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Pros

  • Advanced marketing, analytics and e-commerce features.
  • Easy-to-use drag-and-drop platform.
  • 24/7 priority customer care with VIP phone support.

Cons

  • Expensive compared to other providers.
  • Migration to and from other platforms can be challenging.
  • Advanced e-commerce, marketing and analytics features only with higher tiers.

Why trust our small business experts

Our team of experts evaluates hundreds of business products and analyzes thousands of data points to help you find the best product for your situation. We use a data-driven methodology to determine each rating. Advertisers do not influence our editorial content. You can read more about our methodology below.

  • 20 companies reviewed.
  • 69 products reviewed.
  • 3,121 data points analyzed.

Created in 2006, Wix is one of the leading website building platforms on the market. Wix is perfect for small businesses looking to eventually scale up because of its wide range of e-commerce, analytics and marketing features. The platform allows businesses to grow and scale while continuing to take advantage of Wix’s features as the business’ needs become more complex. 

In this Wix review, we’ll walk through Wix’s pricing options, all of the features the platform offers and how it compares to some similar competitors in the industry.

Wix overview

Wix is now used in more than 190 countries worldwide by more than 250 million people. The website building platform allows both solopreneurs and large companies to build an online presence without coding or design skills. 

Wix also offers a wide range of marketing, analytic and e-commerce features, as well as unlimited storage and customized reports – ideal for growing businesses. 

Wix pros and cons

Like any platform, Wix has its share of pros and cons. Wix does have an easy-to-use drag-and-drop platform, but it is expensive compared to its competitors. Here are more of the pros and cons of Wix:

Pros

Wix offers customized reporting and advanced site analytics for users. Users can really benefit from digging into this information to help analyze which products are moving, to identify buying patterns and to help better target marketing efforts.

Wix’s website creation tools, which include more than 900 free, customizable templates, allow users to build professional sites without any knowledge of coding. In addition to live chat and 24/7 phone support, Wix offers an extensive online knowledge base with tutorials and articles about all things Wix.

Cons

When looking at Wix’s cons, it is more expensive than most of its competitors. The most advanced features, such as unlimited video hours, unlimited storage space and 500 transactions per month, come in the higher-tiered, expensive plans. It can also be complicated to use the platform’s migration tools.

To access the full strength of Wix’s platform, you’ll need to pay for the Business Elite plan, which costs $159 per month. This can be much too expensive for small businesses, especially those that are just starting out.

Wix pricing and value

LIGHTCOREBUSINESSBUSINESS ELITE
Pricing
$17 per month
$29 per month
$36 per month
$159 per month
Storage
2 GB
50 GB
100 GB
Unlimited
Marketing
Light marketing suite
Basic marketing suite
Standard marketing suite
Advanced marketing suite
Free domain
For one year
For one year
For one year
For one year
Analytics
None
Basic analytics and e-commerce
Standard analytics and e-commerce
Advanced analytics, e-commerce and developer platform
Payment processing
Cannot accept payments
Yes
Yes
Yes

While Wix’s Light and Core plans offer basic features and some limited analytics and e-commerce functionality, the Business and Business Elite plans provide more robust features. 

Wix’s Business Elite plan offers the most advanced marketing, analytics and e-commerce features, as well as a developer platform and unlimited storage. That said, at $159 per month, this plan is quite expensive when compared with competitors. It’s also a large jump in price from the nearest plan, which costs only $36 per month. 

Wix does offer an Enterprise plan with even more advanced features, such as unlimited users. Pricing for the Enterprise plan, however, isn’t available on the Wix website. 

Website editor features

To start, Wix offers more than 900 designer-made templates to help you get started with your website. Then, once you have the initial look you like, Wix’s website editor features a built-in drag-and-drop interface that allows you to move elements of your site however you would like. It’s entirely customizable. 

You can rotate, resize, recolor and realign everything on each page to make it look the way you want. The editor offers thousands of tools and built-in features to help build your website. 

