Wix Review (2023): The Complete Guide to Wix

In this Wix review, we’re taking a closer look at one of the most popular and easy-to-use, website builders on the market for online businesses. Wix is a straightforward and convenient tool for anyone hoping to develop a compelling website.

Today, we’re going to be carefully exploring all of the features and capabilities of Wix, the pros and cons of the builder, and even how much it’s going to cost you to get started.

What is Wix?

Wix is an online website building platform, which allows people from all backgrounds to build websites or online stores without coding knowledge. Similar to competing solutions such as Shopify, Wix is a hosted solution, which means you don’t have to download any software or pay for your own hosting from a third-party provider.

How Does Wix Work?

You can access Wix on any web browser (through the cloud), with an internet connection, and start designing a host of different styles of websites in no time. Wix makes it simple to create basic websites and portfolios, comprehensive online stores, and more. There are even various ways to create your site, with the option to leverage AI as part of the process.

Wix is designed specifically for beginners without coding knowledge. You don’t need to experiment with any HTML or CSS (unless you want to). It also allows you to expand the functionality of your store using a variety of add-ons and plugins from an available marketplace.

Wix is built on an enterprise-grade foundation of servers and flexible technologies, giving companies the freedom to scale as their business grows online. There are also built-in marketing tools, to help you promote your store across a variety of channels.

Wix Pros and Cons

Wix is one of our favorite website builder tools, for good reason. It’s brimming with functionality out of the box that you would otherwise need to pay extra to access from different tools, such as booking forms, powerful AI creation tools and more.

The Overall Experience with Wix

For me, Wix is one of the most user-friendly tools on the market. Although the editor can seem a little overwhelming at first, thanks to all of the built-in features, it’s relatively easy to get used to everything with a little bit of practice. Wix even gives you the option to leverage an AI solution to help you build your store, although I’d recommend using the other editors for more customization.

In general, Wix is a simple, yet impressively feature rich platform. It comes with all of the tools you need to start building your store already built-in, as well as a few extras you wouldn’t typically get from other website building tools.

How We Tested the Wix Website Builder

To provide the most comprehensive review into the Wix website builder possible, I dove into the platform myself, to test out some of the core functionality, using the demo version of the platform. I’ve been working in the ecommerce world for some time, so I was able to easily compare this tool to a lot of other great platforms on the market.

The Ecommerce Platforms team has also conducted research into the Wix platform, looking at thousands of stores and websites from across the globe to find the most popular site builders and examine their features. You can find our comparison chart for some of the top major builders here.

Since ecommerce and website building platforms are regularly updated with new features, we’ll be continuing to add to this article going forward, based on any changes to the platform.

Wix Pricing

Like many website builders and online store platforms, Wix offers a handful of different plan options to choose from, depending on your specific needs. The options are split into three different categories, plans for people building a professional website, business and ecommerce plans, and enterprise options. You can get started with a free trial if you want to test the features for 14 days.

The Wix Website plans

If you want to use Wix to develop your own blog, portfolio, or a similar website without ecommerce functionality, there are four options to choose from:

• Combo: $16 per month: The Combo plan is intended for personal use, if you’re just building a basic online store. It includes support for a custom domain and a free domain for up to 1 year. You can also remove Wix branding from your store, access a free SSL certificate, and leverage 2GB of storage space. You’ll get 30 minutes of video hosting too.
• Unlimited: $22 per month: The Unlimited plan upgrades the features of the Combo plan with 5GB of storage space, 1 hour of video, Ad vouchers for online marketing, and a site Booster app, which helps to enhance your presence on the web. You’ll also gain access to analytics for tracking business growth.
• Pro: $27 per month: This plan includes all of the features of the Unlimited plan, as well as 50GB of storage space, 2 hours of video hosting, and an events calendar app. You’ll also be able to create your own professional logo with Wix, alongside social media icons.
• VIP: $45 per month: The VIP plan includes all of the features of the Pro plan, alongside 100GB of storage space, 5 video hours, and priority customer care.

