Wix vs WordPress.com
Wix and WordPress.com both begin with a free plan, then part ways. Wix is a drag-and-drop builder with an app market, and a site built there stays there. WordPress.com is managed WordPress with plugins on every paid plan and an exit to self-hosted WordPress. One-off small business sites go to Wix; sites with a future go to WordPress.com.
Tomasz WierzbickiData & Market Research
Elena Marchetti
Niels AbrahamsenVendors can pay for visibility on this site; it never changes what we say about a product. How that works.
Choose Wix ifyou need a small business site built once and maintained lightly, want drag-and-drop editing with an app market, and accept that leaving later means rebuilding.
Choose WordPress.com ifyou expect the site to still be growing in three years, want a route to self-hosted WordPress, and like plugin access from the lowest paid plan.
Wix and WordPress.com side by side
| Wix | WordPress.com | |
|---|---|---|
| Our website builder rank | #10 of 12 | #11 of 12 |
| Established in | Israel | United States |
| Pricing | Free tier with ads; paid plans per month billed yearly, published | Free tier; paid plans per month, published |
| List price, 30 September 2026 | Light: $17 per month on a yearly subscription (USD reference price, varies by location); free plan available | Personal: US$4 per month billed annually, or US$9 paid monthly, excl. taxes; free plan available |
| Free tier | Yes | Yes |
| Open source | — | Yes |
| Self-hostable | — | Yes |
| Built for | A small business site built once and left alone | Anyone who wants the option to move to self-hosted WordPress later |
| Not for | A site you expect to still be growing in three years | A team that wants plugins without paying: the free plan has none |
Both are reviewed in full in our website builder ranking: Wix and WordPress.com.
Where they differ
Wix 0 · WordPress.com 3 · open 1- 01
Leaving the platform
Wix states that its sites run on proprietary technology and must be hosted on Wix servers, so the only way out is to rebuild elsewhere. WordPress.com exports posts, pages and comments with a built-in tool, and documents a migration plugin that moves the whole site, theme and plugins included, to a self-hosted installation. If the site might outgrow its first home, WordPress.com removes the most expensive risk.
Edge: WordPress.com
- 02
Add-ons on a small budget
Wix gives free sites access to its App Market, which it describes as hundreds of apps, many with free plans. WordPress.com allows no plugins on its free plan, but every paid plan, from Personal at US$4 a month billed annually, can install any of more than 60,000. Staying free favours Wix; paying a little favours WordPress.com.
Depends on the buyer
- 03
The free plans and the first paid step
Wix's free plan has 500MB of storage, 1GB of bandwidth, Wix ads and a wixsite.com address. WordPress.com's has 1 GB of storage, its own adverts and a wordpress.com subdomain. Removing ads and connecting a domain costs $17 a month on Wix Light or US$4 a month on WordPress.com Personal, both as US dollar list prices on annual billing.
Edge: WordPress.com
- 04
A site that keeps growing
Wix caps collaborators and storage by plan: 2 people and 2 GB on Light, 5 and 50 GB on Core, 10 and 100 GB on Business. WordPress.com includes unlimited pages, users and visitors on every plan, with 6 GB of storage on Personal and 50 GB on Business. In our assessment Wix sites also lose consistency as sections accumulate.
Edge: WordPress.com
When neither fits
A non-designer who mainly wants a polished result without decisions should look at Squarespace, whose templates are hard to spoil. A marketing site that must look designed and load fast is Framer territory, since its output scores well on Core Web Vitals without tuning.
Wix or WordPress.com: questions
4 answersWhich has the better free plan, Wix or WordPress.com?
They are close. Wix gives 500MB of storage and 1GB of bandwidth with Wix ads and a wixsite.com address, plus access to its App Market. WordPress.com gives 1 GB of storage with its own adverts and a subdomain, but no plugin installation until you pay.
Is it easier to migrate away from Wix or from WordPress.com?
From WordPress.com by a wide margin. It has an export tool for posts, pages and comments, and a documented migration plugin that moves the entire site to self-hosted WordPress.
Wix says a site cannot run on another host, so a move means rebuilding it from scratch.
Should a growing business pick Wix or WordPress.com?
WordPress.com is the safer choice for growth. Every plan includes unlimited users and pages, and paid plans can install plugins, while Wix limits collaborators and storage per plan and cannot be exported. Wix remains the quicker route to a small site that will stay small.
What does the cheapest paid plan cost on Wix and WordPress.com?
Wix lists Light at $17 a month on a yearly subscription, shown as a US dollar reference price that varies by location.
WordPress.com lists Personal at US$4 a month billed annually, or US$9 paid monthly, before taxes. Both include a free domain for the first year on annual billing.
Sources
Checked 30 September 2026- Wix plans page: Wix plan prices, storage and collaborator limits per plan, free domain for one year.
- Wix blog: Wix Premium plans: Wix Light at $17 per month billed annually with ad-free site and custom domain.
- Wix help: Building a website for free: Wix free plan: 500MB storage, 1GB bandwidth, wixsite.com address, App Market access.
- Wix help: Wix Premium plan pricing: Premium plans remove Wix ads and are needed for a custom domain.
- Wix help: Exporting or embedding your Wix site elsewhere: a Wix site must be hosted on Wix servers.
- WordPress.com pricing page: WordPress.com prices, free plan limits, plugins on every paid plan, unlimited users, storage per plan.
- WordPress.com support: Export your website's content: standard WordPress.com export covers posts, pages and comments.
- WordPress.com support: Export an entire website with a plugin: migration plugin route for moving a whole WordPress.com site.