It would be difficult for any website building platform to overshadow the popularity of WordPress. But the closest to doing that right now is Wix. With its drag-and-drop editor, free plan, and app marketplace, Wix is the place on the web to create your first website if you want it to be an enjoyable and hassle-free experience.
But here’s the thing: WordPress doesn’t dominate the market for no reason. That’s more than enough, and you’re guaranteed to ask yourself at least once if you’ve ever made the switch from Wix to WordPress. When the answer is “yes”, you should be prepared for what awaits you.
And that’s why you’re here. In this article, we will show you:
If you’re looking for an easy way to get your first website up and running, website builders like Wix are just what you need. Wix, for example, will greatly simplify the process. Its editor allows you to navigate through the real elements of your website and gives you the kind of user experience that neither the Classic editor nor Gutenberg can match.
But you don’t even have to deal with the editor if you don’t want to. You can create one or all of the free websites Wix lets you create by answering a series of questions and making a few choices.. So it really can’t make building a good looking website any easier.
However, while it is geared towards being user-friendly and providing a great user experience, Wix is a website that lacks many of the features that make WordPress the exciting CMS it is, especially the community that comes with WordPress.
The contrast can be seen especially when you look at the number of templates you can use to build a Wix website.This is significantly less than the number of WordPress themes you can use to customize a WordPress website. The difference is also visible on the Wix’ App Market. Wix offers a curated selection of plugins that will work fine once you install them. But their low number almost guarantees that they won’t cover all the features and functionality you can get using WordPress plugins.
The difference really lies in its core offerings: Wix is a website builder for those who want to get their website up and running with some customization options. WordPress is for people who want more and are willing to take the time to create just the kind of website they want. Even if that means they will have to rely on trial and error. And once you start to feel like you belong in the second camp, you’ll have all the reasons you need to switch to WordPress.
The main item on your pre-migration itinerary should be getting a WordPress website. Wix is a hosted website builder — you use it to build a website, but it also takes care of hosting. It’s all part of the charm of service. WordPress is a content management system. Needs a server to install.
Although your computer can work as a server, it’s usually a much better idea to choose a web hosting service. Shop around until you find one that works best for you and ideally offers services like one-click WordPress installation.. The most popular hosts include: blue host, SiteGround, DreamHost, Hostingerand HostGator.
If your domain is still registered with Wix and you don’t want to use a new one, your host can assist you in addition to installing WordPress. While you transfer and your Wix website is online, your WordPress website can exist with a temporary domain name — your server will likely help you set one up.
Finally, spending some time searching for a theme for your website will help.. As you’ll soon see, you’re going to be doing a lot of page creation, so choosing a WordPress theme that fits your vision for your website will save you a lot of time.
Some hosted website builders make it incredibly easy to migrate your content to WordPress. WordPress.com, the hosted version of WordPress, allows you to export your content in a file ready for import on your new website, making the transition to self-hosted WordPress incredibly easy.
Other hosted options like Medium require a little more effort.. When migrating from Medium to WordPress, you need to rely on a third-party tool to make the whole process go smoothly. But this is a free tool and works well. The procedure will not cause you much trouble.
Wix, on the other hand, does nothing to ease the transition.. It does not give you a built-in content export option. You can’t download any website images unless they belong to you, and you can’t even save the pages of your website on your computer.
There is a workaround that can help you automate some parts of the process, but it doesn’t work all the time. We’ll let you know what it is and how to use it, and you’ll be happy to try it. But you should understand that the only reliable way to switch from Wix to WordPress is to manually migrate all your content..
This means copying the text content of each page and post, creating equivalent pages and posts on your website, and pasting the content into them.. As for images, you can save yours to a hard drive and then upload them to your WordPress website. Any page layouts you create will need to be rebuilt from scratch on the WordPress website. Choosing a good theme will help a lot here. So does contracting a third-party service to handle the migration for you.
The most recommended workaround for migrating your posts from Wix to WordPress is to add your posts to your website’s RSS feed and then import the feed into WordPress. The method is not without drawbacks. It doesn’t work on pages. Sometimes it doesn’t work at all. Wix’s RSS feeds are limited to your 20 most recent posts. But if you want to try it, here’s how to do it — even if you have a new Wix blog and you’re sure it doesn’t support RSS. Like that.
First, you need to link your blog to an RSS feed. This part is as simple as adding an RSS button anywhere on your Wix website. From the Wix Editor, navigate to: Insert > Blog > RSS Buttonchoose the one you like and place it in the header of the website for example.
Next, you must log out of Wix, go to your website like a normal visitor and click the RSS button. The feed will open in your browser. Right click anywhere on the page and save as an XML file.
Now go to the backend of your WordPress website. go Tools > Import and find the RSS importer. If you haven’t installed it yet, you can do so now by clicking the “Install Now” button.
After installing, run the importer and use it to upload the XML file to your WordPress website. You should be able to access the article in the feed. If some are missing, try deleting the uploads from the XML file and reinstalling.
If this method worked, you can try using a plugin to automatically retrieve images from your posts. Auto Upload Pictures Wix is a handy plugin that will scan your website only to retrieve images and upload them to your WordPress website’s media gallery. Be sure to double-check your images after running the plugin as you may need to manually add the missing photos.
One way or another, you will eventually transfer all your content from your Wix website to your new WordPress website. Once the process is complete, you’ll want to test your site for any content or design-related issues and deal with them.
At this point, if you’re changing links on your old site, you might also consider setting up 301 redirects to your new website. Changing the naming convention of posts is a common reason to set up 301 redirects.
Finally, you must register your custom domain with your new host.. Go to Wix and click on your profile name and select “Remove from Wix” which you will find after clicking “Show More” under “Domains” in the drop-down menu. Wix will send a code to your email and you will need to provide this code to your WordPress server to prove ownership of your website.
final thoughts
Website migration is never fun. But when there are major hurdles for you to jump over, switching from Wix to WordPress will present a lot of hurdles.
Still, if you arm yourself with the spare time and patience or buy the services of people who have both, there’s no reason not to migrate your website from Wix to WordPress. In the meantime, you can take the opportunity to redesign the site, maybe switch to a different color palette and change the page layouts. You’ll have to build them all from scratch anyway.
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