Wix makes building a website look easy. Describe your business to its AI builder or pick a template, drag in your photos and you’re online. WordPress looks like more work. So why do so many businesses still choose it?
I’ll be upfront: I build websites in WordPress and Elementor, not in Wix. So I’m not neutral. But I’ll stick to facts you can check, most of them from Wix’s own help pages. I’ll also tell you where Wix is the better choice. There are a few.
Key Takeaways
- Wix is an all-in-one builder. Hosting, security and updates are included, from $17 a month on yearly billing (Wix plans, October 2026).
- A Wix site can’t leave Wix. It has to run on Wix’s servers and its blog posts can’t be exported (Wix Help Center).
- WordPress is yours. You can move it to any host and any WordPress developer can work on it. It runs 40.1% of all websites, Wix 4.2% (W3Techs, October 2026).
- WordPress needs looking after. Updates, backups and security are your job or your maintenance provider’s.
- Choose Wix for a site you’ll build and run yourself. Choose WordPress and Elementor for a site that should grow with your business and stay yours.
The Short Answer
| Wix | WordPress + Elementor | |
|---|---|---|
| What it is | An all-in-one website builder | Open-source software plus a visual page builder |
| Monthly cost | $17–$159 (billed yearly) | Hosting from a few euros, plus premium plugins |
| Hosting and updates | Included | Your host and your maintenance provider |
| Moving to another platform | Not possible: the site runs only on Wix | Move the whole site to any host |
| Bookings and payments | Included from the Core plan ($29 a month) | Plugins, built into your own site |
| Multiple languages | Built in (Wix Multilingual) | Plugins such as Polylang or WPML |
| Best for | Sites you build and run yourself | Sites built by a professional that need to grow |
Sources: Wix plans, October 2026 (US prices shown for reference, billed yearly), Wix Help Center.
What’s the Difference?
Wix is a hosted website builder. You rent everything from one company: the editor, the templates, the hosting and the security. You pay a monthly plan and Wix keeps it all running.
WordPress is software. It’s free and open source. You install it on hosting you choose. Elementor is a visual page builder for WordPress. It lets you design and edit pages by dragging and dropping, much like Wix.
WordPress is by far the more common choice. It runs 40.1% of all websites, while Wix runs 4.2% (W3Techs, October 2026).
Where Wix Wins
Wix is good at what it’s made for. Here’s where it beats WordPress:
- Getting started. An AI builder can create a first version from a description. There are also more than 2,000 templates.
- No maintenance. Wix handles hosting, security and updates. There are no plugins to update.
- Bookings and payments built in. Scheduling and online payments are included from the Core plan at $29 a month (Wix plans, October 2026).
- Languages built in. Wix Multilingual translates a site into more than 180 languages, manually or automatically. The first 3,000 words of automatic translation are free (Wix Help Center).
- A free plan to try it out, with Wix branding on the site.
If you’ll build the site yourself and want everything in one place, Wix is a sensible choice.
Where WordPress and Elementor Win
The picture changes when a professional builds your site and you expect it to grow.
You Own the Website
With WordPress, the site is yours: the files, the database and the content. You can move it to another host whenever you like. If you part ways with your designer or developer, any other WordPress professional can take over.
Wix doesn’t work that way. Wix says your site has to be hosted and operated on Wix’s servers, because it runs on Wix’s own technology (Wix Help Center). Even blog posts can’t be exported to another platform (Wix Help Center).
In practice, leaving Wix means rebuilding the site and copying the content by hand. Leaving a WordPress host means moving it.
It Grows With Your Business
The official WordPress directory has tens of thousands of free plugins, plus premium ones from independent companies. Bookings, payments, memberships, forms and multiple languages all run inside your own site.
Two examples from my own projects:
- Miamor takes court bookings and card payments directly on its WordPress site, in Hungarian and English.
- Iberia Costa Consulting runs one WordPress site in three languages: Hungarian, English and Spanish.
Wix offers many of these features too, but only inside Wix. On WordPress, you choose the tools and you can replace any of them without rebuilding the site.
You Get Full Design Freedom
Elementor gives a designer or developer control over every section, on desktop and on mobile. Your site doesn’t have to look like a template, because it doesn’t start from one.
Wix’s editor is flexible too. The difference is what happens later. A WordPress site can be extended, redesigned or moved by anyone who knows WordPress. A Wix design can only ever live on Wix.
You Control the SEO
Wix covers the SEO basics well: titles, descriptions and clean page addresses. WordPress goes further. With an SEO plugin, you control every title, redirect, sitemap and the structured data that helps search engines and AI assistants understand your business.
