Website building could be one tricky decision to make for any individual. Deciding on the site builder is difficult and also the most important decision as it is what will attract online customers, readers and any kind of people you would want visiting your site. WordPress and Wix are among the top website builders and here we will take a look at some of their differences.
User friendliness
A lot of people prefer WordPress as it is more flexible. With this flexibility comes more complexity. WordPress will require one to know how to modify codes so as to be able to customize it to your needs. In case you are a skilled developer as such, you will have to hire one to do this work for you which will increase your expenses as you work on your website. Also, WordPress does not give you the chance to preview the site before you publish it and therefore provides no room for error, although you can always edit it after you have published.
On the other hand, Wix is a very easy website builder that even a non-developer can be able to customize as it is specifically built for them. Wix is very much a website builder that will allow you to see how your work will look on your website beforehand. This gives Wix an edge as you can be able to customize the paragraphs, slideshows, pictures, shopping cart buttons, etc and be sure of how they will actually appear on your website.
Additionally, for WordPress, you will be required to modify codes to be able to make quick adjustments such as spacing of the slideshows or images. This is very tricky and technical in the case of a non-developer. Contrary to this, Wix allows one to chop and change all these easily as you don’t need to code or use any special tools to enable you to do this.
Pricing
This is probably what will at first either attract you or keep you off. WordPress and Wix plans vary and in either of them, one might catch your eye.
Wix has 5 premium plans with 1 free plan. The higher the price of a plan, the more features you are able to access. These packages range from $7 to $30 for the monthly plans. You can save from 25% up to 43% depending on what 1-year or 2-year plan you choose.
- Wix Pricing Plans Monthly 1-Year Savings (%) 2-Years Saving (%)
- Connect Domain $7.00 $5.00 29%. $4.00. 43%
- Combo. $14.00 $10.00. 29% $9.00. 36%
- Unlimited. $16.00 $14.00 13% $11.00. 31%
- e-commerce $20.00 $17.00 15% $15.00. 25%
- VIP $30.00. $25.00 17% $22.00 27%
For WordPress on the other hand, one will be required to own hosting service for about $ 7 a month. You will also need to acquire a theme which could be free or for a fee ($30- $50) depending on the theme developer’s reputation.
WordPress also allows one to add functionality to your website which include the slideshows and widgets some being free while other cost prices of between $15- $50 per plugin, which again depends on the developer’s reputation.
Other expenses that are included in using WordPress are purchasing of a custom domain name ($10- $12 a year) and also the cost of hiring a WordPress developer to customize your site for you, ranging from hundreds to thousands of dollars.
Flexibility
WordPress’ codes are open to anybody for using and modification. Therefore any coder or programmer can create their own themes and plugins. This has greatly increased the number of its users and although it might seem all rosy, it’s a downside is that this gives chance to a lot of developers with a little bit of coding knowledge to build themes and plugins for WordPress. Some of these tools are fantastic but most are junk.
However, Wix is a closed source platform and does not allow an outsider to modify their codes. Only their private development team is able to produce its website tools. Their tools are therefore fully integrated into its website builder and therefore fewer bugs.