Wix hosting review 2024
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Wix is a hugely popular name in website creation, but unlike traditional hosts like Hostinger or Bluehost, Wix primarily focuses on its website builder. Wix web hosting is offered more as a free addition to its web builder subscriptions. In other words, its hosting service is complementary to its website-building service.
Given the provider’s background, I expect Wix hosting to be user and beginner-friendly. However, I’m also curious to see how it fares in other areas. So, in addition to ease of use, I’ve reviewed Wix hosting performance, security, pricing, and customer support. Read on to find out how it measures up.
| ⭐ Rating: | |
| 💵 Price: | From $14.50/month |
| 📑 Uptime guarantee: | 99.9% |
| ⚙️ Hosting types: | Shared |
| 🌎 Server locations: | The US and Europe |
| 👨💻 24/7 live support: | Yes |
| 🔥 Coupons: | Wix coupon 50% OFF! |
Wix hosting pros and cons
Wix management – is it easy to use?
When it comes to ease of use, Wix is a master. I found everything from setup to website creation a breeze, and I felt you could trust it to handle the heavy lifting. No technical skills are necessary, making it ideal for beginners.
Hosting setup and website creation
As I mentioned earlier, Wix hosting is a part of its website builder. First, pick a Wix hosing plan that suits your needs. From there, the setup process is a breeze – your free website hosting is automatically set up once you’ve published your website. No installation is needed on your part.
Here’s a closer look at the steps:
1. Create an account and purchase a plan
2. In the upper right corner, click on Create a new site. You’ll then be directed to choose whether you want to create your site with the help of an AI or manually. Pick a method and follow the instructions
3. You’ll then be taken to your Wix dashboard. From there, you’ll see four main steps to set up your website successfully
a. First, choose your website type
b. Next, connect a domain. You can use a free domain from Wix for a year or connect one you already own
c. Proceed to design your website
d. Then, set up your SEO tools
4. Finally, publish your website and complete the hosting setup process
Managing your website with Wix
Wix uses a proprietary dashboard that’s simple, minimalistic, and beginner-friendly, though it may not be as feature-packed as Hostinger’s hPanel or the old-school cPanel.
The Wix dashboard serves as your site’s control center, where you can access tools and manage your website from one centralized location. All essential features are neatly categorized in the menu on the left.
However, since most of Wix’s web hosting is an addition to its website builder rather than a standalone service, the dashboard has quite a few limitations. For instance, you won’t find advanced features or extensive customization options.
Although you're limited in customization options, I like that Wix’s in-house experts fully manage your hosting. This means you can go about your business worry-free while they manage everything for you. In addition, I found the dashboard super friendly, with a clear overview of your site’s speed, performance, and security. They even give you tips on how to improve.
Wix hosting performance
Wix demonstrated solid uptime and speed throughout my testing. Besides, it handled traffic surges withough big struggles, making it better suited for smaller websites with limited audiences.
To check Wix’s reliability, our research team conducted a test using Grafana. Over two months, Wix maintained a 100% uptime with no outages, which delivered on its promised uptime of 99.9%.
On top of uptime, we evaluated Wix’s speed by creating a website and testing its loading characteristics on webpagetest.org. Here’s what I looked at:
- Largest Contentful Paint (LCP) – measures how fast the biggest chunk of the page loads. It should be under 2.5s to ensure your website ranks higher on search engine result pages.
- Fully Loaded Time – indicates when the website is 100% interactive. It should be under 3s for the best user experience.
- Time to first byte (TTFB) – reflects the server’s responsiveness, and it should be under 500ms.
Based on test results, my site connected quickly and delivered the initial code promptly. It also exhibited good layout stability. However, it took a bit longer to become fully interactive, but it was within optimal level.
| Testing location | TTFB | LCP | Fully Loaded time |
| Virginia, US | 196ms | 1.609s | 1.108s |
We have also performed stress tests to see how it handles traffic surges. The stress test executed with 50 virtual users (VUs) over a duration of 5 minutes and 3 seconds yielded a total of 5.9K requests with zero HTTP failures, indicating stable performance under load. The system achieved a peak request rate of 38.33 requests per second (RPS) with an average rate of 20 RPS. The 95th percentile (P95) response time was recorded at 442ms, suggesting the system handled the majority of requests within this timeframe.
The response times generally remained under 1s, implying that the system maintained reliability and responsiveness under specified load conditions. There were no instances of failure throughout the test duration.
Overall, Wix’s performance showed it’s a reliable and fast host that handles traffic surges with no big struggles.
Wix security features
Wix doesn’t have the most extensive security features but it does cover the basics. Here’s what it offers:
- Free SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) certificate. All Wix sites include an SSL certificate. Any data sent between your website and a visitor’s browser is encrypted to protect personal, payment, and other sensitive information.
- Backups. Wix automatically creates weekly backups of your website to prevent data loss. Hence, you can restore your website to a previous version in case of accidents, technical failures, or cyberattacks.
- Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) protection. DDoS attacks overwhelm your website with excessive traffic or requests to disrupt it. While Wix doesn’t elaborate much on its DDoS protection, it states that it “immediately detects and responds to DDoS attacks, making sure your site stays resilient and available.”
- 24/7 security monitoring. The platform provides System Information and Events Monitoring to detect and respond to threats in real-time. Additionally, it uses data analysis and machine learning to detect pattern changes or suspicious activity to block attempted misuse.
