It all starts from a simple sign up button to a point and click website editor where you can add page elements and simply edit anything you want on your site by pointing and clicking. All changes are shown in real time, so you don’t have to guess what your site would look on the front end.

WordPress, on the other hand, has a somewhat complicated process to start with. It begins with the hunt for a suitable hosting package and domain registration followed by the actual WordPress installation, which in itself is a bit tricky for a newbie. And then begins the designing process, which is nothing like the point and click editing on Wix. Designing on WordPress requires some HTML and CSS skills. You can use some nice themes with a page builder plugin to simplify the process but it still requires the user to have some comfort level with the WordPress interface.

Though you can find many WordPress tutorials to help you out, it isn’t as streamlined and intuitive as the Wix interface.

Design Options in Wix vs. WordPress

“Beauty has a persuasive power all its own.”

This is true for everything including websites. That’s why we want to create beautiful and stunning websites that will catch the attention of your visitors.

When it comes to design options, both Wix and WordPress fare almost equally.

Wix gives you endless design possibilities. To start off, you can choose from 500 different templates or layouts and then you can edit each of those templates the way you want on a point and click editing interface. Each and every element from an empty row to a small button can be edited and customized. Wix even lets you inject custom code so you can create your own design elements and use them on your site.

When it comes to designing on WordPress, the sky’s the limit. WordPress is all yours – you can edit things the way you want. To start off, you can choose from tens of thousands of WordPress themes – you can even find a theme that matches the exact purpose of your site. While you can edit your theme the way you want, the process isn’t as streamlined as on Wix. There is no point and click editor on WordPress – you need coding skills to wrap your head around WordPress and create the design you have imagined.

Most people using WordPress hire WordPress development services to get their website done. Wix, on the other hand, offers an intuitive and simple interface for anyone to build and design their own site.

Speed and SEO on Wix vs. WordPress

The time it takes for your site to load is critical for your business. Especially if your business thrives on your website, you need to make sure that your site is fast to load and serve content. But do you know why this is so important? Let’s step back and take a look at the facts.

Google has figured out that with every one-second delay, your bounce rate increases and your conversion rate falls. On the contrary, the faster your site is, the longer people are going to stay and engage with your site.

SEO is also directly related to the speed of your site. If your site is speedy and performs well, Google will eventually take notice of it – especially the higher conversion rate – and shoot up the rankings of your site.

That said, let’s see how both platforms perform when it comes to speed.

All Wix users will tell you the same thing: Wix is slow to load! And on Wix, there isn’t much you can do to optimize the speed of your site. So, if slow speed is hurting your business, you have to bear with it. Note that slow speed will eventually hurt SEO as well.

On WordPress, on the other hand, there’s a lot you can do to optimize the speed and performance of your WordPress site. In fact, if you create a site on WordPress, maintenance is always on the top of your list and you need to make sure you keep everything updated and optimized for the best user experience. With that said, well-optimized WordPress sites will generally do well in search rankings as well.

Flexibility and Scalability on Wix vs. WordPress

Flexibility and scalability are two different but related things. Let’s understand the difference between them.

Flexibility is when you want to do something different with your site or add some new functionality that changes the way your site works. For example, you can decide to have an online bookings system on a small photography portfolio site you made earlier. This is called flexibility.

Scalability, on the other hand, is how well your site can grow with you. When your business grows, you’ll want your site to accommodate those growing needs like more site pages, more products, more content, and more traffic.

While flexibility is more about the functionality of your site, scalability is more about the infrastructure your site lives on.

Both flexibility and scalability of a website building platform are important in the long term. Unfortunately, when it comes to these two factors, Wix and WordPress are as different as chalk and cheese.

WordPress is open-source software, which means you own the code and you can edit your site in any way you want. If you want to install some new functionality or integrate your site with some third-party service, you can use one of the thousands of plugins available. And if a suitable plugin doesn’t exist, you can get it custom made, thanks to thousands of WordPress developers you can easily find at your service.

WordPress sites are also highly scalable. You have full control over the infrastructure of your site. If you have a small website that doesn’t get much traffic, you can use a shared hosting plan for about $3/month. But if you have a growing business and you need a site that can accommodate a lot of content and traffic, you can upgrade your infrastructure and even get a dedicated VPN hosting worth $300/month.

Wix, on the other hand, is a different piece of cake. It’s not open-source and you don’t own the code. If you want to add some new functionality to your site, you’re only limited to the 80+ apps available on the Wix store.

And if your business is scaling up, you can upgrade your Wix plan to one of its higher tiers. But even the highest tier on Wix is limited in itself. So, there are always certain limits you’ll have to stay in if you build your site on Wix.

Conclusion

Let’s come to the question it all started with. Is Wix a good WordPress alternative?

Well, it’s pretty clear. Wix is no match for the powerful, versatile, and flexible platform of WordPress. WordPress has a huge eco-system and it’s highly flexible and scalable that makes it suitable for any kind of website.

However, the simple and intuitive interface of Wix makes it a good option for newbies and non-techies who want to have their website built without paying for development services. If you’re one of them and if you don’t have any plans of scaling up, Wix is a good option that will get you started with a website fast and quick.

Author Bio: Camila James is a WordPress Expert at Codup.co. A WordPress fanatic by day and a reader by night, Camila enjoys exploring the ever-changing world of Technology, Development, and eCommerce.