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Wix ADI is the artificial intelligence design tool from Wix that can generate an entire website for you based on a few simple questions, while Wix Editor is the more traditional, DIY website builder that allows more customization but takes a bit more effort.
A big part of why Wix was found to be the best website builder for small businesses in our in-depth research is the effectiveness of Wix ADI. It takes a lot of the effort and know-how out of the process, making it a very approachable website builder for beginners. Still, the Wix Editor provides an unmatched number of design and website features to help users get the most out of the platform for their brand.
To be clear, though, Wix Editor and Wix ADI are just two different methods of building a website with Wix, rather than two different website builders entirely. In this guide, we’ll help you better understand the difference.
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What Is Wix ADI and How Does it Work?
Wix ADI — which stands for Artificial Design Intelligence — effectively re-assigns many of the tasks you’ll have to do to set up a website with an AI designer, building you a custom website from scratch.
All you have to do is answer a few questions about the goals and aims of your site, as well as what tools you’ll want on it, what “theme” you want it to have (as seen below), and a bit of personalized information like your website’s name.
The Wix ADI uses this information, as well as data about how other users have built their website with Wix – as well as website builder best practices – to make you an optimized site. You’ll still be able to choose website aspects like colors, fonts, and other design features, for which Wix will provide you with a range of options.
Taking the onus off of the user to build their perfect site and mechanizing much of the process makes setting up quicker, easier, and simpler with Wix ADI compared to Wix Editor.
Check out our guide to AI website builders to find other options
Wix completely designed our site based on the description and functionality we provided. Source: Tech.co testing
What Is Wix Editor and How Does It Work?
Wix Editor, at least compared to Wix ADI, is what you may presume a website builder to be like and is effectively just the name for the platform you use to build your website on Wix if you’re not using Wix ADI.
With Editor, you’ll be able to customize your website from the ground up using a drag-and-drop interface and the wealth of tools, features, and apps Wix has to offer.
This method of website design with Wix puts a lot of emphasis on the user making the effort to design their own website. You’ll still be able to choose from templates provided by Wix, but on your end, you’ll have to do a lot more building.
We found editing text with the Wix Editor quite easy, allowing us to customize every part of our site. Source: Tech.co testing
When Should I Use Wix ADI and Wix Editor?
- If you’re new to website building and have never built a website before, use Wix ADI.
- If you’re making your third or fourth website, use Wix Editor.
- If you’d like to get up and running as quickly as possible, use Wix ADI.
- If you’ll need access to Wix’s app market, use Wix Editor.
- If you want your website to rank well in Google but know nothing about SEO, use Wix ADI.
- If you’d like complete control over what you’d like your site to look like, use Wix Editor.
- If you don’t have a desktop computer or laptop and want to edit on mobile, use Wix ADI.
What about Editor X?
Although Wix ADI vs Editor is the key head-to-head here, another service offered by Wix is Editor X. Editor X is a website builder aimed at designers and creative agencies and can facilitate the creation of more complex and intricate sites.
Much like the other ways you can build a website with Wix, there’s no coding knowledge required to use Editor X, and you won’t need any high level of technical knowledge to design a great site.
Editor X gives you a super flexible CSS grid layout that makes element docking, anchoring, stacking, and scaling pretty straightforward. Overall, the design features offered are more complex and useful (if you don’t find that intimidating).
Max-Content, for instance, is an advanced width sizing unit within which grid blocks and other Wix elements fit themselves around to the maximum content size of text blocks and other elements inside them. This is just one example of Editor X’s advanced tools.
Editor X pricing starts at $22 per month for the Essential plan. There’s also the Extra plan available for $35 per month and the Ultra plan for $49 per month.
It’s also worth noting that you cannot create new Editor X site as of April 2024, as the company is now transitioning over those pages to Wix Studio. Wix has begun the process but it’s not necessarily for all users yet. Once it is, the website builder has created a simply process of just a few clicks to get everything taken care of.
Best of Ease of Use and Usability: Wix ADI
The whole point of Wix ADI is that it is easier to use than Wix Editor – it literally takes over large and important chunks of the typical website-building process.
With Wix ADI, all you really have to do to get yourself to a point where your website is ready to go live is answer a few questions about what you’d like it to look like, and Wix takes over.
Remember, however, that Wix Editor isn’t exactly difficult to use – it still scores 4.4/5 for ease of use, and this was the second-highest usability score out of the 12 website builders we’ve tested.
Wix Editor is the perfect solution for those looking for creative freedom. It still utilizes an intuitive drag-and-drop mechanism for moving elements and blocks around on your website. But, of course, the ADI version is easier.
Like modern AI chatbots, we just had a simple conversation with Wix ADI about what we wanted in our website. Source: Tech.co testing
Best for Design and Customizability: Wix Editor
This is, in a way, an unfair comparison to make – of course, Wix Editor is better for customizability because Wix ADI’s whole purpose is to do most of the work for you, especially with regard to the initial setup.
Wix is a highly customizable program with lots of website features – whatever you want to do with your site, from publishing a photography blog selling t-shirts, there’s a function inside Wix to help, and plenty of design templates to suit exactly what you’re trying to do.
