Both Wix and Webflow are impressive website builders with design focuses which allow users to create beautiful sites without or with little code. Webflow has created plenty of buzz in the tech community with the ability to create unique sites without the need of full design and engineering teams, complete with engaging visuals and on-page interactions. Wix is known as a website builder which provides ample freedom to beginners and has gained much press for their Super Bowl ads and widespread use. 

There are core differences and similarities you should know about Wix and Webflow before choosing one over another which will be fully reviewed in this guide. Get started by reading the pros and cons of both website builders or use the index to jump to the section you care the most about when choosing Wix or Webflow. 

Pros and Cons: 12 pros and cons to be aware of

Before diving into individual categories, these are the core strengths of Webflow and Wix which will be expanded upon in later sections. 

Now that you know both builders’ core strengths and weaknesses, continue on to learn about the differences and similarities between Wix and Webflow when it comes to their design editors. 

Design: Two builders with extensive design freedom

One of the key aspects of a website builder users look to when making their decision is design flexibility and capability. Rather than hiring a web developer or attempting to code themselves, website builders allow users to build beautiful sites without code. On this front, Webflow is a leading builder with great room for creativity, especially for professional designers who would otherwise have to get tech involved to make their vision a reality. 

While Webflow is intuitive for those experienced in tech or with design tools, there is a learning curve to Webflow’s editor but it can be learned using Webflow University. With Webflow you can design and add key elements on pages across your website like headers, paragraphs, buttons, media like images, or you can add custom HTML or CSS if you’re willing and able. With Webflow, you layer boxes of elements on your site, a feature which will be familiar to designers who use tools like Sketch. 

Wix also provides a large degree of design freedom, allowing users to drag and drop elements across their pages, creating unique sites for their business or personal sites. Elements which can be dropped include text, images, videos, and buttons. Wix allows users to either snap elements into a grid or free form add them wherever they want to their heart's content.

With Wix, you can create custom mobile views for your site and aren’t limited to one design which will adjust to desktop or mobile like other website builders. 

While Webflow offers more design freedom than Wix, Wix is more beginner friendly and will be more easy to learn for newcomers to site building, especially with Wix’s large template library. 

Once you’ve chosen your website builder, you should consider using a design tool like Canva to build beautiful, free elements and graphics to add to your site. 

Key takeaway: Webflow has more design capabilities than Wix and will be better for creating more elaborate, creative sites while Wix is more beginner friendly and better for simple sites. 

Templates: Pre-made themes for your site

For users who wish to create a website from a starting point in their niche rather than building from scratch, templates can provide the structure needed to create a website efficiently. Both Webflow and Wix offer plenty of templates to choose from, including both free and premium themes, in enough categories that you’ll find a great one with ease. 

Webflow offers ust over 100 premium templates, all of which are modern and sure to impress visitors and win over customers. Webflow also offers a large number of free templates as well which are also professional but more ordinary than premium options. 

Templates fall into categories like business portfolio blog, photography, as well as more specific niches specifically for content management systems, blogs, and ecommerce stores.

All Webflow templates are responsive and can be edited with the impressive no-code tools you would be using otherwise with this website builder. 

Wix offers more templates than Webflow, with 600 total themes in more business niches that users may find useful. Wix categories include Online Store, Music, Fashion, as well as unique subcategory specifics like Cafe & Bakery. These categories and specific templates are so matched to intent you may not need to fiddle much with the template if you’re searching for a template for your small business down to IT Services, STEM Camp, or Flooring Company. 

One downside of Wix templates is that when you choose a template, you can’t switch it for another and transfer over all features and content. For this reason, it’s important to choose the right template when you’re starting out to minimize your work down the road if you decide to switch up your site’s look. 

Key takeaway: If templates are a deciding factor for you, you should choose Wix if you need a very specific template for your business or site type and don’t want to make many changes after. If you want to choose a general template and still make broad edits and design changes, Webflow would be a better choice. 

