Company: Wix
Background: Wix is by far one of the site builders that has seen a meteoric rise in uptake over a relatively short period. Breaking ground only in 2006, by 2017 the company laid bold claim to a stunning 100 million users. Over that short timeframe, it has introduced multiple upgrades from a HTML5 editor to their drag and drop 2015 version.
Starting Price: $8.50
Currency: USD
Visit Online: https://www.wix.com/
Review Summary & Ratings
Taken in its most basic form, Wix is a website building tool that offers users the opportunity to create stunning websites through an easy-to-use drag and drop interface. It also has the extra features that allow powerful add-ons to be included to extend site functionality, making it one of the more versatile site builders exiting today.
Overview: What is Wix
How Does Wix Work?
Offered as an online service, Wix lets you work with a drag-and-drop visual editor to build your website even if you have zero coding knowledge and no prior training.
Think of it as using building blocks to create your personal design.
The system is so intuitive that it will likely only take you moments to familiarise yourself with. Once your basic site is ready and visually acceptable to you, Wix Website Builder also lets you add in additional elements as separate add-ons to your site such as form builders, forums, online stores and tons of other things.
Examples of Websites Built with Wix
Here are some great sites built with Wix.
Wix Features
One of the first things you’ll encounter in most site builders, is the template repository and that’s the same in Wix. The site boasts over 500 templates that are neatly categorized for your perusal.
Browsing through most them, I find Wix offering a right mix of styles, from minimalist to comprehensive. Editing the template is a marvel, with the interface offering many options in a true drag-and-drop style. Once you’ve gotten the items where you want, just fill in the details and it’ll work.
Aside from that, what is truly notable is that Wix continuously adds and revamps features which accurately blend with current trends and technology. One example of this lies in its SEO Wizard recently introduced. This is in-line with many more people becoming aware of how much SEO can help with their web presence.
The Wizard allows for Wix to help you optimize your website with ease. For online sellers, Wix not only has the options for eCommerce payments, but you’ll even be able to schedule bookings on your site. That caters for a niche of consumers which I haven’t seen readily available elsewhere.
Screenshots
Wix Templates Demo
As mentioned, Wix boasts over 500 pre-designed themes that are neatly categorized for your perusal. The following images demonstrate some of the themes I found.
Pros: What I Like About Wix
1. Tons of Good Website Templates to Choose From
There are more than 500 beautiful Wix website templates in 70 different categories for you to choose from. It covers almost all general and niche needs. Starting off your website is as simple as browsing through their template database and just clicking on the one to use.
2. Very Intuitive Visual Site Editor
Offered as an online service, Wix lets you work with a drag-and-drop visual editor to build your website even if you have zero coding knowledge and no prior training. Think of it as using building blocks to create your personal design. The system is so intuitive that it will likely only take you moments to familiarize yourself with.
Learn more: How to create your first website using Wix
3. Unique Mobile Site Editor
Wix is mobile friendly in two different ways. The first is that it allows you to either make use of responsive templates in sync with your basic design or you can customize a mobile-friendly site independently.
More interesting though is the unique Wix Mobile app which you can use to work with your Wix sites from mobile devices. This is something which I can see will be very useful for solo entrepreneurs who basically must do everything themselves.
The Wix mobile app gives them a way to create and edit their sites on the go without having to lug around a laptop – just a tablet or even large-screen smartphone will do!
4. Powerful Add-ons Through App Market
As I mentioned earlier, Wix has many extra features you can add on to your basic website. To use them, let me introduce you to the Wix App Market. This repository works similarly to WordPress plugins.
There are over 260 apps created by both Wix and other third-party developers that you can look through and choose to integrate into your website. Of all the site builders I have seen, the Wix App Market is one of the most comprehensive so far.
5. Comprehensive Support Available
Because Wix is designed to make website building as simple as possible it does not just rely on communication with its customer support team to do this. The experience starts from the time you sign up with them and the system helps you along with cues and prompts.
