Wix Review: Is It As Good As Everyone Says? [2023 UPDATE]

Wix at a Glance

Should You Use Wix?

I always thought of Wix as a really basic website builder – something you’d build a personal site on for fun, but not anything you could use for a professional web presence. Wix promises a lot, and I wasn’t sure if it could live up to those promises. But I always admit it when I’m wrong, so here it is – I was very, very wrong about Wix.

Wix is a powerful website builder. It’s easy to use, but this doesn’t come at the expense of function. That makes it an ideal solution for small businesses that need a unique website that’s super simple to run.

You don’t need any experience with websites to understand how Wix works, either. Trust me, I’m not exactly an expert web designer, but I built a great- looking (and super functional) website within an hour.

And it’s not just me. More than 200 million people in 190 countries use it for their websites, and that number is steadily increasing. Of course, that may have something to do with the attractive free plan that lets you build a fully functional website without paying a dime. The 19 supported languages (including English, French, and Korean) also help.

But is Wix the one for you? In this review, I’ll examine Wix’s best features (and some of its drawbacks) to help you decide if it’s the right choice for your website.

Wix Has Hundreds of Templates to Choose From

Wix offers more templates than any other website builder, with over 900 to choose from in subcategories spanning business, e-commerce, creative sites, and more. You won’t find endless repetitions of the same basic layout with slightly different colors and images here. You’ll have complete design freedom from the moment you hit Sign Up.

And while most website builders stick to the most common website niches, Wix has templates for (almost) all interests and businesses. Whether you’re looking to promote your dog walking business, share your vlog, or even set up a wedding website, Wix has you covered. Seriously, Wix offers 25+ templates just for wedding websites.

One thing I really like about Wix’s templates is that many of them come with apps you might need pre-installed. When I set up my blog, the Wix Blog and Wix Forms apps were ready to configure straight away. With a few clicks, I added elements for displaying blog posts and forms to build my email list.

This makes your website-building experience much smoother as you spend less time hunting down the apps you need. Instead, you can spend that time chowing down on a carnitas burrito and watching Parks and Recreation for the 15th time (don’t judge me, Pawnee is my happy place).

Wix templates do have a few drawbacks. While each comes with a mobile-friendly version, the designs aren’t automatically mobile-responsive. If you make significant changes to your layout, you may need to edit the mobile view separately to ensure your content is still readable and looks good.

Plus, once you choose a template, you can’t switch it. I’m unfortunately not exaggerating here – you simply don’t have the option. If you want to completely overhaul your website by switching to a new design, you’ll have to start again from scratch. Make sure you like your template before you begin customizing it!

With many other website builders offering fully-mobile responsive websites and the ability to change your template with just a click, this does sound restrictive. However, these restrictions exist because of Wix’s increased customization flexibility.

The more freedom you have to create your own layout, the harder it is to convert those changes to a mobile site or a new template.

It’s the right choice, but I suppose this design philosophy is a bit like pineapple on pizza. You either quietly love it, or you’re heavily opposed to the very idea of it. And yes, I like pineapple on pizza.

Design and Customization

You don’t even have to pick a template from the category most relevant to your website. Since they’re so customizable, you can choose a template from any category and modify it to fit your needs.

And when I say exactly what you want, I mean it. Many builders will make you place elements according to a set grid, but in the Wix editor, you can place any element anywhere you want. You can then adjust element shapes and sizes down to the pixel. Every element has its own customization menu offering countless opportunities to add your unique touch, often suggesting things I hadn’t even thought of, like animation or scrolling effects.

It’s also super easy to add custom elements or widgets. Wix allows you to embed widgets with HTML code blocks or create custom elements with HTML or JavaScript. And, if that’s not enough, you can extend each element’s functionality using Wix Velo. This tool allows you to add even more custom JavaScript code or use Wix’s APIs to customize how each element works.

You’ll also get plenty of guidance to make sure you don’t recreate The World’s Worst Website (if you know, you know). Grid lines show you when elements are correctly centered or aligned with each other, and there are handy “boundary” lines to help you arrange your content.

Sure, it’s not the most advanced editor out there, but never fear – Wix has a solution for that too. Wix’s new Editor X is designed for agencies and design professionals offering design features like CSS grids, element anchoring, custom breakpoints, and more. This isn’t available on a standard Wix plan, but it’s a good option if you like Wix’s feature set but need something a bit more advanced.

