Wix Website Builder Review. Pros, Cons & Even Alternatives

I recently discovered and gave Wix’s website builder a shot for alternatives’s sake since I’ve been using WordPress for a number of years.

In this review, I’d like to share my results, thoughts and if you too should try using this program. I’ll be showing you the pros, cons of this program as well as my personal approache/s to building websites.

What exactly is Wix? 

It is a website building program that takes away most of the red tape that usually comes with making them. This includes:

  • Registering your domain name with places like Godaddy.com or Namecheap.com. Usually domains will run you about $10 a year BUT it will rise every year after.
  • Getting hosting which can cost anywhere from $1-$6 a month.
  • Figuring out how to edit and create a beautiful looking page. This is especially difficult for most people who have little/no experience in building pages.

With this page builder, most of that above red tape is taken out. You can try out this program once for free without having to enter any personal information. This is a great way to “test the waters” and see exactly how it can work for you.

What you get with this program:

  • 357 different templates to choose from.
  • 1 free page to test out the system (but there is a con about this I will shortly point to).
  • Good support if you encounter any issues and/or need help.
  • Video breakthroughs to simplify the process.
  • The ability to choose which themes you’d like to try out based on your topic (I chose law).

When I tested out Wix, I was taken to a topic page where I had to choose which subject I wanted to make my page on. Based on the subject you choose, you will be displayed a number of different templates to choose from.

I personally chose to try and make a page for a law firm since I’m currently involved in such a project and am using what I consider to be a better page builder to make the page.

Based on first impressions, the templates Wix provides look very professional and it’s quite easy to get set up. Most newbies will most likely encounter difficulties at first but it’s something that will vanish with practice.

The free page I built with Wix only took me about 30 minutes to do. But this was just a first draft. If I were to go into detail and fully devote myself to making the page, it would take me hours, but it would still look good.

Here is my sample page (notice the yellow boxes):

wix website builder sample page

Overall not bad in my opinion. There’s actually people who charge you $100’s if not $1,000’s to build that type of stuff. Truth be told, these people are in many cases not needed when you have these types of programs to help you make the page.

But this program does have it’s cons, and quite a few:

1. Wix runs ads on your pages which may interfere and distract users to Wix instead of your page: Remember the yellow boxes I mentioned?Well those are ads.

When you make a free page, Wix will run up to 3 ads on your page to advertise it’s system. Though the ads aren’t that big, they can be distracting and may take some visitors away from the page. And there are 3, so that’s 3 chances someone will click away from your page and go elsewhere. From a business point of view, you just can’t have this sort of “leakage” happen, so obviously this can be a problem in my opinion…

But this ad issue only applies to the free page you make. If you don’t want Wix to run ads on your page, you would have to upgrade your membership which can cost anywhere from $6-$30 a month (PER SITE!). And this is an insanely large price and additionally big con that I will talk about a little bit further down. 

2. It can be annoying to play around with the editor: I personally didn’t like the fact that a few times, the drag and pull button clicked me away from the text/pictures I tried to edit. In addition some of the options to click and add things such as pages, edit content, add/remove pics, ect… can sometimes be annoying to get to. In my case some of those features made other features appear very quickly and this can very distract and get you lost.

I’m sure it’s a bug in the system that they will eventually fix, but it’s still something that can get frustrating since website creation is something that requires mental focus, at least in my experience.

3. Lack of customization: Yes you can make a beautiful looking page, but the ability to customize it is almost impossible. The way it looks when you choose it from the template section is most likely how it will look when it’s completed. If you’re looking to make a page for an online business, it’s much better to have a page that uniquely stands out and isn’t like the rest.

Yes you can certainly change some colors and pictures here and there, but the overall look of the website will stay the same. Most people wouldn’t really care about lack of customization, but this leads to another issue…

4. Too little templates + too many clients = too many similar/same looking pages. Even though 357 templates seems like a lot, it isn’t when you factor in the fact that there are way more people building websites with this program.

What this means is that the likelihood of someone making a website that looks almost identical to yours may very likely happen, especially given how popular this program has been since it was released. This may diminish your page’s reputation in the eyes of the user (if they saw the other look alike page).

This is why I use a better program (in my opinion) instead (It’s WordPress). It features 1,000’s of templates with the ability to customize in many more ways than Wix offers which makes it’s very easy to make unique websites.

Sure the default templates of Wix do look much better (at first), but in the long run, there is much more potential and room to experiment and grow through WordPress in my opinion.

For example, the website you’re on right now is a WordPress website which took me less than a minute to make (It’s more like 30 seconds and I prove it) using the program I always utilize for website creation (it’s free).