In Wix editor, each editable element design is annotated with a question mark to let you know that help is there for you if you need it.
If there’s something you are still unsure about there is more self-help available in the form of a help centre and user community or forum. The help centre has a wealth of knowledge on all things Wix but also includes lots of other associated information like the basics of SEO or marketing.
For more complex issues, you can start a discussion thread in the community forum and tap on the wealth of knowledge that other Wix users may have. If all else fails, there is always the option to get in touch with Wix support via email.
6. Wix Sites Are Fast
Website speed is important in the eye of Google as well your visitors. When building your site with Wix Site Builder, that means you are hosted on their servers as well. For the purpose of this Wix review, I created a sample site with them and tested the speeds which were quite acceptable.
Wix Performance Test
Cons: What I Dislike About Wix
1. Free Isn’t FREE
OK, that subhead may be a little misleading, but the free version of Wix is crippled in many ways. For example, all free Wix sites must carry the Wix branding, which can be a little annoying at times. Especially so if you’re just trying to run a small, personal site that you aren’t earning anything from.
2- Hard to Switch Templates
One drawback to Wix template though is that once you choose them it is difficult to change your mind later. Your content won’t transfer easily form one template to another, so if you decide you want a different template it is likely you will have to re-do a lot of work.
3- You Can’t Export Your Wix Site
Moving web hosts is part and parcel of quite a few website owner’s lives. It’s just something that needs to be done sometimes and can happen for many reasons. The primary one being unhappiness with your existing host.
Wix takes this completely out of your hands by not allowing users to export Wix websites. You also cannot embed any elements of you Wix site somewhere else, so get that workaround out of your mind.
According to them;
Specifically, it is not possible to export or embed files, pages or sites, created using the Wix Editor or ADI, to another external destination or host.
Wix Pricing
In line with the number of users on its site, Wix has a wide spread of what it calls ‘premium Accounts’ available that range in price from $4.50 per month all the way to $35 per month.
To see these numbers in context – read our study on website cost.
What it doesn’t advertise widely is that you can still use the drag and drop editor for free. I do feel though that the price range does correspond with actual consumer needs, from individuals to even small companies.
Wix is available for free but their free accounts come with many limitations. For example, you don’t get to use your own domain name and your site gets branded with some Wix advertising. Once you’ve gotten frustrated enough with that, its time to look towards their paid plans.
The Wix pricing strategy seems awfully similar to how hosting companies do it – the more you pay, the better features you get. There are distinct differences between each of the plans so do go through them carefully.
For example, if what you want to do is build an online store then the only plans suitable for you would be their three most expensive ones – Business Basic, Business Unlimited or Business VIP.
Wix Success Stories
Wix users have put up an admirable array of websites that look, at the very least, dignified, functional and suited to purpose. Paws for a Cause, is run by a photographer who helps animal shelters promote their charges for adoption. The site is simplistic, but fits well to its theme with darling animals showcased in full, glorious colour.
Visit online: www.pawsforacausefurrtography.com
Our Verdict on Wix
Wix offers its users an opportunity to build beautiful websites quickly and with zero knowledge of coding. It offers very comprehensive functions to support this and the possibilities are immense. Imagine creating an online store and getting your business started in just a few hours – and that is what the premise is.
Is it perfect? Perhaps not since there are flaws in everything. Yet personally I feel that the flaws in Wix are more commercial in nature (it is a business, after all) rather than technical. There are some strange restrictions such as not allowing users to export their sites, fox example.
Still, as a website builder the experience is very streamlined and there is very little cause for confusion. For most potential site owners in the world, Wix is a very solid offering that I would highly recommend. There is so much to love about it that is a hard to beat proposition.
Also read – other ways to create a website.
Wix Alternatives
How to Begin with Wix?
Anyone can signup and create a website on Wix platform (no credit card needed). Click this link to begin.