Wix’s Features Let You Build the Site of Your Dreams

If you can imagine something for your website, you can probably do it on Wix. You’ll find standard features like blog management and an online store, but if you have more niche needs, you’ll likely find features and apps that cater to you too. The restaurant features are some of their best, but you’ll also find excellent options for art and photography, hospitality, and more.

There’s no coding or technical knowledge needed to set up even the more advanced features – the hardest part is limiting yourself to only adding the features that are actually necessary and not everything that sounds cool. Trust me, using Wix was a real test of balancing my “ooh, shiny!” instincts with my self-control.

Wix Stores

Wix Stores is one of the easiest e-commerce tools I’ve ever tested. Like the Wix Blog and Wix Forms apps I mentioned before, Wix Stores is an app that adds e-commerce functionality to your website. This includes product and checkout pages, payment gateway integrations, and plenty new customization options to support your online store.

Once you upgrade to a business plan to accept payments, it’s freely available for all stores. So, if you want to simply showcase an online catalog of products in your brick-and-mortar store (and even offer them for click-and-collect orders), you can do that with Wix. That’s a lot more than you can say for other website builders.

Plus, you’ll be able to sell your products not just on your site but also on Facebook, Amazon, and other online marketplaces. Regardless of what payment methods you accept – you can add credit and debit cards, PayPal, and AliPay – Wix doesn’t take any commissions from your sales. There are even apps for buy-now-pay-later options (like AfterPay), gift cards, and product subscription management.

It’s not quite as extensive as some other e-commerce tools. As much as I like Wix Stores, larger e-commerce businesses will get more features (and better value for their money) from dedicated e-commerce platforms like Shopify. That said, Wix Stores will be more than enough if you have a small to medium-sized online shop. As a bonus, you can customize your product pages and shopping cart, whereas Shopify won’t let you.

You can also establish shipping rules and rates based on region, weight, or product. It’s also possible to integrate your stores with apps like Shippo or ShipStation that let you print labels and access competitive rates for shipping your products. Or, you can use a dropshipping app to take care of shipping and fulfillment for you (and expand your product offering at the same time).

Robust App Market

The Wix App Market offers more than 300+ apps with many exciting features to help expand your site’s functionality. You can set up your blog, customize contact forms, add an event calendar, and more.

About 50 of these apps are created by Wix, but you can also access third-party apps, such as integrations with popular marketing tools like Google AdSense and social media ads. Most apps have a free version, but some require a paid plan to access more advanced features. You can search for apps via categories like Marketing and Selling Online, or even by a goal, like Collect Leads.

Once again, the app market challenged my self-control in the face of new, shiny features. Mainly because you can add apps with a single click, and there’s no limit to how many you can have.

Here are some popular Wix-created apps that I find particularly useful:

• Wix Blog: Wix’s blogging functions aren’t anything fancy, but they seamlessly integrate into your overall site. You can customize your blog home page to fit your theme, add posts, and categorize them for easy navigation. You can even import posts from WordPress if you have existing content you want to use.
• Wix Chat: You can add a live chat option to your site so visitors can reach you 24/7. You get notifications for every message you receive and can respond instantly from any device. You can also set up an automatic greeting for your site visitors.
• Wix Forms: This app lets you create custom contact forms from various templates that you can modify to meet your needs. Your site dashboard will collect and manage all your responses, so you can create email lists or respond to customer queries as needed.

Wix SEO Setup Checklist

Search engine optimization (SEO) is vital to your online visibility. SEO is all about optimizing your website to make it easier for search engines like Google to categorize and list it in search results. The better your website is optimized, the higher it appears when visitors search for things related to your website.

I often cringe when I see SEO tools in website builders because I just know that businesses will believe that’s all they need to get a lot of traffic. In most cases, these tools are extremely generic, but I was pleasantly surprised by Wix.

It’s not perfect, and it’s still overcoming years of a bad SEO reputation, but currently, Wix just might have the best SEO tools of any website builder I’ve tested.

When you setup your website, you’re asked to input three keywords for your site. This helps Wix decide which pages need to be optimized for those keywords. Wix then generates an SEO checklist for you to follow, walking you through the process for each task.

