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Moving a Wix site to WordPress: nothing actually migrates

The word migrate is the problem. Content can be exported. The design cannot, which means moving off Wix is a rebuild, and a rebuild only pays for itself after a number of years worth knowing before you start.

Updated September 27, 2026By Victor Rouvreau9 min read

This page is published by Vicou Studio, a website design studio. Vicou Studio presents its own offer here, alongside other solutions. This is a commercial communication.

The short answer

Nothing migrates: text and images export, the design does not, so moving off Wix means rebuilding. On US prices that rebuild only becomes cheaper than the subscription somewhere between year 3 and year 18, depending which Wix plan you are on, and never inside thirty years on the entry plan with expensive hosting. For most readers the honest answer is to stay on Wix. I rebuild on WordPress for EUR 1,190 when the reason is ownership rather than savings.

How this comparison was made

What is compared

A small US business on a paid Wix plan, wondering whether to move to WordPress. Five routes out, including staying put, which is the one most comparisons leave off because it sells nothing.

Criteria used

What each route costs, how long it takes, who does the work, what is lost in the move, and the year the numbers actually cross. The crossover is computed, not estimated.

Date of the price check

Wix plan prices recorded August 30, 2026 from a US connection on wix.com/plans: Light $17, Core $29, Business $39 a month on annual billing. Crossover years computed by script across exchange rates from 1.00 to 1.20 dollars per euro and hosting from $60 to $240 a year, which are stated assumptions rather than a survey of US hosts.

What was left out

Ecommerce migrations with order history, sites with membership areas, and anything with more than a few dozen pages. No AI site generator is priced here because no real project has been run on one. Nobody paid to appear on this page.

On this pageThe table

Five ways out of Wix, and the year each one pays for itself

The blank prices are the ones I have not opened myself at a stated date. Staying put is a route, and it is the first row for a reason.

OptionReal cost, first yearHours it takes youWho does the workWhat breaks at six monthsWho fixes it
Stay on Wix, revisit at renewal$204 a year on Light, $348 on Core, $468 on Business, recorded August 30, 2026NoneNobodyNothing on the machine side. Your prices and hours go staleThe platform, on the platform. You, on the content
Export the content and rebuild it yourselfHosting and a domain, in your nameLonger than having it built for you: rebuilding, refilling, and learning as you go. Two of the five routes here are not recorded, so this is not a rankingYouWordPress and its extensions update continuously, and nobody does it for youYou, or somebody you pay by the hour
Rebuild with an AI site generatorPrice not publicNot recorded: I have run no real project on these toolsYouNot recorded. The question to ask before paying is what happens to the site if the tool shuts downNot recorded. Get it in writing from the vendor before you commit
Rebuilt on WordPress by Vicou StudioEUR 1,190 once, then hosting and the domain in your name, about $80 to $260 a year on the assumptions above. Copying your content across, redirects from your old addresses and the domain transfer are quoted on topGathering your text and photos, then reviewingMeThe same WordPress updates as the row above. Running them sits outside the fixed priceYou. Repairs sit outside the fixed price and are quoted case by case. Six months of questions by email from me, which is not maintenance
Rebuilt by a US agencyPrice not publicNot recordedA teamDepends entirely on what they builtWhoever you contract with, on the terms you agree

Stay on Wix, revisit at renewal

Real cost, first year
$204 a year on Light, $348 on Core, $468 on Business, recorded August 30, 2026
Hours it takes you
None
Who does the work
Nobody
What breaks at six months
Nothing on the machine side. Your prices and hours go stale
Who fixes it
The platform, on the platform. You, on the content

Export the content and rebuild it yourself

Real cost, first year
Hosting and a domain, in your name
Hours it takes you
Longer than having it built for you: rebuilding, refilling, and learning as you go. Two of the five routes here are not recorded, so this is not a ranking
Who does the work
You
What breaks at six months
WordPress and its extensions update continuously, and nobody does it for you
Who fixes it
You, or somebody you pay by the hour

Rebuild with an AI site generator

Real cost, first year
Price not public
Hours it takes you
Not recorded: I have run no real project on these tools
Who does the work
You
What breaks at six months
Not recorded. The question to ask before paying is what happens to the site if the tool shuts down
Who fixes it
Not recorded. Get it in writing from the vendor before you commit

Rebuilt on WordPress by Vicou Studio

Real cost, first year
EUR 1,190 once, then hosting and the domain in your name, about $80 to $260 a year on the assumptions above. Copying your content across, redirects from your old addresses and the domain transfer are quoted on top
Hours it takes you
Gathering your text and photos, then reviewing
Who does the work
Me
What breaks at six months
The same WordPress updates as the row above. Running them sits outside the fixed price
Who fixes it
You. Repairs sit outside the fixed price and are quoted case by case. Six months of questions by email from me, which is not maintenance

Rebuilt by a US agency

Real cost, first year
Price not public
Hours it takes you
Not recorded
Who does the work
A team
What breaks at six months
Depends entirely on what they built
Who fixes it
Whoever you contract with, on the terms you agree

Depending on your situation

You are on the Wix entry plan

Stay. A rebuild does not pay for itself until somewhere between year 9 and year 18, and on expensive hosting it never does inside thirty years.

You are on a Wix business plan and expect to keep the site a long time

The numbers cross between year 3 and year 7. Moving starts to make financial sense, and it is the only case on this page where it does so quickly.

You want to leave because of the price

Read the crossover table first. On most plans the move costs more than it saves for years, and nobody selling you a migration will tell you that.

You want to leave because you want to own the site

That is a real reason, and it is not a money argument. Own it because you want nobody able to reprice or suspend it, not because it will be cheaper.

