Wix

Building websites without code: business pages, portfolios, blogs, restaurants and small shops. Its drag-and-drop editor, 900+ templates and app market cover almost any site type, and AI-assisted setup gets a first draft up in minutes. It's the default all-rounder of the category, built for DIY site owners rather than developers.

See in the comparison →

Some do — Wix Studio, its professional tier, targets agencies with advanced layout tools, and plenty of freelancers deliver client sites on it. Design-focused professionals more often reach for Webflow or Squarespace, and developers for WordPress. Wix's heartland remains DIY site owners by design, but Studio has closed a good deal of the professional gap.

See in the comparison →

Paid plans start at US$17/mo on the Light plan with annual billing — a custom domain and no Wix ads — stepping up to the Core plan around US$29/mo once you want a proper online store, with Business tiers above for larger shops. The free plan costs nothing but publishes on a wixsite.com subdomain with Wix branding. Annual billing beats monthly by a clear margin, so for a simple site Light is the sensible entry point; only move up when ecommerce or extra features genuinely earn it.

See in the comparison →

For getting online fast with zero maintenance, Wix — guided setup, hosting, security and updates all handled, from US$17/mo on a paid plan. For long-term power and ownership, WordPress: full portability, unlimited plugins and no platform lock-in, but you (or a host you pay) handle updates and security. The dividing line is control versus convenience. A simple site you want live this week: Wix. A site you'll grow, customise deeply and own outright, with the freedom to change hosts: WordPress with a managed host. Neither is wrong; they optimise for different owners.

See in the comparison →

Three to know: you can't switch templates once a site is live — you rebuild from scratch; sites aren't portable, with no export to another platform, which is real lock-in; and the sheer number of options can overwhelm at first. Free-plan sites also carry Wix branding on a subdomain, and very large sites can load a little slower. None of it stops Wix being the best all-rounder here, but the lock-in is the one thing to weigh seriously before you commit.

See in the comparison →

No — Wix is Israeli, founded in Tel Aviv in 2006 and publicly traded on the Nasdaq under WIX, so its ownership is public record. There's no Chinese ownership; the confusion usually comes from anonymous 'free website' apps, which Wix isn't.

See in the comparison →