I Compare Wix vs WordPress: Which Is Best for Your Website?

For an overview of Wix and WordPress’ key features, below is a quick comparison you can refer to:

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Wix	WordPress.org
Overall Rating 4.8	Overall Rating 3.4
Today's best price $17 $15.30 with code “TAKE10”	Today's best price $3.99 (for Bluehost hosting)
Free plan or free trial Free plan	Free plan or free trial Free to install
Number of templates 2,000+	Number of templates 13,000+
SSL security included on free plan	SSL security included on free plan
SEO Outstanding	SEO Excellent
Marketing Capabilities AI marketing agent, weekly newsletters, email shout-outs, social post creator, abandoned cart recovery	Marketing Capabilities Blogging features, SEO-friendly, marketing plugins needed for further integrations
Start Free Trial	Try WordPress
See our Wix Review	See our WordPress.org review

Need a quick snapshot of both platforms? Here are the key differences between them:

💡 Use Wix If:

• You want to set up quickly – Wix’s intuitive drag-and-drop editor and pre-built templates can help you set up with ease
• You want a range of built-in features – Wix’s dashboard has the best website features on the market, from bookings integrations to an SEO checklist
• You want access to AI tools – Unlike WordPress, Wix has impressive AI functionality, including its AI chatbox website builder and AI text and photo generator
• You’d rather stick to a recurring payment plan – Wix has four key plans to choose from, ranging from $17 to $159 per month (billed annually)

💡 Use WordPress If:

• You already have experience creating websites – With WordPress, technical expertise is key since you’ll need to edit website code in the backend
• You want more control over your website’s design and functionality – You’ll have to source themes and additional features yourself, giving you free rein to make your website your own
• You want more control over your website’s costs – Because WordPress doesn’t offer hosting, domains, themes, and plugins in pre-built packages, you’ll need to source these aspects of your website yourself and find the best prices
• You plan to create a complex, content-heavy site – WordPress is a content management system, which means it’s great at storing, organizing, and presenting a huge amount of content at once

The Winner

Wix and WordPress’ pricing is a tie

Because Wix is a website builder and WordPress is a CMS, the pricing model of each platform is very different. Wix is best if you want to pay for an all-in-one plan that already comes with the features you need, while WordPress is best if you want more control over particular website costs, such as website hosting or domains.

Before you create your website, we must ask the age-old question: how much will it all cost? Let’s take WordPress for starters.

How Much Does WordPress Cost?

WordPress’ CMS is free to install, though additional costs will come from domains, a website hosting plan, paid themes, and plugins available from third-party sources. You’ll be in charge of researching and purchasing these yourself.

Costs vary depending on the third-party providers you buy from, but here’s a rough estimate based on average costs:

Based on the above, WordPress is a solid choice if you want flexible pricing that isn’t limited by an all-in-one plan, and you would rather look for the best third-party deals yourself.

💰 Want more advice on pricing? Check out our WordPress pricing guide for further details

How Much Does Wix Cost?

Wix’s pricing plans cost between $17 and $159 per year (billed annually). The plans come with all the built-in features you need to set up your website, including a free domain name for your first year, website hosting, and over 2000 website designs to choose from.

You can also get 10% off your purchase by using the code “TAKE10” at checkout.

This table outlines each plan for you:

Because Wix’s plans are all-in-one, the builder is fantastic value for money due to the sheer number of features included. If you use WordPress instead, you might need to source these additional features yourself, which could increase your total costs.

💰 Need more pricing plan details? Refer to our guide to Wix’s pricing, which explains them in more detail

The Winner

Wix's set up times are speedier than WordPress'

Wix is the best platform if you want to set up fast. The intuitive editor, useful AI features, and arrangeable page elements mean that creating a professional page is easier than you think.

Out of the two, Wix is best for beginners because it’s one of the easiest website builders to use and helps you set up your page in a few hours. 

Setting Up With Wix

Wix’s intuitive drag-and-drop editor is simple to create your site with, since it lets you move elements – like images and social bars – across your website with ease, and restore older versions of your website via the site history tab if you make a mistake.

Additionally, you can make use of various AI tools to speed up website creation. Wix has expanded its suite of tools in the past few years, and it now includes:

• Wix AI website generator: its chatbot website builder that uses a series of prompts to help you build your website from scratch
• AI text generator: generates text in different lengths and tones of voice
• AI image generator: generates images from a prompt in different visual styles 

WordPress doesn’t have built-in AI features like Wix, so you’ll have to look for AI plugins yourself and install them on your website.

Setting Up With WordPress

In contrast, setting up a website with WordPress will take you more time. You’ll need to download and install its CMS first, and then look for additional features you might need, like plugins. However, you do have the option of finding a website host that offers one-click or auto installation for WordPress (Bluehost is a good example).

While coding knowledge is useful when working with WordPress, you also don’t necessarily need it to set up your website.

WordPress plugins like Elementor (from $9.99 per month) and Visual Composer (from $49 to $349 per year), will give you access to accessible, drag-and-drop editors like the ones found on website builders.

Which Platform Is Easiest To Set Up Overall?

Based on these key points about WordPress, I would stick with Wix if you’re looking for the easiest experience and speedy set up times.

However, the more you put into your WordPress website, the more you’ll get back. If you take the time to study the platform and how it works, you could end up with a site that’s better customized to your unique needs.

The Winner

Wix has better industry-specific templates for businesses

From Wix’s 2000+ templates, you’ll find an eye-catching design fit for your ideal website, be it an ecommerce store selling to pet owners, a beauty blog, or an events page for your wedding.

To create a homepage design that wows website visitors, I recommend Wix.

The platform comes with over 2000 free templates to choose from, split into five distinct categories: business and services, store, creative, community, and blog. Whether you want to sell your services online or set up a blog in your niche, you’re bound to find a design that suits your unique business model.

But there is one catch: you can’t switch between template designs once you’ve picked one. If you change your mind once your website is live, you’re not allowed to migrate to a new design, so pick carefully.

🚨 One thing I noticed during testing

When I tested the platform, I was overwhelmed by the number of templates available, so take your time when making your choice. You can use Wix’s filters to narrow down your options, or click on the “Edit” button to play around with each design before deciding. Does the template have the right design features for your website? Or is anything important missing?

Holly Choules Writer

• 🤔 To avoid confusion… templates and themes both refer to your website’s design. Wix calls them templates, while WordPress calls them themes.

With WordPress, you’ll find thousands of free and paid themes for your website and, unlike Wix, you can also switch between themes on your live website. If you’re comfortable with code, it’s possible to customize these themes further by editing the theme’s code directly.

However, it’s best to stick with one of the official WordPress themes when creating your design. If you download from an external source, it needs to have secure coding that won’t leave your website vulnerable to a data breach – nobody wants a compromised website.

The Winner

Wix has the most advanced features to help your business grow online

From its in-depth scheduling tool to a bustling app market, Wix’s key features make it easy to create, manage, and grow your website. Setting up these features won’t be difficult either, since they’re all built into the website builder.

During our hands-on testing, I was blown away by Wix’s high-quality features that were more comprehensive than the other builders I tried. Though you can also access additional functionality on WordPress, it depends on which plugins you opt for – and the quality does vary between them.

Let’s compare both platform’s features below:

Sales Features

To make money from your website, you’ll need a platform with ecommerce capabilities, like Wix. In three of Wix’s paid plans, priced between $29–$159 per month (billed annually), you’ll receive a range of sales features that are ideal for small businesses.

Wix’s Selling Features

Listed below are some of Wix’s best built-in ecommerce features:

• Create abandoned cart emails
• Create store discounts and coupons to offer shoppers
• Send back in stock notifications to customers
• Integrate your store with online marketplaces and social channels
• Set up Point of Sale for in-person transactions
• Transaction fees from 2.9% + $0.30, or no transaction fees when using Wix Payments

Despite the number of sales features available, Wix isn’t optimal for larger stores. To dramatically scale up your store, I recommend Shopify instead, since its management tools are better at accommodating large ecommerce inventories.

🛒 Want a detailed look at Wix’s sales capabilities? Refer to our guide to Wix ecommerce

WordPress’ Selling Features

In contrast, selling on WordPress takes a little more work. 

You’ll need to download a plugin first that allows you to sell products and services on your website, the most popular, free ecommerce plugin being WooCommerce. This platform will provide you with essential sales features for your store, such as:

• Order management tools
• Optimized sales page designs
• WooCommerce Sales App for taking in-person payments
• Integrations with online marketplaces and social media
• Secure payment methods like WooPay, Apple Pay, and Google Pay
• Variable transaction fees depending on your payment gateway

Though WooCommerce takes longer to set up, you’ll have the advantage of being able to customize your store how you see fit through hosting, domains, ecommerce themes, and plugins – giving you complete control over your store.

Scheduling Tools

Need to sell a service online? You should know about Wix’s integrated bookings tool, Wix Bookings. This feature is most suitable for small business websites and creatives who need to set up appointments or meetings while selling services online.

You can accept bookings through your website on the Core plan and above, which will enable you to:

• Offer services
• Manage your clients
• Accept card payments from clients
• Sync your personal calendar to let clients know when you’re available
• Send clients SMS messages

🚨 One thing I noticed during testing

During hands-on testing, I was impressed by the huge number of features Wix Bookings has. I recommend making use of the tool’s SMS feature, since you can set up automations that’ll send out your messages under certain conditions. For instance, you could request payment after a session, or thank clients who’ve attended one.

