Pros and cons of WIX. Vertical menu: weighing the pros and cons

Today, having a website is an excellent opportunity to make yourself known to the whole world. However, the cost of website creation services is still high and continues to grow on average. Therefore, in order not to pay large sums of money to website development companies, you can use free website builders which have become incredibly popular among users.

What is a website builder
Website builder- a specialized service that online provides the ability to quickly create a website using a simplified scheme on your own. Those. in such places, a person, even remote and not related to web design, can, literally, in 5 minutes develop a resource that fully meets his goals and objectives. Also, such services have the opportunity to use their free hosting and get a free domain. Of course, there is also paid services and, which give even more privileges, but in many cases free features will be enough.

I suggest that you familiarize yourself with the best, in my opinion, free website builders, with their advantages and disadvantages, so that you can choose the most suitable one.

1.A5

By and large, A5 is an analogue of the international Wix, about which many flattering words have already been said above. Nevertheless, it is tailored specifically for the Runet.

Pros of the A5

All the traditional advantages that were described in the paragraph about the wiks are present, plus a number of "insights" have been added:
... Creation of high-quality flash-sites and resources based on HTML5
... Drag and Drop content shaping
... Choose from a huge database of templates

Setting up payment acceptance on the site
... Presence of video lessons

Easy and intuitive interface
... Friendly caliper
... Attractive prices for services

Cons of A5

Alas, here, too, there were some drawbacks, however, there is only one:
... Free version limitation

Conclusion
A5 is one of the best and most modern website builders with great potential.

2. Wix

RU.WIX is a unique international cloud platform that allows you to create websites of any complexity online.

Its main advantage lies in the fact that most of the services are really free, and the design of the sites is attractive, modern and bright, which, we frankly admit, is a rarity among the designers.

The functions of the online store are available, adding pictures of HTML-code, music, text editor and much more. The highlight of the project is the unique layout of the content in the "Drag and Drop" mode. That is, the user only needs to assemble a "puzzle" from the necessary components in the constructor window. Can be dragged computer mouse any components, there are practically no restrictions.

Pros of the Wix Builder

Disadvantages of the Wix Builder

• Quite a lot of services are still paid
• There is no way to back up the site ( backup)
• Presence of an ad banner in the free version
• Inability to bind your own second-level domain

Conclusion
In general, the Wix builder fully meets all the requirements for creating a site and is quite suitable for people who have no idea about site building at all.

3. FO.RU

Another notable website builder is FO.RU, it has been operating in Runet for a long time and has gained a certain reputation.

The main decision of the organizers is to offer users a lot of ready-made niches and, accordingly, sites for them. Thus, you can find the direction of interest in the catalog and get several templates to choose from at once.

Key benefits of FO

Rich selection of templates

The presence of a mutual help forum for users

The ability to configure payment acceptance on your website through the most popular systems (Webmoney, YandexMoney, PayPal, and so on)
... Possibility of "linking" the actual domain and setting up DNS servers
... There is an affiliate program
... You can publish your online store as a mobile application
... Reasonable prices for extensive functionality

Refund is provided if you are not satisfied with the quality of services

Cons of FO

Obsessive offer to order paid services
... Quite a significant limitation in the functionality of a free account
... Complex controls
... Technical support sometimes takes a long time to respond
... Limited options for complex designs

Conclusion
The FO.RU project is pretty good, but it's bigger suitable for those users who have an idea of ​​\ u200b \ u200bworking with Internet projects. Sometimes it is simply impossible to understand the functionality, and technical support may give answers with a significant delay.

4. SETUP

The relatively young site builder SETUP has only been gaining popularity lately.

The design of the site reminds us inexorably of WIX, as well as the functionality, which can be rather attributed to the advantages. This constructor, which appeared on the horizon relatively recently, was able to become one of the best "site builders", in the slang of "users", since its creators are competent optimizers, namely the developers of some of the most popular services for webmasters (PROMOPULT and SAPE) ... That is why advertising about website promotion as a gift for home page is filled with new meaning.

SETUP functionality

As for the functionality, the service is able to surprise many, as it offers a huge number of attractive templates for future sites to choose from, moreover, for convenience, they are divided into thematic categories, for example, business, education, and so on.

Yes, in this regard it is impossible to find fault with the designer - everything is done at a high technical level, the designers have tried their best. Plus, you can always order an individual development if you don't like what is offered by default.

Just as in the already described Wix, it is possible to transform those templates that are available:
→ Add blocks,
→ Change fonts
→ Add customized logos

An important detail - you can always "tie" to your site Domain name, and the service itself offers to get it (zone.ru) 100% free. How is this possible? To do this, the user will have to, at least, create 5 pages of the site and fill them with high-quality and unique content.

And here we meet the first limitation, which automatically becomes a disadvantage. Until you fill these same 5 pages, you cannot count on the publication of the site, that is, the site will be available for revision only within the service. What if you only need 1 page?

Promotion issue
This is the main feature on which the emphasis is placed. There are a lot of offers in this niche, from free automatic promotion for low-frequency requests, to the ability to work with all the tools necessary for competent promotion. It should be noted the close integration with SEOPULT.

