Weebly, Wix, and WordPress: A Review of the 3 ‘W’ Platforms

Three of the most widely used content management systems are Weebly, Wix, and WordPress – platforms known for their ease of use. Each of them, of course, has pros and cons. Whether you’re preparing to launch your first website or wondering whether it’s time to switch to a new CMS3, we’ve got some insights on how to choose your platform.

Future Plans

One problem business owners encounter is that their websites aren’t flexible enough to allow for growth, such as adding new microsites (individual landing pages that promote products, services, or events). If growth isn’t part of your strategy, and if you don’t need multiple webpages, Wix or Weebly might be adequate for your website. 

Weebly’s Features

Weebly’s drag-and-drop functionality lets users create a professional-looking website, even if they don’t have any web design experience. Weebly also has built-in forms so you can make a contact page, a newsletter sign-up, or any other type of form for the purpose of capturing email addresses. 

This platform limits the number of available top-level pages – such as “Products,” “Services,” and “About Us” – that you can create. Once you hit the maximum, you can only add new pages to the drop-down navigation under each top-level page, which can result in some clunky navigation. And if you want to revert to a previous version of a page you’re out of luck – Weebly doesn’t save draft versions.

You can sell products via Weebly, but you’ll pay a small commission for any sale. 

Wix Highlights

Like Weebly, Wix has drag-and-drop functionality, but it’s not as customizable (unless you have a developer on staff, and even then, customization options are limited). 

When you have a Wix site, you must use Wix hosting – it’s a package deal. Should you decide to move your hosting to a new provider, you can take your site with you, but you won’t have access to Wix support. You also won’t be able to easily migrate your site – you would need to “embed” it on your new site, which would make your site content invisible to Google’s search engine crawlers (bad!). Oh, and you’d need to download all of your images and upload them to your new site. 

WordPress Dynamics

WordPress is open-source software, meaning developers can access its code. That’s why there are thousands of external plug-ins for WordPress, a perk not available in Wix and Weebly (both proprietary platforms that don’t share their code).

These thousands of plug-ins allow developers to create feature-rich WordPress sites that are unique – Bloomberg, The New York Times, and the official website for the country of Sweden were all built with WordPress, and none of them resemble each other. 

Some WordPress plug-ins, like Yoast SEO Premium, require a yearly subscription, but the cost is well worth the return on investment. (This tool analyzes your content and makes recommendations on how to better optimize it for search relevance). 

With WordPress, you can choose your own hosting provider, sell products online, create microsites, and more. It’s the CMS that BoxCrush recommends for most of our clients. If you’re not sure you’re ready for WordPress, we’d love to chat more about how it can help you stand out, attract new visitors, and accomplish your business objectives.