Web.com vs. Wix (2024)

Alexandra Anderson

By: Alexandra Anderson

Alexandra Anderson

Alexandra is a web marketer, Agile Product Owner, and die-hard wordsmith who's contributed to HostingAdvice, InMotion Hosting, HostGator, and other prominent hosting and technology blogs, as well as Forbes. She has a master's degree in information technology from Virginia Tech and more than 10 years of experience building websites, advising on web and mobile app design, and crafting content that engages and converts. Her primary subject matter expertise spans WordPress, UX design, Agile project management, and, of course, web hosting.

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Editor: Lillian Castro

Lillian Castro

Lillian brings more than 30 years of editing and journalism experience to our team. She has written and edited for major news organizations, including The Atlanta Journal-Constitution and the New York Times, and she previously served as an adjunct instructor at the University of Florida. Today, she edits HostingAdvice content for clarity, accuracy, and reader engagement.

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Alexandra Anderson Alexandra Anderson Hosting Expert
“We tested Wix & Web.com — The winner is Wix!”

Web.com and Wix are like peanut butter and jelly. They both belong on the website building sandwich, but each company offers a unique flavor profile that appeals to different tastes. Wix is one of the top no-code website builders, best known for its easy-to-use platform and helpful templates. Web.com offers a different kind of perspective on website building. This host focuses heavily on search engine optimization and online marketing. Read on to find out the winner of this taste test.

Overall Rating
4.6/5.0 ★★★★★
Visit Wix »
Overall Rating
4.3/5.0 ★★★★
Visit Web.com »

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Overall Hosting Comparison

Best Overall Rating

★★★★★ 4.6/5.0

As a web builder, Wix is an industry leader when it comes to ease of use, setup time, and available features. The browser-based, WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) site-building service is hands down one of the foremost brands in this industry niche, and that's not without just cause.

Getting started and familiar with the platform is a straightforward process, and the resulting websites you can build are in keeping with industry standards, as far as design and customization go.

While you're not going to get the same level of support as you would from a leading web hosting service, the feature set available and included in this free service is a pretty exhaustive list. All it takes to sign up — and said signup is free — is an email or a Facebook account.

Once you're in, you can preview thousands of templates, which are all broken up into categories and then further classified by design or industry type.

For example, choose the Online Store category with the Clothing & Accessories subcategory to start selling your custom-printed t-shirts. Your garage band can showcase your latest performances and let family and friends know of upcoming shows by utilizing the Music and Band categories.

You can browse the most popular templates and check out the newest additions. Once you've made your pick, you may feel a tad overwhelmed at the interface — but that's only because the functionality exceeds that of your typical drag-and-drop builder.

You can manipulate and edit virtually any facet of your new website, until it perfectly matches the picture in your head.

Finally, get your finished creation noticed by search engines (and the millions of web surfers that they send to websites) using the Wix SEO Wizard. Just tell the Wizard the words or phrases you want people to search for and find your site, and Wix will spit back out a full SEO report — so you know where you stand in terms of relevant visitors being sent to your site.

Wix premium plan customers can also benefit from $300-worth of search engine advertising credits, upping the chances of increased site visitors.

Anyone could find themselves wanting a website at some point in their career or personal life. Whether you're a stay-at-home mom with a creative writing habit to share or a serial entrepreneur ready to profit from your next great idea, you don't want building your own website from scratch to be a strain — on your wallet, your time, or your brain.

With Wix, you can be your own web designer, developer, and marketer. The interface is easy to use and the end designs are up to snuff with industry standards. When it comes to code-free website building, Wix is a leader and an innovator.

  • FREE signup with email or Facebook
  • Drag-and-drop designing is super easy
  • 1-year domain free with most plans
  • Up to $300-worth of ad credits
  • Access to 1,000s of templates and additional tools in the App Market
  • Get started on Wix now.
Money Back Guarantee
14-day FREE trial
Disk Space
2 GB - Unlimited
Domain Name
FREE (1 year)

Best Overall Rating

★★★★ 4.3/5.0

Web.com is known for offering both simple, no-frills hosting plans and a popular website builder. The initial signup rate is very attractive at just under $2; however, the regular rates for the second month and thereafter aren't quite justified by the quality of hardware, support, or commerce features, in our opinion.

A free domain is included with each plan, which is a useful perk; however, the renewal rates are incredibly expensive at $37, so plan to move your site before the year is through. Web.com has a very nice site builder, as well as support for WordPress, Drupal, Joomla, and most other popular open-source scripts.

