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WordPress Guide → Vs → Wix
Comparing Wix vs. WordPress: 10 differences to know in 2026
Are you trying to decide between WordPress and Wix for your website?
Wix and WordPress are two of the most popular website-building platforms among aspiring website owners.
You might ask, “Well, which is better, WordPress or Wix?“
While both are powerful tools for creating a successful web presence, they differ in fundamental ways.
Keep reading to make an informed decision about which platform is right for you.
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What is Wix?
Wix is a closed source, cloud-based web development platform that enables users to create professional websites that are optimized for mobile viewing without requiring any coding knowledge.
With Wix, users can easily drag and drop elements such as text boxes, images, videos, and apps to customize their website’s design with an intuitive user interface.
The platform also provides hosting, domain names, and ecommerce features, allowing users to create a complete online presence.
Additionally, Wix boasts advanced SEO tools and marketing options to help promote their websites and reach more potential customers.
In essence, Wix is an all-in-one website-building platform that enables users to easily build a beautiful website without any technical expertise.
Wix, however, does not allow you to export your site for easy migration to other platforms, nor does Wix allow you to download site pages.
What is WordPress?
WordPress is a powerful open source content management system (CMS) that can be used to create websites, blogs, and other online applications.
It is highly customizable, with thousands and thousands of available plugins and themes that can be used to customize the look and feel of any website or blog.
WordPress also makes it easy for users to manage their content with its intuitive admin dashboard. WordPress is used by millions of people around the world and powers some of the most popular websites on the internet today.
With its flexible framework, WordPress makes it easy for users to create powerful websites without needing to know how to code or having a deep knowledge of web technologies.
1. Wix vs WordPress: pricing
Wix pricing
Wix offers a variety of pricing options to suit all budgets and needs. Wix has several plans with prices ranging from $20-60 per month depending on which plan is selected.
For those just starting out, the $20 version provides basic website-building capabilities and two gigabytes of disk space.
For those wanting more features, the $60 plan offers more than one hundred gigabytes of disk space, advanced website-building capabilities, and drop-shipment integration.
Both plans offer free domain registration for one year as well as access to customer support.
WordPress pricing options
WordPress offers a variety of pricing options to suit the needs of any type of user.
For personal use, the WordPress platform is free and open source, making it an excellent choice for bloggers, hobbyists, and other casual users, provided they have existing hosting.
For businesses or larger website owners, Liquid Web offers a comprehensive suite of managed WordPress hosting services.
2. Wix vs WordPress: design and customization
Wix design and customization
With the drag-and-drop editor from Wix, you can quickly create pages and layouts without needing any coding or web design skills.
You are constrained to use their themes and fonts, but since Wix offers more than 800 free themes to choose from, you are quite likely to eventually find a look that is well-suited to your website.
WordPress design and customization
WordPress is an extremely versatile CMS platform that allows users to customize their websites with a variety of themes, templates, and plugins. With WordPress, you can create a beautiful website that is easy to navigate and use.
WordPress is an intuitive platform that makes it simple for users to add images, videos, and other media to their websites. With the help of plugins and widgets, WordPress sites can look completely unique from any other website on the internet.
3. Wix vs WordPress: ease of use
Wix ease of use
The drag-and-drop feature from Wix allows you to easily move elements on the page. It really is as simple as clicking on an element on the page and dragging it to where you want.
The free themes can feel a little cookie-cutter in their sameness, but it is easy to customize your website by just dragging and dropping.
Overall, it is an excellent choice for those just starting out.
WordPress ease of use
With zero coding knowledge, anyone can use the block editor from WordPress (included with every release of WordPress since 2018) to quickly create beautiful and dynamic sites.
It has a user-friendly interface with many useful features like drag-and-drop, blocks for media and text, revision history (think: “undo”), and much, much more.
With just a bit of technical know-how (or the ability to follow a guide on theme customization), you can really customize any theme to make a unique site that looks and feels professionally designed.
4. Wix vs WordPress: ecommerce capabilities
Wix ecommerce capability
With Wix, you can set up your own store with a few simple steps. You’ll have access to customizable shop designs, powerful features to manage and market your products, secure payment processing, and more.
