← Blog · 2026-05-06 · 6 min read
Wix is fine until the renewal email lands at $35+/mo for features you're not using. Here's how to leave cleanly — keep your domain, preserve your SEO, and cut the bill in half.
Wix is a solid product. People don't leave because it's broken — they leave because of three predictable patterns:
The Combo plan is $16/mo on signup. The Business plan most service businesses upgrade to (for real lead capture and analytics) is $27–35/mo. Renewal pricing often jumps another 15–30% after promotional periods end. A site that started at $16/mo three years ago is often $40+/mo today.
Wix doesn't offer a native full-site export. You can pull a CSV of contacts and a WXR file of blog posts, but pages, designs, and most content are stuck in Wix's proprietary format. Once you commit, you're committed — which is intentional.
Wix has 1,000+ templates, but the popular service-business ones get reused so often that your plumbing site, your competitor's plumbing site, and a HVAC site three towns over all use variations of the same hero layout. Customers notice.
| Plan | Monthly | Annual | vs Wix Combo |
|---|---|---|---|
| Wix Combo | $16 | $192 | — |
| Wix Business (typical upgrade) | $27 | $324 | +$132/yr |
| FullyOptimized Starter | $9 | $108 | −$84/yr (44% saved) |
| FullyOptimized Pro | $19 | $228 | +$36/yr but custom domain incl. |
| Durable | $15 | $180 | −$12/yr |
For service businesses on Wix Combo today, switching to FullyOptimized Starter is roughly a 44% cut. For those who upgraded to Wix Business, it's closer to 67%.
List every page on your current Wix site (e.g. /services/drain-cleaning,
/about, /contact). The fastest way is to copy your sitemap from
yourdomain.com/sitemap.xml. Save this list — you'll need it for redirects in step 6.
Also note: any forms, third-party integrations (Calendly, Mailchimp, etc.), your Google Analytics ID, and any custom domain settings.
From your Wix dashboard:
For service businesses (plumbers, electricians, mechanics, dentists, salons, contractors), FullyOptimized is the cheapest option that's purpose-built for the use case. For visual-portfolio-heavy businesses (photographers, designers), Squarespace is the better fit even at the higher price. Durable works if you want a quick AI-generated brochure and don't need a real lead inbox. We compared all three in Squarespace vs Durable vs FullyOptimized.
On FullyOptimized, signup is email + password. After signup, paste your live Wix URL into the onboarding flow. Your business name, services, photos, and contact details come across to a new template that fits your trade. Live preview in about 60 seconds.
On Durable or Wix competitors that don't offer URL import, you'll spend 1–3 hours typing content into the new editor manually.
Walk through the generated pages. Fix any typos, swap photos that didn't import cleanly, add any sections that were on Wix but didn't carry over. Make sure your phone number and address are correct everywhere — if your old Wix site had multiple locations, double-check each one.
This is the SEO-critical step. For every URL on your inventory list from step 1, set up a 301 redirect to the equivalent URL on the new site. On FullyOptimized, paste the list into the Settings → Redirects page; we handle the rest. On Wix's competitors that don't have a redirects manager, you'll do this at the DNS or registrar level after the cutover.
Why it matters: Google sees a 301 as "this page moved permanently" and transfers most of the SEO equity to the new URL within 2–4 weeks. Skipping this step is how you tank your rankings.
In your domain registrar (whether that's Wix or somewhere else):
info@yourdomain.com), set up Google Workspace ($6/user/mo) or Zoho Mail (free for 1 user) before cutover./post/title, most others use /blog/title). Set up the right redirect pattern in step 6.With proper 301 redirects: 2–4 weeks for rankings to fully transfer for most service-business sites. The first week often shows a small dip; week 3 usually exceeds the old baseline because new sites typically load faster (Wix is notoriously heavy on bundle size).
Migration from Wix is straightforward when you have a URL importer (FullyOptimized) or 1–3 hours to rebuild manually. The savings — typically $80–200/yr — pay for the time spent in the first month. The SEO will recover. The forms will work. And the renewal email next year will be $108, not $324.
Migrate from Wix in under an hour
Start free for 30 days →Not as a full website. You can export contacts (CSV) and blog posts (WXR), but pages and design are stuck in Wix's proprietary format. The practical path is to rebuild from your live URLs.
Not with proper 301 redirects. Document every old URL, set up redirects to the new equivalents, and rankings typically recover within 2–4 weeks.
Yes. Either transfer to another registrar (~$15/yr) or just update DNS to point at the new host while keeping the registration with Wix.
Roughly 44% switching from Wix Combo ($16) to FullyOptimized Starter ($9). Closer to 67% if you were on Wix Business ($27).
Simple stores migrate fine. Complex Wix Stores (lots of products, custom checkout flows) often justify staying on Wix or moving to a dedicated commerce platform like Shopify rather than another website builder.