June 5, 2019
6:55 am
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Wix isn’t just one of the biggest website builders on the market – as we found out in our tough reviews and testing process, it’s also the best of the bunch.
Wix has competitive pricing plans, which start from just $8.50 per month. There’s a free version of Wix, too, though we’ll explain why we wouldn’t recommend this for anything but the most amateur of websites. Of course, Wix saves some of its best features for its more expensive plans. The Unlimited plan, Wix’s most popular offering, starts from $14 per month and gives you a noticeable bump in the number of features available.
In this guide, we’ll run through all of Wix’s pricing plans (including Wix Free) in detail and find which one is right for you.
How Much Does Wix Cost?
Wix costs from $8.50 per month, to $35 per month, depending on the plan you choose. You can keep costs down by selecting to pay for one, two, or three years in advance – this is far better value than paying monthly, no matter which Wix plan you select.
Wix offers three pricing plans designed for websites, another three plans designed for online stores, plus a free version of Wix (which we’d advise against choosing).
The most important thing is to select the Wix price plan that’s appropriate for the needs of your own site – there’s no sense spending on vast storage space and bandwidth if you’re just maintaining a small business or personal site. We compare the essential features in our Wix pricing table, below:
| Free | Combo | Unlimited | VIP | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Monthly Cost (paid monthly) | $0 | $14.50 | $16 | $35 |
| Monthly Cost (paid annually) | $0 | $8.50 (3-yr plan) | $14 | $29 |
| Adverts removed | ✗ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
| Bandwidth | ✗ | 2GB | 10GB | 20GB |
| Storage | ✗ | 3GB | 10GB | 20GB |
| Free domain | ✗ | ✔ (if paid annually) | ✔ (if paid annually) | ✔ (if paid annually) |
| Video upload (minutes) | 0 | 30 | 60 | 120 |
| Site Booster & Form Builder App | ✗ | ✗ | ✔ | ✔ |
| Email Campaigns and Emails Sent per Month | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | 10 campaigns/50,000 emails |
| Click to Try | Free | See Deals | See Deals | See Deals |
Want to be sure Wix is right for you? See our expert, in-depth Wix review
Is Wix Free?
Is Wix Free?Put simply, yes, Wix can be free to use. But this comes with a heavy caveat – you’ll have to put up with plenty of limitations on the Wix free plan, and these are the kind of things that no decent website would tolerate.
While you can build a website with Wix for free, it’s really not advisable. You’ll have extremely limited storage and bandwidth, which could affect how many users can visit your site each month. You’ll also be left with an unprofessional and unmemorable URL with a Wix-branded top-level domain.
As it turns out, the truth about a free Wix website is a little more complicated than you might imagine.
Does Wix Cost Money?
Sadly, Wix does cost money if you want to make a proper website. That is, one without the severe limitations of Wix Free. As ever, the best things in life don’t come free.
A genuinely good website can transform your business, club, or career prospects almost overnight. By spending a little bit of money, you can easily reap the rewards of a premium site, whether that’s more sales or a jump to a better job. And, thanks to Wix’s competitive pricing plans, you will only be spending a little bit of money.
What Can You Do With Wix’s Free Plan?
It has to be said – there’s actually quite a lot you can do with Wix’s free plan.
You’ll be able to create and publish a website, which is more than some free website builder plans allow you. Wix even gives you free website hosting, although your site will be given a Wix-branded domain name on the free plan.
Beyond letting you create and publish a website, Wix’s free plan will also let you:
- Choose from over 300 templates – The free version of Wix offers just as many free templates as the paid version, and across just as many different industries
- Create a blog – With Wix’s free plan, you’ll be able to set up a small blogging website – ideal if you’re just starting out
- Promote your business site online – With email marketing, SEO assistance and more, Wix gives you the tools to attract customers to your site (though they may be unimpressed by the poor URL you get on the free plan)
- Use free stock images – If you’re just setting up your site, you can take advantage of Wix’s extensive image library
- Install third-party apps – You’ll be able to add extra functionality to your site to make your website even more useful for users, such as the Wix Art Store and Instagram Pro apps you can see below
What Can’t You Do With Wix’s Free Plan?
However, the free version of Wix has its downsides – and some of these are quite significant.
For example, while you get hosting thrown in for free with a Wix free plan site, you’ll be limited to just 500MB storage and 1GB bandwidth per month. This is a paltry amount, and will likely mean that your site will be suspended and inaccessible for the remainder of the month if you breach the limit.
That’s not all, though. With a free Wix site, you won’t be able to:
- Choose your own URL – With a free Wix website, you’ll be stuck with a domain name like this: username.wixsite.com/siteaddress. It doesn’t look very professional, and your site will appear lower in Google’s results
- Get rid of adverts – If you choose to go with a free Wix website, you’ll find your impeccably-designed pages cluttered with adverts for Wix’s services (and no, you won’t make money out of them yourself)
- Sell products online – If you’re looking to sell the stuff you make online (ie create an ecommerce store), you won’t be able to do it with a free site from Wix
- Upload lots of images, videos or audio – With only 500MB storage, you’ll be unable to upload more than a few of your own photos to your site. This will harm your ability to make your site unique
- Choose your own hosting provider – While we’ve mentioned that you can get free hosting on a Wix site, it isn’t very good. Instead, opting for a paid site will let you choose a different hosting provider, giving you more uptime, bandwidth and storage
Hopefully, you’ll now understand that while you can create a website for free on Wix, it’s a false economy to do so. Your site is your brand, and you’ll want it to have the right URL, to be free of Wix adverts, and to have all the storage and bandwidth you need to succeed. For all this, you’ll need to pay. The good news? You won’t need to pay much.
