WordPress vs. Wix

Which platform is best for you?

WordPress may have pegged itself as the number one website framework of this generation of developers, but several other platforms are right on its tail. One of the more popular website builders in the market is Wix, a company that offers complete website solutions. Wix’s current user count of more than 60 million is racing just a bit behind the 70 million websites running on WordPress.

We at Pixelate are all for education and transparency, so we thought of investigating which of these two famous website creation frameworks is better. Let’s all count the ways, shall we?

In a nutshell

Let us look into an overview of the two services. WordPress is a blogging platform that has morphed itself into a CMS package. It is essentially a downloadable program that you can install in your chosen web host server, install plugins and change themes. Meanwhile, Wix is an online HTML5 website builder that offers drag-and-drop features to help you create your site. You can choose from various templates and apps to build the website that you need.

Initial site creation

If you want a quick capsule of their basic difference, Wix is designed for non-coders while WordPress involves a bit more technical knowledge. People who are looking for a quick and simple website, Wix may be the perfect solution. On the other hand, those looking for extensive functionality regardless of the technical difficulty may find their answer in WordPress.

In other words, there’s really more to it than convenience in programming. Let us look into more details about their differences.

Layout and appearance options

Wix offers more than 500 HTML5 templates designed to suit all kinds of businesses and niches. Users can adjust the site layout using the drag-and-drop editor, or even opt to use a blank page and start choosing site elements from there. However, the downside is that there is no way to change your templates once you have chosen one. You also cannot customize HTML or CSS codes to improve the layout, because Wix does not open its templates for coding by users.

If you think that the hundreds of templates in Wix is already impressive, then you probably haven’t seen the theme count in the WordPress repository; it contains more than 1,800 free themes and counting. That doesn’t include templates from external theme developers who offer free and premium themes. People who want customized themes can also tinker with codes as they see fit.

Handling dynamic content

If your plan is to put up a website to provide information about your company and products, Wix can do the job quite well. However, if you want more dynamic and interactive content, your best bet is WordPress, which runs with PHP under its hood. Expect the blogging framework to effectively handle dynamic content such as blog posts and comments. Wix is designed for static content, say a company profile, a restaurant website without online reservations, or a personal online CV.

Added functionality

WordPress has plugins and Wix has apps. If you’re going for a basic website, Wix can pretty much deliver what you need. It has more than 200 apps that can add more functionality into your pages, such as social media connections or image galleries. Many of its apps are offered free, with an option to go premium.

However, WordPress easily trumps Wix in terms of scope. WordPress has more than 37,000 free plugins (and continually increasing) under its repository across a wide range of functions – galleries, social media, security, media management, SEO, page speed, form fields, and a whole lot more. Several plugins are also available from external developers to further enhance a website’s processing capability.

Flexibility and scalability

Growth is always part of a company’s plans, and so the website creation system must be able to adjust with business expansion. This is where WordPress is king. Its open-source framework allows for changes in the theme and plugin files and even in core codes. This way, you have the option – nay, the power – to adjust your website in line with the growth of your business. In contrast, a Wix website is built by its own developers who don’t give you access to codes, so expanding it according to your liking may not be possible.

Ultimately, the decision on which website framework to use depends on your objective. Wix offers simplicity, while WordPress opens up your website to increased functionality and growth. We at Pixelate recommend WordPress for the sole reason that it’s the best online platform for your business.

Ownership

People who run a business know how important it is to claim ownership, and this includes their websites. WordPress has an upper hand in this area, since you are the real owner of your WordPress website. You can restrict access and manage users without worrying about WordPress staff changing things on your site. You have complete control over what appears in your pages – content, themes, plugins, SEO elements, and even e-commerce and money-generating apps.

In contrast, Wix owns the URL and web hosting service, so you don’t have an option to choose your own. The limited array of themes and applications that you can install in a Wix-powered website is not going to help in terms of expandability and flexibility. Moreover, Wix states in its Terms of Service that they can “use, distribute, reproduce, modify, adapt, publicly perform and publicly display” your website content for their own purposes. No one other than you has the power to do that when you run a self-hosted WordPress website.

Google Loves WordPress

Google web spam team leader Matt Cutts has been lauding WordPress for the platform’s natural ability to address common SEO issues. This results to WordPress websites being preferred by Google’s search engine spiders. In fact, the Google search expert is an avid WordPress user himself (check out his blog, which runs on WordPress).

The staff at Wix claim that their website platform is SEO-optimized. However, those who need a boost in SEO will find Wix wanting. There is no option to install SEO boosting plugins, and its default SEO framework is fairly limited.

Is WordPress for you?

Yes, it is!

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