2025 Showdown: Picking the Perfect Platform—Wix or WordPress?

Website builders have simplified the process of creating and launching websites, making it easier than ever to get started. There is a wide range of online website building tools available today, which can sometimes be overwhelming. When choosing a platform, two names frequently come up: Wix and WordPress.

To help you decide, I’ve compared Wix and WordPress across important aspects like pricing, features, SEO capabilities, blogging tools, customer support, and more. Please note, I may earn affiliate commissions at no extra cost to you if you choose to buy a paid plan through the links below. These are some of the best tools I’ve tested for creating and managing websites. You can review my affiliate policies in my privacy policy.

Let’s begin with a detailed comparison.

Before diving into the specifics, I’ll provide a brief overview of each platform’s fundamentals. Although both can be used for building and managing websites, they have distinct differences that are crucial to know.

As many are aware, Wix is an all-in-one platform designed to simplify website creation. It offers a user-friendly drag-and-drop interface that requires no coding skills, enabling anyone to build a professional-looking site with ease. Using Wix, beginners can handle every aspect—from designing pages to managing domains and web hosting. Wix also supports content management, e-commerce functionalities, and provides responsive customer support.

Getting started with Wix is hassle-free: just visit the official website, create an account, and begin building your site. It offers several plan options, including a free tier, so you can try it out without financial commitment. Paid plans include free hosting and custom domains, depending on your chosen plan. An additional advantage is the Wix ADI, an AI-powered website builder that creates a personalized site for you with minimal effort. Experienced developers can also access advanced customization using Wix Corvid, which allows for editing HTML and CSS.

Overall, Wix is ideal for small businesses and entrepreneurs who want to set up a professional site within hours. Its intuitive interface, affordable pricing, and numerous design choices make it a popular choice among beginners and content creators alike.

Founded in 2003, WordPress has a longer history than Wix, which launched in 2006. Initially started as a blogging platform, WordPress has grown into one of the most powerful Content Management Systems (CMS) on the web. Currently, over 35% of all websites are powered by WordPress, a figure that underscores its dominance and versatility.

Using WordPress, you’ll never run out of options for themes, plugins, or functionality. However, it’s essential to understand that there are two main versions of WordPress. The first is WordPress.org, a self-hosted CMS software that you install on your web server. It’s open-source, meaning it’s free to use and highly customizable. You can modify the source code, choose from countless themes and plugins, and tailor your site to fit your specific needs.

The second version is WordPress.com, a SaaS (Software-as-a-Service) platform similar in concept to Wix. With WordPress.com, the hosting and technical management are handled for you, and you pay a recurring fee to use the service. This option simplifies the process but offers less flexibility compared to the self-hosted version.

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Now that you have a basic understanding of what each platform offers and how they operate, it’s time to compare them directly. For this, I’ve chosen key features that influence how easily you can establish your online presence.

The primary reason many opt for Wix or WordPress is simplicity. Both platforms feature user-friendly interfaces designed for website creation. However, their approaches differ significantly, which I will explain further.

Wix offers a drag-and-drop visual editor that requires no coding skills. This means you can easily place design elements anywhere on the page and customize your site to your liking. It’s especially ideal for beginners eager to build their first website.

For even quicker setup, Wix has an advanced tool called Wix ADI (Artificial Design Intelligence). This feature asks a few questions about your business and preferred website style, then automatically generates a complete website for you. Using Wix ADI is the easiest way to have a functional online store up and running swiftly.

While these options are quick and user-friendly, they come with limited customization. If you have some technical expertise, you can switch to Wix Corvid, which provides direct access to the website’s source code for more detailed modifications.

Compared to Wix, WordPress has a steeper learning curve. Both WordPress.org and WordPress.com come with theme customizers and visual editors, but these are more complex and often require backend adjustments.

You will typically need to make changes through the backend interface. However, WordPress also incorporates drag-and-drop options via plugins like Gutenberg, Elementor, and Visual Composer to facilitate customization.

