Wix alternative · free forever

Wix is free.
Just not for stores.

Wix has a free plan — but to take a single payment you need Wix Core at $29/month. Freewebstore’s Community plan is genuinely free and includes a full online store: unlimited products, unlimited traffic, real checkout, AI product copy, multi-channel selling. Since 2007.

A million stores built since 2007. The highest-rated free ecommerce platform on Trustpilot.

01 · At a glance

Wix vs Freewebstore.

Wix does websites well. But if you want to sell, Wix stops being free.

Free means free

Freewebstore Community: $0/month, full store, unlimited products, unlimited traffic. Wix Free: no ecommerce. Wix Core (ecommerce): $29/month.

No forced branding

Wix free plans show Wix ads and a wix.com/username URL. Freewebstore lets you use a free freewebstore.com subdomain or point your own custom domain from day one.

A real checkout, not a “request”

Take payments via Stripe, PayPal, Apple Pay, Google Pay and 40+ other gateways. Wix limits payment options on lower tiers and forces you toward Wix Payments.

AI included, everywhere

AI product copy, AI SEO, AI business reports — every plan, including free. Wix’s AI tooling is scattered across paid tiers and add-ons.

Multi-channel selling

Instagram Shop, Facebook Shop, TikTok Shop, Google Shopping, Pinterest — free integrations, no per-channel app fees.

Since 2007

Free ecommerce competitors have come and gone. We’ve been quietly running the same platform since 2007 — refined, not rebuilt.

02 · Why sellers switch from Wix

The Wix upgrade tax. And how to skip it.

  1. To sell anything, you upgrade

    Wix’s free plan doesn’t include ecommerce. The moment you want to take a payment, you’re on Wix Core at $29/month — $348/year on the subscription alone. Freewebstore Community includes a full store for $0/month.

  2. To remove the branding, you upgrade again

    Wix’s cheaper tiers keep the wix.com URL and Wix ads on your site. Freewebstore paid plans remove all branding — and the free plan lets you use your own custom domain immediately.

  3. Grow a bit, upgrade again

    Advanced abandoned-cart, subscriptions, multi-currency, priority support — each of those pushes you toward Wix Business ($36/mo) or Business Elite ($159/mo). All of those features exist on Freewebstore free or on plans starting well below Wix Business.

  4. You can’t take your site with you

    Wix’s design system locks you in — there’s no clean export to another platform. Freewebstore themes are open HTML/CSS: you own your design, you own your data, you can leave any time.

03 · The math

What Wix actually costs by year one.

Wix has eight plans. Only three of them can run a normal ecommerce store. Here’s what that costs by the time you can sell without limits.

Wix’s pricing page leads with “free” and “$17/month.” Neither of those tiers lets you sell without either Wix ads on your storefront or Wix taking a 2.5% cut of every order. To get to a normal ecommerce store, you’re on the Business plan at $36/month.

Wix plans compared — showing which tiers can sell online, whether Wix ads remain on your storefront, and whether Wix takes a per-sale fee.
Wix plan Annual cost Sell online? Wix ads on your store Wix sales fee
Free $0 No cart Yes
Light ($17/mo) $204 Yes, limited Yes 2.5%
Core ($29/mo) $348 Yes Removed Reduced
Business ($36/mo) $432 Yes, no restrictions Removed 0% via Wix Payments
Business Elite ($159/mo) $1,908 Yes Removed 0% via Wix Payments

All figures from wix.com/plans, published mid-2026. US pricing. Regional prices differ. Wix runs multi-year discounts that revert to full price at renewal — the annual figures above assume standard month-to-month billing.

Add Wix’s premium apps — Ascend for marketing/email, POWR for reviews, third-party integrations for advanced SEO — and the real bill goes up further. Most of those live inside Wix as $9–$49/month add-ons.

Year-one, side by side

The real bill: a $30k/year store.

Payment processing (~2.9% + 30¢) is roughly equal across all three, so it cancels out. This table shows the layers that differ.

Year-one cost comparison between Wix Business, Freewebstore Community and Freewebstore StartUp on a store doing $30,000 per year.
Cost layer Wix Business Freewebstore Community Freewebstore StartUp
Platform subscription $432/yr $0 $180/yr
Marketing add-ons (email, reviews, SEO) ~$300–500/yr $0 (built in) $0 (built in)
Platform sales fee on $30k $0 (via Wix Payments) $750 (2.5%) $150 (0.5%)
Year-one total ~$732–932 ~$750 ~$330

Bottom line. Wix Business isn’t egregiously expensive — but the deeper problem is you can’t export your Wix site. If Wix raises prices next year (they did in 2023 and 2024), you’re rebuilding from scratch to leave. Your Freewebstore products export via CSV, any time, on any plan.

Plug in your own numbers with our Wix cost calculator →

04 · Moving over

Rebuild in an hour.

Wix doesn’t offer a clean export — but rebuilding on Freewebstore takes less time than you’d think.

  1. Sign up (no card)

    Create a free Freewebstore account. Pick from 100+ mobile-responsive themes. Drop in your logo, tweak the colours. About a minute.

  2. Add products via CSV

    Export your Wix products to CSV, drop into Freewebstore. Or start fresh — our AI writes product descriptions and SEO metadata from a photo.

  3. Point your domain, cancel Wix

    Update your domain’s DNS to Freewebstore — free SSL applied automatically. Then cancel your Wix subscription. Your customers, your URL, your store — without the $29/month.

Honest answers

Leaving Wix — the questions you actually have.

  • Isn’t Wix already free?

    Wix has a free plan — but you can’t sell on it. To take payments you need Wix Core at $29/month or higher. Freewebstore’s Community plan is free forever AND includes a full store. That’s the difference.

  • Will my Wix site transfer to Freewebstore?

    Not automatically — Wix uses a locked design system that doesn’t export cleanly. But you can rebuild in about an hour with our 100+ mobile-responsive themes and click-and-edit editor, and Smart Import brings your products across from any file (Wix export, Shopify, Excel or CSV) with AI mapping the columns for you.

  • What about Wix branding on the free plan?

    Wix’s free tier shows Wix ads and gives you a wix.com/username URL. Freewebstore’s free Community plan lets you use a custom domain (or a free freewebstore.com subdomain) with no branding on paid plans.

  • Does Freewebstore have AI like Wix’s ADI?

    Yes — AI product copy, AI SEO suggestions and AI-generated business reports. Free on every plan, including Community.

  • Can I sell subscriptions and digital products?

    Yes to both. Subscription products, digital downloads, physical goods, services — all supported on the free Community plan.

  • Do I get real support?

    Yes. AI chat 24/7 on every plan, plus a friendly Facebook community. Human ticket support (24-hour reply) comes with every paid plan — and new Community users get 30 days of it free. Ridge adds a dedicated account manager. We built the platform, so you’re talking to the people who understand it.

Leave Wix.
Actually free.

A real store in about an hour. Keep $348 a year.

Start my free store

No credit card. No trial. Free forever.

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