Wix vs WordPress.org: Comprehensive comparison guide for 2024

Final verdict

Wix and WordPress.org cater to different needs and audiences, making them both valuable in their own right.

• 
  Wix (Overall Grade: 8.5/10)
  
  excels in user-friendliness, design flexibility, and integrated solutions, making it an ideal choice for beginners and those seeking an all-in-one website building experience. With its intuitive drag-and-drop editor, extensive template library, and robust ecommerce features, Wix is particularly suited for small to medium-sized businesses and individuals looking to establish an online presence quickly and efficiently.
• 
  WordPress.org (Overall Grade: 7.1/10)
  
  , with its open-source flexibility and extensive customization options through themes and plugins, appeals to users with specific needs or those looking for a platform that can grow and adapt with their website. It’s particularly favored by bloggers, developers, and larger ecommerce sites that require a high degree of customization and control over their online presence.

Best for ecommerce

Verdict

: While Wix offers ease of use and simplicity for small-scale online stores, WordPress.org, with its WooCommerce plugin, excels in providing a customizable and feature-rich platform for ecommerce.

• 
  Wix
  
  : Ideal for those new to ecommerce or with simpler needs, Wix simplifies the process of setting up an online store with its intuitive interface and straightforward ecommerce tools. However, it may not scale as well for larger, more complex operations.
• 
  WordPress.org
  
  : Offers a robust solution for ecommerce through WooCommerce, catering to users seeking extensive customization and control over their online store. It’s better suited for those with specific ecommerce needs that require advanced features and scalability.

Best for informational & business websites

Verdict

: For those prioritizing customization and extensive functionality, WordPress.org is the superior choice for informational and business websites, despite its steeper learning curve. Wix, with its user-friendly interface, remains a strong contender for users seeking ease of use and design flexibility.

• 
  Wix
  
  : Wix’s platform is ideal for users looking for a straightforward, drag-and-drop interface to create visually appealing informational sites. It scores 8.3 in this category, reflecting its strong suit in design and ease of use, making it a great option for small businesses and individuals without technical expertise.
• 
  WordPress.org
  
  : Scoring 9.2, WordPress.org stands out for its unparalleled customization capabilities and extensive plugin ecosystem, catering to a wide range of business needs. It’s the go-to for users who require complex functionalities and have the technical know-how to leverage the open-source platform to its fullest.

Detailed comparison

Winner:
WordPress.org

. If you’re looking for a platform that offers more creative control, a wide array of design features, and extensive customization options, WordPress.org is the preferred choice.

Wix stands out with its wide range of highly customizable templates suitable for various website types, not just ecommerce. It offers creative freedom in design, appealing to a diverse user base. While Wix doesn’t have a premium template marketplace, it has 3-rd party theme shops that allow you to get more sophisticated design choices.

Wix Themes

Compared to Wix, WordPress.org offers an extensive variety of templates and designs, catering to a wide range of website types beyond just blogs or ecommerce. Its open-source nature allows for high customization and creative freedom, appealing to diverse user needs. While WordPress itself doesn’t sell premium templates, numerous third-party theme shops offer sophisticated and specialized design choices, expanding the possibilities for users.

WordPress.org Themes

🏆
Winner: Wix

. With a score of 9.0, Wix is recognized for its user-friendly interface and intuitive design tools, making it an excellent choice for beginners and non-technical users. WordPress.org, scoring 7.2, offers extensive customization options but requires a steeper learning curve, making it less intuitive for beginners.

Learning Resources

🏆 Winner:
WordPress.org

. Both platforms offer a wealth of learning resources, but WordPress.org stands out with its detailed documentation, community forums, and online tutorials. This extensive support network is beneficial for users of all skill levels.

Wix and WordPress.org both offer robust ecommerce capabilities, but they cater to different user needs. Wix provides an intuitive and user-friendly platform for creating and managing online stores, making it a suitable choice for individuals and small businesses. On the other hand, WordPress.org, with its WooCommerce plugin, offers a more customizable and flexible ecommerce solution, ideal for users who require advanced features and extensive customization.

Wix ecommerce features:

• Intuitive store builder
• Wix Payments and various gateways
• Basic inventory tools
• Multi-channel sales options
• Abandoned cart recovery
• Basic analytics and SEO tools

WordPress.org ecommerce features:

• WooCommerce Integration
• Multiple Payment Gateway Support
• Abandoned Cart Recovery
• Ecommerce Analytics
• SEO Optimization Tools
• Extensive Plugin Ecosystem

Ecommerce themes & templates

Wix provides around 120 free templates for ecommerce. However, these templates are not fully responsive and may need manual adjustments for mobile display. Wix allows for flexible website design but has limited options for in-depth customization using HTML or CSS. For advanced users, Wix Velo offers more detailed customization possibilities.

