Webflow vs Wix

Being a website designer or developer, you probably already know that Webflow and Wix are two of the most-used online website building platforms. In this breakdown, we’ll compare the two powerhouse platforms and take a look at customization options, code exporting, essential features, integrations, business tools, pricing and more.

Getting Started

What is Webflow?

Webflow is a website builder and content management system (CMS). Their core mission is “empowering everyone to create for the web”. With a codeless visual canvas, limitless opportunity for customization, and a strong creator community, Webflow is a strong contender for professional website design and development.

Its intuitive editor prioritizes visual design and has an interface that reminds some pro users of Adobe Photoshop. Webflow’s editor works on a drag-and-drop system, demonstrating that ease-of-use doesn’t have to compromise design freedom.

Is this the first time you’re seeing Webflow? Take a look at Webflow University’s Webflow 101 crash course.

What is Wix?

Wix is also a drag-and-drop WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) website builder with an emphasis on “total design freedom”. Founded in 2006, Wix’s popularity has grown rapidly and continues to do so, counting over 180+ million users around the world.

Celebrated for its user-friendly experience and affordable plans, Wix is an all-in-one solution counting a large range of useful business tools among its essential features. This includes Velo – its full-stack website development integrated design environment (IDE). One cool thing to mention is Wix ADI (Artificial Design Intelligence), an AI tool that can create an entire personalized website instantly.

Not sure what Wix is? Take a look through these 10 essential Wix tutorials.

What are the main differences?

Aside from the fact that they both begin with “W”, Webflow and Wix share only a few similarities.

Take a look at our table below and find out how the two compare.

Webflow vs Wix: Design Elements

Both Webflow and Wix are strong contenders for placing design freedom as a priority. Here’s how they compare on design elements:

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Webflow

On Webflow, there’s plenty of potential to create unique and beautiful responsive websites. There’s a wide range of elements like custom typography, animations, interactions, carousels, sliders and dropdown menus – and every single element is available to customize and experiment with. If you have favorites, you can save these as “classes” and make your own mini element templates.

On Webflow, you can designate your creations as “cloneable”. That means 3rd-party designers can sell or share projects – whole templates and elements within them like animations, interactions and more. There’s a wide-ranging selection of projects that are completely cloneable.

Here’s a cool example: professional developer Dhruv Sachdev’s collection of slick line hover animations.

Wix

Similarly to Webflow, Wix offers a drag-and-drop editor which lets you place all sorts of elements wherever you want, and every design element is customizable too. Elements available include sections, images, galleries, headings, text, video, contact forms, lists, grids, buttons, and more. With the option for video backgrounds, scroll effects and animations adding life.

Mobile-optimized animations can be applied to a range of elements. Basic customizations like direction, distance, and duration are available. More than one effect can be applied to individual elements.

In favor of the user-friendly approach, the features and elements are generally basic and there are limitations like not being able to modify page margins or padding between elements. Additionally, there aren’t advanced typography tools.

This is where Wix’s appeal is – in its lack of complexity and easy-to-use and understand interface and design experience.

They also update their features regularly, recently adding advanced parallax scrolling effects, easy navigation options, and video background integration options.

Webflow vs Wix: Customization and Custom Code 

Is design freedom a top priority? Read this section closely to find out what customization options are available in each platform:

Webflow 

Webflow hits the ball out of the park when it comes to customization and custom code. 

Even though they emphasize their status as a no-code tool, it does both very well. Every part of a template and every little element is customizable. In a nutshell, those of you with coding experience will find a limitless amount of opportunities to create and experiment.

In Webflow you’re able to visually and codelessly create dynamic interactions and animations, resulting in unique and fun experiences for website viewers.

Like this cheeky mini-game! Made entirely in Webflow, Rings over Fries is a cloneable game made by designer Colin Moy.

Wix 

Wix has its own, separate full-stack website development platform called Velo that “empowers you to rapidly build, manage and deploy professional web apps” without the need for code. Using Velo you can deep-dive into the core HTML of any website and play with the extra layer of customization.

This also functions on a drag-and-drop editor and you can add custom functionality using standard JavaScript and Velo APIs for all sorts of client needs. Then, when you’re done, you can sell your creations either independently or through Wix’s own marketplace.

Webflow vs Squarespace: Code Exports

If you need the ability to export your code, pay close attention to this section and find out who offers what:

Webflow

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Got a piece of code you want to export from Webflow? It’s easy. On any plan, your project's HTML, CSS, Javascript, minified HTML, and assets are available for export. Plus no attribution required and you can use the exported code anywhere you want to.

So all cloneable projects like templates, interactions, and elements made by Webflow’s large community of creators don’t need to be used in Webflow.

Here’s an example: a registration page made by Webflow specialist and Matechs co-founder Mirela Prifti. Simple, succinct, and completely cloneable.

