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WordPress Vs Wix: Which Web Design Software Should You Choose?

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Mika, Staff Writer

Thursday, 6 May 2021

If you’re planning to create your first website, you’ll probably be wondering what is the best web design software? Two of the most popular options are WordPress and Wix, but who comes out victorious? 

In this article, we’ll be looking at where each web design platform excels and where it falls down, to finally answer the question of WordPress vs Wix, once and for all.

WordPress.org vs Wordpress.com

Before we begin, we should probably explain the difference between WordPress.org and WordPress.com. The main difference between these platforms is that WordPress.com hosts your website for you whilst with WordPress.org, you’ll need to host it yourself.

With WordPress.com, you’re restricted to using pre-existing templates and design features, limiting your options significantly. When you choose WordPress.org, you unlock endless design features, themes, and plugins, which are being constantly developed and added to.

For this article, we’re going to be talking about WordPress.org due to the extra features available and the flexibility to create your website exactly how you want it.

What to look for in a Web Design platform

When you’re looking for the perfect web design platform to build your website upon, there are a few key things that you should be looking out for. The top five things that you should cover include:

  • What design features are available?

  • How easy it is to use

  • The SEO potential

  • E-commerce integration

  • What extra features are available?

The best Web Design platform for…

Design features

Wix features a drag-and-drop editor. If you’re creating a conventional website, this will probably contain all of the design features that you could need. It's easy to use and you can see exactly how your website will look as you’re building it.  

For example, if you want to add a photo gallery to your website, you can do this with Wix. However, there is only one layout to choose from, so if you wanted your photo gallery to scroll horizontally rather than vertically, you wouldn’t be able to do this with Wix.

WordPress.org has lots of different plugins which enable you to create just about anything that you want on your website. So, that horizontally scrolling photo gallery? You could do that with WordPress.  

WordPress.org is an open-source CMS, meaning that there are many developers creating plugins and new design features continuously. If you’re looking for something a bit different, to make your business stand out from the crowd, WordPress is the one for you.

Ease of use

If you're looking for a web design platform that you can use with no prior knowledge of web design or training, Wix is probably the best choice. The drag-and-drop editor is intuitive, meaning that it won't take much getting used to.

WordPress.org is a bit more complex. It takes a bit of technical knowledge and practice to learn how to use it effectively. However, the extra functionality and features that you get with WordPress.org make it worth the extra time and effort to learn how to use.

WordPress also offers a plugin called Elementor which is a drag and drop editor, similar to that on Wix. This plugin makes designing and building your website much more straightforward and user-friendly.

SEO potential

If you're looking for a website that is fully optimized for search engines and will help you to achieve the best possible search rankings, WordPress.org is the clear winner.

Wix includes basic SEO functions such as metadata, headings, and custom URLs. However, Wix falls down when it comes to link structure. This is because it adds a hashtag to URLs which makes the site difficult for Google to crawl and will prevent your website from ranking highly.

WordPress features a wide range of SEO tools and plugins to fully optimize your website to rank on search engines such as Google. This includes the Yoast SEO plugin which is hugely popular amongst WordPress users. You can also install plugins that continuously scan your site for broken links to maintain your SEO traction.

E-commerce integration

Both Wix and WordPress are suitable for e-commerce integration. Wix offers a specific e-commerce package that gives you everything that you need to set up an online business. You can accept payments and calculate shipping costs through this platform.

WordPress.org offers the WooCommerce plugin which allows you to turn your website into an e-commerce site. From this plugin, you can add extensions to add specific e-commerce features to your website. For example, you can add a UPS shipping method extension that provides UPS shipping rates.

Again, if you’re looking for a standard online shop, Wix is perfectly sufficient. However, if you’re looking for something a bit out of the ordinary, or you’ve got ideas of specific features or layouts that you’d like your e-commerce site to have, WordPress may be the better choice.

Should you hire a Web Designer to build your website?

It can be hard to know where to start when you’re creating your first website or redesigning an existing site. You may be wondering whether you should hire a web designer to create your website.

If you’re happy with a basic website that follows a simple template, you can do this easily yourself. However, if you’re looking for a website that helps your business to stand out from the crowd and ranks highly on search engines such as Google, it's a good idea to consider hiring a web designer.

Your web designer will use their specialist knowledge and expertise to bring your vision to life. They'll work closely with you to make sure that your website meets your needs as well as being designed for user experience.

Hire a Web Designer on Bark

If you’re ready to begin your search for the perfect web designer to create your website, you can find a web designer on Bark. 

When you search for a web designer on Bark, you can browse the profiles of local professionals and read genuine reviews from former clients. Once you’ve found the right person, you can simply request a quote. It’s that easy!

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