WordPress and Wix both let you build a website without code. WordPress — originally designed for bloggers with some technical know-how — focuses on database-like organization of pages and media, with some visual design areas. The popular content management system, or CMS, can be installed on most web hosting servers. Wix is a visual-first website builder — designed for complete tech newbies — that only works on Wix’s own web servers. However, Wix is more expensive than many WordPress hosting plans, so it’s not ideal for those with a limited budget.
WordPress has evolved to be suitable for everything from a small blog to a large e-commerce store, with tens of thousands of themes and plugins granting it limitless functionality. However, you’ll need to find, install and update those themes and plugins, making it more suitable for people interested in taking a DIY approach to site maintenance. You’ll also need to find third-party hosting. Wix has slightly more limited functionality, but provides an all-in-one package with hosting and all of the tools you’ll need to build a professional portfolio, blog or online storefront.
Let’s compare WordPress and Wix so you can decide which is better for your website-building needs.
Wix vs. WordPress at a glance
| WordPress | Wix | |
| Hosting | Must be purchased separately | Bundled with website builder |
| Templates | Over 13,000 free + 12,000 premium | Over 800 free |
| Website design tools | Visual design through Gutenberg + database-style content management; more advanced visual editors available as extensions | Intuitive visual site editor |
| Blogging tools | Advanced, with plugins to extend further | Basic |
| E-commerce | Available through free plugins | Available on higher-tier plans |
| Cost | Typically starts around $3 per month | Starts at $17 per month |
WordPress.org vs. WordPress.com: Understanding WordPress options
WordPress.org is a free content management system for creating, organizing and maintaining content such as blog posts and web pages. WordPress.com is a web hosting company that has transformed WordPress.org software into something more like a website builder (such as Wix) to simplify website creation for beginners.
We’ve focused on WordPress.org for this article, as it has several benefits over WordPress.com. You can use WordPress as your CMS with virtually any web host, letting you take advantage of low prices from companies like Hostinger and AccuWeb Hosting. The WordPress.org software also gives you access to the full range of themes and plugins on any hosting plan.
WordPress.com, meanwhile, limits the themes and plugins you can use on its lower-cost plans, and even those plans are more expensive than comparable options from many WordPress.org hosts. Its value and flexibility make WordPress.org a better choice for most folks.
Hosting: WordPress gives you endless options. Wix reduces complications
WordPress is ideal if you’re seeking maximum flexibility and affordability, as it can be installed on nearly all types of web hosting, from the cheapest shared hosting plans to the most expensive dedicated hosting plans. Wix’s hosting is bundled with its website builder, making it ideal if you’re primarily concerned with simplicity. However, Wix costs more than many traditional web hosting plans, and moving a Wix site to another host is a highly involved process.
WordPress’s compatibility with a wide range of web hosts allows you to start with shared hosting — a cheap option intended for small websites — and scale up to more advanced options such as VPS or dedicated hosting as your site grows. Shared hosting lets you get started on a shoestring budget, often starting at just $3 per month, and renewal costs can be as low as $6 a month. You can then upgrade for additional storage and bandwidth as needed.
Many companies provide specialized WordPress hosting with benefits like pre-installed WordPress, automated updates to the CMS and servers optimized to improve WordPress speed. Some companies, such as SiteGround, even offer WordPress-based visual website builders to further simplify the WordPress experience. These plans often use a shared hosting model and cost similar prices, so you can reap the rewards without spending a lot of extra money.
Wix only has four hosting plans — unlike with WordPress, there are no third-party web hosts. Wix uses cloud hosting, which stores website data in several interconnected servers to improve uptime and site speed for international users. Cloud hosting is typically more expensive than shared hosting, and this is reflected in Wix’s plans, which start at $17 per month versus the $3 to $5 dollars a month that many shared hosting plans begin at. However, cloud hosting can be worth the price for sites expecting rapid growth or large international audiences. Furthermore, Wix’s website builder can be worth the cost for tech newbies seeking a simple experience.
