StellarSites vs Wix: Which is Better for Creators?

Welcome to a fresh website builder comparison: StellarSites vs Wix!

You’ve probably seen Wix compared to WordPress many times. But now a new name is here: StellarSites. You might be thinking, “How does a platform I’ve never heard of compare to the well-known Wix?“

The answer is simple. StellarSites is built on WordPress, but makes it as easy to use as Wix. It eliminates the most challenging aspect of WordPress, managing your own hosting. It gives you fully managed hosting along with all the power and flexibility WordPress is known for.

And no, StellarSites isn’t just another new startup. It comes from StellarWP and its parent company, Liquid Web, trusted industry leaders who have been serving millions of users since 1997, well before Wix was founded in 2006.

So, how does StellarSites vs Wix really compare? Let’s look at the differences and see which one works best for you.

StellarSites vs Wix: Quick Summary

Before going into a deep head-to-head comparison, here’s a quick summary of our comparison!

Overview – Introducing StellarSites and Wix

Let’s start with a quick overview of the two website platforms.

What is StellarSites?

StellarSites is a complete website-building platform, promoted as “the easiest way to build your website on WordPress.” It’s built on top of the most popular CMS, WordPress, but aims to simplify the process by handling the technical hurdles for you.

Creating a WordPress site usually involves tasks like managing web hosting, choosing themes and plugins from countless options, and handling security features. StellarSites takes care of all of these, allowing you to focus entirely on building your dream website.

In other words, StellarSites works like an all-in-one SaaS platform. It combines the power of WordPress with managed web hosting, beautiful design templates, essential plugins, security tools, regular updates, and dedicated support, all in one place. With this setup, you can launch a beautiful website very quickly.

Start with the AI Website Wizard to generate your first draft, then customize it using pre-designed templates, pre-installed plugins, and built-in SEO, performance, and security features.

The goal is clear: to provide a shortcut for building a beautiful WordPress site without the usual tech headaches.

As for the company behind it, StellarSites is a product of StellarWP, a leading WordPress brand known for popular tools like Kadence Theme, LearnDash, SolidWP, The Events Calendar, and GiveWP, which power millions of websites worldwide.

On top of that, their parent company, Liquid Web, is a well-established name in the web hosting industry.

That means, StellarWP has a strong backing from both WordPress and hosting experts, making it a very promising solution.

In a nutshell, StellarSites offers a simple yet powerful and comprehensive website solution. It bundles the power of WordPress with managed hosting and integrated tools. This means StellarSites works much like a fully managed platform, such as Wix, making it a strong competitor.

Next, let’s find out about Wix!

What is Wix?

Wix is a popular website builder designed to help you create a unique and visually appealing website with ease.

Wix provides a complete platform for building, managing, and growing your online presence. You can start from scratch, choose from designer-made templates, or use their AI-powered website builder to generate a website draft.

Its intuitive drag-and-drop editor allows you to customize almost every element of your site. With built-in business solutions and marketing tools, you can run and promote your business entirely from one platform. As Wix puts it, “the Wix website builder offers a complete solution from enterprise-grade infrastructure and business features to advanced SEO and marketing tools.”

According to Wix’s official pages, the platform serves over 250 million users, with more than 85,000 new sites created every day.

W3Techs reports that Wix powers around 4% of all websites, while WordPress, the foundation of StellarSites, powers 43% of websites worldwide.

A key advantage of Wix is that it’s a fully hosted platform. It’s a complete website solution that includes everything from hosting to domain registration, design, and security.

StellarSites also covers most of these features, but users currently need to register their domain through a separate provider. Wix, on the other hand, already includes this option.

Wix also offers a free plan that lets you use a Wix subdomain like youremailname.wixsite.com/site-address, while premium plans allow you to connect a custom domain. StellarSites has promised to bring domain registration to its platform in the future, but it’s not available yet.

Founded in 2006, Wix has grown over nearly two decades, introducing advanced tools like the Flash Editor and Artificial Design Intelligence (ADI) to make website building easier and faster for everyone.

Getting Started – Which is Beginner-Friendly?

Now, let’s explore how these platforms compare in terms of user-friendliness. Which one is better for beginners?

Getting Started with StellarSites

Starting a website with StellarSites is made simple through its AI-powered setup.