In contrast, WordPress.org offers hundreds to potentially thousands of ecommerce and WooCommerce specific themes and templates, both free and premium. This vast selection allows users to find a theme that perfectly matches their brand and business needs.

Product page customization

Wix permits the inclusion of six options per item with a total of 1000 unique variations for products. However, the potential complexity of having customers choose six attributes for a single item is acknowledged, and it is recommended to consider splitting products with extensive options into different listings for a more user-friendly experience. Wix stands out for its ease of customization, allowing users to add features like ribbons, size charts, wishlists, and more. While Wix supports product videos in its themes, incorporating 3D models on Wix requires coding.

On the other hand, WooCommerce on WordPress offers extensive customization for eCommerce product pages, balancing plugins, page builders, and custom coding. Essential elements include quality product images, detailed descriptions, and effective add-to-cart buttons. Advanced features like product tabs, upsells, and related products are customizable. Tools like Elementor and the Ultimate Product Catalog plugin enhance functionality, but heavy plugin use may affect site performance.

Payment processing

Wix provides versatile payment options, generally around 2.9% + 30¢ per transaction, without additional commission fees. This makes Wix an attractive option for businesses using diverse payment processors. Wix Payments allows Wix users to manage transactions directly on their site, also supporting various payment methods and currencies.

WordPress.org doesn’t handle payments directly but offers plugin options for payment processing. Popular gateways include PayPal, Stripe, Authorize.Net, and Square. Choose a gateway based on transaction volume, currencies, fees, and security. Plugins integrate gateways with WooCommerce for a user-friendly setup. Consider options for recurring payments, offline payments, and fraud prevention. Research, read reviews, and start small, scaling as needed.

Winner: Tie.

Both Wix and WordPress.org scored 8.5 for their website editors, indicating a high level of user satisfaction with both platforms.

Wix offers multiple editors catering to different user needs. Its standard editor is renowned for its drag-and-drop simplicity, allowing for extensive customization without needing to code. Additionally, Wix provides the ADI (Artificial Design Intelligence) editor, which creates a personalized website based on user responses to a few questions, and the Corvid by Wix editor, which allows for advanced web development with JavaScript and Wix APIs.

WordPress.org’s Site Editor offers a user-friendly interface with block-based editing, extensive styles customization, template management, page editing/creation, distraction-free modes, versatile saving options, and accessibility for users of varying skill levels. It also offers a wide range of free and premium blocks or widgets for creating websites, and comprehensive options for custom code editing.

🏆

Winner:
Wix

. Both Wix and WordPress.org offer mobile apps for managing your website, but they cater to different needs and skill levels. Wix provides a user-friendly, drag-and-drop interface in its mobile app, excelling in general website editing. The app is particularly beginner-friendly, making it easy for users with no prior website building experience. Wix receives a higher rating for its versatility in general website editing and a more beginner-friendly interface.

On the other hand, the WordPress Mobile Editor App allows you to manage your website on the go. You can create and edit posts, manage comments, schedule content, and analyze website traffic from your phone or tablet. While it offers convenience and basic functionality, it has some limitations compared to the web-based editor, including fewer advanced options, restricted code access, and limited design customization.

In summary, Wix receives a higher rating due to its versatility in general website editing and a more beginner-friendly interface, while WordPress.org is strong in content management but may be better suited for users with some experience.

Overall Result

:

Tie


. Both Wix and WordPress.org score 8.1, each with their unique advantages in product testing. Wix offers a free plan with basic features for an unlimited duration and occasionally offers opportunities to test premium features through promotions. WordPress.org, being an open-source platform, is free to use but doesn’t offer a trial version or the possibility to test premium features.

Wix offers a range of pricing plans, while WordPress.org is free but requires separate purchases for hosting and domain services.

🏆

Winner: Wix



. Wix offers a variety of hosting plans, including a free plan with limited features, and premium plans with up to 50GB of storage and unlimited bandwidth. It operates on a multi-cloud infrastructure and has an uptime of 99.95%. WordPress.org, on the other hand, does not directly provide hosting services. The type of hosting, uptime, and data centers depend on the hosting provider chosen by the user.

🏆 Winner: Wix


Wix has a clear strategy for website speed optimization and has shown significant improvements in Core Web Vitals, while WordPress.org relies on its users to optimize their websites using various resources and tools.

