Wix is usually cheaper to start, and WordPress is usually cheaper to keep. Which one costs less for you depends on how long you plan to keep the site, how much of the work you will do yourself, and whether you might ever want to take the site somewhere else.
This guide compares the two the way the bills actually arrive, without quoting plan prices that change every year. Check the current figures on each provider’s own pricing page; the structure below is what stays true.
Cheaper to start, not always cheaper to keep
At the start, often yes. Wix is one subscription: the editor, the hosting, the security certificate and the templates come together, and you can build a simple site over a weekend without paying anyone else. WordPress itself is free software, but a WordPress site needs hosting, a domain, usually a theme, and someone to set it up, so the first month has more lines on it.
Over a few years the picture changes. The Wix subscription is paid for as long as the site exists, and adding features, such as taking payments or bookings online, generally means a higher plan or a paid app. With WordPress the setup cost is paid once, and the ongoing cost is hosting and upkeep, which you can choose, change and shop around for.
What you are really paying for on each
- On Wix, you rent a finished system. Hosting, updates and security are Wix’s job, which is genuinely convenient. The trade is that the site only runs on Wix: Wix’s own help centre explains that a Wix site cannot be moved to another host.
- On WordPress, you own the software and the site. You can move it to another host, hire a different developer, or change almost anything. The trade is that someone has to keep WordPress, its theme and its plugins updated, because a WordPress site nobody maintains becomes a security problem.
So the honest comparison is not “free versus paid”. It is a fixed rent for a sealed system against a lower running cost for something you own and have to look after.
| Compared | Wix | WordPress |
|---|---|---|
| How you pay | One subscription, for as long as the site exists | Setup once, then hosting and upkeep |
| Where it is hosted | On Wix only | With any host you choose |
| Updates and security | Wix’s job | Yours, or your provider’s |
| Moving it later | Not possible; a move is a rebuild | Possible, keeping the content |
| Usually suits | A small site you build and run yourself | A site you expect to grow and want to own |
Is Wix better than WordPress?
For some businesses, yes. If you want a simple site, you are comfortable building it yourself, and you expect it to stay small, Wix removes a lot of decisions and nothing about it is a mistake.
WordPress is the better fit when any of these is true:
- The site is a long-term asset that you expect to grow for years, not a page you will replace soon.
- You want the freedom to change host or provider without rebuilding the site from nothing.
- You need something specific, such as a particular booking system, a shop set up exactly the way you sell, or a full French version of every page, and you want to choose how it is done rather than accept the builder’s version.
- Search matters to your business, and you want full control over every page’s address, title, structure and speed.
The cost nobody puts on the comparison chart: your time
Most “Wix versus WordPress” comparisons assume you are doing the work yourself. If you are, Wix’s editor is easier to learn. If you are not, and you are paying someone either way, the platform’s sticker price matters much less than who builds the site, who looks after it, and what happens when you want to leave. A cheap platform with an expensive or absent caretaker is not cheap.
Moving later is the expensive part
Businesses often start on a builder and outgrow it. Because a Wix site cannot be taken elsewhere, moving to WordPress later means rebuilding the design and the pages and moving the content across largely by hand, and every old address then needs a redirect so that the search visibility the old site earned is not lost. That is effectively a redesign, with the costs a redesign involves. If you can already see the site growing, starting on the platform you will end up on is usually the cheaper path.
How we approach it
We build on WordPress because our clients own what we build: the site, the content and the domain stay theirs, and if they ever leave, we help them move to a new host or team. To keep the upkeep from landing on you, our monthly Growth plans cover what WordPress needs over time: managed hosting, security monitoring, backups and content updates. If you want to see what that costs over a year rather than a month, our guide to what a professional website costs separates the one-time build from the running cost, and every price is on the pricing page.
If you are already on Wix and wondering whether to move, tell us what your site does today and what it needs to do next, and we will tell you honestly whether moving is worth it.