Pricing policy, what is it
To date, there are 3 tariffs in the system:
... Free, that is, free, which is associated with the fact that the project banner will "hang" on your site, plus, the copyright "cuts" the eye. And the functional limitation is not at all pleasing, but it is significant.
... Pro (about 200 rubles per month), for professionals, that is, for those who are ready to part with their money in order to get rid of the difficulties that are inevitable in a free tariff.
... Shop, as you might guess - for those who have made a firm decision - to create an online store! There is a special form of online payment, direct connection to Yandex.Market, the ability to download prices and products directly from everyone's favorite Excel, and much more.

Rich assortment of templates for design
... Free domain that is issued as a gift
... Simplicity of the interface
... There is a very good mailing list, which reveals the basics of website promotion

Disadvantages of SETUP

There are, and there are quite a few of them, if you look at it:
... Almost all templates are one and the same template with a changed color or some one element, which already brings up thoughts of some kind of bloat in the figure of 7,000
... The simplicity of work is connected not with the fact that the developers gave their whole soul to the project, but with the fact that the functionality is minimized to the limit
... In fact, since free account there is nothing to do here - continuous restrictions

conclusions
This is not to say that it was the worst website builder, but it is very far from ideal. It can be recommended for novice users who want to do at least something on the Internet.

Also, as an option, they may be interested in those who want to open their own online store, but do not seek to bother with payment systems.

5. UCOZ

Another well-known and very popular designer is, of course, UCOZ. It is famous for its general availability and high quality sites being created. Recently, it has grown even more, thanks to the acquisition of narod.ru

Indeed, at the dawn of site building, this was practically the only opportunity to create your own site without spending a penny on it.

At this stage of development of IT technologies, creating your own Internet resource in the system is not difficult. All of this can be done using numerous templates. With their help, interesting web resources of any complexity are organized with extraordinary ease.

System characteristics
Today the system has a fairly simple control panel. With its help, it will be possible to easily add, delete and edit any information content. There are access settings for users and it will be possible to create any design for an Internet resource page.

The service is characterized by a huge number of modules. With their help, it will be possible to carry out automatic optimization. On the basis of the system, you can create both a fairly simple site, say, a "business card", and an Internet portal, which has a complex structure and more functionality.

If other content management systems are to be downloaded from an official source and installed on the computer and on the server, then you will not need to perform such actions with Yukoz. It is enough just to register, and system management (really FREE) will be immediately available.

Pros of UCOZ

This system, in fact, can be considered universal. With its help, websites of any complexity and structure are created. There is practically an unlimited amount of disk space, and you can use the domain in any convenient zone. If the webmaster does not have the initially selected domain, then it will be possible to use a standard third-level domain from the system, which is connected automatically.

Of course, there is a huge number of types of design and finished design of the future site. Moreover, you can choose one of the ready-made "designs", or you can create your own project from scratch, a unique and original design for each page of a web resource.

The system is characterized by a user-friendly interface that provides webmasters with numerous prompts to make system settings.

To resolve some issues that may arise as a result of using the system, you can ask for help on the official forum. If you do not have a design you like and you cannot develop it yourself, then you can turn to the system specialists for help, who will make the original design of the web page in a short period of time.

Disadvantages of UCOZ

1. First, for all the seeming simplicity, when creating a website, a user who is not familiar with HTML and other subtleties may encounter problems, since there are a lot of modules, each of them needs to be "interfered" with, something added.

2. In addition, although there are unlimited possibilities for design, the first point again pops up - it is not so easy for a simple user to implement all this.

Conclusion
In general, Yukoz is a very high-quality system for creating websites, as already noted, of any complexity, but it is more a professional tool than an opportunity for a "dummy".

It takes a lot of free time to understand all the intricacies, plus, the knowledge of how it all "works", although there are a lot of instructions and manuals on the Internet! Definitely, the slogan "Create your website while your tea cools down" has nothing to do with reality.

6. NETHOUSE

NETHOUSE is a popular Russian website builder that allows you to create a website for business: online store, business card website, corporate website, specialist website, portfolio, blog. Has been working since November 2011. In 2013, he was selected by Intel Corporation as "the developer of the most convenient, simple and effective solution for a campaign to support small and medium-sized businesses in Russia. "

The service operates on a Freemium model. The main part of the constructor's capabilities is provided free of charge on the "Start" tariff plan. Using the "Business" tariff plan and several more paid options(website promotion, copyright hiding, SMS notification, etc.) is optional.

Pros:

Many design options
- intuitive and user-friendly interface
- ready-made online store with a basket
- our own SEO service for website promotion with a guaranteed result
- a system of Agents who can be entrusted with any kind of work on the site
- connection of receiving online payments
- integration with third-party services and applications: online consultants, statistics, mail
- prompt support service

Flaws:

There is no open access to the html-code, which is why it is impossible to insert contextual advertising modules, to confirm the rights to the site on some resources
- no integration with 1C
- no CNC for goods

Conclusion
Ideal for beginner site builders. A good resource can indeed be created in a couple of hours. However, experienced developers will find it cramped here due to the already mentioned closed html code.

7. WEBSITEX5

With WebSite X5 Evolution, you can create websites, blogs and online stores. Both the program and the help are available in Russian. The program will especially appeal to those who do not have programming skills: the logical interface of the program and the step-by-step principle of operation make it easy to work with even for beginners.

