Wix is generally known as a low-cost easy-to-use no-code website builder. However, in some cases none of these are true. Wix can be high-cost, difficult to use and require code to add features that you expected to be included in the standard package. In this post, I’ll start with the “low cost” claim and outline the hidden costs of Wix so you can avoid unwelcome surprises down the road.
Note: Wix prices and package features change frequently without notice and vary by country.
Overview of Wix packages
When you first purchase a Wix plan, you have a choice between a “Website” or “Business” package, with different levels within these package categories. Features vary between packages, but the important ones are:
Payment processing – if you want your customers to pay for anything (products, services, appointments, members-only content, online courses, etc.), you need a Business package that enables payment processing. The lowest Business package starts around €17/month or €204/year.
“Pro” eCommerce features – Wix eCommerce includes a lot of features that you have pay extra for in other eCommerce solutions. But you need at least the Business Unlimited package to get certain features like subscriptions and marketplace integrations. I haven’t been able to find a complete list of which features are considered “pro” so if you have the Business Basic package, you might discover you have to upgrade when you try to use certain features.
Video – if you want to store video directly on Wix (instead of embed videos stored elsewhere), look at the number of video hours included in your package. This is particularly important for those wanting to offer online courses directly through Wix. For example, the lowest Website plan includes 30 mins of video, while the lowest Business plan includes 5 hrs of video and the Business VIP includes unlimited video.
Storage space – each package lists a max storage space (3GB to 50GB), which applies to all images, documents, and content on the website. If you have a large image gallery or document repository, you might reach this limit quickly.
Personalized Email
Wix packages offer a free domain for the first year. After that its about CHF 15/year to renew the domain registration. This is an industry standard price that does not vary widely by provider.
However, if you want a personalized email that matches your domain (e.g. myname@mydomain.com), you have to pay extra for each email address you want to use. Wix partners with Google G-Suite for email, which costs about €6/mo (€72/yr) for each email address.
This may come as a surprise to those you previously hosted their websites with a company like BlueHost or GoDaddy that typically include personalized email addresses as part of the hosting package. This email fee suddenly makes Wix hosting not as cheap in comparison to other hosting providers as you thought.
Ascend Plan for Marketing Automation
A few features that you might expect to be standard are actually premium features that require an Ascend Plan, specifically forms. The lowest Ascend plan starts at about CHF 12/mo or CHF 144/yr, which can significantly increase your total cost for your website for little benefit.
Forms – All Wix packages allow you to add Wix forms. But if you want more than 5 forms or more than 10 form fields on any given form, you have to upgrade to an Ascend plan. A couple of my clients have online class registration forms, which is a great way to replace a cumbersome offline paper process. But paying extra for an Ascend plan seems overkill just to support these forms. There is a free workaround with input fields but it doesn’t include field validation and other features of standard Wix forms.
Email automation – Wix enables you automatically send emails when people submit forms or do some other activity on your website. But you only get 2 automations unless you purchase an Ascend package and you cannot remove the Ascend branding on the bottom of the email. That means if you have more than 2 forms on your website, you cannot send a confirmation email to those people unless you upgrade. The lowest Ascend package only gives you 7 automations, so it’s still not much.
Email campaigns – If you want to send email campaigns to your customers, you need an Ascend package. The lowest package includes 5 email campaigns/month with a total of 9500 emails/mo across all campaigns. You can avoid this by using a third-party tool like MailChimp (and syncing your Wix contacts), which is free until you reach a certain number of contacts.
Promotional pricing
Wix is constantly offering 50% off packages for new customers. But this is only for the first year (you can get this price for the first two years if you pay for two years upfront). So make sure you are prepared to pay that full price after your promotional price expires.
Also note that the monthly price quoted on their price sheet is based on you paying for the full year in advance. If you want pay monthly, you pay a higher price.
Add-on “Apps”
Like many website builders, you can add third-party apps/plugins to expand the functionality of your site. Before choosing Wix, consider carefully what features you need and research whether these require purchasing third-party tools.
Sample scenario
Company ABC offers online classes and allows customers to book 1-1 appointments and group classes through the Wix website. Customers need to complete a registration form as part of the sign up process. Company ABC also offers pre-recorded videos for customers-only.
- Business Unlimited package €240/yr
- Ascend Basic plan €120/yr
- Personalized email €72/yr
- Total yearly fee €432/yr
Conclusion
All that said, Wix is still relatively low-cost given all the features it includes. But it may not be as low-cost as you expect when you see the low introductory rates of €4.50/mo for the lowest package. It’s important to consider all the features you need before you choose your website builder and not assume any particular feature is included.
If you need help choosing a platform for your website project, please contact me to see if I can help: hello@tanyadeans.com