Holly Choules Writer

But is there a scheduling tool for WordPress? Yes, if you’ve found the right plugin for it that is. One of the best extensions on the market that I’d recommend is Bookly. With this plugin – that has a free and paid version for $33 – you can also schedule and book appointments.

App Store

WordPress is an open source platform that anyone can create features for, so you’ll find thousands of WordPress plugins, from technical SEO extensions to all-in-one security packages. With these plugins, you can make sure that your website has the exact features you need.

WordPress plugins can range anywhere from $0 to $200 or more per year, and since they are open-source, their quality isn’t always guaranteed. To reduce overall costs and keep your website safe from attacks, be selective with your plugins and conduct research before downloading anything.

If you’re using Wix, you can download over 800 free and paid apps from the App Market. Unlike WordPress, all of the apps are approved by Wix and are compatible with its websites, so you won’t have to worry about the safety of each app. While Wix has plenty of free apps, some require a paid Wix plan to install.

Website Security

For the best website security, I recommend Wix over WordPress. It comes with key security features, including secure customer login areas, SSL certificates, two-step verification, and fraud prevention through security specialist Forter. 

Because WordPress is a self-hosted platform, security is placed in the hands of its users instead. For this reason, I don’t recommend WordPress for beginners. Using a poor host or downloading sketchy plugins could leave your website vulnerable to attack.

However, this doesn’t mean that WordPress is devoid of security features. Since the CMS houses millions of websites, its core software is adept at spotting common security vulnerabilities. Additionally, the WordPress Security Team works alongside security researchers and hosting companies to uphold user safety.

The Winner

WordPress and Wix’s marketing features are a tie

Though WordPress and Wix’s marketing features differ, their quality is consistent. Wix’s built-in email tools will help you develop a reliable marketing strategy through newsletters, while WordPress’ brilliant blogging platform and SEO foundations makes it well-suited to content creation that’s optimized for search.

To spread word of your business online, you’ll need to put on your marketing caps and create a strategy consisting of SEO, email marketing campaigns, social media, and potentially a blogging platform, too. I’ve compared Wix and WordPress’ marketing capabilities below:

SEO (Search Engine Optimization)

• Yoast SEO for WordPress pricing: Free for basic SEO and $9.90 per month for advanced tools
• Wix’s SEO pricing: Basic tools included for free, but a paid plan is required for all SEO Assistant tools

WordPress is an SEO-friendly platform and gives your website a head start when it comes to showing up on search engines.

Though WordPress gives you more control over your SEO, you do need to know what you’re doing for it to be effective. This could mean downloading SEO plugins like Yoast ($118 per year), optimizing website speeds, and crafting SEO-friendly URLs to make sure that your website can reach its full potential on search results.

On the other hand, all of Wix’s SEO features are already baked into its website builder. During hands-on testing, I was impressed by the number of SEO tools available, which cover key SEO basics like optimized meta descriptions and keyword support. Key tools include:

• Alternative text for website accessibility
• Google Analytics and Google Search Console integration
• Semrush integration
• Mobile-friendly pages
• Schema mark up to appear in Google search snippets
• 301 redirects

Unfamiliar with some of the above terms? If you’re new to website building and have limited knowledge in this area, Wix will guide you through each step of the process with its dedicated SEO checklist from the dashboard.

Email Marketing

• Mailchimp for WordPress pricing: Free to send 500 emails per month, and paid plans cost $13 to $350 per month
• Wix’s email marketing pricing: Free to send 200 emails per month, and paid plans cost $10 to $49 per month

A standout feature from Wix is its free, built-in email marketing tool. With it, you can create and edit your own professional emails, implement automations to streamline the process, and track advanced email analytics.

During our 2025 testing period, I tried out Wix’s AI email generator.  The AI asked me to fill out important information, like the intent of the email and what it should contain, and then generated a template for me.

Results were mixed. Though I was happy with the quality of the email campaign copy it created, the images generated weren’t relevant to my niche, so you’d still have to replace them yourself before sending.

Because WordPress doesn’t have a built-in email marketing tool, you’ll need to find a suitable WordPress plugin. Its plugins store has a range of options, including MailPoet, GroundHogg, and MailChimp, that will all help you create eye-catching email campaigns to generate clicks and conversions.

Blogging

• WordPress blogging pricing: Free
• Wix blogging pricing: Free

WordPress started out as a powerful CMS specializing in blog content. Because of this, your blog will be able to handle large amounts of content, allowing you to write numerous posts and showcase your personal brand or expertise online.

These are just a few of WordPress’ key blogging features:

• Built-in commenting capabilities between other WordPress users
• Multiple user accounts for bloggers
• Solid blog SEO
• Post archiving
• Private or password protected posts
• Featured images and post thumbnails
• Backdating

Wix’s blog features aren’t as extensive, though it does provide essentials such as categories, post scheduling, writer profiles, social media sharing, and a selection of free media to make your posts more visually appealing.