One quick note: as expected, manual changes to exported files can break some Webflow components.

There are also some non-exportable features including CMS and ecommerce content, and database and collection lists. Plus password-protected pages will lose their protection, and site search and forms (including file upload and reCAPTCHA) won’t work.

Wix 

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When it comes to exporting code, this is perhaps Wix’s biggest issue for expert web developers and designers. Unfortunately, you cannot export the content of a site easily or simply – there’s no one button you can click to do so. 

Any site created with Wix is built on and hosted on their servers and internal infrastructure. So if you want to port a site, the only way to export the code is to do it manually – and even then, since the code is unique to Wix, it can’t easily be used elsewhere.

Webflow vs Wix: Tools and Features 

The tools and features any website builder offers is crucial to rounding out the experience. These can be tools for marketing including search engine optimization (SEO), performance, social media, and more. Let’s compare:

Webflow 

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Webflow’s SEO tools gives you more advanced options than other website builders. There’s the usual suspects of meta titles and descriptions, alt image tags, and built-in mobile optimization as well as Open Graph information for individual pages (indexing rules, redirects, sitemaps etc.) and automatically-generated sitemaps. Both meta keywords and site-wide meta titles and descriptions are no longer supported.

On top of these SEO options, Webflow provides basic marketing tools. These include tools to create and manage custom forms and also integrate with Google Analytics, Google Optimize, and Facebook Pixel.

To fill any gaps like email marketing, CRM, membership/subscription tools, and more, Webflow’s huge integration library gives you access to a range of 3rd-party options.

Sites on Webflow are backed up automatically, allowing you to restore as far back as the previous two versions. All sites come with free SSL, powered by clean code and fast site speeds.

Wix

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Wix is bursting at the seams with tools and features. They offer an all-in-one marketing and customer management suite called Ascend. They also provide dedicated tools for taking bookings, ticket management, restaurant orders, community forums, hotel management, and more.

Included is a built-in SEO tool with the usual options and the option to connect to Google Analytics. However, these are rudimentary and advanced SEO is more complicated. Sitemaps must be created and submitted manually.

There’s also a separate blog interface where content can be directly managed, including features such as comments, embedded video and audio, categories and tags – useful for non-tech clients. The blog function can also facilitate writing teams with profiles for separate writers as well as blogs with a members’ area.

It’s a basic feature in other ways – you can’t create backdated or private posts, and the design options are minimal.

In terms of performance, Wix made a series of improvements in 2019 (so many that they gave the improvements a name! Wix Turbo) to improve site performance and faster loading times, thanks to increased worldwide data centers, transitioning to server-side rendering (SSR), and using the latest standards in CSS functionality – claiming a 99.9% uptime.

Wix has a useful autosave feature as well as automatically backing up your site. You’ll also receive software updates and new feature releases automatically. When it comes to security, your data is monitored 24/7 with HTTPS and SSL protection as standard, as well as DDoD protection. Wix also conducts extensive hacker testing.

One last thing to note: Wix also has a mobile app so websites and e-commerce shops can be managed and updated on the go, whereas Webflow does not.

Webflow vs Wix: Apps and Integrations

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Webflow

On top of the official Webflow integrations – Google Analytics, Google Maps,  Google Optimize, Facebook Pixel, Webhooks, API Access – there’s a huge selection of popular 3rd-party apps in Webflow’s integration and plugin library which can easily be installed.

Some examples: Shopify, Typeform, Mailchimp, and way, WAY more. Plus, another major difference between Webflow and Wix is that Webflow integrates with Zapier. Automation, baby!

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Wix

Wix also has its own app and integration library in the form of its App Market, with over 250 web apps, services and features for a variety of business and e-commerce needs. 

These include apps made by Wix themselves – tools for taking bookings, creating forums, blogs, event management – as well as popular 3rd-party apps utilizing popular services like Mailchimp, Google ads, Klaviyo, Printful and more. It’s a bit like WordPress in that regard. You can also customize the design of the apps.

The apps are a mix of free and paid premium apps and optimized for mobile. 

Webflow vs Wix: Business and Ecommerce features 

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Webflow 

Webflow provides a strong all-round experience for its business users through its accessibility to the best 3rd-party products and services through integration. That might be automation, email marketing, dropshipping or print-on-demand (POD), and in-depth analytics.

For ecommerce users, Webflow’s simple ecommerce suite comes with many of the standard features. Depending on the plan, you can create unique product variants, sell between 500-3000 physical/digital products, accept payments from 200+ countries via credit card, Stripe, PayPal, Apply Pay and Google Pay (for a 0-2% transaction fee).

Also included are basic inventory management tools. With these you can track orders, manage customer accounts, automatically calculate sales tax and VAT, review order history, run discounts and sales, and connect to forms to build and nurture potential customers.