That being said, Squarespace scores much higher than Wix for design functionality – and although Wix Editor is customizable, the more you’ve got going on your site, the slower and more complicated continuous building will become.
Our Wix site is very customizable, offering lots of design options across every page. Source: Tech.co testing
Best for Accessing the Wix App Market: Wix Editor
As previously mentioned, the Wix App market is available to Wix Editor users in its entirety. Wix ADI users will have to make do with a restricted app market that only allows you to access the apps Wix thinks you’ll need based on the information you submitted when you were setting your website up.
Granted, if the idea of an app store with an endless string of apps to choose from seems quite daunting, and you wouldn’t be really sure when to start anything, you’ll appreciate the way ADI makes the decision for you and saves you time. The bottom line though, Wix Editor users have a much better choice of apps.
The Wix App Market provided plenty of third-party integrations to help build out our site. Source: Tech.co testing
Best for Help and Support: Draw
This is a draw. Luckily, you don’t have to choose between different levels of support when you choose between Wix Editor and ADI because they both come with access to Wix’s help features.
Wix users are entitled to support via email and a phone line, but if you’re the type of person that likes to troubleshoot their technical issue on their own, you can refer to the community forum or knowledge base to see if the answer is hiding somewhere in a guide, article, or comment.
We found the Wix Help Center provides lots of helpful tips for building your business. Source: Tech.co testing
Best for Ecommerce: Draw
There’s nothing to split the two website-building options Wix provides when it comes to ecommerce – the ecommerce features you’ll get are dictated by the Wix pricing plan you select, rather than whether you opt for Wix Editor or Wix ADI.
For more information on Wix’s ecommerce features – as well as how they stack up in comparison to other ecommerce builders – check out our best ecommerce builders page.
Transitioning from Wix ADI to Wix Editor
Transitioning from Wix ADI to Wix Editor could not be simpler, and you can complete the process in seconds:
- Click on “Site” on the top bar inside Wix ADI.
- Select “Go To Editor” right at the bottom.
- In the pop-up menu, Click “Switch to Editor”.
Remember, once you’ve switched to Wix Editor, you will not be able to switch back to Wix ADI. Also, be warned, if you’ve been editing on your mobile with Wix ADI, you’ll have to switch to a desktop or a laptop in order to use Wix Editor – but we’d argue that working on a desktop is the best way to make a website anyway.
Wix ADI vs Wix Editor Pricing
Wix ADI and Wix Editor cost exactly the same because they’re just two different ways to set up a website within a Wix subscription. Here are the Wix pricing plans currently available:
| Plan | Price paid annually The price per month you'll pay if you choose to be billed annually | Ecommerce | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 | BEST FOR SMALL SITES | | | |
| Free | Light | Core | Business | Business Elite |
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We take our impartial research and analysis seriously, so you can have complete confidence that we're giving you the clearest, most useful product recommendations.
After conducting an initial exploration to identify the most relevant, popular, and established tools in the market, we put them through their paces with hands-on testing to see their real strengths and weaknesses. In this case, we put 16 website builder products to the test across 398 areas of investigation.
Based on years of market and user needs research, we've established a website builder testing methodology that scores each product in six core categories of investigation and 33 subcategories; this covers everything from customer feedback to design, ease of use, and more.
Our main testing categories for website builders are:
- Website Features: the capabilities and functionalities offered by a website builder, e.g. blog functionality, SEO capability, and marketing capacity.
- Design Functionality: the aesthetic appeal and visual layout of a website created using a website builder. It encompasses aspects such as page templates and customizable themes.
- Customer Satisfaction: external customer opinion. This is the feedback and ratings given by customers who have used a particular website builder – the market position and reputation a website builder holds.
- User Experience: how user-friendly and intuitive a website builder is for people with varying levels of technical expertise.
- Value for Money: the balance between the cost of a website builder and the benefits it provides. It considers factors such as pricing plans, subscription models, and available features.
- Help and Support: the assistance and resources available to users when they encounter issues or need guidance while using a website builder.
When it comes to calculating a product's final score, not all testing areas are weighted evenly, as we know some aspects matter more to our readers than others, which are simply "nice to have." After hundreds of hours, our process is complete, and the results should ensure you can find the best solution for your needs.
At Tech.co, we have a number of full-time in-house researchers, who re-run this testing process regularly, to ensure our results remain reflective of the present day.
Should I Use Wix ADI or Wix Editor?
Wix ADI and Wix Editor are two different “versions” of website building tools designed for different types of people, so which one you choose will depend on your individual needs. Detail-orientated website builders who want to spend a little longer on design, but get more control over how their website looks, should definitely opt for Wix Editor. As website builders go, it’s extremely easy to use, and has a huge range of SEO and marketing features.
That being said, Wix ADI is even easier to use – it’s just a case of answering questions for Wix, which will then spit out a website tailored toward your answers thanks to the power of artificial intelligence. You won’t get oversight over everything, like you do with Wix Editor, but you will be able to get up and running quicker with Wix ADI, and you’ll spend less time tinkering with functions and settings.
Remember, you can always start with Wix ADI and then move on to Wix Editor (but you can’t go back) – so why not try out Wix ADI today, and if you want more control, customization, and freedom, just swap yourself over later – it’s really that easy.
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