How to Have a Review Section on Wix
Wix Review 
| Services | Website Builder & eCommerce |
|---|---|
| Support | Assist Desk, Chat, Knowledge Base & Social Media |
| Uptime | Proficient (99.97% past 6 months) |
| Best For | Personal & Organizational Websites |
| Strengths | Depression Toll & Slap-up Onboarding |
| Weaknesses | Lack Of Avant-garde Marketing Tools |
| Promotion | Get Started For Costless |
In that location are seemingly thousands of unlike ways to build a website now. Wix is ane of the best-known brands in the website builder world.
They've been around for quite a while (circa 2006). Until 2018, they built their make on word of mouth and ease of utilize.
Mail service-2018, they've accelerated that growth with Super Bowl ads, sports sponsorships, and more. I recently had a pocket-size project, and a reason to try out many different drag-and-drop website builders. I gave Wix a effort to see how they fit. Here are my pros, cons, utilize cases, alternatives, and total Wix review.
But first, a bit of an overview of general website builder considerations. There really are more than a thousand means to get what you want in the finish (aka someone to type in a website address and run into your data in their browser). Technically to create a website, yous merely need a text editor to hand-lawmaking an HTML file.
Only most people cull a solution on a spectrum based on their skill, time, and goals. The spectrum ranges from all-inclusive (ie, "nosotros do everything for you, just also command everything) to 100% DIY (ie, "you do everything, but information technology's quite complicated").
Whether yous are building a simple personal website or running a business organization, the mode you build your site has a lot of consequences now & in the time to come.
In the long-term, it affects your versatility, functionality, and, of form, your make. In the brusque term, it can certainly add or take away a lot of headaches.
That said, merely similar choosing a physical business firm or function, at that place is no such thing every bit an absolute "all-time" or "pinnacle" choice. There's but the correct choice relative to your goals, experience, and circumstances.
What Is Wix?
On the broad spectrum of website building solutions, Wix lives on the website architect end that is more all-inclusive. Y'all build your site on their software with their tools. Your website lives on its servers. You admission your site via the Wix admin panel, not via FTP or a server dashboard. It'southward in dissimilarity to solutions where you buy, install, and manage all the "pieces" such as hosting, software, plugins, and templates of your website separately.
Like other popular website builders, using Wix is sort of like leasing and customizing an apartment in a gated development instead of buying and owning your ain business firm. Y'all are in control of decor, cleaning, and everything living-wise – but you leave the construction, plumbing, security, and infrastructure to the property owner. That signal is central because there'south commonly a direct tradeoff between convenience and command.
As far as directly competitors, Wix competes directly with all-inclusive website builders similar:
- Weebly
- Squarespace
- GoDaddy GoCentral
- WordPress.com
Those all-inclusive options as a group compete with options similar self-hosted WordPress (which provides the costless software to build a website that yous own & control on your own hosting – run into my WordPress setup guide) to cocky-hosted builders like GATOR and Website Creator to options like typing actual HTML code into a text file and uploading information technology directly to a server.
Is Wix Safe?
Yes – Wix is prophylactic to use. Wix is a publicly traded company that operates globally with well-established legal, privacy, payments, and production standards. There are plenty of wing-by-night or amateur-run website builders. But Wix is not one of them. They accept downsides & tradeoffs, but a solid upside is their safety & reputation.
Is Wix Complimentary?
Wix has a free programme, but only if you use a Wix subdomain (e.g., yourwebsite.wix.com). You also take to display Wix ads and take limited functionality.
To employ a custom domain and have full functionality, y'all have to pay for a premium programme. It's great for a short-term or temporary project…or to just endeavour Wix out earlier upgrading.
If you are looking for a free website builder option, you could likewise explore these costless website / blog options. This review volition explore Wix's full production suite with a focus on anyone building a full, public-facing website.
Brand sense? Awesome, let's dive into the Wix review.
Wix Pricing
Wix offers a complimentary plan if y'all don't mind having your site address structured http://yourwebsite.wix.com/yourwebsite. Their merely caps are effectually file storage and features – not around pages or page types. Their paid plans aren't outstanding on pricing (they are actually a disadvantage listed here shortly), but they are competitive enough for many businesses who care more most the done-for-yous part over counting a dollar here and there. Read my full explainer on Wix'south pricing and plans.
| Plan | Combo | Unlimited | Pro | VIP |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Price | $14.00/mo. | $18.00/mo. | $23.00/mo. | $39.00/mo. |
| Storage | three GB | 10 GB | 20 GB | 35 GB |
| Bandwidth/month | 2 GB | unmetered | unmetered | unmetered |
| Electronic mail Accounts | - | - | - | - |
| Dedicated Domain |  | | | |
| Free Domain Proper name | ane twelvemonth | 1 twelvemonth | 1 year | 1 twelvemonth |
| Free SSL | | | | |
| Brandish Ads |  | | | |
| Analytics | | | | |
Their plans allow you to get a site up quickly with no technical fuss and everything bundled and provided for you.