The advantages of WebSite X5 Evolution are that you can create an unlimited number of sites on it and use it after purchase for an unlimited amount of time. Additionally, users receive a hosting package as a gift. It includes the year of hosting, domain registration in .рф or.ru zones, cloud storage and up to 15 mailboxes- absolutely free.

Pros:

Fully responsive sites;
- Shop with payment by credit cards, discounts and coupons, tracking the availability of goods and orders;
- Creation of secure pages with password access;
- Built-in library with 400,000 free images;
- Numerous widgets (translator, booking form, etc.);
- Support for web fonts and Google fonts;
- Online management of comments in the blog and guestbook;
- Website optimization tools SEO and its analytics
- More than 1000 templates;
- Relatively inexpensive, and you can create as many sites as you want;
- It is possible to create a design directly in the constructor;
- There is technical support;
- Rich functionality;
- Protect against spam with reCAPTCHA, and your inbox is no longer full of questionable emails

Flaws:

Paid
- the program must be downloaded and installed

Conclusion
A good option for creating websites (especially business cards) on a remote computer. For experienced webmasters, it will save time on creating basic things.

It is difficult to say with unequivocal certainty which project is better. Yes, and this review was not written for the purpose of advertising. There are many more projects on the Internet, but these are some of the most visible and discussed. So, I would like to think, after reading the advantages and disadvantages, you can make the right choice and create a beautiful and functional website completely free of charge.

Wix is ​​one of the most famous and sought-after website builders. Today the number of its users is approaching 90 million. The site operates in open mode since 2008. The reason for this popularity is the wide range of possibilities and convenience of the service.

One quick glance is enough to understand - Wix is ​​the leader in its niche!

Advantages

The free Wix website builder has a number of significant advantages over other similar services:

• Over 500 different templates to suit different business sectors. They can be used by those who are far from design and do not quite understand what exactly they want and need;
• Support in Russian. There is a reference service, a separate forum and a group on the VKontakte social network;
• Extended capabilities of the visual editor. It allows you to move any elements, insert and delete information anywhere on the page and perform other actions.

The service allows you to set up call forwarding, connect analytics, set an individual favicon. You can also customize SEO.

Create your own website for free!

Templates

High quality ready-made templates and their number allows you to choose the one you need in almost any area, be it an online store, a service site, a one-page site, etc. It is not simple beautiful pictures, but also good functionality. It is quite simple to choose the one you need. They are all categorized by site type and niche. Separately, there is an overview of the most popular, as well as new ones:

Those who want to design their website from scratch can use blank templates.

Almost all templates are beautifully designed. The quality of the design is excellent.

It is worth noting that the templates have a responsive design and will look equally good both on a computer and on a mobile device:

Before choosing a template, you can use the preview.

An important factor is that the system allows you to use templates and create a website for free.

Create your own website for free!

Functional

In addition to standard templates, each user can create his own individual website design, the system offers ample opportunities for this:

• Background. The online designer Wix allows you to use not only the usual color scheme, but also various pictures as a background. The parallax effect allows you to add depth to the site. This possibility is realized due to the difference in the speed of movement of various objects;
• Menu. You can do either traditional or with anchors, which is most often used for long pages, landing pages, etc. Anchor allows you to leave a kind of link to a separate block on the page. You can also create a floating menu;
• Lists. The user can design their styles at will;
• Video, photo, music. The user can add any image, player, video from his computer, Youtube and other video hosting;
• Buttons. The system offers a choice of buttons for the site of various sizes and shapes. You can choose: rectangular, round, oval or rounded at the corners;
• Containers. They allow you to place photos, text, and so on in them, which can attract the attention of the visitor.
• Dividing lines. Allows you to make horizontal stripes. This is most often used on landing pages.
• Styles. Users can upload sliders, panoramas, custom styles, and more.
• There is a separate editing function for standard and mobile versions.
• Contacts. User can create a form feedback, add directions, subscriptions, etc.
• Social networks. There is integration with almost all popular social networks and services.
• Blog. It can also be customized based on a pre-made layout.
• Score. Allows you to set up collections, arrange a showcase of goods, connect online payment, enter discount coupons, view orders, set delivery parameters, currency, language, and more.
• App Market. You can add an app store to your site, which contains many widgets, free and paid.

In addition, the user can insert HTML code, Flash movies. It is possible to configure the login for users or an administrator, the panel of which has ample opportunities and an impressive number of necessary functions:

All added blocks the user can edit, move around the page, change their sizes, backgrounds, and more.

Moreover, all functions are clear and simple. It will not be difficult for a novice to understand the system. Above each block there is an icon with quick access to the FAQ of a particular item. Besides that, there is.

The service allows you to create an attractive business card site, blog or forum without any special knowledge. It is enough to have imagination and desire.

Create your own website for free!

Domain

Each user gets a free third-level domain on the website builder. In the case when a user wants to host a website on his domain, the service offers to switch to paid packages:

• Connect Domain - cost per year - 123 rubles / month. You can connect your domain. In addition, the user gets 500 megabytes of disk space. However, you cannot remove Wix ads;
• Combo - 249 rubles / month. Free domain, 3 gigabytes of disk space, disable ads, a promo code for 3000r in Yandex Direct.
• Unlimited - 375 rubles / month. Free domain, disk space 10 gigabytes, disable ads, a promo code for 3000r in Yandex Direct.
• eCommerce - 488 rubles / month. Free domain, disk space 20 gigabytes, disable ads, promo code for 3000r in Yandex Direct. This tariff was created to create an online store.