That said, getting accustomed to WordPress’s interface can be more challenging, especially if you’re using the self-hosted version, which offers greater flexibility but requires more technical knowledge. Wix’s straightforward approach is generally easier for beginners, while WordPress’s feature richness demands some patience and learning.

Based on ease-of-use, it’s clear that Wix has the upper hand. Anyone can sign up for a free or paid plan and launch a professional-looking website within hours, all without coding experience. WordPress, however, offers extensive customization options, making it a close second.

Next, let’s compare how these platforms handle design and personalization. Both Wix and WordPress provide a wide range of themes and customization options, though the extent varies. While Wix offers a solid selection of themes, WordPress allows limitless customization capabilities.

Wix features over 800 high-quality templates available for free on their platform, all designed by professionals. These templates are categorized into themes like Photography, Business, Landing Pages, and more.

Using the Wix Editor, you can easily modify various elements such as colors, fonts, and layouts. The templates are simple to install, and the drag-and-drop editor provides a live preview so you can see your adjustments in real time.

If you possess advanced skills, you can also modify templates further by adding custom elements. But keep in mind, once you pick a template, switching to a different one later means redesigning your site from scratch.

When it comes to customizing your website’s design, WordPress provides far more options than many other platforms, including Wix. It allows you to craft a highly personalized site using hundreds of available themes, which can be extensively modified to match your vision. Besides the themes offered directly by WordPress, there’s a huge ecosystem of over 5000 themes from third-party providers like ThemeForest, Themify, and Woothemes. Keep in mind, the version of WordPress.org gives you the greatest flexibility for customizing these themes.

Regarding costs, WordPress offers both free and premium themes sourced from various developers. Free themes are often capable enough for basic websites, but for advanced customization and dedicated support, investing in premium themes from trusted sources is recommended. Alternatively, you can hire a WordPress developer to build custom themes, which ensures a unique look that perfectly aligns with your brand, although this option can be more expensive.

In the realm of customization, WordPress clearly takes the lead. While Wix is a solid platform, it doesn’t offer the same depth of intricate modification that a WordPress site allows.

Enhancing your website with add-ons can significantly boost its functionality, and both Wix and WordPress excel in this area. Wix’s App Market offers over 200 apps, including free and paid options. Adding these apps is quick and easy, often just requiring a few clicks, and they cover a wide range of functions—from eCommerce tools to marketing integrations. All Wix apps are vetted and approved by the Wix team, ensuring compatibility and security.

On the other hand, WordPress provides access to over 50,000 plugins, both free and paid. Being an open-source platform, it also allows you to download and install plugins from third-party sources, vastly expanding your options. Whether you need simple features like contact forms or complex integrations such as Google Analytics, WordPress likely has a plugin for it. However, since anyone can create plugins, the quality and security of some third-party plugins can vary, requiring you to research reviews before installation.

In terms of sheer volume, WordPress leads with its extensive repository of plugins. Yet, Wix’s curated and verified app store offers the advantage of higher security and reliability. It’s wise to review user feedback for any plugin or app you consider adding.

Blogging remains one of the most powerful tools for digital marketing today. Having a blog on your website can increase traffic, engagement, and authority in your niche. Platforms vary significantly in how they support blogging—some are optimized for it, while others are more limited.400% higher ranking on search engine results pages. Additionally, companies that post frequently on their blogs tend to attract over 95% more backlinks. These statistics alone make a strong case for having a blog on your website. To maximize these benefits, it’s essential to choose a website-building tool that offers dedicated blogging features.

In this area, WordPress clearly stands out. Since its launch in 2003, WordPress originated as a blogging platform, and although it has expanded significantly since then, it still maintains excellent support for blogging. Out of the box, WordPress provides features like categories, tags, RSS feeds, and comment sections. You also have control over who can see your published content and when. Plus, the Gutenberg Editor allows you to craft attractive posts with drag-and-drop tools, making it easier to create engaging blog content.

