Israel-based Wix is a giant in the website builder industry with over 150 million users worldwide. Although the company was founded in 2006, it hit its first million users in 2009 and today Wix has 2,770 employees with offices in Israel, the US, Lithuania, Germany, Brazil, Ukraine, Ireland and Canada.
Wix sets itself apart from traditional web hosting services such as GoDaddy or HostGator by being a website builder first with free web hosting thrown in as an added bonus. Including free web hosting with its plans fits perfectly with the company’s goal to enable anyone to create a professional website quickly and easily since its customers won’t have to waste time shopping for a web host but can focus on building their sites instead. Wix allows users to build their site using its drag-and-drop editor or they can even choose to have a site created for them automatically by using Wix Artificial Design Intelligence.
Let’s take a closer look at Wix’s plans, pricing and features to see if this website builder is the right choice for your website.
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Wix: Pricing
If you’re interested in trying out Wix for yourself, the company does offer a free plan that gives you access to hundreds of templates, unlimited pages and top graded web hosting but its premium plans give you even more.
Wix’s premium website plans start with its ‘Combo’ plan for $11 per month which gives you 2 GB of bandwidth, 3 GB of storage, the ability to connect your domain, 30 video minutes and a free domain for one year.
Next up we have the ‘Unlimited’ plan which is geared towards entrepreneurs and freelancers. This plan costs $14 per month and includes all of the features of the combo plan as well as unlimited bandwidth, 10 GB of storage, 1 video hour, $300 in ad vouchers, Wix’s site booster app and its form builder app.
Wix’s ‘Pro’ plan costs $19 per month and includes all of the features of the Unlimited plan as well as 20 GB of storage, 2 video hours, events calendar, professional logo and social media logo files.
Finally, we have Wix’s ‘VIP’ plan that includes everything the Pro plan does but also comes with first priority support.
For those interested in the company’s free and Connect Domain plans, it is worth noting that these plans include Wix branding at the bottom of your site while its premium plans don’t include any branding at all.
Wix: Signing up
After picking out your plan, Wix asks you to enter your email address and a password. The company then runs you through a questionnaire to determine the kind of site you want to create and who your audience will be. After completing the company’s questions, you’re then asked whether or not you would like Wix Artificial Design Intelligence (ADI) to build your site for you. You can also create your site by yourself using Wix’s drag-and-drop editor.
If you’re not quite sure which option will suit your needs, Wix does have an article in its help center called “Creating a new site: Editor vs. ADI” that can help clear up any confusion.
Overall, we found Wix’s signup and account creation process to be fairly straightforward and the option to connect either your Google or Facebook account (as opposed to making a new account) is a nice touch.
Wix: Creating a site
As we mentioned before, you can use either Wix’s regular editor or ADI to create your site. ADI allows you to create a site in almost no time at all but the company’s drag-and-drop editor is much simpler. To use ADI all you have to do is tell Wix the type of site you want to create, the features you require (e-commerce, taking appointments, getting subscribers, a blog etc.), import some of your social media and contact details and the service will create a site based on your input.
The drag-and-drop editor takes a much more manual approach. You start out with a template which you can customize by dragging and dropping the full set of Wix components onto the page or adjusting the elements you already have to your liking. This approach certainly gives you more control over the layout of your site but unfortunately there is a significant drawback. ADI gives you the option to change your layout after you’ve created your site but once you have selected a template in the standard editor, you’ll be unable to change it later.
One of the best aspects of Wix is its polished user interface. All of the design elements in its editor are available via a toolbar to the left while importing media and accessing its settings can be done via a toolbar at the top of the page. There are also guidelines down the center of each page to help you line up your content.
Wix is a very design-focused company and you can see this just from visiting its website. It’s nice to see that this attention to detail also carries over to its website builder. If you’ve built websites in the past, you’ll be right at home and if you’re just starting out, you’ll be able to pick things up in no time especially since support is available right from within the editor itself.
Even if you are a beginner, we still recommend using Wix’s regular editor as the learning curve is not too difficult but if you do need to get a site up and running as soon as possible, then ADI might be the better option.
Wix: Performance
When reviewing the performance of a web hosting service or even a website builder for that matter, one of the first things we like to do is look at the support options available. Luckily Wix has a lot of built-in support to help users having difficulty setting up their sites. For example, left-clicking any object in the editor displays a toolbar with a help icon and a help menu is always visible in the editor’s own toolbar.
If you do access support from within the editor, help options will be displayed in a small pop-up window which is actually quite handy as it doesn’t take you away from the work area. Alternatively, you can also go to Wix’s Help Center using your browser to see all of the articles and frequently asked questions in a full browser window as opposed to a pop-up window.
Wix’s knowledgebase provides its customers with a number of useful articles on a variety of topics including the Wix Editor, domains, mobile, SEO, Wix Stores, ADI and more. These articles are thorough and many include animated GIFs to help illustrate interface actions for those who need extra help. Wix’s support articles are also tailored to both beginners and experienced users alike.
If you need additional help, customer support is available via a ticket system but unfortunately there is no live chat option. Support over the telephone is also available but your only option is to request a call-back which can be kind of frustrating when you’re in the middle of dealing with an issue.
Wix: Verdict and Conclusion
Wix certainly delivers on its goal to enable anyone to create a professional website quickly and with little to no experience. Although ADI might not be for everyone, having the option to have your site created for you is a nice plus especially for those who need to create an online presence quickly. Wix’s well-designed templates, excellent editor and the inclusion of free web hosting are more than enough reasons to give this website builder a try.
- Want to see the competition? Check out our guide to the best web hosting
