Wix vs WordPress Pricing: The Stack and the Exit Are the Comparison

Wix vs WordPress pricing is usually compared as $29 against $0 — and that comparison is wrong twice: WordPress the software is free but a WordPress site is a stack, and Wix's flat price hides a rebuild bill if you ever leave. Run your site through our free Wix vs WordPress cost calculator: on Wix Core at $29 with WordPress hosting $25, DIY maintenance, a $75 theme, $120 plugins a year and a $15 domain, annual billing, Wix costs $348 in year 1 and WordPress costs $510 — but with $50-a-month maintenance, WordPress costs $92.50 a month and the gap widens to $63.50.

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Why Subscription Prices Lie

Wix Core lists at $29 a month; WordPress itself is free. A subscription comparison reports Wix at $29 and WordPress at $0 and stops there — and it is wrong, because nobody buys WordPress the software; they buy a WordPress site, which is hosting plus maintenance plus a theme plus plugins plus a domain. The calculator totals the whole stack, which is what finance approves.

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Wix's Pricing, Line by Line

Wix on annual billing, October 2026 list: Light $17, Core $29, Business $39, Business Elite $159 a month. Core is the everyday business tier; Light the brochure tier; Business and Business Elite the commerce tiers. Every tier includes hosting, SSL, templates and support in the one bill. Wix's strength is simplicity — one bill, one support line, no updates to run — and its weakness is portability: the design does not export, so leaving means rebuilding.

WordPress's Pricing, Line by Line

WordPress the software costs $0. The stack around it: hosting $3–$15 shared, $20–$50 managed, $100+ for a busy store; premium plugins $0–$100+ a month depending on SEO, forms, security, backups and page-builder licences; a premium theme typically $75 one-time; a domain typically $15 a year; maintenance $0 DIY or $50–$200 a month for an agency care plan. The defaults in the calculator — hosting $25, maintenance $0, theme $75, plugins $120 a year, domain $15 — total $42.50 a month, and maintenance alone moves that number more than any other line.

Maintenance: The Line That Flips It

At $0 DIY maintenance, WordPress costs $42.50 against Wix Core at $29 — a $13.50 gap, $336 over 3 years. At $50 maintenance, WordPress costs $92.50 — a $63.50 gap, $2,286 over 3 years. The maintenance decision is worth more than the hosting and plugin decisions combined, and it is the line most comparisons omit entirely. Price your real maintenance before deciding, not your hoped-for maintenance.

Renewals: The Quiet Compounding

Hosting renews, plugin licences renew, the domain renews, and the theme is one-time. The 3-year total on defaults ($1,380) charges plugins and domain three times and the theme once, which is how renewals actually bill. A calculator that spreads everything evenly understates years 2 and 3; a buyer who budgets the launch price and forgets renewals is surprised every January. On Wix, the renewal question is simpler — the plan price renews — but the plan itself reprices over time, so the flat price is flat only until the next price change.

The Rebuild-to-Leave Exit Cost

A Wix site cannot be exported to another platform: the design, the layout and the Wix apps stay behind, so leaving means rebuilding from scratch — a cost measured in weeks or in agency fees, not in the monthly column. A WordPress site moves: the code, the content and the database export to any host. That portability is worth pricing into the decision even though it is not a monthly fee: a site you may outgrow carries a future rebuild bill on Wix that it does not carry on WordPress.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is Wix or WordPress cheaper? Wix, on the defaults: $29 against a $42.50 WordPress monthly equivalent, $348 against $510 in year 1. Why is WordPress more expensive if it is free? Because the stack — hosting, plugins, theme, domain, maintenance — is the bill, not the software. Does Wix really cost just $29? For the subscription, yes, but not the rebuild if you leave. When is WordPress worth it? When the site needs functionality Wix lacks, or full ownership of code and data. What if I use cheap hosting and DIY maintenance? Then WordPress wins: $4 hosting with the rest at defaults is $21.50 a month, $7.50 under Wix Core.

When Each One Wins (and When to Run the Numbers Again)

Wix wins on subscription price at every maintenance level except cheap-hosting-plus-DIY, and wins on simplicity. WordPress wins on control and portability — custom functionality, data ownership, no rebuild-to-leave penalty. The deciding factors in order: your maintenance reality, your hosting and plugin needs, whether you sell (and at what transaction volume), and whether you may outgrow the platform. Re-run the numbers when your care plan changes, when plugin licences renew, and whenever Wix reprices.