Did you know that 40% of users leave poorly designed sites? Why Lose Profits? Select and install one of the 44 thousand premium website templates. The perfect choice for your business!

If you have decided to create a website, but have not yet decided on the choice of platform, take a look at WordPress! Are you familiar with WordPress? However, the question is rhetorical, because even beginners know about creating websites.

Have you ever heard of Wix? In this article, we want to take a closer look at what this platform is like in comparison to WordPress. Why are we comparing it to WordPress? This is because both of these platforms are similar in many ways, but they are still quite different.

We will talk about the advantages and disadvantages of each of these solutions and hope that thanks to this you will be able to finally decide on the choice and understand which is better: Wix or WordPress.

Which is better: Wix or WordPress (advantages and disadvantages)

For convenience, we have prepared an overview from the point of view of five aspects: cost and cost, ease of use, design, flexibility and use for ecommerce... Just want to draw your attention to the fact that we are comparing Wix with WordPress.org hosted on its own server, and not with WordPress.com. If you still don't know what the difference is between them, read our review.

Wix vs WordPress: cost and costs

Website development cost is a key factor in choosing a platform. The total cost of developing and maintaining your site will depend on your needs. Your goal is to make sure you can get all the features you need while investing in the budget.

The basic version of Wix is ​​available completely free of charge, but it has two major drawbacks. The first is that the site you create will have Wix branded ads on top and bottom. Second, you won't be able to use your own domain, and your address will look something like this: username.wix.com / sitename.

In addition, the free plan does not include such useful add-ons as Google Analytics, site icons (favicons), eCommerce, etc. To remove ads and get additional features, you will need to upgrade to one of the premium plans. Each of these plans has its own limited storage and bandwidth. You can choose a monthly or annual plan.

The best plan for Wix is ​​Unlimited. It will cost $ 12.42 per month. If you want to create an online store, then you need an eCommerce plan ($ 16.17 per month). This cost does not include additional applications which you can choose in the future.

WordPress

The WordPress software is available for free. Many people ask why the WordPress platform is free. What's the catch here? The catch is that you will need to buy the domain and hosting separately. If you want a simple solution, you can choose the basic Siteground plan for hosting, which costs $ 3.95 / month. If your budget allows you, you can take advantage of WPEngine's managed hosting services. This hosting will start at $ 29 / month, but for the money you get top-notch support.

The cost of a WordPress site will increase if you choose to choose one of or. Although you can use and. And you need plugins to expand your capabilities, and for this you do not need to switch to another plan.

Conclusion

WordPress outperforms Wix for its more flexible hosting choices. The cost will depend on how many resources you use. In addition, a site created on WordPress can be used for any purpose, and not choose a special plan for this.

Wix or WordPress: ease of use

Most users don't want to waste time learning new skills. Both Wix and WordPress allow you to create a website without the need for coding training.

Wix comes with powerful and simple tools to help you build your website. The platform supports a simple drag-and-drop interface with which you can select any site element and edit it in a WYSIWYG environment.

A convenient editor environment allows you to select and drag elements anywhere on your site, change the location of any components, add text and multimedia files. Many newbies enjoy this feature as it saves them the trouble of working with code.

WordPress

WordPress includes a visual editor that allows you to add content, as well as a theme customizer with which you can change your theme settings in a WYSIWYG environment. The page builder is not included by default with WordPress, although it is sometimes built into the template framework or available as a plugin.

To fully customize appearance, users need to familiarize themselves with various sections of the admin panel such as menu, customizer, visual post editor, etc. This means that working with WordPress requires at least a little willingness to learn from users.

On the other hand, there are thousands of templates that greatly simplify the customization process.

Conclusion

In terms of ease of use, Wix looks more confident. Users don't have to spend a lot of time learning the platform or installing plugins to get started building their website. At the same time, you need to have at least basic knowledge to work with WordPress. For the convenience of building a site, you may need to install a plugin.

Wix or WordPress: design

The design and layout of your website has a significant impact on its success. Every website owner should have not only beautiful, but also user-friendly design that will allow him to stand out from the rest.

When choosing Wix, you can use one of over 500 ready-made templates available. They are all responsive and written in HTML5. With the help of the built-in tools, you can further customize the design of your site, change the layout and, if you wish, re-arrange all its elements in a new way at your discretion.

You can choose a design for any kind of site. Templates are divided into categories: business, online store, events, portfolio and resume, art, landing pages, etc.

One of the major drawbacks in this platform is that after choosing a template, you cannot change it to another. You can customize it as much as you like using the built-in tools, but you won't be able to switch to another template.

WordPress

There are several thousand free and paid themes available for WordPress. Free themes have limited support, but they are just as thoroughly tested as paid themes. Paid templates usually have more features and provide premium support.

WordPress templates are geared towards building both small personal websites and full-featured online stores. Most of them have their own customization options built in. You can also customize them further with your own "baby" themes and plugins.

