Wix is one of the most popular web site builders currently on the market, but what is it? Wix is a cloud-based website builder that allows individuals and businesses to create and manage professional websites without knowing how to write code.
How does this compare to a WordPress web site? The fundamental difference between a Wix website and a self-hosted WordPress website is who controls the underlying website environment. This post will explore this in more detail.
A Wix website is a Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) website. The website exists within Wix’s proprietary hosting and software environment. You are using Wix’s platform to build and operate your website rather than installing website software (WordPress, Theme, Plugins, etc.) on a hosting account that you control.
With a Wix web site, the customer generally owns the content placed on the website, including:
- Textual content
- Original photographs and graphics
- Logos
- Videos
- PDFs and other documents
- Other customer-created material
However, Wix retains ownership of the Wix platform and its proprietary components, including its website-building technology, templates, widgets, underlying code, interfaces and other Wix-specific functionality.
Consequently, the customer doesn’t own a portable copy of the complete Wix website in the same way that a WordPress site owner can own a complete copy of a WordPress installation.
Where Does the Wix Website Actually Live?
Once a site is created on Wix, who owns the content? Does the customer own it or Wix? In other words, can a Wix created web site be ‘reproduced’ on another platform including all textual and image content as well as the overall theme/design?
The quick answer is, “no.” The website lives on Wix’s infrastructure. Its database, website architecture, applications, functionality and other components are managed by Wix.
This is fundamentally different from a conventional self-hosted WordPress website, where the website consists essentially of: “Website files + database + media + theme + plugins” and those components reside within a hosting account controlled by the customer. With Wix, the equivalent components are integrated into Wix’s proprietary environment.
Can a Wix Website Be Moved to the WordPress Platform?
Can a Wix site be moved? Not as a complete website. In other words, there is no simple process whereby you can take a Wix website, download it as a complete package and upload it to a WordPress hosting account.
Some Wix content can be migrated to WordPress. Text, images, pages, and other information can be transferred or recreated. But the actual Wix website, including its underlying Wix technology and Wix-specific functionality, doesn’t become a WordPress website through that process.
The new WordPress website has to be constructed using WordPress technology. The appearance of the Wix website can, however, be recreated in WordPress. The same photographs, written content, colors, branding, page structure and general visual appearance can be reproduced, subject to any rights associated with particular Wix-provided assets.
What About Web Site Backups?
How a web site is backed up is one of the biggest distinctions between the Wix and WordPress.
WordPress
With a conventional self-hosted WordPress website, you can make a complete backup containing essentially everything necessary to reconstruct the website:
1. MySQL Database
Contains the website’s pages, posts, settings, menus, configuration and other database information.
2. Website Files
- WordPress files
- Theme
- Plugins
- Uploaded media
- Custom code
- Other website files
That backup can be copied to your own computer, external hard drive, cloud storage or another server. If you decide to change hosting companies, you can move the website and its database to the new host. In other words, the website is portable!
Wix
Wix provides version history and other backup/recovery capabilities within its platform. You can restore previous versions of a Wix site, and there are ways to back up certain content such as CMS data. However Wix does not provide a conventional complete downloadable backup of the entire Wix website that you can take to another hosting company and restore independently.
You cannot simply obtain something like “website-files.zip” or “database.sql” and install them on another server. This iis because the Wix website isn’t designed to operate independently of the Wix platform.
The Ownership Difference
This is perhaps the simplest way to understand the distinction.
Wix
The customer owns:
- Content
- Images
- Text
- Logos
- Other customer-created digital assets
Wix owns/controls:
- Wix hosting environment
- Wix software
- Wix website-building technology
- Wix-specific functionality
- Wix templates and proprietary components
- Underlying Wix infrastructure
- The environment in which the website operates
Therefore, your content belongs to you, but the website as a functioning Wix website remains dependent upon Wix.
If you stop paying for Wix, you can’t take the complete functioning website and put it on another host.
Self-Hosted WordPress
With a self-hosted WordPress web site, the customer controls and possesses the entire website package:
- WordPress installation
- MySQL database
- Theme
- Plugins
- Text
- Images
- Videos
- Documents
- Custom code
- Other website files
The WordPress software itself is open-source, so you’re not purchasing ownership of WordPress. But the important point is that your particular WordPress installation and its associated digital assets are completely under your control. You can back it up, copy it, move it, modify it and host it somewhere else.
The Practical Difference
| Wix | Self-Hosted WordPress | |
|---|---|---|
| Hosting | Wix | Customer chooses host |
| Website environment | Controlled by Wix | Controlled by customer/host |
| Customer owns content | Yes | Yes |
| Customer controls database | No | Yes |
| Customer can download complete database | No | Yes |
| Customer controls website files | No | Yes |
| Customer owns/controls theme | Limited to Wix environment | Yes |
| Complete external backup | No | Yes |
| Move entire site to another host | No | Yes |
| Reproduce content elsewhere | Yes | Yes |
| Reproduce design elsewhere | Yes (by rebuilding) | Yes |
| Dependent on platform | Yes | No |
| Platform lock-in | High | Moderate |
The Bottom Line
With Wix, you own your website’s content, but Wix owns and controls the platform, technology and environment that turns that content into a functioning website. With a self-hosted WordPress web site, you own and control the complete digital website package – including the database, theme, plugins, files and content – and you can back it up and move it to another hosting provider.
That’s why Wix is best thought of as renting a website platform, whereas self-hosted WordPress is more like owning the website installation and renting only the server space on which it operates.
That distinction becomes particularly important for a business that expects its website to remain online for many years. With WordPress, the hosting company can change without fundamentally changing ownership of the website. With Wix, the website is intrinsically tied to the Wix platform.
