Comparing Wix vs. WordPress: 5 differences to know in 2024

Are you trying to decide between WordPress and Wix for your website?

Wix and WordPress are two of the most popular website-building platforms among aspiring website owners.

You might ask, “Well, which is better, WordPress or Wix?”

While both are powerful tools for creating a successful web presence, they differ in fundamental ways.

This article provides an easy-to-understand comparison of the two platforms, plus information about WordPress hosting options offered by Nexcess.

Keep reading to make an informed decision about which platform is right for you.

What is Wix?

Wix is a closed source, cloud-based web development platform that enables users to create professional websites that are optimized for mobile viewing without requiring any coding knowledge.

With Wix, users can easily drag and drop elements such as text boxes, images, videos, and apps to customize their website’s design with an intuitive user interface.

The platform also provides hosting, domain names, and ecommerce features, allowing users to create a complete online presence.

Additionally, Wix boasts advanced SEO tools and marketing options to help promote their websites and reach more potential customers.

In essence, Wix is an all-in-one website-building platform that enables users to easily build a beautiful website without any technical expertise.

Wix, however, does not allow you to export your site for easy migration to other platforms, nor does Wix allow you to download site pages.

What is WordPress?

WordPress is a powerful open source content management system (CMS) that can be used to create websites, blogs, and other online applications.

It is highly customizable, with thousands and thousands of available plugins and themes that can be used to customize the look and feel of any website or blog.

WordPress also makes it easy for users to manage their content with its intuitive admin dashboard. WordPress is used by millions of people around the world and powers some of the most popular websites on the internet today.

With its flexible framework, WordPress makes it easy for users to create powerful websites without needing to know how to code or having a deep knowledge of web technologies.

Comparing Wix and WordPress pricing

Wix pricing

Wix offers a variety of pricing options to suit all budgets and needs. Wix has several plans with prices ranging from $20-60 per month depending on which plan is selected.

For those just starting out, the $20 version provides basic website-building capabilities and two gigabytes of disk space.

For those wanting more features, the $60 plan offers more than one hundred gigabytes of disk space, advanced website-building capabilities, and drop-shipment integration.

Both plans offer free domain registration for one year as well as access to customer support.

WordPress pricing options

WordPress offers a variety of pricing options to suit the needs of any type of user.

For personal use, the WordPress platform is free and open source, making it an excellent choice for bloggers, hobbyists, and other casual users, provided they have existing hosting.

For businesses or larger website owners, Nexcess offers a comprehensive suite of managed WordPress hosting services.

Pricing for the business plans starts from as low as $19 per month and goes as high as $549 for agency hosting; custom quotes for enterprise hosting are available as well.

All of the plans from Nexcess include 24/7 technical support, automated backups and updates, free email, free SSL, malware scanning and removal, caching optimization, one-click staging environments for testing changes safely and securely, a 30-day money-back guarantee, and much more.

Comparing Wix and WordPress design/customization

Wix design and customization

With the drag-and-drop editor from Wix, you can quickly create pages and layouts without needing any coding or web design skills.

You are constrained to use their themes and fonts, but since Wix offers more than 800 free themes to choose from, you are quite likely to eventually find a look that is well-suited to your website.

WordPress design and customization

WordPress is an extremely versatile CMS platform that allows users to customize their websites with a variety of themes, templates, and plugins. With WordPress, you can create a beautiful website that is easy to navigate and use.

WordPress is an intuitive platform that makes it simple for users to add images, videos, and other media to their websites. With the help of plugins and widgets, WordPress sites can look completely unique from any other website on the internet.

Comparing ease of use in Wix and WordPress

Wix ease of use

The drag-and-drop feature from Wix allows you to easily move elements on the page. It really is as simple as clicking on an element on the page and dragging it to where you want.

The free themes can feel a little cookie-cutter in their sameness, but it is easy to customize your website by just dragging and dropping.

Overall, it is an excellent choice for those just starting out.

WordPress ease of use

With zero coding knowledge, anyone can use the block editor from WordPress (included with every release of WordPress since 2018) to quickly create beautiful and dynamic sites.

It has a user-friendly interface with many useful features like drag-and-drop, blocks for media and text, revision history (think: "undo"), and much, much more.

With just a bit of technical know-how (or the ability to follow a guide on theme customization), you can really customize any theme to make a unique site that looks and feels professionally designed.

Comparing ecommerce capability of Wix and WordPress

Wix ecommerce capability

With Wix, you can set up your own store with a few simple steps. You'll have access to customizable shop designs, powerful features to manage and market your products, secure payment processing, and more.

You'll also be able to track sales and monitor inventory in real-time. All this allows you to focus on what really matters – growing your business.

With Wix’s intuitive drag-and-drop editor, making changes or adding new products is hassle-free so you can always stay ahead of the competition while taking advantage of the latest trends in ecommerce.

To top it all off, Wix offers excellent customer service and support to help you succeed. So get started with Wix ecommerce today and start selling online!

WordPress ecommerce capability

WordPress is an incredibly useful platform for setting up an ecommerce store. With the WooCommerce plugin, you can create a seamless, user-friendly online store that's easy to manage and customize. WordPress also powers 36.28% of the top 1 million websites.

With its intuitive interface, you'll be able to quickly add products, set up payment options, and even track performance. WordPress also offers dozens of themes and plugins so you can easily make your store look professional without needing any coding knowledge.

Whether you're a novice or an experienced seller, WordPress and WooCommerce make it a breeze to set up a successful ecommerce store.

Comparing Wix vs. WordPress support and maintenance

Wix support and maintenance

Because Wix is a closed source hosting platform, all support and maintenance of site and platform tools are provided by Wix.

The Wix Support Center provides a comprehensive library of helpful articles, tutorials, and videos to help users with any issues they may have.

Additionally, their customer service team is available via phone or email for personalized assistance when needed. Additional support options are available for premium plans.

AppSharp has released an app called Site Booster that helps users monitor and maintain their websites.

Site Booster, which has a limited free version and a premium version, automatically checks for broken links, missing images, and other potential issues that can affect a site’s performance.

WordPress support and maintenance

WordPress and WooCommerce sites require dedicated support and maintenance for optimal performance.

Keeping WordPress updated to the latest version can help to ensure the website is secure, up-to-date, and running smoothly.

It’s also important to have backups of your site’s data and content just in case the worst happens.

Having a maintenance plan in place can help ease the burden of upkeep. Managed hosting with Nexcess offers an enhanced level of support and maintenance to keep your WordPress and WooCommerce site running smoothly and reliably.

With a managed hosting plan, you get access to experienced WordPress engineers who can provide technical support 24/7, automated backups so you don’t have to worry about data loss, and managed upgrades to make sure your site is always running the latest version.

With Nexcess, you can rest easy knowing that your WordPress and WooCommerce sites are taken care of.

Now that you know the differences

Whether you're looking for ease of use or robust features, it's important to choose the right platform for your needs.

Wix offers a straightforward drag-and-drop interface and is best suited to beginners that need more guidance in developing their site.

WordPress has become much easier to use over the last 20 years, and enables users with more flexibility and creative freedom if you’re willing to learn a little.

Ultimately, the choice between Wix and WordPress depends on the specific needs of each individual website owner.

If you're looking for a fully managed solution for WordPress and WooCommerce, look no further than Nexcess.

With their top-notch support and maintenance services, you can rest easy knowing that your website is in good hands.

So if you're ready to get started, check out fully managed WordPress hosting from Nexcess today.