Free themes can be found at WordPess.org. There are many sites for finding paid templates. We recommend the Australian company Envato's ThemeForest. By the way, we found the Koala template that this site runs on in the same place.

You can also hire a developer to create a website for your company, or learn how to create a custom template from scratch yourself.

Conclusion

WordPress has a wider range of templates and designs than Wix. WordPress users can also change themes and customize them without any restrictions.

Wix vs WordPress: plugins and apps

Plugins and applications are third party programs that can be used in the platform to expand functionality... In Wix, these are apps, and in WordPress, they are plugins.

There are over 200 apps available on Wix that you can use on your site. They provide a wide range of features such as contact forms, gallery, comments, mailing list and many more.

Most of the apps are free or support the "lightweight" (free) version. There are apps that you have to pay for on a monthly basis. Although the number of applications is quite limited, they provide almost all the features that site owners might need.

WordPress

At the time of writing, there are over 44,000 free plugins available on WordPress.org. There are also a huge number of plugins on many third-party sites. For example, on the CodeCanyon site of the same Envato company, which we mentioned above, more than four thousand premium plugins are available. WordPress has both paid and free plugins for almost any purpose: and many other tasks. With WordPress, you can do whatever you want.

Conclusion

WordPress is confidently ahead of Wix on this point as well. The Wix app library is constantly growing, but it is still more limited compared to the huge collection of plugins available to WordPress users.

Wix or WordPress: e-commerce

Selling merchandise online is another essential feature that many newbies need. Let's compare WordPress and Wix in terms of supporting the online store feature.

The eCommerce feature in Wix is ​​only available when you select the appropriate paid plan. This means that users who use the free plan will not be able to browse the online store on Wix without upgrading to the paid plan. Using their Wix Stores solution, you will only be able to accept payments through PayPal or Authorize.net.

There are also several third party applications, with which you can sell anything on the Internet, but they will cost you more due to the rather high subscription fees. And they only support some payment systems and are limited in terms of functionality.

WordPress

WordPress supports several free plugins for you to sell whatever you want. Each of these plugins has their own addons and plugins that you can use to add necessary ways payment (these are the so-called payment gateways).

Conclusion

If you want to build a good store with a focus on future growth, WordPress is for you. fit better Total. It provides more opportunities and gives serious freedom of choice.

Wix or WordPress: summing it up

In our opinion, the WordPress platform is much better than Wix. Wix's only major benefit is its simple site builder, but with WordPress, you can achieve a lot more in the long run.

We decided to compare 2 completely dissimilar platforms. They have nothing in common from a technical and interface point of view. Their specialization overlaps in the ability to create blogs and business cards. Two different ways to achieve the same goals. Therefore, the comparison makes sense. Most users do not care at all what the sites they visit are created on. If only they were good. Therefore, novice developers need to choose the tool with which it is possible to achieve the result faster, easier and, possibly, cheaper. These criteria will be used to compare Wix and Wordpress.

Appointment

Wix performs best in the niche of developing business card websites, landing pages and blogs. It also allows you to create forums good quality using a branded application from AppMarket - WixForum, and stores with a nice design. Trading through a system with a visual editor, which Wicks is, is interesting in the case of a limited number of commodity items. All of them will have to be added manually, so a reasonable limitation of the showcase volume is 100-200 items. For the patient and persistent, this figure can rise to 500. It is unlikely that someone will go further.

To facilitate the creation of multi-page sites, you can use the copying of pages of the same type (for example, for a product catalog). This way you will avoid having to build a design for each of them separately. Saving tons of time and effort.

Ideally, Wix should be used by creatives due to the deep aesthetics of the templates and the chic set of tools to customize them. It also works well for a business audience. A cleverly designed Wix business card is something. She will sell a product or service of her own kind. Landing pages also fit perfectly into the functionality of the engine. Blogs are next to business cards on the list. It is very convenient to make and maintain them here. The result will not disappoint anyone - just juice.

Wix is ​​a WYSIWYG monster, beautiful and affordable. Its use in itself brings aesthetic pleasure. This constructor is liked by almost everyone and has no contraindications for use. The range of tasks to be solved is very wide, so we are talking almost about universality with remarks on the features of working with the visual editor.

Due to its relative ease of use and strong specialization, this engine has earned the reputation of being the world's best blogging tool. Objectively, of course, this statement is not entirely true. Rather, WordPress is the most widespread and promoted engine in the blogging niche. In this he was helped by many years of evolution, free use and an active community. Believe me, there are a lot of platforms among CMS and designers that cope with the task of creating a blog no worse than Wordpress. After all, in essence, a blog is a very simple type of site from a technical point of view. Anyone can make it. Many people think that WordPress is the easiest way to get things done. Well, in a CMS environment it is.

In theory, you can create any type of site using Wordpress. The only question is labor costs. There are tons of plugins for deploying stores and forums, but their use is far from simple. It is best to use native functionality, which is enough to create blogs and business cards. Everything else is difficult, time-consuming and will require a serious baggage of knowledge. Therefore, we cannot seriously consider this CMS as a universal tool for creating websites. Only experienced programmers and experienced developers consider it as such. Beginners will not be able to implement the theoretical flexibility of the platform in practice. Therefore, we will restrict ourselves to the positioning of the system by the formula: Wordpress = blogs + business cards. It will prove to be correct for most users.

