WordPress vs Wix?
Choosing the right platform for your business website is an important decision. Your website needs to look professional, work well on mobile devices, be easy to manage and, importantly, help potential customers find you on Google.
Two of the most popular options are WordPress and Wix. Both can produce professional websites, but they work in quite different ways.
So, which is better for a small business?
For many businesses, WordPress offers greater flexibility and long-term potential, while Wix can be a good option for someone who wants to build and manage a relatively simple website themselves.
What is WordPress?
WordPress is an open-source content management system used to create everything from small business websites and blogs to large e-commerce websites and complex online platforms.
One of WordPress’s biggest advantages is flexibility. Thousands of plugins can be used to add additional functionality, while themes and custom development allow a website to be designed around a business rather than forcing the business into a particular template.
This makes WordPress particularly attractive to businesses that expect their website to grow over time.
What is Wix?
Wix is an all-in-one website-building platform designed to make creating a website relatively straightforward without requiring coding knowledge.
Wix provides hosting, templates, website-building tools and a range of business features within its platform. It also includes built-in SEO tools, mobile optimisation, analytics and other marketing functionality.
For someone who wants to create a simple website themselves, this can make Wix an appealing option.
WordPress vs Wix: what’s the difference?
The biggest difference is control and flexibility.
With Wix, most of the technical infrastructure is managed for you. You work within the Wix platform, which provides the hosting and website-building environment.
With WordPress, you generally have more control over the website, hosting, themes, plugins and underlying functionality.
Neither approach is automatically better. It depends on what your business needs.
Which is better for SEO?
This is one of the most common questions we hear from small businesses.
The good news is that both WordPress and Wix can be optimised for search engines.
Wix now provides a substantial range of built-in SEO functionality, including customisable page titles and meta descriptions, URL controls, canonical tags, robots.txt controls, structured data and XML sitemaps.
WordPress also provides a strong SEO foundation, with additional SEO functionality available through plugins and custom development. WordPress itself describes the platform as search-engine optimised and provides extensive options for extending its capabilities.
However, the platform itself isn’t what makes a website rank well.
Good SEO comes from having the right content, technical setup, website structure, local relevance, links and a good user experience.
A well-optimised Wix website can outperform a poorly optimised WordPress website.
For businesses that want to invest heavily in SEO over the long term, however, we generally prefer WordPress because of the level of control and flexibility available.
Which is easier to use?
Wix is designed with ease of use in mind. Its visual editor allows users to add and customise website elements without needing to write code.
This can be particularly useful if you want to build a basic website yourself.
WordPress has become much easier to use over the years. Its block editor allows users to create and edit pages visually, while the platform can be extended with themes and plugins.
However, WordPress does have more moving parts. Hosting, updates, plugins, security and backups need to be properly managed.
That’s one reason many businesses choose to have their WordPress website professionally built and maintained.
Which gives you more design freedom?
WordPress wins here.
Wix provides a large range of templates and extensive visual design tools, so it’s certainly possible to create a very attractive Wix website.
However, WordPress gives developers much greater freedom to customise the website.
You aren’t restricted to the functionality provided by one website-building platform. WordPress can be extended with plugins, custom themes and bespoke development.
This is particularly important if your business has specific requirements or expects the website to become more sophisticated in the future.
What about ecommerce?
Both platforms can be used to sell products online.
Wix provides ecommerce functionality as part of its business platform, including payments, products and other online selling features.
WordPress can also be turned into a powerful ecommerce platform, most commonly using WooCommerce.
For a small shop selling a relatively small number of products, either option may work well.
For a business requiring more complex ecommerce functionality, integrations or custom development, WordPress generally provides greater flexibility.
What about website security?
With Wix, much of the technical infrastructure is managed by Wix itself, including hosting and SSL.
With WordPress, security depends more heavily on how the website and hosting environment are configured and maintained.
A professionally managed WordPress website should have appropriate:
Security measures
Backups
Software updates
Plugin updates
SSL/HTTPS
Monitoring
Spam protection
This is why ongoing maintenance is an important part of owning a WordPress website.
Which one is better for a growing business?
This is where we believe WordPress has a significant advantage.
Your website might start out as a simple five-page business website.
But over time you might want to add:
A blog
Landing pages
Online bookings
Ecommerce
Membership functionality
Customer portals
Advanced forms
Marketing integrations
More sophisticated SEO
Bespoke functionality
WordPress can accommodate this kind of growth because of its extensive plugin ecosystem and ability to be customised.
Wix also offers a growing range of business functionality and developer tools, so it shouldn’t be dismissed as a platform that can only handle basic websites.
The question is really how much control and flexibility your business is likely to need.
WordPress vs Wix: quick comparison
| Feature | WordPress | Wix |
|---|---|---|
| Easy to get started | ⭐⭐⭐⭐ | ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ |
| Design flexibility | ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ | ⭐⭐⭐⭐ |
| SEO flexibility | ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ | ⭐⭐⭐⭐ |
| Ecommerce | ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ | ⭐⭐⭐⭐ |
| Custom functionality | ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ | ⭐⭐⭐⭐ |
| DIY website | ⭐⭐⭐⭐ | ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ |
| Long-term flexibility | ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ | ⭐⭐⭐⭐ |
| Technical maintenance | More involved | Mostly managed |
| Hosting | Flexible choice | Included |
| Suitable for growing businesses | ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ | ⭐⭐⭐⭐ |
So, which is better for a small business?
For a business that simply needs a basic online presence and wants to build and manage the website themselves, Wix can be a perfectly reasonable choice.
But if you’re serious about building a long-term online presence, attracting customers through Google and having the freedom to expand your website as your business grows, we believe WordPress is the better choice for most small businesses.
At Omega Web Design, we specialise in creating bespoke WordPress websites for businesses in Herefordshire and Worcestershire. Rather than simply providing a template, we can design a website around your business, your customers and your long-term goals.
A website shouldn’t just look good. It should help your business get found, generate enquiries and grow.
Need a new business website?
If you’re considering a new website or wondering whether it’s time to move away from Wix, get in touch with Omega Web Design to discuss your requirements.
