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Launching a website for your small business can be laden with tough decisions, but when you’re weighing Wix vs WordPress for your site builder, you can’t go wrong. Choosing one or the other will depend on the needs of your business, the size of your budget and your team’s previous experience with site building. But both options come loaded with tools to help you get online fast and affordably without being a tech expert. Here’s what you need to know to pick the best website builder for your small business.
Wix vs WordPress snapshot
Pricing and plans
Wix pricing
Wix offers a free plan and charges $16/month for its Light paid plan and $27/month for its Core plan. Small businesses may find just what they need in these plans, with basic marketing and e-commerce tools at an affordable price (it’s worth noting that you need to pay for at least Core to start accepting online payments, and while Wix breaks its pricing down by month, customers have to pay for a full year at the time of purchase).
For larger businesses, the Business plan at $32/month and Business Elite at $79/month offer a breadth of digital space to make an online store work for you. If you need your website to function mostly for sales, opting for one of these versions that includes important business functions such as automated sales tax, advanced marketing tools and gift card options may be best.
WordPress pricing
WordPress offers more plans at the low end of the cost spectrum if you choose annual billing, making getting started as a small business with limited needs more customizable. Beyond the free option, sole proprietors may find what they need in the Personal plan for $4/month, while the Premium plan at $8/month could get a website up and running for most small businesses.
It’s worth saying that these plans would be ideal for businesses with teams that have some site-building experience and can contribute enough sweat equity to make the savings worth the extra effort of maintaining hosting and security in addition to design.
For bigger companies with wider needs and tools requirements, you can use the Business plan at $25/month or the Commerce plan at $45/month. These scaled-up plans offer the extra perks of commerce solutions, some of which include 50GB of storage, options to add premium store themes, selling in over 60 countries and much more.
It’s important to remember that these rates reflect annual billing; small-business owners may opt to pay monthly for slightly higher rates.
Verdict: Wix provides more at slightly higher costs
Though you may spend more per month on the mid-tier Wix plans, for most small businesses looking to build a website these few extra dollars will deliver enough service to be worth it. Built-in security and maintenance as well as design assistance will save time for business owners running their own site, meaning more time to make money elsewhere.
Templates and website editor
You don’t have to know how to code a website from scratch to get your business online thanks to design templates and intuitive website editors. Both Wix and WordPress offer many website templates as well as detailed editing dashboards to make your site your own.
Wix
Wix offers an AI assistant for setup. When you begin making your website, the AI assistant prompts you with questions in a chat box. As you answer them, the assistant begins building your website, though you can make changes later. This can help you quickly build a site without being bogged down by too many choices.
Once you get to the Wix dashboard editor, you can tweak the site the assistant put together. The dashboard editor walks you through menu options to add features to your new site like pages with interactive images to compare your options.
You can choose from over 800 templates to find a look that works for your business, though it’s important to note that Wix locks users into a single template at the start of the build process. If you want to change up the design of your website, you’ll need to start over with a different site. WordPress, on the other hand, allows you to swap templates as needed.
WordPress
WordPress offers a stunning number of themes to fully customize your website, with over 11,000 free themes available on its site alone. Users aren’t limited to those, however; third-party vendors across the internet sell other themes for WordPress, making it near-certain that small businesses can find the right fit without having to start entirely from scratch. Once you’ve picked a theme — or opted for a blank site — you don’t have to know how to code to use the WordPress editor, but if you do code you can build the exact website you want.
If you’re new to building websites, WordPress’ editing dashboard can be operated without coding know-how but may feel somewhat overwhelming. It lacks intuitive features that guide you through the process like Wix. Instead, you must individually add each page you want on your site.
When using a prebuilt template, you can edit the provided image thumbnails and paragraphs to add your own content, or you can drop your own “blocks” in to add text, images, slideshows, social media links and more. Each block provides options to change its placement, size, font, style, etc. To apply settings consistently across all sections of your site, be prepared to get familiar with the small details of maintaining these block settings, which may take some time to learn how to maintain.
Verdict: Wix’s AI assistant launch gets you up and running fast
Both Wix and WordPress have similar editor layouts, but users building their first site or who don’t have a lot of time to devote to website building will appreciate the hand-holding of the AI assistant in setting up a simple site. Analysis paralysis could make launching a site on WordPress take longer without assistance, but honorable mention does go to the impressive breadth of available WordPress themes that allow for the most customization.