Functional

It is always easier for beginners to work with a website builder. This class of systems was originally conceived as an alternative to ordering sites from the pros and the usual CMS. Weeks is perhaps the most powerful constructor in its class. But at the same time, it is understandable and easy to use for most people.

The platform has a huge set of widgets to implement various functionality, and also allows you to additionally install applications from AppMarket (the same plugins, in fact). The only difference is that native apps are guaranteed not to spoil your site. The range of them is huge - for marketing, working with SEO, design customization, working with clients and more. Yes, there are applications of different quality and usefulness among them, but they are all safe. This is an important and beneficial difference from Wordpress.

Wix spoils its users with the best templates in the niche. New ones are added regularly. Mobile and desktop versions of designs are edited separately, which some will like and some will not. You will not be able to change the design while working on the site. It's all about the diversity of the structure of templates: the other simply will not fit the existing content. Design editing is rife with possibilities. You can literally move every element on the page, adjust its shape, appearance, or replace it. Wix sites look exactly the way their owners want them to look. No compromises.

Out of the box, Wix provides a lot more options than Wordpress. Also, the fact that Wix belongs to the camp of website builders frees the user from the need to search and configure hosting, templates and plugins. You get all this out of the box. You don't have to look for anything extra and you don't have to pay extra. You pay for the tariff and take everything at once for its cost.

This system is perfect for beginners and developers of client sites. After all, it is more convenient for the customer to get a website on an understandable platform for further administration. And it’s easier for you to issue a project, after work on which the client will not bother with questions and requirements for improvements like changing the picture, adding a page, etc. Beauty, speed of creation and simplicity - this is what Wiks can offer you. There is no point in describing its functionality in detail here, read full overview Wix.

This CMS is very simple in its basic form. But this advantage is nullified by a simple fact: in the basic configuration, WordPress has very primitive functionality, which is barely enough to create a more or less decent business card or blog. Here, even posts cannot be decently decorated without referring to additional functionality - plugins. Therefore, you will have to install at least the most necessary ones.

Hundreds of thousands of plugins have been written for WordPress. Good and not so good. The system is open, and anyone with knowledge of PHP can code plugins for it. The whole point of owning this CMS is to choose proven solutions from recognized developers and with a bunch of positive reviews. Otherwise, there is a risk of creating a security hole or crashing the site altogether. In general, the more plugins you install, the thicker your database gets and the slower your WordPress site becomes. Therefore, it is better to take only what is necessary and proven. The less you install, the more stable and faster the site will be. The difference between 2 or 5 plugins, most likely (depending on which plugins), you will not notice, but between 10 and 20 - quite.

With templates, the situation is the same as with other CMS: you can use the design from the built-in store (there are about 4,000 of them) and modify it for yourself, you can buy a ready-made one or download, say, a pirated version of the template from some studio. All 3 options have their own difficulties.

Editing standard templates requires knowledge of PHP, which not everyone has. It is not worth using them in the stock version - the best of them are hackneyed, because this CMS has a multimillion audience. Don't think that you will be a trailblazer on your chosen template. Purchased templates are not cheap, but in most cases you will get a quality product. True, the price tag can bite - from $ 50 to several hundred. The templates laid out for free usually contain a bunch of links to completely left-wing sites, that is, you will have to clean their working files from garbage before installing. This also requires certain skills. In general, the easiest way to buy is if you have the money. So you are guaranteed to get a decent design without pieces of someone else's ad code and the need for manual finishing and uniqueness. Also get technical support from the developer studio, which can also be considered a good bonus.

It is clear that for Wordpress to work, you need hosting, the choice of which also needs to be approached wisely. Seasoned webmasters have a couple of trusted providers with prepaid accounts. Newbies will have to rely on luck and learn at least basic hosting setup. There is nothing complicated about it. Some providers even offer customization options for specific engines upon registration. But you still need to think about what and how to do.

You also need a domain. Usually they are registered with the hosting provider. For comfort. Those who create websites to order more often use the services of specialized registrar websites. Wholesale is easier and cheaper. If you are a beginner, then you probably don't want to bother buying a domain and hosting separately. It's inconvenient, it's easier to keep everything on one account. And pay too.

WordPress is good, but, like any CMS, it requires setting up an ecosystem around and within itself. Additional costs are also possible: for plugins, templates or programmer services. For experienced developers, the above is common. Beginners will be uncomfortable in such an environment. If you only need 1 site, then it makes no sense at all to understand all this heap of technical details. Not from a moral or material point of view. It makes sense to delve into all this only if you plan to create several sites. Or become a professional developer.

Price

The constructor is free to use, but in this scenario, you won't be able to connect the domain. Therefore, you can use Wix effectively only with paid tariff plans... The minimum tariff for $ 49 / year allows you to connect your own domain, the most optimal (Combo) will cost $ 99 / year and will allow you to create any types of sites with comfort, except for a store. To create marketplaces, eCommerce is provided for $ 199 / year.

Wix prices are above average. If desired, they can be halved. Service developers regularly hold promotions with discounts of up to 50%. It is enough to subscribe to Viksa's mailing list, and within a month you will receive a notification about the possibility of paying for any tariff plan with a discount. With this formulation of the question, Wix becomes a very accessible and tasty system.

