Review of Wix Website Builder. Pros and Cons of this Popular Website Builder

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We take a look at Wix, one of the most popular website builders on the internet, in this section of our review. We have extensively evaluated the platform’s interface, templates, ecommerce features, and marketing tools, and in this post we will discuss all of the platform’s most important advantages and disadvantages.

Continue reading to find out whether or not Wix is a good choice for your project, as well as whether or not you would be better off using an alternative.

Let’s get started with an important question…

Wix: What is it?

Wix is a website building tool that aims to enable non-programmers to create their own websites and online stores without the need for coding knowledge.

Because it is a hosted solution, it operates on its own servers “in the cloud,” another term for the internet. Therefore, there is no software that you need to install anywhere, and there is no hosting that you need to purchase.

You can create, maintain, and promote a Wix website as long as you have a web browser and access to the internet. Wix is an all-in-one website builder.

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An illustration of a Wix theme created to appeal to the market for life coaches. Wix is primarily a platform for small businesses, or "solopreneurs," as opposed to large corporations.

How popular is Wix’s website builder?

Wix is one of the website builder companies that has been around for a while. It was established in Israel in 2006, and the company now has 5,000 employees. Builtwith.com, an internet statistics company, estimates that it currently powers slightly less than 8 million websites. This indicates that it has a very large user base.

This makes it a larger operation than many of its rival platforms, including Squarespace, Jimdo, and Weebly, all of which have significantly smaller userbases than it does.

It is important that Wix has a large user base because this lowers the likelihood that the company will go out of business, taking your website with it.

It also indicates that you can anticipate regular updates to the features.

Does Wix offer all the features I require for my website?

One can use a website created with Wix for:

  • Content publication including text, images, and videos.
  • Blogging.
  • Establishing an online storefront.
  • Reservations for scheduled events.
  • Collecting contact details.
  • And even more.

You will, however, be required to pay in order to make use of some of these features, which brings us to the topic of pricing for Wix.

Let’s take a gander at that, shall we?

Pricing for Wix

Wix: is it free?

You can create a basic website using the website builder that Wix offers for free. This version of the builder is only available for personal use. You can get a feel for the functionality of the platform in a…

  • Is funded by ads (and the ads are quite noticeable).
  • Doesn’t let you build an online store.
  • Does not allow you to access your web statistics using Google Analytics.
  • makes it impossible for you to link a domain name to your website.

If you need a website to accompany a 50th birthday party, wedding, or small community garage sale, the free plan is totally fine; however, due to the lack of features, and the in-your-face Wix ads, it’s not really an option for professional users. If you need a website to accompany a small community garage sale, the free plan is totally fine.

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The instructive Wix advertising that appears on the free plan.

On the other hand, the Wix free plan grants you access to all of the platform’s more than 800 available templates and includes hosting for your website.

In addition to that, it enables you to utilize all of the images, clip art, and icons that are provided by Wix, and it also enables you to add applications from the Wix app market (more on this later).

On the free plan, you have access to 500 MB of storage space and 500 MB of bandwidth. If you have a small website with relatively little traffic, these limits should work just fine. You can use the free plan without having to supply any information about your credit card at any time.

Wix premium plans

Moving on to Wix’s paid plans, these vary from country to country but typically have fairly consistent naming conventions and pricing structures.

There are a total of eight paid plans available in the United States, and they can be broken down into the following three categories: ‘Website,’ ‘Business and Ecommerce,’ and ‘Enterprise.’

Website plans

  • Combo: $16 monthly
  • Unlimited: $22 monthly
  • Pro: $27 monthly
  • VIP: $45 monthly

Business and Ecommerce plans

  • Business Basic: $27 monthly
  • Business Unlimited: $32 monthly
  • Business VIP:  $59 monthly

Enterprise plans

  • Wix Enterprise (from $500 per month)

You are able to connect a custom domain name, make use of an unlimited amount of bandwidth, and there is no Wix advertising included with any of these plans.

On its website, Wix advertises monthly fees as high as those listed above; however, in order to receive these discounts, annual payments are required.

If you pay on a month-to-month basis, the fees will be more expensive; however, if you pay for two or three years’ worth of service up front, you will receive very generous discounts.

In addition, once you have started a free trial, Wix will typically begin sending you email offers that contain very generous discounts (these discounts can go as high as 50% off).

The following are the primary distinctions between the premium plans offered by Wix:

  • Ecommerce. The business plan, the ecommerce plan, and the enterprise plan are the only ones that offer selling features.
  • Storage (text, video, images etc.). This varies depending on the plan; typically, the higher the monthly fee, the more features you can expect to receive.
  • Use of specific Wix applications. The more expensive plans include a “site booster” app that enables you to submit your website to directories, an events calendar app, and a logo-making app. Additionally, the more expensive plans have more storage space.
  • Video hours. The higher your monthly subscription fee, the more video content you’ll be able to upload to your Wix website and sell from it.
  • Support. If you are on either the VIP or the Enterprise plan, you will have access to premium support.
  • Domain names. If you sign up for a Wix plan and pay for it on an annual basis, you are entitled to one free year of registration for a custom domain name (yoursitename.com etc.).
  • Mailboxes. You have the option of purchasing email mailboxes through Wix, which are then provided by Google Workspace. Alternatively, you can configure the DNS settings of your Wix domain so that your preferred email address solution can be used.

