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Why we use Wix

Short Answer: We prefer Wix because most businesses overestimate their ability to maintain and update their websites. Wix is the superior user-friendly solution. Coders come and go. Before you know it, that expensive coded or WordPress website gets put on the back burner. Now you've got an expensive, non-functioning site that not only isn't helping your business grow, it's hurting it. With Wix, the editor is as simple to use and learn as Microsoft Word or PowerPoint so its the easiest solution to maintain. This is important, especially for startups and small businesses when money can be tight and they can't afford to pay someone for updates and maintenance.

 

Long Answer: Read on...

 

Here at Ulster Studios we are sometimes asked why we prefer Wix to hand coding or WordPress. Occasionally coders whisper in our clients' ears that we use it because we are not "real designers/coders" or because we are being paid by Wix. Neither is true. The truth is we can—and sometimes do—hand code or use WorPress. For large businesses, both solutions are excellent, but often expensive, when done by a professional. But for the small and medium business (SMB) community and individuals, who are our main focus at Ulster Studios, we don't think it is the best solution as they don't address the reality of running a business.

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Today, with so many new tech platforms and solutions, it can be confusing deciding which way to go. They all have their strengths and weaknesses. Newcomers like Wix, Weebly, and Squarespace are taking big bites out of WordPress, and others like Shopify, Jimdo, and Webflow are vying to enter the field. WordPress has seen a steady decline since early 2015 with no signs of a turnaround. Wix, on the other hand, is leading the pack and seeing explosive growth, with almost 100 million active websites.

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Wix vs Weebly vs Squarespace

Worldwide, Since 2004

Wix
Weebly
Squarespace

Ulster Studios Wants to Be Your Business Partner

We want you to have a site that will stay functional, useful, relevant, affordable, and secure in 2, 3, 4, 5 years. Even if business gets tough and you can't afford our services and need to do it on your own, we want you to have the confidence to easily update your site on your own—all the while not having to worry about constant security updates and compatibility issues than can render your site useless overnight. Ulster Studios will sit down with you and discuss your specific needs, challenges, and options. But at the end of the day, our clients choose Wix and we're confident you will too.

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We see way too many companies spend big bucks for coders and custom WordPress themes only to see their sites become out-of-date and useless within a year. Maybe business is down and hiring a coder is too expensive. Maybe people are too busy to take the time to figure out how to update their site. Either way, the sad truth is that most sites become abandoned and sit idle, bringing the company no business and diminishing the brand.

 

A Short History Lesson

And on the 8th day, God created the internet. Just kidding. Not that far back. Let's go back 20 years.

 

It is August 6, 1991, and the first web page, made by Tim Berners-Lee, just went live on the World Wide Web. (If you want to see it for fun, click here.) Keep in mind the first decent web browser (Mosaic) wouldn't even come along until 1993. Over the next ten years, coding advanced, technology advanced, and things like Linux, CSS, and PHP were introduced. The web became more powerful and more complex. Creating a site for most companies was often just too expensive to build and maintain, requiring businesses to either learn to code or hire a designer. 

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Now skip forward a little. 

 

It is 2003, the year WordPress began when the developers of the blogging software called b2/cafelog discontinued support and two users—and future founders—Matt Mullenweg, and Mike Little, decided to build a new platform as a fork of the b2/cafelog software called WordPress.

 

WordPress

WordPress made the internet accessible to everyday bloggers. A coder could build you a blog that you could manage through a dashboard in what is called a content management system (CMS for short). Bloggers—and businesses!—could now easily modify certain elements, colors, and content with little to no coding ability. It was user-friendly. But as with everything, it would become more complex and powerful. 

 

Since then, WordPress has steadily grown into the leading free open-source blogging platform and CMS on the web. WordPress has a great story, and as of January 2018, WordPress was used by more than 29.4% of the top 10 million websites. But keep in mind, WordPress was designed and built as a blog platform, not a website platform. It wasn't until 2010, with the release of Thelonius 3.0, that it became a serious option for businesses rather than a simple blogging system. 

