When it comes to starting a website, most people find themselves trying to decide between WordPress and Wix.
WordPress powers over 800 million websites, which is 43% of all websites today. This alone tells you a lot about the platform. Clearly, tons of people and businesses believe WordPress has better website building and management tools than their competitors, like Wix.
Some people wonder if WordPress is the most used platform simply because it’s been around the longest. After all, WordPress launched in May of 2003, while Wix launched in 2006 but didn’t really take off until much later. However, there’s more to it than that.
Here is a guide to help you decide if WordPress is the best platform for your company’s website.
What Most Website Platforms Offer
WordPress and Wix both share one perk – you can get a website up and running pretty easily and quickly. And you can do it for free.
One major drawback of their free plans is that they don’t offer customized domain names. The platform names, like WordPress or Wix, will always appear in the URL on their free plans. For example, the URL will look something like www.yoursitename.wordpress.com or www.wixsite.com/yoursitename. Having a website without a customized domain can sometimes make people wonder how legitimate a site is.
Still, for no cost, all of these platforms offer nicely designed, free templates that you can customize fairly easily.
If you are simply trying to establish an online presence, and don’t want to sell anything, using any of these platforms and their free options may work. There are other popular website builders and management tools, including Shopify and Squarespace. These two tend to be best for those with e-commerce businesses. You can experiment with them for free, but only for 14 days. After that, you’ll have to pay to keep taking advantage of its features.
Pre-Designed Templates and Ease of Use: WordPress vs Wix
When asked why they like Wix, most Wix users feel its drop and drag editor makes it easier to use than WordPress. Plus, Wix offers over 800 templates to choose between when designing your website.
While Wix is more user-friendly, WordPress has a bit of a learning curve. But many people feel that the learning curve comes with a big benefit – access to over 9000 free templates (there are even more, but you’ll have to pay for those).
So if you’re trying to decide if WordPress is the best platform for a website, the first question to ask yourself is how interested you are in technology. If you don’t have the time or interest to learn a brand-new platform, Wix may be the best option. But if you do have the time and interest, WordPress may be better for you, especially because it offers access to more templates.
And remember that at SEO Design Chicago, we can start and/or manage a WordPress site for you!
Customized Domains and Hosting: WordPress vs Wix
Both Wix and WordPress offer the ability to start a website for free. But if you’re trying to sell something online, or get people to come into a brick-and-mortar location to pay for goods or services, people may wonder how professional the business is if you don’t have a customized domain. While Google can find and index websites without a customized domain, you really need to make sure each page is SEO-friendly.
Studies show people make decisions about a website and the people behind it within 500 milliseconds. So, you want to make sure you make the right first impression.
Typically, that will mean that you want a customized domain.
You’ll also need to figure out a way to “host” your website. You can think of website hosting as finding a place where your website will live online. This is what allows other people to view your website whenever they want. This area is where there starts to be a big difference between Wix and WordPress.
Wix will allow you to customize your domain and host your website, for one monthly fee. These fees start at $11 per month and go all the way up to $159 per month (when paid annually, which is always the cheapest route). The more you pay, the more features you have, such as the ability to sell goods, manage marketing efforts, and more.
Meanwhile, WordPress plans range from $4 per month to $45 per month if paid upfront for a year. Plus, you can pick and choose additional features to pay for. For example, if you want to upgrade to a special WordPress theme, those usually cost $59 per year. Plugins on WordPress give your website extra functionality, like the ability to sell items on your website or contact forms. Some of these plugins are free, but others cost money. When it comes down to cost and adding functions as a business grows, WordPress is the best platform for a website.
Find the Best Platform With SEO Design Chicago
Remember that SEO Design Chicago can explain the differences between WordPress and Wix to you in more detail if you would like. Additionally, we can handle the initial design of your site and then turn it over to you, or manage the website for you altogether. Reach out to us to get more details!
FAQ:
- What’s easier to use: WordPress or Wix?
- What’s the most popular website platform?
- What do customized domains have to do with first impressions?
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