As we progress through the review, we are going to look into these distinctions in greater depth.

A few words about the “Wix Enterprise” plan: this Wix subscription service is geared toward business users and provides heightened levels of security, enhanced levels of personalized support, and access to web design consultants.

If you are interested in the ‘Enterprise’ plan, you will need to request a call with Wix in order to negotiate pricing for it. The majority of users won’t really have a need to consider the ‘Enterprise’ plan.

What do “video hours” on Wix mean?

The ‘video hours’ feature that Wix provides enables you to upload video content to your site, which you can then either sell or rent out to others. It could be useful for musicians, filmmakers, or vendors of online courses who want to charge a fee for access to their video content.

Because many of the competing platforms typically only permit you to embed videos from YouTube, Vimeo, and the like, this is another aspect of the product that makes it quite unique in the website builder market (rather than upload them).

Now that we’ve covered how much it costs to use Wix, let’s take a look at some examples of websites that were created using the platform.

Let’s find out.

Templates from Wix

Wix gives you access to more than 800 different templates to choose from. This is a significant increase in comparison to one of Wix’s key competitors, Squarespace, which offers approximately 140; additionally, each and every one of Wix’s templates can be used without cost, which is not the case with other online store builders such as Shopify and BigCommerce.

Wix websites do not need to have the appearance of being a “do-it-yourself” creation as long as the templates are populated with the appropriate information and care. The templates have a professional appearance and are visually appealing.

The layouts also make effective use of white space and a variety of typefaces to generate impact, and they perform exceptionally well when combined with photographs or videos of high-quality as backgrounds.

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And while we’re on the subject of photography, Wix also offers a sizable library full of professionally taken images, icons, and vector art that you are free to use on your website. If you are not satisfied with those, you also have the option of purchasing images and videos from Shutterstock directly through Wix at reduced prices.

Because the templates are arranged in categories that are easy to comprehend, it ought to be relatively simple for you to find a template that is appropriate for your requirements.

You are also able to get very specific thanks to the large number of templates that are available. For instance, within the category of online stores, there are many sub-categories available, such as fashion, food, jewelry, electronics, and so on. The templates that are categorized as “Music” each come with a variety of sub-categories that can be used by DJs, bands, singers, and more.

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The Wix template selection procedure

After you have selected a template, you will discover that the Wix website builder provides examples of text, pictures, and layouts that are of a high quality. These help you get started, provide you with a reality check about what to include, and prevent you from getting writer’s block.

When choosing a template for your website on Wix, however, you need to proceed with extreme caution because once you make your selection, you cannot change to a different design.

You will be able to modify the color scheme and typefaces of your Wix template; however, if you want to change your design in more significant ways using a different template, you will be required to rebuild your entire website. This is because Wix does not allow for the importation of custom CSS.

Many of Wix’s competitors offer a greater degree of adaptability. Jimdo, for instance, enables users to switch between templates in an effortless manner without risking the loss of any content. Shopify and BigCommerce also offer this capability.

Management of content and user interface

Wix provides users with three primary options for constructing websites:

  • Wix Artificial Design Intelligence (ADI).
  • Editor for Wix.
  • “Wix by Velo.” (previously known as “Corvid”).

(Editor X, a new version of Wix that was just released, is also available. I’ll go into more detail about this shortly).

When you first start using Wix, you are presented with a choice between an ADI site and an Editor site as the default option for your site type.

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Wix editor options

First, let’s take a look at the ADI version of Wix before moving on to the other two primary versions.

Wix Artificial Design Intelligence (ADI)

Even if you despise computers and have no prior experience in the field of information technology, Wix ADI will make it simple for you to construct a website.

Wix ADI will create your website by first conducting an online search of your company and then asking you a series of fundamental questions in order to gather as much information as possible.

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Wix ADI interface

The editing is done through a user interface consisting of drag-and-drop functionality, which automatically arranges the pages for you (see video below for a demonstration). It’s probably the best version of Wix to use if you’re completely new to web design and just need something straightforward to get started with the platform.

If you outgrow the capabilities of Wix ADI, you can switch to one of the more mature versions of Wix. This is a nice feature of Wix ADI that allows you to convert sites created with it to the Wix Editor format at a later stage.

Wix Editor

When compared to ADI, the “standard” version of Wix is called Wix Editor, and it grants you a great deal more control over the layout and functionality of your website. The layout of a newsletter using this method is roughly comparable in complexity to using Microsoft Word, which indicates that it is relatively simple to use.

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Wix Editor's user interface

Wix Velo

The developer’s version of Wix is referred to as “Velo by Wix,” which was formerly known as “Corvid by Wix.” It grants developers access to the Wix source code, databases, and APIs (Application Programming Interfaces), which enables them to create more individualized Wix websites and apps.

Wix claims to be mobile-friendly, but is it really?

