Should You Use WordPress or Wix To Build Your Website?

A question I have been asked a lot.

WordPress and Wix are both platforms from which engaging, functional, and valuable websites can be built. However, they are very different pieces of software and each comes with advantages and limitations.

WordPress is a Content Management System, which means that it gives you the opportunity to control almost every aspect of your site’s appearance and functionality. It also gives your site scalability and the potential to be an extremely powerful tool. Admittedly it does demand a slightly higher degree of technical ability than Wix if you want to get the most from your site.

Alternatively, Wix is an online website builder. The difference here is that you can work ‘live’ on your site, dragging and dropping components and seeing very clearly the changes you’re making. Far less technical know-how is needed with a Wix site, making it great for a beginner.

The downside is, you are limited to the functionality of your chosen template and may not be able to get a high level of efficiency from a site you design yourself. You also don’t own any of the content that you upload to the Wix site and essentially don’t even own the website once it is built!!

If you’re thinking of building a website, one of your first decisions is to pick a platform. It’s important, as you’ll be investing time and money into your site and business. Whichever platform you pick, you’ll want to be sure that it’s the right one for you; today, and for the life of your site.

Here’s our handy guide to using WordPress or Wix to build your website.

Traffic and listings

Being discovered online is key to the success of your business.

The secret to being discovered lies in ranking highly with search engines and having a large number of other sites pointing their visitors towards your own. Inherently important in your choice of the platform are the opportunities that platform gives you to manage your keywords and phrases.

This process is known as SEO (Search Engine Optimization).

Wix sites typically offer a relatively limited set of SEO tools. You do have the ability to add some valuable title descriptions to your pages, and new SEO options are always being developed. However, your ability to define and manage the ways in which search engines view your site is ridiculously limited.

Alternatively, WordPress sites are extremely SEO-friendly and ready to be optimised as far as your budget will allow. You’ll need to understand these features and ensure that you use them accurately to maximise your visibility. However, it’s worth taking the extra time needed as the benefits are significant.

Research shows that, on average, WordPress sites get considerably more traffic than Wix sites and have a marginally higher number of top 10 rankings.

Hosting

Hosting simply refers to the provider you use to allow your content to be placed online. Usually a hosting company will rent you space on their servers for a regular payment.

Wix host your website, meaning that both the domain name and the space you take up online are under their control. This can be convenient until your site starts to run slowly, or you want to swap your domain name to a different host. At that point, there’s very little you can do about it.

WordPress works on a different model.

You can pick your own hosting packages and domains through any provider you choose. Then simply build your WordPress site, and you’ll own all the content. You have the freedom to switch hosting deals whenever you like, and you aren’t tied into one company for both hosting and domain.

Not only is this convenient, it gives you the chance to look around for a hosting company that offers a great deal and reliable customer support.

Flexibility

Wix only offers you the tools and apps that have been developed by their own team. Plus, you only get what you pay for, meaning you might need to make additional purchases to get the plug-ins you want.

The tools Wix offers are effective but limited by comparison to the scale and depth of those available on the WordPress platform.

Because WordPress is open-source, designers around the world contribute to its software development. As a result, there are a tremendous number of resources out there that you can use to customize and develop your site.

Your level of flexibility and choice when it comes to WordPress can’t be matched by Wix. You just have to know what to do with all that choice…

Ultimately, it’s important to do your research and to pick the platform that’s right for your level of ability, as well as your goals.

Want to build a site quickly and don’t mind that you have limited control over SEO, functionality and the way it is developed? Wix will do the job. Don’t forget you’ll be committed to Wix hosting, support and resources, and worst of all if your content disappears from the site, there ain’t nothing you can do to get it back! (I’ve heard this happen to someone before, and they never recovered it)

But if you’re looking to invest in a more flexible website, WordPress should be your platform of choice. It takes longer to master, but in the end, you’re in control of your site, it’s open source so you own all of your content, it’s a content management that will scale with your business as it grows, integrate nicely with extensions…the community are great and there is a library of free resources to support you along the way.

Don’t want to build your own website and want our team of experts to manage this all for you?