One of the most significant challenges consumers encounter when making purchases is the ability to assess the return on investment. Savvy buyers understand that brand awareness and price fail to tell the whole story. Just as heavily processed foods may leave your grocery bill lighter but instigate health problems in the long run, making informed decisions in technology and web design requires a thorough understanding of tradeoffs.
When establishing an online presence, the technology landscape offers many choices. Among the most popular options are website builders like Wix and Webflow. These platforms promise to empower individuals, businesses, and creative professionals to create compelling websites, but with different underlying philosophies.
Capabilities
The primary tradeoff in website building revolves around the balance between ease of use and customization. Wix shines brightly in its reputation for user-friendliness, while Webflow emphasizes creative control and customization.
Wix capabilities
When you start with Wix, the software asks a few questions to help narrow down a starter template for your new website. Once you select a template, its intuitive drag-and-drop interface allows even those with limited technical expertise to create simple websites in hours.
This aspect of Wix is one of its most appealing features. Even with little technical savvy, Wix's drag-and-drop interface allows you to create a professional-looking website. Choose from customizable templates tailored to multiple industries, then personalize them to match your brand identity.
Out of the box, Wix templates automatically optimize your website for large and small devices. Whether your customers visit your site on a smartphone, tablet, or desktop, they will experience a visually coherent interface.
Wix advanced capabilities
Consistent with its mission to make website publishing simple and intuitive, Wix allows you to search, purchase and connect a custom domain all within its platform.
Need to add a booking widget, manage social media ads, update your SEO, and create an email marketing campaign? Wix has you covered there and many other features, including powerful e-commerce capabilities and an extensive App Market.
Wix wants to be an all-in-one solution for small businesses, including helping you manage content at scale with its Content Management System (CMS). The CMS lets you manage content in one central database and display it on many pages using the same design.
Webflow capabilities
Webflow is two products in one: a development tool for professional web designers and an editing tool for content publishers. Whereas Wix aims to put the powers of development and publishing within reach of solo creators and small business owners, Webflow's philosophy is that excellent user experiences require expertise and specialization.
Webflow's Designer is an advanced website development interface that will feel familiar to those with experience in design tools such as Figma, Sketch, and Framer. Although the Designer allows users to create custom websites without writing code, it's helpful to have a firm grasp of core concepts in HTML, CSS, and Javascript to make the most of the tool.
Webflow's Editor, in contrast, is a tool for editing content such as text and images. Tightly integrated into your website's interface, the Editor lets you edit directly on the page. You can easily access the CMS via a toolbar at the bottom of your screen to add new content.
Webflow advanced capabilities
Webflow boasts powerful additional functionality with the level of customization you would expect. Build an e-commerce store with a unique cart and checkout flow and seamless product management, inventory tracking, and order processing.
Webflow also offers the ability to build gated-content experiences and subscription e-commerce offerings with User functionality. Create signup, login, and account pages, offering an extra layer of personalization. With the recent introduction of Logic, Webflow continues to advance what businesses can do on its platform, including automating data transmission between Webflow and other tools.
Although Webflow offers many native capabilities, it more than Wix mirrors a "composable" development philosophy, enabling you to tie together multiple specialized tools. To get analytics from your Webflow website, for example, you'll need to integrate it with a third-party tool such as Google Analytics.
Need a custom domain? You must purchase one through GoDaddy, NameCheap, or another domain marketplace. The same is true for email marketing. You must sign up with MailChimp, CompaignMonitor, or another service to send a newsletter. But rest assured, Webflow allows you to connect third-party tools seamlessly.
Performance
Google introduced Core Web Vitals (CWV) in May 2020 to prioritize website user experience and provide website owners and developers with a clear set of indicators to assess and improve their site's performance.
Given the importance of these metrics to user experience and ranking in Google search results, it's essential to consider which website builder sets you up for high performance on CWV.
Wix performance
Any template-based system that provides pre-set layouts makes decisions for you and thus limits your ability to optimize the design. Truly excellent performance results from tradeoffs, so in this regard, Wix removes a powerful tool of performance-based design.
With that said, when you create a website using Wix, you can access a range of optimization features. These include image compression and lazy loading, which help to speed up page load times and enhance overall performance. Additionally, Wix utilizes a Content Delivery Network (CDN) to ensure that your website is reliable and loads quickly for users by delivering pages from nearby servers.
Wix also provides tools and analytics to improve SEO and user experience. Wix's built-in performance dashboard provides users real-time data about their website's speed and other performance metrics.
