What is Wix?
Wix empowers individuals without coding skills to effortlessly create their own website or online store using its user-friendly website-building tool.
Wix operates as a fully-hosted solution, meaning it runs on Wix's servers in the cloud. This eliminates the need for installing software or purchasing hosting services.
If you have an internet-connected web browser, you can effortlessly build, maintain, and promote your Wix website from any location.
Wix statistics / Userbase
Wix, a website builder company established in Israel in 2006, has grown into one of the industry giants with a workforce of 5,000 employees. Its extensive user community is equally impressive, as estimated by internet statistics firm Builtwith.com, boasting over 8.5 million websites powered by Wix.
This places Wix ahead of its competitors such as Squarespace, Shopify, Jimdo, and Weebly, all of which have significantly smaller user bases.
The substantial size and widespread user adoption of Wix carry significant advantages. It minimizes the risk of the company folding, which could potentially result in the loss of your website. Additionally, it ensures you can anticipate regular feature updates to enhance your website-building experience.
Wix rating at a glance
Wix reviews are mostly positive, with users appreciating its ease of use and straightforward setup. While there are some complaints regarding software constraints like the inability to switch templates after a website is published or storage limitations, these factors were taken into consideration when determining our overall score.
Wix pricing Is Wix free?
There is a free version of the Wix website builder available that allows you to create a simple site but it...
is ad-supported — and the ads are quite noticeable
doesn’t let you build an online store
doesn’t let you use Google Analytics to access your web stats
prevents you from connecting a domain name to your website.
When it comes to creating a website for events like a 50th birthday party, wedding, or community garage sale, the Wix free plan can serve the purpose adequately. However, it's important to note that due to its lack of advanced features and the prominent display of Wix advertisements, it may not be the ideal choice for users with professional requirements.
The Wix advertising displayed on the free plan is intrusive.
Nevertheless, the Wix-free plan comes with several noteworthy advantages. Firstly, it offers full access to the expansive library of 800+ Wix templates, allowing you to choose the perfect design for your website. Hosting services are also included, ensuring that your website remains accessible to visitors. It also lets you use all of the images, clip art, and icons provided by Wix, and add apps from the Wix app market (more on this later).
In terms of resources, the free plan offers 500MB of storage and 500MB bandwidth, which should be ample for managing a small-scale website with moderate traffic. The best part is that you can enjoy these features and benefits without the need to provide any credit card details, making it a hassle-free option for users.
Wix premium plans
Let's delve into the realm of Wix's paid plans, where the fees can vary slightly based on the country but generally adhere to a consistent naming and pricing pattern.
In the United States, there are a diverse range of eight paid Wix plans at your disposal, neatly organized into three distinct categories: 'Website,' 'Business and Ecommerce,' and 'Enterprise.'
The Wix enterprise plan starts from $500 per month
All these plans let you connect your own domain name to your Wix site (yoursitename.com etc.), make use of unlimited bandwidth, and importantly, don’t feature any Wix advertising.
Wix Templates
With a generous selection of over 870 templates, Wix surpasses its main competitor, Squarespace, which provides only 155 options. The notable advantage is that all Wix templates are available for free, distinguishing it from competing online store builders such as Shopify and BigCommerce, where templates may come at a cost.
The Wix templates exhibit a professional and visually captivating aesthetic. By thoughtfully populating them with content, Wix websites can effortlessly avoid the appearance of a generic 'do-it-yourself' creation.
Moreover, the templates employ effective utilization of spacing and typefaces, resulting in impactful designs. They excel particularly when combined with high-quality photographs or captivating video backgrounds.
Core Functionality
A Wix website can be used for:
publishing text, image, and video content
blogging
building an online store
appointment booking
collecting contact details
and more.
Content management, ease of use, and interface
Wix offers three main options for building websites:
Wix Artificial Design Intelligence (ADI)
Wix Editor
‘Velo by Wix’ (formerly ‘Corvid’)
When you start using Wix, you are given the option to choose either an ‘Editor’ site (the first option in the screenshot below) or an ‘ADI’ one (the second).
Let’s take a look at these different versions of Wix, starting with ADI.
Wix Artificial Design Intelligence (ADI)
Wix ADI is designed with the goal of simplifying website building, catering to individuals who may feel averse to computers or lack IT expertise.
By posing fundamental inquiries and gathering available information about your business from the online realm, Wix ADI constructs your website seamlessly.
The editing process utilizes an intuitive drag-and-drop interface, which takes care of page layout automatically (see the video below for a demonstration). For individuals who are completely new to web design and seek a straightforward solution, Wix ADI is likely the optimal choice.
One notable advantage of Wix ADI is the ability to convert websites created with it to the Wix Editor format at a later stage. This means that if you eventually require more advanced functionalities and outgrow the capabilities of Wix ADI, you have the flexibility to transition to one of the more sophisticated versions of Wix.
Wix editor
The Wix Editor serves as the default version of Wix, granting users significantly greater control over the design and features of their websites compared to ADI. In terms of complexity, it can be likened to using Microsoft Word for creating a newsletter layout—relatively user-friendly and straightforward.
The 'Wix Editor' interface
Velo by Wix
The developer-oriented version of Wix, known as 'Velo by Wix' (formerly 'Corvid by Wix'), caters to developers by offering access to Wix code, databases, and APIs (Application Programming Interfaces). This enables developers to craft highly customized Wix websites and create bespoke applications to meet specific requirements.
Who Should Use Wix?
Wix showcases an impressive array of layouts meticulously crafted for small businesses, restaurants, online stores, and creative professionals such as musicians and photographers. These layouts are specifically optimized for seamless viewing on mobile devices and can be enhanced with the vast selection of apps available through the Wix App Market.
In many ways, Wix can be likened to a pre-built house: the foundational structure is predetermined and unalterable. However, you have the freedom to personalize it to your liking by painting the walls (selecting a theme) and furnishing it with the furniture you adore (utilizing photo galleries and other apps, which you can learn about in our Wix tutorial).
Compared to other website builders we have evaluated, such as GoDaddy and Jimdo, Wix offers an unparalleled level of flexibility. Therefore, if you prefer a more standard web design aesthetic, you may find Wix and the aforementioned website builders to be easier options to work with.
Wix review FAQs
Can I use Wix for free?
You can use a cut-down version of Wix for free, and this is a good way to try the platform out. However, it displays prominent Wix ads on your website and doesn’t let you sell any products.
What are the advantages of using Wix?
The main advantages of Wix are that it is affordable, feature-rich, user-friendly, and comes with a well-rounded set of e-commerce features. This makes it a good website-building option for a small business owner on a low budget.
What are the disadvantages of using Wix?
The main disadvantages of Wix are the fact that you can’t produce truly responsive websites with it; it doesn’t let you switch templates; and it doesn’t facilitate checkout in multiple currencies.
Is Wix better than WordPress?
In technical terms, the self-hosted version of WordPress possesses greater power and flexibility compared to Wix. However, creating a website with it usually involves a steeper learning curve, and unlike Wix, it doesn’t feature built-in e-commerce tools or come with support. For individuals constructing their own websites without technical expertise, Wix often presents a simpler choice.