Each one can help you build a high-performing website, but in different ways, with different limitations.
Creating a business website isn’t always easy. There are hundreds of decisions you have to make before you get to the finished product.
One of the first decisions that most digital entrepreneurs have to make is choosing a platform for their website. There are many different platforms available, but two of the most popular ones are Wix and WordPress.
- Wix is a website builder that lets users create and host websites for free. It also features business-friendly paid plans for as little as $14 per month. It is easy to use and comes with a range of useful features for business owners.
- WordPress is a free, open-source content management platform that offers unmatched power and flexibility. Although the platform itself is free, making a WordPress website does come with costs.
Since one of these options is a website builder and the other is a content management platform, there are some significant differences between them. Both solutions can help you publish a professional website, but there are benefits and drawbacks to each.
How Does Wix Work?
Wix focuses its services around its website builder and the intuitive user experience it offers. Wix’s website builder uses a drag-and-drop interface to make it easy for non-technical users to build their own websites from scratch, or customize a variety of templates to make the job even easier.
This means that Wix is limited when it comes to customization, and somewhat unwieldy for businesses that need eCommerce functionality. While Wix does feature an eCommerce solution, it is not nearly as flexible as many other leading options on the market. In most cases, you will end up paying more for Wix eCommerce services than you would with an alternative service.
Wix mostly targets small businesses that don’t ask for much from their digital tools. This makes it an ideal solution for service-oriented businesses that operate locally, where having a website may be secondary to a more intimate form of advertising and promotion. Wix isn’t well-suited to handling high-traffic websites running a variety of marketing tools to capture leads and generate sales.
Wix does have a catalog of over 250 apps that you can add to your website in seconds. These apps include everything from form builders and reservation systems to pricing tables and more. While these are certainly useful, they pale in comparison to what WordPress has to offer in terms of additional features and functionalities.
Drawbacks to using Wix
While Wix is simple and inexpensive, it does come with some severe drawbacks:
- It isn’t designed for scalability, which makes it likely that your business will eventually outgrow Wix and need to be moved to a new platform. This can create data migration issues that you could avoid by simply starting on a scalable platform from the beginning.
- It doesn’t offer a great deal of customization or flexibility. There are many things that Wix simply does not do. If your business success relies on advanced digital marketing technologies or automated integration of third-party vendor solutions, Wix will require you to spend a lot of time doing things manually.
- Wix has a relatively small number of templates and designs. While you can customize any Wix website to look and feel the way you want, your actual website design options are quite limited. You won’t be able to publish a bold, impressive website with non-traditional scrolling or custom JavaScript very easily using Wix.
What Does WordPress Offer?
As a content management system, WordPress does not include a native website builder. However, it does provide access to tens of thousands of unique plugins and themes that can radically change the way visitors interact with your website. These include drag-and-drop website builders just like Wix, but with far greater flexibility.
WordPress’s plugin ecosystem is by far the most valuable aspect of the platform. The WordPress development community is constantly working to build newer and more effective solutions for managing a fully digital business on the WordPress platform.
In terms of eCommerce, WordPress does not disappoint. More than 5 million people actively use WooCommerce, the platform’s most popular open-source eCommerce plugin. This platform allows unprecedented customization, so you can make your business work exactly the way you need it to. Choose how you want to get paid, configure shipping options, and simplify tax reporting through a single, powerful software solution.
These are all good reasons why WordPress development is the world’s largest and fastest-growing content management system. It currently powers 40% of all websites, including almost 15% of the world’s biggest and most prestigious ones. This makes WordPress a far better option for growth-oriented businesses that value flexibility and scalability for their digital operations.
Drawbacks to using WordPress
WordPress is by far the more powerful solution, but it too has disadvantages. The biggest of these is the fact that WordPress is designed for technically oriented users. If you are not comfortable writing code in HTML, PHP, CSS, or Javascript, you may not be able to get the most out of WordPress on your own.
However, this is a problem that you can solve. Many WordPress plugins are designed to reduce or eliminate the need to code on WordPress. You can simply install your own drag-and-drop WordPress website builder and get Wix-like functionality without having to give up scalability or flexibility in the process.
You can also outsource technical development work to a white label WordPress agency. If your business requires advanced customization and highly automated marketing techniques to succeed, you can successfully use WordPress to achieve those goals without having to learn how to be a developer yourself.
Create Your First WordPress Website Now
If you’re planning on representing your business online, WordPress is the best option for ensuring a scalable, high-powered result that grows alongside you. Look through the vast array of premium WordPress themes and plugins to find the right stack to fit your business’ needs while giving you an easy, code-free user experience.
UnlimitedWP is a white label WordPress web development agency that completes unlimited tasks for website owners. Make UnlimitedWP your partner agency for turning your website into a lean marketing machine that brings new leads every day.
