Wix is the website builder most people have heard of, and in 2026 it is two products rather than one: the classic Wix Editor sold on Premium plans, and Wix Studio for agencies and freelancers. Both are capable. Both lock your site to Wix’s servers. This review covers what Wix does well, where it falls short, what it costs, and which kind of business should choose it.
Prices below are Wix’s US yearly-billing prices as of autumn 2026. Wix states that prices vary by location and its public page shows yearly prices only, so check the figure for your own country on Wix’s plans page at checkout.
Wix Review: The Short Verdict
| Wix | |
|---|---|
| Best for | Small businesses that want a site that does something specific: bookings, events, restaurants, memberships |
| Price | Light $17, Core $29, Business $39, Business Elite $159 a month, billed yearly |
| Free plan | Yes, with Wix branding and a wixsite.com address |
| Can take payments from | Core ($29), not Light |
| Biggest strength | Freedom to design plus native tools for whole industries |
| Biggest weakness | Your site cannot leave Wix |
Wix Pricing
| Plan | Per month, billed yearly | Storage | Collaborators | Selling |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Free | $0 | 500 MB | Not published | No |
| Light | $17 | 2 GB | 2 | No payments |
| Core | $29 | 50 GB | 5 | Basic ecommerce |
| Business | $39 | 100 GB | 10 | Standard ecommerce |
| Business Elite | $159 | Unlimited | 100 | Advanced ecommerce |
Every paid plan removes Wix branding and includes a free domain for the first year. The detail that matters most is that Light cannot accept payments, so the real entry price for any business taking money online is Core at $29, not $17.
Wix Studio has its own price list aimed at people building sites for clients. Its plans include unlimited bandwidth, a responsive editor and client handover tools. A Studio site needs a Studio plan; Premium plans only work with sites built in the classic Wix Editor, so the choice of editor is made at the start of a build and is hard to reverse.
What Wix Does Well
Design Freedom
The classic Wix Editor uses absolute positioning: drop an element where you want it and it stays there. For a non-designer it is the most forgiving editor in the category, because nothing snaps away from you. Combined with a very large template library and an AI site generator that builds a starting site from a short description, Wix gets a first site live faster than almost anything else.
Native Tools For Specific Industries
This is where Wix pulls ahead of most builders. Bookings with staff calendars, restaurant ordering, hotel reservations, ticketed events, fitness memberships and pricing plans are Wix’s own products, built into the dashboard with published limits rather than bolted on through third parties. A salon, studio, venue or small hotel can run its front office on Wix without stitching tools together.
SEO Controls
Wix gives more technical SEO control than most hosted builders. It offers an editable robots.txt, custom canonical tags, editable structured data including markup applied across page types, patterned meta tags, bulk 301 redirect imports, a Google Search Console integration from the dashboard and server-side rendering. For a business that depends on organic search, that toolkit is a real advantage over builders that hide those settings.
In-Person Selling
Wix’s US point-of-sale rate is 2.6% with no fixed fee, cheaper than its own online card rate of 2.9% plus 30 cents. Businesses that sell at a counter as well as online get a single product and customer record and a better in-person rate than many competitors publish.
Wix Studio For Professionals
Wix Studio answers the long-standing criticism that Wix sites are hard to make responsive. It is a separate editor with responsive layouts, custom CSS, no-code animations, concurrent editing and a developer workspace. For freelancers and agencies, it turns Wix into a credible professional tool.
Where Wix Falls Short
Your Site Cannot Leave
This should carry the most weight in any decision. Wix’s own help center states that a Wix site must be hosted on Wix’s servers and cannot be moved to external hosting. You can export contacts, store data and CMS collections as files. You cannot export the site, and Wix currently lists exporting blog posts to another platform as an unbuilt feature request. If you leave, you rebuild, and you copy your writing out by hand. Keep source copies of your images and long-form content from day one.
Mobile Layouts Need Separate Work
Because the classic editor places elements by position rather than structure, Wix keeps a separate mobile view that needs its own tidying. It is a second layout to maintain for the life of the site, and it is where many self-built Wix sites look worst. Studio solves this, but only if you start there.
Pricing Is Less Transparent Than It Looks
Wix quotes yearly prices paid in full and does not publish monthly prices on its main page; you see the monthly figure at checkout. Light cannot take payments. Sales tax automation is metered: none on Core, 100 transactions a month on Business and 500 on Business Elite. Selling subscriptions and memberships through Pricing Plans carries a fee of 4% on Core and 2% on Business, falling to zero only on Business Elite.
Quality Varies Across Templates And Apps
The template library is large and uneven. The App Market is broad, but third-party apps vary in quality and each adds weight to the site. A Wix site built carelessly from a mediocre template with several apps can be slow and look generic.
Ecommerce On Wix
Wix Stores supports up to 50,000 products on Core and above, with abandoned cart recovery, automatic discounts, pre-orders, loyalty, gift cards and built-in dropshipping. US card processing through Wix Payments is 2.9% plus 30 cents online, with higher published rates for American Express and PayPal. Wix lists no extra transaction fee on store orders. For a store with a varied physical catalog that also needs bookings or events, Wix is a strong all-in-one choice. For a store where the catalog is the entire business, a dedicated commerce platform is usually better; see our Wix vs Shopify comparison.
Support
Wix offers 24/7 chat and an English callback service, with escalation to its customer care team by chat, phone or email. Higher plans get priority. The help center is large and generally clear.
Who Should Use Wix
Choose Wix if your site has a job to do beyond looking good: taking bookings, selling tickets, managing memberships or running a restaurant’s ordering. Choose it if organic search is your main channel and you want control over technical SEO without a developer. Choose Wix Studio if you build sites for clients.
Who Should Look Elsewhere
Look elsewhere if you are likely to outgrow a hosted builder, because leaving Wix means starting again. If you want a polished site with minimal ongoing tidying, Squarespace’s single editor is easier to keep consistent; our Wix vs Squarespace comparison sets out the trade. If you want full ownership of your site, read WordPress vs Wix. For more options, browse our list of affordable website builders.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Wix free?
Wix has a free plan with Wix branding, a wixsite.com address and 500 MB of storage. To use your own domain and remove branding you need a paid plan, from $17 a month billed yearly.
Which Wix plan do I need to sell online?
Core, at $29 a month billed yearly, is the first plan that can accept payments. Light cannot.
Is Wix good for SEO?
Yes. Wix exposes more technical SEO controls than most hosted builders, including robots.txt, structured data, canonical tags and bulk redirects.
Can I move my Wix site to another platform?
No. Wix sites must run on Wix’s servers. You can export some data, but not the site itself, and not your blog posts in bulk.
Conclusion
Wix is the most capable all-round website builder for small businesses that need their site to do specific work. Its industry tools, SEO controls and design freedom are genuine strengths, and Wix Studio makes it a serious option for professionals. Weigh that against the lock-in honestly: a Wix site stays on Wix. If that trade suits how long you expect to stay, Wix is an easy recommendation; if it does not, decide now rather than in year three.
