Wix vs Zenfolio: Comprehensive comparison guide for 2024

Final verdict

Wix and Zenfolio cater to different audiences, each excelling in their respective domains.

• 
  Wix (Overall Grade: 8.5/10)
  
  is a versatile website builder that offers a user-friendly interface, extensive design functionalities, and robust ecommerce features. It is ideal for users who need a flexible platform to create various types of websites, from personal blogs to online stores. Wix’s AI capabilities, comprehensive marketing tools, and superior customer support make it a strong contender for those seeking an all-in-one solution for building and managing their online presence.
• 
  Zenfolio (Overall Grade: 6.4/10)
  
  is tailored specifically for photographers and visual artists. It provides elegant, customizable templates and integrated ecommerce capabilities designed to showcase and sell creative work. While it may not offer the same level of versatility or ease of use as Wix, Zenfolio excels in providing tools for client proofing, secure photo storage, and marketing, making it a valuable platform for professional photographers looking to grow their business online.

Best for ecommerce

Verdict

: Wix is a versatile platform suitable for a wide range of businesses, while Zenfolio is tailored specifically for photographers and visual artists.

• 
  Wix
  
  : Known for its user-friendly interface and flexibility, Wix is ideal for small to medium-sized businesses looking to establish an online store. It offers a range of ecommerce features, including various payment gateways, basic inventory tools, and multi-channel sales options. However, when comparing Wix vs Zenfolio, Wix may lack some advanced customization options that more complex businesses might need.
• 
  Zenfolio
  
  : Designed specifically for photographers and visual artists, Zenfolio provides a comprehensive set of tools for showcasing and selling visual work online. It includes customizable templates, integrated ecommerce features, and robust marketing tools. However, it may not be as versatile as Wix for businesses outside the photography niche.

Best for informational & business websites

Verdict

: Wix is the superior choice for creating informational and business websites due to its user-friendly interface, extensive customization options, and higher overall score. Zenfolio, while excellent for photographers, lacks the versatility and ease of use that Wix offers for a broader range of informational sites.

• 
  Wix
  
  : With a score of 8.3, Wix excels in providing a user-friendly platform with a wide array of customizable templates and design features. It is ideal for users who want to create visually appealing and professional-looking informational websites without needing any coding skills. Wix’s intuitive interface and extensive support resources make it a top choice for beginners and experienced users alike.
• 
  Zenfolio
  
  : Scoring 6.9, Zenfolio is tailored specifically for photographers and visual artists. It offers elegant, mobile-friendly templates and integrated e-commerce capabilities, making it a great choice for showcasing and selling photography work. However, its focus on photography limits its versatility for other types of informational websites. For those in the photography industry, Zenfolio provides robust tools for marketing, client proofing, and secure photo storage, but it may not be the best fit for general informational business websites.

Detailed comparison

🏆

Winner: Wix.

If you’re looking for a platform that offers more creative control and a wide array of design features, Wix is the preferred choice.

Wix stands out with its wide range of highly customizable templates suitable for various website types, not just ecommerce. It offers creative freedom in design, appealing to a diverse user base. While Wix doesn’t have a premium template marketplace, it has 3-rd party theme shops that allow you to get more sophisticated design choices.

Wix Themes

Compared to Wix, Zenfolio offers a variety of customizable templates and features specifically tailored for photographers, with a focus on showcasing and selling their work. While it provides several customization options, it may not offer as much versatility outside of photography-specific needs.

Zenfolio Themes

🏆 Winner: Wix

. Scoring a solid 9.0, Wix stands out for its exceptional user-friendliness, making it exceptionally easy for beginners to create and manage their websites. Zenfolio, with a score of 6.3, offers a robust platform but with a steeper learning curve, especially for those new to ecommerce. If ease of use is a priority, Wix is the clear winner in this category.

Learning Resources

🏆 Winner: Wix

. While both platforms offer solid learning resources, Wix goes a step further with its wide array of detailed tutorials and active community forums, making it easier for users to learn and adapt.

Wix and Zenfolio cater to different audiences with their ecommerce offerings. Wix is a versatile platform suitable for a wide range of businesses, while Zenfolio is specifically designed for photographers and visual artists looking to sell their work online.

Wix ecommerce features:

• Intuitive store builder
• Wix Payments and various gateways
• Basic inventory tools
• Multi-channel sales options
• Abandoned cart recovery
• Basic analytics and SEO tools

Zenfolio ecommerce features:

• Multiple Currency Support
• Discount Coupons
• Order management
• Gift Certificates
• Tax management

Ecommerce themes & templates

Wix provides around 120 free templates for ecommerce. However, these templates are not fully responsive and may need manual adjustments for mobile display. Wix allows for flexible website design but has limited options for in-depth customization using HTML or CSS. For advanced users, Wix Velo offers more detailed customization possibilities.

