WordPress or Wix Studio: why we now recommend WordPress more often

A year ago, if you had asked us which platform is faster, we would have answered without thinking: Wix Studio. Today the answer is the opposite. We build a WordPress site faster, because AI does a large share of the routine work, directed and checked by a person. But fast development does not mean WordPress suits everyone. It has a cost, and you pay it not on launch day but every month after. We work with both platforms, so here is exactly what we tell clients in meetings.

The short answer

If you need the site quickly and it will have many subpages, its own logic or integrations with other systems, we recommend WordPress. On one condition: someone will look after it regularly. If you do not want to think about updates, servers and security, and it matters that you can edit everything visually yourself, choose Wix Studio. Development will take a little longer, but after launch the site will need less attention.

Why we changed our recommendation

A WordPress theme is code, and AI is very good with code. Once the design in Figma is approved, we describe the site structure, and AI prepares the templates, the content fields for the admin panel, the sections and even the first content import. A developer reads, corrects and tests every step. What used to take a week now takes a few days. The page you are reading right now was built exactly this way.

An important note: we are not the kind of studio that asks AI to “make a website” and hands the client whatever comes out. AI writes the draft, people make the decisions. Architecture, design and security are still set by experienced people.

Wix Studio is a visual editor. There is no code for AI to write, and in our experience there is currently no reliable way to connect AI and have it build the site structure. We lay out every section and every tablet and phone layout by hand. The result can be just as beautiful, but it takes more time.

What AI can do on a Wix Studio site

Wix Studio is not completely without AI either. Where the work is about content rather than layout, it helps a lot:

• prepares and publishes blog articles;
• fills CMS collections, such as services, projects or the team;
• checks SEO: headings, meta descriptions, image alt texts and internal links;
• prepares a redirect list when a site moves from another platform;
• helps with texts in several languages.

But the site itself, its sections and how they look on a phone are still built by a person in the Wix Studio editor. That is where most of the development time goes.

Point-by-point comparison

Criterion	WordPress	Wix Studio
Development speed	Faster: AI prepares the structure and templates, a developer checks them	Slower: we build the layout by hand in the editor
Maintenance after launch	Regular: updates, backups, security, monitoring	Minimal: Wix takes care of it
Server	Your own hosting, from 80 € + VAT per year	Included in the Wix plan
Editing content	In the admin panel, in prepared fields	Visually, directly on the page
Features and integrations	Practically unlimited	Within the platform’s limits
Use of AI	Throughout the process: structure, code, content	For content: articles, SEO, CMS data
Moving the site	To any server	The site stays on Wix

WordPress: what you get and what you pay for

Benefits

• Faster development. With AI, the structure, templates and fields are ready in days, not weeks.
• The site belongs to you. The code and data are yours, and you can change servers at any time.
• No ceiling. A calculator, bookings, CRM, warehouse, several languages: everything is possible, not “if the platform allows it”.
• Speed and clean code. A well-built WordPress site loads very fast, and we control every line of structured data that Google and AI search engines read.
• Safe content editing. The admin panel has exactly the fields your content needs, so editing a text will not break the design.

Drawbacks

• Needs regular maintenance. Updates, backups, security monitoring. Without them, the site gradually becomes a risk.
• A popular target. WordPress powers a large part of the internet, so bots check it first. They find outdated plugins quickly.
• The server is paid separately. You pay for hosting yourself, from 80 € + VAT per year.
• Quality depends on the developer. A site with 40 plugins and a heavy page builder can be slow and fragile from day one.

What “regular maintenance” actually means

To many people this sounds abstract, so let us be specific. On a well-maintained WordPress site:

• the WordPress core, plugins and theme are updated once a month, and security fixes are applied as soon as they are released;
• after each update, someone opens the site and checks that the form, the menu and the main pages work;
• backups are made automatically, stored off the server, and every so often someone checks that the site can really be restored from them;
• the server’s PHP version is upgraded to a supported one in good time;
• site availability and suspicious login attempts are monitored automatically.

It is not a lot of work, usually a few hours a month. But it has to be done every month, not when something has already broken. We can do it for you, for example as part of the marketing subscription, or your IT person can.

Wix Studio: what you gain and what you give up

Benefits

• Nothing to maintain. The server, updates, security and SSL are handled by Wix. The site will not break just because nobody has logged in for three months.
• You edit what you see. You change a text, photo or price directly on the page, not in a panel.
• A lot is already built in. Forms, a blog, bookings, a simple store and email campaigns work without extra plugins.
• A stable result. It is one platform, and its parts do not conflict with each other.

Drawbacks

• Slower development. We build the layout by hand, so a larger site means more hours.
• You cannot take the site with you. If you ever want to leave Wix, the site will have to be rebuilt from scratch.
• Platform limits. Complex integrations, B2B pricing or non-standard logic quickly run into what Wix allows.
• The Wix plan. You pay a Wix subscription, and its price is set by Wix, not by you.

We explain who Wix Studio suits best in a separate article: when Wix Studio is the best choice for a website.

Example: two companies, one week

Imagine two companies that come to us in the same week. They are made up, but we have conversations like these all the time.

The first is a roofing company from the Riga area. The season starts in three weeks, and the owner wants a site where every service has its own page, every municipality has its own note about call-outs, and a simple calculator shows an approximate price from the roof area. Around 25 pages in total. Here we choose WordPress. Once the design is approved, AI prepares the structure, templates and calculator in a few days, and a developer checks them and puts them together with the design. The site is ready before the season. The owner hands maintenance over to us, because he does not want to think about plugin versions himself.

The second is a physiotherapist with her own practice. She needs six pages, online booking and the ability to change her opening hours before the holidays or add a new photo herself. She has no IT person and wants to spend as little time at the computer as possible. Here the best choice is Wix Studio. Development takes a few days longer, but after launch she calls us only when she wants something new, not because something needs updating. We help prepare blog articles and SEO checks with AI.

There is also a third story, which unfortunately we hear often. A WordPress site was built four years ago, and nobody has updated it since. One morning, suspicious links to unknown websites appear in Google results under the company name, because foreign code was injected through an old plugin. Cleaning up and restoring the site often costs more than a year of proper maintenance. The platform is not to blame here. The problem is that nobody looked after the site.

How to choose in five minutes

• You need the site quickly, and it will have many subpages: WordPress
• You need a calculator or an integration with a CRM, warehouse or accounting: WordPress
• Someone will maintain the site regularly, us or your IT: WordPress
• You do not want to think about updates and servers at all: Wix Studio
• You want to change everything visually yourself, without an admin panel: Wix Studio
• Up to 10 pages that rarely change: both work, the deciding factor is who will maintain it

How much it costs

Our development price for both platforms starts from 600 € + VAT for a simple website. For larger projects, we price according to the specification. The difference is in what you pay after launch:

• WordPress: hosting from 80 € + VAT per year and maintenance, which you do yourself or entrust to us;
• Wix Studio: the Wix plan, which you pay directly to Wix, but no maintenance is needed.

If you already have a site and are not sure it is in good shape, start with an audit. If you want a new one, see how we work on website development.

What to ask a developer before you choose

• Who will update the WordPress core and plugins, and how often?
• How many plugins will the site have, and why is each one needed?
• Where are the backups stored, and how quickly can the site be restored?
• Who will own the domain, the hosting account or the Wix account?
• What happens if you want to change developers?

If the answers are evasive, the problem is not the platform. We always register the domain and accounts in the client’s name, so the site stays yours, whatever happens to our cooperation.

Frequently asked questions