WordPress, Wix or Shopify, or build with AI?

01The options in plain English

WordPress is free, open-source software for building websites. Two different things share the name:

• WordPress.org is the software itself. You install it on hosting you rent, then add a theme (the design) and plugins (add-ons for forms, shops, bookings and more). You can change anything, and you're responsible for everything.
• WordPress.com is a service from Automattic that runs WordPress for you, with hosting, updates and backups included. It has a free plan, but adding plugins needs a paid one.

W3Techs, which tracks the software websites run on, counts WordPress on 39.5% of all websites at the time of writing (November 2026), against 5.3% for Shopify and 4.2% for Wix. You'll probably meet clients who use it.

Wix is a drag-and-drop website builder. You change a template on screen, and Wix hosts it. A Wix site only runs on Wix's servers: you can't move it to another host.

Shopify is built for selling online: product pages, a cart, checkout, stock and orders. It hosts your shop for a monthly fee.

Building with AI is what our course teaches. You plan in ChatGPT or Claude, build in Cursor, keep the code on GitHub and put the site live on Vercel, with Supabase for the database and Resend for emails. Our guide Cursor, ChatGPT or Claude? explains each tool.

02What each one costs in a year

Every option needs a domain, renewed yearly, and someone's time to build the site: yours or a designer's. Beyond that, the costs differ:

• WordPress hosting is often sold cheap for the first term, then renews at a much higher price, so ask for the renewal price. Many premium plugins are yearly licences too: let one lapse and you can lose its updates, including security fixes.
• Wix has a free plan, with a Wix address and Wix branding. Your own domain needs a paid plan, and payments need a higher one: at the time of writing, the cheapest paid plan, Light, can't take payments.
• Shopify is cheaper per month if you pay for a year. Apps can add their own monthly charges, and Shopify adds a fee to every sale paid through an outside payment provider, which is how shops in Ghana take online payments.

For a site built with AI, check each service's plan and terms. Free tiers have limits, and upgrading is the business's decision and cost. Prices change often, so check each company's pricing page before you quote a client. Our guide What a website really costs a small business in Ghana explains each part of the bill.

03Taking payments in Ghana

Online payments go through a payment gateway: a company that collects mobile money and card payments and pays the money out to the business. The account should be in the business's name, and the gateway checks the business's documents before paying out. It also takes a fee on each payment: Paystack's is 1.95% of each local payment in Ghana at the time of writing.

Paystack, for example, works with all four options, and takes mobile money from MTN, Telecel and AT:

• Shopify: Shopify Payments, Shopify's own payment service, isn't available in Ghana, so shops here use an outside provider. Paystack connects to Shopify for cards and mobile money. Shopify then adds its own fee on top of the gateway's: 2% of each sale on the Basic plan at the time of writing. With Paystack, fees come to nearly 4% of each sale.
• Wix: you need a plan that includes payments. Paystack connects to Wix in Ghana for cards and mobile money, and your currency on Wix must match your Paystack account.
• WordPress: WooCommerce, a free shop plugin, plus a gateway plugin. Paystack's official plugin lists mobile money in Ghana. Other Ghanaian gateways have plugins too, some made by outside developers. Before you trust one with a client's money, check its WordPress.org page: who made it, when it was last updated, and whether it's tested with the current WordPress.
• Built with AI: you connect the gateway through its API, the way your site talks to its system. Paystack and Moolre both offer one. It's more work than a plugin and needs careful testing, so price it as a separate job.

Integrations change, so confirm with the gateway first. How to create an online store in Ghana compares the providers that take mobile money and what each needs to open an account. And a site doesn't have to take payment from day one: it can take the order or booking, and the owner collects payment the way they already do.

04What clients in Ghana tend to ask for

Requests from small businesses here tend to be practical:

• A way to order or book, often next to a WhatsApp button, because many customers already buy by chat.
• Prices, hours and location that are easy to find on a phone, on mobile data.
• Mobile money, paid on the site or collected when the owner confirms the order.
• Changing their own prices and photos without calling you.
• A clear monthly cost, and someone to call when something breaks.

Match the tool to that list. Our guide What makes a website win customers for a local business covers the rest.

05Updates, plugins and security

Wix, Shopify and WordPress.com run the hosting and keep their platforms updated for you. Your jobs are strong passwords, two-step login, and care over which apps you add.

WordPress on your own hosting is your job, or your designer's: updating WordPress, the theme and every plugin, and keeping backups. Plugins are where most of the risk sits. Patchstack, a company that tracks WordPress security, counted 11,334 new vulnerabilities (security holes) in the WordPress world in 2025: 91% in plugins, 9% in themes, and only six in WordPress itself, all low priority. Use fewer plugins, choose well-maintained ones and update them often. You can switch on automatic updates plugin by plugin, but an update can break something, so keep backups.

A site built with AI has no plugins, but its code is built from packages written by other people, and those get security updates too, which someone has to apply.

Whoever builds the site, agree in writing who does the updates and what it costs each month.

06When building with AI makes more sense

• The business needs something specific. Bookings that work the way the salon works, orders that email the owner, a private page where the owner manages them. You build exactly that, instead of bending a plugin to fit.
• No cut of each sale. There's no builder plan to rent and no platform fee on sales. The business pays for its domain and its hosting (on Vercel, a business site needs the Pro plan), and for other services on plans that fit.
• Full control. You decide what loads, so pages stay light for phones on mobile data. The code can be handed over and moved to another host or designer.

07When it doesn't

• The owner wants to redesign pages alone, by drag and drop, with no designer to call. Wix or WordPress.com suits them better.
• It's a big shop, with hundreds of products, stock and delivery to manage. Shopify and WooCommerce are built for that.
• The client already has a WordPress site that works. Improving it may cost far less than starting again.
• Nobody will look after the code. A site built with AI needs someone for updates and changes. Without that person, a platform that updates itself is safer.

08Different tools for different jobs

There's no single best choice. As a rough guide:

• A simple site the owner edits alone: Wix or WordPress.com.
• A shop with many products: Shopify, or WordPress with WooCommerce.
• Custom features, with no cut of each sale: build it with AI.
• A WordPress site that already works: improve it.

If you're learning to build for clients, learn one way properly first. Building with AI shows you what sits under every website (pages, a database, emails, a domain), which helps on any platform.

If you own a business, ask any designer which tool they'd use and why, what you'll pay each year, who does the updates, and whether you can leave with your site.

09Learn to build with AI

Module 3 of the course, Project 1: Your Own Web Design Business Website, takes you from a written brief to your own five-page business website, built in Cursor and live on the internet. Later in the course you build a business site with orders, emails and an owner login. Module 0 is free, so you can see how the course teaches first, then look at the full course.