Wix vs WordPress?

NadiaBlair

Registered
Joined
Dec 9, 2019
Messages
20
Reaction score
1
Hi all,

I'm trying to start a website/ blog for my author persona. I've previously built websites with Wix, and I much prefer their drag-and-drop system. However, I've read that Wix is maybe not as good with SEO and Google rankings as sites created in WordPress. So I signed up for WordPress through one of the hosting services, attempted to create a fairly straightforward blog, and vividly recalled why I loathe WordPress. Long story short, is it worth my while to learn Wordpress, or should I stick with Wix and save myself some grief?
 

AW Admin

Administrator
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Apr 19, 2008
Messages
18,772
Reaction score
6,285
Learn WordPress. Wix can't really be exported or backed up.

Lots of people here are familiar with WordPress and can help you.

The first thing to do is plan your site on paper. What pages will you need? What information will be on them?

Then pick a template. You don't have to blog (posts); you can simply create pages.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Vaitalla

NadiaBlair

Registered
Joined
Dec 9, 2019
Messages
20
Reaction score
1
Darn it! Thanks for your quick response ... and in retrospect, thanks for not flaming me for not thinking to do a search and see if someone had previously asked this!
 

Prophecies

Super Member
Registered
Joined
Nov 9, 2017
Messages
58
Reaction score
8
I second Wordpress. I've used it for over a year now, and it made blogging much easier. There's a reason why it's the go-to blogging platform for so many businesses and freelancers.
 

Francisco

Registered
Joined
Apr 10, 2020
Messages
7
Reaction score
0
I prefer WordPress a lot rather than using any other platform. Because I feel comfortable while working with WP plugins.
 

Laer Carroll

Aerospace engineer turned writer
Super Member
Registered
Temp Ban
Joined
Sep 13, 2012
Messages
2,478
Reaction score
267
Location
Los Angeles
Website
LaerCarroll.com
Keep in mind that there are two WPs: WP.com and WP.org. The first is free unless you want to rent a domain name such as Author.com or Author.org. The second requires you subscribe to a server and download .org software to the server. The .org choice is so you can install advanced plugins to do things .com can't.

Upgrading from .com to .org is easy, so beginners often get a .com site and later upgrade when their needs escalate.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Flame_keeper

Kimberly Anne Bell

Registered
Joined
Sep 16, 2021
Messages
4
Reaction score
1
If you are looking to start a blog then Wordpress is definitely worth learning. It's great for bloggers. Wix is also more expensive
 

AW Admin

Administrator
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Apr 19, 2008
Messages
18,772
Reaction score
6,285
Do not use Wix. You do not control your content, it's not easy to export and move to another site.

Try WordPress.com; just mess around at first on a free site.
 

Carrie

Super Member
Registered
Joined
Sep 16, 2019
Messages
239
Reaction score
299
I use Wix but I don't blog. It's just a place for people to refer to if they want to check my creds. Super easy to use and it looks pretty. That's all I wanted!
 

Unimportant

No COVID yet. Still masking.
Staff member
Moderator
Kind Benefactor
Super Member
Registered
Joined
May 8, 2005
Messages
19,519
Reaction score
22,744
Location
Aotearoa
Thanks, y'all, for this discussion! Blog-for-author-promo-options is in my far-distant future, but I am trying to be proactive and learn about this stuff now, so this is very valuable info for me.
 

stephenf

Super Member
Registered
Joined
Jul 29, 2008
Messages
1,199
Reaction score
335
Keep in mind that there are two WPs: WP.com and WP.org. The first is free unless you want to rent a domain name such as Author.com or Author.org. The second requires you subscribe to a server and download .org software to the server. The .org choice is so you can install advanced plugins to do things .com can't.

Upgrading from .com to .org is easy, so beginners often get a .com site and later upgrade when their needs escalate.
Wordpress.com is a private company that offers a hosting service.
Wordpress.org is a free open source software that can be used to create any web site .
I would suggest you look for a cheep hosting site , you will only need the most basic package.
Register your domain name yourself
Most host sites have the facility to download wordpress. org software. Once you have made your site , you can add , add-ons , such as SEO , security and what ever you need . The advantage of doing it this way is , you can move your site to a different host if you need to . The number of wordpress based websites runs into millions , there is a lot of information and support out there .
 
Last edited:

The Second Moon

Super Member
Registered
Joined
Jul 12, 2018
Messages
3,393
Reaction score
355
Website
mimistromauthor.com
I use WordPress I agree with everyone saying it. It is easier to learn than Wix. +1 to what everyone said about Wix not being easy to backup.
 

starrystorm

Super Member
Registered
Joined
Jul 9, 2018
Messages
2,987
Reaction score
605
Age
24
Just finished making a website on Wordpress. For months I was stuck with a good-looking website on Wix, but options to get a domain were expensive and made no sense. I had to completely scratch the on on Wix, and found Wordpress much easier to handle.
 

