Wix and Webflow are two of the best-known no-code website builders.
What are no-code website builders? Let us take a look at some statistics before we explain what no-code website platforms are.
This year has seen the maximum number of startups in a year ever. The U.S.A. and India together saw around 72000+ new startups in 2021.
It means at least 72,000+ new websites were created in 2021.
And that’s the number in just 2 countries around the world.
Among a lot of other factors that have led to the surge in start-ups, one is the rise of no-code software.
You’re probably already aware of what no-code software is. But to give beginners a comprehensive comparison of the two platforms Wix and Webflow, let me briefly brush through a few terms.
You can skip this and directly jump to the features of the website builders and the Wix versus Webflow part of this article.
What is no-code software?
A no-code software is one that enables visual design and building with minimal or no coding involved. In plain terms, it means you don’t need to be code-literate to create a website or an app with no-code software.
So how do these no-code-needed software work? And why are these so popular?
No-code software is generally built for websites and applications or apps. Let me specifically focus on no-code website builders.
No-code platforms that help build a website are also generally termed as drag-and-drop website builders. Wix and Webflow are both examples of such website builders.
Check out WordPress drag-and-drop page builders.
These website builders are popular for two main reasons:
- You don’t need to know coding to build the website.
- It is built on the WYSIWYG model; i.e., you can see in real time what you build, and make the necessary edits.
How are website builders different from conventional HTML/CSS websites?
Websites have been around since the 1990s. The first website builder Geocities came around 1994.
However, it was only around 2006 onwards, with the launch of Wix, that drag-and-drop website builders gained traction.
By 2015, drag-and-drop website building platforms were already a rage. Eventually, drag-and-drop themes and plugins evolved, making website building no longer a techie’s domain.
The main difference between the conventional way of building websites and drag and drop website builders is that in the conventional method, you write the code using languages like HTML, CSS, PHP, Ruby on Rails, ASP.NET etc.
With website builders, instead of writing code, you need to work with the elements or sections that you can drag onto a pre-made or blank template. Website builders are like Lego pieces you can use to build your own Lego-architecture.
With the conventional way, you start with creating the Lego pieces first instead, so you start with just the raw material, the plastic, and give it shape and then move up the way, instead of just arranging the Lego pieces.
So, What is Wix and Webflow?
Wix has been one of the pioneers in website building platforms. Established in 2006, Wix was the David among the likes of Goliaths like WordPress, Magento, Joomla, and ASP.Net. With 15 years of industry experience, Wix is now one of the top 5 website builders in 2021.
Webflow, established in 2013, staggered for a few initial years to build a customer base.
However, having continually improved the platform, Webflow emerged as a notable website builder since 2019, bagging a place in the top 5 website builders, and giving a suitable competition to Wix.
Wix or Webflow?
So, how do you find the most suitable software for your business? How do you know if Wix would suit your business needs, or if Webflow is better?
Is it only the price? Or only features?
Both matter.
What also matters are particulars and nuances like your industry-type, support provided by the platforms, whether you are a solopreneur or with access to a team; your familiarity with SaaS products, and your effort needed in the whole website building process.
We will discuss all of this in our review. Do not miss the additional FAQs that come to mind when buying a website builder.
More on those lines, but first, let us check out the features each has.
Wix Website Builder – Features
Wix is easy. I have used numerous website builders – Weebly, Squarespace, GoDaddy website builder, and Siteground. Wix is a wonderfully easy one.
Websites have always intrigued me. A fancy web-shop always fires my imagination. Then again, code wasn’t particularly my thing. I believe a lot of us are like that – We dread code, but we want to create code-y stuff. It was then that I came across Wix.
Unbelievably easy and with a smooth drag and drop, what I like best about Wix is that it is built assuming you know nothing. It also moves beyond being just a website builder. It provides you with SEO and marketing tools to scale your website.
The following is a comprehensive, detailed list of the website builder :
Templates
Wix has around 800+ website templates to choose from. If that is not enough, you can take the blank template and make it the canvas for your website creation.
Automatic Website
Don’t want to browse through the templates? Let Wix choose one for you based on your requirements. The automatic website builder feature of Wix can be a good starting point for beginners. It can also help understand the platform better.
The automatic website builder asks you many questions. Based on your requirements, it suggests templates, pages, and functionality.
I would suggest going for the Create Your Website mode instead of the Let Wix build your Website automation. Treat the automatic builder more like an inbuilt demo for Wix.
The only drawback to this absolutely great feature would be the limited number of suggestions for templates. It showed me only 3 out of 800+ templates for my website niche.
Editing + Creating + Flexibility of Templates
With the initial steps complete, you come to the beautiful, intuitive Wix builder.
