Wix Verdict (2026)

Score sheet

Why C+: A capable, beginner-friendly builder with a free tier and broad features. A 14-day refund that excludes renewals and domains, unlisted renewal pricing and frequent billing complaints pull it to a C+.

Overall is the weighted mean of the five rows, adjusted by a small slug-seeded offset so that brands never line up in a false staircase, and capped at 9.8. Full working on the Methodology page (v2.1).

What the research shows

1. Premium plans list at $17, $29, $39 and $159 a month, billed yearly upfront; Wix says USD prices are for reference and vary by location.
2. The 14-day money-back guarantee covers only the first upgrade. Renewals, upgrades and domain purchases are excluded, and refunds can take up to 45 business days.
3. The free domain voucher is first-purchase only, must be redeemed within 60 days and does not cover the domain’s renewal in year two.
4. Accepting payments needs Core or above; the plans page lists an added transaction fee on Core and Business that disappears only on Business Elite.
5. Trustpilot shows a 3.4 score from nearly thirty thousand reviews, with recent one-star reviews focused on auto-renewal charges and reaching a human about billing.

Range overview

Wix is a hosted website builder from Wix.com Ltd., a publicly listed company headquartered in Israel. You build on a free plan with a Wix-branded address, then pay to connect a domain and unlock features. The four Premium plans are Light (a simple site, no payments), Core (basic ecommerce, bookings), Business (standard ecommerce, loyalty and referral tools) and Business Elite (advanced ecommerce, priority care, developer tools). All are sold as annual subscriptions, with multi-year terms offered. Wix Studio is a separate platform for freelancers and agencies building client sites, with responsive layout controls and a code editor. Wix suits small businesses, creators and local services that want a working site without hiring anyone, and accept that moving off Wix later means rebuilding.

Product by product

6 items. Each chip is a per-product call and can differ from the brand verdict.

Free plan CONSIDER

Wix lets you design and publish a full site without paying, including a store front, and the editor and templates are the same as on paid plans. That makes it the best way to judge whether Wix suits you before the 14-day refund clock starts. The limits are what you would expect: a Wix-branded web address and Wix advertising on the site, and the ecommerce page says accepting payments from shoppers requires a paid subscription. Use it to build and test, not to run a business, because a branded address and ads undercut credibility with customers.

StrengthFull editor and templates with no time limit

WeaknessBranded address and Wix ads; cannot take payments

Check at Wix

Light CONSIDER

$17 a month, billed yearly upfront ($204 a year before tax), with 2 GB of storage, two collaborators, a light marketing suite and a one-year free domain voucher. It removes the free plan’s branding and lets you connect your own domain. It cannot accept payments or run a store. For a portfolio, a club or a simple brochure site it is enough. The weakness is year two: the free domain voucher does not renew, so the domain fee arrives alongside the plan renewal, and neither renewal is refundable under Wix’s 14-day policy.

StrengthCheapest way to a custom domain without Wix branding

WeaknessNo payments; domain and plan renewals are not refundable

Check at Wix

Core CONSIDER

$29 a month billed yearly. Adds payment acceptance, basic ecommerce, bookings and scheduling, 50 GB of storage and five collaborators. It is the entry point for selling anything. The plans page lists an extra Wix transaction fee on this tier on top of payment processing, which matters once sales grow, and automated sales tax is not included. For a coach taking bookings or a maker selling a handful of products it works well. For anyone expecting steady online sales, the fee makes Business the better buy within a few months.

StrengthPayments and bookings at the lowest price

WeaknessAdded transaction fee and no automated sales tax

Check at Wix

Business BUY

Wix’s recommended plan at $39 a month billed yearly. Standard ecommerce with abandoned-cart recovery, loyalty tiers and a referral program, 100 GB of storage, 10 collaborators and automated sales tax for a set number of transactions a month. The transaction fee listed on the plans page is lower than on Core. This is the sensible tier for a small shop, and the jump from Core is modest relative to what it adds. The caveats are Wix-wide: the refund window is 14 days and the annual charge renews automatically, so set a reminder.

StrengthCart recovery, loyalty and automated sales tax included

WeaknessStill carries a transaction fee; renewal not refundable

Check at Wix

Business Elite SKIP

$159 a month billed yearly, roughly four times the Business plan. Adds unlimited storage, 100 collaborators, advanced ecommerce, priority customer care, an advanced developer platform and no Wix transaction fee. The fee removal is the main financial argument and only pays off at substantial sales volume. Most small businesses will never reach that point. A store doing that volume should also compare dedicated ecommerce platforms before committing about $1,900 a year upfront to a builder whose sites cannot be exported to another host.

StrengthNo Wix transaction fee and priority support

WeaknessLarge upfront annual cost; sites are not portable

Check at Wix

Wix Studio CONSIDER

A separate platform aimed at designers, developers and agencies who build sites for clients. It adds finer responsive layout control, no-code animations, a VS Code-based IDE with npm packages and backend functions, real-time collaboration with client comments, and workspaces for managing many client sites. The Studio page does not list prices, saying only that plans are flexible, so the desk cannot quote one. It is a serious option for an agency already working in Wix. Freelancers coming from WordPress should weigh the lock-in: client sites live on Wix’s platform permanently.

StrengthReal code and collaboration tools on top of the visual editor

WeaknessPrices not shown on the Studio page; client sites locked to Wix

Check at Wix

Policies at a glance

Values are short phrases taken from the brand's own pages at the time of the last update. "Not stated" means the desk could not find the policy in writing.

Things to know before you buy

• Renewals are excluded from the 14-day refund, and recent Trustpilot reviewers describe being refused refunds after calling on the day an annual renewal charged.
• Renewal prices are not shown on the plans page, and some reviewers report renewal bills far above what they first paid.
• The free domain covers year one only; the voucher expires 60 days after purchase if unused, and domain purchases have no refund guarantee.
• Recent reviews complain that billing issues route to AI support with no clear way to reach a person.

What customers say

Wix’s Trustpilot profile shows a 3.4 from close to thirty thousand reviews, and it splits cleanly. Most reviews are five-star, many invited, and praise the templates, the speed of getting a site live and, lately, the AI tools that make edits on request. Long-time customers describe sites running reliably for a decade.

The one-star minority is large and recent. The dominant complaint is money: an annual plan that auto-renewed, a refund refused because renewals fall outside the 14-day window, and a renewal far above the first-year bill. The second theme is access to a person, with several reviewers describing AI support and no clear route to a human for billing. A smaller group reports the editor lagging or crashing on capable machines and problems with domain transfers. Wix replies to most negative reviews, usually within a week.

If not Wix, then

The verdict

Sources and dates

• Read wix.com plans, premium upgrade and ecommerce pages in October 2026, directly and via a reader proxy to check location-based pricing.
• Read the Wix help center article on Premium plan refunds and the Wix terms of use in October 2026.
• Read the Wix Studio product page in October 2026.
• Read the Trustpilot profile for wix.com, most recent reviews first, in October 2026.
• Could not open the Wix Owner app’s App Store listing; app store themes are not included.

Desk research only: the brand's own site and support pages plus published customer reviews. Nothing was purchased or tested by this site. Scored under Methodology v2.1.