Webflow performance
Webflow prioritizes performance by providing optimized hosting on its CDN, ensuring fast-loading websites worldwide. With automatic image compression and lazy loading, pages load swiftly, enhancing user experience and SEO rankings. The platform's clean code output and efficient asset delivery contribute to faster load times and improved site performance.
Leveraging Webflow's custom design capabilities, websites built with the platform can execute fine-tuned optimization techniques. Webflow's built-in performance monitoring tools empower users to correct accessibility and SEO errors and upload appropriately sized images, automatically identifying areas for optimization and improvement.
For even more advanced performance, you can add custom code, such as structured data, that helps Google and other search engines better understand your page. With structured data, your website will become eligible for Rich Results, enhanced snippets that provide users with more complete and compelling information.
Pricing
Both Wix and Webflow offer a range of pricing plans, each catering to different needs and budgets. Let's delve into the pricing models of both platforms.
Wix pricing
Wix is renowned for its accessibility, and its pricing plans reflect this philosophy. It offers a tiered approach, with various Pricing Plans designed to suit the needs of different users.
As is typical with website builders, Wix offers a free version with limited features and storage space and paid offerings starting at $16/month and going up to $159/month.
Webflow pricing
Again reflecting philosophical differences, Webflow's pricing structure is slightly more complicated. The two concepts you must understand are Workspace and Site Plan.
A Workspace is a shared space where you can invite teammates and freelancers to work on a single website or multiple. The Free Workspace is all you need if you're a business of one that works with freelancers. You must purchase a paid Workspace plan if multiple team members need access to the Workspace.
Depending on your Workspace, you are permitted a certain number of websites. When you're ready to publish an unhosted website on a custom domain, you must add a Site Plan. Like Wix, Site Plans are tiered, with the cost increasing based on features.
Talent network
Even the most simple website-building platform can only do so much to lessen the tasks of publishing a website. Wix has its fair share of complexities, especially as you grow and customize your site. Even then, writing good search-engine-optimized copy and designing and uploading impressive visuals benefit from the support of professionals.
Wix talent network
Given Wix's popularity, it's no surprise that freelance professionals specialize in building Wix websites. You can find a professional on the Wix platform, where you can enter the needs of your project, and Wix will review your request and match you with Professionals that suit your needs.
You don't have to limit your search to the Wix platform. You can easily find freelance professionals on Upwork and other platforms to help build your website. Wix professionals come with varying skill sets, some may be able to add custom Javascript, and some may be pure no-code website makers.
Webflow talent network
Webflow helps businesses connect with freelancers and agencies specializing in Webflow. Like Wix, you can find a Webflow partner to help with your next project by filling out a form describing your needs. Based on the information provided, Webflow will match you with an expert.
Webflow designers, however, exist far and wide. You can post a job to Upwork, do a Google search, or email the author of this post! With a skilled Webflow designer, you can imagine and create outstanding UX/UI that will blow away template-based designs.
Customer support
In pursuing a return on investment, having reliable customer support and learning resources can make all the difference.
Wix customer support
Wix has a helpful customer support team that you can reach out to via email. They respond promptly and provide sufficient assistance with all platform-related issues.
Moreover, the Wix website provides helpful resources such as tips, guides, and tricks that even beginners can benefit from via their blog. If you want to explore the more intricate aspects of Wix design, you can access the support center.
Webflow customer support
If you need assistance creating and launching your website, Webflow's customer support team is highly versatile and always ready to help. Webflow also offers in-depth documentation and training with plenty of content available through Webflow University, an excellent resource for learning and improving your skills.
In addition to the university, Webflow has a forum with a large and active community. Their blog section is also a great source of information, featuring articles from various Webflow professionals. Furthermore, Webflow features a Wishlist where you can suggest and vote on new features, adding a democratic element to the platform's growth and roadmap.
Which is better, Wix or Webflow?
Both Wix and Webflow present compelling options for those seeking to establish their online presence. The key to making the right choice lies in aligning the platform's strengths with your unique needs and goals.
For those prioritizing ease of use, immediate deployment, and a more straightforward e-commerce setup, Wix may be the optimal choice. On the other hand, Webflow's creative control, tailored e-commerce solutions, and SEO customization are likely to yield higher dividends for businesses seeking to stand out with a unique and visually captivating web presence.
Ultimately, as with any investment, the key is to consider the long-term benefits and tailor your decision to suit the specific requirements of your project or business. But if web development is a priority, go with Webflow and build a unique user experience.
I specialize in crafting distinctive and outstanding user experiences with Webflow.