There are three phases to the SEO checklist:

• Step one helps you optimize your homepage so that visitors can find your website on Google and other search engines
• Step two walks you through how to optimize your site pages and contact information
• Step three helps you continue improving your SEO as your site grows

All Wix sites are designed with best practices in mind and its checklist provides details on must-have pages, how to optimize them, and how Google reads and understands your site. It’s an impressive resource that no other website builder can match. Having taught myself SEO, I wish I had resources as easy to understand as Wix’s when I was getting started.

Ascend Business Tools

To help you get more visitors to your site, Wix offers an impressive suite of business tools that cover almost everything you might need to successfully market your website. Here’s what you can access from a single dashboard:

• Email marketing: You can use the simple drag-and-drop email builder to create unique email campaigns and send them to your mailing list. You can set up a signup form on your site to collect email addresses and segment your contact list according to your needs.
• Video maker: Wix’s video tool lets you create business videos containing images, business information, and more. These videos are great for sharing on social platforms and in email. There are video templates for you to work with, but you can customize a lot to make your videos match your brand.
• Social post builder: Similar to the video maker, the social post builder lets you use fully-customizable templates to design catchy images for social media and share them directly to your preferred platforms.
• Automations: You can easily set triggers and responses for various customer actions, including sending thank you or abandoned cart emails, creating automatic labels for new chat contacts, and setting up customer support tasks.
• Marketing integrations: If you already work with other business tools, you can easily connect them to your site. You’ll find integrations for Google Analytics, Mailchimp, and much more.
• Invoices: If you use Wix Stores, you can request and track payments within your Wix dashboard, making it easy for customers to pay you directly.
• Analytics: The extensive analytics and reporting interface lets you track all your site traffic, sales, and customer interactions. You can even integrate custom code or Google Tag Manager to track conversions from your marketing campaigns.

You get limited access to these features with any Wix plan – even the free one! If you need more, you can add a separate Ascend subscription. Upgrading allows you to send more emails and create more videos. Wix is moving toward being a one-stop shop for a business’s online presence, and this set of marketing tools is a huge step in that direction.

Wix Is a Pleasure to Use

I’ve spent a lot of time on Wix for a few different projects, and everything is always where I expect it to be. Unlike with other site builders, I didn’t waste any time figuring out how to do basic tasks. Every menu and button is clearly labeled, and it’s clear a lot of thought went into the user experience.

A Suite of AI Tools

If you’re short on time, Wix makes it even easier with its suite of AI (Artificial Design Intelligence) tools. All you need to do is answer a few questions about the site you want to create and Wix will literally make it for you… in minutes. Sure, there are some design limitations, but once the site is built, you have full control to edit whatever you like.

The editor is simple and straightforward to use and if you want to make sure your site matches your branding, the AI can even pull this directly from your social media accounts.

There’s then a whole host of AI tools to help you write website content, edit images and analyse and report how your site is doing. And if you make a mistake or want to revert back to an earlier version, you can.

Now that’s all genuinely impressive, given how easy Wix is to use already. Anything that makes my life easier is a win in my book.

Pixel-Perfect Drag-And-Drop Editor

Out of the many website builders I’ve tested, Wix has the best drag-and-drop editor. Everything can be adjusted down to the pixel, and you can add, move, or layer elements in any combination imaginable.

Even adding and reordering pages in your menu comes in a drag-and-drop interface. You can change your page order through the sidebar menu, and from this same screen, you can add new pages or adjust the SEO settings (such as the title and meta description). You’ll always have a clear view of your site structure and navigation.

When I tested the Wix editor, I never had to work too hard to find whatever I needed next. Everything was where I expected it to be, whether it was adding content layouts, uploading images, or changing a button color or header font. Each element also has a Help button pop up when you click on it, so if you find yourself a little lost, guidance is right there.

Dozens of Content Layouts

Just because you can drag and drop every little thing doesn’t mean you have to. Wix has a massive selection of content layouts and styles (called Sections), ranging from header images to photo galleries to pretty much anything you can think of. If you need to add anything new to your website, simply click Add Section and drag and drop one of the dozens of available options.

If you’re new to web design, you can easily combine elements via Sections that will look good no matter what. When I was testing Wix, these layouts helped keep my site looking professional rather than put together by an amateur (which I am when it comes to web design).

