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.
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.
The 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.
When the prices were checked
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 is 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.
Which one is you?
Four questions, and you will know whether moving is worth it at all.
Every possible answer
Stay on Wix, and revisit at renewal
On the numbers, moving would cost you more than it saves for years. That is not a reason to never move, it is a reason not to move now. Put a note in the calendar for your renewal date and look again with the invoice in front of you.
This result does not lead to me, and it is the one most readers of this page land on.
Export the content and rebuild it yourself
You want to own the site and you have the time to rebuild it. Export your text and images from Wix, put them into a WordPress site you set up, and accept that the layout will be new. It is the cheapest route and the longest.
The hosting and the updates become yours the day you do this. That is the trade.
Have it rebuilt on WordPress
You want to own the site, you want a date you can hold somebody to, and you would rather not spend your evenings on it. I rebuild on WordPress from your text and your photos, and the domain is in your name from day one.
The layout will be the template's, not your Wix design. Copying your old content across is quoted separately.
See the three packages in detailHave it rebuilt by a team
The site has more moving parts than a template can carry, or the business depends on it enough that you want more than one person behind it. That is a different purchase from mine, and a fair one.
No price is shown for this route because no US agency publishes one, and a range with no source is worth nothing.
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.
The table slides to the right.
| The solution | Real cost, first year | Hours it takes you | Who does the work | What breaks at six months | Who fixes it |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Stay on Wix, revisit at renewal | $204 a year on Light, $348 on Core, $468 on Business, recorded August 30, 2026 | None | Nobody | Nothing on the machine side. Your prices and hours go stale | The platform, on the platform. You, on the content |
| Export the content and rebuild it yourself | Hosting and a domain, in your name | 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 | You | WordPress and its extensions update continuously, and nobody does it for you | You, or somebody you pay by the hour |
| Rebuild with an AI site generator | — | Not recorded: I have run no real project on these tools | You | Not recorded. The question to ask before paying is what happens to the site if the tool shuts down | Not recorded. Get it in writing from the vendor before you commit |
| Rebuilt on WordPress by Vicou Studio | 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 | Gathering your text and photos, then reviewing | Me | The same WordPress updates as the row above. They land on you too | You, or somebody you pay. Six months of questions by email from me, which is not maintenance |
| Rebuilt by a US agency | — | Not recorded | A team | Depends entirely on what they built | Whoever you contract with, on the terms you agree |
Choose the one that matches your situation
The six criteria that decide
- Nothing migrates, and the word is the problemText, 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.
- The year the numbers actually crossComputed, 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.
- What a rebuild does not includeCopying 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.
- What you actually gainNot 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.
- Who runs the updates afterwardOn 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, whether you rebuilt the site yourself or I did. 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 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 is not included
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 I am not the right answer
The questions people ask me
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. I build brochure sites for small businesses and freelancers, delivered with the video that shows how to change them yourself.
Who I am, in three minutesSources and date checked
- Wix plan prices, recorded from a US connection — wix.com/plans, August 30, 2026
- The crossover years, computed rather than estimated — outputs/seo/outils/calculs-blog-en.mjs
- The three-year totals behind those crossovers — The blog, what a small business website costs
- The Vicou Studio prices, timescale and scope — The packages page, which is the contract
- Why leaving a hosted builder means rebuilding, not exporting — The blog, Squarespace vs WordPress for a small business
Prices checked on August 30, 2026.
Page updated on August 31, 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.
The other guides
Same method, different question. See the whole section