Setup and ease of use
Feeling confident enough to launch your website is important for small-business owners, so choosing a site builder that is simple to use is essential. Novices can benefit from intuitive templates and drag-and-drop build features on both Wix and WordPress.
How easy is it to use Wix?
Using Wix to make a website isn’t much different than making a profile on Facebook or TikTok. You can customize some of how it looks and add all of your own content, but in the end management of the website falls on Wix. You are guided through intuitive user interfaces to update and create content on your site without seeing any of the technical side of things.
How easy is it to use WordPress?
While WordPress is not inherently difficult for small businesses to use, it does require some juggling of moving parts. This includes choosing a domain name host for a custom domain. You can choose one that partners with WordPress at the time of creating your site or you purchase your domain elsewhere and link it to WordPress to build your site.
Verdict: Wix offers simplicity at every step of website management
From choosing colors for your template to hands-off security maintenance, Wix offers simplicity at every step of website management. Though its template and app options are more limited than WordPress’, this can make decision-making less overwhelming for a smooth, easy-to-use business website. Wix users have given it 4.5 out of 5 stars in over 13,000 Trustpilot reviews. Comparatively, WordPress received only 2 out of 5 stars, with recent reviews noting the difficulty of learning to use the product.
E-commerce tools
Both Wix and WordPress offer ways to launch a digital storefront in minutes. The e-commerce tools available depend on your plan, but setting up a store online can be simple and affordable with both.
Selling with Wix
You can use your Wix site as a digital storefront when you customize the e-commerce settings of your profile and choose an app to create the framework of the store. Wix Stores is its free-to-install proprietary app. It provides options to list products, host shopping carts for customers, manage inventory and shipping, sell across social media sites like Facebook and process payments.
Wix’s Business plan and above come with built-in e-commerce tools. All sites at these levels can add up to 50,000 products, execute abandoned cart measures, apply automatic discounts and accept both manual and pre-order purchases. Additional options at varying levels include shipping, loyalty programs, product reviews, branded digital gift cards and multiple currency checkouts.
Selling with WordPress
WordPress’ e-commerce settings make it simple to make money online. Users can add PayPal buttons to any page so that they can accept debit or credit cards. You can create paid subscriptions to content on your site or send paid content out via automated tools like email newsletters, and you can build a storefront to host and sell products right on the site.
When you sell with WordPress, you often start by adding an e-commerce plug-in to create a storefront. One of the best-known examples of these plug-ins is WooCommerce, while another popular way to sell on WordPress is to add a Shopify buy button. These provide product listings, inventory management, shipping options, payment processing and more.
Verdict: Wix Stores sells itself
For small businesses looking for a no-muss, no-fuss way to list products online and manage the associated shipping and payment process, the Wix Stores app makes it simple to get selling. With no need to go into a third-party app, entrepreneurs and established businesses moving into digital selling can take advantage of this straightforward store-building option.
Add-ons, apps and integrations
Think of site builders like Wix and WordPress like a smartphone. These builders get you up and running, able to make phone calls just like a smartphone’s operating system. But if you want to do anything else with it, you’ll need to check out add-ons and integrations to fully customize its performance. Developers offer and sell different types of integrable apps for websites that provide functions like e-commerce orders or appointment scheduling.
Wix
Wix hosts apps in its App Market. There are over 300 apps and integrations to use from the Wix marketplace. Both apps made by Wix and apps contributed by third-party developers are available to install on your Wix site. Some apps are free or have a free tier, while others have a monthly cost to use. Wix offers a line of free-to-install business solutions including Wix Stores, Wix Restaurant Orders and Wix Bookings to meet the needs of small-business owners through streamlined integrations.
WordPress
WordPress lets you add external tools with plug-ins. With almost 50,000 free plug-ins, WordPress’ directory of optional tools is a cornucopia of design options. The options for integrating other types of tools with WordPress are equally broad, including marketing, monetizing, advertising and content import/exports.
WordPress also has affordably priced add-ons such as additional storage space of 50-100GB or the Jetpack AI assistant that can help you craft meaningful content right within the WordPress editor.
Verdict: WordPress delivers endless customizations
The sheer scale of optional add-ons and plug-ins pushes WordPress ahead of Wix in this category. Business owners may feel limited by the smaller number of available Wix apps. If you’re looking for a truly customizable experience on your business website, access to thousands of third-party plug-ins on WordPress will almost certainly fulfill your needs.