Wix

Wix is a popular website builder for small-to-medium business users and as such has cultivated a series of robust offerings for businesses – including dedicated ‘Business’ plans, as well as custom enterprise solutions. With the high-level Business VIP plan you get a £75 ad voucher, advanced reporting features, and the standard custom domain. Storage space only goes up to 50gb.

See Wix’s in-depth breakdown of its features targeted at different types of businesses, which include systems for online booking, ticket and event management, taking online orders, managing hotel reservations, solutions for fitness professionals, and monetizing art and content.

For ecommerce users, you need to purchase one of the higher-level “Business” plans to access the ecommerce platform. At all levels, this comes with unlimited products, abandoned cart recovery, and the ability to sell on social channels. Higher-level plans include subscriptions, inclusive 3rd party services for dropshipping, product reviews, and loyalty programs, and multiple currencies. Wix’s payment processing fees vary per region and payment method – note that Wix also charges a processing fee for refunds.

Webflow vs Wix: Pricing 

Both Webflow and Wix have a variety of plans which target different kinds of needs. Let’s compare plans and pricing:

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Webflow

Webflow offers two categories of plans:

1. Site plans: best for content-driven websites and also larger, high-traffic marketing sites such as portfolios.
2. Ecommerce plans: best for powering ecommerce-based businesses. 

Have a read of our in-depth blog post on Webflow pricing for the full breakdown, or use Webflow’s pricing calculator to figure out what will work best for you.

Wix

Wix has 9 subscription plans targeting a variety of different demographics and a clear split between personal websites and websites for business or ecommerce. 

Payments are made through the usual setup of monthly or yearly payments, and you can save up to 30% by purchasing an annual subscription.

Webflow vs Wix: The Summary

So, which one is better? Go through our quick pros and cons of Webflow and Wix below for a final summary:

Pros and Cons 

Which one should you use?

If you’re searching for a website builder with the potential for unique and impressive websites as well as complete design freedom, with the option for a codeless experience, we’re recommending Webflow.

While Wix has some similar capabilities, it has limitations that’ll frustrate pros. Plus, it’s clear that while they also cater to expert web developers and designers, their priority is on users who want a super easy website-building experience.

Webflow vs Wix: Reviews

Hear from some real-life pros and see what they had to say about both platforms:

"Recently came to play around a bit with Webflow and I'm in love. It's so much faster than WIX to build a site and there is something different about the way it renders text, that I've noticed you don't get in WIX unless you use Editor X, which is too confusing for me to pass off to this client."

u/redactedname87 on Reddit

"After using Webflow for 3 years, I'm still learning new tricks. From a designer who doesn't like using code because I'm an extremely visual person, Webflow is a dream come true. I couldn't recommend it more."

"The CMS on the client-side is also very very good. It's fully customizable and straightforward. My clients have found that the On-Page editing is the most convenient for them. The Collections is really easy to explain and the automation of the website is very helpful to clients who want hands off at all times when it comes to design."

u/rustynayler on Reddit

"I recently ported a site from Wix with exactly the same issues. The problem is that Wix containers and font sizing don't play well together. So many of their 'responsive' layouts break when the font is too big (and it doesn't have to be very big). They use a slightly odd method (I can't remember offhand) of setting containers - which then only look right if filled in with exactly the right text. Too long a word or sentence and it falls over."

u/planetofidiots on Reddit

"…Wix continues to become more and more powerful. Some web designers deride the fact that much of Wix is "drag and drop" but powerful tools like Tableau, Photoshop, and Adobe Premiere Elements are also "drag and drop". Plus, Wix Code now exists so base coding can now be encompassed into the website building process."

"Wix professionals exist for a reason because there IS a learning curve included in using Wix. Many people think you can just whip up a good looking Wix website in a matter of 30 minutes but that's just not true."

Posted on Reddit

FAQs

How is Webflow different from Wix?

While Wix is a jack-of-all-trades and appeals to both non-developers and professional web developers, its primary audience is clearly non-tech users. All its main features are designed to make things easy and convenient – and, as a result, it has limitations. Webflow is more like a playground for expert developers and designers, giving you a range of tools to easily create unique websites.

Is Webflow better than Wix?

It depends on you, your client, and your goals. Wix is more consumer-oriented and built for ease of use and convenience, whereas Webflow offers more design freedom, with the caveat of a gentle learning curve.

Does Webflow integrate with Wix?

There are integrations available between Webflow and Wix, for example if you want to transfer your ecommerce store items from Wix to Webflow, you can use Udesly to do so.

What is Webflow’s pricing like compared to Wix?

While the pricing and plan structure is actually quite similar, the level of options on offer vary. Webflow includes a range of dedicated plans to suit every need including content-driven sites, ecommerce business – however they also cater to teams and collaborators with their newly-launched Workspace plans.