- Bug bounty program. Wix encourages independent security researches to try and hack its platform, rewarding them for identifying any vulnerabilities that could affect users.
- Two-step verification. Two-factor authentication (2FA) adds an extra layer of security by requiring a second form of verification to access your account. With Wix, verification can be done through email, SMS, or third-party authentication app.
Pricing and hosting types
Wix’s pricing is on the higher side for a hosting provider but in line with what you’d expect from a builder, which is understandable considering its powerful website builder. The provider only offers shared hosting.
| Plan | Features | Price |
| Light | 2GB storage, free domain for a year, light marketing suite, and 2 collaborators allowed | $17.00/month |
| Core | 50GB storage, free domain for a year, basic marketing suite, basic site analytics, accept payments, basic eCommerce, and 5 collaborators allowed | $14.50/month |
| Business | 100GB storage, free domain for a year, standard marketing suite, standard site analytics, accept payments, standard eCommerce, and 10 collaborators allowed | $18.00/month |
| Business Elite | Unlimited storage, free domain for a year, advanced marketing suite, advanced site analytics, accept payments, advanced eCommerce, advanced developer platform, and 15 collaborators allowed | $79.50/month |
Wix has five plans in total, including a free option. The four paid plans start from $14.50/month, and all come with a 14-day money-back guarantee.
Compared to traditional web hosting providers like Hostinger, Bluehost, and SiteGround, Wix likely appears more expensive and offers fewer resources and hosting-specific features. It’s also worth mentioning that each paid plan only has one premium website. This means you’ll need to purchase separate plans for more websites.
However, on the plus side, basic features like a free domain, free SSL certificate, DDoS protection, and backups are included. Depending on your plan, you’ll also gain access to the tools typically found in website builders, such as a marketing suite and eCommerce-related tools, most of which are designed for ease of use.
Overall, Wix may not be as affordable or resource and feature-rich as traditional web hosting providers, but you’re paying a premium for features focused on delivering a hands-off, user-friendly website-building experience.
Wix customer support
Wix offers 24/7 callback support in English. However, callbacks in other languages and live chat in all languages are only available during operating hours. Outside of these hours, your best option is its Help Center, which is home to an extensive list of how-tos and tutorials. It’s also where Wix prefers you to seek help first.
| Wix | |
|---|---|
| Live chat | ✅ Yes |
| ❌ No | |
| Phone line | ✅ Yes |
| Help Center | ✅ Yes |
To test Wix’s customer support, I tried reaching out from my account dashboard. Even though I was well within its operating hours, I was only able to interact with the chatbot. Multiple attempts to get a response and connect with human agents were unsuccessful, no matter how I rephrased the queries. Instead, I was repeatedly directed to the Help Center to browse through the articles.
While I eventually found the answers I needed, I was rather disappointed that it was so difficult to get in touch with human agents. It was only after repeatedly insisting that I wanted to speak with a real person that I was finally connected. However, to give credit where it’s due, the agent I spoke with was very helpful and friendly.
On a positive note, I have to praise Wix for offering phone support – a rare instance between the hosting services.
Overall, Wix’s customer support is decent but could be improved. I’d like to see 24/7 support extended to live chat, along with an easier way to reach human agents.
Final thoughts
All in all, Wix may be limited in a few areas as a hosting provider. However, this is understandable since its primary focus is on website building, with its web hosting service included more as an additional feature.
Wix can be a good option as a hosting provider for smaller projects such as blogs and portfolios, especially for beginners who don’t need extensive hosting customizations or advanced features. Essentially, it’s best suited for those using it primarily for its website builder.
| Feature | User-friendly hosting with a reliable web builder | |
| Pricing | Wix only offers shared hosting solution but has a range of plans. Besides its free plan, it also offers paid plans, with prices starting from $14.50/month | |
| Ease of use | The provider is extremely user-friendly, making everything from website setup and creation to management super easy and beginner-friendly. Additionally, both its drag-and-drop editor and dashboard are extremely intuitive | |
| Performance | Wix is very reliable and recorded a 100% uptime, true to its 99.9% uptime guarantee. Its speed and performance are also pretty solid, handling traffic surges with no struggles | |
| Security | The provider is somewhat vague about the specifics of the security measures it offers. However, all the essentials, such as SSL certificate, automatic backups, and DDoS protection, are included | |
| Support | 24/7 support is only available for phone callback in English. Other support options are limited to their respective operating hours. It can be challenging to reach a human agent, but once you do, they’re helpful and professional |
FAQ
Is Wix any good?
Yes, Wix is a good hosting provider if you’re a beginner or need a basic website for small projects such as a blog or personal portfolio. It comes as a part of Wix web builder and is incredibly easy to set up and use, with solid resources and security features. However, don’t expect advanced hosting features or customizations.
What is Wix hosting?
Wix is a popular provider well-known for offering an excellent website builder. As a supplementary feature to its website building packages, it also provides a completely free web hosting service. Above all else, the provider is known for its ease of use.
How reliable is Wix hosting?
Across the board, Wix hosting is considered reliable. The provider maintained a 100% uptime during our tests. It’s also worth noting that it has a 99.9% uptime guarantee, ensuring minimal downtime for your website.
Is Wix hosting good for WordPress sites?
No, Wix hosting isn’t suitable for WordPress sites. This is because it doesn’t support the WordPress content management system. Instead, Wix only supports its own website builder and doesn’t integrate with other CMS platforms.
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