Sep 30, 2022

Wix vs. Wordpress

Hands down, I choose Wix over Wordpress for most of my client websites. I still work in Wordpress for some clients websites, but the clients dislike it, I dislike working on it and fixing it, and it's very time consuming and costly to maintain the software/plugin updates, and make edits to the design or functionality.

Wix is easy to edit and maintain so all my clients love it.

Wix has a great drag and drop WYSIWG editor (what you see is what you get) so it's super easy to customize the design of each and every page on your website. Unlike Worddress, where you have to login to the backend and edit pages in an editor, in Wix you can edit right on the page. You just click on a text box, and start editing it - and you can see how it fits and looks on the page as you're editing. You can even drag the text boxes or elements around on the page anywhere you want. In addition to being easy to edit, WIx websites excel at SEO (search engine optimization) if optimized correctly, and it is very easy to add functionality such as blogs, forums, social media feeds, add ecommerce for online shopping and so much more. Ecommerce: Wix does offer good ecommerce too, especially using their Ecwid integration, which has a lot more customizability than the Wix Stores ecommerce system. Here is a Wix store using Ecwid's ecommerce shopping system, we had to customize the pickup/shipping options to tie into their farmer's markets and CSAs, so Ecwid worked great: northwoodmushrooms.com Wix Stores also is a great simple ecommerce platform that is good for simple online stores, such as this website we designed for a Virginia Maple Syrup Farm: lakeridgemaplefarm.com Sometimes a different platform may be best, and I do work in other platforms. Shopify, for example, has a super sophisticated Ecommerce platform that can be customized and tied into many Point of Sale (POS) systems. Wordpress also has Woocommerce that I've worked in, but it's buggy and the software has to have constant updates, so it's a much more expensive and time consuming platform to maintain over time so I don't recommend it.

Wix vs. Wordpress - Keeping websites Fresh

With Wix, you can spend all your time actually adding content to your website. For example, you can add a new image to your homepage, add more text, add blog posts, add images to galleries, add news, etc. By continuing to add content and keep your website updated with fresh news, information and pictures, your website will do well in search engines and with your audience as it won't become stale. I find that many clients come to me with Wordpress websites that are often broken & have outdated software or plugins, or they are scared or can't figure out how to edit the site because they've "broken" it before. You shouldn't have to worry about breaking your site just to add some new text or images. Website edits or updates shouldn't be like pulling teeth! When we redesign their website on Wix and they get their first training, they are amazed at how easy it is to edit their new Wix website. And, with Wix's Site History and Undos, they don't have to worry about breaking it either, like they constantly do with Wordpress. Another huge bonus is that Wix is a hosted solution and Wix maintains the platform, so no software or security updates are needed for the website owner. Wix just makes website design simple.

WYSIWG Platforms

I hope that Wordpress, Shopify, Squarespace, Weebly and other platforms get inspired by Wix's amazing editor and start improving their own editors to be easy-to-use with drag-and-drop functionality. I think competition is healthy, and it's nice not to have all your eggs in one basket. I'm frankly surprised that Wordpress and other platforms haven't reworked their editors to be easy to use like Wix. I'm sure it's coming, but it sure is taking a long time! If you have experienced Wordpress woes, and want to laugh, check out Wix's Wordpress Ad Campaign that really highlights all the things that drive me crazy about Wordpress. They nailed it.

So, in the meantime, I recommend Wix to 90% of my clients. Sure, it's not the perfect fit for 100% of clients, depending on the complexity and nature of their website needs. But it is the perfect platform for most small businesses and stores, artists, writers, and non-profits.