You’ll also be able to track sales and monitor inventory in real-time. All this allows you to focus on what really matters – growing your business.
With Wix’s intuitive drag-and-drop editor, making changes or adding new products is hassle-free so you can always stay ahead of the competition while taking advantage of the latest trends in ecommerce.
To top it all off, Wix offers excellent customer service and support to help you succeed. So get started with Wix ecommerce today and start selling online!
WordPress ecommerce capability
WordPress is an incredibly useful platform for setting up an ecommerce store. With the WooCommerce plugin, you can create a seamless, user-friendly online store that’s easy to manage and customize. WordPress also powers 36.28% of the top 1 million websites.
With its intuitive interface, you’ll be able to quickly add products, set up payment options, and even track performance. WordPress also offers dozens of themes and plugins so you can easily make your store look professional without needing any coding knowledge.
Whether you’re a novice or an experienced seller, WordPress and WooCommerce make it a breeze to set up a successful ecommerce store.
5. Wix vs WordPress: support and maintenance
Wix support and maintenance
Because Wix is a closed source hosting platform, all support and maintenance of site and platform tools are provided by Wix.
The Wix Support Center provides a comprehensive library of helpful articles, tutorials, and videos to help users with any issues they may have.
Additionally, their customer service team is available via phone or email for personalized assistance when needed. Additional support options are available for premium plans.
AppSharp has released an app called Site Booster that helps users monitor and maintain their websites.
Site Booster, which has a limited free version and a premium version, automatically checks for broken links, missing images, and other potential issues that can affect a site’s performance.
WordPress support and maintenance
WordPress and WooCommerce sites require dedicated support and maintenance for optimal performance.
Keeping WordPress updated to the latest version can help to ensure the website is secure, up-to-date, and running smoothly.
It’s also important to have backups of your site’s data and content just in case the worst happens.
Having a maintenance plan in place can help ease the burden of upkeep. Managed hosting with Liquid Web offers an enhanced level of support and maintenance to keep your WordPress and WooCommerce site running smoothly and reliably.
With a managed hosting plan, you get access to experienced WordPress engineers who can provide technical support 24/7, automated backups so you don’t have to worry about data loss, and managed upgrades to make sure your site is always running the latest version.
6. Wix vs WordPress: performance
Wix performance
Wix sites are hosted exclusively on Wix’s servers, which means your site’s performance is tied to their infrastructure. While Wix has made significant improvements to their hosting environment in recent years, there are still limitations when it comes to speed optimization.
Load times on Wix can be slower than WordPress sites on premium hosting, especially as your site grows in size and complexity. Wix does offer automatic CDN integration which helps distribute your content across global servers, improving load times for visitors around the world.
One advantage of Wix’s controlled environment is that they handle all server-side optimizations automatically. You don’t need to worry about caching, compression, or other technical aspects of site performance. However, this also means you have fewer options to fine-tune your site for maximum speed.
WordPress performance
WordPress performance can vary dramatically depending on your hosting provider, theme, and plugins. With the right configuration, WordPress sites can achieve blazing-fast load times that outperform Wix.
When paired with quality managed hosting like Liquid Web, WordPress sites benefit from server-side optimizations, advanced caching solutions, and content delivery networks that dramatically improve site speed. WordPress also gives you greater control over performance through optimization plugins that can compress images, minify code, and implement other speed-boosting techniques.
The open-source nature of WordPress means you can endlessly tweak and optimize your site for peak performance. However, this flexibility also means you need to be more proactive about monitoring and optimizing your site’s speed compared to the more automated Wix platform.
7. Wix vs WordPress: SEO and marketing
Wix SEO and marketing
Wix has significantly improved its SEO capabilities in recent years, offering built-in tools that make it easier for beginners to optimize their websites. The Wix SEO Wiz provides personalized step-by-step plans to help improve your site’s visibility in search engines.
With Wix, you can customize meta titles and descriptions, create SEO-friendly URLs, add alt text to images, and generate sitemaps automatically. Wix also integrates with Google Search Console and provides built-in analytics to track your site’s performance.