The CMS is open source and distributed free of charge. You can just go to the site and download the engine files, which will require hosting and a domain to work. But this is already paid. We recommend buying a good hosting, because on a cheap large blog on Wordpress can openly slow down. So, the basic cost of using WordPress is the sum of the cost of the domain and hosting. That's about $ 30-40 / year.

You can also invest in paid plugins, templates or programmer services to solve some specific problems. All this can result in tens or hundreds of dollars - the price depends on how much and what you want to buy. Basically, a free template and plugins are enough to create a blog or business card. Focus on $ 40 / year - you won't go wrong.

conclusions

Both engines are good in their own way. CMS is a good option for experienced users who create websites for monetization for themselves. In general, for webmasters. It is better to create client sites on Wix: it is more convenient for an inexperienced person to get a site on a constructor, because it is easier to administer. If you yourself will serve the sites of customers, then the question is removed. Do it on anything - even write the code in a notebook from scratch, if only you yourself understand the issue.

• Wordpress, in principle, allows you to create a website of any type, from a business card to a store or portal. The only question is the complexity and the number of crutches in the form of plugins that will be needed to achieve the goal. Ideally, it should be used to make blogs, business cards and landing pages. This will require a minimum of knowledge and effort. Sites not burdened with plugins will work faster and more stable.
• Vicks out of the box is much more functional. You can additionally create an online store or even a forum. But sites with a huge number of pages are not the horse of this system. Basically, the two services share one core specialty: blogging, landing pages, and business cards. What is outside the scope of this competence will require more effort and time in both cases, although it is implemented in different ways. Wix is ​​more convenient to use in any scenario.

The cost of creating a website on Wix depends on the tariff used (from $ 49 / year), and Wordpress depends on the cost of hosting, domain, template and plugins, if they are paid, services of freelancers / programmers for revision and other additional expenses. Honestly, even if the CMS for the money will cost a little cheaper in your particular case, then you will pay much more time and nerves than for Wix.

Hardly anyone will be able to master WordPress and work with the necessary plugins in the evening. At least a week will have to deeply understand - forums and Youtube to help. This is with a good pace and zero starting awareness of the issue. With less zeal, the login process can take a month or more. Most likely, you have a main job or even your own business, and you will not sit out studying from morning to night. It makes sense to make such efforts only for those who have big plans specifically for Wordpress.

For most people, Wix is ​​the obvious choice in all respects. Even a blog will be much more interesting to design on a box-based functionality than on Wordpress, not to mention other types of sites. The CMS simply does not have functionality out of the box - you have to hang up with plugins, and then use it.

Webmasters who are accustomed to using heavy development tools like CMS for the implementation of sites for monetization more. For yourself. But for clients, many pros make websites on constructors. And on Wix as well. Ultimately, it is more profitable: it is easy to hand over the project (account login / password and that's it), easy to administer, convenient to pay, technical support is available, and so on.

So which is better to use - Wix or Wordpress? Determine your skill level, your challenges and get the right answer. In our opinion, Wix is ​​more convenient and interesting for the average user in general.

The Wix website builder is the most popular platform for self-made sites. In this regard, I decided to review the constructor and understand why it is used so often and what is the secret of wiks?

Pros and cons of the Wix Builder

Let's start with a quick introduction. Wix is ​​a website builder that allows you to create a website for absolutely anyone without developer skills, and moreover, even help in training. It is well designed and allows even the most layman to understand the interface.

But don't think that making a website on wix will be easy. I know from experience that the simplest site, without work experience, will take you several days. Indeed, in addition to the usual selection and editing of the template, you will need to add the site to the search engines and I am not talking about the mobile version of the wix site, which will not please you very much.

Positive feedback on WIX or advantages of the constructor

Personally, I am pretty good at the WIX builder, and even praise it. Honestly, this is a great platform to try out your website. Vicks is comfortable. Its interface, buttons and menus allow you to figure out everything and make a more or less useful site. Now I will talk in more detail about the positive qualities of the wix builder.

Beautiful templates

There is nothing to argue about, the Wicks have some really attractive templates. Fascinate with bright colors beautiful backgrounds and uniqueness. Thanks to the convenience of the constructor, it is very easy to leave the basic structure of the template and just substitute your photos and texts. Speeds up the process of website creation. A big plus of the platform.

Convenient interface

We have already talked about convenient control, so I will not focus too much on this, but I will emphasize that it is easy to create a website on wiks, thanks to a simple and understandable interface scheme and additional functions.

the freedom of action

A huge plus, especially for beginners, is complete freedom of action in terms of placing a button, photo or text, in absolutely any place on the site. Yes, on some engines and constructors you are limited in your choice and you can add content only in certain places, but here - where you wanted, you added it there.

Optimization help

The dashboard has a whole mode of adding to the Google search engine, along with detailed recommendations and guidance. I will not say that this is at least half of site optimization, but already a big plus in helping a person who has never dealt with SEO promotion before, and indeed made his site for the first time in his life.

Of course, when Yandex and other search engines are added to the search, a number of procedures will have to be performed, but in google, after completing the prompts, the site will automatically be added to the console. However, do not look for it in the search this very second - search spider robots need time to index.

