If you ask the person next to you, “What is Wix?”, they’ll probably tell you that they used it to make their first website. But that’s not the whole story. Yes, Wix is a website builder that’s great for those learning how to make a website as well as for web design professionals, but it’s so much more than that. In this article, we’ll give you the whole picture of what Wix is and how it might be useful to your business. You’ll learn:
Start building your online presence today by creating a website with Wix.
What is Wix?
Wix is a powerful, no code website builder that comes equipped with business tools that can help you build something as simple as a personal blog to something as complex as an enterprise-grade hub for your online business. It has built-in features for eCommerce, marketing, scheduling, branding and more. An incumbent in the website space, Wix has long been a leader in web design and an early adopter of new technologies, like AI website creation.
Design a website with Wix today.
Wix’s web design options
Whatever your experience level with web design, Wix makes it easy to create the functional, professional website you want. Today, Wix users can pick from a variety of web design options, including the ones listed below.
AI
Using an AI website maker is all the rage these days, but few come with the customizability and range of tools that Wix does. Once you answer several questions about the site you want to create, Wix will generate it in seconds, filling it with text and imagery that fits your answers. You can play with themes, layouts, colors, tone of voice, images and more until you get a result you’re happy with.
Wix has been incorporating AI solutions into its products since 2016. "Our models are based on decades of deep knowledge and experimentation, which makes them a lot more reliable and a lot smarter,” says Yarden Geffen, product marketing manager at Wix.
Here are just a few of the AI-powered solutions that Wix offers to its users:
Website creation
Text creation
Logo design
Trailer generation
Auto background removal
Chatbot
Section generation
Layout switcher
Templates
If you don’t have a clear vision for what you want your site to look like, starting with a template might be a better option for you. Wix has hundreds of website templates to choose from. You can browse templates by industry (such as health, restaurants or beauty) or by purpose (such as building a community or showcasing a portfolio). After you’ve selected the perfect template for your website, use the Wix Editor to make it your own.
Wix Editor
Whether you build your website from scratch—from a template and/or with the help of AI—you’ll be able to customize it however you’d like with Wix Editor. Write content and upload images, videos and other elements and put them in the perfect spot with drag-and-drop technology. Then, rotate, resize and recolor your content however you see fit.
Wix Video Maker
Wix Video Maker, powered by Vimeo, is a free online video editor designed to assist you in crafting videos for embedding on your website and incorporating into promotional materials. Simply input your business details and upload your intended content, then seamlessly integrate text and music to create a cohesive presentation. In just a matter of minutes, you'll have a polished, professional video at your disposal.
With Video Maker, you can produce content for a variety of purposes, such as crafting social media posts, demonstrating products, recapping events, announcing sales and commemorating milestones. The versatility extends to where you can share your creations—whether on your Wix website, across your social media platforms, on YouTube or anywhere else you prefer.
Wix Photo Studio
With Wix Photo Studio, you can edit your images without leaving the platform. Think of it as built-in Photoshop. You can crop and resize photos, adjust brightness and contrast, apply filters, remove backgrounds, add text and more with this versatile tool.
Wix Studio
If you run a marketing or design agency, Wix Studio is for you. Wix Studio is a powerful Wix product designed to help agencies build powerful websites for their clients at scale. You can add custom CSS and code-free animations for bespoke projects.
Multi-project management tools help you track all of your agency’s projects on desktop or on mobile. Internal and Studio-wide design libraries let you share templates and reusable assets with teammates. Collaboration capabilities and custom roles make it easy to work on the same website at the same time, while restricting who can do what.
Wix Marketplace
Looking to outsource the task of building or developing your website? Wix Marketplace can connect you with a freelancer or agency with the expertise you’re looking for. Beyond design, these professionals can help you improve your site’s SEO, write blog content, optimize your eCommerce shop, design your logo, set up integrations and much more.
Velo by Wix
Developers, Velo by Wix is for you. This full-stack development platform empowers you to construct, oversee and launch top-notch web applications. You can build an entire site using Wix’s native tools (including the drag-and-drop editor), then add your special touch with your own JavaScript code.