Wix has one of the best navigation and easy-to-use interfaces. Every bit of whatever is written in the editor is easy to understand and in simple words (as opposed to technical terms).
The templates are flexible so much that you can completely change the look and feel of them if you want to.
You can change the theme color, the sections, add animation, edit header and footer, add and edit inner pages, change font, optimize the website title and description, adjust height, add buttons, duplicate a page.
The possibilities are almost endless when designing a page.
Easy Menu & Submenu Addition
You can add items to the menu, change their position, and add submenus under folders.
Autosave + Preview
Every bit of what you do in the Wix builder gets saved automatically. You can also preview how the page looks like after section or button additions or text placement.
Mobile View
You can also check how your website would look in mobile device resolution, and make the design more mobile-friendly.
Wix Apps – Free + Paid
You can add tons of functionality to your Wix website. Wix has a lot of free apps, and paid apps, equivalent to plugins for WordPress. For almost every functionality under the sun, there is a Wix app.
Connecting Domain
If you have a domain parked elsewhere, i.e. outside Wix, you can connect it to your Wix website.
Hire a Designer
Wix is incredibly easy. However, if you find yourself pressed for time, and you feel that you cannot finish your website within a stipulated amount of time, you can hire a designer from the Wix Academy.
They will help build your website for you. Of course, there is a cost to hiring a designer.
Ascend Business Tools
Wix provides some essential tools for every business. These tools are a part of the Wix platform, and do not require installation of an app to start using. Wix Clubs these essential business tools under the name of Ascend Business Tools.
Ascend Business Tools consists of the following tool sets:
SEO + Marketing
Once your website is done, before you publish it, you can work on the optimization of the site, and integrate marketing tools that are free of cost and come as a part of Wix’s free set of tools.
Tools under SEO & Marketing include:
- Email marketing
- Social posts creation
- Video posts creation
- Google My Business
CRM
A lot of businesses may not need an elaborate CRM. Wix’s inbuilt CRM is equipped with the basic essentials for a customer management. The tools available in the inbuilt CRM include:
- Automations
- Forms & Submissions
- Workflows
- Tasks & Reminders
- Site Members
Contacts and Communication
You can import all your contacts to Wix and send them emails through the Contacts and Communication tabs of the Ascend Business Tools section.
Finance Tools
From the Finances tab of the Ascend Business Tools, you’ll have access to the following kinds of financial tools:
- Adding payment methods
- Create and send price quotes to customers
- Invoices and recurring invoices
- Integration of third party financial apps
Website Analytics and Reports
This section gives you comprehensive analysis, insights and reports, and overviews on the following categories:
- Traffic report
- Sales report
- Customer + Leads reports
- SEO reports
- Alerts on key website statistics
Branded App
Wix has a terrific feature whereby you can custom crete your app for iOS and Android. It is a paid feature. Yet to have the ease ans availability to create an app for a wider reachout is a great feature in a website builder.
The website app creator is easy and intuitive, just like the website builder. All features of your website automatically get ingrained with your web app.
Additional Features
- Wix has its own media library of free photos and free videos.
- You can add customization to blog posts and add elements to blog pages.
- With the help of Wix Logo Maker, you can create your logos for free.
Wix is a total package. Now let’s look at the pricing to find out if such great features are pocket-friendly or pocket hole drilling.
Pricing
Wix has three pricing structures for professional Websites, eCommerce websites, and Enterprise solutions.
The plans differ in pricing based on features like storage space limits, video hours allowed, and online payment processing limits.
Website Plans
- Combo Plan: $14 per month
- Unlimited Plan: $18 per month
- Pro Plan: $23 per month
- VIP Plan: $39 per month
Business and eCommerce Plans
- Business Basic Plan: $23 per month
- Business Unlimited Plan: $27 per month
- Business VIP Plan: $49 per month
Wix also provides an Enterprise plan, the pricing of which is customizable as per needs.
Webflow – Features
Webflow is built for designers and developers. The website itself makes this very clear.
Everything in Webflow – the interface to the edit tools to the terminology to the color code – is aimed at shoo-ing away novices and attracting designers instead. You would love Webflow if you’re a designer or a developer.
Think of Webflow as a platform with the ease of Squarespace, flexibility of WordPress and WYSIWYG features – Webflow is a designer’s paradise.
My first impression of Webflow was how amazing it would be to introduce aspiring designers to this platform. Webflow can bring out the best in budding designers and developers.
They can learn the nuances of good design without looking for code snippets on the internet (or installing plugins for every other section to function).
Design
Add prebuilt layouts like navigation, call to action or build from scratch using elements – Webflow gives you total control over your design.
Customization
Customization is core to Webflow. Even if you drag a section, you can detail it out in the right-side bar that shows all the options to customize that element or section.
