Wix or WordPress: Which is Better for Your Website?

If you are looking for a NJ WordPress Developer to build a business website, you are probably mulling over your different options. I’m sure that you can see from us working through WordPress what our opinion on the matter may be, but without bias we would love to go over Wix vs. WordPress. Although WordPress hosts about 29% of the world’s websites, Wix is also a popular hosted website builder, there is never one way to do something, but let us dive into which way may be better. When this post is all said and done, you should have a more clear set opinion on the platform that will be best used for building your website.

NJ WordPress Developer: Wix vs WordPress

Now, before we jump into the nitty gritty of Wix vs. WordPress lets just go over the very basic and obvious differences between these two platforms. Both hold a very basic solution to the website building world, simplicity and accessibility, flexibility and easy customization, but what you need and want is up to you. Simplicity and accessibility is just that, how simple is it for a beginner to build their website off this platform. Flexibility and easy customization is also pretty straightforward. This is about how easy it is to get your website design exactly the way you want it, how easy is it to have that vision you had in mind come to life on this platform.

Every platform has to make the hard decisions of what to keep and what to sacrifice to create a well accessible website building tool for both beginners as well as for those of us who already have the know-how. Wix on one hand gave up some of the flexibility and customization to make it easier for a beginner to have the ability to build a well functioning site of their own. While WordPress may be a little less user friendly, they were able to hold more of the ability to customize and build your entire website the way you desire it. So again, these platforms have to decide what to sacrifice in order to be usable by many but detailed enough to build what you’re looking for.

Now, down to the nitty gritty details, outside of those basic core differences there are some other differences between Wix and WordPress such as:

Data ownership
Website maintenance
Price

Wix vs. WordPress: How Easy Are They?

If you are looking to create a quick aesthetic website, then Wix can handle that. It is an easy quick solution when you are just trying to create something fast and easy that looks nice in not a lot of time, but after the fact the flexibility of that website doesn’t always meet standards.

WordPress on the other hand, while still relatively easy, you may need to put a little more time into getting your site up and running and having it hosted but it is an overall good platform experience. You can hire a NJ WordPress Website design firm for beautiful custom designs.

Wix

If you truly want to know how simple it is to create a website with Wix here is your step by step:

-Sign Up

-Choose Your Type Of Site

-Choose Your Template

-Edit Your Template

-Publish Your Page

Choosing what type of Wix site to create. We all know what it is to sign up for something. Now, to choosing your type can be as easy as picking what type of business you are, for instance, a restaurant type. Templates will now be relevant to the type of site you picked, and you can select the one you most like. Next you end up on Wix’s editing page, where you can change fonts, text, the images you would like on your site, and more. Once your page is edited to your liking it is as simple as publishing your page, or in other words, taking your website live. Through Wix everything is laid out and put together pretty much for you, and is a great easy solution to website building. That is, assuming you do not want to customize and create something of your own, and you like the options they give you.

NJ WordPress Developer

While Wix is an easy 1, 2, 3, you sign up, create, and publish your site just like that, WordPress is a bit different. Before you can just jump in and begin building your website you will need to of course sign up, but for web hosting, and while doing so you will need to create your domain name. Although this is an extra step, don’t fret. Hosting companies these days really know how to make it a simple process that won’t take up more than ten more minutes of your time. So aside from this, step by step WordPress is much the same:

-Sign Up (with hosting site/create domain)

-Choose Your Theme

-Edit Your Theme

-Publish Your Page

Choosing a WordPress theme.

So, WordPress is as simple as Wix in ways, but you hold the right to customize your website much more when using WordPress. You have the ability to pick from the set themes provided as well as look around online for themes that you can buy, and upload for your site. A lot of these themes have sample information, which you can edit and replace with your own rather than starting completely fresh. While WordPress may not be quite as beginner friendly for users, it is still not a complicated platform, and it has much more options for creating the website you truly imagined you could have for your business.

NJ WordPress Developer | How Much Control Do You Have Over Your Website’s Functionality?