Furthermore, you can opt to have one of the company's experts design a custom site from scratch for you, which is incredibly appealing to business owners who don't want to get their hands dirty with code.

From domains and SSL certificates to web hosting and social media promotion, Web.com offers full website lifecycle hosting services. Again, just be aware of renewal costs.

  • Frills-free web hosting
  • Support for most coding languages
  • FREE domain with plans
  • Well-known site builder included
  • Special signup rate: $2.95 for your first month of hosting!
  • Get started on Web.com now.
Money Back Guarantee
N/A
Disk Space
300 GB
Domain Name
FREE (1 year)

Cheap Hosting Comparison

Cheap Rating

★★★★★ 4.8/5.0

Wix is known as a web-leading site builder service that's one of the most affordable — because getting started is absolutely free and about as easy as processes get.

You can log in via Facebook or your Gmail account and be editing your new web property within minutes. All but the most basic of plans include a free domain name voucher for your first year of service, and with Wix comes the wealth of templates to be customized within the Wix Editor.

This interface is extremely intuitive, once you take a few minutes to familiarize yourself with it. Once you're comfortable, you'll find yourself dragging and dropping images, text, menus, sliders, and more — all without any code — and feeling like a full-fledged web designer extraordinaire.

All of the template designs are up to the latest industry standards, including parallax layouts, a mobile display editor, and responsive designs, and there are thousands of themes to browse.

If you've read our reviews and seen the multitude of features that can be had for a mere few dollars a month, you've probably realized that Wix is not the cheapest on the list. With Wix, you're paying for the user-friendliness of the no-tech-skills-needed platform, as well as the speed at which you can get your new site up and running.

You're paying for accessibility, so to speak. That doesn't mean you're not getting a lot for the price.

Premium plan holders, in particular, can benefit from $300-worth of ad vouchers, free apps for building forms and boosting your site's SEO status, and even priority support.

Bottom line: There is tremendous value in the offerings of Wix plans. Things like 24/7 expert phone support, stellar uptime rates, and mega-powerful servers are not features they tout, but that's intentional. Wix is an awesome website builder service, and if that's what you're looking for, you've come to the right place.

  • Start designing for FREE
  • FREE domain with most plans
  • Drag-and-drop templates, specific to industry
  • Exhaustive knowledgebase of articles
  • Huge app market available
  • Get started on Wix now.
Money Back Guarantee
14-day FREE trial
Disk Space
2 GB - Unlimited
Domain Name
FREE (1 year)

Cheap Rating

★★★★ 4.3/5.0

The initial signup rate of less than $3 should light up your board, but the regular rates upward of $10 a month make long-term cost a consideration when choosing this web host. These guys are known for code-free simplicity, with a pretty popular website builder. However, compared to other options on the market, the long term cost is just a little high for the features offered.

A free domain name is included in all frills-free hosting and website builder packages; however, long-term cost raises a red flag again. To avoid the $37 renewal rates, just plan on moving your domain before the year's end.

Web.com has a very nice site builder with support for WordPress, Drupal, Joomla, and most other popular open-source scripts. The team offers decent support and reliability. We'd just recommend you be cognizant of rising costs down the road with renewal fees.

  • Free website builder or quote for a custom site build
  • 24/7 support
  • Easy installs for WordPress, Magento, and Joomla
  • Free domain with web hosting plans
  • Pay just $2.95 the first month, then $14.95/month
  • Get started on Web.com now.
Money Back Guarantee
N/A
Disk Space
300 GB
Domain Name
FREE (1 year)

Dedicated Hosting Comparison

Dedicated Rating

N/A

Dedicated Rating

N/A

Neither host currently offers this type of hosting. While we do not recommend choosing these hosts for this web hosting category, we do recommend our expert's top pick for 2024's Best Dedicated Hosting. See 2024's Best Dedicated Hosting »

VPS Hosting Comparison

VPS Rating

N/A

VPS Rating

N/A

Neither host currently offers this type of hosting. While we do not recommend choosing these hosts for this web hosting category, we do recommend our expert's top pick for 2024's Best VPS Hosting. See 2024's Best VPS Hosting »

WordPress Hosting Comparison

WordPress Rating

N/A

WordPress Rating

N/A

Neither host currently offers this type of hosting. While we do not recommend choosing these hosts for this web hosting category, we do recommend our expert's top pick for 2024's Best WordPress Hosting. See 2024's Best WordPress Hosting »

Site Builder Hosting Comparison

Website Builder Rating

★★★★★ 4.9/5.0

#1 out of 9 in Website Builder Hosting reviews

Website building is where Wix shines. The thousands of templates, the intuitive editor, the industry-leading designs that cater to a variety of specific fields and use cases — all these facets represent a platform that excels at facilitating easy web design for the non-tech-savvy user.