You are attached to your current design

Do not move. The design does not come with you, and no provider can bring it across, whatever the word migration suggests.

You do not know yet how long you will keep the site

Stay. On the three plans compared here, the numbers cross in year 3 at the earliest, so over a shorter horizon the subscription remains the cheaper route.

The criteria that decide it

  1. Nothing migrates, and the word is the problem

    Text, images and product data can be exported from a hosted builder in some form. The design cannot. There is no export that carries a Wix layout into WordPress, and there is no tool that reconstructs it. Whatever the word migration suggests, what actually happens is a rebuild: a new site, into which your content is placed. Anyone offering to migrate your Wix design is describing something that does not exist.

  2. The year the numbers actually cross

    Computed, not estimated, across exchange rates from 1.00 to 1.20 dollars per euro and hosting from $60 to $240 a year. What is computed is the EUR 1,190 and the hosting, nothing else: copying your content across, the redirects and the domain transfer are quoted on top, and every one of them pushes these years further out rather than closer. Against Wix Light at $204 a year, paying once catches up between year 9 and year 18, and never inside thirty years on the most expensive hosting. Against Core at $348, year 5 to year 14. Against Business at $468, year 3 to year 7. Those are long horizons, and they are the honest reason most readers should stay where they are.

  3. What a rebuild does not include

    Copying your existing content across, setting up redirects from your old addresses so search results do not break, and transferring the domain are quoted separately. They are not inside the EUR 1,190. This is the line that turns a cheap move into an expensive one, and it belongs in front of you before you decide rather than in an invoice afterward.

  4. What you actually gain

    Not savings, on most plans, and the crossover years above are the proof of it. What changes is the shape of what you hold: the files and the database sit on hosting you chose and can leave, under a domain registered to you from the first day on an account whose password is yours, and no platform can lock the site to itself or decide what you are allowed to do with it. A host can still raise its price at renewal; what it cannot do is keep the site. Leaving Wix costs you one rebuild, leaving WordPress later costs you a transfer, and that second build is the number nobody puts in a migration quote.

  5. Who runs the updates afterward

    On Wix the platform runs them and you never see one. On WordPress they become a job somebody has to hold, and on every route on this page that somebody is you by default, whether you rebuilt the site yourself or I did. On my side, running them sits outside the fixed price and is quoted case by case. The six months of email that come with my package answer questions about your site; they are not a maintenance contract, and the difference is worth settling before you sign rather than in month seven. If no one at your company will ever apply an update, treat that as a cost to add to the crossover years above, because it is the one line that pushes them further out.

The quiz

Four questions, and you will know whether moving is worth it at all.

Question 1 of 4

Why do you want to leave Wix?

My studio

The concrete case: Vicou Studio

Who it is for

Somebody leaving Wix for ownership rather than for savings, with a site of a few pages and content that already exists. If the reason is price, the crossover table above is the answer, and it usually says stay.

What it costs

EUR 1,190, paid in two parts: EUR 357 on order and EUR 833 when the site goes live. Hosting and the domain are opened in your name, on your own accounts.

The timeline

15 business days, counted on the French working calendar, about three calendar weeks, from the start date I confirm in writing once the deposit has cleared and your content is complete. The clock pauses by dated email every time I am waiting on you.

What the fixed price does not cover

Copying the content across from your old site, redirects from your old addresses, and transferring the domain: all quoted separately. Your Wix design, which cannot be recovered. The structure will be that of the template you choose.

When this is not the right answer

Your design does not come with you

The new site takes the structure of the template you choose. If what you like about your current site is how it looks, this whole page is an argument against moving.

The move itself is quoted, not included

Content transfer, redirects and domain transfer sit outside the fixed price. Saying so twice on this page is deliberate: it is the single most common way a move ends up costing more than expected.

You are billed in euros

What that costs in dollars depends on the rate the day you pay, plus any foreign transaction fee your card charges. A US supplier does not do that to you.

Updates become yours

This is the part of leaving a hosted platform that nobody enjoys discovering afterward. WordPress updates continuously, and running those updates sits outside the fixed price: it is quoted case by case. What does come with the package: the domain and the hosting are opened in your name from day one, and if you ever leave, everything else is handed back within five business days once the work is paid in full, with no exit fee.

Frequently asked questions

Can I migrate my Wix site to WordPress?

You can move the content. You cannot move the site. Text, images and product data export in some form; the design does not, because a hosted builder's layout has no export that WordPress can read.

So what is sold as a migration is in practice a rebuild with your content placed into it. That is a perfectly good thing to buy, but it is worth knowing which one you are buying.

Will I lose my Google rankings if I move?

You can lose them, and the way you lose them is by skipping the redirects. Every address that existed on the old site needs to point at its equivalent on the new one, or the pages that were indexed simply stop existing.

That work is real, it is quoted separately here, and any provider who does not mention it is either including it silently or not doing it.

Is WordPress cheaper than Wix?

Eventually, and later than most people expect. Against the Wix entry plan, a rebuild does not pay for itself until somewhere between year 9 and year 18, and on the most expensive hosting it never does inside thirty years. Against a business plan it can pay for itself in three to seven years.

If price is your only reason to move, the numbers say stay.

What happens to my domain name?

It is yours to move, if it is registered in your name. Check that first, because it is the one thing you cannot buy back if it turns out somebody else registered it for you. On anything I build, the domain is in your name on your own account from day one.

Victor Rouvreau, founder of Vicou Studio

Written by

Victor Rouvreau

I've been building websites for four years, for myself and for clients.

The About page

Sources and date checked

Page updated on September 27, 2026. It is reviewed at least once a quarter. If something here looks wrong or out of date, write to contact@vicou.studio: the page is corrected, or the claim comes out.

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