Smartphones are becoming the primary means by which users connect to the internet, and this trend is only expected to continue. Because of this, having a website that is friendly to mobile devices is absolutely necessary.

Wix boasts that your website will “look amazing on every screen with a mobile-friendly version of your website,” and it places a lot of emphasis on the fact that you have the ability to customize how your website appears on mobile devices.

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If you want to build a website with Wix, you’ll need to come up with unique layouts for both your desktop and mobile websites.

The Wix Content Management System, on the other hand, employs a technique known as absolute positioning. This means that web elements are positioned by pixel rather than relative to the size of the user’s screen.

Absolute positioning provides you with greater flexibility in the positioning of elements (such as text, images, and forms), but it also means that your website will not adapt as well to screens of varying sizes.

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Although the "Wix Editor" interface's "absolute positioning" approach to web design gives you flexibility, it also makes it a little more difficult to create websites that look good on all devices.

Your website layout will automatically adjust itself to look good on any device it is being viewed on if it is designed to be responsive, as is the case with major competitors such as Shopify and Squarespace. This means that page elements will be positioned relative to the screen size of the device being used to view the website.

Google also recommends responsive design, stating that websites that do not use this approach may not perform as well in search results as they could be performing if they used it.

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Shopify, a rival platform, uses responsive web design, so your website will automatically adjust to look good on all devices.

Due to the use of absolute positioning, it is not possible to create a fully responsive website using the Wix platform, despite the fact that Wix advertises the availability of some responsive elements.

To put this into practice, this indicates that you need to pay a LOT of attention to how you position the elements of your website in order to prevent any issues with the way it appears on different types of devices.

Having said that, Wix does provide a mobile view that you can use to easily hide, resize, and move elements on mobile devices (in a way that other competing products do not), making it much simpler than it would be otherwise. In addition to that, it is capable of automatically generating a mobile draft of your website, which it does in a satisfactory manner.

You should therefore be able to use Wix to create a website that displays consistently well on mobile devices. This should be possible in the majority of cases.

However, websites that use absolute positioning will invariably be a little bit less mobile-friendly than websites that are built using responsive design. Furthermore, depending on how you’re laying out your content, absolute positioning websites can be more time-consuming to set up.

Wix’s “Editor X”: a method for constructing responsive websites using Wix?

Wix has just introduced a brand new version of their platform that is being referred to as “Editor X.” It’s important to note that this does indeed enable you to create responsive websites.

This is currently geared toward developers and agencies, but we have high hopes that some of the functionality that is optimized for mobile devices that it provides will soon be incorporated into Wix’s other products.

Using the website’s code. Website exporting

You will not be able to export your website to another provider, change or access the CSS files, or access the code for your website if you use the Wix platform.

It is possible to export the content of your website by copying and pasting it into another platform. This method works well for exporting smaller to medium-sized websites, but it is not recommended for exporting large websites.

However, you are only allowed to export up to 5,000 physical products at a time if those products are the ones being exported.

Multilingual capability

Wix is a website builder that might work well for you if you want to create a site that is available in a number of different languages. It provides you with specialized tools that enable you to create versions of your website in a number of different languages (provided that you are using Wix Editor; Wix ADI does not support translations).

If you want to create a website that is accessible in multiple languages using Wix, you will need to add an app to your website that is aptly titled “Wix Multilingual.” After you have finished this step, you will be able to create multiple language versions of your website (over 180 of them) by manually translating the content or by using the Google Translate service to perform the translations automatically.

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Using Wix to set up a multilingual website

Be aware, however, that not all Wix apps support translation; consequently, if you rely on a lot of them, you may discover that certain parts of your website appear in the wrong language. This is something to keep in mind. Wix Bookings, Wix Forum, Wix Forum, Wix Members Area, Wix Restaurant, and Wix Music Player are some examples of apps that contain content that cannot be translated.

But on the whole, Wix provides a way to present your content in a wide variety of languages that is not only reasonable in quality but also relatively inexpensive.

Wix blogging

It is essential to publish high-quality blog posts if you want to increase the number of visitors who purchase from your website. How does Wix fare in comparison to other platforms in this regard?

Wix’s built-in blogging tool is not terrible when compared to some of its rivals. For instance, it offers autosave and version history features, which are not offered by all platforms of a similar nature; and it allows you to make use of both categories and tags.

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Wix's blogging feature includes autosave and version history features, in contrast to some rival products.

However, Wix does not make it very simple for you to export your blog posts (there is no dedicated export option, and it is possible that you will need to resort to a workaround involving RSS feeds in order to get your blog content out of the platform).

Wix is adequate for the most fundamental aspects of blogging; however, if I were looking for a platform to launch a professional blog, I would look in other directions (and most probably in the direction of WordPress).

Now, up to this point in our analysis of Wix, we have focused primarily on visuals and the management of content.

But what about product sales?

Wix Ecommerce

To be able to sell products through your Wix website, you will need to upgrade to a plan that costs at least $27 per month and is called Wix Business Basic.

If this describes you, you will discover that the platform does an excellent job of making e-commerce approachable and “non-scary” for business owners who are attempting online sales for the first time.

