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Wix Review

Small businesses, portfolios & complete beginners. Anyone can create a professional website with Wix, even if they have no experience.

Author:
Simon Childs
Updated:
February 14, 2022
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OVERALL RATING: Best All-round Website Builder


We’ve tested Wix's features to see how they match up against other website builders.  We have all the information you need to decide for yourself whether Wix is right for you and your new website.

Who is Wix best suited for? Small businesses, portfolios & complete beginners. Anyone can create a professional website with Wix, even if you have no experience.


Pros
+ Over 800+ templates.
+ Drag and drop frontend builder allows complete flexibility to website design
+ Large range of applications to cover the vast majority of web requirements


Cons
- Design flexibility can get fiddly when you have a lot of items on a page
- If you want hands-on control over every aspect of your site, Wix isn’t for you

Wix Review Summary

The best all-around website builder for 2022 with market-leading applications and features. Think of Wix as a freestyle site builder, while other website platforms focus on strict design, Wix focuses on exceptional features such as apps. Wix occupies the middle ground between hyper-structured and blank canvass website builders. 

Using Wix, you can edit any template or theme to your heart's content, allowing you to get into your creative groove.  In simple terms, Wix gives people with no coding experience a simple way to build a stunning new website with ease using a drag and drop interface.

Is Wix right for your startup or small business?  Read our impartial review to find out.

Is Wix.com a good website builder?

The Wix editor is an advanced level drag and drop platform which, unlike other website builders, lets users move images and text around unencumbered by preset columns or rows. 

Wix recently released their newest editor, called Editor X. While there are currently fewer templates on offer within Editor X, it features a host of new and exciting updates. Using Editor X gives you the most flexibility but does have a higher learning curve. Wix has created complementary courses demonstrating their new editor, found here

People building their website using Wix have more control over where each element sits on the page. For those building simple websites or who have designs in mind, this is ideal. 

But, if new users need multiple elements on a page, they may struggle to keep their design clean and organised. While the platform does have pop up lines to indicate when elements are in line, sections don't line up automatically. 

We do want to stress that this is by no means an unmanageable design flaw. The Wix editor is, overall, exceptional. 

The Wix editor also allows users to instantly view their site's mobile version. New users must remember that the desktop version changes don't automatically update the mobile version. Keeping your site's mobile version looking sharp is vital as Google accounts for your site's mobile usability when deciding your search engine ranking.

Wix repetitions

One standout feature called “repetitions,” speeds up the website building process by allowing users to display content repetitively. This feature is handy if you need to build staff or events’ pages.

Wix app market

Discover Wix app market offers loads of additional integrations for your website

Like other website building platforms, Wix has an app market with a mix of free and paid apps. The app market regularly gives Wix users innovative new features to play with. 

Below is a selection of the types of apps you can find on the Wix app store: 

  • Bookings apps to help run a business like a yoga studio or gym

  • Interactive maps showing local hotels and Airbnbs

  • Event management applications that integrate with your bookings system or event calendar

  • Music apps like Spotify that stream music on your site

  • Design apps that improve the look and functionality of your site

  • Privacy and security apps that let your visitors disable data sharing

Additionally, the app store includes the usual selection of email management and marketing apps to help sell your products and promote your brand. 

Themes & templates

Wix has one of the widest selections of templates and themes anywhere, currently at over 500. Whether you need something shiny and sleek or straightforward and functional, Wix has a template for you. 

Many templates have premium functionality built in, such as navigation icons pinned to the top of the page while you scroll down. 

Included as part of the Wix templates is an AI design tool that learns your preferences and builds a unique website. Wix reports their AI design tool can build over one billion unique websites. 

Wix does not currently allow you to change your theme once you have built your website. If you're considering migrating from another platform, keep this in mind, as other platforms do let you switch templates after you have created your site. To change your theme after making your site would require a complete rebuild. 

To help your design, Wix has a range of preset colour palettes, or users can build their own through the global style editor. You can set a consistent theme for your whole site and manually edit the colours and fonts of individual items. 

Great for beginners

The editor is really easy to navigate and understand. If you are stuck though, head straight to the FAQ section for step by step help and advice with images. Short introductory videos give instructions on the different functions for each area of the web builder.

Wix wesbite builder review - is it easy to use? We liked the editor its easy to navigate and understand.
A website that we have designed while testing the Wix website builder

Complete beginners will love how Wix appears to hold you by the hand while you configure your website. Less flexible but perfect if you are lacking in confidence when it comes to website builders and creating your online business. Great news though! You can switch to the regular builder whenever you like, ensuring you can add more detailed functionality when you are ready.


Editor X‍

Wix recently released their newest editor, called Editor X. While there are currently fewer templates on offer within Editor X, it features a host of new and exciting updates. Using Editor X gives you the most flexibility but does have a higher learning curve. Wix has created complementary courses demonstrating their new editor, found here


Is Wix good for e-commerce?

As more and more businesses migrate online, website building platforms are improving their eCommerce viability and utility. While Wix is not a specialist eCommerce site, it is a solid platform to launch your virtual shop. Wix is perfect for small online stores.