Wix

The Wix App Market, unlike something like squarespace, it gives you much more flexibility. Even with this tool though you still will not come close to the flexibility and range you can find when using WordPress. The Wix App Market at this point in time only holds 288 apps, which you will soon see doesn’t even begin to hold a flame up to the amount WordPress can do. You should also know that when using Wix you are very limited to the amount of coding you can change yourself, which for a beginner who would like the easy aspects of Wix may not mind, but if you end up hiring someone to help with your site, they too will also be limited with the amount of coding they can do themselves to improve your site.

WordPress

First off, WordPress covers it all. It may not be quite as simple to use, but it allows you much flexibility and enables you to tweak code as needed for your desired outcome. Let’s start off with plugins. WordPress plugins give you more functionality or alter the existing functionality without needing to be versed in any code. At this point in time WordPress has more than 53,000 different free plugins that can be installed. They also have thousands more premium plugins at your disposal for varying cost.

If you want to connect your social media accounts to your website it is as easy as using a social media plugin. There are plugins for most things you can think of, advertising, contact forms and information, quizzes, and more. You also have the option to use a plug in that will even allow you to edit your page as easily as you can with the Wix Editor.

Even more so you, or whatever website developer you may hire, can add custom to your website, allowing you to have even more flexibility with building your site. Which as previously stated is a very limited option for Wix.

Wix Vs. WordPress: Handling eCommerce?

Both Wix and WordPress offer eCommerce but with Wix but as with most things on Wix it does not have as much flexibility. There are easier ways such as with WooCommerce or as far as WordPress there are easy digital downloads.

Wix

There are a couple options when applying eCommerce to Wix. You could choose from online store templates that are already set up and ready for you or you could use the store app with your existing template. When managing your eCommerce you use a popup interface. This is great when using it for simple products, but it has a lack of flexibility when it comes to customization and product information, it is mostly limited to simple products and text fields.

If your products are simple sales, such as t-shirts then Wix will most likely do the trick. If your products are customized you will probably find yourself wanting more flexibility. You could use Wix’ eComerce functionality but this function is only available through a purchase of one of their special store plans rather than their regular Wix site.

WordPress

Many do not realize this but although WordPress is known for being a platform for building websites, it is also actually the top eCommerce platform holding 42% of all eComerce sites. You can have eCommerce through using a plugin to add that functionality. The top two options of plugins for this are:

WooCommerce – mainly focused on physical products
Easy Digital Downloads – mainly focused on virtual products

There are even more options with these plugins. There are more plugins you have the option of getting that will give your online store space even more range and ability. You will have more options in the way your products will be displayed and managed on your site.

When using your platform to sell your products you will want as much flexibility as possible, which is why WordPress is a great option when using eCommerce.

Who Is In Control? Data On Your Platform

When picking your platform you will want to consider data ownership. Data ownership consists of things such as being able to keep your content when switching to another website builder, or whether or not you are able to download content easily. As stated in the beginning data ownership is one of the big differences between Wix and WordPress, WordPress has data ownership, and is a clear cut choice when taking this important factor into consideration. You are in full control of all your content when using WordPress.

Wix

When dealing with Wix you have a lack of data ownership, in fact when looking at Wix’s knowledge base they state “Your Wix site and all of its content is hosted exclusively on Wix’s servers, and cannot be transferred elsewhere. Specifically, it is not possible to export or embed files, pages or sites, created using the Wix Editor or ADI, to another external destination or host.” In other words, when using Wix the content you publish and edit on their platform will thereon be owned by them, you will not be able to keep or transfer that content if ever switching to another host. Although there may be ways around this issue, Wix by no means makes the transfer an easy to do.

Wix Vs. WordPress: Ongoing Maintenance?

As we have gone over, Wix tends to lack flexibility and gives no data ownership, but where it makes up for these pit falls is maintenance and security. When using Wix, it is easy and simple, and they take that to the next level by taking care of maintenance issues as well as handling all security for your site.

WordPress, on the other hand, leaves these things up to you. You, or the one you hire, will need to maintain your site as well as keep it secure. Although you may need to keep your site maintained, you will have flexibility and data ownership of your content.

