Wix does almost everything a small business needs. The trade-offs are cost as you grow, regional pricing and a busy editor.
We.Inc is free to start, no credit card. AI building from $20/mo.
Wix is a strong all-rounder: a real free plan, a huge template and app library, and built-in bookings, stores and marketing tools. It suits people who like to design by dragging things around and want everything in one dashboard.
The catches: selling online needs Core or higher, templates are hard to swap later, and prices vary by country, so check wix.com/plans for yours.
| Wix | |
|---|---|
| Price | Free plan on a Wix address. Paid US prices could not be read on Sept 25 (Wix showed us a regional page and says prices vary by location); our Sept 24 US check recorded Light $17, Core $29, Business $39, Business Elite $159 a month on annual billing |
| Free plan | Yes, on a Wix address with Wix branding |
| Selling online | Core and above |
| Best for | Small businesses wanting design freedom and many built-in tools |
| Watch out for | Regional pricing, template lock-in, busy editor |
Prices checked September 2026 (September 25) on each vendor's own pricing page, in US dollars. Vendors change prices often, so confirm on their page before you buy.
Best for: People who want design freedom and lots of built-in business tools
Price: Free plan on a Wix address. Paid US prices could not be read on Sept 25 (Wix showed us a regional page and says prices vary by location); our Sept 24 US check recorded Light $17, Core $29, Business $39, Business Elite $159 a month on annual billing
Pros: Free plan to build and test; Hundreds of templates and a large app market; Bookings, stores, events and email marketing built in; AI site creation inside the editor
Cons: Free and Light cannot take payments; Switching templates after launch is hard; Freedom to place anything anywhere makes messy mobile layouts easy; Prices differ by country
Best for: People who want to describe a site or web app in plain English and have AI build it
Price: Free plan: up to 3 template sites on a we.inc address, no AI. AI building from $20/mo (Starter, 250 credits). Pro $50/mo, Max $99/mo.
Pros: Describe what you want in chat and AI builds a full, editable site or app; Edit by clicking on the page, by asking in chat, or in a real code editor; Export the React and TypeScript code to GitHub, so you are never locked in; Unlimited sites on paid plans, custom domains from Starter
Cons: The free plan is templates only; AI building needs a paid plan; Newer platform with a smaller app marketplace than the big names; Store features are simpler than a dedicated ecommerce platform
Trying Wix or building a draft: the free plan. A brochure site for a local business on its own domain: Wix suits you if you enjoy arranging pages yourself, on Light. Taking bookings, payments or running a store: Wix is a strong fit, from Core. Someone who wants the site written for them, or wants to own the code: look at an AI builder instead. Someone who cares most about polished templates with few moving parts: compare Squarespace first.
Breadth. Whatever a small business needs, bookings, a store, a blog, events, forms, there is usually a Wix tool or app for it, all managed in one place. The free plan is generous enough to build a whole site before paying.
The editor's freedom cuts both ways: it is easy to end up with a desktop layout that needs separate fixing on mobile. Once built, a site is tied to its template. And because Wix prices by region, prices you read online may not be yours.
If you would rather describe your business and have a site written for you, or want to own the code, an AI builder fits better. If you want the most polished templates, look at Squarespace.
Where We.Inc fits: the free plan publishes up to 3 template sites on a we.inc address, with no AI and no custom domain, and needs no credit card. AI building, where you describe the site and it is written for you, starts at $20 a month (Starter, 250 credits); Pro is $50 and Max is $99.
Plan fees only, using our September 24, 2026 US check on annual billing and assuming the price stays the same at renewal: Light is $204 in year one and $612 over three years; Core is $348 and $1,044; Business is $468 and $1,404. Wix sets prices by country, so swap in the number wix.com/plans shows you.
Not included: the domain after any free first-year offer, payment processing on sales, paid apps from the Wix App Market and email inboxes. Add your own figures in our website cost calculator for a full total.
Prices only tell you half the story. The fairest way to judge Wix is to give it the same small job you would give any builder: a five-page website for a local service business (home, services, about, reviews and contact).
1. Build the service list with a price or short description for each service. 2. Add a quote request form and send yourself a test entry to check it arrives. 3. Connect a custom domain and confirm the site loads on it with a padlock. 4. Change one piece of content, such as a new service or opening hours, and time how long it takes. 5. Check the result on a phone.
Note which plan each step needed. That tells you the plan you will really pay for, which is often not the cheapest one advertised. When the site is live, run it through our free website grader to check search basics and speed.
Use the same rubric for every builder you try, Wix included, so the scores mean something. For each of the five tasks give 2 points if it worked on the plan you intend to buy, 1 if it needed a higher plan or a paid app, and 0 if you could not do it. Note the time the content update in task 4 took. We have not published scores of our own because we have not run this test yet; the rubric is here so your comparison is fair.
Wix hosts the site on its own system and adds features through the Wix App Market, so many integrations are apps with their own prices. You can connect a domain bought elsewhere. There is no export that lets you run the whole site on another host: you can copy your content, but the design and pages must be rebuilt if you leave. Switching templates once a site is built is also hard, so a redesign usually means rebuilding too.
We.Inc makes a competing website builder, so read this with that in mind. Every price on this page comes from the vendor's own pricing page on the date shown, with a link to it. We say where the other option is the better choice, and we do not publish scores for tests we have not run.
Yes, for most small businesses it covers everything needed. Selling online needs Core or higher.
Our September 24, 2026 US check recorded Light $17, Core $29, Business $39 and Business Elite $159 a month on annual billing. Wix says prices vary by location.
It is ideal for trying Wix and building a draft. For a business, the Wix address and branding make a paid plan worth it.
Not as a working site. You can copy content, but the design and pages must be rebuilt elsewhere.
In plan fees alone, $612 on Light, $1,044 on Core or $1,404 on Business on annual billing, based on our September 24, 2026 US check and assuming no price change. Apps, domain renewal and payment fees are extra, and prices vary by country.
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We.Inc is an AI-powered website builder you can resell under your own brand. Launch a branded client dashboard, bill on Stripe Connect, and deliver AI-generated websites in minutes. White-label plans start at $99 a month for 25 client sites, with a 7-day free trial and no per-site fees.