WP101 04 Wix vs WordPress vs WordPress com

While WordPress is a wonderful blogging tool and a website creation software it does have some competition from providers such as wix.com and wordpress.com.

The article Which Should You Use, Wix or WordPress by HubSpot (https://blog.hubspot.com/website/wix-vs-wordpress) provides a good comparison.

Software
Wix is a proprietary web building software - it provides a great user experience that said it doesn't provide the flexibility in terms of being able to export your content. With WordPress, one can export all of site content and then import it into a different site in an XML format.

Flexibility
While the designs are amazing, Wix templates are more geared towards single page sites. While WordPress started out as a blogging platform, the addition of custom fields and custom post types turned it into a full fledged CMS. The launch of Gutenberg/Block editor (https://wordpress.org/gutenberg/) a year ago made WordPress an easy tool to create media rich pages and posts.

Plugins
Wix has 250 addons for common use cases. Since WordPress is open source and supported by a large base of developers, there are tons of plugins (over 55,000 free plugins) that provide unlimited functionality. So we can do a lot more with WordPress beyond just blogging. Create e-commerce site, build a Learning Management Systems or Mobile Apps.

Templates
Wix is a flexible platform and their templates look great. However, a lot of Wix templates tend to be quite heavy in terms of how they built with JavaScript that can slow things down. I use and recommend GeneratePress (https://vjdesign.com.au/generatepress-theme/) since it is an extremely lightweight with unlimited possibilities in terms of design. Use SiteGround for hosting since they offer excellent uptime, customer service and strong security. For a comparison of all the hosting providers, please visit https://vjdesign.com.au/web-hosting/.

Pricing
While Wix and WordPress.com offer free plans with ads - initially it might look like Wix is a cheaper option but in the long term you end up paying a lot more right for and you don't have a lot of flexibility but if you are thinking in terms of a single page site or a simple blog you could go either with Wix or even the free version of wordpress.com or just a personal version of wordpress.com for $5 per month if your needs are fairly limited or simple.

eCommerce
eCommerce Plans on Wix start to add up the price. If you are small business and are going down the e-commerce path I would highly recommend getting wordpress.org and setting up something like WooCommerce (a free plugin) with ability to receive payments via Paypal or Credit Cards and set up Shipping and much more.

SEO
Use free SEO plugins such as Yoast to get the right search engine optimization. WordPress becomes technically one of the best search engine optimized publishing tools. Wix is limited in its SEO options.

Blogging
Wix has basic editor for creating blog posts and comments. WordPress started out as a blogging platform with a simple editor. With Gutenberg and all the new editing functionality, WordPress is the one of the best drag and drop builders out there and it's amazing what you can do with WordPress. View my post on How to build a Landing page using the WordPress Block Editor (Gutenberg) https://vjdesign.com.au/landing-page-using-wordpress/

Support
Wix has dedicated support available 24/7. While there is no dedicated support for wordpress.org since it is all community driven, you can post questions in the forum. Or if you are happy to pay, you will get support through developers like myself https://vjdesign.com.au/services/web-development/

Static Sites
If your content does not change often, a plain HTML site hand coded by a web developer is the way to go. Do you want Blazing Fast Site hosted for free and with no domain charges? I can include a lightweight Content Management System so that you could make some changes or add posts https://vjdesign.com.au/services/static-site-developer/

In Summary
If you are after a basic site you could very well go with Wix or wordpress.com. However, if you are a small business then one of my basic packages with wordpress.org setup for you in the way you want it to look is the way to go. https://vjdesign.com.au/services/web-design/

TUTORIAL PAGE
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For more information, please visit https://vjdesign.com.au/wp101

WORDPRESS 101 SERIES
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This post is part of WordPress 101 Series. These tutorials are meant to be a starter help for anyone who never used WordPress before.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nwi-9z2CIMg&list=PLPQ8cm3pHSWzPZ3FBzS6galqlGhzbZrjE

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