If you have a business or just an individual, having an online presence is essential. Many website builders have become popular because people want to build a website to have an online presence. The challenge is to determine the best website builder.
In previous articles about Google Sites vs Blogger, Google Sites widgets, how to use Google Sites for affiliate marketing, and particularly on Google Sites review, you found out details about Google’s free website builder, Google Sites.
But what about Wix and Google Sites for creating websites, blogging, SEO, and marketing?
Which is better, Google Sites or Wix?
In this article on Wix vs Google Sites review, I’ll compare Wix and Google Sites. You’ll learn which platform has better features, ease of use, pricing, customer support, design, and customization options.
Whether you’re a novice or an expert web designer, this will help you decide which platform is most appropriate for your website-building needs.
What is Wix?
Wix is a website builder platform with a user-friendly interface and drag-and-drop features. You can create and manage websites without coding or technical skills. It has several templates to design portfolio websites, online stores, personal blogs, business websites, etc.
If you want to customize your website, you’ll find tools like fonts and colors, widgets, blocks, contact forms, layout options, and media integration. You’ll still get other features, like website hosting, blog and eCommerce capabilities, mobile optimization domain registration, and SEO optimization tools. In addition, Wix offers a marketplace for you to browse and install third-party apps.
What is Google Sites?
Google Sites is a website builder that’s part of Google. You can design and publish websites without coding.
Like Wix, the platform has templates and drag-and-drop functionality. This allows you to create web pages and organize site content. You can use Google Sites to build teams, projects, events, portfolios, and intranet websites.
Google Sites integrates with other Google services, like Google Drive, Google Docs, Google Drive, Google Calendar, and many more.
If you are using any device like a smartphone, tablet, or computer, you can access any website built using Google. It has a responsive design that adapts to different screen sizes.
Google Sites vs Wix: Design and Customization Options
Wix
Templates
Currently, it has over 900 templates available, which are mobile-ready by default and fully customizable. If you like higher template quality, use the system editor to customize the chosen design manually.
With just one click, the system automatically adjusts the template to fit all mobile and desktop devices. The template gallery receives regular updates to provide users with advanced designs.
If you cannot find a suitable theme from the samples provided by Wix, you can select a blank template and then customize it.
Customization
You can edit the designs by adding new blocks, integrating widgets and extensions, setting up layer parameters, applying multiple effects, animated backgrounds, and other elements based on your website’s niche and the desired outcome you want to achieve.
Use the Wix ADI tool if you lack coding expertise or want to save time. The Wix ADI (Artificial Design Intelligence) functionality permits you to build websites with a few clicks. The tool provides sets of instructions and questions, allowing you to generate websites using the provided answers and content.
You’ll also find an Editor X tool. This tool allows you to drag and drop elements and utilize advanced design features like grid layouts, docking, and media integration.
Wix offers advanced design editing and scrolling effects. These effects encompass Pan Right or Left, 3D, Parallax, Rotate, Zoom In, and others. It has a preview feature that allows you to view and make edits. You can choose appropriate modes and activate them as you work on your project.
Here’s a video tutorial on using Editor X in Wix:
Google Sites
Templates
Google Sites has 17 templates with limited design customization options. Consequently, all websites created using the platform appear very similar, with variations only in content and formatting.
The latest version of the platform features 6 themes and approximately twenty-four niche templates.
It also includes a blank design ideal for web experts wishing to create a website from scratch and possess coding skills.
Customization
Google Sites offers pre-designed themes in four major categories: Education, Personal, Small Business, and Work. You’ll see the customization editor on the left when you choose your preferred template from the 4 categories.
The editor is divided into three categories: Insert, Pages, and Themes. Under Insert, you are able to add Content Blocks, text, images, colors, videos, embed files, and links. If you need to add more pages and name them, you must go to Pages.
The Themes section allows you to choose pre-design themes for your site. In addition to that, you can customize the theme you want.
Verdict: Google Sites or Wix for website customization?
Wix takes the lead in the design and customization process. The website builder has hundreds of templates that you can fully customize. On the other hand, Google Sites provides a limited number of themes with standard customization options only.
Wix vs Google Sites: Features
Wix
a) Integration of Third-Party Extensions
Using Wix allows you to download third-party extensions to boost the performance of your website. You’ll get all these extensions from its Wix App Market. Here you’ll also get widgets and add-ons.
b) Mobile-friendly interface
You can easily customize your website to fit smartphone screens using the Wix mobile editor. The tool lets you remove or add content or even modify the layout.
c) Wix ADI
Wix ADI is a tool that can create websites through simple questions and curating content to generate a distinct design.