Pricing: $12 to $212 a month site plans

An essential part of choosing a website builder is evaluating options based on pricing. Review the below options for both Wix and Webflow plans. As you’ll see there’s a range of price differences in these plans and they’re individually focused on different types of sites whether they’re personal, business, or ecommerce focused. 

Wix Pricing: Personal Plans

Wix Pricing: Business and Ecommerce Plans

Webflow Pricing: Site Plans

Webflow Pricing: Ecommerce Plans

Key takeaway: While pricing isn’t everything, you can see that Webflow is more expensive for the most part for equivalent Wix plans with two exceptions at the personal site level. 

Plugins: Enabling new features for your site 

Plugins, or apps, for your website are essential ways for you to add functionality, improve your site’s marketing or operations abilities, and provide better customer experience to users, all without code. If you want to add forms to your site or improve your marketing for example, plugins will help you do so, and the best website builders provide plenty of integrations or apps for you to create the best website experience possible. 

In this category, Webflow provides above average support with integrations covering CRM needs, ecommerce features, email marketing, customer engagement, and more, across 32 categories. While there are just a handful of integrations in each of these categories, these are core plugins which will help you develop your site’s functionality. 

In addition to plugins with tools like Google Maps, Printful, and Intercom, you can connect other tools using Zapier which allows you to connect web apps without code. 

While Webflow offers plenty of plugins for you to improve your site, Wix offers a number more, including 47 plugins made specifically by the Wix team. Wix offers plenty of plugins, email capture forms for email lists, live chat for answering customers, abandoned cart tools, and more, all within their easily navigable and searchable App Market. 

Many Wix plugins are impressive because of their specific catering to different types of businesses like restaurants and hotels with booking apps and calendar tools. 

Key takeaway: Wix offers many more plugins than Webflow, especially specific tools for small businesses, but Webflow offers the core apps you’ll need to run your business and market effectively. 

Ecommerce: Selling digital and physical products 

If you plan to use Wix or Webflow to create an online store, you’ll be especially interested in how both website builders cater to the ecommerce community from shipping operations to store templates. While both store builders have ecommerce-centered plans, you’ll soon see that one has more of an online store-focus and is a better fit in this category. 

As covered in the Pricing section of this guide, Webflow offers three ecommerce plans which range from $29 to $212 a month with annual plans. These plans offer large item inventories and sales volume maximums, and advanced store features which will encourage visitors to convert and buy your physical or digital products. 

With these plans, you’ll use Webflow’s unique collections system to create product pages and product collections. Webflow also makes customization of your store’s checkout process and cart a breeze. Webflow comes with beautiful store templates and you can also edit ecommerce user emails with ease. 

Webflow also makes it a breeze to set shipping rules and integrations with payment providers like PayPal and Stripe. Tax rules and management are also straightforward with Webflow. You can also sync your store with Facebook and Instagram to make social selling even easier. 

Wix’s four business plans, as covered above in Pricing, also double as ecommerce plans with their own features and rules from selling subscriptions to customers to automating sales tax. While you can sell an unlimited number of products through Wix, this platform is better suited to a smaller online store.

If you prefer Wix’s more simple design framework or templates, you’ll likely need to opt for the $49 a month Business Plus plan which will offer full USPS discounts up to 70% as well as a loyalty program, automated sales tax on 500 transactions, and up to 3,000 product reviews. For large online stores with a large product library, an Enterprise plan with custom pricing will be worth investigating and investing in. 

Key takeaway: If you plan to launch a large online store with thousands of products but still want expansive design capabilities, Webflow is the better option in this category. For small online stores with under 100 products and the need for simpler design, Wix is a better pick. 

Blog: Collections vs Traditional Editor

One of the best ways to increase traffic to your website and build an organic following is by blogging on your new website. When creating content with Webflow or Wix, you’ll find different means to creating articles and organizing blog posts.

