Best Wix alternatives for small businesses (2026)

What comes with you, according to Wix's help centre (last read 28 Oct 2026), then the order to do it in. The layout stays behind; your files, contacts and products download, and the words come across by copying or an importer.

• Photos and videos you uploaded. They download from the Media Manager, one at a time or several together; Wix's free media and Shutterstock images don't (Media Manager help).
• Customers and products. Contacts export to a CSV file, up to 50,000 at once, and store products export to CSV as well, digital products aside (contacts, products).
• Pages and text. Nothing exports them, so copy the words over, or pick a builder that brings them across: WordPress.com documents a Wix importer for "pages, images, menus, and site title" (WordPress.com support), and Zarla's import brings an existing site across, keeping your old page addresses where it can and redirecting the ones that change.
• The domain, last. "You can transfer a domain purchased from Wix to another domain host", and the Wix site is disconnected once you do; a domain bought elsewhere only needs pointing at the new site (domain transfer help). Move it when the new site is ready, not before.
• A list of every old address. Write down the address of each Wix page and blog post first, then set up permanent redirects so every old address points to its new page, and old links and search results still land.
• A dry run. Build on the new builder's free plan or trial, send yourself a test enquiry or booking, and switch the domain after that.

The 9 tests, and what it takes to get a tick:

• Change the design, keep the site. Wix's help says "it's not possible to switch to a different template for a site you already created". Tick: switch to a different template or theme, or have the AI redesign the site, with your pages and words kept. Dash: colours, fonts and section layouts change but the template is fixed once the site is made, or a new template means a new site and moving the content by hand. Cross: a new site from scratch.
• Take the whole site with you. Wix can't export a site, so leaving it means rebuilding. Tick: you can export the whole site (its files or code, or a full export another platform imports) and keep your domain. Dash: some of your content or your domain, but not the site. Cross: nothing to take.
• Fast pages, measured. Google's own AI answer praises alternatives that load faster than Wix. We measured rather than take that on trust. We measured this ourselves with Google's PageSpeed test on real sites built with each builder. Tick: a typical phone score of 90 or more, which Google calls good. Dash: 50 to 89. Cross: under 50.
• Finished first draft. Wix hands you a canvas and a lot of choices. Plenty of owners would rather start from a finished draft and fix what's wrong. Tick: it writes the whole site, pages and words, from a description of your business. Dash: templates, or AI that only writes some of it.
• Edit by chat, new pages by AI. People ask Google why Wix is so difficult to use. Typing the change you want is about as easy as editing gets. Tick: you type a change and the site updates, and you can ask for a new page and get one.
• SEO basics done for you. Some owners leave Wix hoping to rank better; its basics are solid now, so the new builder should match them at least. Tick: the builder writes each page's search title and description, makes a sitemap, and connects Google Search Console for you or gives you a box in its settings for Google's verification code. Dash: some of that, or Search Console means pasting Google's tag into the site's custom code or adding a plugin.
• Online booking built in. Wix Bookings comes with its Core plan and up, so if clients book with you today, the next builder has to take bookings too. Tick: customers book from the site, built in on the website plan. Dash: a second subscription, a plugin or another company's scheduler. Cross: none.
• An online store built in. People ask whether Wix is like Shopify; Wix's store also starts on Core. Tick: products, a checkout and card payments, built in on the website plan. Dash: only a few products or buy buttons, or a store that needs another subscription, plugin or app. Cross: none.
• Leads, quotes, invoices and payments together. Wix sends price quotes and invoices, so moving away shouldn't cost you either. Tick: a leads inbox, quotes your customers accept online, invoices and online payments, all built in. Dash: some of them, or only with plugins.