Business and Ecommerce plans

If you’re planning on transforming your website into an online store, you’ll need one of the Business or Ecommerce plans. There are three options to choose from here:

• Business Basic: $27 per month for the ability to accept payments (including recurring payments), customer accounts, a custom domain, a free domain for 1 year, no Wix branding, 50GB of storage space, 5 hours of video, ad vouchers, and support for unlimited products. You also get abandoned cart recovery, and the option to sell on social media.
• Business Unlimited: $32 per month for all the features of the Business Basic plan, plus 10 hours of video 100GB of storage space, as well as subscriptions, multiple currency selling, and automated sales tax for 100 transactions per month. There’s also advanced shipping settings, dropshipping support for 250 products, and support for up to 1000 reviews. Plus, you can sell on marketplaces like Amazon and eBay too.
• Business VIP: $59 per month for all the features of the Unlimited plan, plus Unlimited storage space and video hours, custom analytics reports and priority customer care. You also get automated tax reports for 500 transactions per month, unlimited dropshipping, up to 3,000 reviews, and loyalty programs via Smile.io

The Wix Enterprise plan

If you need specific support and features as a growing large-scale business, you can also access a Wix enterprise plan. This is priced according to the needs of each specific customer, so you’ll need to contact the team for a custom quote.

The Enterprise plan includes enterprise grade security, migration and fulfilment support, and tailored solutions built for your business. You get multi-cloud hosting and enhanced uptime, scalable billing solutions, and a multi-site dashboard for managing multiple websites at the same time. You can use APIs to enhance your site’s functionality, and leverage faster content deployment features too.

Plus, all Wix enterprise plans come with a dedicated account manager to ensure you’re getting the most out of your service, and priority support.

Wix Features

As mentioned above, the features of Wix are pretty comprehensive. You’ll get all of the essentials you need to launch your online store, such as secure web hosting, custom domain names, and even your own logo maker if you need it. There’s also a SEO toolkit available.

Let’s take a closer look at some of the core features of Wix:

• Website design: Wix makes it easy to create a compelling website with a comprehensive drag-and-drop builder. There are more than 800 designer-made templates to choose from for your store or site, which can all be customized according to your specific needs. Plus, you can decide how you want to build your store, using the Wix ADI, the advanced web development platform (Velo), or the Editor X system for flexible grids and custom breakpoints.
• Mobile apps: On iOS and Android devices, you’ll be able to access your website on the move, develop your store pages, and keep track of any analytics and reports that might be relevant to your growth. You can manage and customize any aspect of your store using the mobile apps, which is ideal for busy entrepreneurs.
• Professional assistance: Wix offers customers the opportunity to purchase assistance from specialist developers and experts if they need help with any part of growing their store. This could be an ideal choice if you’re struggling with website building.
• Ecommerce functionality: Wix includes all of the ecommerce tools you need to start selling online, including a customizable checkout, with the ability to accept multiple payment methods. You can also link your store with a point of sale for online selling, and leverage multichannel sales opportunities with marketplaces and social media.
• Service features: If you’re running a service company, you can leverage Wix to manage bookings, payments, staff, and clients, with scheduling solutions built-in. You can even display menus and take orders and reservations online. Plus, there’s an event creation app if you need help drawing customers to your stie.
• Blogging and SEO: For content creation and ranking online, Wix makes it easy to create all kinds of content in the back end of your website. There’s a comprehensive SEO toolkit, which allows you to control your sitemap URLs, titles, meta descriptions, alt texts, and more. Plus, you can manage redirects and other factors in your site too.
• Abandoned cart recovery: Wix includes abandoned cart recovery on all of its business and ecommerce plans, to help you improve your chances of conversions. There are built-in email solutions to help you reach out directly to your customers instantly with personalized content whenever they leave your store without purchasing something.
• Analytics and reports: For tracking your store growth and other factors, Wix includes a host of different reports and analytics tools, including custom report creation on all plan. You can also automatically manage tax in the back-end of your website, to ensure you’re staying up to date with any government requirements. Some of the more basic plans do place limitations on the reports you can access, however.
• Marketing tools: Wix also helps you to advertise your store in a variety of ways. You can leverage built-in automated email marketing, and create posts to publish straight to social media. You’ll also be able to leverage Facebook advertising within Wix, with AI optimization to help you boost sales. Plus, client management tools help you segment your audience.

Wix also offers a range of AI tools and services for creating your website, logos, and ads. There are tools like the site booster app to improve your presence online, access to ad vouchers on most plans, and even Wix learning tools to improve your chances of success.

Ease of Use

As I mentioned above, simplicity is one of the biggest selling points of Wix. The solution is extremely easy to use, regardless of whether you have developer knowledge, or you’re starting from scratch. Wix gives you a number of ways to build your online store and customize it to your needs.

