Wix is fine (when it is)
I'm not going to start this post by saying Wix is awful. It isn't. For some cases, it's the right call. If you have a one-off event next week, a wedding, an online CV or a business you launched yesterday and want to validate before investing, Wix works. In an afternoon you have something live. It's fast and cheap.
The problem isn't Wix. The problem is when someone setting up a serious business chooses Wix out of laziness and two years later realises their website is a ceiling. When clients start asking for things the platform doesn't allow, when Google ignores you because the underlying code can't be touched, when you want to export your work and discover you can't.
This post is about that. Understanding when Wix is fine and when it falls short. Not to sell you a custom site (although I do build them). So you can decide with full information, not with the Wix sales pitch.
What a custom website is and what it gives you
A custom website is one designed from scratch with your business, your client and your goals in mind. No template is chosen. It's drawn in Figma, every block, every interaction and every structure is decided. Then it's coded (PHP, HTML, CSS, JavaScript, frameworks like Astro or Next.js if applicable) and uploaded to hosting you control.
What a custom site gives you that Wix can't:
- Real ownership. The code is yours. You keep it in your repo, deploy it where you want, and nobody can leave you without a website over a policy change.
- Technical SEO with no ceiling. You have access to every tag, every schema, every redirect, every HTTP header. Google isn't left out by platform limits.
- Real speed. No generic scripts loading for every Wix in the world. Your site loads what it needs and nothing more.
- Design without a box. An animation you want, a section that behaves uniquely, an integration that doesn't exist in the Wix ecosystem. Anything is possible if it's in scope.
- Scalability. Three pages today, a hundred tomorrow, integration with CRM, ERP or own booking system the day after. Without rebuilding.
The price for this in Mallorca is covered in detail here: how much does a website cost in Mallorca in 2026. Summary: landing from €1,000, corporate from €1,950, online shop from €2,150.
Key differences between Wix and custom
There are six axes where the difference shows. Side by side.
| Axis | Wix | Custom |
|---|---|---|
| Technical SEO | Limited. You don't touch real HTML. Basic schemas, no granular control over canonical, hreflang or advanced redirects. | No ceiling. You touch every tag, every schema, every header. Google sees exactly what it needs. |
| Ownership | The site lives on Wix servers. Stop paying, it disappears. Design isn't exported. | Source code is yours. Hosting in your name. You can change provider without losing anything. |
| Speed | Usually loads in 4–6 seconds on mobile due to generic scripts. | 1–2 seconds on mobile with good hosting and optimised code. |
| Scalability | Limited to the Wix ecosystem. External integrations need premium apps. | Any integration. CRM, ERP, bookings, gateways, own APIs. |
| Design | Adapted templates. Your site looks like 10,000 others. | Unique. Designed in Figma from scratch for your brand. |
| Support | Generic chat, slow response, no context of your case. | You have the mobile of whoever built it. You call, they answer. |
A year and a half ago a client came to me from Wix Premium. She'd been stuck at position 30 on Google for her main keywords for eighteen months. Same structure, same content, same narrative. We rewrote the code from scratch, kept the copy. In three months she was at position 8. The only thing that changed was what's under the hood. What the user reads is identical.
Another typical case: a restaurant owner with Wix who wanted to integrate an external booking system connected to their daily menu. The "official" Wix app cost an extra €49/month and didn't allow customising the booking flow. On a custom site, the same goes in as a standard integration with no fee.
The problem isn't what Wix lets you do. It's what you discover it doesn't let you do once you're already in.
Real cost over 5 years (with 2026 figures)
Here's the calculation almost nobody does before choosing Wix. It sounds cheap when you see the monthly price in isolation. Over five years, the numbers change.
A typical Wix plan with own domain, no Wix banner, and professional email runs around €25 a month. That's €300 a year. Five years, €1,500. Not counting price increases (which happen) or premium apps you add along the way.
A custom landing in Mallorca starts at €1,000. One-time payment. The site is yours. Recurring cost: hosting (€50 to €150 a year) and domain (€10 to €15 a year). Total recurring: €60 to €165 a year. Five years: €300 to €825.
| Model | Year 1 | Year 5 (cumulative) | Who owns it |
|---|---|---|---|
| Wix Premium + domain + email | €300 | €1,500 | Wix |
| Custom landing + hosting Mallorca | ~€1,100 | ~€1,400 | You |
Over five years you pay almost the same. But with the custom site you have an asset that's yours, that loads fast, that ranks, that can be expanded. With Wix you have a permanent rental.