Wix

As previously stated Wix will take care of all maintenance and security issues that may arise with your site. You will not need to know any maintenance or security tips because it is handled for you.

WordPress

When using WordPress you are in charge of everything, which to most, but to those of you who may not know or want to handle these things there are host companies that will take care of it for you. You can also use some of those handy plugins; you can find security plugins specifically. You will also be in charge of things such as updating your software and making sure that the data on your page is backed up safely.

What will be the Platform Cost?

Wix

Wix always holds true to its simple solutions, and you will always know exactly how much you will be paying for your plan. You can choose from two monthly plans and the difference in the two is whether or not you will choose to have eCommerce. You also have the choice of a free Wix plan but with this plan come Wix ads, and the inability to have your own domain name.

WordPress

To pinpoint the cost of WordPress is not as clear cut, but in the long run tends to be much more cost effective than Wix, mostly due to the flat rate monthly from Wix. There are different variables to WordPress costs. For one, there is the hosting price, which can be around $30 dollars a month for a high quality and well managed hosting company with WordPress. There’s also the cost of having your domain name, which is a typically a very low cost of around $10 per year. Aside from the mandatory costs, you could also find yourself purchasing higher quality, premium themes, or plugins to boost your website to a better level of aesthetics and efficiency.

Wix Vs. WordPress: Which is Better for SEO?

When debating the topic of whether Wix or WordPress is better for SEO it is usually a very split decision. We have found that they are very similar in many ways when it comes to SEO. Both Wix and WordPress give you the ability to change page titles, meta descriptions, and H1-H6 tags. Both allow you to add alt tags to images. You can generate sitemaps for quicker and easier crawling. Both can be mobile friendly as well as standardly using short URLs, and connecting to Google Search Console, Bing, Google Analytics, and more.

When it comes to off-page SEO, it does not really matter which platform you are on, neither a backlink or social signal will be affected. So across the board both of these platforms are generally the same, but there is an area that WordPress will take the win. With WordPress as in most categories, you will have more control, in this case over indexing, crawling, and blocking. Which all can directly affect your SEO rankings. When dealing with matters of SEO it is always more important to focus on the quality of the content you will be putting live rather than the platform you publish it on. Your focus should be on the quality of your promotion, with your page as well as your social media avenues.

Wix vs WordPress: Which One Should You Choose?

It all comes down to what you are looking for from your platform. If you need something easy to use, laid out, and already put together for you, Wix is your choice. As long as you are not concerned with having control and being able to fully customize your page to have something all of your own that will help you stand out in the crowd of websites that are flooding the Internet. It will maintain itself and stay secure and handled by Wix, but know your data will also be owned by Wix. If that is all ok with you, then you have your pick. Just be sure to keep in mind that if you someday decide you want those things, flexibility and ownership, Wix does not make the change to another platform as easy a task as building your site.

Overall WordPress tends to be the top choice for most businesses and web builders. It has all the things you look for when choosing Wix, while it may not be quite as easy, it still isn’t that difficult a program to grasp. You have the added bonus of being able to customize your website fully, whether through premium themes, or added plugins. All your data and content posted is owned by you, leaving you in control of your home base for your business.

The choice is yours- but we hope you take ownership of your content and build your site on the platform catered to the needs of your growing business, rather than take an easy way out. Take control of your site- it’s never too late to learn a new word that will impress the target market your business is reaching. But whatever your decision, we’d love to hear your input on Wix vs. WordPress!

Let TJB WebMedia Design Your WordPress Website!

TJB WebMedia is the leading NJ WordPress Design company. As you can see from our portfolio, whether a customized WordPress website or an eCommerce web design with an online store and many different products, we are there to help. Many NJ web design companies offer pre-built templates that all appear the same. Just as bad, these templates are poorly coded and bad for SEO. Our custom WordPress designs are skillfully crafted for SEO and provide you with a more flexible website with better SERP results and higher ROI. This SEO friendly approach to our NJ website designs will destroy your competition as your website dominates the search results!