5. Can get pricey. They offer plans ranging from $6-$30 a month I believe, which have added bonus features that will help your site stand out (Hosting, Google analytics, Vip Support, Shopping Cart, Extra space).

Unfortunately even it’s most expensive features apply to 1 site which means if you were to make multiple sites, the price of these features would quickly add up. 

6. The perks of the higher priced services can be attained for free: Services such as Google analytics, free advertising credit on Google Adwords & Bing, a shopping cart and even free hosting can all be gotten for much less and even free. Another reason why I prefer my alternative to WiX, as you can simply download (for free) all of these services and it comes with hosting. Therefore, you’d save a ton of money. 

7. Limited space for smaller priced pages. The free page will give you about 1GB of space. It’s not enough for someone whose looking to build an online business. The higher priced services increase the space from 2GB to an unlimited amount. And yes, the option I use has way more space.

8. No training to monetize your page/s. I don’t really criticize Wix for this, but it’s an important missing piece of a page’s success. What happens if you want to make whatever it is you make through this program earn money?

It’s not like once you set up your page, that it’ll rank and magically bring in cash, that’s not how it works and to do that, you will need training that shows you this. Unfortunately, Wix doesn’t do this

If you’re looking to run an online business from a page you make or trying to monetize of your page in anyway, if you don’t possess any experience in doing so, you’ll find it difficult and pricey to find out how. Again the same program I use to build pages actually offers training in how to monetize off it, which is a HUGE perk.

Here’s the overall comparison and what you need to know:

Final thoughts on Wix. Should you try it?

In spite of all the holes I found in Wix’s system, it’s still a great program in my opinion. Is it the best? No.

Is it newbie friendly? Yes & no.

I believe my alternative approach is better and cheaper, but that doesn’t mean this program should be discounted.

You can certainly make a great looking page with ease through it, but it’s limited and as for customization and getting the most for your money, that’s something you can also do with the other option, for less and even free as well as get training to build an online business.

There’s just more potential in this method than with the other. But in the end, both approaches can work very well, but where one is more pretty looking, the other is also good looking, and also provides a bunch of other extremely useful benefits.

One more big point to mention:

My biggest thing is, when it comes to which option can help your website rank and monetize better, I say my personal approach wins without any question. There have, in my experience been VERY few actual WiX websites I have seen rank on Google for competitive, highly searched terms, aka the ones which bring in huge traffic.

MOST of the pages I see ranking on Google are WordPress pages and speaking from experience, Google considers WordPress to be one of the best (if not already the top) platforms to use for ranking and since most of the search results are occupied by WordPress pages, I think it’s been proven true already.

Again, the preferred I option I use creates WordPress pages for you and shows you how to rank them. You simply do not get this with the other program, and it is the biggest reason I stand with my choice.

13 thoughts on “Wix Website Builder Review. Pros, Cons & Even Alternatives”

  1. Hi, I really enjoyed the article.

    I have been using Wix for three years now, I couldn’t find anything easier or even prettier. The fact is that Wix does offer you 300 templates, and some sites *may* look alike, but that’s not the case for me. I have created nearly 10 sites (unpublished yet) and they are completely different. I start with a blank page, because it’s about creativity, I play all day with the editor, so easy and compelling. Wix has many great features, that I couldn’t find on any other services (WordPress included). I like it a lot.

    WordPress doesn’t offer a *full* page customization, unlike Wix. In Wix you can move ANYTHING within the page, and stack as many elements as you like on one page. It also has slideshows, full-width strips, video outlets, lots of built-in apps that help traffic in the site, and let’s not forget, it allows you to add your own fonts. It supports most of the languages, you can create tons of pages on your site. The pros are far more than the cons. For me, I won’t be switching to any other service any time soon.

    WordPress is a good service, no doubt. About the pricing though, you’re right, Wix is very expensive, but your comparisons (i.e. someone builds 50 sites) are exaggerated and aren’t on point.

    In a nutshell, great article. Thank you! For me, I see Wix far better than any other service I tried. Hope you have a great day.

    Reply
    • Hi Tariq, thank you for sharing your thoughts on WiX and even though we disagree, I am always happy to see polite, opposing viewpoints that we can debate on.

      The main thesis I want to touch on is that in the entire comment I read, you are mainly pointing to the aesthetic features WiX offers, not necessarily the money making potential. I suppose in the end, the person for whom WiX may be better suited is for the one who wants a good looking website to be made with ease. There’s honestly nothing wrong with that.

