Wix

Wix is a low-code website builder, host and domain registrar, best known for its intuitive, drag-and-drop site-building tools. It is ideal for small-to-medium-sized businesses. It features built-in e-Commerce, marketing and blogging tools, and also has a wide range of third party apps available for various tasks.

This guide looks at scenarios in which Wix may be a good fit for your business, and use cases where other tools may be a better fit. It contains advice on getting started with Wix, as well as tips on migrating from other web hosting services. Lastly, it recommends tools which are most compatible with Wix.

Wix is best suited to:

• Individuals, start-ups, and freelancers who want to quickly achieve an online presence or showcase a portfolio;
• Course providers, travel agents, restaurants, consultants, and any other business that needs to take online bookings;
• Bloggers;
• Businesses selling digital downloads;
• Small-to-medium sized e-Commerce operations.

Wix features a wide range of professionally designed site templates and a marketplace where you can access apps to add additional functionality to your site. Many of the apps are free, while others must be purchased. Some of the most useful free apps include:

• Wix Stores: Set up an eCommerce store;
• Wix Bookings: Take online bookings;
• Wix Forms: Request information from site visitors;
• Wix Payments: Accept Payments;
• Wix Chat: Chat with site visitors;
• Wix Events & Tickets: Manage events;
• Wix SEO: Improve SEO ratings.

Please note that some of these tools are only available on certain subscription plans.

Wix has excellent marketing tools. Even the free version allows you to maintain a customer mailing list and send out a limited number of emails to your customers, while the paid plans can rival dedicated email marketing platforms such as MailChimp. You can also use Wix to send bulk emails, for example, when you have special offers. Its built-in translator is capable of translating your content into 180 languages.

The site editor makes it simple to customize your site and offers more flexibility than many other site building tools. It’s quick to learn, even if you don’t have any technical knowledge. Templates are optimized for mobile, and the site preview lets you see what your site would look like on either desktop or mobile devices.

Wix can handle dropshipping, gift cards, and subscriptions. It allows you to sell on social media and online marketplaces. While Wix has its own payment gateway, it also offers a choice of more than 70 popular payment gateway providers.

Wix also offers excellent security with free SSL certificates with all plans and PCI compliance. Fraud protection is included, and servers are continually monitored and audited.

Pricing and Plans

Wix offers a free plan with limited functionality and four levels of premium plans. Large organizations can negotiate with the sales team to obtain customized enterprise packages, with high speeds, top security, and many features.

All paid plans include free domain registration for the first year and a free SSL certificate annually. None of the plans include free email addresses. Clients who don't yet have a business email address are advised to purchase a Google Workspace plan, which includes a custom email address.

All plans, including the free plan, include the facility to maintain mailing lists, design attractive emails from templates, and send up to 200 emails per month. You can also purchase additional automailing functionality on top of any of the plans. 

If you choose Wix as your payment gateway, each transaction will be charged a flat fee plus a percentage of the transaction. The fees vary by type of transaction and location and if you choose a different gateway, the service provider’s fees will apply instead.

Wix is a highly competitive solution for most small to medium businesses. Although the fees are sometimes slightly higher than competitors such as Wordpress.com or GoDaddy, the features included can justify the price. GoDaddy, for example, only includes an SSL certificate in the first year’s fees, and charges for it thereafter. Wordpress.com does not include the free contact list and automailing provided by Wix.

However, Wix may not be the best choice for many e-Commerce businesses. If your store is very large, or you anticipate extensive growth, you may find Wix restrictive for the following reasons:

• Complex inventory management is difficult to implement.
• Although automatic sales tax calculation is available, it is very limited in the number of transactions it will cater to.
• Complex shipping arrangements can be difficult to implement.

Large eCommerce stores may find that Shopify, BigCommerce, or WooCommerce provide better solutions.

Additionally, Wix may feel limiting to businesses requiring extensive customization on their sites or integrations with existing systems.

