With the world fast becoming more inclined towards information, the importance of websites cannot be denied. As a result, several website-building platforms have been developed to meet this need. WordPress is undoubtedly the most popular of all the websites building platforms; however, there are several alternatives.
This article intends to show you why WordPress is favored by most businesses and online brands. It will also explain why WordPress is preferred above its closest competitor, Wix. If you want to design a website or start an online business, this article is invaluable.
WordPress is clearly better than Wix in building any type of publishing website. Although Wix is easier to use for any web building amateur, ultimately, the features of WordPress offer more, making it a better option.
Here are some factors used in drawing comparison which will give you a better perspective:
- Ease of Use
- Blogging
- Pricing and Costs
- ECommerce
- Design and Layout
1. Ease of use
Many bloggers and online business owners choose Wix or WordPress because you don’t intend to hire a website designer. Wix and WordPress are platforms that help you build websites without coding through the entire process. Both Wix and WordPress are clearly user-friendly; however, which of them is more appealing to a beginner for use?
Wix comprises powerful, attractive, yet easy-to-use features that make it attractive to first time website builders. It’s also has a simple drug and drug interface, which allows you to select different elements on the site and begin editing on the WYSIWYG interface. It also allows you to drag-and-drop items on other parts of the site, edit and rearrange things as you wish. Wix also has a feature that will enable you to write content and include media in a user-friendly way, eliminating several lines of code. This feature is one reason why many beginners love Wix.
WordPress takes a step above Wix and allows its users have a live preview of the pages while editing through its WordPress block editor. This feature allows you to add blocks which helps in creating unique layouts. There are countless blocks for different elements such as text, buttons, headings, background images, and galleries. You also have access to numerous templates which can be used on the site. Interesting which of these templates are easily customizable using a feature called the live theme customizer. Besides all the incredible features WordPress possesses, it also has a powerful drag-and-drop page builder plugin. This provides one more way to build your website without coding.
For instance, you could use a page builder such as elementor, which would help you build your custom website without using codes. Both platforms provide ways to make pages, manage online businesses, and write content on websites without code.
Wix has user-friendly properties, making its editor interface interesting, yet it can’t be used in advanced cases. WordPress covers a broader scope and can be for more comprehensive designs while maintaining its ease of usage, thus giving WordPress a slight edge over Wix.
2. Blogging
Bloggers are obsessed with finding an easy platform to create contents that will attract their clients. Often Wix and WordPress are the platforms considered because of their unique qualities.
Wix makes it easy for you to add a blog category to your website. Furthermore, it possesses all blogging features which are used by most bloggers. For instance, photos, tags, videos, and archives are an example of such categories. The comments created on the Wix blogs are slow and not easy to manage like WordPress. Users have to install third-party applications such as Disqus or Facebook, which require them to have or create accounts on those platforms. Wix also does not have features such as creating private posts or backdating posts. The writing interface for blog posts is entirely different from the interface used by Wix. Wix utilizes a plain-text editor that has its limitations, especially in formatting.
WordPress started out as a blogging platform before becoming a website-building platform gives it an edge in this regard. It has full blogging options needed by any blogger and many advanced features that are lacking in Wix.
Accompanied by the powerful Gutenberg block editor, WordPress makes an amazing Layout for your blog posts. Furthermore, you can also make extensions of your blog through plugins and hard-code any feature you can imagine.
WordPress clearly dominates Wix as a blogging platform, as the latter is too basic and lacks several advanced blogging attributes.
3. Pricing and costs
The cost of anything plays a crucial role in its acquisition, and the building of websites is no exception. The use of any website building platform solely depends on your needs. Hence, you must make choices based on your needs within your budget. Comparing the prices of Wix and WordPress and their functions will help you make the right choice in this regard.
Wix is a free website builder with two major cons. Wix adds branded advertisements to the top and bottom of the website. Furthermore, you can’t use a customized domain name for your website. For instance, your website address will read username.wix.com/sitename.