It builds the entire website for you or guides you through the process step by step. After it finishes creating the website, you can customize themes, edit text, and add images, sections, or pages.
d) Built-In SEO Toolset
Wix has built-in SEO tools that will help you drive traffic to your website. Wix SEO Wiz is a tool that allows you to optimize your site for search engines by properly adding keywords etc. This provides you with a competitive advantage in SEO.
In addition to that, the tool creates and updates your XML sitemap, ensuring that all your site information, pages, and connections remain current.
e) Wix Editor
The Editor enables you to have complete design freedom. You can use drag-and-drop to move widgets and blocks around your site according to your preferences.
f) Blogging Capabilities
Wix has blogging engines that give you an opportunity to design a blog website. This engine offers various features that allow you to write, add, edit, and update blog posts. You’ll find several customizable blog templates to choose from.
You can take advantage of the future scheduling feature. There is an option to integrate social media and set up SEO parameters
g) eCommerce
Wix’s powerful eCommerce engine allows you to create online stores through integration with the Wix Stores widget. This platform has a section that has eCommerce templates.
You can design and manage any digital store, regardless of size. To build a web store, choose a suitable theme, add products with their descriptions, adjust shipping, tax, and pricing parameters, and then proceed to the customization stage.
h) Payment Solutions
Wix enables you to connect with your preferred payment provider. You can manage all transactions and finances through a unified dashboard. This feature helps your clients to make payments using cash, digital wallets, or credit cards.
Some of the payment providers you’ll get to use are PayPal, Wix Payments, Stripe, Alipay, and others. It grants you the capability to accept payments in over 40 different currencies. Also, you can send price quotes and invoices to your clients.
Google Sites
a) Easy To Embed Content
The embed feature lets you embed URLs or Codes from other websites. Moreover, It permits you to embed any content and website as a full page.
When you embed external content, you can display or hide the link’s featured image, title, and description. If an embedded link fails to load, Sites will at least display the content URL. You can also add content from your Google Drive, including Videos, Forms, Sheets, or Slides.
b) Mobile Friendly
Google Sites automatically optimizes all web pages for mobile screens on Android phones, iPhones, Android tablets, and iPads. You do not need to fine-tune your pages precisely for mobile screens. Just rest assured that they will appear excellent on any device.
c) Custom Theme
Creating a custom Google Sites theme is as easy as designing a Google Slides presentation. Google Sites enables you to use your brand’s identity, background images, and color scheme and to customize your theme.
d) Built-in Content Management System
The built-in CMS of Google Sites stands out as one of its top features. It gives you the ability to view revision histories and restore previous versions in case you make unintentional modifications to the content. This functionality proves particularly useful when needing to review or observe the website’s progression.
e) Intranet capabilities
Google Sites, a widely used intranet platform, enables users to create intranet websites for their organizations, departments, or teams and distribute them to stakeholders. It allows readers to access the page and grants editors the ability to edit and upkeep it, fostering enhanced collaboration.
Verdict: Wix or Google Sites in comparison of features?
In terms of features, Wix is on top. It has many features that help you build any website you imagine. On the other hand, Google Sites has limited features.
Wix vs Google Sites: Ease of Use
The Wix and Google Sites editors enable you to effortlessly drag and drop content blocks onto your pages, making it incredibly easy to incorporate images, text, videos, and other elements into your site.
Wix
The website builder provides a user-friendly control panel and a WYSIWYG editor. This allows you to observe and control the entire website creation process. It is beneficial for beginners just starting to use the platform.
To create a website layout, you simply select and drag the necessary elements and add-ons onto the canvas, arranging them according to your needs.
The platform consists of two main components: the Dashboard, where you can adjust primary website settings, and the Editor, where you work on website development in the WYSIWYG mode.
Even though it has many features, you, with no web design experience, can quickly master this website builder. It only takes a few hours to familiarize yourself with the positions of elements and system sections and learn how to make edits and design pages.
Google Sites
Google Sites has a simple text editor and an easy interface. It only takes several minutes to get accustomed to it.
You don’t need to complete registration if you already have a Google account. The website builder is available in the list of services within your account. Simply select one of the provided templates and proceed to customize it. You’ll enjoy the WYSIWYG web editing space.
The platform will display the project you are working on and three editing sections of options to the right, organized into tabs.
The interface is one-page. Anything not included on it appears in pop-up windows without any transitions. You can add, edit, and remove some media elements/widgets here, but most page content is not editable.
Verdict: Is Wix or Google Sites easy to use?
Speaking about ease of use, Google Sites will carry the day. It is easy, especially for newbies. You can design a new website within seconds because it doesn’t require complex modifications.