Compared to WordPress, Wix offers more basic blogging features. It provides over 50 templates tailored for different industries and niches, which makes setting up a blog straightforward. With Wix, you can quickly upload media, schedule posts, and organize your content using tags and categories. Its editor is similar to the classic WordPress editor, enabling you to tweak the appearance of your posts, add images, videos, and other media. Wix also supplies a collection of free visuals you can incorporate into your posts.

WordPress is the clear winner when it comes to blogs. With functionalities like private posting, native comments, and specialized themes, it fully supports a comprehensive blogging experience. On the other hand, Wix’s offerings are more basic, but for beginners, they’re usually sufficient to get started.

When it comes to eCommerce, unless your website’s main focus is blogging, you’ll likely need to add online selling capabilities. Both Wix and WordPress offer their own eCommerce solutions. To sell products or services through Wix, you need to upgrade to one of their paid eCommerce plans, which include features like shipping options, abandoned cart recovery, and multi-currency payments. Large businesses can choose enterprise plans for more advanced needs. After selecting the plan, you can pick from numerous templates, customize your store’s design, set up payment methods, add shipping options, and even connect a custom domain—entirely setting up your online store seamlessly.

WordPress, primarily a blogging platform, does not natively include eCommerce features like Wix or Shopify, but it can be easily turned into an online store using the powerful WooCommerce plugin. WooCommerce is open-source, highly customizable, and offers dedicated themes and plugins for extended functionality. By installing WooCommerce, your WordPress site becomes a fully functional eCommerce store, with the flexibility to add various payment gateways, shipping options, and currencies, depending on the plugins you choose. Other eCommerce plugins available for WordPress include Ecwid, WP E-commerce, and Easy Digital Downloads, each with different features to suit varied needs.

While Wix offers built-in support for multiple payment gateways and currencies, WordPress’s WooCommerce integration depends on the plugins you select. Overall, although Wix’s eCommerce features are more inbuilt and straightforward, WooCommerce’s flexibility and customization options give WordPress a significant advantage for building complex, personalized online stores.

As your business expands, transferring your website data to a new platform may become necessary. It’s important to understand each platform’s data migration capabilities. Wix, being a proprietary service, has significant restrictions: it mainly allows exporting blog posts in XML format, while other media must be downloaded individually. Wix stores all website data on its servers, making migration difficult without expert help, and requiring permission from Wix to export content.

In contrast, WordPress is an open-source platform that makes data export straightforward. You can simply use the export feature to download all content as XML files. For self-hosted WordPress.org sites, you can create complete backups of your site—downloading media, exporting databases, and more—which makes moving your site to a different hosting provider quick and hassle-free.

Overall, WordPress offers superior data portability and flexibility. Its open-source nature makes switching hosting providers or migrating to new platforms much easier, earning it the top spot for ease of data migration.The flexibility of website portability varies between platforms. Wix, being a closed-source platform, tends to prioritize keeping users within its ecosystem, although it still provides some options to move your website elsewhere. In contrast, WordPress, as an open-source platform, allows much easier switching between hosting providers, thanks to its standardized code and widespread compatibility.

Customer support is a critical factor in choosing a website builder. Wix offers dedicated support teams available 24/7, ready to assist with issues such as billing, domain management, or site customization through email or phone calls. They also provide callback options and support in multiple languages including Italian, Portuguese, and Spanish. Furthermore, Wix offers extensive troubleshooting resources such as video tutorials and articles, which are especially handy given its user-friendly design that minimizes the need for additional help. On the flip side, WordPress does not have official customer service, since it is an open-source platform. Instead, users rely on an active community forum, countless blog posts, and social media groups. While this community support is helpful, it can require some effort to find precise solutions. For those who prefer professional help, some hosting providers like Bluehost offer 24/7 WordPress support to assist users at any time.