For small businesses, starting with Wix's free plan can give you an idea of the features, ease of use, and capabilities. If you feel essential functionality is missing while working on the free plan, you may want to upgrade to a premium plan for additional features.

• Start by going to Wix, and click ‘Get Started’.
• Next, you’ll be asked a few questions about your business. These will help Wix decide what sort of website you’ll need.
• The next step is to choose a template. You’ll see a searchable list of available templates. Take time to browse and find one you like. You won’t be able to change the template later, but you will be able to make extensive changes to it to fit your needs. You can also skip this step and start with a blank page.
• You’ll be asked to provide a site name, which will appear in your page headings.
• You’ll see a list of apps that are recommended for your website. Select any that you need, keeping in mind that you can always add more apps later.
• Wix will now take you to your site dashboard. It will show the required steps to complete your website, as well as a menu on the left-hand side, which you can use to add more functionality.
• Next, you’ll need a domain for your site. For paid plans, you can either buy a domain or connect one you already own. For the free plan, you’ll be given a Wix subdomain. You can click the ‘Let’s go’ button to set up the domain, or skip this step for now and click ‘Design your website’. You have a choice of designing your site from a template or allowing Wix to create a site for you. You can always customize the site later.
• You’ll now need to provide some information, including your name and your social media accounts. Optionally, you can add a logo. Depending on your previous choices, you will likely need to pick a theme and choose pages to add to your site.
• Your site will then be created. You can continue to customize by adding your content to the Wix editor.

At this point, it’s a good idea to work through the Wix video tutorials, which guides you through the basics of creating a website and using the editor. It’s also worth reading the Wix's Getting Started Guide.

If you decide to opt for a premium plan, you can then connect or buy your domain from the dashboard, and purchase your plan.

If you already have a website elsewhere and want to migrate to Wix, there are several things you'll need to plan for:

Domain
You can either migrate the domain to Wix, so that Wix becomes your domain registrar, or leave it with the current registrar. It is usually simpler in the long run to migrate your domain, to avoid having to pay two separate organizations for subscriptions. This article explains how to transfer your domain.

Either way, you’ll need to connect your domain to your site from the site dashboard.

Content
It isn't possible to directly import a website that wasn’t designed through the Wix builder. To recreate your site, you will need to go through the steps of building your site on Wix. You would need to download your images, videos, and other content from your old site, then use Wix’s media manager to upload them. You may want to copy and paste text from your old site into the Wix editor.

Blogs
If you have a blog on WordPress, you can import it into Wix. This article explains how to do it.

Mailing Lists
Most mailing lists allow you to export your subscribers in CSV format. You can then import the CSV into Wix. See this guide for instructions.

e-Commerce Data
Moving e-Commerce data may be complex, since you’d likely want to migrate products, orders, customers, and more. Wix has a paid e-Commerce migration tool named Cart2Cart. It should work well for standard e-Commerce sites, but you may encounter problems with complex setups.

It’s also possible to import your products in CSV format. This is also an efficient way to import new product ranges after your site is live.

If your migration is very complex, it can be worth hiring a professional to help you. The Wix marketplace recommends experts with various specializations.

Wix can be integrated with a wide range of commercial tools, including:

• Marketing: Google Analytics, Facebook Pixel, Hubspot
• Mailing: Mailchimp
• SEO: Google Search Console, Semrush
• e-Commerce: Printful, Shippo
• Social Media: Instagram Feed, Facebook Comments, X for Websites
• Analytics & Tracking: Hotjar, Crazy Egg, Lucky Orange
• Payments: PayPal, Stripe, Square, and other major gateways
• Communications: LiveChat, Tidio
• Other: Calendly, Acuity Scheduling, Unsplash, Vimeo, YouTube

CMS tools such as WordPress and Joomla can’t be used on Wix, since they use their own site builders and content management systems.

Some tools can only be integrated via a third party tool such as Zapier. These include:

• Salesforce
• ShipBob
• ShipStation

Wix's Core Plan and above include a developer environment named Velo, enabling custom development.