Story time: I couldn’t believe how easy it was to add a contact form using this feature. Most of my website-building experience comes from WordPress, so I’m used to spending 15-20 minutes setting up a contact form using a third-party plugin. I was genuinely shocked that I could set up a functional and modern-looking contact form in 5 minutes using a drag-and-drop content layout.

The layouts can be used as-is or customized further to match your branding. For example, you can change colors or fonts while keeping the style or layout the same. When you add apps like Wix Blog, you unlock even more layouts and design elements.

To learn more about how it all works, check out this Wix tutorial from my colleague:

Wix Doesn’t Always Help You When You Need It

So, let’s go with the good news first. Wix has a huge Support Center with detailed, step-by-step articles and video tutorials on almost any topic I could think of. I even found a video tutorial to help users understand Google’s Core Web Vitals update, which I haven’t seen many other website builders cover. Fortunately, it’s an impressive resourcebecause, unless you’re on the Enterprise plan, you’ll have to rely on it quite a bit.

In theory, Wix also offers live chat support 5 days a week, with times depending on the support language you need. I say in theory because, as you’ll see below, I was never given the live chat option. Similarly, email support is handled through a ticket system, but I was never given this option either. Even if you’re on one of the more expensive plans, these channels are your only option. The only difference is your support requests are prioritized.

Instead, the Support Center and the English language callback support line is your advertised “24/7 support”. If you need help in another language, note that callback support is only available during business hours in the support team’s country.

I came across an automated chatbot that allows users to navigate through a sequence of prompts to explain their issues. What’s quite surprising is that this chatbot provides numerous detailed options, and each of these options directs users to a pertinent support article.

If you ask to speak to a human, you’ll find the option to request a callback from the Wix support team. According to Wix, you should also be able to submit a ticket or (if they’re available) live chat with a customer support agent. But despite using the chatbot at various times throughout the day, I was never given this option. For the most part, you’re just directed back to the support center in a frustrating loop.

I requested a callback, but, despite the chatbot saying I could expect a call in 3 minutes, the callback didn’t arrive until an hour later. To their credit, the Wix customer support team is pretty helpful when you get a chance to speak to them. The agent answered my question about domain limitations immediately, so I was only on the phone for a few minutes. And, despite asking questions from an account using the free plan, I was pleasantly surprised the agent didn’t push me to upgrade.

That said, I accept I had a pleasant experience because I could afford to wait. Given that I had to wait longer than the advertised time for a callback, I could see this being extremely frustrating if you had a time-sensitive issue.

If you enjoy troubleshooting problems on your own like I do, this setup functions quite effectively. However, if you prefer faster access to speaking with a real person or encounter an issue not addressed in the written tutorials, Wix may be a bit frustrating.

Wix Offers a Plan for Every Budget

One of the best things about Wix is that its free plan is more robust than any of the free plans offered by other website builders. You can access nearly every feature without limits on the number of pages and the amount of customization. However, you can’t connect a custom domain or remove Wix’s branding, and you’ll only have limited bandwidth and storage. Online payments will also not be available to you.

When you upgrade to the cheapest plan, you’ll remove Wix ads and get more storage, plus a free domain for a year. Higher-tier plans get you even more storage space and the ability to upload more video. The highest-tier plans have some extras, such as a free analytics app, professional logo design, and ad vouchers.

I pay for Wix’s Business plan for my portfolio website and blog, which offers me more features than I’ll likely ever need. It’s a good mid-level plan that offers excellent value for my money. And if, like me, you moved away from a self-hosted WordPress website, the time you save on managing your website is worth the cost of Wix.

If you need to accept online payments of any kind, you’ll need to pay for at least the Core or Business plan. These plans offer even more storage and video, as well as online store benefits like automatic sales tax calculations, advanced shipping options, and a product review tool. These plans are well-suited to small to medium online businesses and offer a great low-cost alternative to dedicated e-commerce platforms like Shopify.

In addition to these website builder subscription plans, you can add an additional subscription for Ascend by Wix business tools. These also have different levels and provide great value.

If you change your mind, don’t worry. You can get a full refund for your Wix plan or Ascend add-on within 14 days of purchase, no questions asked. After that, you’ll have to contact Wix and make your case, which they’ll review and decide on an individual basis.

The 14-day money-back guarantee does not cover bought domain names, email addresses, app buys, or certain other extras, so make sure you’re sure about these purchases before you approve them.