For marketing, Wix offers email marketing tools, social media integrations, and the ability to create and manage paid advertising campaigns directly from your dashboard. Their all-in-one marketing solution makes it convenient for small business owners who want to handle everything in one place.
However, Wix’s SEO capabilities still have limitations compared to WordPress. Advanced SEO tactics may be difficult or impossible to implement without custom coding, which Wix restricts.
WordPress SEO and marketing
WordPress is widely considered the gold standard for website SEO. With powerful plugins like Yoast SEO, Rank Math, and All in One SEO Pack, WordPress users have access to comprehensive tools that cover every aspect of on-page and technical SEO.
WordPress allows complete control over your website’s code, making it possible to implement advanced SEO strategies that aren’t available on Wix. You can customize robots.txt files, implement schema markup, create custom taxonomies, and optimize your site structure for optimal crawling and indexing.
The WordPress ecosystem also offers specialized marketing plugins for email marketing, social media management, conversion optimization, and analytics. These plugins can be combined to create powerful marketing automation workflows tailored to your specific business needs.
With WordPress, you’re not limited by the platform’s built-in capabilities. If there’s an SEO or marketing strategy you want to implement, chances are there’s a plugin or custom solution available.
8. Wix vs WordPress: security
Wix security
Since Wix manages all aspects of hosting and maintenance, security is largely handled for you. This closed ecosystem approach means Wix takes responsibility for protecting your site against common threats like malware, DDoS attacks, and security breaches.
Wix automatically implements SSL certificates for all sites, ensuring encrypted connections for your visitors. They also handle security updates and patches behind the scenes, so you don’t need to worry about keeping software components up to date.
The downside to Wix’s approach is that you have limited visibility into security measures and fewer options for implementing custom security solutions. If you have specific compliance requirements or security needs, Wix may not offer the flexibility you require.
WordPress security
WordPress security requires more active management but offers greater flexibility and control. As an open-source platform, WordPress faces more security challenges, but also benefits from a vast community constantly working to identify and address vulnerabilities.
With WordPress, you’re responsible for keeping your core software, themes, and plugins updated to prevent security breaches. However, managed WordPress hosting providers like Liquid Web handle many security aspects automatically, including malware scanning, vulnerability patching, and brute force protection.
WordPress offers numerous security plugins like Wordfence, Sucuri, and iThemes Security that provide advanced protection features such as two-factor authentication, activity monitoring, and firewall rules. These tools give you enterprise-level security options that simply aren’t available on Wix.
For businesses with specific security requirements, WordPress provides the flexibility to implement custom security measures and comply with industry-specific regulations.
9. Wix vs WordPress: app markets
Wix app market
The Wix App Market offers over 300 applications that can be integrated into your Wix website. These apps provide additional functionality ranging from marketing tools and social media integrations to booking systems and online forms.
Wix apps are designed specifically for the Wix platform, ensuring seamless integration and consistent user experience. Most apps can be installed with just a few clicks and require minimal configuration to get up and running.
While the Wix App Market covers many common business needs, it’s significantly smaller than the WordPress plugin ecosystem. This means you might encounter limitations if you need specialized functionality or integrations with niche services.
Wix also maintains strict control over their app marketplace, which means fewer security concerns but also fewer options compared to WordPress’s open ecosystem.
WordPress plugin ecosystem
WordPress boasts an extensive plugin library with over 59,000 free plugins available in the WordPress.org repository alone, plus thousands more premium options. This vast ecosystem allows you to extend your website with virtually any functionality imaginable.
Popular WordPress plugins like WooCommerce, Elementor, Contact Form 7, and Yoast SEO have millions of active installations and robust development communities. Whatever your business needs, there’s likely a WordPress plugin available to address it.
The open nature of the WordPress ecosystem means plugins vary in quality and security. While this requires more diligence when selecting plugins, it also means you have access to innovative solutions from developers around the world.
WordPress also excels at integrating with third-party services and APIs, making it the preferred choice for businesses that rely on multiple software tools and services.
10. Wix vs WordPress: blogging
Wix blogging capabilities
Wix offers a built-in blog feature that covers the basics of content publishing. You can create and schedule posts, add images and videos, enable comments, and organize content with tags and categories.
