Wix Designer – Sunshine Coast and Brisbane
Sunshine Design specialises in content-managed websites using Divi WordPress, but we are now offering designs using the Wix website platform due to overwhelming demand from small business.
The principles of easy navigation, functionality, speed and responsive design are appealing across the Wix and WordPress web design platforms with subtle differences between the two.
At the end of the day, I get a kick out of designing beautiful, streamlined websites which convert visits into money for my clients. This can come down to good design, but is also dependant of choosing the right platform.
So it’s important to find whichever platform is going to work for your type of business.
For example, Wix and Shoppify websites may have better solutions for ecommerce, whereas WordPress or Coded sites may suit someone wanting more google traffic or more specific design requirements.
Wix website design cost
So how much does a Wix website cost?
Landing and home pages start from $500 while an average priced websites, SEO and social sharing range from $1,500 to $3,000 based on hours.
Pros and cons of Wix websites versus WordPress
Designing websites in Wix
The client can start it on a free account on Wix. It can be upgraded with a personalised domain at any stage. SEO is reasonably easy to set up, but I have not seen great results to date compared to my WordPress counterparts. I did make a case study on WIX SEO ranking compared to WordPress.
Wix is reasonably powerful, with lots of tools and features, however, these features are monopolised by Wix and not open-sourced. Therefore it’s hard to leave the platform without starting again from scratch. I find that Wix websites are hard to back up externally and rely on the cloud, making me slightly nervous. In my experience, Wix crashes frequently as the site grows so I’d recommend it for smaller sites.
On the positive side, Wix sites are intuitive to use and fast to learn. I’d say that Wix is a good starting point, however, templates are difficult to customise so you need to pick a theme and go with it.
I do like the smooth transitions between pages and scrolls.
Wix conclusion
My conclusion is that Wix is fun to use for small builds on a budget. The design editing is easy but not as flexible as WordPress. Wix websites are a good starting point but I would hesitate to recommend them for big build or for managing your website’s SEO.
Wix website case study
Jack and Knife — Sydney restaurant
Based in Darlinghurst Sydney. The owner already had an existing web site with wix and wanted to transfer the hosting to the new site. The benefit of using wix over WordPress for this particular job was the integration of reservations, analytics of visitors, menu databases and booking forms. The owner of the domain already had experience in editing this format so it worked out well for them to continue on the wix platform.
Wix compared to WordPress Divi
For starters, WordPress requires a domain and hosting provider. This is unless you use WordPress.com which is not recommended for professional businesses.
Open sourced design and plug-ins
WordPress is an open-sourced platform, which means the themes and plugins are from contributors worldwide with constant updates. This can be a good thing and a bad thing. Less control but more contributors with free and premium upgrades to the software. It’s important to maintain the upgrades or set updates to happen automatically through your WordPress designer or web hosting manager.
Why I use Divi for and my own website theme
One of the best reasons to use Divi as my builder and theme is that it’s the most popular theme in 2020, and for good reason.
Div has been used by millions of people worldwide and I’ve personally used it to build 95% if my sites including this one over the last six years.
Intuitive website design
Divi is the most intuitive theme that I’ve used for website development. The theme and builder, which can be used separately integrate with 3rd party software and can be hosted and maintained through a cpanel.
Web backups can be transferred between hosting servers. I find the WordPress platform is more stable than Wix and with minimal crashes.
Divi websites and pages are easy to duplicate and mix and match elements.
Divi templates which include multiple page designs and images are available for most types of businesses. These are very editable and flexible and can be added or integrated into your own designs.
Divi WordPress Conclusion
Div WordPress is more stable for bigger builds, there is more control over backups. Divi makes it easier to edit the overall style of the website once it’s been started. I also find there are more options for SEO by using 3rd party plug-ins such as Yoast.
Elegant themes layout packs as starting points for page design
At Sunshine Design we only use the best quality themes, builders and plug ins from Elegant Themes. The page design shown here is one the many free layout design packs from Elegant Themes.
There are hundreds of pages and design templates to get you inspired. Of course you don’t just go and use the same design that thousands of others might have. I generally start my sites with a clean slate, but this is a good example of the Divi theme the quality that is possible. All of the images, colours and icons can be used in your own web pages. Every element, colour, font and arrangement is completely editable.
So if you love something about this web page template, it could be the starting point of your page design.
Music Production landing page design using Divi Builder – WordPress
A funky brand and landing page design for music producer – Stufly. This music collaborator is young at heart but in his late 50s so is not overly keen to promote his face on marketing. Think of Fat Boy Slim as an example who is a 50 somthing producer.
Stufly prefers to market his music to a younger audience, so I’ve used modern imagery to achieve this. This keeps the age of the artist more ambiguous, but keeps the brand design looking young and current. The music style is modern electronic, chill and pop.
I love website design. I get to combine lot of different design and software skills. While you’re here check out the rest of the folio to get a feel for some of the endless possibilities we can achieve with your website design.
Accountancy website
Logo, branding, colours, look and feel for this simple WordPress page design.
Brainstorming ebook website
A showcase for a brainstorming ebook. The web page contains video footage and a downloadable pdf.
Bowls Club Website
Club Maroochy is a bowls club on the Sunshine Coast. This was website redesign and revamp using existing content.
My website design philosophy
