Webflow vs. Wix: What's the Difference?

Webflow and Wix both enable users to create websites without extensive coding knowledge, but there are significant differences between these two popular website builders.

Webflow vs. Wix: An Overview

Together, Webflow and Wix have transformed the website creation landscape, making it possible for individuals and businesses of all sizes to establish an online presence without traditional web development expertise.

Webflow and Wix work by providing visual interfaces that allow users to design and build websites without writing code. This democratizes web design and development, enabling entrepreneurs, creatives, and businesses to create professional websites regardless of their technical background. If you're looking to build a website, both platforms offer tools to design, publish, and maintain your site with varying approaches to flexibility and ease of use.

But while these website builders share some fundamental purposes, they differ in important ways that can affect your workflow, creative control, and site performance. Webflow typically caters to designers and professionals seeking more customization and control over their websites. Meanwhile, Wix has established itself as a highly accessible platform with an intuitive drag-and-drop editor and a wide range of templates suitable for beginners and small businesses.

Understanding these differences is crucial for making smart platform choices that align with your website goals, technical skills, and growth plans.

Key Takeaways

• Webflow offers greater design flexibility and control but has a steeper learning curve, while Wix prioritizes ease of use and accessibility for beginners.
• Wix provides an intuitive drag-and-drop editor with absolute positioning, whereas Webflow uses a more structured approach that produces cleaner, responsive code.
• Webflow generates professional-grade code that performs well on all devices, while Wix's codebase can be less efficient, potentially affecting performance on complex sites.
• Both platforms offer e-commerce capabilities, but Webflow provides more customization for the shopping experience, while Wix offers more built-in marketing tools.
• The choice between platforms depends on your design priorities, technical capabilities, and long-term website needs.

Webflow

As its name suggests, Webflow emphasizes the flow of web design, offering a visual development environment that generates clean, semantic code. Most professional designers leverage Webflow's powerful tools to build custom, responsive websites with sophisticated interactions. So, if you use Webflow to create a business website or portfolio, when you design in the visual editor, you're essentially creating production-ready HTML, CSS, and JavaScript visually.

Much of the value of Webflow is in its professional-grade output and CMS capabilities:

Visual development with professional results provides unprecedented control over design elements while producing optimized, responsive websites that perform well across devices. Because Webflow generates clean code as you design, the websites typically load faster and follow web standards more closely than those built with some other visual website builders.

Note: Webflow's pricing structure includes both site plans (for hosting) and workspace plans (for design capabilities), which means users need to understand both aspects when calculating total costs.

Wix

Wix, developed as a user-friendly website builder for the masses, works differently from Webflow. Unlike Webflow's structured approach to design, Wix operates around a true drag-and-drop editor where elements can be placed anywhere on the page. The price you pay covers both hosting and access to the platform's features, with different tiers offering varying capabilities from basic sites to full business solutions.

Many Wix sites use the platform's extensive template library, trying to speed up the design process by starting with a pre-designed layout. This approach typically makes Wix more accessible to beginners but can sometimes result in less optimized websites if not carefully managed.

Some Wix projects also leverage the Wix App Market—featuring hundreds of third-party applications—so additional functionality can be added without coding. That said, Wix is generally meant for users who prioritize ease of use, so its interface focuses on simplicity rather than depth of control.

The first Wix versions were more limited in functionality, but most now offer a comprehensive suite of features. Modern Wix sites leverage the platform's built-in tools for booking, memberships, blogs, and online stores to create full-featured business websites. However, most websites built with Wix benefit from the platform's ease of use and speed of setup rather than deep customization, as the platform prioritizes accessibility over complete design freedom.

E-commerce Capabilities

Both platforms offer e-commerce solutions, though they approach online selling differently. Webflow E-commerce provides deeper customization of the shopping experience, allowing designers to craft unique product pages and checkout flows. As your store grows, Webflow gives you greater control over the design aspects of your online shop.

Think of Webflow's e-commerce as a custom boutique where every aspect of the shopping experience can be tailored to your brand. When customers browse your products, the platform allows you to create distinctive presentations while handling the technical aspects of transactions behind the scenes.

Wix, on the other hand, offers Wix Business & eCommerce plans with a more guided approach to selling online. The platform includes a wide range of built-in marketing tools, abandoned cart recovery, and multiple payment options, all accessible through a user-friendly interface.

Most online store owners who use Wix appreciate the simplicity—typically setting up their stores quickly using the platform's store templates and built-in features, then focusing on product management and marketing rather than custom design work.