If you decide you’re not happy with the cost or service associated with your hosting plan, WordPress makes it much easier to switch hosts than Wix does. Many companies will perform a WordPress site transfer for you at no additional cost. Manually transferring your WordPress site to a new host is also a relatively simple process, and your site’s appearance and functionality won’t change if you move it from one WordPress host to another.
Most web hosting companies won’t transfer a Wix site to a WordPress hosting platform for you, so you’ll have to do it yourself. Moreover, Wix’s proprietary code means your site will likely look very different when you move it to another platform — and some of its functionality, like lead generation forms or internal links, might be lost. This means you’ll need to spend a significant amount of time testing your site to make sure everything’s working properly before you launch it on the new host.
Usability: WordPress provides more flexibility. Wix provides more simplicity
WordPress lets you build anything from a professional portfolio to a blog to an e-commerce store on a minimal budget with its sizable library of themes and plugins — many of which are free or low-cost. But its database-style administration can mean a steeper learning curve than you’ll experience with Wix. Wix’s visual website builder is more beginner-friendly and is great for simple sites like portfolios or hobby sites. However, its blogging tools are somewhat limited, and you’ll pay at least $29 per month to access Wix’s e-commerce tools.
WordPress must be installed on server space purchased through a third-party host, so you’ll need to research hosting options and buy a plan. Luckily, there are many resources available to help you choose the right hosting service. Many web hosting companies also offer plans with one-click WordPress installation or guided setup processes to simplify your WordPress experience.
Wix, on the other hand, automatically installs the website builder for you when you purchase a plan. Wix has 800-plus templates, and some aren’t exactly attractive, so it might take a while to find the right one. However, WordPress has tens of thousands of themes, so you might struggle to find the right one there, too — and you’ll have to both install and update your theme with WordPress.
WordPress’s core software comes with tools for organizing pages, blog posts and digital media, but not much else. You’ll need to install (and update, unless you choose managed WordPress hosting) plugins for everything from SEO optimization to e-commerce store creation. Wix, on the other hand, provides some built-in analytics tools and automatically installs things like e-commerce functionality during site creation. You won’t need to update them, either — but you will need to pay for one of the higher-tier plans to keep e-commerce features after your free trial.
Building and updating your site is easier with Wix, but switching your site template to make big changes is difficult. You’ll need to create a new website using the free editor, then manually transfer your data, hosting plan and domain to the new site. WordPress, meanwhile, has a slightly more complex process for editing posts and pages, but makes it remarkably simple to change your theme.
Another place where WordPress outmatches Wix is its blogging tools. WordPress offers extensive tools for designing, organizing and maintaining blog posts — which makes sense because it was originally built for bloggers. You can also use free plugins for access to post customization and SEO optimization options. Wix, meanwhile, has a simplistic blog interface with minimal SEO tools, which can be frustrating if your blog is the primary focus of your site.
Value: WordPress combined with the right web host provides more value. Wix simplifies things for a high price
You can get substantially more value out of WordPress than Wix if you choose the right web host. Most web hosting companies charge less for their lowest-tier plans than Wix, while also providing more storage and the opportunity to expand your site in many ways through free or low-cost plugins. The higher renewal prices for many WordPress web hosts are often still cheaper than Wix, too. However, some people may find the simplicity of Wix’s website builder to be worth the price, especially if they’re creating a small website like a professional portfolio.