Their tiers are reasonable – though information technology is worth paying shut attention to the caps and whether you really need the bonus features (ie, more Video Hours vs using YouTube or Wistia).
All plans have tiered discounts for the longer that you sign up.
Helpfully, they requite yous the "true" toll upfront and bear witness the discount after you select the program.
There are four tiers of Wix website plans.
Free Plan
Wix allows anyone to sign upwardly for a free Wix plan. You get full access to the Wix Website Builder including the Wix Editor, Wix App Market, a free Wix template, Wix support, and 500MB of storage.
The primary limitations are –
- y'all are capped at 1GB of bandwidth per month (instead of unlimited bandwidth)
- you are limited to a domain in the form of: username.wixsite.com/siteaddress
- y'all must display a Wix advertisement on throughout your Wix site
Philharmonic Plan
Wix's Philharmonic Programme has 2 GB bandwidth and no ads on your website. It provides the full benefits of the Wix platform with 3GB of storage. It also comes with a complimentary custom domain for a year, so that yous tin can go a yourwebsite.com address.
Unlimited Plan
Wix's Unlimited Programme increases storage space compared to the Combo Plan, just also adds on a few premium Wix apps and $300 in ad vouchers. I'd recommend looking carefully at whether yous'd actually use these benefits. I think it mainly comes down to storage space.
Pro Program
Wix's Pro Plan increases storage infinite compared to the Unlimited Program, only also adds on a few more premium Wix apps. It besides includes automated logo creation. I'd recommend looking advisedly at whether you lot'd actually use these benefits. I think it mainly comes down to storage space.
VIP Plan
Wix'due south VIP Plan increases storage space compared to the Pro Plan, simply also adds on priority customer service. I'd recommend looking carefully at whether you'd actually apply these benefits. I think information technology mainly comes downwards to storage space.
Business Bones
Wix's Business Bones plan has all the features for a, well, basic eCommerce site. It does non include Subscriptions or multiple currencies.
Business Unlimited
Wix'southward Business Unlimited program adds subscriptions, more than storage, avant-garde shipping, and the ability to collect user reviews.
Business concern VIP
Wix'southward Business VIP plan adds the ability to sell on marketplaces, along with custom reports and a significant jump in USPS discounts and automatic sales taxes.
Wix Alternatives
Pros of Wix
Hither'south what I found to be the pros of Wix – not just in comparing to Weebly and Squarespace, Wix vs. Squarespace, or Wix vs. WordPress, but too equally an overall online website solution.
Wix has historically been disliked by professionals while remaining the go-to "unproblematic" solution for DIY website owners. In the mid-2000s, they led the mode with an easy, intuitive drag and drop builder that was besides congenital with Wink – a technology loathed by anybody from Steve Jobs to every professional person marketer that I know.
They take since moved off Flash and significantly invested in their platform with a focus on built-in marketing tools and the specific needs of DIY pocket-size business owners.
As we'll meet in the cons section, professional marketers volition still have significant reservations about Wix.
However – in some means that miss the chief pro near Wix – they are investing in beingnessuncomplicated and easy for the DIY website owner who simply needs something that works.
If Wix were a meal – they would not be a $30 brick oven pizza with custom ingredients at a sit-down restaurant. They would be a made-to-lodge delivery pizza. That'southward not a proficient or bad affair. Merely it is something to know when figuring the best fit foryou and your business.
Site Configuration & Onboarding
Wix's backend and overall design are functional at the core. Only they've besides cleaned up many of the edges to make it "prettier" while retaining a wealth of functions on a unmarried screen.
But – it is elementary and fairly intuitive. When they talk about drag and drop, they literally mean y'all drag and drib elements wherever you want them. They accept tools, templates, and guidelines to help you design a site that you lot not only build only likewise literally see come together as y'all imagine it to await. Here'southward a agglomeration of Wix website examples to explore.
Figuring out design, pages, navigation – all the basic elements of a website are straightforward to configure. If you're going the website architect road, that's exactly what y'all're looking for.
Now – as yous can run into, it has an element of overwhelm due to all the options. However, they do a adequately skillful job getting you started from a proficient identify, rather than from scratch.
That's because Wix'southward onboarding is likewise pretty solid. They immediately start your business relationship on an electronic mail training sequence and guide you lot through design choices.
