Wix vs Google Sites: Which is Better?

Wix is the world-popular website builder, which provides powerful design customization features and tools out-of-the-box. The platform is quite easy to master and use both by newbies and professionals. It’s a perfect pick for the development of all types of web projects, be it a portfolio, a small business website, a web store, a blog, a landing page, a promo site, or any other website.

The website builder was founded in 2006, and it has quickly won the attention of millions of web designers around the world. Currently, the number of paid Wix subscriptions has reached over 3.8 million, while the general number of the system sign-ups has increased up to 147 million, and it keeps growing with every passing month.

Wix is a freemium website builder. It allows using its free unlimited plan to explore and test the system for as long as you need that. As soon as you make sure that the website builder comes up to your needs and requirements, you’ll need to upgrade to one of the paid subscriptions the system offers. This is a must if you intend to start a feature-laden website and go live with it. Fortunately, the selection of Wix plans is quite versatile, and you have several options to choose from.

Google Sites

 
Google Sites is a free DIY cloud website builder, which lets you create simple web projects for personal everyday use. The system can easily be mastered even by those users, who don’t have any web design background – so intuitive and understandable it is. With Google Sites, you can create ordinary projects like school sites, intranets, portfolios, event projects, etc. If you need a more feature-laden website, then it’s better to give preference to another platform.

When it comes to templates, Wix clearly has a leg-up on Google Sites. Not only does Wix make it easy to choose the perfect template by separating them into five categories (Business & Services, Store, Creative, Community, and Blog), it also takes it a step further by adding helpful tabs within each category. With Google Sites templates you can customize the color, layout, and typography of your Google Site template, so at least it won’t be identical to thousands of other websites on the web.

Design and Flexibility

Wix and Google Sites allow creating quality web projects, but the systems utilize diverse approaches to the web design process. They also come with versatile integrated functionality, including diverse features and tools that can be used on all the stages of website development. To define the platform that has more to offer in terms of design and flexibility, let’s have a look at their common and distinctive parameters now.

When assessing the two solutions, reviewers found Google Sites easier to use and do business with overall. However, reviewers felt that Wix is easier to set up. Both products were equally easy to administer.

Google Sites and Wix both meet the requirements of our reviewers at a comparable rate.When comparing the quality of ongoing product support, reviewers felt that Google Sites is the preferred option.

When assessing product direction, Google Sites and Wix received similar ratings from our reviewers.

eCommerce and Blogging and Portfolio

Wix comes with powerful eCommerce and blogging engines. Thus, the website builder makes it possible to launch and manage online stores (both small and medium) and blogs. It’s up to you to adjust the parameters of these websites based on your needs and requirements. Among the parameters you can set up for your online store, it makes sense to mention the creation/management of product galleries, adjustment of show window display options, the introduction of special offers/discounts, customization of eCommerce templates, order/web store management, etc.

As to blog features, you can write, add, edit and update blog posts. Future scheduling feature is available here as well. Additionally, you can integrate social media options, enable Facebook/user commenting feature, select and customizable blog templates, set up SEO parameters.

Ecommerce and Blogging

 
Google Sites doesn’t have blogging and eCommerce engines at all and, thus, it is impossible to start a blog or a web store with this website builder. The only thing you can do, if you have an intention to start a news portal or an informational project with the system, is to select a blank template and customize it from scratch, submitting the content you wish to be posted there. Another aspect to keep in mind is that Google Sites also works great for designing internal and intranet websites. This service ideally works for team work on project development.

Wix allows starting and managing quality online stores. The integrated feature set and customization options of the service do not allow creating hypermarkets with it, but it’s possible to start small and medium eCommerce projects with the system. This can be done via the connection of Wix Stores widget that allows integrating a shopping cart and setting up other web store parameters. When browsing the App Market, you can also come across useful eCommerce-related widgets. 

They will come in handy to you, when you decide to set up and track your web store analytics, sell physical and digital products, implement special offers and discounts, create show windows, adjust order/web store management parameters etc (see examples of live Wix eCommerce websites).

Google Sites doesn’t have an integrated eCommerce engine. Thus, starting a web store with the website builder is not possible as the feature set of the system is not geared towards this purpose at all.

Wix Functionalities

 
Wix functionality and flexibility make it a nice solution for portfolio creation. The website builder lets you present your creative services/works to the target audience in the most favorable light. It can be effectively used by artists, photographers, models and other creatives, who intend to showcase their talents and build a customer base. Wix grants access to the category of portfolio templates. 

They belong to various niches (themes for photographers, creatives, artists, graphic and web designers, models, stylists, beauty experts, musicians, art directors, journalists, resumes, business consultants etc.) and can be customized as you need. The templates are mobile-ready by default, which makes them viewable on mobile devices. Wix also allows connecting a blog to your portfolio to stay in touch with users. Additionally, there is an opportunity to design image galleries and create slideshows here. Wix comes with HD video hosting, user testimonials, integrated eCommerce engine and SEO Wiz tool for effective portfolio promotion.

Google Sites lags behind Wix in terms of portfolio development. However, it is still possible to start this type of website with the platform. When you get to the dashboard, you will find a portfolio template to be chosen for further customization. What you need to do is to customize it, filling out the required sections and fields. 

These include portfolio title/your name, contacts, description of your activity/work etc. What’s important, you will also need to upload your works or create a project (or several of them) to showcase your works to the target audience. Integrating extra widgets/extensions will also be a great bonus for your portfolio design and promotion.

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