Wix includes advanced features like abandoned cart recovery to help you close more sales and multilingual sites to expand your reach. Multi-channel selling via Instagram and other social media platforms is also available. Once your website is up and running, you can upgrade it using sales and marketing apps in the app store like Mailchimp to grow your email list or Scalify to launch your ads on social media sites. 


There is currently no stock management alerts on Wix, a potential drawback for people looking to run their online store autonomously. Similar to Shopify, Wix users can easily edit product pictures, descriptions and size variants. Recent updates also allow you to upload product videos, which helps if traditional stores don't sell your products.  


Additionally, Wix allows users to display their prices in any user's local currency and take payments over Paypal, Stripe and Square. Customers can also store their details to make buying products in the future quicker.

What about SEO?

The good news is a website built using Wix has no issues being found on page one of search engine results pages! Wix has invested a lot into its SEO, with new features constantly being added.

Aside from the SEO Wizard – a personalised optimisation plan that’s perfect for beginners – you’ll also find advanced features such as:

editable robots.txt file, customisable canonical tags, bulk 301 redirects, structured data, smart caching, support for Google AMP, and much more.

Although there are other builders with stronger advanced features, Wix is great for small businesses, portfolios, and blogs.


Why Wix is the best

Businesses looking for unparalleled control over their websites design would greatly benefit from using Wix. By allowing users to build their sites using drag and drop, Wix has made itself accessible to users with any experience level. With many templates built for specific industries, small businesses like restaurants or startups with an online store would have a great experience with Wix. 


Perfect for those building their first website due to the pricing options and features available. Wix has the usual array of SEO tools built into the platform, including a tool to preview how your landing page and posts will appear on search engine results’ pages. 


The platform also allows you to edit meta titles and descriptions, which will help search engines index your site correctly and boost your ranking on search engine results pages.

Why Wix not so good

Similar to other website builders, Wix’s greatest strength is also it’s main drawback. The drag and drop editor is fantastic for designing your site to a granular level of detail but it is also an opportunity to end up with errors on the site. It will take some time to get comfortable designing. On the positive side, designing with this level of detail is optional. 


Wix also doesn’t have the pedigree in e-commerce compared to Shopify, those looking to run an e-commerce business with a large product range may find the features limited although apps can help plug these gaps. 

Finally, you cannot switch templates. If you decide you want to use a different template, you must build your site back up from scratch. This is similar to most website builders on the market.


Wix pricing

Wix website builder pricing plans

Wix has a free plan available to help you decide if they are right for you. While the free option is excellent for those looking to try out the platform, we want to stress that this is the only practical use. The free plan comes with a Wix domain, limited bandwidth, and Wix ads all over your site (which you cannot disable). 

Wix splits its price plans into two groups: website plans tailored for individuals and business & eCommerce plans designed for businesses. 


The Verdict?

Wix is currently the best all-round website builder. The platform is backed by market-leading features and templates and a great designer, enabling users to build engaging, high performance websites. This is supported by a huge selection of apps and the opportunity to build a website to a very granular detail. 

Wix is a powerful, professional website builder that makes building and running a website easy for everyone.

Alternative Website Builders:

Shopify

SITE123

Squarespace


Wix FAQ’s


Can you schedule blog posts on Wix?


Convenient and ultimately time-saving, the great news is, yes, you can schedule blog posts on Wix.

Here's how:

Go to the Blog tab in your site's dashboard
Click Create New Post
Add in the relevant content
Click the Expand icon at the top right
Click Schedule Post
Choose when you want the post to go live
Click Schedule

How to add a popup on Wix?

Popups are great for letting your site visitors know about promotions.  Wix calls their popup functionality a Lightbox. To add a Lightbox to your site when the page loads simply:


Click Add on the left side of the Editor
Click Interactive
Select a Lightbox category
Drag a Lightbox element onto your page
Click Set Triggers to start setting up your Lightbox

How to add a chatbot in Wix?

Wix Chat lets you instantly communicate with visitors whether you're welcoming them to your site or answering their questions. Initiate a chat with anyone or let them chat when they're ready.

To add Wix Chat to your site simply follow the below steps:

Open the App Market
Wix Editor: Click the Add Apps  icon on the left side of the Editor
Editor X: Click the App Market  icon on the top bar
Type "Wix Chat" in the search bar and select it from the results
Click Add to Site


How to make my Wix website responsive?


Responsive or mobile-first design is essential for your website. Is your Wix site already responsive? The short answer to that is no, but the good news is that you can make your Wix website responsive. Use full-width elements on your site and ensure that you have optimised your website for mobile in the editor.


How to disable the mobile view on Wix?

The first question we have is why would you want to? Disabling mobile friendly might affect your SEO rankings and slow down your site performance. But if you are hell-bent on it here's where you should go:

Click Settings in the top bar of the Editor
Click Mobile Friendly
Click the Mobile-Friendly toggle to enable or disable it
Click Close