The Fact-Finding Mission
So I set out to do a little research on this Wix v WordPress website debate. I asked my web developer for her perspective but she did not have time to lend a hand, except to say ‘Wix sucks’ which doesn’t much help so off to google I went. Here’s what I found:
I read an article entitled Wix Review . This guy says Wix is the bomb and could find virtually no fault when comparing the product to WordPress so I thought, ah ok well maybe I need to look into becoming a Wix pro and we can forget WordPress… but then I noticed the gigantic Wix ad down the entire right side of the article. I guess it wouldn’t be a great business decision to give Wix a bad rap under these circumstances.
Next, I happened upon a little article on the site of a web design company entitled ‘Why Online Website Builder Wix Sucks’ . This article, unfortunately didn’t offer too many well reasoned arguments one way or another, opting instead to dismiss wix as a joke and its users as idiots. Not true I think.
Finally, this article found me – WordPress vs Wix . Tyler Keenan, the writer seems relatively objective – he hasn’t sold his soul for a $10 per click ad and his living isn’t reliant upon the continued dominance of WordPress as the go to cms. More to the point he offers some arguments (with reasons) for and against both Wix and WordPress.
Ease of Use
Wix drag and drop interface means anyone can build a website quickly and easily. When it comes to a WordPress website the plethora of pre-built themes available mean that you don’t have to know code to create a good-looking website in 2017. Still, it will take a bit of time and possibly a few google searches to get the job done so Wix’s drag and drop interface wins easily on ease of use.
Cost
In terms of upfront fees, with Wix you don’t have to pay a developer which will save you a grand or 2 at the start. In terms of ongoing costs, Wix has one monthly fee of between $10 & $25 ($120 to $300 per year). When it comes to WordPress there’s a lot of competition between providers meaning that if you shop around you can get your annual costs down to below $100 a year.
Customisability
The drag and drop nature of Wix means that you are limited to the available layouts, fonts and so on. A WordPress website then, wins on customisability for the following reasons:
- it’s open source meaning your web developer can customise your website in almost every imaginable way with a few <href>’s and <img>’s, etc. Well maybe more than a few. The more customised your site the more time consuming and therefore the more costly.
- there is an endless menu list of plugins for every imaginable website function. This list has been growing for over 10 years and it’s growing faster still.
Support
Wix is effectively a subscription service and the monthly fee includes support. You can access help online via forums, the help centre or email and you can even call, although at this stage the phone centre only operates from the US during US business hours.
Exportability
This right here is probably a more important consideration than many realise. With Wix, if you ever decide to change to a WordPress website or another cms, you’ll be starting from scratch. You can’t export your data so you’ll be stuck with a few days worth of copy and paste and then another week or so of formatting. So if Wix ever decides to up their monthly fee you’ll have a dilemma on your hands.
Disclaimer
Granted, we generally use Wordpress, so you would expect that I’m a little biased. However I am not a web developer myself, just a designer and writer so I’m not going to be too disappointed if Wix continues to improve their product to challenge WordPress as the premiere content management system (‘cms’). As it stands though it looks like WordPress is still one up on Wix.