Wix Alternatives: The 5 Best Options To Try in 2024

5 out of 5 stars

Overall rating: 4.6/5

The best choice for creative businesses, Squarespace is fit for aesthetic portfolios and stylish website designs reflecting your brand’s unique identity.

As it stands, Squarespace is ranked only second to Wix in our overall website builder research. Its intuitive editor and stunning designs make it the best-rated Wix alternative out there. Before I explain the platform’s main differences, here are the key pros and cons to consider:

Squarespace’s Key Differences

Squarespace’s website builder is an apt alternative to Wix if you prioritize design over anything else. As I mentioned earlier, Squarespace is renowned for its beautiful templates that’ll leave visitors with a positive first impression of your website. After all, you want users to keep exploring beyond your landing page.

As soon as you sign up for Squarespace, the quality of its templates is impossible to ignore, ranging from sleek photography portfolios to eye-catching homepage designs. Regardless of your niche, it’ll be easy to find a stylish Squarespace template that best suits your business.

Another strong aspect of Squarespace is its easy-to-use editor. In our hands-on research, we found that users responded positively to its drag-and-drop interface, making it the easiest website builder we’ve tested in 2024. Beginners will find this aspect of Squarespace useful since it empowers you to create a showstopping website regardless of your technical expertise.

Dragging elements across your website is easy. Squarespace’s grid overlay will keep your elements in place, so there’s no need to worry about your website looking messy as you experiment with your layout. Also, there’s a wide range of content blocks you can add to your page, ranging from social media integrations to scheduling and digital content.

How Much Does Squarespace Cost?

If you’re curious about Squarespace’s pricing plans, here’s everything you need to know.

Before sticking with a plan, you can sign up for its 14-day free trial – a useful opportunity to test out the builder’s key features. Once your time is up, you’ll need to purchase one of the four premium plans that range from $16 to $52 per month (billed annually). But are these plans worth it?

Our research shows that they are. Unlike Wix, which has a steep price increase from $17 to $159 per month across its four plans, Squarespace’s plans are much more affordable and great value for money. You’ll also receive a strong range of features, including a free custom domain, video hosting, Squarespace extensions, and SEO features.

You can also get 10% off your Squarespace plan with our code “WBE10”.

Just remember that Squarespace doesn’t offer a free plan. You’ll need to look into another website builder, such as GoDaddy, if you want to build a website for free.

4.5 out of 5 stars

Overall rating: 4.4/5

If you’re most interested in selling goods online, there’s one platform you need to check out before making your decision: Shopify. Although Wix does offer an ecommerce website builder, Shopify’s main features are specifically tailored to merchants who want to set up and scale their business. 

Before I explore its main features, here are Shopify’s key pros and cons:

Shopify’s Key Differences

The main difference between Shopify and Wix is Shopify’s unparalleled ecommerce inventory capabilities. If you need to scale up your business fast and are most interested in selling physical products, then Shopify will give you everything you need to succeed.

Unlike other ecommerce platforms on the market, your products come first with Shopify. As soon as I signed up and accessed my dashboard, I was asked to upload my products, making them readily available for when I started creating pages or customizing my site’s design. These products become the basis of your entire website.

Also, thanks to Shopify Editions Winter ‘24 update, the platform has made managing your large inventory easier than ever. Now, you’re able to show different product variations from the same page, as well as increase bundle sizes from 10 items to 30 items.

Thanks to these varied listing options, you can give your customers a much broader range of products to choose from. This is a strong reason to consider Shopify over Wix if you’re scaling up your score, since Wix can only support smaller inventories.

If you do choose to switch from Wix to Shopify, then you’ll need to consider how you’re going to migrate your online store’s data across. Although this can be a tricky process, Shopify does provide you with a few options. You can move your data manually via CSV, use a migration app from the Shopify App Store, or hire a migration expert from the Experts Marketplace.

How Much Does Shopify Cost?

In comparison to other website builders like Wix, Shopify’s pricing is generally more expensive. Shopify’s three price plans will set you back $29 to $299 per month (billed annually). While the starting price is the same as Wix’s Core plan, Shopify’s plans are pricier as you upgrade.

However, these plans provide all of the key features you need to scale up your business, like multiple inventory locations and localized selling points around the world. If you have a large inventory of goods to sell, locally or globally, then you’ll be able to make the most out of these features and get your money’s worth.

Thankfully, once your three-day trial is up, you can get your first three months for only $1 per month. This is a prime opportunity to test out the platform, giving you ample time to make sure that it’s the right fit for your online store without breaking the bank right away.

4.5 out of 5 stars

Overall rating: 4.3/5

If the larger website builders, like Wix or Shopify, seem overwhelming to you, then it’s worth looking into GoDaddy as your next alternative. The platform prides itself on providing users with a straightforward experience backed by strong customer service. GoDaddy is the best website builder for complete beginners and anyone who needs to set up a professional website quickly.