The Winner

Wix offers more dependable customer support than WordPress

Wix is the best platform if you want speedy solutions to your problems via phone or live chat. Its wealth of learning resources makes it a suitable platform for beginners that want to pick up new skills, too.

Wix offers a more dependable and accessible customer service support than WordPress, with 24/7 phone and live chat support. Because WordPress is open-source, it relies on community forums and third-party developer support, making Wix the clear winner for users who want a simple, built-in help system.

Alongside Wix’s customer support, you’ll find additional resources from the Wix Help Center, or by hopping onto its community forums to find help from fellow users.

Meanwhile, finding help and support for WordPress can be stressful. There are no direct support lines, and you’ll have to sift through the large amount of resources available on the internet; many of them featuring outdated information.

Also, since most plugins and themes come from external providers, you’ll need to track down their respective help and support services to be seen too.

Despite this flaw, WordPress is known for its active community of users who are familiar with the platform. From the global support forums, you can ask the community for help on all manner of WordPress related issues.

The Winner

Wix offers an all-in-one solution for busy business owners

Wix is the better option for businesses wanting a streamlined, hands-off approach to website management, whereas WordPress requires a greater level of ongoing care and attention.

Wix’s fully managed service offers a more straightforward and hands-off approach than WordPress by automatically handling platform and app updates and maintaining hosting and security.

On the other hand, WordPress’ self-managed system requires a more involved upkeep than Wix’s. For example, WordPress users will have to regularly:

• Run core updates
• Update themes and plugins
• Manage website backups
• Pay for hosting providers and security certificates

If you’re struggling to choose between Wix or WordPress, it is possible to move your website from one to the other. While neither has a straightforward process, it’s much easier to migrate from Wix to WordPress than from WordPress to Wix, thanks to WordPress’ import tools.

Migrating from Wix to WordPress

WordPress does support Wix migration at a limited level. From your WordPress dashboard, you can import static pages, images, menus, and your site title.

However, you won’t be able to import:

• Your Wix theme
• Your fonts and color scheme
• Blog posts

Instead, you’ll have to manually select the closest style matches to your previous Wix site.

WordPress also has an RSS import plugin, although this only syncs your 20 most recent blog posts.

Migrating from WordPress to Wix

Wix doesn’t support migration from other sites, so everything – from your text and images to your pages and blog posts – will have to be copied over manually.

Still not sure whether Wix or WordPress is the right fit for you? I’m here to help. Before you come to a decision, it’s important to think about the key features you’re looking for in a website builder. I’ve listed a few pointers for you to start with:

Will it help me establish my online presence?

• Stylish templates that reflect brand identity
• Social media integration
• SEO tools for visibility

Does the platform have strong blogging capabilities?

• Strong content management
• Eye-catching blogging templates
• Sharing buttons
• Blog monetization
• Commenting

Can I sell products and services?

• Inventory management
• Payment methods
• Varied shipping options
• Scheduling tools to set up meetings with for clients

Will it allow for quick and easy set up?

• Easy-to-use editor
• Pre-built templates
• 24/7 customer service
• Resource center

Are there extra costs that will build up over time?

• Price plans that have the key features you’re looking for
• Free themes
• Free extensions
• Provided hosting and domains

To compare Wix and WordPress, I applied our rigorous website builder research for 2025, which investigated six key criteria. These are weighted based on importance, reflecting what businesses are most concerned about when choosing a platform:

1. Website functionality: 30%
2. Design features: 25%
3. Pricing: 15%
4. User experience: 15%
5. Help & support: 10%
6. Reputation: 5%

For instance, the “website functionality” criteria is most important, and covers key builder features like blogging and AI. When writing this article, I made sure to include a range of features from both Wix and WordPress, so you can better identify the platform that will best satisfy your needs.

During this period, I also tested out each platform myself, using my findings to add informed, first-person insights to this article.

After testing Wix and WordPress, I can confidently say that Wix is the best website builder overall. Its built-in features will help you manage your website effectively, while its simple-to-use editor means you can set up fast.

However, this doesn’t mean that Wix will be the best fit for your needs. Based on what we’ve covered, here’s a summary of both platforms and what they can offer your business:

1. Wix is most suitable for beginners who want to set up and establish their online presence fast. Its built-in features, such as its marketing suite and intuitive editor, also contribute to easy website management.
2. WordPress is more suitable for businesses that have a bit more tech experience and want extra control over their website’s functionality. You can choose your own host, plugins, and themes, while adding additional website code where necessary.

🆘 Still not sure what platform is right for you? Refer to our guide to the best website builders of 2025