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Wix product addition

Entering the required information and configuring your payment preferences are the only things standing between you and getting started right away.

Basic Wix Ecommerce features

Small to medium-sized businesses can take advantage of Wix’s ecommerce capabilities, which are of a satisfactory quality overall.

The platform gives you the ability to:

  • You can sell an uncountable amount of products (digital or physical).
  • Give your customers the ability to sort and filter your products.
  • You can use a mobile application to run your business from your phone.
  • Put in your tracking information for any store orders you have.
  • Make use of a tool called an abandoned cart saver (which enables you to automatically contact people who leave your site in the middle of a purchase, typically with a coupon code or another incentive to finish their purchase).
  • Dropshipping can be made easier by using applications such as Modalyst, Spocket, and Syncee. Customers should be provided with real-time shipping calculations (Brazil and the U.S. only).
  • Accurately tracking profit margins is made possible by allowing “cost of goods” information to be added to each product.

However, the cheapest Wix ecommerce plan (called “Business Basic”) does not include all of these features; therefore, you will most likely need to upgrade to either the “Business Unlimited” or the “Business VIP” package in order to make the most of them.

Let’s take a closer look at some of the most important aspects of e-commerce:

Buying and selling of actual goods

Wix gives you the ability to sell an unlimited number of physical products, each of which can come in 6 different options (such as size, color, and material) and in up to 1,000 different variants.

(Variants are combinations of product options; for example, one variant could be a large blue suede shoe, while another could be a small red leather shoe, and so on.)

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Wix product options addition

These limits are favorable in comparison to those of competing solutions. For example, Shopify restricts you to three product options and one hundred product variants, whereas Squarespace restricts you to six product options and two hundred fifty variants.

Wix allows you to import 5,000 products at a time via CSV, and the total number of products that can be imported is 50,000.

Digital goods selling

Wix is a website builder that makes it especially simple to sell digital products. A complete beginner can construct a website and begin selling digital goods in about an hour’s time using Wix.

Your customers will have access to built-in functionality on the platform that allows them to download their products, and the platform will send out automated emails to acknowledge their purchases.

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Configuring digital goods in Wix

In addition, as was mentioned earlier, Wix is a practical tool for renting out or selling video content.

The file limit for digital files that have been compressed is 1GB, which compares favorably to the limits imposed by Squarespace and BigCommerce (whose limits are 300MB and 512MB respectively), but it is not as generous as Shopify, which allows you to sell files that are up to 5GB in size.

It is important to be aware, however, that you cannot export digital goods from a Wix store and that you cannot use product options and variants when selling these goods. You also cannot import them in large quantities.

Shipping and taxes

Wix offers tax and shipping options that are flexible to a reasonable degree. You have the option of setting up taxes on a per-region basis, which you might need to do in order to comply with the various tax rules that apply in the states of the United States and the provinces of Canada; alternatively, you can support VAT MOSS (VAT Mini One Stop Shop) when you are selling digital goods to customers in Europe.

Calculations of taxes can now be done automatically in Wix as well, provided that you are using a plan with Business Unlimited or a higher tier. However, there are some rather stringent restrictions in place: 100 transactions on the “Business Unlimited” plan, and 500 transactions on the “Business VIP” plan. If you make a significant number of sales each month, this could create some complications for you.

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Currently, Wix's automated tax limits are quite generous

You can also configure rules to calculate shipping based on weight or price, as well as flat rate and store pickup pricing options. In addition, you can set shipping rates on a per-region basis.

Features of POS systems

With Wix’s Point of Sale functionality, you can sell not only online but also in physical locations, and your inventory will be kept in sync as you do so (i.e., if you sell a product in a physical location, your inventory levels will be updated accordingly in the back end of your online store).

In Wix, the Point-of-Sale system can be used in three primary ways.

‘Wix Owner,’ a mobile app, can be used in conjunction with a card reader to enable you to take payments for your products at brick-and-mortar locations if you have your business based in the United States. Having said that, selecting this alternative does come with a number of significant restrictions, as the ‘Wix Owner’ app does not permit the following:

  • Offer refunds.
  • Sell subscriptions.
  • Change the total amount of the payment.

You also have the option of integrating a POS system built by a third party, such as Square or SumUp, with your Wix store. These are the two choices you have.

Wix now offers support for Square to users in Australia, Canada, the Falkland Islands, Ireland, Japan, the United Kingdom, and the United States.

SumUp is supported for use by users of the Wix platform in the countries of Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Cyprus, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Luxembourg, Malta, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom.

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Depending on your country of residence, Square is now a POS system for Wix.

And finally, you have the option to use “Wix Point of Sale,” the brand new point-of-sale system that is built right into Wix.

It is intended to be a competitor to Shopify’s ‘out of the box’ POS platform, and it seeks to ‘unify’ the process of selling products using Wix both online and in person.

As a result, Wix Point of Sale provides users with access to a diverse selection of hardware (which includes not only card readers but also scanners, receipt printers, and other similar devices) and integrates very tightly with the Wix online interface.