Wix Vs Google Sites: Pricing
Wix
Free Plan
It offers an affordable yet flexible pricing policy that caters to various budgets and web design requirements. When you explore the system, you can choose a free plan that allows you to test the system’s functionality.
The free plan provides several advantages, including a free domain, 500MB of storage, 500MB of bandwidth, and Wix ads.
Paid Plans
Once you design your website and make it live, you must upgrade to one of the paid subscription options. You can choose between the Website, Business/eCommerce, and Enterprise plans.
a) Website Plans
Here are the plans and the benefits:
- Connect Domain ($4.50 per month) has a custom domain, free SSL certificate, 1GB Bandwidth, 500MB storage, and 24/7 customer care.
- Combo ($8.50 per month) has 2GB bandwidth, a free SSL certificate, 3 GB storage space, a bonus for advertising in Google Ads, removal of ad banners, 30 minutes of video hours, free hosting, and a domain.
- Unlimited ($12.50 per month) has unlimited bandwidth, free SSL certificate, Remove Wix branding, Custom Domain, 10 GB storage space, 1 hour video hours, a Site Booster app, and a Visitor Analytics app.
- VIP ($24.50 per month) comes with Custom Domain. Free Domain, Remove Wix branding, unlimited bandwidth, 35GB storage, 5 video hours, Visitor Analytic app, Professional logo, social media logo files, and priority customer care.
b) Business/eCommerce Plans
Here are the plans and benefits:
- Business Basic ($17 per month) Accept payments, customer accounts, custom domain, free domain, remove Wix branding, unlimited bandwidth, 20GB storage space, 5 video hours.
- Business Unlimited ($25 per month) gives you 10 video hours, 35GB of storage space, unlimited bandwidth, a Free domain, and a custom domain.
- Business VIP ($35 per month) comes with unlimited bandwidth, 50GB storage space, unlimited video hours, custom domain, free domain, and removal of Wix branding.
c) Enterprise (Request Call)
Wix Enterprise empowers large-scale businesses to launch exceptional websites quickly, improve management capabilities, and enhance work flexibility by eliminating resource limitations.
The website builder also offers a 14-day money-back guarantee if you cancel the selected plan for any reason.
Google Sites
Google Sites is available for free as part of your Google account. Once you design your website, you can connect your existing domain without charges or obtain a new domain from Google.
You can take advantage of the system’s features and functionalities at no expense. Nevertheless, the capabilities of the website builder are restricted, making it extremely difficult to create a fully functional website using this service.
Wix vs Google Sites: Customer Support
Wix
Wix has a committed customer support team, which you can access around the clock. You can contact their support through phone or live chat; the team is known for being prompt.
Moreover, Wix offers an extensive knowledge base and a community forum where users can find solutions to commonly asked questions or seek assistance from fellow users. The official Wix forum currently hosts a wide range of topics totaling over 200,000.
Numerous video tutorials and email support options are available to simplify the process of exploring the system as a beginner.
Google Sites
As an integral component of the Google Workspace suite, Google Sites relies heavily on community support and online resources.
Although Google offers documentation and supports articles for Google Sites, there is no dedicated customer support team accessible for direct assistance.
You’ll rely on online forums and user communities to seek answers and solutions for your inquiries.
Key Differences Between Wix and Google Sites
- Designs and Templates: There are currently more than 800 free, niche-specific themes available in Wix’s template collection. These themes are fully editable and mobile-friendly out of the box. When you first start using Google Sites, you can only access a few template options. The same is true of design customization choices. As a result, the system’s web pages all have a similar appearance.
- Customization and Design: Wix has a drag-and-drop editor and multiple customizable templates, allowing you to design appealing websites. On the contrary, Google Sites offers a limited set of templates and customization options.
- Technical Support: Wix has a lot of ways to help customers, like a knowledge base, live chat, and phone support. On the other hand, Google Sites receives support through the same channels as the rest of Google. This might be less helpful in solving Google Sites-specific problems.
- Pricing and Monetization: Wix comes with a free subscription and two categories of premium pricing plans: websites and business/e-commerce websites. The platform allows you to monetize your website through advertising. Google Sites is a free website creator that enables you to connect a domain without cost. It doesn’t support monetization.
- Third-Party App Integration: Wix has a big App Market where you can find many third-party apps and services to add to your website. Unfortunately, Google Sites doesn’t handle third-party integrations. A lot of its external features are from Google’s services.
- SEO: Wix’s premium SEO Wiz tool makes search engine optimization a breeze and provides helpful tips for improving SEO’s impressive results. While search engines can index Google Sites, you can do little to optimize your site. It allows you to give the title and URL of your website. There is no access to a sitemap or Robots.txt file either.