Sign up with your Facebook account or email address and get started for free. I'll admit, the Wix Editor may appear daunting when you first meet it, but get to know the interface.

Once you familiarize yourself with the environment, you'll realize that what first comes across as overwhelming is actually empowering — the customization functionalities to be had are many, and they're awesome.

There's no need for coding of any kind. Just drag and drop elements of your new site and BAM: What You See Is What You Get (i.e., Wix is a WYSIWYG website builder!). You don't have to design your website from scratch with Wix, though blank templates are available.

There are thousands of templates, each one categorized by design need and further classified into industry niches, and the site's look can be molded to match your brand or personality very easily.

Layout and design options include parallax themes (where the viewer scrolls down the screen and one page rolls seamlessly into the next), custom sliders, multiple columns, mobile-specific and mobile-responsive displays, and tons of button and menu navigation tricks.

While Wix isn't our favorite host in terms of expert support or top-of-the-line hardware, it's an industry-leading platform for website building.

It's popular for many reasons: the simple startup process, the ease of use, the array of customization options, and the WYSIWYG results, as examples. Its reputation precedes it, and we can totally see where the rave reviews are coming from.

  • No coding skills needed with drag-and-drop builder
  • 100s of templates with niche-specific designs
  • Add features via the App Market and Wix Events
  • Easily create ecommerce functionality easily
  • Great way to build small sites on a budget
  • Get started on Wix now.
Money Back Guarantee
14-day FREE trial
Disk Space
2 GB - Unlimited
Domain Name
FREE (1 year)

Website Builder Rating

★★★★ 4.3/5.0

#7 out of 9 in Website Builder Hosting reviews

Aimed at first-time users and customers seeking simplicity, Web.com offers a very quick and easy solution for getting a website online.

The company's dedicated support staff is great about helping folks without programming experience get their site running and performing as they desire. For those who just want to throw a fairly simple webpage up online, Web.com is fantastic.

Web.com includes a free domain name, which is perfect for first-time site owners. Customers will also be set up with a custom email address matching that new domain for a polished, professional look.

Though aimed at the new-to-hosting crowd, Web.com shouldn't be overlooked by those with a little technical know-how. The hosting plans have unlimited storage and bandwidth, so you have room to grow together as well.

Featuring hundreds of templates and customizable layouts, Web.com has what you need to get a unique, professional site. Thousands of stock images are also at your disposal, so you’ll have no trouble standing out from the crowd.

Finally, the cost of this service is incredibly low and allows you to cancel at any time. Having a great website builder and hosting for such a low price is hard to beat.

  • Dedicated expert support helps you get started
  • Social media scheduling and email marketing
  • 100s of templates for sites, blogs, and online stores
  • Unlimited storage for photos, videos, and music
  • FREE domain name registration
  • Get started on Web.com now.
Money Back Guarantee
N/A
Disk Space
Unlimited
Domain Name
FREE (1 year)
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Wix vs. Web.com - Our Conclusion

Alexandra Anderson Alexandra Anderson Hosting Expert
“We tested Wix & Web.com — The winner is Wix!”

The web host you choose should ultimately depend on your taste preferences. While both companies offer a simple drag-and-drop website builder for newbies, Wix takes the lead in the website building industry, and Web.com fares better for traditional hosting with marketing features. You just need to decide which flavor you like most.

Overall Rating
4.6/5.0 ★★★★★
Visit Wix »
Overall Rating
4.3/5.0 ★★★★
Visit Web.com »

About The Author

Alexandra Anderson’s interest in website administration was sparked in her teens, priming her for a fast-paced career in managing, building, and contributing to online brands, including HostingAdvice, Forbes, and the blogs of prominent hosting providers. She brings firsthand experience reviewing web hosts, perfecting website design, optimizing content, and walking site owners through the steps that add up to a successful online presence. With a master's degree in information technology from Virginia Tech, she combines her extensive writing experience and technical understanding to unpack some of the most complex topics that daunt novice website owners, as well as the subjects that excite veteran technologists within the HostingAdvice readership.
Alexandra Anderson