20 million+ Wix has over 20 million active users worldwide, highlighting its popularity as an accessible website building platform.

Key Differences Between Webflow and Wix

Webflow and Wix are both popular website building platforms offering ways to create online presences. However, they differ in several key aspects, including design approach, flexibility, technical output, and target audience.

Key Differences Between Webflow and Wix

Webflow

• Design approach: Structured visual development with responsive design focus
• Editor type: Visual editor that generates clean code
• Learning curve: Moderate to steep, requires time to master
• Technical output: Professional-grade, optimized code
• Target audience: Designers, agencies, and growing businesses

Wix

• Design approach: Free-form drag-and-drop with absolute positioning
• Editor type: True WYSIWYG editor with unrestricted placement
• Learning curve: Gentle, designed for beginners
• Technical output: Less optimized code that may affect performance
• Target audience: Beginners, small businesses, and non-designers

Design approach: Webflow uses a structured visual development environment where elements follow responsive web design principles and proper HTML hierarchy. Meanwhile, Wix offers a free-form canvas where elements can be placed anywhere on the page using absolute positioning, providing more immediate freedom but potentially less responsiveness.

Editor type: Generally, Webflow's editor is more structured, generating clean HTML, CSS, and JavaScript as you design visually. Conversely, Wix provides a true WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) editor that prioritizes visual simplicity over code quality.

Learning curve: Webflow has a steeper learning curve, requiring understanding of web design principles and time to master its interface and capabilities. However, Wix is designed to be learned quickly, with intuitive controls and guided setup processes that make it accessible to complete beginners.

Technical output: Typically, Webflow produces optimized, clean code that performs well on all devices and follows web standards more closely. Meanwhile, Wix generates less efficient code that may affect loading speeds and performance, especially on more complex websites.

Target audience: Webflow appeals to designers, agencies, and businesses seeking professional-grade websites with room for growth and customization. Conversely, Wix targets beginners, small businesses, and users who prioritize ease of use and quick setup over complete design control or performance optimization.

Key Similarities Between Webflow and Wix

Nevertheless, Webflow and Wix share several similarities, particularly in their goal of making website creation accessible without coding. Both are designed to help users establish an online presence through visual editing tools. Some similarities include the following:

Similarities Between Webflow and Wix

• Visual Editing: Both Webflow and Wix enable users to design websites visually without writing code, using their respective interfaces to add and customize elements.
• All-in-One Platform: Both platforms provide comprehensive solutions that include design tools, hosting services, and domain management in one package.
• E-commerce: Both Webflow and Wix offer e-commerce capabilities, allowing users to set up online stores and sell products directly through their websites.
• Templates: The two platforms provide pre-designed templates that users can customize to jumpstart their website design process.
• Mobile-Friendly: Both create websites that display properly on mobile devices, though they approach responsive design differently.
• Publishing Tools: Both include tools to publish websites and make updates easily, allowing for ongoing site management and content updates.

Since ease of use and performance are important considerations for many website creators, here's a specific comparison of these aspects between the platforms.

When Should You Choose Webflow?

For designers, agencies, and businesses seeking professional-grade websites with room for growth, Webflow offers superior design flexibility and cleaner code output. Web design professionals will generally appreciate Webflow's ability to create custom, responsive designs that maintain performance while offering unique interactions and animations.

When Should You Choose Wix?

Unless individuals need extensive customization or optimal performance for complex sites, Wix offers a more accessible approach that allows for quick website creation with minimal learning required. Small business owners and individuals with limited technical experience appreciate Wix's intuitive interface and comprehensive set of built-in features.

What About Website Performance?

Performance differences can be significant between the platforms. Webflow generally produces more optimized websites with faster loading times due to its cleaner code output. Wix sites may experience slower performance, especially when adding many features or complex elements, though the platform has improved in this area over time.

The Bottom Line

Webflow and Wix have proven to be valuable tools for modern website creation, each with distinct strengths that appeal to different user groups. Webflow typically appeals to designers and growing businesses who need creative control, performance optimization, and room for expansion. Webflow's professional-grade output makes it particularly attractive for projects where design quality and site performance are priorities.

Wix, especially with its intuitive drag-and-drop editor and extensive template library, offers an excellent solution for beginners and small businesses seeking a quick and easy path to establishing an online presence. While it provides less optimization than Webflow, Wix's accessibility enables users with minimal technical background to create functional websites rapidly. The choice between the two often comes down to your design priorities, technical capabilities, performance requirements, and long-term website growth plans.