If you’re searching for a platform to build a professional website, you’ve probably heard of Wix. This software helps businesses and individuals develop all kinds of websites — online stores, blogs, portfolios, and so on — using a no-code builder. However, by limiting your options to Wix simply because you don’t know other platforms, you’re likely to miss out on some great opportunities.
In this blog post, we’ll run down the alternatives to Wix that might better suit your needs based on their pricing, features, and other aspects.
Wix features and capabilities
Before we dive into our list of the best Wix alternatives, we should understand what the platform offers. Here’s a quick roundup of its key features:
- Drag-and-drop builder. Wix is a user-friendly platform thanks to its intuitive website builder. It’s easy to use since you don’t need technical skills or knowledge to create a professional website for your business. You can design a good-looking website by simply dragging and dropping the necessary elements into the editor’s field.
- Ready-to-go templates. Wix offers 800+ completely customizable templates you can use to create a coming soon page or personal CV, as well as a site for healthcare, restaurants, real estate, and other industries.
- Mobile-friendly layout. Websites created with Wix are responsive, so you don’t have to worry about adjusting content to different devices and screen sizes and can be sure that users can easily explore and interact with your site.
- Artificial Design Intelligence. This feature is handy for beginners. If you are building a site for the first time, you can answer several questions, and AI will help you develop a personalized design.
- Built-in SEO tools. The platform lets you optimize your site infrastructure, create customizable URLs, modify default meta tags, add structured data markup, and more to boost your website ranking in search engine results. It also offers a flexible URL redirect manager, allowing you to create redirects for old pages on your site.
- Custom domain. You can connect a custom domain for your site or browse and purchase a domain directly from Wix.
While Wix may seem like the go-to option for building a state-of-the-art website, you should consider the drawbacks that come with it.
Wix downsides
Although Wix is a popular website-building tool, it still has several limitations and disadvantages, including:
- High cost. Some Wix pricing plans include features you might not need but have to pay for. The platform also requires you to pay for hosting and domain registration, making it costly if you plan to use it for a long time. Besides, there are additional costs for third-party apps.
- Limited free plan. The plan lacks fundamental features like online payments and Google Analytics. It also comes with ads on every page, Wix-branded subdomains, and basic customer support.
- Restricted data ownership. Since the platform hosts your website, you don’t have complete control over your data. That’s why it might be quite a challenge for you to transfer your intellectual property.
- No interchangeable templates. Once you choose a template, you have to stick to it, meaning you can’t switch it even if you haven’t added any content or elements. If you decide to use another template, you will have to manually transfer all your initially created content from your old template to the new one.
- Ads. When you use a free or a basic plan, you’ll notice the Wix ads appearing on every page of your website, affecting user experience. To remove the ads, you need to upgrade to a premium plan.
Beyond high Wix costs and ads, users also mention that the platform suspends payments, and its customer support team responds too slowly. When you look through the Wix reviews, you can notice users complaining about website lags and an unfriendly interface with many confusing elements.
Now, armed with this knowledge, let’s explore platforms similar to Wix or even better to help you create a professional website and get your business seen online.
Top Wix alternatives
In this section, we’ll break down some of the best alternatives to Wix, including their key features and pricing.
SendPulse
SendPulse is a fully-featured marketing and sales automation platform that can help you manage all aspects of your business. With it, you can create a website, set up live chats and bots to help your customers 24/7, connect pop-ups to collect lead data, and nurture them through different communication channels, including email and SMS campaigns.
A website builder by SendPulse empowers individuals, small businesses, and big companies to make professional websites quickly and hassle-free. With no coding skills, you can use a visual builder to drag and drop the elements you need and modify their appearance according to your brand’s visual identity.
This Wix alternative also offers you a gallery of pre-made templates to start creating your stunning website for various use cases, be it an online store, SaaS project, online school, or portfolio. Once you choose a template, you can edit it and add different widgets — menu, video, galleries, contact forms, FAQ blocks, map, and more — to enhance your site functionality. Moreover, you don’t have to limit your creativity to built-in tools. Thanks to the “Custom code” widget, you get more control over the design and functionality of your website since it lets you add your own HTML code, CSS formatting, or JavaScript to your site.
You can also integrate AI tools with the SendPulse website builder to generate content or improve your existing site copy. This feature can help you optimize content for clarity, readability, and accuracy. Even more, AI prevents you from typos and other issues connected to grammar.