Wix’s point-of-sale features are available to you at no additional cost; however, you will need to purchase hardware in order for them to function properly. Tablet computer, card reader, receipt printer, cash drawer, and barcode scanner are the components that make up a full Wix point-of-sale hardware setup. This setup costs $850.

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The fresh Wix POS platform

The most important fact to remember about Wix POS is that it is currently only accessible to “selected users” in the United States and Canada.

Selling across different currencies

You are able to display prices in a variety of currencies by making use of a currency converter drop-down menu on the platform provided that you are subscribed to either the Business Unlimited or Business VIP plan and are not utilizing Wix ADI (picture below).

Customers should be aware, however, that they are unable to complete their purchases in the currency of their country at this time.

This is important because the checkout page is a crucial part of the sales process, and displaying a currency that is not used in the customer’s country at this stage can discourage customers from completing a purchase.

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Wix allows you to display prices in the local currency of the customer's location; however, this feature is not intended to replace a full multi-currency checkout process.

If the ability to sell in multiple currencies is an important feature for you, your best bet is to go with either BigCommerce or Shopify because both of these platforms offer significantly improved multi-currency functionality.

Dropshipping with Wix 

You don’t have to manufacture, purchase, or keep any inventory on hand when you run a dropshipping business. Instead, you work with an online retailer to take orders, which you then send to a third-party provider to be fulfilled (who will then charge you for doing so).

Wix integrates with a number of reputable third-party vendors, such as Modalyst, Spocket, Printful, and Syncee, which makes dropshipping a lot simpler to accomplish using this platform (at time of writing, a total of 36 dropshipping apps are available for Wix).

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Applications for dropshipping are found in the Wix app store.

The Modalyst integration is included at no additional cost with the “Business Unlimited” or “Business VIP” plans; however, be aware that the “Business Unlimited” plan places a limit of 250 products on your store’s inventory.

Gateways for payments and fees for transactions

A piece of software known as a payment gateway handles the processing of financial transactions for your online store.

Wix is compatible with a sizable selection of additional payment gateways provided by third parties. There are approximately eighty different payment methods available, but the specific ones that are accessible to you may differ depending on where you are located. These methods include well-known names like PayPal, Stripe, Square, and Worldpay.

Wix’s payment gateway offering is not as impressive as the one that its competitor Shopify provides (Shopify works with over one hundred different payment gateway options), but it is significantly more comprehensive than Squarespace’s (Squarespace integrates with just two payment gateways: Stripe and PayPal).

There is also the possibility of utilizing the built-in payment gateway that Wix provides, which is currently accessible in the following countries and is compatible with the following currencies:

  • Austria (EUR)
  • Belgium (EUR)
  • Brazil (BRL)
  • Canada (CAD)
  • Finland (EUR)
  • Germany (EUR)
  • Ireland (EUR)
  • Italy (EUR)
  • Lithuania (EUR)
  • Netherlands (EUR)
  • Portugal (EUR)
  • Spain (EUR)
  • Switzerland (CHF)
  • United Kingdom (GBP)
  • United States (USD)

The following is a list of the transaction fees that are associated with Wix Payments:

  • The European Union (EU): 1.9% of the amount being transacted in addition to 0.30 EUR.
  • Switzerland: 2.3% of the total amount of the transaction in addition to 0.30 CHF.
  • Kingdom of Great Britain: 2.1% of the total amount of the transaction plus 0.20 GBP.
  • USA: 2.9% of the amount being transacted in addition to $0.30 USD,
  • Canada: 2.9% of the amount transacted plus $0.30 Canadian Dollars.

Including other apps in the mix

Wix has an app store that it refers to as its “App Market.” This store contains approximately 440 apps, some of which were developed by Wix while others were developed by third parties.

The App Market is user-friendly and provides access to a wide variety of additional features and functionalities that can be added to your website. Some of these features and functionalities include online chat, pop ups, reviews and ratings, social media integrations, and calendars.

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Wix app store

Using an HTML block to incorporate a widget from one of these third-party applications is yet another method for incorporating functionality from those apps.

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HTML widgets can be added to a website by using Wix's "Embed" feature.

Although the range of integrations available in Wix’s app market is not as extensive as what you’ll find with other website building tools (for example, Shopify has approximately 8,000 apps available, and BigCommerce has approximately 1,200), you’ll still be able to find a respectable selection of integrations and add-ons on this platform.

Email marketing and data collection

Wix provides its users with a diverse selection of form types, allowing site visitors to communicate with them and provide contact information. You can make use of the provided templates to record a variety of information, including contact details, applications, feedback, donations, and more.

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Wix form templates

Wix also enables you to install a wide variety of form apps, each of which provides additional features such as pop-ups, autoresponders, and integrations with popular email marketing apps.

Your Wix website will automatically add any contact information that is gathered to a “contact list” on your website. You can also manually add contacts to this list, or import contacts from another list.

Built-in email marketing is an interesting feature offered by Wix, which is something that not all of Wix’s primary competitors currently offer.

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An illustration of a Wix newsletter.

You are permitted to send up to 5,000 emails and three electronic newsletters each month using Wix. This is actually quite generous of them; not many email marketing apps will give you access to functionality for free like this one does.