Making money with Wix
So, what is Wix besides a website design tool? It’s also a hub for your business. There are lots of ways to make money with Wix. Here’s how.
Online store
With Wix eCommerce, you can build an online store and sell your own creations or curate products from vendors. Customize the design of your store, upload products, add photos and descriptions, set prices and you’re off to the races.
Accept all kinds of payments online with Wix Payments, including buy now, pay later solutions. You can set up one-time payments for product purchases, or recurring payments for subscriptions and memberships. If you also sell in person in the U.S. or Canada, Wix Payments also seamlessly connects to Wix's point of sale (POS) system to help you better manage inventory and transaction data.
Manage everything from order logistics to your social media campaigns all through your Wix dashboard. You can additionally launch your store on various third-party marketplaces—like Amazon, eBay and Google Shopping—directly through Wix.
Wix POS
Unify your online and in-person presence with Wix POS. This point-of-sale system lets you accept payments in-store and on-the-go with stationary and mobile hardware. By integrating Wix POS with Wix eCommerce, you can share in-store and online data. Furthermore, this integration helps you manage your catalog, transactions, analytics and payments with ease.
Scheduling software
Wix's scheduling software is a versatile and user-friendly tool that simplifies appointment booking and management for businesses and service providers. This powerful feature is an integral part of the Wix ecosystem, designed to enhance the functionality of your website and streamline your operations.
With Wix scheduling, you can effortlessly create a custom booking system tailored to your specific needs. Whether you're running a small business, offering services, or organizing events, Wix allows you to set up and customize your availability, services offered, and pricing. This flexibility ensures that you can adapt the scheduling tool to match your unique requirements.
The booking process is equally straightforward for your clients or customers. They can easily view your availability, select their preferred date and time and make reservations directly through your website.
What sets Wix scheduling apart is its seamless integration with your website. You can embed booking forms, calendars, and even payment options directly into your web pages, creating a cohesive and professional online presence. Plus, the software offers synchronization with popular calendar apps, ensuring you stay organized and never miss an appointment. Staff members can even sync their personal calendars with the business one to help with meeting scheduling and keeping you in the loop.
Wix's scheduling software empowers businesses of all sizes to manage their bookings efficiently, save time, and deliver a convenient and user-friendly experience to their clients. Whether you're a fitness trainer, therapist, consultant, or run any other appointment-based business, this tool can be a valuable addition to your Wix website.
Dropshipping
Looking for a passive income stream? With Wix’s dropshipping tool, you can sell products without ever handling your merchandise. To get started with dropshipping, connect your Wix eCommerce shop to the Modalyst marketplace and select from millions of products to sell online. When you make a sale, your suppliers receive your orders and ship products directly to your customers. You’ll earn a margin from each sale.
Print on demand
Like dropshipping, print on demand frees you from dealing with logistics and investing in inventory you can’t sell. Wix’s print-on-demand integration lets you design printed and embroidered products that Wix’s partners print and ship on your behalf. You can add your original designs or business branding to shoes, mugs, phone cases, food packaging and more.
Marketing with Wix
Beyond its website-building and money-making capabilities, Wix is also a full suite of online solutions designed to help you grow a business. “The great thing about the Wix marketing tools is that they help business owners with the short and long game,” said Josh Brentan, Content Lead at Wix. “Not only do we offer all the tools to run promotions and ads for short term benefit, but we also provide content tools for SEO, blogs, email marketing and even a branded app that lets entrepreneurs engage with their target audience at every stage of the customer journey.” Check out these marketing tools from Wix.
Landing page builder
Want to gauge interest for a new product or spread the word about your ebook? A landing page is the perfect place to do those things. Wix’s landing page builder helps you build a powerful, objectives-driven page that converts without code. Use the drag-and-drop editor to achieve the look you want. Add eCommerce options like discount codes and payments, signup forms and more. You can even create dynamic pages that change depending on who lands on your website.
