Wix Website Hosting: Pros and Cons

When I decided to start my own small business, the first, essential step towards establishing credibility was, of course, to set up a professional website. I had seen several advertisements for the site-building and hosting software offered by Wix, an Israeli-based company; and, after conducting some further research through their online resources, I opted to try their service.

In this article, I’ll provide a quick overview of my experience using the Wix platform, including some of its notable pros and cons.

Wix’s web design software is simple to use, involving click-to-add and drag-and-drop features that make constructing a site easy – invaluable for beginners like myself. While full templates are offered if you want or need to make a website quickly, going more in-depth with your creative endeavours is not a daunting task. Wix offers an extensive library of free-to-use stock images and vector art, along with a wide variety of pre-designed, modifiable elements (such as text boxes and styles, contact/enquiry forms, and buttons to direct your users to visit other parts of your site or buy your products).

There’s also the option to enquire about hiring professionals to assist you in fields like graphic design, marketing, and selling in your online store.

Your website can be optimised for both desktop and mobile through a function that enables switching views, showing what your site will look like when accessed on these devices. Do take note that reworking it for mobile is, unfortunately, not without complications: some features will be unavailable, and the portrait-orientated, size-restricted mobile display mean your site is unlikely to look exactly the same as it does on a computer screen.

The company’s site hosting payment plans are quite affordable. Their website-only plans range from £3.50–19.00 GBP per month, and £13.00–22.00 GBP per month for business and ecommerce. Discounts are frequently available: I was offered one for new users, which significantly reduced my hosting costs for the first year. Domains are easily purchasable, and you can see within seconds whether your chosen name is available. Moreover, if you’re struggling to decide upon a company or website name, Wix has a handy tool that generates suggestions based on your business type and brand image.

On the subject of business, another attractive aspect of Wix is its ‘dashboard’ – an overview page visible to the site owner and their team when logging in. It allows you to see, at a glance, how your website is performing via site analytics (including traffic and potential business leads) and related insights. Additionally, email campaigns and invoices can be created here. In my opinion, the navigability of this page’s sidebar menu could be improved. It took some getting used to; and, when I am working with client blogs on the platform, finding articles to edit them can be a chore.

Overall, my experience with Wix has been positive. It’s proven a solid option for me as a first-time website designer, and I’d recommend it to others seeking a reliable, intuitive site-building tool.