The editor also makes it very simple to add and customize elements, adjust your site’s design and save, preview and publish new content. Wix’s website also has a large number of guides, walk-throughs and other resources to help you use their website editor. 

On the flip side, some reviewers have criticized the fact that Wix doesn’t allow you to change your template after you have created a website. If you want to use a new template, you’ll have to create your site from scratch. 

Blogging features

Wix also comes with a suite of design features and marketing tools to help you build a blog, showcase your brand and spread the word about your business. 

With all of Wix’s plans, you’ll receive a free domain for one year. The company lets you explore possible domain names and even offers a blog name generator to kickstart your inspiration. Again, the easy drag-and-drop interface allows you to design and edit your blog without any coding skills. You can add audio or video as well. 

The platform comes with advanced SEO tools to help your blog get discovered on search engines. You have the option to customize your site’s meta tags, URL structure, canonical tags, structured data markup and robots.txt file.

You can take advantage of useful tools like bulk 301 redirects, which make sure you don’t lose SEO power when making changes to pages. Wix’s platform also includes instant Google indexing and patterned meta tags for use across multiple pages. 

E-commerce features

Wix offers a robust e-commerce platform that lets you sell through your website, social media, other online sales channels and even in-person with point-of-sale (POS) technology. The platform has one single dashboard where you can manage payments, marketing and shipping. 

The company’s “recommended” Business plan, which costs $36 per month, includes plenty of valuable e-commerce features such as:

  • Automated sales tax on 100 transactions per month.
  • Abandoned cart recovery.
  • Automatic discounts.
  • Pre-order and manual order options.
  • Advanced shipping.
  • Dropshipping of 250 products.
  • 1,000 product reviews by KudoBuzz.
  • Unlimited back-in-stock notifications.
  • Multiple currencies (primary plus five). 
  • Up to 50,000 products in your store.

Wix says its e-commerce platform can handle up to 750 simultaneous transactions per second. Just like with its website editor, Wix gives you plenty of online tools and resources that walk you through building out the e-commerce functionality on your site. 

Marketing features

Wix also has a wide range of useful marketing features for businesses to build their brand and spread their message. 

Wix’s marketing suite on their recommended Business plan includes 25 lead capture forms with 75 fields per form per month. It also includes automated marketing tools and a site chat option. 

The online payment tools allow users to accept recurring payments, sell on marketplaces and social channels and provide automated sales tax on 100 transactions per month. The suite also includes built-in SEO tools and email marketing features. 

Many of Wix’s features are excellent for high-traffic businesses like restaurants, hotels and other companies that might need ticket, event management and booking options. 

Security features

When it comes to security, Wix’s websites come with HTTPS and SSL protocols – which simply means the communication between you and your site’s visitors is secure. 

The company also takes other extensive security measures. Wix data uses AES-256 – the strongest encryption standard that’s commercially available. 

Any payments used through the Wix platform are protected by the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS). The payments have anti-fraud protection, which safeguards your customers’ information and transactions. 

The company offers around-the-clock security monitoring and a dedicated Incident Response team trained to respond to cybersecurity threats. Regarding its security, Wix says it is “committed to the highest international privacy and security regulations,” and the company’s security certificates include PCI DSS Level 1, Soc 2 Type 2, several ISOs and compliance with GDPR, CCPA and LGPD.

Customer support

All of Wix’s plans come with 24/7 customer support through the phone, as well as limited online chat support. Wix’s Business Elite plan offers 24/7 priority customer support. 

The company also offers a large self-help section on its site with information guides, tools and resources on everything from setting up your website to managing its development, using marketing tools and even creating an app. 

If you’re feeling a little overwhelmed by the whole process, Wix has a marketplace filled with professionals in 195 countries who are willing to help with marketing, design, development and assist with SEO.

Wix vs. top competitors

STARTING PRICEFREE TRIALFREE DOMAINUNLIMITED STORAGEUNLIMITED BANDWIDTH24/7 SUPPORT
Wix
$17
No
Yes
With some plans
Yes
Yes
Strikingly
$12
Yes
Yes
No
No
Yes (online only)
Shopify
$39
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Squarespace
$25
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
No

Wix is one of the leading website building and e-commerce platforms on the market. However, the company still faces stiff competition from other platforms such as Strikingly, Shopify and Squarespace. 