Asides from this, the basic plan does not give needed add-ons like Favicons, e-commerce, Google Analytics, amongst others. To get rid of the ads and gain some features, you must upgrade your plan to a premium plan. Each of the premium offers given by Wix has various storage and bandwidth limitations which can be paid for monthly or yearly. However, the best plan on Wix still remains the unlimited plan or $12.50 per month. You are also free to choose an e-commerce or business plan.
The prices for small businesses and e-commerce on Wix begin from $17 per month. Irrespective of the plan you choose, the cost does not include the app you might decide to buy from the Wix App Market.
WordPress is open-source software that is available for free to use for anyone. Most times, many ask if there are any cons or downsides to WordPress being free. However, WordPress’s most significant advantage is that you get to own your own domain name and web hosting while installing it. However, WordPress increases in cost if you decide to use the premium WordPress themes or plugins. In the same vein, there are countless free WordPress themes and plugins that can reduce costs. Ultimately you can include any feature to your WordPress site through plugins without upgrading your plan.
WordPress betters Wix through its affordable and flexible payment plans, which are available through different hosting companies. In conclusion, the cost depends on the resources you intend to use and your website needs.
4. E-commerce
Most online business owners are concerned about selling things online. Therefore if you’re looking to launch a website, you should be concerned about its e-commerce properties. How do WordPress and Wix fare in e-commerce compared to one another?
Wix offers e-commerce services only through their paid plans. This implies that users and the free plan can’t have an e-commerce store on Wix without upgrading to the premium plan. Payment can be made through the local payment systems or through third-party gateway systems such as PayPal, Authorize.net, or Payoneer through the Wix store.
In the United States, Wix payment methods charge 2.9% of every transaction, including 0.30 USD. The more products you sell in the store, the more your transactional fees grow. Several apps can be used to promote the things you sell online. Summarily, the features on the e-commerce platforms are often limited.
It’s straightforward for you to create an online store on WordPress. Anyone can create an online store on WordPress using woo-commerce, the most popular e-commerce platform globally. In addition, there are countless e-commerce plugins for WordPress which can help in selling events, subscriptions, digital or physical goods.
Furthermore, WordPress is a fantastic platform to sell digital subscriptions through MemberPress. It enables you to sell online courses, pay-per-view content, and membership plans online. Most e-commerce plugins have unique themes and add-on plugins that can help scale up the growth of an online store. Therefore, if you want to create an online store, WordPress and woo-commerce remain your best bet compared to Wix.
5. Design and layout
The design and Layout of every website are of utmost importance to the website owner. The website must be not only attractive but also user-friendly to help the brand grow. How then do Wix and WordPress compare in this regard?
Wix has an abundance of templates that runs close to 1000 for its users to choose from. Wix has fully responsive designs which are written in HTML. It can also be customized through Wix built-in tools to change the Layout and edit the website as you wish. There are countless designs for various sites. Templates are also broken down into different categories such as e-commerce, hobbies, arts and crafts, and personal. However, one downside to the temperature is that it cannot be changed. Although they can be modified and customized through the built-in tools, you can’t switch to another template.
There are countless themes (free and paid) available in WordPress. However, free themes have limited support and undergo a strict review process. On the other hand, paid themes offer a lot of features and support options. Themes in WordPress range from small personal sites to big e-commerce sites with built-in customization options. You could also make use of styling plugins to modify our customized WordPress themes.
Free themes can also be downloaded from the wordpress.org directory. At the same time, paid items have several WordPress themes and theme shops such as Astra, StudioPress, CSSigniter, Themify, etc. You could also hire a design firm to help create a unique custom theme for your business.
One of the major perks of WordPress is that its theme can be changed to a different theme anytime you want. This gives you the luxury of growing your website as your business grows.
Ultimately, WordPress has more themes and design layouts than Wix and can easily change them and customize them without limitations. This feature gives WordPress an unrivaled edge over Wix in terms of design and Layout.
So like I said. WordPress is just better!
WordPress is undoubtedly better than Wix in price, design, e-commerce, and functionality, which explains its dominance over Wix and other website-building platforms.
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