When you first launch your store, you’ll be able to choose between an Editor site, or an ADI site (created with AI). The Wix ADI is intended for people with absolutely no experience building your own website. All you need to do is answer a few basic questions about the site you want to create.

The solution will automatically create templates and pages for you, then give you access to a drag-and-drop editor where you can make some simple changes. You can also convert sites created with the Wix ADI solution into the Wix Editor format later if you want to make more changes.

The Wix Editor solution is the standard version of the Wix builder, with more control over the features and design of your website. It’s similar to many common website building tools, and extremely straightforward. If you want even more functionality, you can update to the Wix Editor X solution, to create dynamic, content-driven websites, with customizable code.

The solution supports collaborative work on your site, so you can invite multiple people to code and work with you. Plus, you’ll still have access to all of the Wix templates and themes. For particularly advanced web development, you can also explore “Velo by Wix”.

This is the developer version of the Wix platform, which provides access to comprehensive Wix site code and database information, as well as APIs. This tool is obviously a lot more complicated than the other options available from Wix, but it’s a great tool for those with developer knowledge if you want to create more bespoke Wix websites and customized applications.

Velo allows you to use a drag-and-drop editor to create the basic elements of your UI. Then, you can add custom functionality using JavaScript and Velo APIs, there’s also a built-in IDE. Plus, all of the site functionality is hosted and maintained for you.

One slight issue to point out when you’re using Wix, is you may need to create custom versions of the desktop and mobile versions of your website. You can customize the mobile view of your site, to ensure you’re delivering the best experience to users on smartphones. However, Wix does make the process relatively simple, using something called absolute positioning.

This basically gives you more flexibility in positioning your elements, such as forms, text and images. However, it could mean your site doesn’t automatically adapt as well to different screen sizes. This means you’re going to need to work a little harder at customizing each version of your site.

Design and Templates

Themes and templates are one of the core components of any good website builder. One of the things I like most about Wix, is the variety it offers. Even compared to well-known alternatives like Squarespace, BigCommerce, and Shopify, Wix offers a lot more templates – more than 800 in fact. They’re all built by designers, so you know they’re likely to look good.

Most of the Wix templates available are free to use too, so you don’t have to worry about paying extra for a premium theme if you’re trying to keep the costs of starting your business low. The templates are visually appealing, and they’re designed to be responsive. However, as mentioned above, you might need to make some basic changes to the mobile version of your site.

The templates make excellent use of imagery, spacing, and custom typefaces, to create an impact on your site, and they look fantastic when paired with high-definition videos and photographs. If you’re lacking in your own photography, Wix has its own library of professionally-shot images, as well as vector art and icons you can use for free within the site.

Plus, if you want to purchase premium content from Shutterstock, you can do so with a small discount if you already have a Wix plan. Templates on Wix are organized into different categories, so it’s easy to find something specific to your company’s needs.

Once you pick your theme, the Wix website builder will provide you with good sample pictures, templates, and layouts to guide you through the customization process. The only real downside with Wix’s templates is that once you choose one, you’re stuck with it unless you want to start re-building your website from scratch. There’s no option to simply change your template.

The Wix App Store

As mentioned above, Wix comes with most of the tools you’re going to need to build an effective store as standard. However, if you want to add new functionality to your paid plans on Wix, you can always take advantage of the “App Market”. This is a comprehensive and intuitive marketplace where Wix lists its own add-ons, as well as plugins and tools from third-party vendors.

The app market makes it easy to find a range of integrations for your online store. There are tools available to help you access new fonts and graphics, as well as solutions for online chat, reviews and ratings, calendars, and social media integrations. You can even link Google analytics to your account for valuable insights into your site, or build on the Wix SEO features with tools for better rankings.

If you don’t want to use the Wix.com app market, you can also access the editor within the Wix ecommerce platform to add a HTML block widget from another app. All the Wix app market isn’t as broad as the options available from WordPress and Shopify, it’s still a great tool for leveraging a range of widgets and tools.

Wix Online Selling Options

If you want a comprehensive look at the Wix ecommerce features, we’d recommend checking out our full Wix ecommerce review. However, we’re going to provide a quick insight into what you can accomplish with Wix’s shopping features here too.

Wix is an all-in-one tool for building your own online store, with options available for selling both physical and digital products. However, you will need to make sure you’re using one of the Wix Business or Ecommerce plans before you can start taking payments.