For casual bloggers or businesses that blog occasionally, Wix’s blogging tools are adequate and easy to use.
However, Wix’s blogging capabilities lack the depth and flexibility of WordPress. Content organization options are limited, and you may find yourself restricted when trying to implement advanced blogging features or custom post structures.
WordPress blogging capabilities
WordPress began as a blogging platform and has evolved into a complete CMS while maintaining its superior blogging functionality. It offers unmatched flexibility for content creation, organization, and distribution.
With WordPress, you get powerful content management tools including custom post types, taxonomies, and meta fields. You can create complex content structures, implement advanced formatting, and manage large volumes of content with ease.
WordPress excels at content organization with hierarchical categories, tags, custom taxonomies, and archive pages. The platform also offers robust revision history, allowing you to track changes and restore previous versions of your content.
For serious bloggers and content-focused businesses, WordPress provides advanced features like content scheduling, author management, private content, and extensive content filtering and search capabilities that Wix simply can’t match.
Wix vs WordPress: Comparison table
| Feature | Wix | WordPress |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing | $20-60/month with hosting included. | Free software + $5-100/month for hosting. |
| Design Options | 800+ pre-designed templates with limited customization. | Thousands of themes with unlimited customization potential. |
| Ease of Use | Very beginner-friendly with drag-and-drop simplicity. | Moderate learning curve with block editor and dashboard. |
| Performance | Good but limited optimization options. | Excellent with the right hosting and optimization. |
| SEO Capabilities | Basic SEO tools with some limitations. | Comprehensive SEO control with specialized plugins. |
| eCommerce | Built-in store functionality with payment processing. | Powerful WooCommerce plugin with unlimited extensibility. |
| Support | Direct support from Wix team. | Community forums, hosting support, and documentation. |
| Security | Managed by Wix with limited user control. | User-managed with plugin options and hosting security. |
| App Marketplace | 300+ apps with limited customization. | 59,000+ plugins with extensive customization options. |
| Blogging | Basic blogging functionality. | Advanced content management and publishing tools. |
| Maintenance | Handled automatically by Wix. | Requires regular updates and monitoring. |
| Customization | Limited to platform capabilities. | Unlimited with access to code and custom development. |
| Ownership | Closed platform with migration limitations. | Complete ownership and portability of content. |
| Scalability | Good for small to medium websites. | Excellent for websites of any size or complexity. |
Getting started with WordPress or Wix
Whether you’re looking for ease of use or robust features, it’s important to choose the right platform for your needs.
Wix offers a straightforward drag-and-drop interface and is best suited to beginners that need more guidance in developing their site.
WordPress has become much easier to use over the last 20 years, and enables users with more flexibility and creative freedom if you’re willing to learn a little.
Ultimately, the choice between Wix and WordPress depends on the specific needs of each individual website owner.
WordPress user roles play a significant role in bolstering your site’s security. Each role comes with specific permissions that determine what users can and cannot do. Limiting access based on roles reduces the risk of unauthorized changes, data breaches, and other security threats. The more granular your control over user permissions, the more secure your site will be.
It’s a good practice to regularly review user roles. As your site grows and evolves, so do the responsibilities of its users. Periodic audits of user roles help identify any discrepancies or outdated permissions that may no longer be necessary. Keeping your user roles up to date maintains a secure, well-organized WordPress environment that supports your site’s objectives.
When you’re ready to upgrade your WordPress hosting, Liquid Web can help. We’ve been offering the premium hosting for WordPress sites for decades—with the fastest speeds, best uptime guarantees, and most robust security features. Click below to explore options or start a chat to connect with one of our WordPress hosting experts right now.
Read more platform comparisons: Squarespace vs WordPress
Additional resources
What is WordPress? →
A complete beginner’s guide—from use cases, to basics, to how to get started
Managed WordPress vs. DIY →
Learn the difference between managed WordPress hosting and unmanaged (DIY) WordPress hosting, so you can decide which is best for you
How to build a WordPress site →
A complete, step-by-step guide, from choosing a domain name to your pre-launch checklist
Michael Pruitt is a Support Systems Administrator for Nexcess. He brings over a decade of experience to his current role. When not working, Michael can be found officiating roller derby bouts.