Head to the StellarSites homepage and click “Start with AI.”

On the next screen, you’ll see the AI Wizard, which guides you through seven steps. The first step is just informational, and the last step is handled automatically. So, in practice, you only need to complete five steps.

In Step 2, you’ll see a straightforward form asking for basic site details, such as whether the site is for an individual, company, or organization, plus the site’s name, location, and industry.

In Step 3, you provide some content details: key highlights, values, and benefits your site offers. You can type in a few keywords or short sentences and then use the “Expand with AI” option. When we tested it, the tool generated over 1,200 words of content, well-structured and ready to use with minimal edits.

Next in step 4, the AI Wizard asks about your site’s topics. It suggests keywords based on your earlier inputs, which you can either accept or customize. This not only helps tailor the site to your needs but also benefits your site’s SEO.

In the following step 5, you choose your site goals, whether it’s selling products, showcasing services, writing blog posts, and so on. Since we were setting up a blog, we selected the relevant option and continued.

Then comes the Photography step, 6. Here, you can select featured and background images. The AI Wizard suggests royalty-free photos from Pexels.com, but you can also upload your own if you prefer.

Once done, hit Next, and the AI Wizard starts generating your website.

In just about a minute, you’ll be presented with multiple template options, each with a unique design, color palette, typography, and even tailored content.

You can preview all the templates and pick the one that best fits your needs. If none are quite right, you can further customize colors, fonts, and layouts.

The final step is Buy and Launch, which takes you to the checkout page. Once you complete the payment, your site goes live.

Overall, StellarSites makes the setup process beginner-friendly through the AI Wizard. It simplifies the workflow while still giving you control over important elements like keywords, goals, images, and design choices.

The balance between automation and customization ensures that you get both precision and flexibility in building your site.

Getting Started with Wix

The process of starting a website on Wix is quite simple. From the homepage, click the “Get Started” button.

Next, you’ll be asked to sign up for an account. Once that’s done, the website creation process begins. Here’s exactly how our experience went!

On the next screen, Wix asked whether we wanted to create a site for ourselves or for a client. We chose the first option.

Then came the AI assistant to help us plan the site.

We decided to try it out, so we started the chat. It asked a few questions, like what the site was about, the name, and the type of content. As we answered, the AI created a live site profile on the side, which was pretty cool!

After just 5–6 questions, it told us we were all set and suggested clicking “Go to Dashboard.”

Once we did, the Wix website builder dashboard opened. The interface was simple: a menu on the left and the site creation steps in the main section. Wix listed five setup steps.

The first step, selecting a site type, was already complete.

Next, it prompted us to connect a custom domain and even suggested one based on the info we had entered earlier. Since we were just exploring, we skipped this step. But if you’re serious about launching a site, you can buy or connect your custom domain right there.

Then came “Write your first blog post.” The post editor was clean and easy to use. What stood out was the Content AI feature.

We tested it by asking for an introduction paragraph based on our title. The output wasn’t perfect, but it gave us a solid head start. After a few edits, we published our first post.

Next was “Design your website.” Wix gives you two options here:

1. Customize a Template – choose from 900+ professionally designed templates.
2. Generate a Design with AI – Wix ADI (Artificial Design Intelligence) creates a site for you based on your earlier answers.

We tried the AI option, and within a couple of minutes, Wix generated a clean, professional-looking website. We clicked “Continue with this Design.”

From there, you can either tweak the design yourself or even ask the AI to regenerate it.

Once satisfied, the site opens in the Wix Editor, where you can make customizations. If not, just hit “Publish.”

And that’s it! Your free Wix site will be live!

The free site URL looks like this:
https://youremailname.wixsite.com/your-sitename

It combines three elements: your email name + .wixsite.com + your chosen site name.

Overall, the AI features worked well, and the process felt smooth, simple, and beginner-friendly.

Verdict:

Both Wix and StellarSites are beginner-friendly, but they take slightly different approaches.

Wix focuses on speed and simplicity, making it perfect if you want to get a site online quickly with minimal input.

StellarSites, on the other hand, asks for more details during setup, but that extra information means the AI delivers a more precise and tailored website.

So, StellarSites gives you a stronger, more customized result without adding real complexity.

Comparing Features and Functionalities

Now let’s compare Wix vs. StellarSites in terms of the features and functionalities they offer.