Wix vs. WordPress value comparison
| WordPress | Wix | |
| Hosting | Must be purchased separately | Bundled with website builder |
| Templates | Over 13,000 free + 12,000 premium | Over 800 free |
| Website design tools | Visual design through Gutenberg + database-style content management; more advanced visual editors available as extensions | Intuitive visual site editor |
| Blogging tools | Advanced, with plugins to extend further | Basic |
| E-commerce tools | Available through free plugins | Available on higher-tier plans |
| Storage and bandwidth | Typically starts at 10GB (enough for at least 100 pages) storage and bandwidth for 10,000 visitors | 2GB (enough for at least 20 pages) storage, unlimited bandwidth |
| Security | SSL certification and firewall protection at minimum; many plans also include DDoS protection and malware scanning | SSL certification, firewall protection, anti-DDoS protection, two-factor authentication, 24/7 monitoring |
| Customer support | 24/7 live chat at least; many also offer email and phone support | 24/7 live chat and phone |
| Cost | Typically starts at around $3 per month and rises to $10 — $20 per month on renewal | Starts at $17 per month |
Getting started with WordPress is more affordable than launching a site with Wix. You can install the CMS onto any web hosting platform for free, taking advantage of introductory discounts to launch your site for as little as $3 per month. Most web hosts charge more when your contract renews. But many companies — like Hostinger, our 2025 Editor’s Choice winner for Best Value Web Host — still have lower rates than Wix, often $12 or $13 per month. Some, like AccuWeb and Liquid Web (formerly Nexcess), even offer long-term rates of less than $10 per month.
The 60,000-plus free plugins available through WordPress.org allow you to add things like advanced SEO tools, email marketing and e-commerce functionality to your site for free or on the cheap. Wix, meanwhile, restricts most of its marketing and e-commerce tools to the Core plan, which costs $29 per month. Some, like email marketing, aren’t built into any plan and require a paid extension — even for the first 500 subscribers, which are often free on other email marketing platforms.
Wix’s starting storage of 2GB (enough for 20 large pages, like product pages with several high-res images, or 200 smaller pages, like blog posts with one or two images) is also dismal compared to most web hosting plans. Most companies, like SiteGround, give you at least 10GB (enough for 100 large pages or 1,000 small pages) on their starter plans. Hostinger offers 25GB of space on its starting plan, which is sufficient for approximately 250 large pages or 2,500 small pages.
The one area where Wix offers more than some WordPress hosts is its unlimited bandwidth. Many WordPress hosts, including SiteGround — our 2025 Editor’s Choice winner for Best Web Host Overall — limit bandwidth, with plans typically starting at 10,000 visitors per month. However, other companies, like Hostinger, offer unlimited bandwidth. You can also find companies like Liquid Web, which makes its bandwidth limits high enough (enough for two million monthly visitors on the most affordable plan) that most websites won’t exceed them.
Security: Wix is generally safer than WordPress, but there are ways to bring WordPress up to par
Wix offers more robust security than most WordPress hosts, but there are some WordPress hosts that offer equal (or close to equal) protection. Moreover, there are many WordPress plugins you can use to improve your website security. DIYers willing to put in the research to find and install these plugins can make their WordPress sites as secure as any Wix site.
Both Wix and the vast majority of WordPress hosts offer SSL certification, a protocol for encrypting data sent to and from your website, to protect your (and your visitors’) information. Servers belonging to Wix and most WordPress hosts are protected with firewall software that scans traffic for signs of malware or other malicious intent, blocking anything they deem suspicious.
Wix has rigorous anti-DDoS protocols, which prevent your site from being overwhelmed by floods of malicious traffic. Many WordPress hosts — including Hostinger and SiteGround — also offer DDoS protection, but this feature isn’t always available on traditional hosting plans. You’ll need to pay close attention to the plan you’re buying to ensure that it has DDoS protection.
Another security feature you won’t always get from WordPress web hosting is two-factor authentication. Many companies offer this protection for your hosting account, but of the hosts I’ve tested so far, only SiteGround and Liquid Web offer solutions for enabling two-factor authentication on your WordPress site. Luckily, there are many free plugins you can use to add this layer of security — you’ll just have to install them yourself if you’re not using a host like SiteGround or Liquid Web.
The really big difference between Wix and WordPress, however, is 24/7 security monitoring. Wix has a team of real people constantly evaluating the security of its servers and website builder software so they can employ fixes in real time. Most traditional web hosting companies don’t provide any form of 24/7 security monitoring, and when they do, it’s often AI — like the AI monitoring employed by SiteGround.