      But as I said and I’m going to stick by this argument, if you want the site to make money, WordPress is both cheaper and better. The fact is, I hardly ever see ANY WiX websites ranked on Google’s top page. And to be honest, I can’t think of the last time I’ve actually seen one, maybe a business related site which I know many people use the service for, but when people try to organically rank on Google for highly popular keywords, WiX websites, at least in my experience are nowhere to be found.

      And this goes back to my argument about how this service lacks in giving people enough options to create good content from (at least compared to WordPress) and that hinders the potential of that website to get ranked higher.

      I will agree that from a beginner’s perspective, WiX is a ton easier to use, but with that comes the price of limited organic ranking ability in my opinion. While WordPress takes a little bit longer to figure out, in the end, it’s far more open ended on the customization and marketing opportunities it presents and depending on which source you get a WordPress site from, far cheaper as well.

      That’s why I tell people to join this program which will give them WordPress websites, and free training and that is something you won’t get from WiX. But in any case, I’ll return to my main point on what the end goal is of the site you’re making:

      If it’s for hobby sakes and you just want it to look good with little effort, yeah WiX is good, but for the same (it’ll take a little bit longer) result with more opportunities including making money from, WordPress wins in just about every regard.

      Reply
  2. When I first started out building websites, I started off with Wix. But I found it too confusing and I wanted to move on to something easier to use. What do you recommend as a website builder? I have heard of WordPress. Is there any other good ones out there?

    Reply
    • Well WordPress is nice and as I mentioned in this article, I use it instead and still prefer it. Every website platform has it’s own learning curve, and in my opinion WordPress is overall better for monetization and customization reasons. If you want to make WP sites, here is a program I always use for that.

      Reply
  3. Hey dude! Thanks a lot with your contribution, I’m using wix and I was about to start using AdSense but it seems that Wix removes that tool for free websites. Right now I can’t afford to rent a domain and hosting, and I have a question, is it possible to make it completely free with no cost and earn money with it?

    Reply
    • Hi David, I don’t really know how it’s possible for any website builder to remove the option to place Adsense ads. I’d check on this by asking them because usually you just find a space to place the Adsense code and it should be fine after that.

      If you want another option, there is also Site Rubix which is basically just a regular WordPress site and you will definitely have a space on it to place Adsense ads. It’ll be located in the widgets section.

      For making money with it, I always say it is possible, but it takes longer if you don’t rely on good training. The most I can do to help you here is either recommend you join a program called Wealthy Affiliate and/or read my post on how I set up an online business and follow that (it is in the get started option above).

      Reply
  4. Thanks for the review. I have mostly used WordPress myself and am happy with it but I was wondering if maybe Wix, being a newer platform, might be better. So having someone use both and compare is very helpful.
    I guess it would suit some people depending on what they want the website for.

    Reply
    • Thanks for posting John. For now WordPress is just a better option because there’s more customization options as well as it being more SEO friendly. Even though SEO rules apply to both Wix & WordPress, the way WordPress is set up just makes it easier to build out the content and SEO on your website whereas with Wix, the focus at least in my mind is more so about the look of the site than the content.

      Reply
  5. My sister tried to get me to help her with her Wix website and I really did NOT like it! I have to agree with your recommendation for where to get free websites, you can’t beat no ads!

    Maybe I’m biased because I’ve been working with the WordPress platform for so long now it’s just second nature to me. But I agree, you have the ability to customize it so much more and there are way more options for templates.

    Well, I guess if you use the free templates with siterubix you actually only have about 12 options for themes to choose from, which kind of sucks – but at least you can still customize them a lot!

    Very informative and throughout review though, I’m sure this will help a lot of people decide whether they want to use Wix or not!

    Reply
    • Thank you for sharing this Wendy. We can both agree that wordpress sites have more customization, but I would also like to add (I’ll be updating this on the blog) that there is much more space for content and it’s easier to read than with WiX. In spite of all the classy themes, one additional con is that it “overshadows” content and in the world of monetary gain through websites, content absolutely must be seen. It makes up for 90% of the important stuff needed.

      Reply
  6. Thanks for the information about WIX. The free option could be a good place to get some ideas and exerience, but I agree with you that the Site Rubix system a way better option.

    Reply
    • Thanks Scott. My personal recommendation is WordPress over Wix. I think it offers way more opportunity in the long run where as Wix is good for a beginning website. However, if you plan on building a website, then WordPress would still be the better option. I also believe it’s easier to use (though harder to get used to in the beginning) and way easier to navigate for visitors.

      Reply

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