How Powerful is StellarSites?

The answer is absolutely powerful and flexible!

First of all, it’s based on the world’s most flexible Content Management System (CMS), WordPress, so you can enjoy the freedom that comes with it. That means you’ll have access to thousands of WordPress themes for site design and thousands of plugins for added functionalities.

But wait! You don’t need to feel overwhelmed, as StellarSites provides a tailored experience with a handpicked selection of templates and essential plugins already integrated into the system.

As StellarSites is a product of StellarWP, the company behind the powerful Kadence theme, you’ll find Kadence integrated into it. It’s a cutting-edge, block-based theme that offers a powerful site editor with unlimited customization options.

In terms of features, you’ll get powerful plugins like LearnDash for online courses, The Events Calendar for event management, and IconicWP for eCommerce. These are industry favorites, used and loved by thousands.

You’ll have them pre-bundled in the StellarSites plans!

Not to mention, the SolidWP security plugin is included to keep your sites secure. For speed, it has integrated caching and CDN. So, you have all aspects of your site covered.

All these make it a super powerful site platform.

How Powerful is Wix?

Wix comes with 900+ templates for site design and a couple of hundred plugins, which it calls applications. All these apps are available in the Wix App Market.

Inside the app market, you’ll find many free and paid widgets and extensions. Depending on your website’s specialization, you can pick the ones you need.

You’ll find a wide range of apps, from calendars, maps, and galleries to payment options, shipping and tax apps, dropshipping, and more. Hence, one must be careful when choosing which application is suitable for their type of website.

Inside the app store, you can find apps based on the following features and categories:

• Sell Online – Wix Stores, Printify, Price Table, CJDropshipping
• Services & Events – Events Calendar, Event Viewer, Google Event Calendar
• Marketing & SEO – Simple Affiliate, Deepcrawl for Wix, Instagram Feed, Visitor Analytics
• Design Elements – Countdown Timer, Location Map, Wix FAQ, Currency Converter
• Communication – Constant Contact Form, Tidio, Trustpilot Reviews

While most of these apps are available for free, you need to pay extra for some.

In terms of security, speed, and SEO, Wix has you covered! It offers the best in industry-standard features.

Verdict:

Both platforms are feature-rich, but they cater to different needs.

Wix offers a wide range of templates and apps, many of which are paid, making it flexible for beginners.

StellarSites, built on WordPress, provides far greater flexibility; you can use any of the thousands of WordPress themes and plugins, along with bundled premium tools, security, and performance features.

In short, Wix is simple and convenient, while StellarSites gives more power and customization options.

 Pricing Comparison – Which is Better Value for Money?

To make the comparison, let’s look at the cost of starting a site on each platform side by side.

Both platforms offer various plans for different needs, but we’ll only compare the minimum cost to start a website for one year.

The above are the basic plans available on each platform. Now, let’s calculate the actual cost to start and host a website on each platform.

StellarSites:

The basic plan, called “Essential” under the Foundation category, costs $15/month if purchased annually, totaling $180 for one year.

You’ll also need to register a domain from a third-party registrar, such as Namecheap, which costs about $12 for a top-level .com domain. So, the total cost would be $192 for one year.

Apart from this, everything else comes bundled with StellarSites! Considering the WordPress products included, the estimated value is around $1,756/year.

Wix:

If you purchase an annual plan, you get a free domain for one year. That means there’s no additional cost unless you choose third-party apps.

During the free site setup, we noticed a 50% discount offer, which could bring the Light plan down to as low as $108/year. While discounts aren’t always guaranteed, they can make Wix cheaper in some cases.

Overall, under normal pricing, both platforms are fairly competitive.

StellarSites Pricing Plans

StellarSites is a premium platform with different pricing schemes to suit different site needs. Its plans are categorized as Foundation for general sites, stores, learning, fundraising, and events.

If you own a small business or are a creator, then go with the Foundation plans:

• Essential: $15/mo billed annually, $19/mo billed monthly, 15GB storage, 1250 AI credits/year, etc.
• Plus: $35/mo billed annually, $39/mo billed monthly, 30GB storage, 4000 AI credits/year, etc.
• Ultimate: $55/mo billed annually, $59/mo billed monthly, 100GB storage, 8000 AI credits/year, etc.