If you want to use Wix to conduct email marketing on a more sophisticated level, you will need to make the investment in the ‘Ascend by Wix’ suite. This enables you to send more emails per month (between 9500 and 1,000,000), as well as utilize a variety of automations, which are emails that are triggered in a variety of different ways by actions taken by visitors on a Wix site (purchases, form completions, live chat etc.).

Strangely, the pricing information for this is not made readily available to the public; instead, you will need to log into your Wix account in order to view the prices. During the course of our evaluation of Wix, we were presented with the following pricing options for Ascend:

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Plans

  • Free. $0 – 3 campaigns, 5,000 emails per month.
  • Basic. $10 – 5 campaigns, 9,500 emails per month.
  • Professional. $24 – 20 campaigns, 50,000 emails per month.
  • Unlimited. $49 per month gets you unlimited campaigns and 1 million emails sent.

It’s worth pointing out that based on these prices, the ‘Unlimited’ Ascend plan is particularly generous. You’ll have a hard time finding a standalone email marketing tool that lets you send 1 million emails for just $49 per month, so it’s worth pointing out that this plan is particularly generous.

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By including an HTML block on your website, you can also connect Wix to a third-party email marketing tool provider (such as GetResponse, AWeber, MailChimp, Campaign Monitor, etc.). This is accomplished by using the HTML block.

SEO (search engine optimization) and analytics

Wix’s internal SEO toolkits

The search engine optimization features offered by Wix are, on the whole, quite good. The platform makes it simple to carry out key SEO tasks, such as the following:

  • including alternative text
  • modifying existing meta descriptions and adding new ones
  • editing page URLs
  • modifying files with the robots.txt extension
  • putting in place 301 redirects.

You’ll also be able to easily get your website indexed by Google and displayed on maps thanks to the platform’s seamless integration with Google Search Console and Google My Business. This will save you a lot of time.

The ‘SEO Wiz’ tool that Wix offers is one SEO feature that could be of particular interest to SEO beginners (pictured below). This will guide you through the most important steps for optimizing your website for search engines, including helping you to update your page titles, meta descriptions, alt text, and other relevant information.

Do not be concerned if you are unfamiliar with any of these SEO terms; Wix’s SEO Wiz will not only explain what you are doing, but more importantly, why you are doing it.

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Wix SEO Wiz

If you are using a premium plan with Wix, the SEO Wiz will also be able to assist you in registering your website with Google Search Console.

However, there is one thing that you should be aware of, and it’s something that we’ve already touched on: the way that mobile versions of Wix websites display.

Instead of utilizing responsive design, Wix generates distinct views of your website for desktop and mobile devices, as we covered earlier on in this discussion. In addition, Google prefers responsive design, which entails working with a single template rather than Wix’s “absolute positioning” method because the former automatically adjusts the template’s size to fit the screen of the device on which it is being viewed.

In spite of this omission, Google’s Webmaster Trends Analyst John Mueller has stated on the record that Wix websites “work fine” in search. It is essential to keep in mind that the performance of Wix websites in search results will not be solely determined by technical SEO.

Additionally, Google will take into account

  • the research on keywords that you’ve done for your website built with Wix.
  • the level of excellence of the site’s content.
  • the quantity and quality of inbound links that point to your website.

What about Core Web Vitals and Wix?

Core Web Vitals are a new set of Google targets that relate to the speed, responsiveness, and visual stability of a website. Websites that meet these targets have the potential to receive preferential treatment in the search results provided by Google.

Wix initially did not perform particularly well in this regard, similar to the performance of other leading hosted website builders; however, changes have since been made to the platform, and these changes appear to be having an effect.

You, as a user of Wix, will be required to take a significant number of actions in order to assist your site in meeting Core Web Vitals targets (this typically involves formatting images in a certain way, and not overusing web fonts).

Wix has produced a video tutorial that will assist you in this endeavor by walking you through the steps that need to be taken in order to raise the Core Web Vitals scores on your website.

Tracking analytics and conversions

Wix provides built-in integrations for a number of popular analytics tools, which demonstrates its strong support for these tools.

  • Google Analytics
  • Google AdWords
  • Google Tag Manager
  • Facebook Pixel
  • Yandex Metrica.

You can use Google Tag Manager to implement any other third party code or pixels, or add custom code directly to your Wix site to track conversions.

A built-in analytics tool is also provided by the platform.

GDPR compliance

I am not a lawyer, so please note that the observations below should not be interpreted as legal advice. However, I will do my best to spell out some of the most important GDPR issues that Wix users will face below.

Website proprietors now have a responsibility, in light of the recently enacted GDPR laws in the EU, to take a number of precautionary measures to ensure that they adequately protect the privacy of EU customers and visitors to their websites.

There are significant financial penalties for failing to do so (to the point where it is sensible to consult a lawyer about what to do); and even if your company is not based in the EU, you are still required to comply with the regulations if you are targeting users who are located in the EU on your website.