Besides, with SendPulse, you can start selling both physical and digital products — simply add and set up product galleries, descriptions, shipment options, and payment buttons. Moreover, the platform’s built-in CRM will allow you to stay in control of your deals and their statuses.
Pricing: SendPulse offers free and paid plans that start at $5.6 per month, paid annually.
HostGator
HostGator is a perfect Wix alternative for those seeking a multipurpose solution because it combines website builder with hosting and domain tools. With it, you can design a website using a template categorized by different industries: fashion, food, design, healthcare, etc. However, you should note that it isn’t a drag-and-drop builder.
The service allows you to use its stock images and videos to create your site faster. With HostGator, you can freely embed videos from YouTube or Vimeo. It also integrates with social media, meaning you can add customizable social media buttons, embed social feeds, and use customer-sharing features. The service lets you add Google Maps locations to your site to help customers find your physical store. If you want your clients to reach out to you through the site, you can create and embed contact forms.
This alternative to Wix allows you to pick up a domain name and secure customer data with the help of an SSL certificate. The service’s built-in web hosting takes care of fast loading speeds and backup tools.
HostGator is also suitable for those wanting to start a store since it offers eCommerce features, including secure online payments, automated sync technology, marketplace, Facebook, and Instagram selling, etc.
Pricing: HostGator doesn’t have a free plan. Its paid plans range from $4.95 to $19.95 monthly.
Framer
Framer is a no-code website builder that lets individuals, freelancers, agencies, marketing teams, and startups design professional-quality sites on a freeform canvas alone or in collaboration with your team. It includes a visual user interface where you can drag and drop elements into place. Besides, you can work with your projects in the code editor and import your designs directly from Figma.
You can start with AI to get a good-looking first version of your site. After that, you can make adjustments — alter objects, apply styles, edit vectors, format text, add interactivity, and manipulate images — to make your site stand out. There is also a library of 1,000+ professional templates available within the service.
You don’t have to worry about your site’s navigation because this alternative to Wix helps you structure pages and interlink them correctly. As a result, you get a visually appealing site with clear content. Moreover, the website you created with Framer is responsive and looks good on all devices.
Pricing: There is a free plan you can use for hobby projects. Paid plans with more features and fewer limitations start from $5 per site per month, paid annually.
siter.io
siter.io empowers you to build portfolios, landing pages, and presentation websites without writing a single line of code. It allows you to design a website freehand right in your browser with tools you are already familiar with, so you won’t spend much time figuring everything out.
This Wix alternative offers thousands of pre-made icons for your website but also lets you add custom code, save and reuse font and color styles throughout your project, collaborate with your teammates in real time, and search for and use images from the Unsplash library. Moreover, the platform offers a plugin to easily convert your Figma design into a live, working website.
Pricing: You can use the platform for free with some limitations. You can also upgrade to a paid plan, ranging from $7 to $24 per month, billed annually.
IONOS
IONOS is another Wix alternative on our list, prominent for its AI assistance. Once you enter a few details, it will create a customizable website with relevant copy and images. Besides, it can generate text for you or improve your existing copy.
You can also get started with a pre-made template or assemble pages from pre-designed content blocks. The offered themes range from one-page websites to more complex designs with multiple pages, columns, and elements. The platform gives you control over some design aspects, like background, font, text size, and spacing. If you have coding experience, you can modify HTML and CSS to refine your pages.
Moreover, the platform enables you to extend your website with an online store as it supports essential eCommerce features — abandoned cart recovery, volume discounts, different payment and shipping methods, etc.
IONOS comes with a free domain for the first 12 months, a professional email address, social media integration, and SEO tools.
Pricing: The platform doesn’t offer a free plan; the cheapest paid tier will cost you $6 per month for the first six months and then $12 monthly. If you want to sell online, the prices are higher.
Hostinger
Hostinger is another great Wix alternative on our list. It is geared towards freelancers and small businesses who want to launch a simple website or online store. To start creating your website with this platform, you can use AI tools that will help you generate unique copy and relevant images and make your content SEO-friendly. Then, you can customize it using a flexible drag-and-drop editor.
Hostinger also offers a library of fully customizable, responsive templates grouped by specific areas like portfolio, photography, events, eCommerce, etc. You can play with colors, change fonts, add new elements, and more to build a business website you’ve always desired. The platform also lets you edit the mobile version of your site separately.