 

So what is the future of WordPress? Hard to say. There is no denying its huge success. But in the world of technology, you are here today and gone tomorrow. A lot has changed since the early days. WordPress struggles with mobile-friendly design. It is also currently being developed only by its community and a group of volunteers. But think about that for a minute. How innovative and current would your company be if it was run by your clients and a group of volunteers? Could you turn a solid work truck into a Tesla this way? Elon Musk would probably say no.

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Wix vs WordPress

United States, Past 5 years

WordPress
Wix

Let me say there is nothing inherently wrong with WordPress as CMS. It is a very powerful platform. It can save large companies thousands of thousands of dollars to build their site and manage their content versus hiring a developer to build, manage, and maintain a traditional coded website. There are also amazing plug-ins, over 50,000 of them. There is not much you can’t do with WordPress. And yes, very large companies use it, so it can be safe and secure.

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Houston We Have a Problem!

Remember that little statistic I mentioned at the beginning that WordPress is used by more than 29.4% of the top 10 million websites? That’s super impressive, right? Being free and open-source is probably a big part of that success.

 

But did you know that in a recent assessment of websites by Securi they found over 11,000 infected websites? 75% of those were on the WordPress platform, and over 50% of those were out-of-date. Just look up ‘WordPress’ on Wikipedia and scroll down to the section titled ‘Vulnerabilities’ and you’ll see a full list of security issues. That’s no bueno!

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Now, this doesn’t mean WordPress itself is the problem, bad coders and poor maintenance are also to blame, but it does show they may not be the solution for everyone. We need to look a little closer and unpack the facts to see what we here at Ulster Studios believe to be the real issue.

 

As we see it, the inherent problem with WordPress is that by today’s standards it is no longer considered user-friendly. Designers and coders are pushing hand-coded sites and custom WordPress themes without recognizing that reality, costing businesses thousands of dollars and delivering poor results.

 

Security and Maintenance Nightmare

With WordPress you need to find and manage YOUR OWN hosting, YOUR OWN version of WordPress, YOUR OWN security certificate, and all YOUR plug-ins. The average website can have 10 to 30 plug-ins, but there are many are sites with hundreds of plug-ins. SEO's not included—its another plug-in that is complex, hardly user-friendly when you compare it to the Wix SEO Wizard. You need to install things. You need to download things. Connecting all these things is a pain in the butt. WordPress themes are limited by their content management system and all too often require hiring a coder to update or change basic content.

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By today’s standards, WordPress has become way too complicated for the average user. It is 2018 and people have different expectations. They want to focus on their business, not making sure their site and 30 odd plug-ins are always up-to-date and compatible with each other. Let’s face it, WordPress is no longer an ideal solution for individuals and it is an even worse solution for most small to medium businesses. 

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Everyone Is Online

In today's economy, everyone is online. Everyone is developing their brand. Everyone is collecting email addresses for their mailing list, creating shops for their product, taking payments for their business, doing their payroll and bookkeeping, marketing via email and social, creating and managing their websites. Small and medium sized businesses are doing it all. More than ever it needs to be easy, fast, connected, cloud based, and—most importantly—secure. 

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Let’s go back again, way back to the 80’s and 90’s when computers were first introduced and popularized. You just bought the latest and greatest computer from Compaq or Dell. You went home and spent the day putting your new computer together. (It was easy they said.) You just had to follow the instructions, install this, install that, connect this, connect that—and voila! Six hours later you were part of the future! Then along came Apple. You just opened the box, plugged it in—and it worked! Well, that is WordPress versus Wix in a nutshell. Wix is the Apple of website builders!

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Wix Just Works

You may not have heard of it. And if you have, it was from one of it's millions of fans and converts or it was from a WordPress/web designer who dismissed it as an inferior platform. You know, kind of like those Windows fanboys in the 90’s and 00's who refused to jump on the Apple bandwagon. But if I remember, Apple turned out OK.

 

Well folks, I’m here to tell you that Wix has over 110 million users in 190 countries, it is here to stay. And not only here to stay, but to stay where it matters most—as a superior user-friendly solution. And if you want to know what the markets think of Wix, well, Wix is currently valued around 4.5 billion dollars. WordPress is worth a quarter of that. We here at Ulster Studios believe that Wix is the world’s most innovative website builder. 

