Wix alternatives: six honest options
A Wix site can only ever run on Wix, so the most useful question about an alternative is what you could take with you next time. Here are the serious options, what each costs, and how portable each one really is. Written by the makers of one of them, which is why every entry lists real tradeoffs.
- Choose Wix if it is working; leaving means rebuilding.
- Choose Squarespace if you want more polish and someone to call at any hour.
- Choose Hostinger Website Builder if price decides it and you can commit for years.
- Choose WordPress if you want a free start you can move later, or plugins.
- Choose Shopify if the store is the business.
- Choose Total CMS if you never want to rebuild for a platform again.
A note on who wrote this. We make Total CMS, one of the six. That is a conflict of interest, so we have marked our own entry, listed it last, given real reasons to choose the others, and priced everything from each vendor's own page.
First, the case for staying. Wix is the easiest start of any website builder. There is a free plan, the drag-and-drop editor is genuinely approachable, the template library is huge, and hosting, security and updates are handled for you. If it is working, nothing below is a reason to move.
People usually leave for one of three reasons:
- The free plan ran out. It has no custom domain and carries Wix branding, and paid plans run from about $17 to $159 a month billed yearly.
- The site outgrew it. Collaborators are capped by plan, and e-commerce and larger storage need the higher tiers.
- Ownership. Wix's own support article says a Wix site "needs to be hosted and operated on Wix's servers." There is no export to another host, so leaving means rebuilding.
That last point shapes this whole page. Since you will be rebuilding anyway, choose where you land by how much you could take with you next time. Each entry says so plainly. If you want to own the site outright, hosted vs self-hosted explains the trade.
At a glance
Six worth your time.
| Product | Price | Best for |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Squarespace | $19–$99/month, billed annually | Owners who want a more polished hosted site and 24/7 support |
| 2. Hostinger Website Builder | From $2.49/month on a 48-month term; renews at $10.99/month | Small sites on a tight budget that are happy to commit for years |
| 3. WordPress | Free (GPL) on your own hosting; WordPress.com $4–$45/month, billed yearly | Sites that need plugins, server-side code, or a free start you can move later |
| 4. Webflow | Free Starter; $15/month (no CMS) / $25/month with a CMS, billed yearly, per site | Designers who want professional control over layout and CSS |
| 5. Shopify | $29–$299/month billed yearly; Plus from $2,300/month | Businesses whose site is mostly a shop |
| 6. Total CMS Ours | $195 Standard / $395 Pro, one-time per domain | Owners and builders who never want to be locked to one platform again |
The options
Each one, with its tradeoffs.
-
More polish and better support, with nothing to maintain.
squarespace.com, captured Strengths
- Design is the thing it is best at: templates that look professional with no designer
- 24/7 support on every plan, including the cheapest
- Real commerce, with 0% Squarespace fee on store sales from the Core plan up
- Hosting, SSL, security and backups are all included
- A 14-day free trial
Tradeoffs
- More portable than Wix, but only partly: the export gives you pages, one blog, and text and image blocks as a WordPress file, while style settings and Custom CSS stay behind
- No free plan
- Less freedom over placement than Wix's drag-and-drop editor; you work in sections
- No server-side code of any kind
- Basic allows two contributors and takes a 2% fee on store sales
-
The cheapest hosted builder here, if you pay for years up front.
hostinger.com, captured Strengths
- The lowest starting price on this page, with a free domain for the first year
- An AI builder with both drag-and-drop and agentic modes
- Premium covers up to three websites and includes mailboxes
- A built-in export of pages, text, images and files to a WordPress site, which Wix does not offer
Tradeoffs
- The headline price means paying 48 months up front ($119.52 on Premium), and it renews at $10.99 a month
- E-commerce starts on the Unlimited plan, which renews at $16.99 a month
- The WordPress export leaves styles and layout, the online store, forms and submissions, integrations and SEO settings behind
- Support on Premium is a chatbot; priority 24/7 support starts on Unlimited
-
Free software you can host anywhere, or rent on WordPress.com.
wordpress.org, captured Strengths
- Free, GPL-licensed software. Host it anywhere, and move it whenever you like
- WordPress.com has a free plan with no expiration date, and plugin installation on every paid plan
- A WordPress.com site exports to self-hosted WordPress, and Business and Commerce plans can download a full backup
- The largest directory of plugins and themes in the industry, and WooCommerce for e-commerce
- Full server-side PHP, so memberships, custom logic and integrations are a plugin or a developer away
Tradeoffs
- Harder to learn than Wix's editor, and nothing in core matches its drag-and-drop freedom
- On your own hosting, you own the maintenance: updates, backups, security and the PHP version
- Most of the risk is in what you add: 91% of 2025's ecosystem vulnerabilities were in plugins
- WordPress.com's Free plan has no custom domain or plugins and shows ads, and its Personal and Premium plans take 8% and 4% of payments
-
Real design control, still hosted for you.
webflow.com, captured Strengths
- The best visual design tool there is, with real control over layout and CSS
- Excellent hosting on every tier, including the free one
- Webflow University is the best free web-design education anywhere
- Code export exists, on a paid Workspace plan, so the design can leave as a static site
Tradeoffs
- A real learning curve: it rewards knowing how CSS works, which is a big step from Wix
- The export leaves CMS content, forms processing, site search and e-commerce behind, and cannot be imported back
- The cheapest paid plan has no CMS; the CMS tier caps at 20,000 items
- Cancel the Site plan and the site is unpublished
-
The platform to move to when the store is the business.
