Wix.com Review: Seen This Website Builder on TV? We Put it to The Test.

The Wix website builder is one of many drag-and-drop builders on the market. So how do you decide whether it’s right for you? Or whether you should just go with WordPress?

In this review we’ll look at the Wix editor, app market, and competitors like Weebly. 

Plus we’ll clue you in on some very interesting dev features that have just been released. Let’s dive in!

Wix Introduction

Founded in 2006, Wix provides a cloud-based website builder that allows its users to easily create and launch a beautiful website.

Over the years, Wix has grown to serve 110 million users spread across 190 countries. Their website themes appeal to a wide variety of users, including artists, entrepreneurs/small business owners, brides, or students.

Wix keeps all the complex, “techy” processes behind the curtain, so you are left with a simple, fun, and code-free experience.

Pros and Cons

Pros

Wix comes with an abundance of features designed to get you up and running with a professional-looking website in as little time as possible.

This includes the Wix Artificial Design Intelligence (ADI) tool, which will build a website for you based on on information it pulls from your onloine social media profiles.

Also: you get access to over 500 designer templates and advanced customization features that do not require coding.

Cons

One of the biggest downsides to Wix, however, is its price. While there is a free plan, you’ll need to subscribe to get access to premium features and the removal of banner ads saying you built your site with Wix.

Website Builder Overview

Wix boasts the only drag-and-drop website building platform with HTML5 capabilities, over 500 designer-made templates, top-notch hosting, and apps to extend the feature set and functionality of your website.

Most of the functionality mentioned exists in Wix’s free option. But Wix does offer several paid subscription plans that get you additional (premium) features.

Let’s take an in-depth look at what you get (free of charge!) from Wix and how it can help you create the website you are envisioning.

User-Friendly Drag-and-Drop Tool

The Wix editor makes it easy to customize your site exactly the way you want by providing an intuitive drag-and-drop tool.

Simply choose a content block to add, click and drag it onto your website display.

Free Web Hosting

All sites built using Wix come with basic (but reliable) web hosting, so this is one less step you have to take care of on your own.

You’ll also get a free Wix subdomain name, but you can easily purchase a custom domain and have it point to your Wix website.

App Market: Tools to Customize Your Site

The App Market is the home of free tools and services you can take advantage of to extend the functionality and feature-set of your website.

What can you do with apps? Some options include adding a photo gallery, events calendar, social media integrations, blog, and e-commerce tools (such as product catalogs and shopping carts).

Wix Plans and Features

Wix offers two types of subscription plans: “Website plans” and “Business & eCommerce plans.”

The Website plans are geared toward individuals, entrepreneurs, and freelancers who aren’t looking to sell online.

These plans include varying resource allocations (eg, bandwidth and storage), removal of Wix banner ads, and a custom domain name. More expensive packages get you ad vouchers to jumpstart your marketing campaign, apps like Form Builder and Events Calendar, and more.

If getting VIP support is important for you, this is something you can opt for as well.

Those who are interested in selling online would do well with one of the Business & eCommerce plans, which is discussed below.

Wix Artificial Design Intelligence

One noteworthy feature offered by Wix is its Artificial Design Intelligence capability, which can help you build a full, single-page site after you answer just a few questions about what you’re looking for.

Your design is custom, your content tailor-made, and you’ll get a mobile- and SEO-friendly website.

The only thing left for you to do is to customize the colors and fonts you want for your website.

Design and Build

When designing your site, Wix makes it as easy as possible to build something that is beautiful and functional.

The foundation of all Wix sites is the template, and Wix currently offers over 500 different options from which you can choose. Additionally, Wix offers the following:

• Library of stock images: if you need more images for your website, you can take advantage of Wix’s stock image library, where there are millions of professional, high-resolution photos you can use free of charge.
• Image Editor: Edit and improve your image, as well as optimize it so it loads as quickly as possible for your users.
• Video Backgrounds: use a video (either one that you’ve created or one from Wix’s stock video library) instead of a static image as your background.
• Parallax 3D Effects: add a third dimension to your site to wow your visitors.
• Embed HTML Code: you are probably eager to use your newly-developed HTML chops instead of letting Wix’s drag-and-drop website editor do all of the heavy lifting. So take advantage of Wix’s embed HTML code functionality. You can write HTML into the provided text editor window to extend your site’s functionality.
• Single-Page Websites: rather than separating all of your content onto multiple pages, Wix makes it easy to build single-page websites that contain all of your information in separate segments.

By default, all websites are mobile-friendly, so your site will look good no matter what screen size it’s seen on.

Corvid By Wix: For Devs

Developers will definitely want to check out Wix’s new Corvid technology, released in April 2019.

It enables you to rapidly create web apps using serverless Node.js, a set of Wix dev tools, and Wix’s API. You can also connect to external APIs. This is a significant expansion of what Wix offers developers.

Check out the possibilities in this overview video below. And check the Wix YouTube channel for more Corvid how-tos.

Blogging and Social Media

Blogs are very popular, and you can easily add blogging functionality to your website with Wix.

You can also integrate with all of your social media accounts, letting your visitors follow you on various platforms.

Such integrations also have the benefit of keeping your website content fresh without requiring you to update the website itself.

