Wix has remained a strong presence on the website builder scene since 2006. The leading platform offers one of the simplest interfaces to use, amid a sea of competitors. Wix can be an excellent choice for newbies, freelancers, and small businesses. It's perfect for anyone looking for an easy way to make a professional-looking web page. Read our Wix review below.
OverviewWix offers users a full-service website building platform, aiming for simplicity. It is designed to make things easy for everyone to create a professional looking website – in no time at all.
The editor is highly intuitive, and it comes packed with a vast number of modern templates to choose from. Combined with add-ons from the Wix App store, users can create a clean, modern web page – and one that isn’t just static images and text.
What’s the best thing about using Wix?
With Wix, the best feature of the platform is that it’s so darn easy! You don’t need to have any know-how to use it at all. Wix is a solid choice for users with little to no technical or design experience. You can quickly create something that looks like it cost thousands of dollars to make, and all without spending weeks on it!
Who is Wix for?
We recommend Wix for small businesses who don’t require an online store or for hobbyists looking to get online. It is also very useful for designers, photographers, musicians, and others wanting to show their portfolio on the web.
So who isn’t Wix for? If you’re looking for more comprehensive control over your website, Wix may not be the best platform for you. Features such as editing code and exporting your site are absent for tech users.
How scalable is a Wix website?
Wix websites can contain up to 20GB of data. This is available for the most data-intensive Premium Plan. Unless you are hosting a wealth of large media files, or a large web of pages, this is more than enough. Start off with the 500MB and see how you go!
What sort of reputation does Wix have?
Most people already know Wix or at the very least have visited a Wix website. With over 73 million users and 45,000 new users daily, Wix is very popular. Reviewers rate the platform highly for usability.
And how safe is your data? Your website data is safe since your site is stored entirely on Wix’s secured servers. Wix’s security practices are TRUSTe certified for compliance with the TRUSTe certification program. Wix also complies with the EU and US-Swiss Safe Harbor Framework.
The usual internet safety rules apply. Always use virus protection software. Don’t click on untrusted links. Follow password safety regulations. Remain vigilant and be careful!
Does Wix have a money back guarantee?
You bet they do. All Premium Plans come with a standard 14-day money back guarantee which gives you piece of mind if you find out it can’t do what you want.
Key FeaturesThe experts absolutely love Wix. It comes highly recommended and is perhaps the most well-rated program on the market. Above all else, critics can’t say enough good things about the drag and drop editor. This intuitive tool helps to put
Wix in a league of its own when it comes to ease of use. Anyone can use Wix to design an attractive website and there are virtually no limitations to what you can do even if you don’t know code. Wix is so user friendly that critics describe it as fun to use. This isn’t something you hear often when it comes to software. Here are some of the unique features that critics particularly enjoy:
It seems that while experts have been critical of the new editor that are holding out on making a final verdict because they trust Wix to address the problems.
Prior to the update, users were almost unanimous in their praise of Wix. It was often described as the best drag and drop editor available on the market. Since its inception in 2006, Wix has simply continued to improve, add customers and earn accolades. In addition to the user friendly editor, users also enjoy:
Almost every positive consumer review gives Wix a 5-star rating. Up until a few months ago, it was difficult to find any reviews that didn’t give the program a perfect score.
Over the years, Wix has been a respected leader in eCommerce. Up until recently the only complaints against Wix seemed both rare and random. There simply weren’t any reoccurring problems that would even constitute a trend. Unfortunately, all that seems to have changed with a recent update.
Users are very outspoken about their dissatisfaction with the new editor. It has been described as slow, clunky and downright painful to use. The new editor has managed to create a lot of problems for the company. Their service tickets are now packed with complaints and problems, which appear to have overwhelmed the customer service department.
Those experiencing problems with the editor are also reporting problems contacting the help desk. In some cases, there is a two week wait just to talk to a human being. It sounds like Wix tried to fix something that wasn’t broken and managed to create a big headache.
Design & CustomizationFrom the moment you sign up for an account with Wix, all design options are clear and straightforward to follow. Initially, you choose a layout from over 510 professionally designed free website templates. These templates appear sorted into categories and sub-categories to help you find something appropriate. Take for instance the Business category. The high-level category then contains Consulting & Coaching, and Services & Maintenance sub-categories.