Performance: Wix is as fast and reliable as some of the best WordPress hosts
Wix had 100% uptime and a 2.38-second average site speed during my tests. Many of the best web hosts also achieved 100% uptime during my testing, but of the hosts I’ve assessed, only Hostinger and Liquid Web had similar site speed to Wix. This shows that WordPress hosting can match Wix in performance, but you’ll need to be selective when choosing a host if site speed is one of your primary concerns.
Uptime is important because visitors who can’t access your website will often go elsewhere, resulting in lost traffic and possibly revenue. Wix promises a 99.99% uptime guarantee, meaning server issues shouldn’t cause your site to go down for more than two minutes per week. This is better than the industry-standard 99.9% uptime guarantee, which allows your site to go down for 10 minutes per week. I monitored my Wix site for one week with BetterStack and was pleased to see that Wix actually outdid its above-average guarantee with 100% uptime.
Most of the traditional web hosts I’ve tested offer a 99.9% uptime guarantee, but several exceeded this with 100% uptime during my week of monitoring, including SiteGround, Hostinger and Liquid Web, our three top-rated WordPress hosts. These results show that you can trust many traditional web hosts to reliably deliver site content to your visitors.
Site speed matters because visitors who can’t quickly access your website will often leave, with bounce rate (the percentage of visitors who leave after only viewing one page) increasing by 32% when loading times go from one to three seconds. I (and other experts) therefore recommend keeping your site speed — the number of seconds your site takes to load — to three seconds or less.
I used WebPageTest to simulate loading websites from locations in North America, Europe, the Middle East and Australia over several days. My Wix website had an average site speed of 2.38 seconds, better than many web hosts I’ve tested. However, Liquid Web had a slightly faster site speed of 2.37 seconds. Hostinger’s site speed was even better at 2.34 seconds — the fastest average site speed of any of our recommended web hosts.
Customer support: Most web hosts, including Wix, provide mixed results, but there are some standouts
Wix provides excellent support through its knowledge base, decent live chat service and unusually fast phone service. WordPress hosting companies’ support is highly variable, with some companies offering poor live chat-based service while others, like Ionos, offer a variety of ways to get in touch with fast, helpful representatives. Accordingly, it’s important to carefully research the customer support options offered by any web hosting company you’re considering.
Most website builders and web hosting companies provide a comprehensive and intuitive self-serve knowledge base, and Wix is no exception. A search bar and clearly labelled categories make it easy to find what you need, with detailed tutorials available for numerous tasks. However, I was disappointed by the lack of how-to videos associated with most tutorials, which could prove frustrating for those who prefer to learn through video.
This lack of multimedia content is sadly common among WordPress-friendly web hosting companies as well. Of all of the companies I’ve tested, only Hostinger had both video and text-based tutorials (with images for visual guidance) for fixing most issues.
Like most WordPress web hosts, Wix’s direct communication options begin with a 24/7 AI chatbot. This chatbot is highly effective, with enough training to address a variety of issues, but it really doesn’t want to connect you with a person. I had to say “speak with a person” three times before it directed me to one. Once I got through, however, the agent was fast and — after an initial miscommunication likely rooted in a language barrier — helpful.
I had a more positive experience with Wix’s callback service. I received a call less than two minutes after requesting one and, while I did experience another brief misunderstanding, the agent managed to resolve my problem in under five minutes.
My experience contacting support at WordPress-friendly hosts has been wildly inconsistent. Hostinger has a well-trained chatbot — even more effective than Wix’s — but wait times to connect with a human can be upward of 30 minutes, and there are no other contact methods. Liquid Web has 24/7, 100% human-operated live chat with fast and helpful representatives, but its support ticket service is unusually slow, and I never received a callback from its phone service.