Since Wix is a proprietary platform, it naturally offers a more streamlined customer service experience. However, with some research and online involvement, finding support for WordPress isn’t overly complicated either. The ultimate choice depends on how much support you expect and your willingness to troubleshoot or seek professional assistance.

When it comes to gaining visibility online, SEO features are essential. Wix simplifies on-page SEO through tools like the Wix SEO Wiz, allowing users to add meta descriptions, headers, and alt text easily. It also supports advanced SEO features such as redirects and integration with Google Analytics or Search Console. Furthermore, Wix offers additional SEO apps and services like Site Booster in paid plans, helping sites get indexed by search engines. However, a significant drawback is that Wix websites heavily depend on JavaScript, which search engines have difficulty crawling and understanding, potentially hindering their ranking.

WordPress offers more robust control over SEO optimization, making it especially suitable for technical users. Plugins like Yoast SEO or RankMath provide actionable suggestions for improving content, keywords, internal links, and overall readability. Additionally, WordPress enables the creation of fully responsive websites, which Google favors in search rankings, although Google doesn’t explicitly acknowledge this preference. Overall, WordPress provides greater flexibility for SEO, with more comprehensive tools and better control over code.

In terms of ongoing maintenance, Wix automates all updates and platform improvements, meaning users don’t have to lift a finger. All technical updates happen seamlessly behind the scenes, ensuring your site remains current and secure without any manual intervention. Conversely, WordPress requires active management—users are notified of updates but need to manually install them, including updates for themes and plugins to prevent conflicts. Some hosting services like Bluehost offer automatic updates for WordPress sites, reducing some of the manual workload. Nevertheless, the responsibility for regular updates makes WordPress less hands-off, giving Wix the edge for ease of maintenance.

Finally, pricing and overall value are important considerations. Wix provides a straightforward, structured pricing system, including a free plan for basic websites, making it easier for beginners to get started without upfront costs. WordPress, on the other hand, offers more versatility and customization options, but often requires additional expenses for hosting, domain registration, themes, and plugins. While Wix’s plans are designed to be simple and user-friendly, WordPress’s open-source nature allows for a broader range of options tailored to different needs and budgets, potentially delivering greater long-term value depending on your requirements.

This platform is supported by advertisements. If you prefer an ad-free experience, you’ll need to upgrade to one of the premium plans, starting at $14 per month. These plans can go up to the VIP level at $49 per month, which includes unlimited bandwidth, storage, advanced analytics features, and a custom domain name. Keep in mind that additional charges may apply if you decide to use paid apps from the Wix App Market.

Compared to Wix, downloading and using WordPress is completely free; however, there’s a caveat. With WordPress, you need to pay separately for each level of customization—from paid themes and web design services to web hosting and SSL certificates. Hosting a WordPress site on a free domain is rarely feasible, so setting up a site can cost anywhere from a few hundred to several thousand dollars.

h4 class=”wp-block-heading”>Winner: Wix and WordPress

Both platforms offer different kinds of value for money when considering pricing. Wix provides ready-made plans catering to various needs, while WordPress offers greater flexibility in customizing costs based on your requirements.

h2 class=”wp-block-heading”>Wix vs. WordPress: Advantages and Disadvantages

h3 class=”wp-block-heading”>Advantages of Wix

h3 class=”wp-block-heading”>Disadvantages of Wix

h3 class=”wp-block-heading”>Advantages of WordPress

h3 class=”wp-block-heading”>Disadvantages of WordPress

h2 class=”wp-block-heading”>Final Thoughts

WordPress and Wix both come packed with features for building websites. WordPress is an open-source platform that offers complete customization, while Wix provides a proprietary system that makes setting up a website quick and straightforward. For a comprehensive review of Wix, read my detailed review here.

Choosing the right platform depends on your specific needs. For small businesses or online shops seeking an all-in-one solution, Wix is a great choice. If you manage a larger website requiring advanced customization and greater control—plus the option to hire developers—WordPress is the better fit. Keep these points in mind to make an informed decision.