This Wix competitor has special features for those who aim to build online stores. When you plan to create a store with Hostinger, the service won’t charge you additional transaction fees for selling less than 500 products — it can be physical items, digital products, services, donations, and appointments. The platform provides online and offline payment methods to ensure a smooth checkout process.
You can also integrate various marketing tools like Google Analytics, Facebook Pixel, Google Tag Manager, and Google AdSense.
Pricing: Hostinger has no free plan and offers paid plans that start at $1.99 monthly and $6.99 when you renew.
Webflow
Webflow is a no-code website builder that allows you to fully customize your website page structure, take full control of your site style, and add complex animations, interactions, and data-driven content.
This Wix alternative has a library of outstanding designs that will suit different companies, from eCommerce to healthcare and sports. You can use the ready-to-go templates and modify their background, images, font, spacing, colors, and style. Furthermore, you can manipulate HTML, CSS, and JavaScript properties visually. The templates are also responsive, so they will look good on all devices.
The platform offers features for eCommerce needs, allowing you to sell digital products, subscriptions, and physical items. You can customize your checkout page, accept payments via Stripe and Paypal, automatically calculate sales taxes, etc.
Pricing: You can try the platform for free. Paid plans for simple sites start from $14/month, billed annually; an advanced eCommerce website may cost you up to $212/month, billed annually.
Squarespace
Squarespace is another popular Wix competitor. With its help, small businesses, photographers, bloggers, and individuals who want to establish their online presence can create professional websites.
The platform allows you to choose among 100+ mobile-friendly website templates for events, real estate, memberships, weddings, local businesses, and other use cases. All of them are customizable, so you can replace the demo content with your own and experiment with fonts, colors, layout, spacing, images, animations, etc. You can also go the extra mile and use the CSS editor to make your designs truly unique. If you need inspiration, there is a collection of websites other users built using Squarespace.
The platform also comes with a good range of eCommerce tools — product reviews, abandoned cart recovery, gift cards, various shipping options, and more — making it suitable for both small retailers and large stores. Moreover, this alternative to Wix allows you to build a membership site to sell access to your worksheets, workshops, recipe guides, and other types of digital products.
Pricing: Squarespace has a 14-day free trial. Once it expires, you’ll need to choose a paid plan, ranging from $16 to $49 per month, billed annually.
Strikingly
Strikingly is a platform intended for first-time website creators that is recognized for its simplicity and usability. Its intuitive editor enables you to make responsive websites for various screens. If you want to create your site fast, you can use pre-built, grid-based templates. You’ll only need to add your content and adjust colors, font, images, and background to match your brand personality.
The platform also covers some eCommerce needs, allowing you to list your products or services, integrate PayPal and Stripe payment systems, set up shipping options, add coupons, and manage your orders.
Pricing: Besides a free plan, you can choose one of the platform’s three paid plans that range from $8 to $49 per month if billed annually.
Duda
Duda is another website creator on our list that empowers you to build responsive and mobile-friendly sites. This alternative to Wix offers unique multilingual capabilities that let you work in multiple languages and a content library to pull all the necessary content from external resources directly to your site.
Duda offers a design-rich selection of templates for photographers, restaurant businesses, eCommerce, bloggers, real estate owners, design agencies, and many more. To create a truly personalized website, you can play around with the template’s colors, images, pages, and widgets. Besides, the platform allows you to save and share customized templates and reuse your designs across multiple projects.
With the platform, you can design and manage a customized eCommerce website to start selling online. The features you can use to run your online store include an AI assistant to generate SEO metadata and product descriptions, custom payment gateways, product categories, synchronization with external catalogs, and other API-based store customizations.
Pricing: You can get a 14-day free trial. When it expires, you should choose a paid plan ranging from $19 to $199 per month, billed annually.
Which Wix alternative is the best one?
As you can see, there is no shortage of site-building platforms similar to Wix. After comparing their core features, here’s our final verdict:
- SendPulse is the best Wix alternative for businesses looking for an all-in-one marketing and sales automation platform at a fair price.
- Framer is a perfect alternative to Wix for designers seeking more creative freedom in their toolset.
- Hostinger might be a much better option than Wix for solopreneurs who want to start selling online without buying a higher tier.
- Duda is a great Wix alternative for freelancers and agencies who need to create websites for clients in multiple languages.
However, it’s always a good idea to click around and see the tools first-hand before committing to anything. With SendPulse, you can start by creating a free account to enjoy the benefits of its powerful toolkit and peace of mind with 24/7 customer support.
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