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In late June, an article appeared in Yahoo Finance claiming that “Hedge funds have never been this bullish on Wix”. A record number of hedge fund managers are bullish on Wix right now, seeing huge growth potential in what is arguably the world’s most prominent website builder. The company has become a stock market darling in recent years, with its shares up by a few thousand percent since its IPO in November 2013. It is something of a juggernaut.
The company is the world’s most popular website builder, and it is one of the most aggressive marketers – placing adverts in the coveted Super Bowl television slot, for example. It is the most searched for website-builder on Google, which is clearly a by-product of its marketing drive. But does being the most prominent company mean it’s the best? Perhaps in some areas.
The objective here is not to put Wix on a pedestal – far from it. It is a fine website builder for some types of businesses, but perhaps not all. You can read more on Wix reviews to see what it does well and, indeed, what it doesn’t. But the company has scores of rivals, and some will do certain things better. We simply want to look at three areas where the company excels beyond being the most recognized brand.
1. Balancing Ease of Use with Design Flexibility
One of the main things that gets new customers ‘through the door’ for Wix is its much-vaunted ease of use. We looked at around 20 website builder comparison reviews, and Wix came out on top in the easy to use category in the majority of them (Weebly also scored high in this category). But “ease of use” needs to be married with flexibility: Your 1990s Nokia phone was easier to use than the iPhones of today, but you can clearly do more things with the latter. And, that’s what Wix gets right. It strikes the balance of being user friendly for beginners (using Wix ADI) but offers design flexibility for those professionals who know what they are doing. That’s important. Indeed, even if you begin to use a website builder with no experience, you do learn over time. Wix ‘grows’ with the user better than its rivals.
2. Templates
Wix beats out its main rivals here in terms of choice (800 templates versus 125 for Squarespace, for example) and price – as they are all free (some eCommerce platforms like Shopify charge). Now, if we were to nit-pick, you could find fault with the functionality of using Wix templates. For instance, if you want to make a change after starting your design, you can’t simply swap templates – you need to start over. And yet, at a time where many websites look the same, the greater choice of templates on Wix puts it at the front. There are also great options for using free photos from Wix’s library, and you can purchase Shutterstock images for around $3 through its partnership with Wix.
3. Integrations with Google
Moving into a more technical area now: Wix excels through its partnership with Google compared with its competitors. That seems to have been acknowledged by Google itself this July when it awarded Wix the Google Cloud Expansion Partner of the Year Award. Google recognized Wix’s integrations of Google Cloud and Workspace over the last year, and the tech giant remarked on how that had helped Wix “scale its work with customers”. Wix’s partnership with Google is arguably transforming into its greatest weapon. In March, for example, it announced integration with GMB (Google my Business) directly on the Wix platform. Among other things, GMB helps Wix users perform stronger in local searches – an important aspect in a changing business landscape post-Covid.
Conclusion:
As mentioned earlier, Wix is the global leader in hosted website solutions. In short, more people use Wix than any other company to build and host their website. But, get this: Of the one million most popular websites in the world, just 0.57% have been made with Wix. Those two statistics seem so contradictory that one must be untrue. But the truth is that the world’s leading websites are usually custom-built and hosted independently – and that costs a lot of money.
Yet, as is the case for most small businesses on a budget, the only option is to use a hosted website builder like Wix or one of its rivals. Wix often comes out top in the ‘best overall’ categories, but it cant be the best at everything. In our view, however, the three areas listed above are where Wix excels. But if choosing a website builder for your business, it’s best to do meticulous research through independent reviews and your own analysis.