Wix Premium Pros
- Get started from just $8.50 per month
- Powerful editing tools and attractive templates will make you a stunning, unique website
- Custom hosting with a premium package can keep costs down
- Ability to sell products means that you could even recoup the cost of the site every month
Wix Premium Cons
- Wix hosting on a premium plan is only available with a yearly purchase
- VIP ecommerce plan is a bit pricier than other Wix plans
See How Wix Compares to Other Website Builders
Wix Pricing Plans Explained
You’d be forgiven for thinking that if you want to make your site as good as possible, you need the most expensive Wix pricing plan. However, not all sites need the same features: for example, there’s no point in shelling out for an online store plan if you want your site to work as an online portfolio.
We’ll run through different types of websites and which pricing plan would work best.
- If you want to make a blog — Unlimited plan
- If you want to run an online store — Business Basic plan
- If you want to create a portfolio website — Unlimited plan
- If you want to make a site for your business — Unlimited plan
- If you want to create a CV/resume website — Combo plan
Wix Combo Plan
$11 per month
This plan will give you a proper URL, or lets you connect your Wix site to a domain you already own. You’ll get access to Wix’s excellent roster of website building tools, including the drag-and-drop editor, website templates and more. It also removes adverts and gives you 3GB storage and 2GB bandwidth. You’ll also be able to upload up to 30 minutes of HD video. If you buy the Combo plan for a year, you’ll also get a free domain voucher.
You could run a brilliant website with the Combo plan, but it probably isn’t ideal for high-traffic sites given the 2GB bandwidth.
Could be a good fit for low-traffic but professional-looking websites
Wix Unlimited Plan
$14 per month
According to Wix, the Unlimited Plan is their most popular offering, and it’s not hard to see why. You get unlimited bandwidth, 10GB storage, and you can upload up to an hour’s worth of video. There are no adverts, plus you’ll get access to the Site Booster and Form Builder apps, which will help attract visitors to your site and let you build custom forms to capture information about them.
It’s not too much of a price hike over the Combo plan, and it’s probably worth the small increase in outlay given the extra visibility your site will get. Again, buy the plan for a year, and you’ll get a free domain voucher.
The best place to start for business and professional websites
Wix VIP Plan
$29 per month
The VIP plan is the most expensive Wix plan, if you don’t need ecommerce functionality. Storage is doubled to 20GB, as is the amount of video you can upload. Beyond the Unlimited plan, you also get 10 email marketing campaigns per month, “priority” support response in case something goes wrong with your site, and the ability to skip the line with phone support.
It’s not really clear who this plan is aimed at, given that many of the features are so similar to the Unlimited plan.
Extra features are nice, but unlikely to be deal-breaking
Wix Domain Hosting Costs
All the packages above require you to pay for a domain on top of your website plan.
Typically, a domain will cost somewhere in the region of $15-25 per year. A quick bit of math will tell you that the annual Wix plans, with domain voucher thrown in, are typically cheaper than paying month-to-month and getting a domain separately.
After a year, you’ll need to pay $14.95 to renew the domain. Having your own domain is definitely worth it in the long-run, as you’ll get a proper URL and the ability to have custom email addresses.
Wix Ecommerce Plan Pricing
If you want to use Wix to create an online store or an ecommerce website to sell physical or digital products, you’ll need to use one of Wix’s Business & Ecommerce plans, rather than its regular website plans.
There are three on offer: Business Basic, Business Unlimited and Business VIP. They’ll all let your site accept online payment, and won’t charge you any commission fees on products you sell. A Wix online store would be great for a small business, perhaps with an existing bricks-and-mortar presence, which is looking to expand online.
It’s not as suitable for larger businesses, as it lacks some more complex accounting and product management tools.
| Business Basic | Business Unlimited | Business VIP | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cost (paid for one year) | $20 | $25 | $35 |
| Domain costs | Free (when paid annually) | Free (when paid annually) | Free (when paid annually) |
| Bandwidth | Unlimited | Unlimited | Unlimited |
| Storage (GB) | 20 | 35 | 50 |
| Site Booster & Form Builder App | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
| Email Campaigns and Emails Sent per Month | ✗ | 20 campaigns/ 100,000 emails | 20 campaigns/ 100,000 emails |
| Priority Response & VIP Support | ✗ | ✗ | ✔ |
| Verdict | A decent choice for new businesses | Handy email tools for growing your business | Extra support tools welcome but not essential |
| Click to Try | See Deals | See Deals | See Deals |
If you’re not sure which ecommerce platform is right for your business, take a look at our Best Ecommerce Website Builders guide.
Wix Pricing – Verdict and Next Steps
By now, you should have a better grasp of the fundamentals of Wix’s pricing structure, and what it might cost you to get started creating a website with Wix. To recap:
- Yes, there is a Wix Free plan. But you really shouldn’t choose it, given the sheer number of limitations and how unprofessional these could make your site appear.
- The best value Wix Combo plan costs from $8.50 per month. For this, you can have your own URL, get rid of Wix adverts, and enjoy enough bandwidth and storage for most websites to succeed.
- If you’re developing an ecommerce site to sell things online, then Wix has a separate range of ecommerce plans, too.
The best thing you can do is head to Wix and get started – it really does take mere moments to begin creating your site. Then, select the right plan for your needs, and push your website live.
Some of the links on our page will take you directly to a provider or retail website, where you may find deals and discounts. If you make a purchase at this stage, we may receive a payment. This has no additional cost to you, and never affects the editorial independence of our reviews.
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Tom Fogden
Tom Fogden is a writer for Tech.co with a range of experience in the world of tech publishing. Tom covers everything from cybersecurity, to social media and website builders when he's not reviewing the latest phones, gadgets, or occasionally even technology books.