Wix or WordPress for a business site?

Wix or WordPress? Choose Wix if you want to build a simple site yourself, fast, and never deal with maintenance. Choose WordPress if you publish a lot, want to grow in Google, need specific features or may ever want to move your site. Wix costs 14 to 149 euros a month before VAT and your site always stays on Wix; WordPress is free software, but you pay for hosting, plugins and upkeep. If you want to be found for many services, languages or markets, or need a calculator or portal, a custom site is often the better third route. Already on Wix and ready to leave? See how to cancel Wix without losing your domain.

WordPress runs 39.6 percent of all websites, Wix 4.2 percent. Popular is not the same as right for you: below you see per criterion which one is stronger, what each costs over three years and when to choose neither.

Wix: everything in one subscription

Wix is a website builder: you rent software, hosting and templates in one plan. You drag blocks onto a page, and Wix takes care of updates, security and hosting. There are four paid plans, from Light (14 euros a month billed yearly) to Business Elite (149 euros), before VAT, as shown on Wix's Belgian pricing page. To take payments or sell online you start at Core, 25 euros. Prices in your country may differ; the full plan breakdown is in Wix pricing. The yearly bill for WordPress is worked out in WordPress website cost.

The big drawback: your site lives on the Wix platform. Wix itself says a site cannot be exported to another host. If you leave, you rebuild.

WordPress: open software on your own hosting

WordPress is open-source software you install on your own hosting (WordPress.org, not to be confused with the paid service WordPress.com). You pick a theme for the design and add features with plugins: a form, a store with WooCommerce, multiple languages. Anything is possible, but you or your builder keep WordPress, the theme and every plugin up to date.

That upkeep is not a detail. In 2024 the WordPress ecosystem logged 7,966 new vulnerabilities, 96 percent in plugins and 4 percent in themes; only seven in WordPress itself. One in three had not been fixed by the time it was made public. Does that make WordPress unsafe? Read is WordPress safe.

Wix and WordPress side by side

Two things usually decide it: who does the upkeep, and whether the site must be able to grow or move later. If the second matters to you, do not pick a closed platform.

Worked example: three years of Wix or WordPress

A consultant with a ten-page site and a contact form, no store. Before VAT, with a .com domain.

Wix is cheapest in money if you do it yourself. WordPress built yourself costs a little more, but the site is yours. WordPress's real cost is upkeep: outsource it and you quickly pay more than for a custom site without plugins. Build prices compared are in how much does a website cost.

SEO: which ranks better in Google?

Neither guarantees a ranking. Google looks at your content, speed and technical base, not at the platform.

• Wixhandles titles, descriptions, a sitemap and https for you. You have less control over code and speed, and some advanced settings are missing.
• WordPressgives full control, with a plugin such as Yoast. But every plugin adds code, and a WordPress site with a heavy page builder is often slower; see why is WordPress so slow.

The biggest SEO gain is a page per service, per market and per language, written on the terms your buyers use. Both platforms can hold that, but no platform writes it for you. The technical side is in what is technical SEO.

Choose Wix when, choose WordPress when

Torn between Wix and another builder? See Wix vs Squarespace. Selling online? Wix vs Shopify is the better comparison. Wondering about AI builders such as Lovable: Lovable vs WordPress.

Leaving Wix: how to go about it

Many companies start on Wix and want more after a few years: more pages, a second language, a feature of their own. Because a Wix site cannot be exported, switching is a rebuild:

1. List every page and address on your current site, and check in Search Console which pages earn impressions and clicks.
2. Save your copy and images outside Wix: download the original photos, copy the text.
3. Put the domain in your own name at a registrar if it is registered through Wix. That can be done separately from the site.
4. Build the new site and set up a redirect from every old address to the new page.
5. Switch by pointing the domain at the new site, submit the new sitemap, and cancel Wix only when everything works.

For a site of ten to twenty pages, count on a few weeks, most of it for new copy and design. What goes wrong in a move: moving a website to a new host.

Mistakes on both sides

• On Wix: assuming you will move laterYou rebuild, including moving all copy and images.
• On Wix: the cheapest plan for a storeOnline payments need at least Core.
• On WordPress: twenty plugins for twenty small thingsEach is an update and a risk.
• On WordPress: a theme that does everythingIt also loads everything, on every page.
• On both: the domain in someone else's nameSee country domain vs .com.

Choosing without regret

1. Write down how many pages your site will have in two years, in how many languages.
2. Decide who does the upkeep, and how many hours a month that may cost.
3. Work out both options over three years with the table above.
4. Still unsure? Read build your website yourself or hire someone.