Additionally, Wix has a solid mobile experience, so that you tin actually get your design started on a mobile device and worry about doing the finishing touches later.
Wix'south Design Templates
In the past year, Wix has done a good chore upgrading its designs & theme selection. When I tried them last year, their themes were fine simply very 2010-ish.
While not quite upwards to Squarespace'southward designs, Wix has a solid selection of modern themes. And unlike Squarespace, most exercise non crave behemothic, professional photos to look good out of the box.
In the last year, Wix has introduced a new "Artificial Design Intelligence" that handles a lot of the manual work of designing a site with an algorithm. It makes designing a site even faster. Here'southward the production pitch.
Wix'south blueprint approach is a major reward to its platform.
Additionally, their designs take intendance of both responsiveness (ie, they arrange to the device) AND accessibility (ie, they suit to the user's browser – especially if the user has a inability). These 2 features are important since most DIY website owners don't accept the time or cognition to test & patiently edit site designs. Wix takes care of information technology for them.
Speed & Security
All Wix websites are hosted on Wix's servers. That ways a few things. It means, of course, that the servers are optimized for Wix websites. Professionals at Wix are in charge of making sure your site stays fast. It likewise ways that professionals are in accuse of securing your site. Here's my speed exam:
Wix'due south sites run off lots of Javascript. So their speed tests are a bit dissimilar than others. Their sites reply very quickly, but also accept a while to fully load. Many professional person developers are not fans of the approach, but for an boilerplate user, the sites appear fast. And in many ways – that is what counts.
And most chiefly, the sites stay secure and they rarely, if ever, "get down." You lot don't have to worry about caching, CDNs, salts, or patches – which is really the core speed & security offering. Running a fast website tin be straightforward, but if you are a contractor or business person, sometimes you just need something to work then that you can move to more important business matters.
Customer Support & Knowledgebase*
Like speed & security, Wix websites have the advantage of existence an all-in-ane solution. If there'south a trouble, it'southward on Wix to fix it. There'south no tracking down the root problem or figuring out who or what is at error.
When something is wrong, or when you lot want to edit something, you tin get in touch with client support. Wix does support via Knowledge Base, Phone, and Email Tickets. Since they run a proprietary platform, they can actually solve any problem you have.
*Bated – the "fine print" here is that Wix can solve any issue that is within their control to solve. I have received many emails about how Wix couldn't help them…but it was unremarkably due to the fact that they had an border case where Wix simply couldn't offer a solution. Hither's an example from my project –
Wix was fast solving service issues like my domain connectedness bug. They also pre-empted many issues with congenital-in features like one-click SSL (which is much easier than cocky-installed SSL).
But when I reached an edge case for their platform (swapping a template directly from an already published site) – I was only out of luck.
The point, though, is that their service is a pro – merely you accept to keep their inherent limitations in listen.
Concern Customization
Wix is specific well-nigh its target markets and typical customers. They've done an splendid chore "triaging" customers based on their business organization and edifice out custom templates and features for each market.
When you sign upwardly for Wix, yous have to cull whether you lot are a restaurant, band, real estate, etc. After your choice, your settings are preset forth with featured templates. It makes a fast sign-up process even faster.
Production Investment
As I'll outline in the side by side department, Wix has some downsides. Merely, one thing that is unlike nearly Wix compared to many website builders is that they are a 100% independent, publicly-traded company exclusively devoted to website builders.
This ways that they have every incentive to keep improving the production and make moneyas a website builder.
That point is important considering, for many companies, their website builder is part of a product suite. And then the website builder is merely every bit of import to the visitor as it is to the product suite – and has a risk of stagnating.
Blogger and Google Sites are premier examples of this situation. Both are splendid products that Google simply does not care nearly. Square (a payments company) recently purchased Weebly, then at that place's a risk there equally well for turning Weebly into back up for Square.
In my other reviews, I point out that information technology's important to understand how & why your service provider makes coin and then that you don't make a long-term decision effectually someone who doesn't care about you (ie, Facebook Pages!). Wix's independence and business model are a solid pro here.
Cons of Wix
But of course, no Wix review would be complete without looking at the disadvantages. Wix has come a long way since the days of their Flash-powered websites, but they still take some disadvantages – peculiarly if you lot are working with a professional person marketer or developer.
There are enough of Wix complaints and lots of individual bad Wix reviews effectually the Internet. Some are justified and some aren't – merely all are anecdotal. Keep in listen that the big picture tradeoff for Wix is their convenience is lack of total control and avant-garde features. That's not necessarily a Wix matter as much equally it is a website builder thing. But within that context – here's some individual considerations I'd look at when deciding if Wix is a proficient fit for you.