Marketing and SEO tools
Ideally, the website builder you use for your business’s website should integrate tools that can help your marketing and SEO strategy efforts. Both Wix and WordPress can optimize your content for search engines and help make sure your customers can find you.
Wix
All of Wix’s paid plans come complete with a full marketing suite that includes customizable lead capture forms such as quizzes and registration forms, automated marketing tools like emails and chats, and the option to create tasks and notify teammates for smoother workflows. The Business plan and above also offer site chat to directly message customers through your website. Wix offers proprietary tools under Marketing & SEO in your dashboard, including:
- SEO
- Email marketing
- Facebook and Instagram ads
- Google ads
- Google Business Profile
- Social media marketing
To begin using these tools, you can go through guided questions similar to the AI assistant for setup and work your way through an SEO setup checklist. Even if you don’t know anything about SEO, Wix helps optimize your site. Integrations with external SEO tools like SEMRush can help you pick the best keywords to feature as Wix walks you through the SEO checklist. If you want to know more, you can explore Wix’s SEO Learning Hub.
WordPress
WordPress’ marketing integrations and tools include a host of plug-ins that you can use to get your site noticed and track how effective your marketing efforts are, including well-known marketing services and tools such as Verblio and MailChimp. Dashboard tools also span traffic reports and connections to facilitate social media sharing.
You can pursue further SEO education with WordPress as well by enrolling in its Intro to SEO course. Jumping into this free, hour-long course can help beginners understand the benefits of using the marketing tools included with their site.
Verdict: WordPress integrations give you a virtual marketing team
Even if you’re a one-person show managing your business and website, you can get the power of a marketing team when you tap into the top-of-the-line integrations WordPress provides. With a host of plug-ins geared toward marketing and SEO available to add to your WordPress site, you can use the same name-brand marketing tools that professionals at your larger competitors rely on, all from your WordPress dashboard.
Why Wix is a small business’s dream
For the average small business, perhaps one just beginning to expand its local reach and looking to build an audience online, Wix is an ideal partner for building a website. It does the heavy lifting so entrepreneurs can keep doing what they’re actually passionate about and need to focus on — running their business. Wix offers an all-in-one digital experience that takes the hassle out of building and maintaining a site at affordable rates.
But there is absolutely room for both Wix and WordPress in the small and medium-sized business website world. As with many tech choices, you’ll find that the Wix vs. WordPress debate is similar to those over Mac vs. PC or iPhone vs. Android.
Wix offers that all-in-one experience that Apple users love (think the hardware/software combo in Apple products). Wix users don’t have to be tech experts to use the programs. But what Wix (like Apple) gains in usability, it loses in price and customizability. Which is where WordPress comes in. Much like PCs and Android phones, WordPress has a wider range of low-cost options that are all highly customizable if users know how to work them.
When should you choose Wix?
Wix may be ideal for true site-building beginners. The tools, simplicity and all-in-one design of Wix makes for a low-maintenance, high-performance site without any background knowledge. For small businesses that only need to get their name and info online (and perhaps put up an e-commerce storefront), Wix has all the tools to get it done without the hassle of managing a complex site design.
When should you choose WordPress?
WordPress may work best for those who want to be able to control more of their site. Companies on the medium-sized end of the spectrum or those who need a site with individualized functions related to their products and sales should explore WordPress. WordPress also offers more available integrations with third-party plug-ins, so you can make use of the best tools directly from the platform.
Frequently asked questions (FAQs)
Wix does offer a free plan for hosting a website. It comes with 500MB of storage and customer support but doesn’t provide a custom domain and requires Wix ads on every page.
Wix offers a free plan, as well as paid options. Premium plans from Wix come at a variety of price points, from Light for $16/month through Business Elite for $159/month. While Wix lists monthly pricing, customers are charged for a full year’s subscription at the time of purchase.
Yes, WordPress.org is different from WordPress.com. The distinction is in how users want to host websites based on WordPress. If users want to install WordPress on a website hosted elsewhere that they maintain themselves, they can snag the open-source tools from WordPress.org. Alternatively, users who want a site for which they don’t have to find hosting or provide security and maintenance can use the hosting service found at WordPress.com.
Yes, you can make a free website on WordPress. Free websites come with a basic set of tools to customize your site, 1GB of storage and unlimited pages. These don’t have the option to add extras like an associated email inbox or a custom domain name.
Alternatives to Wix and WordPress include Weebly, GoDaddy and Squarespace.
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