In the recent years Wix has a clear strategy for website speed optimization, focusing on media optimization, code simplification, content distribution networks, lazy load techniques, and mobile-first designs. Wix’s infrastructure includes globally distributed CDNs, improving content delivery. Wix saw a 25% increase in sites with good CWV scores over a year. Real-world performance analysis of 909 Wix websites showed a wide range of page speed scores from 34/100 to 98/100, averaging 81.9/100, with the Largest Contentful Paint an important metric for website loading, ranged from 0.8 seconds to 3.5 seconds, with an average of 1.6 seconds.

WordPress.org, on the other hand, does not have a specific strategy for website speed optimization. Instead, it provides numerous learning resources about how to optimize your website. This includes analyzing CWV, choosing a reliable host, optimizing images, minimizing plugins, using lazy loading, and employing a CDN. Tools like Core Web Vitals, WP Rocket, and Hummingbird are recommended, and AMP is suggested for mobile speed. However, the load times and PageSpeed scores for WordPress.org websites can vary widely, depending on the optimization efforts of the user.

🏆 Winner:
WordPress.org.

With a score of 8.8, WordPress.org outperforms Wix, which scores 8.2. WordPress.org offers over 60,000 free plugins, significantly more than Wix’s 500 apps. Both platforms provide a wide range of functionalities, but the sheer volume and diversity of WordPress.org’s plugins give it the edge. Whether you need advanced ecommerce tools, SEO optimization, social media integration, email marketing, or website analytics, WordPress.org has a plugin for that.

Wix Applications

WordPress.org Applications

Overall Winner: Wix

. Wix stands out for its integrated marketing tools, especially in social media integration and analytics. WordPress.org, while flexible with plugins, requires more setup and management.

🏆 Winner:
Wix

. Wix is the clear winner in this category with a customer support score of 8.2, compared to WordPress.org’s score of 5.0. Wix offers phone support, live chat, and forums, and has a large community. It also provides a dedicated account manager, VIP support, customized solutions, and more for enterprises.

On the other hand, WordPress.org lacks direct customer support due to its open-source nature. Users can find assistance through community forums, the WordPress codex, hosting provider support, and plugin and theme support. However, the support for enterprises is limited to issues related to hosting services.

🏆

Winner:
Wix

. Wix takes a comprehensive approach to security, with secure servers, encryption, compliance with privacy regulations, strict access controls, regular security audits, and additional features like two-factor authentication. Wix’s commitment to transparency, data minimization, and user control over their data further enhances its security profile.

Although it may not offer the same level of specialized ecommerce security features as Wix, WordPress.org provides numerous functionalities and resources to enhance website security, such as plugins for site backups, monitoring, malware scanning, user activity tracking, permission control, and spam protection tools. However, its approach to private data storage and protection can vary depending on the hosting provider, which can introduce additional variables and potential vulnerabilities into the security equation.

🏆 Winner:
Wix

. Wix’s AI capabilities, particularly through its Artificial Design Intelligence (ADI) system, are highly user-friendly and innovative. It excels in offering personalized website design suggestions, content optimization, and streamlined site setup processes. Wix’s AI also assists in providing SEO recommendations and layout adjustments based on user behavior.

Wordpress.org, with a score of 6.1, does not have a built-in AI builder. However, its open-source nature allows for the integration of various AI plugins for specific tasks such as AI Engine, GetGenie for content writing, and AI Power: Complete AI Pack for various AI-powered features. While WordPress.org’s AI capabilities are not as integrated as Wix’s, it offers flexibility and customization through its open-source nature.

🏆 Winner:
WordPress.org

. Managing your online team with Wix and WordPress.org involves different approaches to website editing access.

• Wix allows unlimited editors regardless of the plan, but caution is needed with 50+ editors to avoid potential
  backend performance issues. It excels for large, collaborative teams.
• The editing access for a WordPress.org website depends on user roles and additional controls. User roles, ranging from Super Admin to Subscriber, dictate the level of permissions, while plugins and controls such as role management plugins and revision control offer further customization for specific editing rights and collaboration.

Wix User Roles and Access Levels:

WordPress.org User Roles and Access Levels:

Additional Features

User Feedback

Wix, though well-regarded, caters to a diverse set of website requirements beyond just ecommerce. This inclusive strategy attracts a broad user audience but might not align as closely with individuals prioritizing advanced ecommerce features.

On the other hand, WordPress.org receives praise for its user-friendliness, cost-effectiveness, extensive themes and plugins, customization options, and supportive community. However, users mention technical challenges, security concerns, a learning curve, and a lack of direct support. Despite these challenges, it remains a widely used and versatile platform, especially beneficial for startups and small businesses.

FAQ