Adding products and services to Wix is a pretty straightforward process, and there are step-by-step guides available on the Wix site to help you too. The Wix payment options are pretty diverse, so you should be able to manage transactions from a wide range of buyers. The platform also allows you to:

• Filter and sort through products, and set up automations for fulfillment
• Provide customers with real-time shipping information on their accounts
• Use abandoned cart saver tools to increase your chances of purchases
• Utilize drop shipping tools like Modalyst and Spocket to build out your product portfolio
• Manage your Wix account from your phone to track orders and transactions
• Monitor profit margins accurately and create financial reports for tax purposes

Notably, not all of the ecommerce features available from Wix are accessible on every plan, so it’s worth checking out what you’ll get before you commit to a package. However, all Wix plans do allow you to sell physical products with a host of different variant options.

Small business owners can also use Wix to sell digital products on virtually any ecommerce plan, and there’s a handy built-in platform where customers can download their products. You’ll also be able to send automated emails to customers with FAQs and “thank you” notes after purchases.

Just keep in mind there is a file limit for digital products of 1GB, which stacks up relatively well to other ecommerce store builders like Squarespace (300MB file limit) and BigCommerce (512MB limit).

Additionally, Wix has a lot of great tax and shipping options. You can set up tax on a regional basis, which might be important if you’re selling internationally. On some plans, automatic tax calculations are also available, but you’ll only be able to use them for a limited number of transactions. Even on the Business VIP plan, you can only access tax automations for 500 transactions.

Wix Customer Support

With any online site builder, it’s always important to ensure you’re going to get fantastic support when something goes wrong with your site. The good news is that Wix is pretty good at delivering excellent care. You can contact the team directly by phone, and there are opening times available on the Wix website to let you know when employees will be available.

Wix also has its own dedicated status page for tracking issues, and the option to communicate with experts via chat or email too. Plus, you can reach out to the Wix community, or connect with the team on social media if you’re having trouble.

The Wix website also has a host of tutorials and guides available to walk you through the basics of setting up your Wix account and making the most of the features available.

Wix User Reviews

To gain a little more insight into the benefits and drawbacks of Wix, we checked out some of the reviews for the platform available online. Fortunately, most of these are extremely positive. On Trustpilot, Wix has a rating of 4.6 out of 5, with more than 9,000 reviews.

On Software Advice, the company has a similar rating of around 4.5 out of 5 stars. While there are a few negative reviews for Wix floating around online, the majority of the feedback is overwhelmingly good. Customers specifically love the platform’s ease of use, excellent customer support, and value for money, as well as the excellent functionality of the system.

Wix Top Alternatives

Wix is a fantastic all-around tool for ecommerce and store building. However, there are still plenty of other options available on the market if you find this solution isn’t perfect for you. Here are some of the top alternatives worth considering for Wix.

1. Shopify

Shopify is an excellent alternative to Wix if you’re in need of advanced and scalable ecommerce tools. The platform is excellent for omnichannel selling, and it’s brimming with customization options, so you can make your site as unique as possible. Shopify’s app market is also a lot larger than the one you’ll get with Wix, so you can take advantage of a wider range of integrations. Plus, there’s a great community out there if you need some help with building your store.

2. Squarespace

If you’re looking for something simple, flexible, and versatile, Squarespace is a great tool. It’s ideal for building attractive websites and portfolios with stunning templates and themes. The system comes with a drag-and-drop editor, tools for ecommerce, and even booking capabilities for services companies. However, the ecommerce functionality isn’t quite as advanced on Squarespace as you might find elsewhere.

3. Webflow

One of the top web design solutions for creating custom sites, Webflow is an all-in-one ecosystem for customizing and building a great online store. It’s ideal for people who want to experiment with HTML, CSS, and JavaScript, and there are even options for setting up dedicated membership sites. Plus, there are built-in tools available for SEO and marketing too. Like Wix, Webflow even has its own AI solutions to help with developing your store.

Wix Review: Finishing Thoughts

Ultimately, we consider Wix to be one of the best website builders out there. Whether you’re using Wix as a tool to create your own portfolio or blog with search engine optimization components, or you want to produce the ultimate ecommerce store, the platform has everything you need.

With Wix, you can easily add your own domain to your site without having to use a separate hosting solution like GoDaddy, and you can leverage a range of marketing and sales tools to improve your chances of conversions, including an abandoned cart saver. The Wix platform is phenomenally easy to use, and the Wix support team is always on-hand to help if anything goes wrong.

If you’re looking for an ultra-flexible tool for building your own online presence, it’s hard to go wrong with Wix.