With that said, below are a few of GoDaddy’s pros and cons to help you make a decision:

GoDaddy’s Key Differences

If time is a key limitation for your business, then GoDaddy is one of the easiest website builders to pick up. The platform scores higher than Wix in our ease of use testing, and GoDaddy provides a few key features that’ll help you create a website in no time at all.

One of these features is GoDaddy’s AI website builder. After logging into my account and giving this tool a spin, GoDaddy generated a professional website for me in under 30 seconds. All I needed to do was answer a few questions about my desired website first.

The only downside to this speed is the outcome. Many of GoDaddy’s website themes can look generic in comparison to the bespoke themes offered by other providers. Because of this, you may want to opt for a website builder like Squarespace if you’re more interested in elevated designs.

If you’re keen to transfer your domain from Wix to GoDaddy, then you’ll be glad to hear that the process can be completed in only a few steps. One of the easiest builders to transfer to, you’ll need to log into your Wix account to unlock your domain and receive an authorization code, before heading over to GoDaddy to change your DNS settings.

How Much Does GoDaddy Cost?

In comparison to leading website builders like Wix, GoDaddy is great value for money. GoDaddy’s pricing plans range from as little as $9.99 to $20.99 per month (billed annually). You can also access its website builder for free and test out GoDaddy’s features beforehand, although I do recommend upgrading to a paid plan if you wish to remove ads from your website.

Small businesses will benefit the most from GoDaddy’s plans – they’ll receive the key features needed to set up a website for a reasonable price. Each plan comes with essentials, such as an SSL certificate, a marketing analytics dashboard, and access to GoDaddy Studio which allows you to create branded content for social media.

4.5 out of 5 stars

Overall rating: 4.3/5

Interested in AI? If you’d love to use artificial intelligence to create a website with little effort or time needed, then you’ll find Hostinger’s AI tools appealing. Offering more AI tools than Wix to experiment with, you’ll find everything from an AI Heatmap that tracks user behaviors to a handy AI Logo Maker.

Though platforms like Wix make use of AI during the website-building process, they don’t rely on it as much as Hostinger does. The platform is a playground for anyone looking to experiment with this exciting technology and, with the AI market expecting to grow by 37.3% between 2023 and 2030, there’s no better time for small businesses to test it out.

If you’re curious to know more about the Hostinger, here are its main pros and cons to review:

Hostinger’s Key Differences

Unlike other website builders, AI is the backbone of Hostinger since it powers most of its key features. Many of these tools make content generation easy for beginners, so you’ll have no problem creating suitable text or imagery for your website.

I found that this was exactly the case when setting up. After answering three key questions on my website brief, Hostinger’s AI website builder rustled up a fresh template for me within seconds.

However, there was one glaring downside to this AI tool. The finished template seemed fairly simple, and I would’ve preferred more color options and styling to choose from. So, if you’re looking for an elevated design, I’d recommend a platform like Squarespace for its powerful editor and design options.

That said, Hostinger’s AI tools won’t only help you generate a website, but they’ll also help you with content creation for your pages. Highlighted below are Hostinger’s most impressive AI tools you’ll want to keep in mind:

• AI Logo Maker that allows you to create an eye-catching icon that suits your brand. Hostinger is rolling out improvements to this tool, so keep your eyes peeled.
• In-text AI content generation to create grammatically correct text for different areas of your website. You could use it to create an “About” section or product descriptions.
• AI Heatmap that reviews user behavior on your website. Through its color coding system, you can see which areas of your site you could improve to increase conversions and upgrade the user experience.

Despite its impressive use of AI, Hostinger does lack the additional features other website builders have. You won’t find an app store or email marketing tools like you would with Wix, so keep that in mind when making your final decision.

One important thing to note is that if you choose to switch from Wix to Hostinger, you can’t migrate content from your pre-existing website. This means you’d need to build your website from scratch.

How Much Does Hostinger Cost?

Hostinger’s pricing plans are great value for money, making it one of the cheapest website builders on the market, which is evident as soon as you hop onto its pricing page. You’ll find offers starting from $2.99 per month, featuring its AI website builder, marketing tools, and a free domain to get started with. On top of that, you can also get 10% off your Hostinger plan when you use the code “WBE” at checkout.

Although these deals are great value for money, I recommend you read the small print first. Hostinger has a higher renewal cost once your initial subscription is over so don’t let this come as a surprise later on.

3.5 out of 5 stars

Overall rating: 3.4/5

My last alternative to Wix is BigCommerce, an ecommerce website builder that targets online businesses with its features and pricing. It’s ideal for well-established stores pursuing fast growth, particularly if you’re focused on scaling and global selling.

Before I dive into the nitty-gritty details, you can review the main pros and cons of BigCommerce in the table below:

BigCommerce’s Key Differences

When it comes to Wix alternatives, BigCommerce is very similar to Shopify. BigCommerce provides high-quality sales features to support large enterprises. This ecommerce-focused platform offers tools for global selling, such as multiple storefronts and inventory locations, and its payment options are vast.