- Collaboration and Permissions: Google Sites is great for working together because it lets multiple people work on a website simultaneously and gives specific permissions for editing and watching. Wix also lets people work together, but it might not give as much control or as many choices as Google Sites.
Google Sites or Wix
Which one is the best for SEO?
Wix is the best platform for SEO. It includes a powerful tool called Wix SEO Wiz, which enhances the SEO aspects of your project to ensure better indexing by search engines.
With this tool, you can easily fill out and modify meta tags for your website pages and overall website, including headings, Alt tags for images, titles, descriptions, anchors, and other important parameters.
On the other hand, Google Sites has limited options for SEO settings. It doesn’t provide separate fields for directly specifying Title/Description meta tags; instead, these tags are generated automatically.
If you want a user-friendly URL for your website, you must manually indicate it in the web page settings. Besides, Google Sites does not support using Sitemap and Robots.txt files, which are important for controlling how search engines crawl and index your site.
Which one is the best for a portfolio website?
Wix is an excellent choice for creating portfolios due to its functionality and flexibility. It has a collection of portfolio templates catering to various niches, such as photography, art, and graphic design. You can customize these templates according to your specific needs.
Also, the templates are designed to be mobile-friendly, ensuring that your portfolio can be easily viewed on mobile devices. You can integrate your portfolio into your blog, helping you to stay connected with your users. In addition, the platform also offers user testimonials and an SEO Wiz tool to promote your portfolio effectively.
In comparison, Google Sites falls behind Wix regarding portfolio development capabilities. However, creating a portfolio website using Google Sites is still possible using proper user testimonial widgets, photo galleries, before-after image sliders, document viewer for websites, and other widgets. However, it offers limited creation features compared to Wix.
Which one is the best for creating lead capture pages
Both can be great website builders to create lead capture pages for email list building as it involves a few sections only.
With Wix, however, you can develop any kind of page by dragging and dropping relevant blocks and widgets into the workspace.
Plus, Wix’s integrations with Zapier and other data automation services such as Integrately and marketing integrations with platforms such as Google Ads, Google Analytics, and Google Tag Manager are helpful and unique characteristics compared to Google Sites.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Wix good for blogging?
Is Wix free?
Wix is free to use. However, the free plan is limited to 500MB of storage and 500MB of bandwidth and includes Wix ads.
Is Wix a good website builder?
Compared to Google Sites, Wix is a feature-rich and highly customizable website builder with integrations and online selling tools.
How to get a QR code for Wix website?
Use a QR code generator such as QR.io to generate a QR code for your Wix website.
Is Wix good for eCommerce?
Wix offers various features and tools to create an eCommerce shop. It definitely stands out compared to Google Sites. However, when compared to Woocommerce and Shopify, Wix falls behind in many areas.
Is Wix legit?
Wix is a legit website builder founded in 2006 by Avishai Abrahami, Nadav Abrahami, and Giora Kaplan. Its headquarters is located in Tel Aviv, Israel, and Wix.com Ltd is listed on the NASDAQ stock exchange under WIX.
Do Wix websites show up on Google?
Wix website can show up on Google after properly optimizing a site for search engines by adding relevant keywords to Wix pages, making SEO-friendly URLs, verifying ownership on Google Search Console & submitting the sitemap for Wix, and getting the Googlebot to index Wix web pages.
Does Google have a website builder?
Yes, Google has a website builder known as Google Sites.
Can Google read my Wix site before it’s published?
No, Google cannot read the content before a site is published.
Can I migrate Google Sites to Wix?
There is no content migrating tool to move from Google Sites to Wix directly. However, you can manually build all the pages on Google Sites in Wix.
Can I use a Google Sites domain on Wix?
You can link a domain used on Google Sites on a Wix site by changing nameservers or CNAME. But you cannot use the Google Sites sub-domain on a Wix site.
Does Wix create Google Site pages?
No, because Wix and Google Sites are separate website builders.
Which is better, Wix or Google Sites?
Google Sites is the best website builder to get started as it does not require a subscription plan to create a website with a custom domain name. However, in terms of features and integrations, Wix is the better site builder. Learn more.
Related: Wix vs Weebly Comparison
Final Words on Wix vs Google Sites Review
Wix emerges as the winner when you compare these two platforms. Google Sites primarily caters to individuals who heavily utilize Google Apps for collaborative teamwork. It allows you to oversee projects and exchange best practices with your team members.
However, if you aim to develop intricate commercial websites with advanced functionality and unparalleled visual appeal, Wix is unquestionably the best option.
Check out the list of Google Sites alternatives to find more similar sites to create a website.