Why build a website with Wix?

Why use Wix to build your next website? We’ll walk you through all the main pros, cons, pricing and features to help you decide whether Wix is the platform for you.

Wix is one of the better-known website building platforms currently out there – but is it the one for you?

Like Squarespace or WordPress.com, Wix is an “all-in-one” platform that provides all the tools and software to build a great website. Your website will live on Wix servers, so there’s no need to source third-party hosting or install additional plugins and apps separately. The whole idea is to give you maximum convenience without having to get your hands dirty with HTML coding or any other back-end management.

It’s kind of like living in a prefabricated house. You can paint and decorate it however you like, but the main structure can’t be changed. With your website, you control your content and have some freedom over customizing pre-built templates, but you do sacrifice full control and customization.

Speaking of building, everything is done through an intuitive drag-and-drop system that’s very beginner-friendly and allows you to design a basic, functional website in minutes.

So, who would be the ideal Wix user? Wix mainly caters its layouts and designs to small businesses, online stores, restaurants, artists and musicians.

Wix pricing plans: What’s it going to cost you?

Is Wix free? Well, yes, to an extent.

You can create a free account and keep it that way for as long as you want, similar to WordPress.com. However, if you want access to more premium features, like adding your own custom domain (which you’ll want if you’re using your site for a professional purpose), or e-commerce functionality, you’ll have to choose from one of their paid plans.

Here are the plan details, keep in mind that all prices are in U.S. dollars:

For $5/month, you get the basic “Connect Domain” plan. This lets you connect your own custom domain rather than using the free, default yourcoolwebsite.wix.com domain. This plan also displays Wix brand ads on your site.

Next up is the “Combo” plan at $10/month, which allows you to connect a custom domain, gives you a free domain for one year (if you register it with Wix), removes the Wix brand ads and serves up more bandwidth and storage. Wix recommends the “Combo” plan for personal use.

The most popular option is the “Unlimited” plan at $14/month, aimed at entrepreneurs and freelancers. This plan is ideal if you’ll need a lot of web space for content, such as photos, music or videos.

Next is the “VIP” plan at $29/month, that provides more apps – including a professional logo builder – and access to first-priority support response.

If you want to accept online payments, you’ll have to choose from three Wix Business and eCommerce plans.

At $20/month, the “Business Basic” plan gets you started with accepting online payments and a few other features like Google Analytics support, custom domains and unlimited bandwidth.

The most popular business/e-commerce plan is “Business Unlimited”, which gives you everything included in the “Business Basic” plan in addition to a professional logo builder app.

The top-end “Business VIP” plan comes in at $35/month and adds priority response and VIP tech support – so any questions or issues you might have are automatically pushed to the front of the queue.

A nice of feature of all the business and e-commerce plans is that they’re 100% commission-free – so you’re not giving up any percentage of your online sales. Get more details on Wix pricing and features here.

What are pros and cons of using Wix?

Let’s dive into the main advantages and disadvantages of choosing Wix as your web building platform.

Advantages of using Wix

Attractive, well-designed templates

Wix serves up over 500 premium, polished-looking templates that are designed to the latest standards. Even better – Wix regularly adds new designs to their template library, so there’s no shortage of promising options for your next website. Templates are further divided into 70 sub-categories, so you can home in on the designs that are most relevant to your business.

It’s very beginner-friendly and can literally design itself

Is Wix easy to use? In a word, yes. The drag-and-drop editing tools are intuitive and easy to understand. Wix offers a very robust support/FAQ section with introductory videos and step-by-step instructions in case you’re stumped.

AI-based website design can build your website for you

It’s true – you can turn the keys over to the Wix Artificial Design Intelligence (ADI) if you so choose. Here’s how it works. ADI will get started by prompting you with a few simple questions about the website you’re trying to create for your personal or business needs. For example, you might be a personal trainer creating a site for your business.

Based on what you tell it, ADI will choose from billions of design elements and combinations to create a fully custom, professional-looking website for you in minutes. If you have social media or another website kicking around, you can provide that info to ADI and it’ll incorporate content from your social media feeds and other website into your new Wix website.

According to Wix, no two sites created by ADI ever look the same. Once ADI has completed your design, you can still go in, tweak the colour scheme, add, change or rearrange content and even shift the overall layout until you’re fully happy with how things are looking.

Wix app market lets you add more features and functionality

Wix has its own built-in ecosystem of apps that can be installed to add specific features or functionality to your site. For instance, if you need a blog section, live chat or site search functionality, simply install the corresponding apps and you’re done. If you have something to sell, simply adding the Wix “Online Store” app lets you integrate with Amazon, Instagram and Facebook, accept payments and more.

Great extra features

Aside from its main web building tools, Wix provides a number of other internal tools (aside from the app market) that can be a major help. Here are a couple of highlights:

• Wix logo maker uses artificial intelligence technology to understand your needs and generate several professional-looking logos for you in minute.
• Wix SEO Wiz analyses your website and creates a personalized SEO plan for you to follow.

Robust customer support

Wix has a massive help center and knowledge with step-by-step instructions and even video tutorials in some cases. If you need to deal with someone directly, Wix does offer email or phone support – as well as a ticketing system. What you don’t get, however, is live chat support.

Great bang for the buck

Regardless of what paid plan you choose, Wix bundles in a surprising number of features and functionality – without requiring a bottomless budget. In addition, Wix’s pricing range tends to be lower than its direct competitors such as Squarespace, Weebly and WordPress.com.

Disadvantages of using Wix

You can’t swap templates once your website is live

Make sure you pick your template carefully right off the bat! If you change your mind later, there’s no transferring to a new template. Instead, you’ll have to manually transfer all your content over to whatever new template you pick.

Your site Wix site itself isn’t transferable to another platform

Simply put, if you sign on with Wix for all your website building needs, they basically have you forever. There’s no transferring your website to a different platform if you – say – grow out of the capabilities Wix offers. Unfortunately, you’ll be starting over again from scratch.

Wix isn’t the best solution for larger websites

If you’re looking to build a more content-heavy site, you may find Wix limiting. That’s because it only supports two levels of navigation – i.e., Recipes > Cookies – which can make managing larger sites inconvenient. Wix performs best with smaller, more streamlined sites.

The most basic $5 USD/month paid plan doesn’t remove ads from your website

To remove Wix-based ads from your site, you’ll have to pony up for the $10 USD/month “combo” plan.

You can’t buy a truly “unlimited” plan

Even at the most expensive website and business/e-commerce tiers, there are no plans that offer completely unlimited bandwidth or storage.

The easy-to-use drag and drop editing can cramp your style

Yes, Wix is extremely easy and intuitive to use for beginners. That said, its drag and drop editing functionality has its limitations in terms of customizing your site’s look and feel. there’s no adding in your own third-party apps or plugins beyond what’s already provided in the Wix app space.

We hope this overview provides more clarity around whether Wix is the right website building and content management platform for you. Ready to get started? Check our detailed step-by-step guide to building your first Wix website.