You can also choose to use blank templates in Wix. Why would you though with such a large selection of sleek, ready-made templates?! Each ready-made template is completely customizable – with no elements locked in place.
Once you’ve chosen your template, the Wix editor opens. All design elements sit on the page in a pure drag and drop format. Clicking on an element lets you resize it or drag it to a new position. You double click to edit it and format it. A right click gives you another menu with options such as copy and paste, undo, and arrange.
These three navigation bars give you everything you need to modify your existing template. The menus aren’t annoying, unlike some others which hide the page. They also feel familiar, like something you’ve already used before.
You can quickly add media from your computer or Facebook, Instagram, Google Drive, Flickr, and Picasa. The Media Manager stores all of your uploads in an online repository, making items easily available to reuse again. There’s also the option to do your photo editing with Wix, as it features a powerful inbuilt image editor. Wix caps image uploads at 250MB per image, and videos at 1GB per video. The platform automatically optimizes images for fast display when your site goes live.
The new version of the Wix editor can also use the modern strips feature. Strips is a horizontal layout you may already be familiar with. A parallax scrolling effect is selectable which gives your site a 3D active feel.
Unfortunately, the platform lacks the option to edit the website HTML or CSS code. However, you can build and add small custom HTML elements with the installable HTML app.
Like all online website builders, make sure to save your work often! This ensures you don’t lose any changes due to disrupted internet connections.
Features & Tools Which features make Wix stand out from the crowd? We’ve rounded up some helpful and some not-so-helpful parts of the Wix universe.
| Feature | Overview |
| Apps | We all need more apps! The Wix App market features over 260 apps to insert into your website. These apps are both paid and free and include the likes of YouTube, Live Chat and Tint for social feeds. These apps make the customization of Wix so much more personal. |
| Web Hosting | Wix exclusively hosts all website content on their servers. This means you don’t have to worry about using an external hosting service for your site. This also, in effect, means that you can’t optimize your site on the hosting side – a detractor for some. |
| Mobile Design | Wix doesn’t automatically optimize your desktop site for space in a mobile layout. It is easy, though, to switch to the desktop and mobile layouts to fix it up yourself. You can add a mobile action bar to the bottom of the mobile site. This mobile bar allows users quick access to email or call your business, or to locate it on a map. Be aware that only the mobile version of the site is available on mobile devices. There is no access to the desktop version. |
| Password protection | Wix offers the ability to protect each page of your site individually with a password. Neat! |
| List Builder | Wix’s List Builder is a simple database structure you can use to store data in. Use it to save repeating content such as events, or recipes. |
| SEO | SEO optimization can be utilized for contents such as page titles and meta descriptions. SEO optimization is limited in Wix blogs, though. |
| eCommerce Solution | The eCommerce suite on Wix isn’t great. In fact, we’d recommend using a different website builder altogether if you’re planning on selling online. Options like Shopify or Bigcommerce are far better for building your online shop. The main complaint about Wix online stores is that there is only the option for one flat shipping rate. Just one! This means whether you’re shipping a couch or a wooden bowl your shipping costs would have to be the same! If you’d like to do eCommerce using Wix, try an add-on app like Ecwid to increase functionality. |
| Website Security | Websites stored on Wix’s secure servers. Secure transmission of login and password details. TRUSTe certified. |
| Blog | Simple blogging platform only, not SEO friendly. |
| Gateway Integration | PayPal, WebMoney, Skrill, Authorize.Net, PayU Latam (Latin America only) or the Offline Payment option. |
| Mobile Optimization | Dedicated mobile editing page. |
| Custom Domain Name | Available with Premium plans only. |
| Wisitor Statistics | Google Analytics is available in paid plans, or with Web-Stats app in free plan. |
| Social Media Integration | Social bar and various apps. |
| Multiple Languages | The editor is available in 15 languages. Website text can be entered in all UTF8-compliant languages. |
Plans & Pricing The Wix Free Plan is a good place to start out – regardless of your current website situation or business motivations. Build your site using the Free Plan first before you decide whether to purchase a Premium Plan. Signing up for a package and then realizing the platform doesn’t suit your purposes is a rookie mistake!
Free Plan
Wix’s Free Plan offers the full range of Wix customizable templates and the full Wix editor. These are both provided entirely free of charge, forever!
