Why I like Wix
I originally dismissed Wix. I thought it was a bit of a joke. I grew up in a time where Dreamweaver was known for messy code and the only way to get well working code was to learn to do it yourself. I didn't expect Wix to have the tools needed for small businesses.
Then, one of my clients was on Wix and it changed my mind.
As I find more of the pain points with small business websites, one of the big ones that I see is the ownership of their information. Your website and your data should always be accessible to you, even after your contract with me ends. Wix allows me to copy websites and transfer them to you. Handing off sites to you - the owner - is very important to me. I have worked with and continue to work with a variety of platforms. I have a natural curiosity and I want what fits my client's needs best. Wix won't be best for all of my clients, so I continue to grow my knowledge of other systems. I can quickly manipulate designs on Wix. If you set up your Wix account, it will want to lead you through a smart system that they call ADI, but I prefer creating a template from scratch. I find fewer man hours are used when I work in Wix because I don't have to spend a lot of time tweaking the CSS code like I do in Wordpress. Speaking of Wordpress, there are a few ways that I feel that Wix wins out over Wordpress. I work in Wordpress.org for clients who do not want any recurring cost. For around $20 I was able to set up a domain with privacy and Linux hosting, skipped the managed WordPress hosting and I was able to get WordPress installed for free. This sounds great, so what are the downsides? I consider Wordpress to be "freemium". Wordpress is fairly barebones out of the box. There are plugins to do many of the things that Wix does inherently, such as adding social icons to your header or footer. Each of these plugins seems to need to be updated every time that I log in to Wordpress. Also, each of these plugins want you to upgrade to their premium version. You can pay for the premium version or use multiple plugins to get the functions that you want. Oh and those multiple plugins? They don't always play nicely with each other. I found that one of my gallery plugins was making an Instagram feed plugin no longer show up. Wix already has both of those features built in.
My knowledge of CSS and coding has been very helpful for Wordpress sites. CSS can be very difficult. If you want to learn CSS I would recommend https://www.freecodecamp.org/ because the challenges have cats themes. However, the estimated time to get through the first certification is 300 hours.
I have not found a one-size-fits-all solution. Each of my clients is unique and I prefer to give them what works best for them. Even though Wix has an e-commerce option, it is generally not my first choice for my e-commerce clients. For about the same monthly subscription price, I prefer to set up my clients with an e-commerce option that is more robust, something really built for sales. There are a couple of affordable options that play nicely with Pinterest, Facebook, Amazon, and Google if you want to sell things online.
If you are interested in working with me, please do not hesitate to call, email, orĀ schedule a free, no obligation consultation.