According to what I know about the regulations of the GDPR, the most important things for prospective Wix store owners to do are to:

  • Please provide an adequate privacy policy as well as notices regarding cookies.
  • Secure processing and storage of the data.
  • Obtain the unambiguous agreement of those who sign up for mailing lists that it is acceptable to send them electronic newsletters.
  • Provide a way to opt into cookies before they are run, or revoke permission to use them if previously granted.
  • give your approval for their use at a later time.

Many hosted solutions, such as Wix, allow you to easily meet the first three requirements, but they frequently do not provide you with the tools necessary to manage cookie consent in an appropriate manner.

Wix, on the other hand, manages cookie consent in a reasonable manner, in contrast to many of its competitors. A built-in cookie consent banner gives users the ability to block cookies for a variety of popular marketing products before those products are even executed.

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Wix, in contrast to some rival services, provides a respectable cookie banner that can adhere to GDPR regulations.

If your cookie comes from one of the following sources, you might have trouble complying with GDPR:.

  • Added social media tools via the ‘Add’ panel on Wix
  • A third-party application from the Wix app store.
  • Bespoke code.

Security and dependability

One of the biggest benefits of using Wix is that you don’t need to worry too much about security; this is fully taken care of for you, and you don’t need to worry about any complicated technical features. The only precaution you need to take with passwords is to use good password hygiene.

This emphasis on security is especially crucial if you operate an e-commerce website because the costs associated with a site failure in this situation can be very high.

In contrast, if you’re using a self-hosted platform like WordPress, you or your developer will need to manually configure your website to ensure that it is robust in terms of security.

The following security features are among the many that Wix offers as part of your subscription, but they are the most crucial ones:

  • An SSL certificate — this provides users visiting your website with an encrypted connection between your website and their browser. This ensures that any information a user provides to you through your website (such as information filled out on a form, for example) is kept private.
  • PCI compliance — this enables you to process transactions involving credit cards in a safe and secure manner.
  • Authentication with two factors — you are able to protect your account with not only a password but also another method of verification with the help of this (SMS, email or authenticator app).
  • Automatic recovery from catastrophic events — your site is much less likely to experience any downtime as a result of Wix’s proactive action to redirect user traffic to the most stable location nearest it in the event that it detects unusual activity in a particular region.

In a nutshell, the safety functions offered by Wix are extensive, and the platform’s high level of dependability can be attributed to the fact that its infrastructure is completely managed. One of the most compelling arguments in favor of utilizing the Wix platform is the manner in which the company handles all of the concerns pertaining to the platform’s dependability and security on your behalf.

Customer service

During my time testing Wix, I was able to find the answers to almost all of the questions I had by searching the Help Center on the Wix website. This provides access to a sizable archive of supplementary reading material written in the following languages: English, Danish, Dutch, French, German, Hebrew, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Spanish, Swedish, and Turkish.

In addition, there is excellent contextual help provided throughout the site, as well as a comprehensive “SEO Hub” that contains a library of SEO-specific help articles and videos. Both of these features are available free of charge.

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The Wix Support Page

Wix offers its customers the opportunity to receive in-person support via the following channels: live chat, email, and the telephone.

Wix deserves kudos for being a leader in the website builder industry because it offers phone support, a feature that is not offered by all of Wix’s key competitors, including Squarespace and Jimdo.

Phone assistance is offered around the clock and in the following languages:

  • English
  • French
  • Portuguese
  • Spanish

And phone support is offered during business hours for:

  • Dutch
  • German
  • Hebrew
  • Italian
  • Japanese
  • Korean
  • Polish
  • Turkish

Wix also allows you to send in a support request via email. Wix Support will simply promise to get back to you ‘as soon as possible’ rather than committing to a specific time frame for answering these questions.

At the beginning of the next business day after I posed a question to the Wix customer service team, a representative responded to me with an answer.

If you pay an additional fee for VIP support, you will be moved to the front of the line; however, you must use the email address that is associated with your account in order to do so.

Review of Wix: conclusion

Wix is not without its flaws, but overall it is a well-featured product that allows a small business to create a website with a lot of functionality on a low budget. This is something that is not possible with other website building platforms. You can create a website with a variety of features, such as an online store, a blog, email marketing, galleries, appointment booking, and many others, for a fee that is relatively low on a monthly basis.

The hand-holding that even the most anxious users can receive from the platform, in the form of its plentiful and well-designed wizards, support tools, training videos, and help files, is very effective. The platform is relatively easy to use.

Regarding the disadvantages, the fact that Wix does not produce mobile-friendly websites is most likely the one that worries me the most. Because of this, building a website with Wix may be more difficult than with other platforms, and search engine optimization may be affected as a result of the decreased effectiveness of the website (as discussed earlier, Google prefers responsive websites).

Wix makes it difficult to change your mind, which is another one of the platform’s drawbacks. If you want to modify your website in any way, you are required to use the same template that you chose when you initially created it or start from scratch.

And despite the fact that Wix makes it simple for you to set up a respectable online shop, you’ll be limited to selling your wares in just a single currency.

Is Wix the right platform for you to use to create your website?

