WIx Classic Editor Limitations

In this article I will cover the limitations I find on Wix classic editor as a website designer.

Context

Many of my clients who have come to me with a website they have built is usually on Wix. They pay upfront for hosting for 5 years, keeping you locked into Wix for the next 5 years or you end up spending more when you want your website re-done.

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Can you upgrade to Wix Studio?

Technically yes, if you want to spend more money on top of the years you already brought . It will not automatically transfer your site from Wix Classic Editor into WIx Studio as they both work independently from each other.

You will have to build it again from scratch in Wix Studio.

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Where people get caught

Wix Classic Editor was designed to be used by people who do not have a background in web design/development. Wix offers attractive rates for hosting and so you sign up for them keeping you locked in. I am all up for people DIYing their first website, however if you do go down this route and plan to have it upgraded in the future I would recommend paying yearly for hosting.

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Limitations

Responsiveness

Wix Classic Editor only gives you a desktop and mobile view. Meaning that if your website breaks design on Tablet there is not much you can do to fix it.

It also works diffferently from general websites, normally you could pull your window smaller and your website would 'shrink' with it. In Wix Classic this will not work and you will have to re-load the website in different sizes to see the difference.

TLDR: If you want percise control for different screens you  won't be able to.

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Safe zone

In the editor each page has dashed lines that cover about 60% of the screen in the middle. It is suggested that all content should stay between these lines so they can always be seen on different screen sizes. The problem with this is that it limits what kind of designs you can do, if you want a full screen banner you will need to use a strip and fit your content inside the safe boxes within the strip. You cannot change the safe zones so it is a harsh limitation for designers.

TLDR: Keep everything in safe zone or strips but lose design control

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No global styles/spacing

You cannot set a global space between sections and you will need to manually go through each section and make sure the spacing is equal on desktop and mobile. This takes a really long time if you have many pages.

TLDR: To smarten up sections takes a long time

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Nav bar design/Footer.

The nav bar also has safe zones but sometimes you will need bigger areas for all of your links. It will also only show the 3 burger menu when on mobile. So tablet will show the desktop one which is usallly too big for tablet screens.

TLDR: Don't have too many links, they won't fit

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Recap

This post was written to educate business owners on some of the limitations of Wix Classic Editor. I have worked across multiple web builders and each have their Pros and Cons but Wix Classic Editors repsonsive limitations is an old problem (which they fixed with Wix studio) but a very important one. So if you do have a website on WIx Classic Editor I would recommend either switching to another platform or accept the limitations outlined above.