Migrating from Wix to another platform
This part hardly anyone tells you and it's the one that hurts most when you find out late.
Wix lets you export your editorial content. That is, the texts and sometimes the images (with size limits). What it doesn't export is the design. Not the visual structure, not the components, not the animations, not even the internal URLs as they are.
This means that if you decide to switch from Wix to another platform (custom, WordPress, Webflow, Squarespace), you're not migrating a site. You're rebuilding a site from scratch using the previous one's text as reference. The design is redrawn. The code is rewritten. The structure is reorganised.
It's important to know this before choosing Wix. If you're going to be there three or five years, the "rebuild" comes. And it comes with cost, not just enthusiasm.
When to choose Wix and when custom
Without sugar-coating.
Wix makes sense if
- You need something online this week, no budget or time for more.
- Your site is secondary to the business (a physical restaurant that sells without online bookings, a practice with no digital diary).
- You're validating an idea and don't know if it'll still be alive in six months.
- You're happy just being on the internet, no SEO or growth goals.
Custom makes sense if
- The site is a real sales or acquisition channel (clients reach you through it).
- You want to rank on Google for your local keywords.
- Your brand differentiates you and you don't want to look like the other 10,000 templates.
- You're going to grow: more pages, more languages, integrations, customer area.
- You want to own your digital business, not rent it.
The key question to decide: how much does it hurt if this site disappears or stops working as expected? If little, Wix works. If it hurts, custom.
My approach and how I work if you're coming from Wix
If you're on Wix and want to leave, the process with me works like this.
- 20-min call. I ask what you have now, what you need and what you'd like not to lose in the migration.
- Quick audit of your current Wix. I look at structure, content, existing SEO, what works and what doesn't.
- Closed proposal in two or three days. Scope, deadlines, price, what's out.
- Design in Figma before touching code. Two rounds of review included.
- Custom development with own code (PHP, HTML, CSS, GSAP) or on WordPress if your case asks for it. Technical SEO out of the box.
- Content migration of what can be brought from Wix plus rewrite of what's better redone.
- 301 redirect setup from old URLs to new ones to keep ranking.
- One-on-one training so you know how to use the new site.
- 30-day post-deploy guarantee. If anything fails during that time, I fix it at no cost.
For vertical cases with specific flow (restaurant with bookings, photographer with portfolio, agency with services), the proposal starts with a concrete use case. If your case is restaurants: web design for restaurants in Mallorca.
Frequently asked questions
It's not "bad" technically. Wix has improved a lot in recent years with basic schemas, automatic sitemap and Core Web Vitals support. The problem is you have a ceiling: advanced configurations (specific canonicals, custom redirects, complex schemas, granular hreflang) depend on what Wix decides to support. On a custom site there's no ceiling.
Migrating content yes (texts, images with size limits). Migrating design no. Wix doesn't export visual design or components. Any "migration" Wix to WordPress is actually rebuilding the site from scratch using the previous texts. With a good 301 redirect plan you keep accumulated SEO.
The price depends on the final scope, not on coming from Wix. Since Wix can't be exported, the cost is basically that of a new site (€1,000 landing, €1,950 corporate, €2,150 shop). What you save is time on copy and structure definition.
No, if done right. With 301 redirects from old to new URLs, Google transfers accumulated authority within weeks. In most cases I've seen, ranking improves after migration because the new site loads faster and has better technical SEO.
If you bought the domain through Wix, you can transfer it to another registrar. Wix gives you the transfer code (EPP) when you ask. If you already had the domain elsewhere (Hostinger, IONOS, GoDaddy), you just change the DNS to point to the new hosting. Either way, the domain is yours.
Wix Studio improves design control vs classic Wix and is aimed at freelancers and agencies. But the underlying model is the same: your site lives on Wix servers, you don't export the code, you depend on their roadmap. If you want powerful design tools and to own the result, Webflow is an in-between alternative.
If "super simple" means an informational page for a one-off project, no SEO or growth goals, yes. It's worth it. The thing is, almost no one ends up with something "super simple". You start that way, and within a month you want one more section, a more serious form, a blog. That's where Wix starts to squeeze. If you're serious, consider custom from the start even if you launch with a small €1,000 landing.