SEO
Digital marketing lore claims that the best place to hide a dead body is the second page of Google search results. While this saying is sensational, research backs up that people only pay attention to the first few search results. In fact, data shows that the first three search results get 55% of clicks.
Wix’s built-in search engine optimization (SEO) tools can help your website land at the top of search engine results pages. Jumpstart your success with an SEO setup checklist that’s personalized for your website. Customizable metadata, URLs and tags empower you to optimize each page, product and blog post. Then, let Wix’s optimized infrastructure and Google Search Console integration help you make the most of each keyword.
What truly sets Wix apart is its AI-powered infrastructure, combined with seamless integration with Google Search Console. This dynamic duo empowers you to not only optimize your content but also leverage AI-driven insights to monitor your website's performance. By making data-driven decisions with AI at your side, you can continuously enhance your search engine rankings.
Blogging
Maximize your SEO efforts by creating a blog for free on your Wix site. By writing about content that’s relevant to your target keywords, you can attract new audiences and become a thought leader in your industry. New blog content also gives visitors a reason to keep coming back to your website.
Wix lets you add a blog to your website and scale content creation with templates and an intuitive content management system (CMS). You can schedule blog post publication, collaborate on posts with multiple writers and manage content on the go with the Wix Owner app.
Email marketing
Spread the word about your blog posts or business with email marketing from Wix. You can use templates or start from scratch with Wix’s user-friendly editor.
Personalize emails with subscribers’ names to boost open rates and engagement. You’ll save time with automations that send email campaigns when you want them. A/B testing content helps you optimize performance, while real-time analytics help you create an even better campaign next time.
App builder
If you thought only enterprise businesses could build their own apps, think again. Branded App by Wix lets you create an app without coding. Use your app as an extension of your business and let visitors shop, book services, engage in forums and more.
Branded App is completely white labeled, so you won’t see Wix’s name or logo in the app, App Store or Google Play. You have full creative freedom to design your app icon and layout however you’d like. The best part is, all app activity syncs to your Wix dashboard for a seamless backend experience.
Social media
Did you know you can handle your social media marketing without leaving Wix? The native social media manager tool allows you to design social media imagery and videos, and schedule posts to publish simultaneously on multiple platforms.
Ads
You can create and manage Facebook and Instagram ads without leaving Wix. Simply open Facebook Ads in your Wix dashboard to get started. Then, create your ad by uploading media and writing a caption. Set your target audience by choosing their demographics. Finally, determine your campaign budget and timeline, then publish your campaign. You’ll be able to track ad performance and see how they affect your sales and business goals.
How does Wix compare to other website builders?
Beyond its massive library of templates and apps, Wix is leading the way in performance, reliability, security, accessibility and analytics.
Performance
Performance is at the forefront of every Wix element, feature and component. That’s why Wix is always working to improve its Core Web Vitals (loading time, interactivity and visual stability) for its merchants. These efforts have paid off: as of September 2023, Google found that 70.4% of websites created with Wix had good Core Web Vitals.
One of the major changes that have contributed to this improvement is the addition of the Site Speed Dashboard to the platform, which users can access to see how quickly their sites load and get personalized recommendations for optimizing speed. The dashboard uses actual user data as opposed to lab data, which only estimates potential visitor performance by simulating slow networks.
"Wix always makes performance their priority and it definitely shows, both in monitoring tools and in their user's experience." —Yoav Weiss, Senior Software Engineer and Developer Advocate at Google
Site reliability
Due to Wix's exceptional site reliability, Wix websites consistently achieve an impressive 99.98% uptime. Wix employs a multi-cloud hosting approach, meaning it utilizes data centers worldwide to distribute workloads, enhance performance and serve as safeguards in case of localized disruptions. As a result, Wix sites load swiftly and efficiently, unaffected by potential regional outages.
Wix monitors its infrastructure around the clock to anticipate issues before they occur, minimizing disruptions. Wix also monitors your website for unusual activity to keep your content, data and customers safe.