When testing BigCommerce myself, I found it tricky to get to grips with, especially compared to the user-friendly platform Wix offers. For example, it invited me to fill out a form to start the 15-day free trial, but it then directed me elsewhere and I struggled to create an account for a good 10 minutes.

Unfortunately, BigCommerce’s free templates are also pretty basic, and I struggled to customize my chosen theme in the drag-and-drop editor. While I could drag elements to the page with ease (like Wix), I couldn’t place elements anywhere I wanted (unlike Wix).

So, if design is a big priority for you – and you don’t want to use Wix – I recommend trying Squarespace instead of BigCommerce. However, if you’re looking to grow your online store and the style of your store isn’t a main focus, BigCommerce is a good alternative to Wix. It’s not as user-friendly, but you can sell unlimited products, which is an improvement on Wix’s allowance of 50,000 products.

How Much Does BigCommerce Cost?

Like Shopify, BigCommerce’s pricing plans are more expensive than Wix’s. Wix’s plans start from $17 per month, whereas BigCommerce’s plans range from $29 to $299 per month (billed annually).

Where BigCommerce really differs is the influence of annual sales on your plan choice. BigCommerce will automatically upgrade you to the next plan if the number of orders you process exceeds a certain amount. For example, the Standard plan accommodates up to $50,000 in online revenue per month, and the next plan up (Plus) allows up to $180,000 in online revenue.

All of BigCommerce’s plans come with unlimited products, 24/7 support, and no extra transaction fees. That said, you’ll need to upgrade to the Plus plan for additional features, like abandoned cart recovery, or the Pro plan to add Google customer reviews and product filtering.

With such varied website builders on the market, I understand that it can be difficult to make your final decision. With that in mind, it’s wise to consider what you’re looking for in a website builder based on your needs. Below, I’ve put together a few pointers that may help you out.

Are you using Wix and want to switch to an alternative? Here’s a few things to consider:

• What don’t you like about Wix? Make sure the builder you’re switching to has all of the improvements you need. This could include specific features Wix is missing, an editor that’s easier to use, or a price plan that better fits your needs.
• What do you like about Wix? Before switching, check if your new provider still offers the Wix benefits you enjoy. For example, I wouldn’t switch to Hostinger if you’re a big fan of Wix’s creative freedom, or you value adding extra functionality to your site.
• How difficult is it to switch? If you want to switch from Wix, make sure the process is doable. You don’t want to lose important website content along the way, so double-check each website builder first to see if it offers easy-to-follow migration options.
• What features do I need to keep? Your new website builder should have the main features your website needs to thrive. For example, if you have an online store with Wix, then you’ll need to switch to a platform that supports ecommerce, like Shopify.

Once you’ve considered those key points, here are a few specific website features you may want to look for in another builder:

Will the website builder help me get set up quickly?

• Straightforward editor that’s easy to pick up
• 24/7 customer support if prompt answers to an issue are needed
• Pre-built templates keep time spent on designing your site to a minimum
• AI tools are designed to generate websites within seconds

Is my main goal to sell products or services?

• Inventory management that can withstand a large number of products
• Varied payment methods
• Multiple shipping options
• Scheduling tools to set up meetings with potential clients

Do I have limited knowledge of website builders?

• Resource center
• Intuitive interface
• Strong customer support lines for further assistance

Is my budget limited?

• Free plans
• Free themes
• Free extensions
• Fairly priced plans that include the key features needed to set up
• Regular special offers
• Good transaction fees

Or, if you want help choosing, take our quick quiz for personalized recommendations:

You might be wondering how we came to these conclusions about each Wix alternative, so let me explain. Each platform included in this article was put to the test by our rigorous website builder research process, ensuring that you receive the most accurate information possible.

While examining the website builders, we kept an eye on key criteria that encompassed what users were looking for. This included important factors like value for money, ease of use, and help and support, leaving us with valuable insights into how each website builder performs from a user’s perspective.

From our research, it’s clear that Squarespace is the best Wix alternative overall. The platform rivals Wix with its unparalleled templates and easy-to-use editor. Squarespace is ideal for small businesses and creatives who want their website’s design to shine.

Of course, this doesn’t mean Squarespace will be the right alternative for you. Below is a reminder of the other website builders I’ve looked at and their unique selling points:

• Shopify is most suitable for ecommerce. If you’re looking to scale up your business and manage your inventory effectively, this is your best option.
• GoDaddy’s accessible customer support and straightforward editor make it the most beginner-friendly platform – perfect if you’re setting up a website for the first time.
• Hostinger’s broad range of AI features, like the AI heatmap, make it the best website builder for businesses that need time-saving building support.
• BigCommerce, like Shopify, is a great alternative for online stores. Its scalable plans and advanced sales tools, such as global shipping options, are best suited for larger enterprises.