How we picked them. When we asked ChatGPT "what is the best wix alternative for a small business?" on October 28, 2026, it named Squarespace, Shopify, WordPress.org, Hostinger and Webflow. We score the general builders that appear on every page in this series, Squarespace, WordPress.com and GoDaddy (its Websites + Marketing builder), whether ChatGPT named them this time or not, plus Hostinger, Webflow and Shopify from its answer, and SITE123 and Square, which ChatGPT didn't name. Zarla is ours. We haven't scored WordPress.org on this page. SITE123 is here because Google's AI answer for this search names it third; GoDaddy because the ranking pages pick it for quick set-up; and Square because Square owns Weebly, which people searching this still ask about, and Square Online, which grew out of Weebly's builder, comes with a free tier, appointments and selling online. WordPress.com is the hosted WordPress you sign up to and build on; ChatGPT and Google's AI answer both point at self-hosted WordPress (WordPress.org), which means finding your own hosting. Framer and Google Sites are left to the pages where they fit, because neither has booking built in (Framer's comes from another company's tool, and Google Sites lists no booking or payments, both read 17 Oct 2026): Framer to our AI website builders comparison, Google Sites, free with a Google account, to the free builders one.

How we scored them. Same tests for everyone, each worth the same. We checked every answer on the builder's own website and help pages on September 28, 2026, and the change the design, keep the site test on October 28, 2026, and the take the whole site with you test on October 17, 2026, and the SEO basics done for you test on October 17, 2026, and the online store built in test on October 17, 2026, and the leads, quotes, invoices and payments together test on October 4, 2026, except SITE123, which joined on October 28, 2026, when all its answers were read, except Hostinger, Webflow and Shopify, which joined on October 17, 2026, when their answers to the tests before then were read, except Square, which joined on October 12, 2026, when its answers to the tests before then were read, and GoDaddy's, Shopify's and Square's answers on the take the whole site with you and SEO basics done for you tests on October 28, 2026, and GoDaddy's answer on the finished first draft test on October 17, 2026, and WordPress.com's answer on the edit by chat, new pages by AI test on October 4, 2026, and GoDaddy's answer on the edit by chat, new pages by AI test on October 12, 2026, and Webflow's answer on the online store built in test on October 28, 2026. godaddy.com turns away automated reads, so its help pages and SITE123's price list were fetched by a page-reading service; Square's help centre needs a full browser to show an article, so we opened those in one. When a builder's own pages leave a question open, it gets the lower mark and the cell says why. When two builders tie on points, the one with fewer crosses goes first.

How we measured speed. Google's PageSpeed test, three runs each on phone and desktop, on up to ten real sites per builder. For the others we used the first sites built with them that came up in Google for home-service businesses in five US cities (for WordPress, any WordPress site). Zarla sites don't rank in those searches yet, so we picked ten at random from our customers' published sites and don't name them. Shopify joined later, so we ran the same PageSpeed test on October 17, 2026, on ten sites that came up in Google for boutiques, bakeries and florists in the same five US cities. Square joined later, so we ran the same PageSpeed test on October 12, 2026, on ten sites each, almost all found by searching Google for each product's own web addresses, a search not limited to US businesses (of the sixty sites for the six products measured that day, only two came up in Google for hair salons, barbershops, restaurants, gyms or auto repair shops in the same five US cities). When we searched on October 17, 2026, Google listed no sites built with Hostinger's builder that loaded (the five on its own zyrosite.com addresses that Google listed showed an error page), so its speed isn't measured and it gets the middle mark. It's a sample, not a promise about any one site.

What we didn't score. Price isn't scored: plans include different things on every builder, so each competitor's price sits on its card and Zarla's sits on the pricing page. Nor is taste in design; judge that on each builder's example sites. Hostinger's speed has no score because the Hostinger sites we found wouldn't load, and Webflow's and SITE123's because they're not sampled yet; all three get the middle mark, not a guess. Wix stays out of the ranking since you're leaving it: its answers on the same tests are in the section on staying, and Wix vs Zarla puts the pair side by side. Spotted something out of date? Tell us.

The same method elsewhere. the best website builders for small business, the best AI website builders, the best free website builders and the best Squarespace alternatives, and trade by trade for 67 kinds of business on our comparisons page.