If you are the owner of a small business or an individual who wants to quickly create an attractive website with a lot of useful features without spending a lot of money, Wix is a good option to consider. If you fall into this category, you will be really pleased with the variety of features that Wix provides “out of the box.”

The process of developing an online storefront using this method is not only easy, but also comparatively inexpensive.

However, due to the significantly more robust nature of the ecommerce features offered by platforms such as Shopify and BigCommerce, it is likely that more established online retailers would benefit more from looking into these alternatives.

Wix Pros

  • Building a website with this method is not only simple but also relatively inexpensive, and it does not require the assistance of a developer.
  • There is a huge selection of templates available (over 800), each of which is of a high standard and includes helpful examples of content.
  • In spite of the fact that it is not quite in the same ecommerce league as platforms such as Shopify and BigCommerce, a Wix ecommerce plan still gives you access to a wide variety of selling features.
  • Both the platform and the security configuration are extremely dependable and robust in their own right.
  • Because it supports more than 180 different languages, it is a good choice for people who need to create different language versions of their website.
  • Your Wix account comes with its own set of built-in email marketing tools, and the paid-for tools that are included in the ‘Wix Ascend’ package are both sophisticated and a good value for the money.
  • Wix gives you access to a large library of high-quality photographs that have been taken by a professional photographer.
  • Because Wix’s app market offers a diverse selection of integrations, it is simple to improve your site’s fundamental capabilities using those integrations.
  • Phone support is offered, in contrast to the provision of such services by a number of the most prominent website building tools.
  • Wix’s ADI version is ideal for inexperienced web designers due to its low learning curve and intuitive interface.
  • Most plans come with a complimentary domain name registration included (you pay for this after one year).
  • There is a version that is available completely free of charge. A premium plan is going to be a much better bet for you in the long run, but the free plan that Wix offers is a good way to test out the functionality of the platform.

Wix Cons

  • Although there are workarounds available, the websites that you build with Wix are not fully responsive. However, there are workarounds available to make a Wix site display correctly on a mobile device.
  • Even though it is possible to display prices in a number of different currencies, Wix does not make it easy to check out using more than one currency. If you want to sell your products on a global scale, you should look into other e-commerce platforms instead.
  • There is no way to import or export digital products in large quantities.
  • Once a website has been constructed, the template cannot be changed.
  • You can’t export blog posts.
  • Although there is no limit on the amount of bandwidth included with any paid plan, there are storage caps of varying levels (the more you pay, the more you get). There are a lot of important competing platforms that don’t limit storage in this way.

Alternatives to Wix, or the various other website builders on the market

Even though Wix is one of the most well-known website builders, it is by no means the only option. There is a very large number of choice options that are available.

Squarespace is an excellent alternative to Wix if you want to build a website that is primarily driven by its content.

Squarespace caters to a similar “small business market,” and the primary benefit it offers over Wix is the ability to create websites that are truly responsive, in addition to having what I consider to be a more streamlined user interface.

However, it is a little bit more expensive, and the ecommerce functionality it offers is not quite as extensive as what Wix offers.

Wix is probably not going to be able to meet your requirements as well as BigCommerce or Shopify will, particularly if your primary focus is on selling products online.

Amazon and Etsy are both viable alternatives to Wix that should be taken into consideration. Unlike Wix, however, these two websites are not standalone website builders but rather online marketplaces in which you can list your products for sale.

Big Cartel and GoDaddy are two platforms that might be worth considering if you have a very limited budget. These platforms do not have as many features as Wix, but their prices are much more reasonable.

Canva is an additional option worth considering for individuals who are working with an extremely limited budget and require a brochure website.

If you are the type of person who really wants to edit your design to the nth degree, you should probably look into Webflow. It comes with some stunning designs that you can edit extensively to your heart’s content.

And last but not least, there’s WordPress, which is an excellent choice for a platform that can both display content and make it easier to conduct online business. There is a hosted version and a self-hosted version available to choose from.

Hosted WordPress, which can be found at WordPress.com, operates in a manner that is analogous to that of Wix in that it can be run in a web browser, hosting is included, and apps can be used to add additional functionality.

Self-hosted WordPress requires the user to do a little bit more configuration and ongoing maintenance than shared WordPress does.

FAQs

Wix offers a free, limited version of its platform, which can be utilized to get a feel for how well the platform meets your needs. On the other hand, it will plaster Wix advertisements all over your website and will not allow you to sell any products.

The primary benefits of using Wix are that it is inexpensive, loaded with features, user-friendly, and comes with a comprehensive collection of ecommerce tools and features. Because of this, it is an excellent choice for building websites on a limited budget for owners of small businesses.

The primary drawbacks of using Wix are the inability to produce truly responsive websites with it, the inability to switch templates, and the inability to facilitate checkout in multiple currencies. Wix also does not allow you to switch between templates.

The self-hosted version of WordPress is a tool that is ultimately more flexible and possesses a great deal more technical power. Creating a website with it, on the other hand, typically involves a steeper learning curve, and, in contrast to Wix, it does not feature built-in ecommerce tools nor does it come with support. Wix is typically the option that is going to be the least difficult to use if you are building your website on your own and do not have any technical skills.

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