On the other hand, Zenfolio provides customizable website templates with integrated e-commerce features for photographers, designed to showcase and sell their work across various genres. These templates include essential online selling tools such as secure payment options, product management, and marketing integrations, making it an all-in-one platform for photographers aiming to display and market their creations effectively.

Product page customization

Wix permits the inclusion of six options per item with a total of 1000 unique variations for products. However, the potential complexity of having customers choose six attributes for a single item is acknowledged, and it is recommended to consider splitting products with extensive options into different listings for a more user friendly experience. Wix stands out for its ease of customization, allowing users to add features like ribbons, size charts, wishlists, and more. While Wix supports product videos in its themes, incorporating 3D models on Wix requires coding.

Zenfolio users can detail their product pages with descriptions, images, and options such as size or color. This allows for each product page to be adjusted to clearly display its unique attributes. Placing products in specific galleries or categories helps organize the site and improve navigation. The platform also supports customization in pricing and shipping settings, allowing sellers to cater to various needs effectively.

Payment processing

Wix provides versatile payment options, generally around

2.9% + 30¢

per transaction, without additional commission fees. This makes Wix an attractive option for businesses using diverse payment processors. Wix Payments allows Wix users to manage transactions directly on their site, also supporting various payment methods and currencies.

Zenfolio supports Stripe and PayPal for payment processing, integrating them seamlessly into its platform designed for photographers to sell their work online. The platform charges a commerce fee of 7% per order (excluding tax and shipping) and a payment processing fee for transactions through Stripe or PayPal. While Zenfolio offers robust e-commerce functionalities for online sales, including setting up price lists for prints and digital downloads, it does not explicitly mention POS capabilities for in-person sales, suggesting its services are tailored primarily towards online transactions.

🏆

Winner: Wix

. Wix, with a score of 8.5, offers multiple editors catering to different user needs. Its standard editor is renowned for its drag-and-drop simplicity, allowing for extensive customization without needing to code. Additionally, Wix provides the ADI (Artificial Design Intelligence) editor, which creates a personalized website based on user responses to a few questions, and the Corvid by Wix editor, which allows for advanced web development with JavaScript and Wix APIs.

Zenfolio’s editor, scoring 7.6, offers an intuitive, no-coding-required website builder tailored for photographers, featuring drag-and-drop customization, a wide array of templates, and a powerful Custom Layout block for personalized designs. Its integrated eCommerce capabilities enable selling both digital and physical photography products, supported by comprehensive security features for protecting photographers’ work. However, it does have limitations in terms of customization options and photo storage capacity, which could be a drawback for some users.

Mobile editor/app

🏆

Winner: Wix

. Both Wix and Zenfolio offer mobile apps for managing your website, but they cater to different needs and skill levels. Wix’s mobile app is more beginner-friendly and versatile, offering a user-friendly, drag-and-drop interface for general website editing. This makes it easy for users with no prior website building experience to create and manage their websites.

Zenfolio, on the other hand, is designed specifically for photographers, providing features for managing galleries, handling sales-related tasks, and showcasing photos. However, some functionalities may still require desktop use for full functionality. Despite its specialized features, Zenfolio’s mobile editor is rated lower than Wix’s.

In summary, Wix receives a higher rating due to its versatility in general website editing and a more beginner-friendly interface, while Zenfolio is strong in its specialized features for photographers but may require some desktop use for full functionality.

Overall Result

:

Zenfolio Wins

. Zenfolio scores 8.4, slightly higher than Wix’s 8.1. Zenfolio offers a 14-day free trial with the possibility to test premium features, and a 30-day money-back guarantee. Wix, on the other hand, provides a free plan with basic features for an unlimited duration and occasionally offers opportunities to test premium features through promotions or limited-time trials.

Wix and Zenfolio both offer competitive pricing options, with Wix scoring slightly higher.

Zenfolio does not offer an enterprise plan, while Wix does, starting at around $500 per month.

🏆

Winner: Wix

Wix offers a variety of hosting plans, including a free plan, and uses a multi-cloud infrastructure for hosting. It has a 99.95% uptime and 10 global data centers. Zenfolio, on the other hand, offers cloud hosting with storage ranging from 15GB to unlimited. However, it does not disclose any information about its uptime statistics or the locations of its data centers, which results in a lower Hosting Quality score.

🏆 Winner: Wix

Both Wix and Zenfolio place a high priority on website performance and page speed, with Wix focusing on integrating tools like the Site Speed dashboard and Zenfolio emphasizing mobile responsive design, however Wix gets a clear edge when it comes to website speed optimization.

In the recent years Wix has significantly focused on enhancing website performance and page speed, integrating tools like the Site Speed dashboard with Google PageSpeed Insights to provide a holistic view of website performance metrics. Emphasizing media optimization, code simplification, content distribution networks, lazy load techniques, and mobile-first designs, Wix’s infrastructure includes globally distributed CDNs, improving content delivery. Successfully improving Core Web Vitals (CWV) scores, Wix saw a 25% increase in sites with good CWV scores over a year. Real-world performance analysis of 909 Wix websites showed a wide range of page speed scores from 34/100 to 98/100, averaging 81.9/100, with the Largest Contentful Paint an important metric for website loading, ranged from 0.8 seconds to 3.5 seconds, with an average of 1.6 seconds.

Zenfolio, on the other hand, places a strong emphasis on mobile responsive design for website performance and page speed. However, it does not provide specific strategies for speed optimization, nor does it provide specific load times or PageSpeed score ranges. Additionally, Zenfolio does not provide any information on their Core Web Vitals improvements. Therefore, while Zenfolio may be a good choice for photographers and visual artists who need a simple, elegant, and mobile-friendly website, it may not be the best choice for those who prioritize website speed and performance.

🏆 Winner: Wix.

Wix scores 8.2, offering over 500 apps in its App Market that cover a wide range of functionalities. Zenfolio, with a score of 6.5, offers a focused set of plugins and integrations specifically designed for photographers. While Zenfolio’s plugins enhance its base capabilities, Wix’s plugins extend its functionality across various domains, making it more versatile.

Wix Applications

🏆

Overall Winner: Wix

. Wix stands out for its comprehensive marketing tools, especially in SEO, email marketing, and ad campaign management. Zenfolio, while offering a decent range of marketing features, is more limited in its SEO capabilities and blogging features.

🏆 Winner: Wix

. When comparing Wix vs Zenfolio, Wix takes the lead in customer support with a score of 8.2. Wix offers a variety of support channels, including 24/7 live chat in multiple languages, phone support (via callback service during business hours), and extensive forums. This ensures that users have access to assistance whenever they need it, making it a reliable choice for continuous support.

Zenfolio, on the other hand, scores 6.7 in customer support. It provides email support 365 days a year, LiveChat from Monday to Thursday, and phone support for Advanced plan subscribers during specific hours. While Zenfolio offers a rich Support Center with self-help resources, its limited live support hours and restricted phone support may not be as convenient for users needing immediate assistance.

🏆

Winner: Wix

. Wix prioritizes website and data security through secure servers, encryption, and compliance with privacy regulations. It also offers strict access controls, regular security audits, and additional features like two-factor authentication to enhance protection. Wix communicates transparently through clear privacy policies, practices data minimization, and empowers user control over their data.

Zenfolio also emphasizes security through SSL encryption for all its websites, ensuring safe data transmission. It provides SSL certificates for custom domains, necessitating appropriate DNS settings for activation. The platform also protects users’ work with watermarking, offers password-protected galleries to control access, and provides cloud backup for additional data protection. These measures highlight Zenfolio’s commitment to data protection, website security, and privacy, catering specifically to photographers and visual artists needing a secure display platform. However, it falls slightly short of Wix in terms of overall security score.

🏆 Winner: Wix

. Wix’s AI capabilities, particularly through its Artificial Design Intelligence (ADI)
system, are highly user-friendly and innovative. It excels in offering personalized website design suggestions, content
optimization, and streamlined site setup processes. Wix’s AI also assists in providing SEO recommendations and
layout adjustments based on user behavior.

Zenfolio, with a score of 2.4, has limited AI capabilities. Its main AI feature, PhotoRefine.ai, assists photographers in managing their photo collections. However, Zenfolio does not have an AI website builder, AI content generation features, or any other AI features. This makes Zenfolio less versatile in terms of AI capabilities compared to Wix.

🏆 Winner: Wix

. Wix and Zenfolio have different approaches to user management.

• Wix allows unlimited editors regardless of the plan, but caution is needed with 50+ editors to avoid potential
  backend performance issues. It excels for large, collaborative teams.
• Zenfolio, on the other hand, allows only one user to edit and manage a website.

Wix User Roles and Access Levels:

Zenfolio does not provide any information about user roles and access levels.

Additional Features

User Feedback

Wix, though well-regarded, caters to a diverse set of website requirements beyond just ecommerce. This inclusive strategy attracts a broad user audience but might not align as closely with individuals prioritizing advanced ecommerce features. With a G2 rating of 4.2/5 from 1641 reviews, users appreciate its user-friendly interface and range of customizable templates, making it a popular choice for various website needs.

Zenfolio, on the other hand, is specifically designed for professional photographers and visual artists. Users appreciate Zenfolio for its elegant and affordable site/portfolio designs, highlighting the platform’s suitability for showcasing and selling work online. Despite some criticisms regarding photo album handling and performance issues, Zenfolio’s integrated e-commerce capabilities and marketing tools are well-received. With a G2 rating of 4.2/5 from 3 reviews, it is valued for its ability to organize and share professional photographs and files.

FAQ