Here's a summary from a HackerNews thread –
Everyone here is disgusted past it because, information technology is in fact disgusting from the perspective of a programmer.
I spent a few hours with Wix earlier this twelvemonth while needing to assistance a family quickly become a funeral site up they could hopefully take some chance of maintaining themselves. Getting started is really pretty slick. The designer software is easy to use and gets a basic decent looking site up extremely fast.
Towards the end of the few hours I was hitting roadblocks left and right. Bogus limitations, border cases not supported, things that could have been fixed on a real site trivially.
All the same, what they've congenital, what it in plow allows pretty nontechnical people to build quickly, is impressive. I think information technology may have been possible to do better on performance and flexibility without compromising for other users. My guess is it'due south not mostly because they are just not obsessing on that role much.
With that summary – here's the specific disadvantages that I found**.
Note that this is all from thedefault setup – Wix has a new production chosen "Wix Code" – my accept on that product is beyond the telescopic of this review. My disadvantages listed below are from the perspective of a small business possessor who is looking to utilize Wix and might likewise i day call someone like me or a developer / designer friend to assist with website marketing or development.
Long-Term Wix Pricing
Wix's plans get-go at 100% totally free, simply it includes ads on your site, along with lots of limitations.
Their kickoff paid programme starts at $thirteen/mo, which is actually cheaper than you'd think since information technology includes a complimentary domain for a twelvemonth ($9/year).
However, as their plans go upward, they all remain more expensive than their main competitors:
- Weebly Review (plans)
- GoDaddy Website Builder Review (plans)
- WordPress.com Review (plans)
They remain much more expensive than setting upwardly your own website with WordPress on your own hosting. At each phase, Wix doesn't even allow unlimited bandwidth or file storage.
If you lot are using Wix for more a few months, they are going to be a much pricier option than other site builders or buying your ain shared hosting somewhere like Bluehost or Web Hosting Hub (which has a drag and drib tool for WordPress called BoldGrid) or HostGator'due south drag & drop builder tool.
Wix Editor & Pattern Functionality
The editing and page layout process also has a few intangibles missing. You lot tin drag and drop anywhere…literally. This tin can be proficient from a control standpoint, just information technology can also be frustrating based on expectations.
In that location are parameters, rulers, etc to keep you on track with your website design to a degree. Just building a site still takes a scrap of work and thought. They accept plenty of templates available that become a long means towards solving this pain point – and Wix has done a good job in the past twelvemonth investing in their site architect.
In fact, they have invested a lot of coin in the past few years in their Wix ADI (Bogus Blueprint Intelligence). Wix ADI is a tool to help Wix users build a beautiful web design automatically based on inputs.
However, compared to their marketing cloth, I call up some customers (like me) will be disappointed to see how much time and endeavour remains to get a project to be presentable.
Wix App Market & Extensions
Like other platform solutions, there are simply so many features they can add together natively to the platform. One solution to give customers the features they want is to open an App Store (aka Apple, Android, or Shopify).
Wix has opened a Wix App Market to provide access to compatible 3rd party apps for Wix storeowners. It's fine, but I found the apps to not be true apps. Instead, most of them were just iframes that were added to a new Wix folio.
Over the past couple of years, Wix has expanded its selection of apps – which is great. For example, they accept a Wix Booking app that makes reservations a breeze for appointment-based businesses. They even have a native forum app that is unique to them among direct website builder competitors.
Simply they still are non quite equally seamless as I'd hoped.
For example, adding the Etsy app doesn't actually add Etsy functionality to your website. Instead, it adds an iframe (ie, a window) for people to navigate your Etsy shop while staying "on your website".
Technically, it works. And technically, it is "piece of cake" – you don't have to grab an embed code from Etsy and paste it in. You don't accept to really do much to brand the installation happen. Even so, Wix's solution is still not ideal. Ideally, you lot'd accept an app that was easy to installand fully integrated into your site. You'd have apps that don't mess with your website analytics and don't nowadays accessibility issues every bit they do via Wix's iFrame solution.
Technical SEO for Growing Sites
Wix has always been disdained a bit in the professional person SEO community. Most of that has to do with their technical implementation years and years ago. Their sites used to use Flash, which was a complete bane of every SEO consultant's existence.
And even as recently as terminal yr, this site heavily criticized Wix SEO for its crawlability and overpromises.
Over the by couple of years, though, a few things take changed.
Beginning, Googlebot is *much* ameliorate at crawling and indexing websites.
Second, Wix has substantially improved its platform for search bot visibility. Here'southward an example of how they've reworked and antiseptic redirects.
Third, the market place needs for SEO have dramatically diverged.