Let’s compare Wix with these three competitors. 

Wix vs Strikingly

Wix is a robust platform that allows even a starting solopreneur to build a thoroughly customized website, which makes it our top choice for businesses looking to eventually scale up. 

On the other hand, Strikingly is a great choice for users who want to create a quick and simple website without much fuss. This platform doesn’t offer the same design complexity as Wix, but it has everything you need to create a quick, professional-looking website with a drag-and-drop editor. 

Both companies offer similar pricing plans with similar features, such as free domains and 24/7 support. Strikingly does offer a free trial, while Wix doesn’t. Also, Wix’s plans include unlimited bandwidth, while Strikingly’s plans do not. Wix only offers unlimited storage with its higher-tier plans.

Wix vs Shopify

While Wix is ideal for businesses that eventually want to scale, Shopify stands out for its e-commerce functionality. The Shopify platform is designed for sellers. Shopify is centered around its large amount of useful features and free templates. Its Basic plan provides a digital shopfront to showcase unlimited products through multiple sales channels with marketing and e-commerce automations. 

Shopify does offer a Starter plan for just $5 per month, but its focus is selling on social media and messaging apps only. The Basic plan, while much more expensive than Wix’s lower-tiered plans, offers a large number of quality e-commerce features. 

Both companies offer free domains, unlimited bandwidth and 24/7 support. Unlike Wix, Shopify does offer a free three-day trial and unlimited storage with all plans. 

Wix vs Squarespace

Squarespace is our choice for powerful and stunning websites. It’s one of the easiest platforms to use and create beautiful website designs. 

In addition to its website building capabilities, Squarespace offers two commerce-based plans. Its e-commerce platform allows users to sell unlimited products, create customer accounts and product reviews and utilize advanced merchandising features. The most comprehensive of these plans allows for abandoned cart recovery, subscriptions and advanced shipping and discounts. 

Both companies offer similar pricing plans, though Wix’s Business Elite provides the most advanced features at $159 per month. Both offer free domains and unlimited bandwidth, while Squarespace offers a free 14-day trial and unlimited storage. Wix does have 24/7 support, with Squarespace’s support options being much more limited. 

Methodology

We extensively research the key competitors within an industry to determine the best products and services for your business. Our experts identify the factors that matter most to business owners, including pricing, features and customer support, to ensure that our recommendations offer well-rounded products that will meet the needs of various small businesses.

We collect extensive data to narrow our best list to reputable, easy-to-use products with stand-out features at a reasonable price point. And we look at user reviews to ensure that business owners like you are satisfied with our top picks’ services. We use the same rubric to assess companies within a particular space so you can confidently follow our blueprint to the best website builders.

The best website builders have positive user reviews on customer review sites. Website builders should provide customers with fast and reliable support. Using a combination of phone support, live chat and knowledge bases, customers should be able to quickly resolve issues 24/7.

Website builders should include prebuilt, industry-specific templates and drag-and-drop tools to make building your website quick and easy. All templates should be mobile-optimized to ensure they appear correctly on desktop and mobile devices. E-commerce functionality should be offered to allow businesses to sell physical and digital goods and services online. Website builders should provide ample storage and bandwidth to customers along with free SSL certificates, domain names and backup/restoration services. Additional security features should be built into the website to keep customers’ data safe and private. And all of these basic features should be affordable compared to competitors.

All website builders should expand on this basic feature set with built-in SEO and email marketing tools. Integrations should allow you to connect social media platforms and dropshipping services. And e-commerce tools should allow you to sell subscriptions and online courses, book online appointments and accept recurring payments. Additionally, blogging features and the option to add custom code should be available on all websites.

Frequently asked questions (FAQs)

Yes, Wix is one of the best website builders on the market. The platform has a wide range of features to build and market your website and brand, as well as sell products through their e-commerce tools.

