Website hosting is provided by a website host and simply refers to keeping a website online and visible on the world wide web.
When you build a website on WiX, they also provide the hosting. This is free of charge if you choose to have a sub domain of WiX (so that you website might appear as www.example.wix.com/businessname). Most businesses, however, wish to attach their own custom domain name to their website for branding purposes and so that they can take advantage of SEO and get seen in search engines like Google. In this instance, the WiX user would purchase one of WiX's premium packages which allows customisations and more optons than the free hosting that is provided by default.
WiX is not the only platform that people can choose for their website of course. Other website builder platforms like Shopify, Squarespace, Weebly, Thinkific, Teachable and others offer their own hosting too.
Then there are open source platforms like Wordpress. Wordpress.org is free, open-source software that you can install on to your web hosting service to build a website. You will need to source your own hosting provider to make a Wordpress website of cours and will need to ensure that you find a fast host with good customer service, website backups and more.
Wordpress websites are purported to make up around 42.6% of all websites on the internet (https://w3techs.com/technologies/details/cm-wordpress) whilst WiX websites make up around 1.8% (https://w3techs./techcomnologies/details/cm-wix)
Could over 40% of all of the website owners and builders in the world be wrong when they trust open-source websites (and therefore hosting companies like Siteground)? Maybe WiX users are on to a good thing and the numbers of users is climbing; just at a slower rate than Wordpress. Pack mentality can be a powerful thing.
WIX HOSTING VS SITEGROUND
I use several platforms for website projects. WiX is an old, trusted friend of mine and I have built over 250 websites on this platform from micro businesses up to international corporations. I also build websites on Wordpress and have a hosting account with Siteground. I have a GoGeek account which offer the highest levels of... well... everything!
I did a lot of research on hosting packages and hosting providers before settling on Siteground to provide hosting for my clients. Some would argue that Siteground provide the best hosting for Wordpress websites. Trustpilot UK gives then a review rating of 4.7/5 based on 9,325 reviews (CLICK HERE to see - figures correct as of 4th Oct 2021)
So which one is better for hosting a website?
Here is a run down of the GoGeek option from Siteground and how WiX shapes up:
SITEGROUND | WiX | NOTES |
|---|---|---|
Unlimited sites for £95.88 year one / £359.99 thereafter | First level package for non-WiX branded website is Combo at £78+vat per year per website | Siteground best for multisites/ agencies. WiX best for smaller businesses |
40GB per website | Up to 50GB but only on the very top level | Siteground is usually better for space per website |
c. 100,000 visitors pcm | unlimited visitors | Not much in this really. Siteground can be extended if required |
Unmetered traffic | Unlimited bandwidth | Both hosts allow as much traffic as required |
Free WP installation | WiX builder is a cloud based system | Both WiX & Siteground offer free builder software |
Free WP Migrator | Sites can be transferred between WiX accounts for free | WiX transfers are a click of a button. But you can't export/ import a site from/ to another builder. |
Wordpress auto-updates | WiX updates its platform automatically | Neck and neck on this one. |
Free SSL | Free SSL on all premium plans | Similar set up and products here too. |
Daily Backups | WiX autosaves historic editions | Both platforms provide ample backup |
Free CDN | WiX CDN | For those sites with global audiences - CDN on both here! |
Free Email | Google Business Email at extra cost | Siteground win here. |
WP-CLI & SSH | WiX manage all of this stuff | Would you know about this stuff anyway? both platforms sort it so all good! |
Out-of-the-box caching | Most sites are auto cached from the first visit | Caching for both for site loading speeds. HOWEVER, siteground do offer Supercaching... |
Unlimited databases | Unlimited databases | It's a draw here |
100% renewable energy match | No green energy from what I have researched | Siteground for sustainability. |
30 day money back guarantee | 14 day money back guarantee | Siteground offer more here but both are ample allowances |
Add collaborators | Add editors at varying levels | WiX probably allow more control over editor levels |
On demand back up copies | WiX hold historic versions of sites | Both platforms have ample allowance for site backup although Siteground offer backup files that can be used elsewhere |
Ultrafast PHP | HTML & Javascript | General consensus is that Siteground WP sites would be faster than their WiX counterpart |
Staging & GIT | WiX feedback area | Different ways to achieve the same thing. |
Highest tier of resources | Priority support available for WiX partners & Agencies | Siteground support more readily available. WiX support better for agency set up |
White label for clients | White label for agencies | White label options added for both |
Affiliate option | Affiliate option | Both platforms offer affiliate options |
THE VERDICT
Each platform have their own benefits that will carry more importance depending on the type of website and the type of person who owns and manages that website. Whilst both Siteground and WiX offer robust platforms with an excellent team working hard in the background, the key difference is that a WiX website owner is always going to be a WiX website owner due to the closed system and self hosted nature of WiX. A Wordpress site can be hosted with a variety of providers. That said, in 7 years of designing sites using WiX, I have never had any big problems with their hosting and technical errors or glitches do get resolved satisfactorily. That said, I run a WiX Partner Agency so I get priority support; the end user has to pay for the right package to get that.
Siteground does offer more options to change how a website that is hosted on it's servers loads and I would argue that it is usually possible to speed up a Wordpress site hosted on Siteground to be faster than a WiX hosted site. I say 'usually' because only this week I completed an SEO project for a client and ran his WiX website through Googles Pagespeed Insights tool to achieve a 95% score for desktop.
I managed to surprise myself a bit there, I can tell you!
Whilst I could say that Siteground is probably more versatile and powerful, there are just too many factors to consider when it comes to owning and managing a website. Hosting and SEO are important, but it would be remiss to overlook the ease of use of the website platform, CRM, and other factors when choosing the right platform for your wesbite.
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