You are a small business owner and you are looking to create or redo your website. Wix seems simple, affordable, and everyone talks about it. So why do web professionals almost always recommend WordPress?
The concise answer is that Wix is an excellent solution to get started quickly. WordPress is a solution to last, grow, and never be held hostage.
Here is an honest, unbiased and slightly technical analysis of the two platforms.
Wix: credit where credit is due
Wix is not a bad platform. For an individual who wants a simple showcase website in a few hours, it is a valid option. The drag and drop editor is intuitive, the templates are nice, and no technical knowledge is required.
If you are an artist, launching a one-time event, or you need a minimal temporary online presence – Wix will be enough.
But if you are a serious business that wants to be found on Google through organic search (and not only Google Ads), convert clients, and control its digital asset long term, the limitations of Wix quickly become a problem.
The fundamental problem with Wix: you do not own your site
This is the most important point, and it is often ignored.
When you build a site on Wix, you build on their land. Your site lives on their servers, in their proprietary system, with their rules. It is not too different from a Facebook page to be honest. You do not have access to the real source code. You cannot export your site to another host. You are a tenant, not an owner.
What if Wix increases its prices tomorrow?
Wix currently charges starting at $17 USD per month for its basic plan (with Wix ads visible on your site, which is not very professional). Professional plans quickly go up to $29, $36, or more. In comparison, quality WordPress hosting, where your site is hosted in Canada, starts around $4 to $8 CAD per month with providers like WHC.
But the real risk is not the price today, it is the price tomorrow.
What happens if Wix decides to double its prices next year? You have no choice, you pay or you lose your site. You cannot simply “move” your Wix site elsewhere like you would with WordPress.
What if Wix is sold or shuts down?
This is not an absurd hypothetical question. Similar platforms have disappeared or been acquired: Squarespace has almost been sold multiple times, dozens of website builders have simply shut down leaving their clients without recourse.
Wix is a publicly traded company. It can be acquired. Its leadership can change. Its strategy can pivot. Your five years of content, your photos, your service pages, all of that is in their proprietary system, and you have no real control over it.
With WordPress, your site fully belongs to you. You can change host in one day, make a full copy of your site, or hand your project to any developer in the world.
Why WordPress is superior to Wix for SEO
This is where the difference becomes really concrete for a small business that wants to be found on Google.
1. Full control of the code, and what it means
SEO starts with the HTML structure of your pages: <title> tags, meta descriptions, heading hierarchy <h1> to <h6>, clean URLs, structured data (schema markup). WordPress gives you full control over each of these elements.
Wix generates its own HTML, often overloaded, with automatically generated CSS classes and a structure that is not optimized for search engines. You can modify some basic SEO elements, but you do not really control what Wix sends to Google.
Concrete example: A commercial cleaning company in Dorval wants to create a page optimized for “commercial cleaning Dorval”. With WordPress, the developer can create a clean URL (/commercial-cleaning-dorval), a precise <h1> tag, a LocalBusiness schema with the address and service area, and strategic internal links. With Wix, several of these elements are partially locked or generated in a non-optimal way.
2. Loading speed – a Google ranking factor
Google uses Core Web Vitals as a ranking signal. These metrics measure loading speed, visual stability, and responsiveness of your site.
Wix loads a lot of proprietary JavaScript to run its editor and features. Even once published, this extra code slows down your site. Independent tests regularly show that Wix sites get lower PageSpeed scores than well-optimized WordPress sites.
With WordPress, you can build a site that loads in under one second, which directly improves your ranking and your conversion rate.
Concrete example: A hair salon in Île-Perrot whose site loads in 0.8 seconds will systematically outrank a competitor whose Wix site takes 3.2 seconds – with equal content.
3. Schema markup and structured data
Structured data (schema.org) allows Google to precisely understand what your business is, where it is located, what services it offers, and what its hours are. This is what generates rich results in Google: stars, hours, FAQ directly in search results.
WordPress allows full and customized implementation of schemas: LocalBusiness, Service, FAQPage, BreadcrumbList, and more. Plugins like RankMath or Schema Pro allow precise configuration without touching code (at Nixi we prefer not to use SEO plugins and edit the code directly).
Wix offers partial and automated schema implementation, with little control over details. For a local business in Dorval or Saint-Lazare that wants to appear with stars and hours in Google, this difference is significant.
4. URLs and navigation structure
A clean and descriptive URL is a direct SEO signal. WordPress gives you full control over your permalinks.
Wix has long generated URLs with parameters and problematic structures. Although this has improved, you remain limited in how you can architect your site.
5. Internal linking and content architecture
A serious SEO strategy relies on consistent internal linking – links between your service pages, your local pages, and your blog. This architecture helps Google understand which pages are important and how they relate to each other.
WordPress gives you total freedom to build this architecture. You can create nested location pages, service categories, pillar pages and satellite pages – all connected strategically.
With Wix, the structure is more rigid. You can create links, but the flexibility of the architecture is limited, which caps your long-term SEO potential.
6. The SEO plugin ecosystem
WordPress has the best SEO tools on the market, period.
- RankMath or Yoast SEO: full configuration of metadata, XML sitemap, schema markup, real-time content analysis
- WP Rocket: speed and cache optimization
- Imagify or ShortPixel: automatic image compression
Redirection: management of 301 redirects without touching the server
Wix offers its own built-in SEO tools, but they are functionally inferior and you cannot replace them with more powerful alternatives.
WordPress and local SEO: a decisive advantage for businesses
For a small business in Kirkland, Dollard-Des Ormeaux, or Hudson, local SEO is the absolute priority. Being found by someone 5 km away who is searching for your service right now is where clients are won.
WordPress allows you to build a sophisticated local content strategy:
- Dedicated location pages for each target city
- LocalBusiness schema with precise geographic coordinates
- Optimized Google Business Profile integration
- Service pages combined with location (ex: “eyebrow waxing Vaudreuil-Dorion”, “gutter cleaning Saint-Lazare”)
Concrete example: An excavation company based in Vaudreuil-Dorion can create separate pages for each city it serves, Coteau-du-Lac, L’Île-Perrot, Hudson, Rigaud, each optimized for local searches specific to that area. With Wix, creating and managing this structure of local pages quickly becomes laborious and technically suboptimal.
Cost Comparison: WordPress vs Wix
| Feature | Wix | WordPress |
|---|---|---|
| Basic plan | $17 USD/month | — |
| Business plan | $29–36 USD/month | — |
| Hosting | Included | $4–10 CAD/month |
| Domain | Included on some plans | ~$15 CAD/year |
| SEO tools | Limited | Extensive |
| Ownership | No | Yes |
| Portability | None | Full |
| Future price control | No | Yes |
Over three years, a properly hosted WordPress website can cost significantly less while giving you more flexibility and control.
In Summary: Wix to Start, WordPress to Build
Wix is a convenient starting point. If you need something online quickly, have no technical support or are uncertain of your small business, Wix can work.
But if your business is established and your website is meant to generate growth, WordPress is in another category.
- You own your website.
- You control your SEO.
- You are not dependent on the decisions of a public company.
- And you build on a technical foundation that can genuinely help you rank on Google.
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