Is Wix Good for Creating a Business Website?
WIX is an amazing platform that allows almost anyone to create outstanding websites. Let's be absolutely clear about that. The platform is strong and versatile and offers a ton of options for DIY enthusiasts. However, what we are trying to address is that is Wix an ideal platform for your business. And, is it really free and costs next to nothing. We are approaching this from a business owner's point of view and not from a technology point of view.
So here goes!
Is wix good for creating business Websites?
While Wix is a fantastic DIY website platform, it has certain limitations from a business point of view. It may be scalable, it may be easy to use and it may be secure but is it business-friendly? In our opinion, it may be difficult for businesses to have their websites created on Wix or any other DIY platform like Weebly or SquareSpace.
The issues faced by small businesses and large corporate houses while creating a website on any website builder are the same. While it may be a website designer's dream platform it falls short for businesses. The shortcomings are not because of technical aspects but in terms of the resources that a business has to deploy. Can a business afford to invest time and resources in creating a business website?
"Wix may seem to be a low-cost option but additional costs can make it really expensive"
Let's take some examples in different kinds of business scenarios.
small business websites on wix
You have just heard how awesome DIY website builders are and how affordable the pricing is. You have seen the templates and they look simply amazing. So, you sign up and you are working towards getting your business website ready. At the lowest pricing plan, it costs just $14/month (paid annually). So, you sign up and pay $168.
Now, you get down to working on the website builder. You furrow your brow and wonder what the navigation will be like. What will the menu structure be? How many pages should there be? What kind of images will you use? Where will you get these images from (you know you just can't pick them off Google)? What will the copy of each banner be? What will the content be for the page, the meta title, or the meta description?
Suddenly, you realize that you have to spend an awful lot of time. Much more than what you had anticipated.
We estimate that a professionally designed website takes at least 100 hours from different expert teams ranging from UI/UX, content-writing, graphics design, SEO, and quality control teams. For a novice, it would require at least double the time. 200 dedicated hours translates to about 4 weeks of your time. So, the question you have got to ask yourself is that are you willing to spend 4 weeks of your precious time on your website instead of your business.
Also, if you get stuck with your website or it is not looking professional, then you have lost $168 as you have already paid upfront.
Medium or large business websites on wix
As a business owner of a large or medium-sized business, you are thrilled at the amazingly low costs of Wix website builder. It just costs $468 per year for the Wix VIP pricing plan.
So, now you have got to find a resource within your team who will own the responsibility of creating the company's DIY website. You decide the best candidate for this role is someone who has a blog to or has some nifty Insta platform. However, it is very likely that he may not be well-versed in matters of SEO, corporate content writing, and graphics design. As your business is large or fairly large you need to be careful about copyright or videos or images used on your website.
So, you might want to buy images from ShutterStock (Costs about $229 for 25 images). Each Shutterstock video costs at least $65. Moreover, one has to put together multiple videos and then edit these. Moreover, one has to spend an immense amount of time searching for the right images or videos. Suddenly, you see that your costs for just images and videos become three times that of the DIY website cost for one year.
"Buying stock photos and videos can push up your website costs by at least $500"
And, you still haven't addressed the issues of UI/UX, content-writing, graphics design, SEO, and quality control. These matters will take time to resolve and will involve multiple interactions between the management team which adds to the hidden costs of your project. The total man-hours spent on this project could be as high as 1500 hours. You can easily translate this into how much this would cost additionally.
how much do wix sites really cost?
Wix plans are really low cost but once you add the additional costs including your time and resources, the costs will be many times higher. Depending on the size of your business the actual costs could be anywhere from $300 to as high as $3000 including the cost of man-hours.
The other challenges that a business may face and which adds to the Wix costs are:
- Project Delays - you thought that your website would be up in a fortnight but then the reality is that it has taken much more time
- Opportunities Lost - You have deployed a valuable resource somewhere else and that impacts your business directly
- Quality Issues - you have deployed your in-house resource to do something that is not their core competency or primary KRA. It is almost impossible to create the same level of quality work of a professional
"You need to factor in additional costs that will be required to complete your business website"
So what are the additional wix costs?
Let's be clear that Wix packs in very useful features in its pricing plans. The designs and templates are really awesome. Wix also has an excellent support system and it serving millions of websites across the world.
However, the moment you want to make your website really professional, then you need to factor in additional costs. In our experience, here are some of the additional Wix costs.
cost of additional tools/resources for the website
All websites are built on powerful imagery - both images and videos. It is highly recommended to use images and videos which you have purchased to prevent any copyright infringement. As we mentioned earlier that for a pack of 25 images you need to pay $229 at ShutterStock. In actual circumstances, you will find that 25 images may not be adequate and you will require more. Also, videos cost from Shutterstock start at $65. You will need at least 10 videos.
cost of additional tools/resources for the website
All websites are built on powerful imagery - both images and videos. It is highly recommended to use images and videos which you have purchased to prevent any copyright infringement. As we mentioned earlier that for a pack of 25 images you need to pay $229 at ShutterStock. In actual circumstances, you will find that 25 images may not be adequate and you will require more. Also, videos cost from Shutterstock start at $65. You will need at least 10 videos.
"Wix is great but you also need many other skills to create an awesome website and that cost both time and money"
cost of time of your resources
While it is quite easy to set up a website with Wix and other website builders but there is a maze of issues that one has to navigate. Most business owners may not have skills in writing great copy, SEO tools, navigation, and other design aspects. Also, it takes a lot of time to choose the right images and videos if you want your website to really stand out. For a small business, it may take upwards of 200 hours, and for medium and large businesses it can be higher than 2000 hours. This is a huge cost and should be factored in.
There is no migration option on Wix
Wix doesn't provide a migration option to other platforms. In the eventuality of you wanting to move to a different platform, then you will have to start from scratch. While this is not an immediate cost but this can become a cost in the future.
Wix Pros & Cons
Wix is a pretty awesome tool and we will keep saying this over and over again.
Ease of Use - Wix
Wix scores very highly on ease of use with its intuitive editor and its Wix ADI is useful for novices. Besides, there are FAQs and short tutorials which help users to reduce the learning curve.
Quality of templates
Wix's templates are really good and have multiple, great options for almost any kind of business. However, a caveat here. The templates look great because of the quality of the imagery. If you replace the existing images with a less impressive image or video then it will not be as splendid.
Changing templates is difficult
It is difficult to change a template in Wix. You can customise and change the existing template.
Loading Speed
Wix websites are known to load slowly particularly on smartphones and that could impact conversion as well as SEO.
When can I use Wix for my business?
Wix has phenomenal strengths and can be used if you have a friend or relative who is either skilled in website design or wants to learn. Wix would then be a great platform in such a scenario. You can use this guide to figure out how much is it actually going to cost you - like how many pizzas do you have to buy for the person who's building your website for you on Wix :-)