Security
Wix monitors website security 24/7 and constantly upgrades its practices to keep your site, data and customers safe. In addition to our multi-layered defense system for threat prevention, detection and response, we also have a team of people who actively monitor the system around the clock. Here are a few other ways Wix helps keep your website secure:
Content management security: When you have multiple people contributing content to your website, you need a way to make sure that contributors only have access to the features that are relevant to them. Roles and permission settings let you determine who can manage what on your website’s backend.
Payment security: A data breach can be the end of your business, which is why Wix pulls out all the stops to ensure sensitive information doesn’t fall into the wrong hands. Wix follows the highest payment data security standards to help you keep your customer data safe. It also uses machine learning and data analysis to monitor websites for malware and vulnerabilities.
Wix account security: To help secure your account, Wix offers two-step verification via SMS, email or an authentication app.
Accessibility
Website accessibility is paramount for ensuring that everyone, regardless of their abilities or disabilities, can access and use online content effectively. In this context, Wix shines by adhering to the highest global standards for accessibility across all its features (including templates and Wix apps).
“What we offer is the ability to make accessible websites easily without taking creative freedom from the users,” says Nir Horesh, Wix’s Head of Accessibility. Moreover, Wix equips users with a range of website accessibility tools to make the process of making a website accessible as easy as possible. Here are a few examples of the tools you’ll have at your disposal:
Accessibility Wizard: The Wix Accessibility Wizard searches your website for accessibility obstacles and offers personalized solutions for resolving them.
Alt text: Alt text is a description of an image that is built into its code to ensure that site visitors who use screen readers won't miss important context. Wix Editor users can find an alt text form in their image settings that automatically inputs the description into the site code.
Document Object Model (DOM): The DOM represents the hierarchical structure of a web page’s elements (headings, paragraphs, links, etc.), which is crucial for users that rely on assistive tech to navigate them. Wix automates the DOM to ensure that it is structured in an accessible and logical manner for all users.
Keyboard functionality: For some people with motor control disabilities, navigating a website with a keyboard can be easier than using a mouse. Wix ensures that people who use keyboard inputs alone can navigate your site with ease.
Accessible templates: Wix offers a number of templates that are designed to be accessible. These templates are built with accessibility in mind and include features like clear and concise language, high contrast colors and keyboard navigation.
Check out Wix’s accessible website templates today.
Analytics
Wix Analytics is a powerful tool that can help you track the performance of your website and make informed decisions about your marketing efforts. It provides access to key data, including:
Sales over time: See how your sales are performing now compared to previous time periods.
Sales by order type: Identify which Wix apps (Bookings, Events, eCommerce, etc.) are generating the most revenue on your site.
Average order value over time: Track how much the average customer spends on your site over time.
New vs. returning visitors: Determine whether the bulk of your traffic is coming from new or returning visitors to guide your marketing focus toward acquisition or retention efforts.
Page visits: Learn how each page of your site is performing.
Button clicks over time: Find out what buttons or clickable images on your site are performing best and how it changes over time.
Traffic sources: Discover where your traffic is coming from, such as search engines, social media, referrals, ads or direct traffic.
Versatility
Whether you're launching a blog, opening an online store, or building a portfolio, Wix flexes to fit your vision. It's packed with features and design options that cater to a broad spectrum of industries. (That's one of the many reasons Wix can simultaneously be the best website builder for photographers and the best restaurant website builder.) From the plethora of customizable templates to the drag-and-drop interface, Wix empowers you to craft a unique online presence without getting bogged down by code. And if you're ever aiming to expand your site's functionality, Wix's App Market steps in with a wide selection of apps and services that integrate seamlessly.
See Wix up close
True to its mission, Wix makes it easy for you to create your own professional website—exactly the way you want. From its user-friendly drag-and-drop editor to its diverse array of features, Wix offers the tools and flexibility needed to bring your vision to life. Still on the fence? Try the free plan to start, then switch to a premium plan to get access to all its features.
Sign up for Wix today.