shopify.com, captured Strengths
- Built for selling, from the first product to very large catalogs
- Card rates fall as plans rise, from 2.9% + 30¢ online on Basic to 2.5% + 30¢ on Advanced
- Hosting, security and checkout are handled for you
- A free trial, then $1 a month for the first three months on most plans
Tradeoffs
- A rental, like Wix: a subscription for as long as the store exists
- Using a payment provider other than Shopify Payments adds a fee: 2% on Basic, 1% on Grow and 0.6% on Advanced
- Built around the store, so a site that is mostly content is better served elsewhere
-
Total CMS
Ours — we make thisThe last rebuild: a site you own outright, on ordinary PHP hosting.
totalcms.co, captured Strengths
- You own all of it. The files, the content and the design, on hosting you choose; the site keeps running whether or not you keep paying anyone
- Moving hosts means copying a folder: there is no database, and content is plain JSON or Markdown files
- Design in the visual builder you already use, like Stacks, Pinegrow or Bootstrap Studio, or in Twig templates
- Editors fill in the fields you modeled, so the design survives whoever edits it
- Forms, access groups, image processing and SEO are part of the CMS rather than add-ons
- One-time license per domain, with two years of updates included, and support direct from the developer
Tradeoffs
- Proprietary and paid; there is no free tier for a live site, only a 45-day trial. Local development on
localhostor a.testdomain is free, with every Pro feature. Wix and WordPress.com both have free plans - Far harder to start than Wix: you arrange hosting and build the front end, yourself or with a designer
- No template library and no drag-and-drop editor of its own
- No e-commerce
- The smallest ecosystem and talent pool on this page
How to choose
The longer answer.
Decide how much you want to be able to take with you next time, then what the site mostly is.
- If Wix is working, stay. Leaving means rebuilding, so do it for a reason.
- If you want a more polished hosted site and someone to call, choose Squarespace. You get a partial export, which is more than Wix gives you.
- If the budget is the deciding factor and you can commit for years, choose Hostinger Website Builder. Check the renewal price before you sign up.
- If you want a free start you can move later, or you need plugins and server-side code, choose WordPress, on WordPress.com or your own hosting.
- If you want real control over design, choose Webflow, and expect a learning curve.
- If the store is the business, choose Shopify.
- If you never want to rebuild for a platform again, and you have a designer or are one, choose Total CMS. It is the most portable option here, and the hardest start.
Whatever you choose, the content moves by hand: Wix has no export to another host, so plan for copying text and downloading images from the Media Manager.
Questions
Common questions.
What is the best alternative to Wix?
It depends on what you need next. For a more polished hosted site and 24/7 support, Squarespace. For the lowest price, Hostinger Website Builder on a long term. For a free start you can move later, WordPress. For more design control, Webflow. For a business built around its store, Shopify. To own the whole site outright, Total CMS.
Can I move my Wix site to another platform?
Not as a working site. Wix's own support article says a Wix site needs to be hosted and operated on Wix's servers, and there is no export of the design to another host. You can keep your domain, copy your text and download your images, then rebuild on the new platform. Plan the move as a redesign.
Is there a free alternative to Wix?
Yes. WordPress.com has a free plan with no expiration date, though without a custom domain or plugins and with ads, and Webflow has a free Starter plan. Self-hosted WordPress is free software, with hosting costing a few dollars a month. Squarespace, Hostinger and Shopify have trials rather than free plans, and Total CMS is free only for local development.
Is there a cheaper alternative to Wix?
Hostinger Website Builder starts at $2.49 a month, but only on a 48-month term paid up front, and it renews at $10.99 a month. WordPress.com starts at $4 a month billed yearly. Wix's paid plans start at about $17 a month billed yearly. Total CMS is a one-time license per domain plus hosting, which is cheaper over several years but asks more of you to build.
What is easier to use than Wix?
Honestly, very little. Wix's drag-and-drop editor is about as approachable as website building gets. Squarespace is the closest in ease, with less freedom but more polish, and Hostinger's AI builder can generate a first draft for you. Everything else on this page asks more of you, Total CMS included.
You make one of these. Why should I trust this page?
Exactly as far as you can check it. Every price and claim comes from each vendor's own pages, linked below; our entry is marked and listed last; and the guide recommends something else for most of the situations it covers. If you find something inaccurate, tell us and we will fix it.
Sources
Where these facts come from.
Checked . Software and pricing change, so check each product’s own site for their current details.
Prices and claims verified from each vendor's own site on 28 October 2026, except Webflow's prices, verified on 24 October 2026 because its pricing page would not load on the 28th:
- wix.com/plans and Exporting or embedding your Wix site elsewhere
- squarespace.com/pricing and Exporting your site
- hostinger.com/website-builder and How to export content to WordPress
- wordpress.com/pricing, WordPress.com export and Patchstack — State of WordPress Security in 2026
- webflow.com/pricing and How do I export my Webflow site code
- shopify.com/pricing
- totalcms.co/pricing — our own
All product names and trademarks belong to their respective owners. We have no affiliation with Wix, Squarespace, Hostinger, WordPress, Webflow or Shopify. If anything here is wrong or out of date, tell us and we will correct it.
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Put it on your shortlist, then test it.
45 days, every Pro feature, no credit card. Install it next to the others and decide with a real site in front of you.