In recent years, the web design landscape has changed dramatically. Gone are the days where you were held to ransom by having to pay for a web developer’s time to input thousands of lines of code to produce an aesthetically pleasing website for your business. Today, we have an abundance of DIY website creating sites. And for a more advanced user, we have the versatility and power of WordPress. In this article we look at one of the most popular online website builders Wix vs WordPress and the pros and cons of each.
Online website builders are extremely popular today. They offer the versatility of being able to create a website online in minutes for your business, with little or no web design experience needed. Wix is extremely popular, offering a free website (Wix domain name & Wix branding) and various paid business and professional packages to further enhance and promote your website.
WordPress.org on the other hand, is a comprehensive, open-source, self-hosted option. The software is free and can be adapted almost endlessly with themes, plugins and other customisation. The platform is extremely powerful, in that you can achieve any design and feature you need. However, there’s a learning curve involved to get the best results. Approximately 40% of the internet is powered by WordPress websites.
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The Wix vs WordPress Comparison
Let’s take a look at the pros and cons for both Wix and WordPress.org
Wix Pros
- Easy to use drag-and-drop editor
- Automatic website backups
- Useful help features
- Good speed and security
- Not locked into long term plans
Wix Cons
- Free version is Wix branded with adverts
- No unlimited bandwidth/storage plans
- SEO can be difficult
- Drag and drop editor can limit creativity
- Tracking and analytics require paid plan
WordPress Pros
- Completely free to use
- Extensive customisation including themes and plugins
- Easy to adapt for SEO
- Take control of your hosting
- Huge and active online community for help
WordPress Cons
- Some technical knowledge required
- Learning curve with customisation and optimisation
- Responsible for security and backups
- Separate hosting required
At Studio 36 Digital, we love WordPress. We find it offers endless possibilities for design and the needs of our customer’s businesses. However, if you are looking to design a website yourself, either for your business or a personal project, Wix is extremely user friendly if you have little or no technical knowledge. It’s a great starting point to get your business seen online. Often when our clients come to us having considered Wix, they do realise that the platform although great for beginners, has significant limitations going forward.
When considering where and how to go about creating a website, think about the future of your business and how you may need to adapt your website in the future for additional features or services. This often leads to a decision to use WordPress from the very start, to effectively ‘future proof’ their website, and remove the risk of having to start over with a more flexible and powerful solution.
We hope you found our Wix vs WordPress comparison useful. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact us.