 

Wix is the only drag-and-drop WYSIWYG website builder and CMS platform with HTML5 capabilities available today. It has top grade hosting, incredible security features, innovative apps, and 1000s of features, most for free. The Wix platform and apps are constantly updated and secure. SEO is a breeze with their built-in SEO Wizard. SSL Certificate is included, so no need to pay for a plug-in. Since Wix is not an open source platform, its codes are not available for random users to modify. Only the Wix development team can edit the source code which, believe it or not, uses some of the code from the WordPress open-source library. This results in a seamless software platform that is far more secure. And with the introduction of Wix Code (which deserves its own article) at the end of 2017, it is more powerful than ever. 

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Everything is included

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Just look at all that is included with a Wix website. These are not plugins that need to be updated. They are not apps you need to add or pay for. These items are included and secure. 
 

The Essentials

  • No coding needed

  • Super easy drag and drop editor makes it easy to customize your site

  • Reliable and secure hosting that is always up-to-date

  • Mobile friendly, looks amazing on any device

  • Powerful web apps and services. Simple 1-click installations

 

Great Design Tools

  • Over 500 Wix designed templates

  • Easily build from scratch

  • Unlimited web pages

  • Image editor to enhance, edit and retouch your images

  • Easy access to millions of professional stock images

  • Over 40 unique image gallery designs

  • Video backgrounds

  • Parallax 3D effects

  • Anchor menus

  • HTML embed code ability

  • Protected pages for private or member-only areas

 

New! Wix Code

  • Advanced capabilities combined with all the stunning design features of the Wix Editor

  • Serverless, hassle-free coding with built-in database, JavaScript backend and IDE (Integrated Development Environment)

  • Everything hosted with the secure Wix Cloud for one click deployment

  • Easily build SEO compatible web applications

  • Set up and create custom database collections and forms

  • Change site behavior with Wix APIs

 

Blog & Social Media Integrations

  • Easily add a beautiful and totally customizable blog to your site

  • Facebook apps and tools to grow your audience

  • Social buttons and bar for your social media accounts

 

Top Level Security

  • Wix is not open-source so only Wix developers can create tools and adjust the platform

  • Everything in Wix is tested to work together seamlessly and securely

  • Free SSL certificate

  • No hassle security updates. Wix makes sure you are always up-to-date

 

World Class Wix Support

  • 24/7 help center

  • Schedule a call phone support, they call you when you want

  • Wix Blog, great for ideas

  • Walkthroughs, step-by-step help with 100s of video tutorials

  • Wix Help Center, a comprehensive knowledge database

 

Unbelievable Community Support

  • User forum, amazing community support

  • Facebook groups, more amazing community support

 

Top Rated Online Stores

  • Create, manage and promote your own store and sell products online

  • All-in-one management. Track orders, get paid, promote sales, and manage shipping in one place

  • No commission payments

  • Choose from different secure payment methods like PayPal, credit cards, and more

  • Mobile friendly, your store is optimized for browsing and buying on the go

  • Worldwide shipping and tax

  • Set customized tax and shipping rules for each destination

 

Professional Business Tools

  • Contact manager, keep contacts, customers, site members, and subscribers organized and all in one place

  • Site analytics, find out pageviews, where visitors come from, and how well you rank with competitors

  • Easily connect with Google Analytics

  • Personalized mailbox with G Suite

  • Communication tools that let you speak with site visitors directly

  • ShoutOut email marketing, create, send and share emails

  • Wix Smart Actions, send triggered emails to anyone who contacts you, subscribes, and more

  • Eventbrite, showcase and sell tickets to your event

  • Financial tools to keep track of finances, send invoices, track payments and get paid faster

 

As MC Hammer would say, "You can't touch this!" We dare you to find another all-in-one solution that can do all that matches Wix in quality, ease of build, ease of maintenance, security, and price.

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Ulster Studios is proud to offer Wix as part of portfolio of business solutions. We highly recommend that you save yourself the hassle and headache, focus on your business, and make the smart choice.

 

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