Wix offers four pricing plans for small to large businesses looking for a website building and e-commerce platform. 

  • Light: $17 per month – Includes 2 GB storage, a light marketing suite and a free domain for one year. 
  • Core: $29 per month – Includes 50 GB storage, a basic marketing suite, a free domain for one year, basic analytics and e-commerce features and an accept payments feature. 
  • Business: $36 per month – Includes 100 GB storage, a standard marketing suite, free domain for one year, standard analytics and e-commerce features and an accept payments feature. 
  • Business Elite: $159 per month – Includes unlimited storage, an advanced marketing suite, free domain for one year, advanced analytics, e-commerce and developer features and an accept payments feature. 

No. Wix doesn’t offer a free plan, nor does it offer a free trial. Wix’s cheapest option, its Light plan, costs $17 per month. 

Wix’s platform is a solid option for SEO, as it offers advanced tools to help your blog get discovered. It gives you options to customize your site’s meta tags, URL structure, canonical tags, structured data markup and robots.txt file.

Wix also offers useful tools like bulk 301 redirects, instant Google indexing and patterned meta tags for use across multiple pages.

Yes. Wix offers many valuable e-commerce features. 

The platform allows you to sell through your website, social media, other online sales channels and in-person with POS technology. All of it lives within one dashboard where you can manage payments, marketing and shipping. 

Wix’s Business plan, which costs $36 per month, includes plenty of e-commerce tools like up to 50,000 products in your store, abandoned cart recovery, automated sales tax on 100 transactions per month and advanced shipping tools. The Business Elite plan, priced at $159 per month, offers even more advanced e-commerce options. 

Yes. Wix offers free web hosting on its own servers for all of its user websites. 

Once you sign up for one of Wix’s four plans, you’ll have everything you need to build a professional website. 

Wix provides its users with an easy-to-use, drag-and-drop interface that allows for website building without coding or design skills. It also offers 24/7 customer support and an online knowledge base filled with helpful tutorials and guides during the website-building process.

Both Wix and Squarespace are excellent website builders with powerful e-commerce platforms. 

Wix is ideal for businesses looking to eventually scale up, as its wide range of features allow you to do more within your website as your business needs grow. Squarespace has one of the easiest platforms to use to create beautiful websites. For more advanced e-commerce needs, Wix’s Business Elite plan – priced at $159 per month – is the best choice.

If you’re looking for an excellent website building platform with a wide range of e-commerce features, Wix is definitely a great choice. 

Wix allows both solopreneurs and large companies to build their online presence without coding or design knowledge. The platform also has a large amount of marketing and analytics tools, as well as unlimited storage and customized reports.

Blueprint is an independent publisher and comparison service, not an investment advisor. The information provided is for educational purposes only and we encourage you to seek personalized advice from qualified professionals regarding specific financial decisions. Past performance is not indicative of future results.

Blueprint has an advertiser disclosure policy. The opinions, analyses, reviews or recommendations expressed in this article are those of the Blueprint editorial staff alone. Blueprint adheres to strict editorial integrity standards. The information is accurate as of the publish date, but always check the provider’s website for the most current information.

Robert Bruce

BLUEPRINT

Robert Bruce has been a full-time writer for nearly 20 years. His work has been featured in US News & World Report, Yahoo Finance, The Penny Hoarder, The Money Manual, WGN Chicago, Nashville Lifestyles Magazine, among others.

Sierra Campbell is a small business editor for USA Today Blueprint. She specializes in writing, editing and fact-checking content centered around helping businesses. She has worked as a digital content and show producer for several local TV stations, an editor for U.S. News & World Report and a freelance writer and editor for many companies. Sierra prides herself in delivering accurate and up-to-date information to readers. Her expertise includes credit card processing companies, e-commerce platforms, payroll software, accounting software and virtual private networks (VPNs). She also owns Editing by Sierra, where she offers editing services to writers of all backgrounds, including self-published and traditionally published authors.