Does Wix rank worse than WordPress on Google?

The platform alone does not settle it. Wix offers the main technical controls, and WordPress can be excellent or poorly set up. For a local tradesperson, clear service pages, a real address and useful content usually matter more than the tool.

Can a plumber or electrician manage WordPress alone?

Editing text is manageable after some practice. Updates, backups and troubleshooting are a different job. If you will not do them, budget for a maintenance service or choose a hosted platform.

Can I start on Wix and move to WordPress later?

You can move your domain name, but Wix says your site must run on its servers and cannot be exported to another host. Expect to rebuild the pages, then redirect the old addresses to the new ones.

What must a French artisan's website display?

Service-Public lists identification details, contact details, your RNE number, your VAT number if applicable and your host's details, plus a privacy notice. Check the official page for your own situation.

Wix vs WordPress for a French artisan: SEO and ease

In the Wix vs WordPress choice for a French artisan website, Wix wins on ease of use and on having a single bill, while WordPress wins on ownership, freedom and low hosting costs. SEO alone rarely decides it, because both provide the essential controls. Choose Wix if you will run the site yourself and accept staying on it. Choose WordPress if you want to keep control and someone will maintain it.

Wix vs WordPress: the comparison that matters to a tradesperson

A plumber, roofer or joiner does not need the most powerful platform. You need a site that shows up when someone nearby searches, that lets a customer call within seconds, and that you can update without losing a working day. Here is how the two options compare on that basis. Prices were read on 1 November 2026 and are not my own rates.

Criterion	Wix	WordPress.org
Hosting	Runs on Wix's servers	You pick a host
Entry price	Light plan, $17.77 a month on a yearly plan (reference price)	Hosting from about €3.59 a month including VAT in the first year at OVHcloud (Perso plan)
Updates	Handled by the platform	Your responsibility or your provider's
Leaving	No export to another host	Files and database can be moved
Learning curve	Lower	Higher, especially for maintenance

Which is better for SEO?

Wix has moved past its old reputation on technical basics. Its SEO features page describes an editable robots.txt file, bulk 301 redirects with up to 500 URLs imported from a CSV file, editable canonical tags, automatic sitemaps, structured data on certain page types and server-side rendering. That is enough for a local trade site with a few service pages.

WordPress offers more freedom, usually through extensions, and that freedom is both its strength and its trap. You can shape almost everything, yet nothing guarantees it is done well. In practice, an artisan gains more from a separate page for each real service and area, photos of real jobs and a complete Google Business Profile than from switching tools. I would not promise a ranking on either platform, and you should distrust anyone who does.

Ease of use: the honest version

Wix is easier at the start and stays easier, since you sign in and edit a page. WordPress is reasonable for editing text but asks more of you behind the scenes. The WordPress documentation tells owners to stay on the latest version, keep plugins updated, remove unused ones and back up regularly, databases included. Its requirements page recommends PHP 8.3 or greater, MariaDB 10.11 or greater or MySQL 8.0 or greater, and HTTPS support.

So ask yourself one plain question: who will do this on a Sunday evening after a week on site? If the answer is nobody, a neglected WordPress site is a real risk, and a hosted platform or a maintenance contract is the sensible answer.

The cost of leaving is the part people miss

Wix states in its help centre that your site must run on its servers, and that it does not support external hosting. It also says that exporting blog posts to other platforms is not currently possible. You can keep or connect a domain bought elsewhere, and I recommend doing so, but the site itself would have to be rebuilt if you ever left.

WordPress is different in nature. It is open source software under the GPL, so you can take your installation to another host. This matters less for a five-page site you could rebuild in a few days, and more if you plan to publish for years. Whichever you choose, Google recommends server-side permanent redirects, generally kept for at least a year, when addresses change.

French legal details apply on both

The tool does not change your obligations. Service-Public Entreprendre lists what a French business site must show, including your identity and contact details, your RNE number for a craft activity, your VAT number where applicable, and your host's name, address and phone number. It also requires a privacy notice reachable from every page. An individual business can be fined up to €75,000 for missing identification details, so this deserves ten careful minutes.

When neither is the right answer

I have an interest here: I build websites for a living, and I also offer WordPress maintenance. Even so, if you are just starting out with a small budget and few services, Wix is a perfectly defensible first site. WordPress with a good maintenance provider suits you if you want to own your platform and publish regularly.

A developer-built site makes sense when your website has become a real source of quotes and you want speed and control without maintaining a plugin stack. I usually build these with Astro, aiming for a score of 100 on the four Lighthouse criteria. You speak directly to the person writing the code, and I work from Metz across the Grand Est and Belgium. See my websites for artisans or send me a short description of your business and I will tell you honestly which of the three fits.