Moreover, it offers a 30-day refund policy for annual plans. Further, there’s a 15-day refund policy for monthly plans, too. This means you can stop using StellarSites and get a refund within these periods.

Wix Pricing Plans

Wix mainly has four pricing plans as mentioned below:

• Light: $17/month. For simple websites. 2 GB storage.
• Core: $29/month. Run a business, accept payments. 50 GB storage space.
• Business: $39/month. Bigger businesses. 100 GB storage space.
• Business Elite: $159/month. Complex business operations possible. Unlimited storage.

All these plans include the built-in AI features that we previously shared. Also, you’ll get a free domain with the purchase of any plan’s one-year subscription. And Wix offers a 14-day money-back guarantee.

Verdict:

Both StellarSites and Wix offer competitive pricing for basic website plans.

StellarSites costs slightly more initially due to domain registration but includes premium WordPress tools and plugins that add significant value.

Wix can be cheaper, especially with discounts, and includes a free domain for the first year. In short, Wix is more budget-friendly upfront, while StellarSites offers higher value with its bundled features.

Which is Better in Customer Support?

Now let’s compare the customer support options available.

Customer Support in StellarSites

StellarSites offers top-notch customer support to its users. As a customer, you get exclusive support through your account dashboard, with 24/7 assistance available.

As a potential user, you can explore the knowledge base for documentation. It includes guides on getting started, setting up your plan, configuring performance optimization features, managing your site, and more.

You can also check the FAQs to get instant answers to common questions. If you still need help, go to the Contact page, fill out the contact form with your inquiry, and the support team will get back to you.

Additionally, StellarSites provides other resources like blogs, podcasts, and affiliate programs to help you build your knowledge and interest in the platform.

Customer Support in Wix

Wix provides reliable 24/7 support for all its users. You can reach their team through phone, live chat, or ticket support, making it easy to get help whenever needed.

In addition, the Wix Help Center offers a vast library of tutorials, guides, and documentation right at your fingertips.

Wix also has an active community forum where users help each other by answering questions. To join, you just need a free Wix account.

For beginners, Wix offers Wix Learn, an online course with video lessons and tutorials to improve website-building and design skills.

Overall, Wix combines in-house support with community resources, backed by an experienced team ready to address your issues efficiently.

Verdict:

Both StellarSites and Wix offer strong customer support. StellarSites provides 24/7 dashboard support, a detailed knowledge base, and helpful resources, while Wix combines 24/7 in-house support with a vast Help Center, active community forum, and beginner-friendly courses.

Both are reliable, but Wix offers more diverse support channels and learning resources.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

Check out these FAQs to instantly get answers to your most common concerns.

1. Who can use StellarSites for their websites?
Anyone looking to easily build a WordPress website can use StellarSites. These can be creators, small businesses, shops, event organizers, and educators.

2. What’s included in the StellarSites plans?
StellarSites is an all-in-one platform. It includes pre-built WordPress templates, AI site creation, hosting, and premium integrations.

3. Can I try using StellarSites before buying?
Yes, you can try using StellarSites before buying. It offers a free trial in which you can use its AI website builder without requiring payment details.

4. Does StellarSites have a money-back guarantee policy?
Yes, StellarSites provides a 30-day money-back guarantee policy for annual plans. It also offers a 15-day refund policy for monthly plans.

5. Can I migrate my existing website to StellarSites?
Yes, you can migrate your existing WordPress websites to StellarSites. Just create your account and fill out the support form. Now, their support team will help you migrate your website.

Final Verdict – Which is Better for Creators?

Both StellarSites and Wix are excellent platforms for building websites, but they cater to slightly different needs.

Wix is beginner-friendly, offering a fully hosted solution with intuitive drag-and-drop tools, plenty of templates, and diverse support channels. It’s easy to get started, especially for those who want a simple, all-in-one setup.

StellarSites, on the other hand, combines the power and flexibility of WordPress with managed hosting, pre-bundled premium plugins, AI-assisted design, and full customization options.

While it may require connecting your domain separately, it offers unmatched flexibility, scalability, and long-term value, perfect for creators who want more control and professional-grade features.

For beginners or those seeking simplicity, Wix is a solid choice. For creators looking for flexibility, power, and full control over their website, StellarSites is the better option.