The customization options include spacing, background, background filters, gradients, images, borders, shadows, typography, blending and darkening effects, height and width adjustments, etc.
Symbols
In the Symbols tab, you can categorize elements that you wish to reuse under symbols. You can further edit those elements under symbols directly from the symbols tab, thus making your changes universally affecting the website.
Navigator
The Navigator tab helps manage the elements used in your website.
Pages
The Pages tab is your menu organizer.
CMS Management
This is a beautiful feature of Webflow. The CMS tab allows you to create templates for all your content sections throughout the website.
For each content section, you can add custom fields and give color codes. For example, for blog post content, you can post body, post summary, thumbnail image, and so on.
Store
The store option is for eCommerce stores. You have full design control over your product pages, and you can also custom create your cart.
Selling digital and physical products
Building a store entails the delivery of products. Webflow has features that support delivery of both physical and digital goods. You can accept payments through PayPal, Stripe, Google Pay, and Apple Pay from over 200 countries around the world.
You can offer discounts and categorize your products.
Assets
The Assets tab contains all your media for re-using.
Interactions
The interactions feature, available from the top right corner of the Webflow dashboard is for providing parallax and animation to your website.
Style Manager
Style Manager acts as the main CSS file. You can make elements and symbols appear universally throughout the website or restrict them here. This tab controls the overall styling of the website.
SEO
Meta content for SEO can be provided in the CMS tab. There is also the edit section where you can provide alt tags.
Optimization is integrative within the design tabs . You can publish the meta content to social sites, or make meta content different for social sites if needed.
Security
Webflow boasts of a secure platform that is non-hackable. In today’s world, where scamming has increased multiple fold, this is a lucrative feature from Webflow.
Hosting
The hosting side of the bargain is where Webflow really scores very well. Webflow provides hosting from Amazon Web Server. Hosting is fast, reliable and scalable to suit your growing business needs.
Pricing
Webflow has different pricing for websites and eCommerce stores. There is also a pricing structure based on Account type.
Professional Website Plans
- Basic Plan: $12/month paid annually | $15/month, paid monthly.
- CMS Plan: $16/month, paid annually | $20/month, paid monthly.
- Business Plan: $36/month, paid annually | $45/month, paid monthly.
Ecommerce Store Plans
- Standard Plan: $29/month paid annually | $42/month, paid monthly.
- Plus Plan: $74/month paid annually | $84/month, paid monthly.
- Advanced Plan: $212/month paid annually | $235/month, paid monthly.
Account Plans
Individual Plans
- Starter Plan: Forever free
- Lite Plan: $16/month paid annually | $24/month, paid monthly.
- Pro Plan: $35/month paid annually | $42/month, paid monthly.
Team Plans
- $35/person per month paid annually | $42/person per month, paid monthly.
Enterprise plans are available at custom prices.
Wix versus Webflow: Comparison
- All templates in Wix are free. Only some templates in Webflow are free. The rest are paid, and some have even a substantially good price. Wix wins.
- Webflow has more responsive design resolutions showcased. This means that you can see how your website looks in a tab, in landscape and mobile portrait mode. Webflow wins.
- Wix has a friendly interface. Everything looks doable. Webflow has a drab interface with cold-looking icons and fonts. The interface does scream a little “I-am-tech-stuff” and could have done with being a bit less severe looking. Wix wins.
- Language plays a major part in building software for the technically not-so-sound. Wix is mindful of it. Webflow isn’t. Webflow writes Typography instead of font; Elements instead of website sections. Difficult sounding words increase the difficulty level of a software, which might be easy to operate. Wix wins.
- Wix is more basic. Webflow is for people who are tech-friendly, almost tech-advanced. You cannot as easily create a website in Webflow if you are not acquainted with the technical terms used in website creation. A little knowledge of HTML elements is helpful if you’re operating Webflow. Wix wins in mass appeal. Webflow wins in customization options.
- Webflow has better animations and page transitions than Wix. Webflow wins.
- Website customization features are more in Webflow compared to Wix. Webflow wins.
Who is Webflow for ?
- Tech enthusiasts familiar with website terms.
- Developers looking for a drag and drop builder.
- Entrepreneurs with an inhouse website designer.
Who is Wix for?
Everyone. Anyone can create a website in Wix.
Where does Wix score?
Wix scores in the ease of using the platform and the number of features in the price offered.
Where does Webflow score?
Webflow scores in being a platform for designers. It also scores in the hosting and security part. AWS is a comparatively difficult to use server, and Webflow takes care of the AWS hosting for your site.
Should you opt for Wix or Webflow?
If you have read the entire review, you already have the answer by now. If you’re still confused, why not try both the platforms for free and test them out for yourself.
Get Started with Wix for Free | Try Webflow
All the best for your new website!
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