And it'due south this third point that leads to a lot of confusion.
The SEO needs for a 5000+ production online shop with international shipping are *very* dissimilar than the SEO needs for a flower shop in a small-scale urban center.
This point was emphasized by John Mueller of Google in a Google Webmaster Aid Thread. He says that "Wix websites work fine in search" and website owners should "look at the bigger moving picture."
About website owners only need the essential (which Wix does provide), and really need more pattern help than anything (which Wix does provide).
From a professional person standpoint, I would not use Wix for whatever of my clients because of a range of reasons also nerdy for this post. My clients usually piece of work with either huge libraries of content (10,000+ pages) or huge product pick (10,000+ products). I'm looking at internal linking, crawl budget, testing HTML elements at calibration, etc – stuff that'south simply not relevant to most sites.
So from a DIY user's standpoint, Wix is great to get started with.
A local deli near me uses information technology – and they do great in their search results.
Why?
Because for them, the most of import SEO factors they need to worry about are updated content (ie, their choice & menu) and their Google My Business connection. Wix makes that happen and that'due south all that matters.
The aforementioned goes for a small non-profit, or regional florist, or even a small university.
Again – SEO is not the finish-all of any platform. But – Wix does have a serious disadvantage here for growing sites that depend on not-branded organic search.
If y'all generate new leads via word of oral fissure, referrals, social media, offline ads, etc – and so Wix will be fine. People will be able to "detect you with Google."
But if SEO is essential to your long-term marketing strategy or yous are working with an SEO professional person, then Wix will be an impediment.
Technical Limitations & Avant-garde Marketing Tools
Related to their technical SEO issues, simply split up is Wix's technical limitations and avant-garde marketing tools.
Since over again – Wix provides total convenience in return for total control over the platform, this disadvantage is built-in only worth calling out.
Wix has many congenital-in tools for pocket-sized business owners – everything from CRM software to contact forms to appointment software to eCommerce and much, much more than.
However, if yous want annihilation that they don't have – adding whatsoever boosted code to the site is difficult. There are avant-garde marketing features like Schema for events, music, business organisation info, and reviews that they are adding at some point – but take not yet. Calculation pixels, retargeting tools, custom share buttons, custom electronic mail drove tools – all are either difficult or unavailable.
While Wix's tools are easy and useful for most customers – keep in heed that any avant-garde tools may be out of reach if you lot abound into them.
Information Export
Related to growing is what happens if you practice demand to move platforms. What happens to your data, designs, and content?
With Wix – in that location is no way to export your information. It's a bit like having all your furniture bolted to your business firm. If yous motion – y'all can't bring anything with yous.
In the worst-case scenario, you'd have to scrape and/or manually copy-paste your data to your new site. But either style, Wix does not go far easy to exit. It is a feature that they are working on – just is non currently available.
The interim solution for any site owner is to simply have your data & intellectual property backed up (ie, content on Google Docs). That'south a all-time practice anyway for whatever platform you employ.
Wix eCommerce Addendum
Wix has business concern tiers (Business concern Basic, Business Unlimited & Concern VIP), they offer Wix store functionality. An eCommerce store is nice to have if you are already on Wix and want to start selling, but I'd hate to call it full-fledged eCommerce compared to a brand like Shopify. Information technology's more like Wix has a shopping cart and payment functionality than a full eCommerce plan.
Information technology's corking for websites that are primarily lead-generation, informational, etc simply also desire to sell a few products – remember restaurant owner who wants to sell a few shirts or mugs.
It'due south non so neat for websites that are eCommerce-commencement. The functionality is there. It's fine. But I would not cull Wix to start an online store. I'd either build an online store on your own with WordPress + WooCommerce or go with a specialty eCommerce platform similar Shopify or BigCommerce. I wrote a straight comparison of Shopify vs. Wix here. And actually, Square'southward purchase of Weebly has helped them develop improve "pocket-sized store" site builder capabilities. I'd consider them for eCommerce too.
Wix Video Review
Is Wix a Good Option for Websites?
So is Wix good for small businesses and other website projects? Well, Wix has a well-known brand in the website edifice space. In 2006, it was one of the first to offer end-to-stop website edifice with no coding skills.
There are a lot of Wix reviews online, merely the bottom line is that Wix promises 100% convenience with built-in tools for DIY website owners (and they encounter that promise) – simply they accept a few drawbacks for professional person developers & intermediate DIYers.
If they sound like a good fit for y'all – bank check out Wix'southward plans.
If you are trying to figure out good Wix alternatives, you can notice the all-time website builder for yous.
FAQs
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Source: https://larryludwig.com/wix-review/
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