Hints and technical support

It is unlikely that you will be able to call and tell WIX about your problem, but in the reference book, you will most likely find the answer to your question. Also, thanks to the popularity of wix, the Internet is full of forums and pages on social networks, where one or another kind person can be found and will help you in solving certain problems.

Disadvantages of WIX or disadvantages of the constructor

Earlier, I described the wix builder from a positive point of view, but now it's time to dig into its underwear, namely to bring out all the hidden flaws and cons of such an interesting and advertised platform like wix.

Expensive tariffs

For some, such tariffs may not be too big a hit on the pocket, and most agree with such a price, but the fact is, Vicks requires you to pay for the site. If you are going to create a platform on some free engine like, you will only need to pay for hosting. And this is much more economical.

Although other constructors, for example Tilda, ask for even higher prices in tariff plans. You decide.

Slow download speed

Yes it is. The main problem with wix and why I do not recommend this constructor is low speed downloads or, more simply, "slows down". Yes, it is possible to optimize the site, upload previously compressed photos and cut off some of the unnecessary. However, after you create a beautiful, interesting Internet portal with different buttons, slides or animations, you will realize that it is slow. Very slow.

And download speed for the current user is everything. Few will wait while information, pictures and everything else is loaded. The person will simply leave the site and go to the one that loads faster.

mobile version

Everything is more complicated here. One thing that prevents me from getting around this shortcoming of the Vic is the mobile version of the site .. how long it is.

I'll come in from afar. Now the majority search engines, for example Google, give preference to sites that are optimized for mobile devices... Easier to say if not mobile version, it is much more difficult to be in the first lines of search results.

Mobile version of the site on WIX

After you finish your site, fix all the flaws and now .. it is already ready for advertising and waiting for visitors - all that remains is to sharpen it for smartphones and tablets. The Vix has a simple and good button " optimize for mobile devices". It should make your site unique and balanced, as well as allow you to view it on all devices with the same convenience. That sounds good. However, click and see the following ..

Everything seems to be fine, the site's screen appeared in the form of a mobile one, and all texts, buttons and other content were framed by the phone screen. But it was not there. Never, gentlemen, never have I seen wix create a good mobile version of the site. I made quite a few sites on wiks, but always texts, buttons or something else, moved somewhere in the other direction.

Your photo can move to the very bottom, and the caption to it remains at the top. The buttons can swap positions, and something completely disappear from view, and then look for where it went. In general, the reconstruction of the mobile version will take you a sufficient amount of time and will take a lot of nerves.

Mobile version slows down even more

The main disadvantage of wix. This is exactly what I appeal to, discouraging my friends and acquaintances from this constructor. And the thing is that the mobile version of wix, in a strange way, loads very slowly ..

I have re-read and tried a lot of tools to increase the download speed of the mobile version, but I did not feel the satisfaction from what I received. And it's not even about the tariff. Believe me, we tried downloading the mobile version at the most expensive wiks tariff and no major changes were found.

Finally, in the mobile version of wix, I was disappointed after reading a small post on VKontakte from a person trying to get rid of this problem. His question was, as it were, the answer, but he did not lose hope.

Tell me, does anyone know how to deal with a similar problem? I am making a website on WIX and it takes a very long time for my mobile version to load. I've tried a ton of ways .. minimized content, removed the map and animations, made a simple font and nothing worked. I even removed everything from the mobile version, ABSOLUTELY EVERYTHING, leaving only one button to go to the page. And it didn't help. The page still takes 6 seconds to load. A young man who made a website on wix

This explains my dissatisfaction with the wix constructor. No matter how hard you try, the speed will not become high. And a long site load is a big blow to business and advertising.

Just imagine that you are doing contextual advertising in Yandex Direct, Google Adwords or somewhere else. One click on a good query costs a lot of money, and it turns out that each client is worth its weight in gold. And in a situation with wix, you will lose customers immediately after clicking, because most people do not like to wait and visitors will start leaving the site.

There is no way to fix or change the code

For a new website builder or inexperienced specialist, this disadvantage means little, but for most it is a significant disadvantage.

Simply put, SEO-optimizers or programmers, while working on a website, do not hesitate to look at the code once again, but is everything all right there? After eliminating errors, you can achieve certain success both in promotion and in download speed.

Should I make a website on WIX?

There is no correct and definite answer. Considering all of the above pros and cons, we can safely say that wix is ​​a decent platform for creating websites, but not all. Therefore, I will offer a small list of projects that I recommend doing using the wix platform, and projects that are better done using another engine or constructor.

• You are making a website for the first time or want to learn

• You need a beautiful business card site

It's very easy to make a beautiful business card site or portfolio on wiks.

• You are making an online store

Unfortunately, there are a lot of incorrigible nuances. You will not be able to correct and modify some of the order forms, you will not be able to add different plugins and modules. In addition, an online store with a low load will not be in high demand.

• You are going to do contextual advertising

Beware, due to slow downloads, you are more likely to start losing money.

• You are going to promote the site

Whether to use the WIX builder or not is up to you. Read my blog and stay tuned for the latest news.

To go to the site of the WIX designer, click on the link - the site of the WIX platform.