Look Out WordPress, Here Comes Israel-Based Wix

As the largest publicly traded company in Israel, Wix has stated its goal to have 50% of all websites built online using its platform within 5-7 years. Given WordPress’s current dominance in the market with a 43% share, how possible is this?

The competition between Wix and WordPress is interesting because they are both website builders but have very different approaches. Wix is a closed platform that offers a turnkey solution for creating websites with its own hosting, while the dominant variant of WordPress is open-source software that must be installed on a hosting account.

While WordPress has a larger market share by far, Wix is growing faster. This is likely because Wix offers a more user-friendly platform that requires no technical knowledge at all in order to create a website that catches a lot of first-time website builders’ attention.

Now that Wix is set to venture into web-focused tech, it will be interesting to see how this affects its chances of success in the long run. The end game here is no small beans. That 43% number adds up to about 455 million websites. It’s not hard to imagine that the Wix brain trust sees the kind of profit potential that creates serious motivation. 

Imagine what a 50% market share actually means. For simplicity, we’ll say it equals 500 million sites, each paying around $20 per month for the service. Without hurting our brains too much with the math, we’re well into the billions of dollars. With stakes this high – the competition between Wix and WordPress is heating up!

Wix vs. WordPress: Categories Compared

Both Wix and WordPress are web development platforms that allow users to create websites without having to write code from scratch. However, that’s where the similarities end.

Let’s take a look at how these two platforms compare in different categories:

Ease of Use

Wix is definitely much easier to use than WordPress. In fact, it is one of the main reasons why people choose Wix over WordPress.

With Wix, you can create a website in minutes without touching a single line of code. You can drag and drop different elements on your page and rearrange them however you want. This is the famous process of WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get).

On the other hand, WordPress requires a tiny bit of technical knowledge, known for its not-so-easy-to-install and configure extensions and plugins. On the other hand, there are a lot of forums that offer handholding through the process. A LOT of forums.

Pricing and Costs

Pricing can definitely be a deciding factor when choosing between Wix and WordPress.

Wix offers a free plan that allows you to create a website with limited features. However, if you want to unlock all the features, you will need to upgrade to one of their paid plans.

While WordPress is a free and open-source platform, that doesn’t mean that it costs nothing to create a website. You need to pay for hosting, domain name, and other add-ons from various third-party vendors.

Apps and Plugins

When it comes to apps and plugins, it seems to be a tie between the two platforms.

While Wix has limited customization, the installation process is much easier. They even have a tool for building mobile apps without any coding. WordPress, however, has a wide range of customization, but the installation can be tricky for beginners.

Wix closely monitors offerings in its app store to ensure it meets high-quality standards. On the other hand, the WordPress plugin landscape is sort of the wild, wild west. There are around 60,000 plugins available. Given that it is an open-source platform, there are gems to be found, and there are others that are – how to say this delicately – not. 

Designs and Flexibility

Creativity is definitely Wix’s forte. Wix comes with more than 800 mobile-friendly templates that can be easily customized.

On the other hand, WordPress offers more flexibility in terms of designs and customization, but you might need to hire a developer to help you with the task. However, if you know how to code, then you can do anything with WordPress; the sky is the limit.

Blogging and SEO

Blogging is one of the main reasons why people use WordPress. That’s why it was created in the first place and that’s where it really shines. Wix has always been more focused on creating websites. That doesn’t mean you can’t create a blog with Wix, but it might not be as seamless as WordPress.

Both Wix and WordPress are pretty good in SEO. WordPress dominates the SEO category regarding more control over off-page SEO, backlinks, and social signals. In comparison, Wix might have an edge in offering a more user-friendly platform that is easier to optimize for search engines.

Ecommerce Functionality

Right now, WordPress is the way to go if you plan to create an online store. With WordPress’ WooCommerce and Shopify taking the top two spots in the eCommerce Usage Distribution in the Top 1 Million Sites, it is evident that WordPress is the more popular platform for eCommerce. This is one area Wix is going to have to up its game in order to reach its market share goals.

It’s not that Wix can’t be a good option. There is a built-in eCommerce platform with a suite of eCommerce marketing tools; all you need to do is upgrade to one of their paid plans. It’s perfect for start-up businesses and those not ready to invest in a full-fledged online store.

Security

When it comes to security, Wix is way ahead of WordPress. Cybercrime costs businesses an average of $6 trillion per year, so website security should be foremost on the mind of any online entrepreneur or business.

Wix takes care of all the website security for you so that you can focus on running your business without worrying about your website being hacked. It has an SSL certificate that encrypts all of your website’s information automatically. Protection from malware and other popular threats is automatically baked in.

WordPress, on the other hand, is an open-source platform, making it more vulnerable to security threats. In fact, according to Expert Insights, WordPress sites, compared to non-CMS websites, are 3x as likely to have malware, and you double the risk of compromise with every five plugins you add to your WordPress site.

Final Thoughts

So, can Wix actually dethrone WordPress? Smart money is not going either direction right now. 

WordPress has established itself as a powerful website builder and content management system with over 18 years in the market. It has a huge community of users, developers, and contributors constantly working to improve the software.

This is a lot to overcome, but remember when search engines like AltaVista, Ask Jeeves, and Webcrawler ruled the day? Neither does Google. We’ll know more in a few years. For now, it should be fun to watch Wix challenge WordPress for the king of the website-building hill.