For this privilege, Wix puts ads on your page. Your website address is also Wix-branded, appearing like http://username.wix.com/sitename. The Free Plan gives you 500MB of storage and 500MB bandwidth for your users to access your multimedia.
You shouldn’t use the Free plan option for a professional site – the Wix ads will cheapen the look of your site. The Free Plan should be only for personal projects or seeing if Wix is the right platform for you.
Premium Plans
Wix’s Premium Plans offer competitive pricing to similar platforms like Weebly and Squarespace.
All of Wix’s Premium Plans come backed with a 14-day money back guarantee and payment options are via Visa, MasterCard, American Express, or Discover cards.
Connect Domain Plan
$4/month (month to month)
The most basic option of Wix’s Premium Plans, the Connect Domain plan, is very limited in value. This plan includes higher bandwidth (1GB), Google Analytics, and premium support. It also gives you the ability to transfer your current domain to Wix. The Connect Domain plan will still show Wix advertisements.
Combo Plan
$8.25/month (yearly) $12.42/month (month to month)
Wix recommends the Combo plan for people that are using their Wix account for personal use – perhaps a hobby project or a family scrapbook? With a Combo plan, you automatically get everything in the Connect Domain plan. You also get your domain name, up to $75 of Google AdWords credits, and a customized favicon. Best of all, all Wix removes all advertisements from the site. The Combo plan has 3GB of storage space and 2MB bandwidth connection.
Unlimited Plan
$12.42/month (yearly) $22.90/month (month to month)
Wix’s Unlimited plan is perfect for freelancers or businesses that don’t need eCommerce. The plan contains everything in the Combo plan along with two clever business apps. These apps are the Form Builder App and the Site Booster app. It comes with a large 10GB of storage space and unlimited bandwidth, hence the name.
eCommerce Plan
$16.17/month (yearly) $24.90/month (month to month)
The eCommerce plan is the only choice for people wanting to use Wix to host their eCommerce site. The plan contains all the features of the Unlimited plan and adds an online store. Wix caps eCommerce plan storage at 20GB and bandwidth at 10GB.
Note: You can add the free and paid apps in any plan.
Customer Support Wix has a lot of custom built-in support. People who’ve purchased Premium Plans get extra love from the Wix team too.
We think that the best thing about Wix help is the question mark icon that appears on most items in the editor. From here, you can access the feature help page, along with a full video tutorial. And this is all without leaving the editor.
Free plan customers have access to this, along with everything in the Help Center. The Help Center includes walkthroughs, video tutorials and articles on various topics. There’s also a handy dedicated forum for Wix issues. The online support for the Wix platform is extensive.
Wix has a handy phone support line too. The Wix phone support line is available from 6 am to 5 pm Pacific Standard Time. You also have the option to schedule a call or take a ticket. Wix phone staff have a 95% customer satisfaction rating, with a median wait time of just 3 minutes. For Premium Members, there is a VIP team in place to take your calls.
Ease of Use The Wix editor is among the simplest website builders out there. It allows users to create a professional-looking website with zero technical experience.
The user interface is intuitive and extremely easy to use. The average user only takes around 20-30 minutes to master the basics – the learning curve is super fast. This means anyone can get a basic website up in the space of a few short hours. As mentioned before, the Question Mark icon displayed on all features in the Wix editor is a great help.
The simple drag and drop interface makes things easy. This makes a huge difference for people that haven’t tried website building before. Being able to arrange elements wherever you like makes things very simple for beginners.
The platform is limited in complete customization, though. Advanced users will likely find the platform setup restrictive. Wix is designed to be simple, not to be hugely extensible.
As for the site management side of things? Wix provides add-ons such as Google Analytics to track website performance.
And how does Wix perform in SEO optimization? Average, at best. The platform isn’t robust enough for those who want to drive lots of traffic to their site.
Conclusion Wix is so easy to use; your grandmother could get the hang of it. It offers a huge range of quick and professional templates that are fully customizable. The app store then extends the usability of your site.
This convenience has pushed out the option for technical customization. Wix users, unfortunately, aren’t able to change any of the backends in their sites. For this reason, we advise advanced users to consider a different website builder.
We recommend Wix for first-time websites, for those creating basic online portfolios, and for people who want to build their website without any technical or design knowledge. For anyone else you might like to check out some other options before you decide which website builder to choose.
Wix: It’s sleek, it’s simple, and it does its intended job for newbies.
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