WordPress vs Wix: Which Website Platform Is Right for Your Business?
If you’re starting a new business website, you’ve probably come across the same two names over and over again: WordPress and Wix.
Both can help you build a professional looking website. Both have templates, SEO tools, contact forms and plenty of ways to customise your site.
So which one should you actually choose?
The answer depends on what you need from your website now and what you might need from it in the future.
Here’s a straightforward look at WordPress vs Wix, without drowning you in technical jargon.
WordPress vs Wix: What’s the difference?
The biggest difference is how the two platforms work.
Wix is an all-in-one website builder. Your hosting, website builder, security and many of the features you need are managed within Wix.
WordPress is a content management system (CMS). You have more control over your hosting, design, plugins, functionality and how your website is managed.
Think of it like this:
Wix: Everything is packaged together for you.
WordPress: You have more control over the individual pieces.
Neither approach is automatically better. It really comes down to how much control you want and what you’re planning to do with your website.
Is WordPress better than Wix?
For many businesses, yes particularly if you want a website that can grow with your business.
WordPress gives you significantly more flexibility when it comes to design, functionality and integrations.
There are thousands of plugins available, so you can add things like:
– Online bookings
– Ecommerce
– Memberships
– Advanced forms
– Customer portals
– Email marketing integrations
– Learning platforms
– Advanced SEO features
– Custom functionality
You also have much more freedom over your hosting and website setup.
That doesn’t mean Wix is a bad choice. In fact, for some businesses, Wix can be exactly what they need.
Why choose Wix?
One of the biggest advantages of Wix is simplicity.
You don’t need to organise separate hosting, install WordPress or worry about managing plugins.
You can sign up, choose a template and start building.
Wix can be a good option if you’re:
– Starting a very small business
– Building a simple brochure website
– Creating a website yourself
– Not particularly interested in the technical side of websites
– Happy with the functionality Wix provides
It’s also relatively easy to make changes yourself once the website is set up.
For a business that needs five or six pages and a contact form, you might not need the flexibility of WordPress.
Why choose WordPress?
The biggest reason I recommend WordPress to many businesses is flexibility.
Your website isn’t limited to the features available inside one website-building platform.
You can choose your hosting, theme, plugins and additional functionality.
And if your business grows, your website can grow with it.
For example, you might start with:
Home → About → Services → Contact
A few years later, you might want to add:
Blog → Online shop → Booking system → Customer portal → Email marketing → Resource library
WordPress gives you plenty of options for doing that.
WordPress gives you more control
This is one of the biggest differences between the two platforms.
With Wix, you’re working within the Wix ecosystem.
With WordPress, you have considerably more control over your website and how it’s built.
That can be a huge advantage if your website is an important part of your business.
You can change hosting providers, change themes, add different plugins and customise your website in much greater detail.
You’re not locked into one website builder in quite the same way.
What about SEO?
This is one I get asked about a lot.
Both WordPress and Wix can be good for SEO.
Having a WordPress website doesn’t automatically mean you’ll rank higher on Google.
Your rankings depend on things like:
– The quality of your content
– Your keyword targeting
– Website structure
– Page speed
– Mobile experience
– Technical SEO
– Backlinks
– Your competition
– How useful your content is to the person searching
That said, WordPress gives you a huge amount of flexibility when it comes to SEO.
You can use SEO plugins, add structured data, customise your site architecture and make more advanced technical changes when needed.
So if SEO is a major part of your long-term marketing strategy, I’d generally lean towards WordPress.
Which is easier to use?
This is where Wix has an advantage.
Wix is designed to be relatively straightforward for the average person to use.
WordPress can have a bit more of a learning curve.
And let’s be honest, WordPress has a habit of making you learn things you probably didn’t intend to learn.
Suddenly you’re wondering what a plugin conflict is at 10pm on a Tuesday.
But once your WordPress website is properly set up, you don’t necessarily need to understand all the technical stuff.
A good WordPress setup should make it easy for you to log in, edit your pages and add your content without having to become a web developer.
What about website maintenance?
This is another important difference.
With Wix, a lot of the technical maintenance is handled for you.
With WordPress, you need to keep things like WordPress, plugins and themes updated and make sure your website is backed up and secure.
That’s not necessarily a reason to avoid WordPress.
It just means you need to factor website maintenance into the running of your website.
If you don’t want to deal with that yourself, you can have a web designer or maintenance provider take care of it for you.
Which one is better for a small business?
This really depends on the business.
Wix could be a good choice if:
– You want to build the website yourself
– You need a relatively simple website
– You don’t need lots of custom functionality
– You want an all-in-one platform
– You don’t want to deal with website maintenance
WordPress could be a better choice if:
– Your website is important to your business
– You want more design flexibility
– SEO is important to you
– You want to add functionality over time
– You need integrations with other systems
– You’re planning to sell products online
– You want more control over your website
– You expect your website to grow with your business
What about the cost?
This is where things can get a little misleading.
You can’t simply say “Wix costs X and WordPress costs Y” because the actual cost depends on what you’re building.
With Wix, your website subscription generally bundles together the platform and hosting.
With WordPress, you typically have separate costs for things such as hosting, your domain, premium themes and plugins.
But you also have much more choice over what you pay for.
A simple WordPress website can be relatively inexpensive to run, while a complex WordPress website with premium plugins and custom functionality can cost considerably more.
The same goes for Wix as you add more features and upgrade your plan.
So, should you choose WordPress or Wix?
If you want a simple website that you can build yourself and don’t expect to need much functionality, Wix can be a perfectly reasonable option.
But if your website is going to be an important part of your business and you want more flexibility, control and room to grow, I’d choose WordPress.
And here’s the thing I would consider before choosing either one:
Don’t just think about the website you need today.
Think about the website you might need in three years.
Because changing platforms later isn’t always as simple as changing a template.
If you think you’ll eventually want better SEO, ecommerce, bookings, integrations, custom features or a more sophisticated website, it can make sense to start with a platform that gives you those options from the beginning.
My verdict
Wix is great if you want simple. WordPress is great if you want flexibility.
There isn’t one platform that’s right for every business.
If you’re building a small website for a business that doesn’t need much beyond some information and a contact form, Wix might be all you need.
But if you’re building a website that you want to become a proper marketing tool for your business, WordPress is usually the platform I’d recommend.
And if you’ve already got a WordPress website that’s doing your head in, you don’t necessarily need a new website either.
Sometimes it just needs someone to have a sticky-beak at what’s going on and fix the bits that aren’t working.