When creating your blog through Webflow, you’ll need to create content through this site builder’s collection organizational system. You’ll create articles with different fields for the desired page URL, title, and content. You’ll then add these articles to a collection of custom content, your blog, with the option of adding subcollections for blog topics you’ll cover, the authors blogs are published under, year published, and other options. 

This blog creation process is more cumbersome than traditional blog options but could be worthwhile if you need Webflow to develop and design a custom experience, and a blog is a secondary focus. For example, you could offer a lifestyle blog for your ecommerce store and feature products within articles to convert readers. 

Wix is similarly not blog-focused. Wix’s blog editor is unlike their primary website builder so there’s a learning curve when you start editing your blog and creating content. Wix blog creation is less freeform than the main site editor. Like Webflow, Wix is unideal for 40+ long-form posts or if you plan to make blogs your primary inbound marketing source. 

If blogging will be a primary focus and marketing channel for your new site, you should consider using WordPress.org, unless you need the design features of Webflow. 

Key takeaway: Neither Webflow nor Wix are ideal for blogging but are usable if you need to use Webflow design tools or need the simple business templates of Wix. 

SEO: Earning traffic for your new site

SEO, or search engine optimization, is a must-have for any website even at a basic level to get it ranking on Google for keywords which matter. Typical SEO best practices include submitting your sitemap to Google through Google Search Console and ensuring your site loads quickly and its pages can be read by Google’s crawlers. 

In this category, Webflow allows you to accomplish the basics of SEO like changing page metadata, generating sitemaps, and redirecting page URLs to new pages as needed. Changing page metadata includes optimizing your title and metadescription as it will be read in Google search results. In addition, Webflow provides a few guides to optimizing your site in general and specifically on Webflow according to best practices. 

Wix’s SEO tools are more advanced than Webflow’s, allowing you to instantly index your site on Google, optimize metadata directly on page, and maintain your sitemap effectively. Like Webflow, Wix also provides guides for SEO beginners on using their platform to match best practices. 

Because Webflow and Wix both offer extensive design freedom, it’s vital that site managers follow their guides, as well as third-party guides, as they design so they don’t fall foul of Google’s guidelines for having a fast site whose HTML is easy for Google site crawlers to read. 

If you want to do SEO research once your site is live, you should consider SEMRush. This essential keyword research tool will help you choose keywords to create content for to earn more traffic. 

Key takeaway: Wix is the better website builder based on their provided SEO tools and instructions for site owners who may have a beginner or intermediate understanding of search optimization. 

Final Takeaway: Builders for design and simplicity

As you’ve read, both Wix and Webflow both have core strengths and some weaknesses which could affect your decision to choose one over the other. 

In general, Webflow is a better choice for users with tech or design experience who want the convenience of website builders and no code features but the ability to build beautiful, complex websites. Wix is a better choice for personal sites and businesses like restaurants, hotels, law firms, photographers, and consulting sites with a marketing focus. 

In terms of category strengths, Webflow is better for design experience and building impressive ecommerce stores. Wix is better if you plan to use templates, offers better deals with the exception of personal sites, offers more plugins, and is better for SEO. With this said, you may be looking for a unique combination of these features and you should take advantage of both Webflow and Wix provide to use their design tools and build a free experience before bringing the site live. 

Both Wix and Webflow are impressive website builders which point to a promising future of website builders which enables everyone, regardless of experience, to build impressive sites and stores. 

Is Webflow Free?

Webflow is free if you want to use the design tools and practice without hosting a site using Webflow. If you want to bring your site live with an independent domain, you’ll pay $14 to $49+ per month with Webflow. 

Is Webflow for Beginners?

Webflow can be learned by beginners using Webflow University but it’s best used by designers or tech-savvy people who can begin using the Webflow tools with ease. Website beginners may be best served by all-inclusive tools like Wix, Squarespace, or WordPress.com.