Yawn of Death

How did I get a pen mark there?
Registered
Joined
Jan 6, 2018
Messages
12
Reaction score
6
Location
In a tree
Website
aechandler.wixsite.com
Personally, I find Wix a lot easier to work with, getting the site to look exactly the way I want it to and adding or changing content. No problems at all. More intuitive and flexible than Wordpress, in my opinion, and lots of options.
 
  • Like
Reactions: VikingRaider

PraiseRao

Backup your files
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Feb 19, 2020
Messages
257
Reaction score
403
Wix is expensive. I'm not running a blog currently, so I only wanted a place to have a business card online for links and contact information. I just use google sites. It's free and I point a paid domain name at it. You can edit it pretty easily it's WYSIWYG.

If you want a blog WordPress is the place to be. If you ever run into problems last time I checked the people who maintain it are on an IRC server called FreeNode.

However, if I were to deploy a WordPress I'd probably use DigitalOcean. It is one of the cheapest options as far as WordPress sites go, the caveat being that you have to be fairly technologically inclined.
 

Nether

has been brought to a creepy mansion in a cemetery
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Aug 23, 2021
Messages
5,939
Reaction score
11,847
Location
New England
I just use google sites. It's free and I point a paid domain name at it. You can edit it pretty easily it's WYSIWYG.

Hadn't heard of Google Sites, but that sounds pretty useful, and the cost (or lack thereof) certainly sounds appealing.
 

Ravioli

Crazy Cat Lady
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Jan 4, 2015
Messages
2,699
Reaction score
423
Location
Germany, native Israeli
Website
annagiladi.wixsite.com
I'm a happy wixer for the most part, but absolutely hate the many steps everything takes. You can't just click a button to upload an image, for example, no, another window opens where you once more select where to fetch your image from, and another... And it's like that for a lot of things.

I used to love my wordpress site, but I lost the login. I'm staying with Wix because my kennel site is on there now, so I might as well have everything at the same address.
 

Flame_keeper

Registered
Joined
Jan 22, 2023
Messages
3
Reaction score
1
I'm in the same boat. I'm looking to set up my author website. So far, Wix is really easy to use. My only hesitation is the price. I haven't committed to paying for the site yet but all of your comments were super helpful. I'll check. out Word-press and see if it's worth it.
 
Last edited:

VikingRaider

Praetorian
Registered
Joined
Jul 17, 2010
Messages
13
Reaction score
14
Location
Illinois
Website
freeholderpress.com
I used to run my blog on Wordpress and grew sick of the constant updating plugins and the friction of having a website and blog on separate platforms. I didn't want to spend the time to learn how to run the website on Wordpress because I needed to figure out custom themes and that got into html coding and just...no. I went to Wix, wrote off the price as a business expense, had my website up and running in minutes, and the blog was just as easy.

As for backing up content, I write all my blog posts in Scrivener once a week, then copy into Wix for publishing, so there's always a copy somewhere else and if I need to leave for another platform, it'll be just as painless as it was when I left Wordpress. I simply re-upload from my saved Scrivener file (or the many backups).

For me, the consequences of the slightly higher price, the extra menus to click through and the feeling of not using something so customizable are out weighed by the ease-of use. Wordpress to me is like a PC and Wix is like a Mac. It just works and I don't have to tinker with it to do what I want it to do (too much).

I used to love all that tinkering and was a die-hard PC user (since the days of c:\>dos\run). Now, I'd rather spend that time writing the next book (on my Mac).
 

Infinimata

only connect
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Aug 25, 2022
Messages
339
Reaction score
561
Website
www.infinimata.com
My own case is probably the greatest outlier here. For a long time I ran my own blog using an application called Movable Type (it presaged WordPress by several years), and I put up with its slowness and clunkiness. Finally, the developers of the software stopped supporting the open source version, and I decided I wasn't going to support them anymore.

I did look at WordPress, but there were many things about it that I couldn't stomach, and I distrusted Wix for many of the reasons cited before. This was also at around the time I was contemplating getting back into programming, so I learned Python and wrote what amounted to a replacement for Movable Type. It's still running my blog to this day. (I can't in all honesty recommend it to other people, as I only really wrote it to solve my personal use case. Maybe if I spend a year doing nothing but cleaning it up for third parties...)

Like I said, I'm an outlier!