Is Wix free to publish? Yes, but is it worth it?

Is Wix free to publish?

The good news is, yes, if you have a blog or even a small website, then it is free to publish on Wix.

Wix has a free to publish plan that is surprisingly similar, or not surprisingly, to WordPress.com’s free blog plan.

In fact, they do have quite a few similarities. But also some major differences.

In this post, we are going to talk about the Wix free plan, it’s benefits and possible drawbacks as well as answer some other related questions regarding Wix and free publishing.

How much does it cost to publish a free website on Wix?

This might seem like a trick question. I mean, the cost of free is supposed to be free, isn’t it?

Well, if you publish a free website on Wix, you will be sacrificing certain benefits that having your own website would normally give you. Basically, if you choose to publish a free website on Wix, these are some of those limitations:

• Domain: Assigned URL: “accountname.wixsite.com/siteaddress”.
• Wix ads: Wix ads appear on every page & favicon in URL.
• Storage: Up to 500MB.
• Bandwidth: Up to 500MB.
• Online payments: Not included.
• Google Analytics: Not included.

For me the biggest limitation of all is that Wix is a closed source CMS (Content Management System). More on this below.

How long does it take for a free Wix site to publish?

According to Wix, they offer a few different ways to create a free website, so you can choose the creation process that works best for you. To get online fast you simply need to answer a few simple questions and their Wix ADI (Artificial Design Intelligence) will build a professional website for you in under 10 minutes. 

However, if you want 100% design freedom, you can start from scratch and use their “drag and drop” website design features in their Wix Editor.

Is Wix free for lifetime?

The Wix free plan is free for a lifetime. The same as WordPress.com’s free blog plan. 

However, why would you really want to keep a small free blog or website on Wix, or even WordPress for that matter? 

Considering all the limitations, eventually in order to make something substantial out of your blog or website, you are definitely going to have to move on from any free plan whether that’s with Wix or with WordPress.com.

The only question is, when, how fast and at what cost will it take for you to move on from a free plan at Wix or WordPress.com, to a position where you have almost total control over your website or blog and what happens to it?

Does Wix own my domain name?

If you’ve bought your own domain name, then you own your domain name, not Wix. 

However, if you are still using a domain name with the Wix URL, then Wix owns your domain name. 

How can I get my own domain for free on Wix?

You can get your own domain name for free through one of Wix’s Yearly or Multi-Year Premium Plans. Of course, that also means you will be obligated to stay with Wix hosting on the plan that included that free domain name for the duration of the contract in that plan. 

According to their website: “Most Yearly or Multi-Year Premium Plans come with a 1 year free domain voucher. You can choose your own domain name with suffixes such as .com, .net, .org and more. Once you find the perfect domain for your site, your voucher will be waiting for you at checkout.”

Although considering how much or how little buying your own domain name is, why anyone would want to save a mere $10 to $15, but be obligated and bound to stay on a paid hosting plan with any Web Hosting Provider or Platform, is beyond me.

What are the disadvantages of Wix?

The main disadvantage of Wix is that it is a proprietary and closed source platform. Whereas WordPress is non-proprietary and an open source platform. 

The disadvantages of being on a platform that is proprietary and closed source are many. These are:

• You can choose your own Web Host and self-host your website. You must use the Wix platform to host your website, regardless of plan, free or paid.
• Their code is proprietary. Themes and plugins along with their code are owned by Wix. Therefore, you technically never truly won your website, only the content that you publish. Never the theme, plugins nor the design customizations you’ve put into it.
• You are stuck with Wix Hosting, Service and Support. You do not have the freedom to move your “Wix Website” to another Web Host if for example, they raise their fees, you experience poor support and customer service etc.
• Resale values of Wix “closed platform” websites are lower and less desirable than their “open source” alternatives, like WordPress. 

How long is Wix free trial?

You can try the Wix Premium Plan for 14 days. However, you must provide your payment details, like your credit card information and actually pay for it first, before you begin. 

Then it’s up to you to cancel within 14 days in order to receive a full refund. This applies to the initial upgrade to a Premium Plan.

What does a free Wix URL look like?

A free Wix URL looks like this: username.wixsite.com/sitename.

What happens if Wix goes out of business?

That’s a real pickle isn’t it? A true conundrum. I mean, if you have your website self-hosted with a Web Hosting Provider and hopefully you make regular backups of that website, you can simply redirect the name servers of your domain name to another Web Hosting Provider and have it self-hosted there. 

Then just migrate your entire website including your themes, plugins as well as the content, all your images and media to your new web host and continue on. 

However, since Wix is a closed source CMS and you can only run your Wix website on their web hosting platform, you’re pretty much stuck. 

You see, a Wix website cannot be hosted on any other Web Hosting Provider, but Wix. 

What are the chances of Wix going out of business? Well in all honesty, probably pretty low. 

But, pretty low does not mean it can’t go out of business. 

Companies in corporations go out of business or merge all the time. 

Companies get sold or bought out and either completely change their business model, terms and conditions or simply go out of business. Stranger things have happened. 

Now if you have stock in a company that goes out of business, that’s a problem. 

But what if your whole business, your physical website gets destroyed in the process? Then what would you do?

By having an open source CMS like WordPress, you can simply move it to another Web Hosting Provider and continue on. 

All the themes, plugins and everything else that you have worked so hard to design, build and customize, is yours to do what you wish. 

You can migrate it to another Web Hosting Provider and self host it there, or you can even buy a server and host your website yourself from home. You can’t do either with Wix.

Is Wix free to publish worth it? Conclusions.

If you want to use Wix to create a sort of personal journal or blog and you have no intention of it going any further than that. Nor do you have the intention of ever moving it offline to your own computer or self-hosting it sometime in the future, than sure the Wix free to publish plan is worth it.

However, if you are interested or even have the slight inclination that perhaps you can build your small personal or business website into something much bigger than you originally had ambitions for then no, it’s not worth it. 

In addition, if you want the freedom, control and flexibility to eventually move your website and self-host somewhere, even if that means having it sit on your own computer and working on it until you do decide what to do with it, then the answer to the whole Wix is free to publish question, is again, a big no, it’s not worth it. 

Here’s why in a nutshell. Between their closed platform CMS, their restrictive hosting plans as well as being confined to their hosting plan’s pricing (along with potential increases), being stuck with their support and service with no option to move should you become dissatisfied, then a final no, Wix is not worth it, even if it’s free to publish.

If you don’t realize this by now, nor by the very name of this website, this post is based on my own personal opinions, based on the facts that I have gathered. Obviously I am heavily biased towards WordPress. So take what say with a grain of salt, consider these points that I have laid out, but in the end make up your own mind.