If you want a web host that really excels at customer service, I recommend SiteGround. Its knowledge base doesn’t have as many videos as Hostinger’s, but response times through its live chat, support ticket system and phone service are excellent. I was also impressed by how helpful and professional SiteGround’s representatives were. Moreover, all of SiteGround’s agents are trained on WordPress, so they can help with a variety of WordPress-specific issues other companies’ staff aren’t always able to provide assistance for.
Bottom line: Wix can be better for beginners, but WordPress provides more value and flexibility
Wix can be a great tool for beginners who want to launch a hobby site, for-fun blog or a professional portfolio quickly and simply. The template collection is extensive, the site editor is intuitive and the servers are remarkably fast and reliable. You also won’t need to worry about installing or updating software for most core website tasks like blogging and e-commerce.
Unfortunately, Wix’s high cost and strict storage limitations make it less than appealing for those with small budgets. The lack of e-commerce and advanced SEO optimization features on lower-tier plans can also make Wix less than appealing for business owners who aren’t prepared to invest in the higher-tier plans.
WordPress can be more difficult to get started with, but many web hosts provide specialized tools and hosting plans to simplify installation and automate things like software updates. Moreover, you’ll gain access to virtually unlimited design and functionality options through the tens of thousands of themes and plugins available for WordPress. And you’ll often get these things for significantly lower prices than Wix plans — especially during your first contract, when you’ll typically get an introductory discount, knocking the price down to $2 or $3 a month.
These are the best web hosting options for WordPress
You’ll need to purchase a third-party web hosting plan to use WordPress. I’ve tested numerous popular web hosts — and some excellent lesser-known options — so I can recommend starting with one of the following hosts.
SiteGround
SiteGround earned our 2025 Editor’s Choice award for the Best Web Host Overall with its guided WordPress setup, spectacular security and best-in-class customer support. My Siteground website also had 100% uptime and an average site speed well under the recommended maximum of three seconds during my tests. Moreover, a built-in performance plugin — something you won’t get from most other WordPress hosts — can further improve site speeds.
SiteGround’s renewal costs start at $18 per month, which is slightly more than Wix’s base plan, but you can get a discounted rate of $3 a month in your first year. You’ll also get significantly more storage — enough for 100 large pages or 1,000 smaller pages — on the basic SiteGround plan than on the lowest-cost Wix plan.
Read our full SiteGround review
Hostinger
Hostinger is our 2025 Editor’s Choice for the Best Value Web Host because it offers phenomenal features, including excellent storage and bandwidth, on every plan. Notable Hostinger features include a WordPress assistant to help beginners navigate the admin dashboard and automated WordPress updates. Hostinger’s servers use LiteSpeed, a specialized caching technology for boosting WordPress speed, to achieve one of the fastest average site speeds I’ve encountered.
Moreover, with prices starting at just $3 per month (based on a four-year contract) for a fully-featured plan with enough storage to host at least 250 pages and unlimited bandwidth, Hostinger’s a great deal. The renewal costs are also quite reasonable, starting at just $11 per month — a full $6 less per month than you’d pay for the more limited Wix Light plan.
Read our full Hostinger review
Liquid Web (formerly Nexcess)
Liquid Web did remarkably well in my hands-on testing thanks largely to its WordPress Management Center. This unique tool makes it easy to complete key tasks for improving site functionality and performance, including simultaneously installing a variety of pre-approved plugins. Liquid Web also provides automated WordPress updates on all plans, reducing the complexity of running a WordPress site.
Liquid Web’s most affordable plan, Spark Launch, lacks key features, most notably firewall protection, so you’ll have to spring for the second-tier plan, Spark Thrive. Spark Thrive starts at $8 a month (based on a three-year contract), which seems expensive until you realize the price doesn’t increase on renewal. Moreover, Spark Thrive includes much more than firewall protection, with several premium plugins bundled right into your hosting package. You’ll also get enough storage for at least 150 pages and enough bandwidth for two million monthly visitors.
Read our full Liquid Web (formerly Nexcess) review