Business Tools

In addition, to design and content tools, you’ll get what you need to grow your website and keep track of those who are visiting and interacting with you. These tools include:

• Contact Manager: have all the details related to your contacts, customers, website members, and subscribers organized in one place
• SEO Wizard: use the right search phrases and keywords to target your visitors and improve your rankings on search engines (which results in more people coming to your site)
• Communication Tools: communicate with your visitors to build engagement and increase the likelihood they’ll return to your site
• Eventbrite: if you put on events, Eventbrite allows you to showcase and sell tickets to your event. You can also share your event easily via social media
• G-Suite Email: if you’re using a custom domain with your Wix site, you can get a matching email address.

E-Commerce

Are you interested in setting up a store to sell products or services? Maybe you’re looking to see your handknit sweaters, digital prints, or business services — Wix comes with e-commerce functionality.

You can easily create, manage, and promote your online store, accept payments using any number of payment methods (such as PayPal, credit cards, offline payments, and more).

Wix also comes with calculators for things like shipping and location-based taxes.

Finally, you can create a mobile app for your online store instantly. More and more people are shopping using their mobile devices, so you won’t want to miss out on these users.

Wix is a product that’s constantly evolving. You can expect regular updates to the platform.

Wix Plan Comparison

Wix offers a completely free option, so if you’re on a strict (read: nonexistent) budget, you can still set up a beautiful, functional website.

However, if you’d like a bit more, Wix offers five different premium plans from which you can choose. Here’s an overview of your options:

The entry-level option ups your bandwidth maximum to 1 GB and storage to 500 MB. You’ll also be able to connect a custom domain to your account, but you will still see Wix advertisements on your page.

The mid-range plans add things like increased storage and bandwidth maximums, free domain names, and the removal of Wix advertisements from your website.

The high-end plans also include everything we’ve already mentioned, plus marketing and advertising credits, premium apps for use with your website, support for e-commerce, and priority support (including faster response times).

You’ll also get a site review to ensure that everything is in tip-top shape.

Email

Wix sells email services so you can get an email address whose domain matches that of your website.

Their email services are powered by G-Suite and all accounts are hosted in the Google Cloud.

Your new email account comes with the following features:

• 25 GB of inbox storage
• 5 GB of cloud storage
• Calendar and Docs tools
• No inbox advertisements
• 99% uptime guarantee
• 24/7 technical support
• Mobile device management.

Customer Service and Technical Support

If you ever have any questions, comments, or concerns, you can get in touch with the Wix customer service team Monday through Friday from 5 AM to 5 PM Pacific Time if you want service in English, Spanish, or Portuguese.

If you would like to speak to someone in Italian, you can do so from Monday through Friday between 8 AM and 5 PM GMT+1.

You can get support via telephone or via support ticket.

Online Resources

Those who prefer to DIY will find the Wix Help Center useful. In addition to being fully searchable, Wix categorizes helpful articles by topic. Content-wise, Wix offers the following types of resources:

• Walkthroughs: step-by-step video guides that show you how to do something from the beginning to the end.
• Knowledgebase: search for answers to your questions in Wix’s in-depth, well-maintained knowledgebase.

Domain Names

If you don’t have a custom domain name, you can purchase one from Wix.

You can choose from 33 types of extensions. This gives you quite a variety beyond the typical .com, .net, or .org.

If you already have a domain name, and you want to use it with your new Wix website, the Wix team can help you transfer your domain name from your host.

Wix also sells domain privacy, which means that your personal information (name, address, phone number, and so on) are hidden when your domain is registered in public records.

User Reviews

Over 45 current and past users give Wix a rating of 3.7 out of 5, generally finding the product quality and features above average.

Where the company falters, however, is its support offering and value it offers its customers.

Get Started Now With Our Exclusive Link

Ready to get started with Wix? Use our exclusive link to save on your first purchase of a Wix subscription. Visit Wix now.

Wix vs Squarespace

Wix and Squarespace are similar in that both provide all-in-one website building options where you get everything you need to build a professional looking website.

Both companies boast professional-looking templates and easy-to-use design interface (with some drag-and-drop functionality) that can be used by anyone, regardless of technical skill.

Selection of Templates

Wix, however, appears to have a larger selection of templates, while Squarespace’s options, to our eyes at least, seem to be more modern and better designed.

Pricing and Support

Squarespace is more expensive (but only marginally) and offers fewer pricing plans to choose from. Wix, however, trails Squarespace in terms of support offered — Squarespace offers top-notch support, while Wix’s support can be problematic for its users.

Other Sitebuilders: Weebly, Shopify, and WordPress.com

Squarespace, however, isn’t the only all-in-one website building platform around.

Other options you might consider include Weebly, which is very similar to Wix and Squarespace, Shopify, and WordPress.com.

Summary

Wix is a simple, easy-to-use website builder that is certainly a solid option for those getting started with their first website. Their robust free option means that you can get up and running with only a time investment, but you’re welcome to upgrade at a point to gain access to additional features.

However, you’re not locked into the features offered by the drag and drop website editor — Wix allows you to extend the functionality of your site with your own code, so you’re certainly able to try out your new HTML skills.

If this sounds good, view Wix.com now.

Your Wix.com Review

Are you a current or past customer of Wix? Would you recommend them? Please leave your comments below and let our visitors know what you think of Wix’s speed, features and customer service.

Visit Wix Now

Contributing editor: Frank Moraes.

Katie Horne

Katie began her tech career as a C# developer before turning her hand to technical writing. She still codes regularly but these days she can be found writing about web development, coding and technology for HTML.com and our sister websites.