That doesn’t mean a WordPress site ranks better on its own. It means nothing on the platform holds you back when you want to do more.
Where WordPress Asks More of You
WordPress isn’t the easy option. It’s fair to say so:
- It needs maintenance. WordPress, its theme and its plugins need regular updates. In 2025, 91% of new WordPress vulnerabilities were found in plugins (Patchstack, 2026). Someone has to update them, keep backups and watch for problems. Skipped updates are a common way in for attackers. Here’s what to do if it happens.
- There are more moving parts. Hosting, domain, theme and plugins all come from different companies.
- Premium plugins cost money. Elementor Pro, booking plugins and some SEO tools have yearly licenses.
You can do this yourself in about an hour a month. My website maintenance checklist lists every step. Or you can hand it over to a maintenance plan. Here’s what website maintenance really costs.
What Does Each Option Really Cost?
The monthly plan is only part of the picture. For a service business, the real comparison looks like this:
| Wix | WordPress + Elementor | |
|---|---|---|
| Platform or hosting | $17–$159 a month | A few euros a month for hosting |
| Bookings and payments | From the Core plan ($29 a month) | A booking plugin license |
| More languages | Built in, paid beyond 3,000 auto-translated words | A multilingual plugin license |
| Maintenance | Included | Yourself, or a maintenance plan |
| Building the site | Yourself, or a professional | A professional |
Sources: Wix plans, October 2026 (US prices shown for reference, billed yearly; prices vary by location), Wix Help Center.
The biggest cost is usually the website project itself: the copy, the design and the build. That’s the same on either platform. Here’s what a website really costs in more detail.
Which One Should You Choose?
Choose Wix if:
- You want to build and update the site yourself.
- You’d like bookings, payments or languages without any setup.
- You’d rather not think about updates and hosting at all.
- You’re fine staying on Wix for the long term.
Choose WordPress and Elementor if:
- A professional builds your site and you want it to look like your business, not a template.
- You want to own the site and be free to change host or designer or developer later.
- You expect to add features over time and want to choose the tools yourself.
- You want full control over SEO.
For a service business that wants its website to bring in clients for years, I recommend WordPress and Elementor. That’s why it’s the only platform I build on.
Switching From Wix to WordPress
Many businesses start on Wix and move to WordPress once the site needs to do more. Here’s what a move involves:
- The content is copied by hand. A Wix site can’t be exported, so pages and blog posts are moved manually.
- The design is rebuilt. That makes the move a good moment to fix the copy and structure too.
- Your domain can stay where it is. You can point a Wix domain at your new website by changing its DNS records. To transfer it to another registrar, 60 days must have passed since you registered it (Wix Help Center).
- Old page addresses need redirects. Send every old address to its new one, so you keep your Google rankings. My website redesign checklist covers this step by step.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is WordPress better than Wix?
For a site a professional builds and that needs to grow, yes. WordPress gives you ownership, the freedom to move and features through plugins. For a site you’ll build and run yourself, Wix is easier because hosting and updates are included.
Can I move my Wix site to WordPress?
Not automatically. Wix sites can only run on Wix’s servers and blog posts can’t be exported. The content has to be copied by hand and the design rebuilt in WordPress.
Is Wix cheaper than WordPress?
Not always. Wix plans cost $17–$159 a month on yearly billing, with bookings and payments from $29 a month. WordPress hosting is often cheaper, but you add premium plugins and maintenance. On both, the website project itself is the bigger cost.
Can Wix take bookings?
Yes. Scheduling and online payments are included from the Core plan. On WordPress, a booking plugin does the same inside your own site.
Is Wix good for SEO?
It covers the basics well: page titles, descriptions and clean addresses. WordPress gives you more control, for example over redirects and structured data. Neither platform ranks a site on its own. The content does most of the work.
Wix or Squarespace?
Both are hosted builders with similar trade-offs. Wix includes bookings and multiple languages in its plans. Squarespace needs separate services for both. Here’s my WordPress vs Squarespace comparison.
What is Elementor?
Elementor is a visual page builder for WordPress. It lets you design and edit pages by dragging and dropping, without code. It gives WordPress the ease of editing people like about Wix.
Your Next Step
Already on WordPress and Elementor? My maintenance plan keeps your site updated, backed up and secure for €50 a month, with no contract. It’s also available for Elementor sites someone else built. Every takeover starts with a health check. Tell me about your website. I’ll reply within 1 business day.
Tamas Pocs is a freelance web designer and WordPress developer based in Hungary. For 5+ years he has written, designed and built websites for service businesses (more than 50 so far) and looked after them once they’re live. See his work or connect on LinkedIn.
