Both can run a fast small business website that does well in search. The real difference is who keeps the site running and what you can change on your own. WordPress is open-source software you can host almost anywhere, with a plugin for nearly everything and a page editor you control, but someone has to keep the core, theme and plugins updated. Wix Headless keeps Wix’s business tools (store, bookings, forms, members, blog) and hosting, with custom-coded pages on top. That means less upkeep, and layout changes go through a developer.
We build on Wix Headless, so read this with that in mind. We’ve tried to be fair, including about when WordPress is the better pick. Our Wix Headless development page covers how we set up those projects.
The short version
| Question | WordPress (self-hosted) | Wix Headless (Wix-hosted) |
|---|---|---|
| Who updates the software | You or your host: core, theme and each plugin | Wix runs the business apps and hosting. Your developer keeps the site’s code current |
| How features get added | Install a plugin | Use a Wix app, or build it in code |
| Who edits text and products | You, in WordPress | You, in the Wix dashboard |
| Who edits page layouts | You, in the block editor or a page builder | A developer |
| Where it can run | Almost any host | Wix’s hosting, or your own host on a self-managed setup |
| Leaving later | Export to another WordPress host | Pages are code you can keep; data exports in parts |
Who runs updates and security
WordPress. WordPress’s upgrade guide says minor core updates, such as maintenance and security releases, install automatically by default. New installs since WordPress 5.6 also get major releases automatically. Plugins and themes are different. Since WordPress 5.5, an administrator can opt in to auto-updates plugin by plugin and theme by theme. WordPress’s own advice is to always update plugins and themes to keep the site secure, and to keep backups you can roll back to.
“WordPress” can also mean WordPress.com, the hosted service, which says updates, backups and SSL are handled automatically. Many hosts sell managed WordPress plans too. Read exactly what yours covers.
Wix Headless. On Wix-managed headless, Wix hosts, deploys and runs the front end on its own infrastructure, including a global CDN. Checkout, payments, forms and member logins are Wix services, so Wix maintains them. What’s left is the site’s own code: the framework and packages the pages are built with. Someone still has to update and test those, but it’s one codebase, not a stack of plugins from different makers. On a self-managed setup, you also take on hosting.
Plugins vs built-in business apps
WordPress’s strength is choice. If a feature exists, there’s probably a plugin for it. Each plugin has its own maker, update schedule and quality, and two plugins can conflict. When a WordPress site gets slow or breaks after an update, plugins are the first place to look.
Wix Headless works the other way. The business features come from Wix’s own apps, which Wix lists as supported on headless: Stores, Bookings, Blog, CMS, Forms, Members Area, Events & Tickets, Pricing Plans and more, plus a list of App Market apps. The same page lists apps that don’t work on a headless front end, including some of Wix’s own, such as its Reviews App, Loyalty Program and Groups. Anything not on the list is built in code.
Before choosing, write down every feature your site needs and check each one against both. If one feature only exists as a WordPress plugin, that may decide it.
Editing content day to day
On WordPress, you edit text and layouts yourself in the block editor or a page builder. Move a section, add a banner, start a new page: no developer needed.
On Wix Headless, you edit content in the Wix dashboard: products, prices, blog posts, CMS items such as team bios or FAQs, form submissions and orders. The pages read that content from Wix, so changes show up without a developer. Layouts are code, so a new kind of section or a rearranged page is a developer job.
If you rearrange your pages every week, that difference matters more than anything else on this page.
Speed
Neither platform is fast or slow by default. A WordPress site’s speed depends on its host, its theme, any page builder and how many plugins load on each page. A custom front end depends on how it was built. Ours use Astro, which sends plain HTML and only the scripts a page needs, but a careless build on any platform can still be slow.
Measure rather than guess. Test your current site in PageSpeed Insights on the mobile setting, and compare against Google’s Core Web Vitals targets: Largest Contentful Paint of 2.5 seconds or less, Interaction to Next Paint under 200 milliseconds and Cumulative Layout Shift under 0.1. If your WordPress site already passes on its key pages, speed alone isn’t a reason to move.
Costs to expect
We won’t quote either platform’s prices here, because they change. Check the current pages: Wix premium plans, WordPress.com pricing, and hosts that WordPress.org lists. What to budget for:
WordPress:
- Hosting, plus a domain
- Premium themes and plugins, if you use them (check whether each is a one-time or yearly payment)
- Someone’s time for updates, backups and fixing what an update breaks
- Payment processing fees, if you sell online
Wix Headless:
- A Wix premium plan. Wix says headless is free to start, but payments and a custom domain need a premium plan
- Building the custom pages (our websites start at $5,000)
- Someone’s time to update and test the site’s code
- Payment processing fees, if you sell online
Put a full year of each on one sheet. The upfront build is only part of the comparison.
Lock-in and moving away later
WordPress is released under the GPLv2 (or later) license, and a WordPress site can move between hosts. Its export tool creates a file with your posts, pages, comments, custom fields, categories, tags and users, which another WordPress site can import. Your theme, plugins and settings aren’t in that list, so plan to set those up again.
Wix Headless splits in two. The custom pages are code. If your contract says the code is yours, it can go to another developer, and Wix’s self-managed option lets the front end run on another host while Wix stays the back end. Your products, orders, members and bookings live in your Wix account. Leaving Wix completely means exporting data in parts and rebuilding what doesn’t export. Our guide on how to move a Wix site to another host lists what comes out as a file and what doesn’t.
Whichever you pick, keep the domain, hosting and platform accounts in your business’s name.
When WordPress is the better choice
- Your current site is quick, its plugins are current, and someone dependable keeps it that way
- You rely on a plugin with no real match on Wix, such as a large course platform, a forum or a complex directory
- You want to change page layouts yourself, often
- Your writers depend on WordPress’s editorial setup, with many authors and review steps
- Being able to take the whole site to any host matters more to you than lower upkeep
When Wix Headless is the better choice
- You want Wix’s dashboard for orders, bookings, forms and members, without plugins to keep current
- You need a store, booking system or member area that works well out of the box, behind pages designed for your business
- You want full control of titles, structured data and redirects, without a plugin in between
- Nobody on staff wants to own plugin updates
Moving from WordPress to Wix Headless
Wix has a WordPress migration path for headless projects. Wix marks it as Developer Preview, so test it on a copy. However content gets moved, the parts that protect your search traffic are the same: every old WordPress address mapped to a 301 redirect, page titles and descriptions carried over, and forms rebuilt and tested. Our WordPress migration page explains how we handle that move.
How we can help
Moving sites off WordPress is part of our work, and staying put is sometimes the right call. If you’re weighing the two, make the feature list from the plugins section first, with a screenshot of your plugin list, since that’s what decides most of these comparisons. Then send it with your site’s address through our contact page, or read how we build on Wix Headless.
