Wix is used by 2.4% of all websites who use a content management system (CMS) around the world. It’s gained a lot of popularity due to its affordable pricing structure and easy-to-use interface. Our Wix review shows that Wix is one of the most popular website builders for beginners, offering a drag and drop site builder with hundreds of free templates.
When you sign up for Wix, you get a free domain name (under some plans), as well as free web hosting. Users will have access to plenty of mobile-friendly templates and a hefty App Market so you can expand your website’s functionality.
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Wix Review: Who Is Wix Suitable For?
Although Wix is often used as a starting point for people creating their first websites, they are also used by big companies and well-known brand names. Wix offers beautiful website templates for blogs, restaurants, musicians, photographers, online stores, and lots more.
All of Wix’s templates are mobile-optimized, so your website will look great on any device. You can edit your mobile site separately to your desktop site if you want to make distinctly different websites for all platforms.
Wix offers the foundations for a great website; hosting, domains, templates, and features. You can add as much or as little customization as you want, as well as expanding your website’s functionality through their App Market.
If you’re thinking of creating a Wix website, I’d recommend them for:
- Websites that need to be launched quickly
- Beginners who have never created a website before
- Blogs, personal websites, and portfolios
- Small businesses and companies
- Membership websites and forums
Wix Review: Pricing And Plans
Wix is a free website builder that also offers premium pricing plans. You can use Wix’s free plan for as long as you want, but you’ll be limited on certain features like:
- Wix subdomain (e.g. username.wixsite.com/siteaddress)
- Wix ads
- Limited storage and bandwidth (up to 500MB)
- No option for online payments or Google Analytics
Note: You can read our full Wix pricing guide for 2023 in the blog section of our website. We cover the full details of each of Wix’s pricing plans including websites and eCommerce, as well as which plan is suitable for you depending on your requirements.
Wix Review: Pros and Cons
Wix is a highly recommended website builder that offers plenty of fantastic features for most types of websites. However, that doesn’t mean it’s all rainbows and unicorns; it does have some flaws. We’ve signed up to Wix and personally tested all of their features and tools to give you an idea of what’s great and what could be improved upon.
Pros
- Wix offers fantastic website templates that are pre-built and ready for you to use. They are mobile-optimized and cover a range of industries.
- Wix is very flexible, allowing you to customize your website just the way you like it. Whether you want to add images, sliders, forums, blogs, etc. all the tools are there for you to leverage.
- Wix’s App Market has a wide range of apps that you can add to your website. These include paid and free options, from live chat software to online booking systems.
- When you sign up to Wix you can choose to design your website from a template using Wix’s Editor or use Wix ADI. Their Artificial Design Intelligence app allows you to create your website from a few basic questions, generating a design just for you.
- Wix automatically creates backups of your website so you can restore it to historic points if anything goes wrong.
Cons
- Wix is a relatively expensive website builder when you compare the features that are included in each pricing plan. While they do offer a free plan, it’s very limited, and in comparison to some other website builders, the Combo plan at $14 per month is a little on the pricey side.
- Once you’ve chosen a template and started adding content to your website, you can’t easily change it. You can customize your template but if you want a new template entirely you’ll have to start over.
- Wix website loading times generally appear to be slower, especially on mobile devices, when compared to a WordPress website or HTML site.
Wix Rating
Wix Features
Wix offers plenty of features to create your professional website. This ranges from a free domain name to the ability to take payment and sell products/services on your website. Let’s take a look at Wix’s top features to see if they’re suitable for your needs.
Domains
If you sign up to Wix’s Combo plan or above (starting at $14 per month), you’ll get a free domain name for the first year. You can choose from the following domain extensions: .com, .org, .net, .co.uk, and .info. If you decide to renew your domain with Wix, prices start from $14.95 per year. Alternatively, you can connect your existing domain to your website and point it to Wix.
Widgets/Apps
Wix’s App Market is plentify, offering apps like Wix Music so you can promote and sell your music online, to Wix Bookings that allow your customers to book appointments, shows, and events. There’s everything on offer, from maps to social media icons, and lots more. Wix’s App Market is easy to navigate and each app comes with its own description so you know what you’re installing on your site.
eCommerce
Selecting one of Wix’s Business and eCommerce plans will allow you to create an online store. Prices start from $23 per month where you can sell digital and physical goods online. Wix’s eCommerce tools are very flexible making it easy to add/remove products at work, home, or on the go. If you want to save money and offer more payment options, you can use Wix Payments which is available via their App Market.
SEO
If you’ve never heard of SEO or feel a little overwhelmed by the concept, Wix’s SEO tools are incredibly helpful. Wix has made huge improvements to their SEO features in recent years, allowing you to edit page titles, meta descriptions, image alt tags, and add 301 redirects (among many more). Beginners can make use of Wix’s SEO Wiz which will give you a guided tutorial to getting started.
Security
All of Wix’s pricing plans include a free SSL certificate which means your website will send/receive data over HTTPS. This is especially important if you ask for or store personal details and payment information. Wix also provides automatic backups and restores of your website if something goes wrong, as well as offering the option to protect your website or webpages with passwords and members-only pages.
Support
Wix’s support center is packed full of documentation and guides to help you if you’re stuck. There’s so much information on there, covering the Wix Editor, widgets, and lots more. You can visit their FAQs, email them for support, or give them a call. The only real issue with Wix is that they don’t offer a live chat option if you need help straight away.
Wix Alternatives
If you’re not sure whether Wix is right for you, there are plenty of alternative website builders you can choose from. We’ve listed a few of our favorite recommendations below.
Note: We sign up and test all of our recommendations to give you an honest and accurate opinion of their features, pricing, and pros and cons.
Weebly
Weebly is a beginner-friendly website builder with a free plan. It's incredibly intuitive and suitable for blogs, personal websites, and small businesses. Weebly's templates aren't as stunning as Wix's, but they're certainly good enough for a professional website.
SquareSpace
If you're searching for the best website templates, SquareSpace has you covered. SquareSpace is ideal for blogs and personal portfolios for photographers and artists. Their editor takes a little more getting used to in comparison to Wix, but their support is incredibly knowledgeable and fast.
WordPress
WordPress isn't a website builder in the sense that Wix is, but it's an incredibly powerful CMS that shouldn't be discounted. WordPress offers thousands of free themes and plugins as well as eCommerce capability with WooCommerce that offers almost endless customization.
Is Wix The Right Website Builder For You?
After reading this Wix review, and if you were to ask me whether I recommend Wix, then the answer is YES!
Wix is an incredibly intuitive website builder that’s easy to use, allowing you to get your website online within a matter of hours. It caters to a wide range of users, not just beginners. If you want specific functionality on your website then you can use Wix ADI which will build a template just for you.
For those that feel more confident in customizing their websites, the options are available and increidbly detailed, even enabling you to code your website in HTML.
Whether you’re creating a basic blogging website or an eCommerce store, Wix’s pricing plans have something to suit most budgets (though their starting prices are a little expensive compared to other site builders).
I highly recommend Wix for:
- Beautifully designed templates that suit a range of industries
- Photographers who want to showcase their work
- Musicians who want to sell their music online
- Plenty of customization
- Small businesses and online stores