Wix Pipelines: The Differences Between Pipelines and Workflows

Understanding the main differences between Pipelines and Workflows helps you choose the right tool for your business process. 

A pipeline is a visual board where you can track every opportunity or client as they move through your business process. 

Every opportunity or lead appears as a card. Cards contain all the important information you need to keep track of, like client details, due dates, and linked assets. Stages are the steps in your process—each card moves through these stages as you work towards closing a deal or finishing a task.

Each pipeline is divided into stages—like "New lead," "Lead assigned," or "Proposal & negotiation"—which you can see as columns across your board. As you make progress with a lead or client, you move their card from one stage to the next using simple drag-and-drop actions.

Pipelines and Workflows are both tools for managing business processes, but they serve different needs and offer unique levels of flexibility. 

Workflows provide a ready-made, streamlined path for common business tasks, making them easy to set up and use. Pipelines, on the other hand, are designed for sales and client management, offering more customization, advanced automation, and detailed tracking. Pipelines expand on the core functionality of Workflows, letting you tailor every step, field, and automation to fit your team's exact process.

Every opportunity or lead appears as a card. Cards contain all the valuable information you need to keep track of.

Pipelines offer advanced customization, letting you assign cards, add custom fields, and link various assets or services. Workflows provide a more streamlined experience, with simpler fields and direct links to contacts. 

 In Workflows, each card includes only a basic title field, while Pipelines cards offer more details such as name, value, description, outcome, priority, and due date. Tags in Workflows are inherited from connected contacts, but Pipelines cards can have dedicated tags. 

Unlike Workflows, Pipelines allow you to assign cards to team members and add custom fields. Workflows require each card to have exactly one linked contact, while Pipelines cards can have none or one, offering more flexibility. 

Pipelines also support linking cards to assets like invoices, price quotes, and form submissions, and can connect to inquiry services—features not available in Workflows. This demonstrates how Pipelines provide a more customizable and feature-rich way to manage your cards.

Compare the card features for Workflows and Pipelines in the table below: 

Stages are the steps in your process. Each card moves through these stages as you work towards closing a deal.

Both Workflows and Pipelines let you create customized stages for your process. However, Workflows finish with an 'Archive' stage, while Pipelines have a dedicated 'Done' stage. Only Pipelines let you set a main call to action (CTA) that is defined and customizable for each stage. 

When it comes to templates, Workflows give you eight different options, while Pipelines offer a single sales-focused template. For reporting, Workflows provide basic stage counts, but Pipelines let you track both the count and total value of cards in each stage, making it easier to measure performance and sales progress.

Compare the stage features for Workflows and Pipelines in the table below: 

Workflows offer more basic automation, allowing you to trigger actions when a card is added or moved, and letting you move a workflow card as the available action. Pipelines provide a wider range of automation triggers, such as when a new card is created, a card is moved to a stage, a card is assigned or unassigned, or when a card is updated. 

Pipelines also support additional actions, including creating new cards, updating card details, moving cards to stages, and finding matching cards. In addition, Pipelines come with three built-in automations that are ready to use as soon as you set up your pipeline, while Workflows do not have any automations automatically installed. 

Compare the automation features for Workflows and Pipelines in the table below: