How to Clone Wix
Freemium drag-and-drop website builder for small businesses and personal sites
What is Wix?
Wix is the volume player in website builders. Its pitch is maximum accessibility: a free tier anyone can start on, an absolute drag-anywhere editor where you can place any element at any pixel, and an AI flow (ADI) that spits out a whole site from a few questions. Where Squarespace constrains you toward good taste, Wix hands you total freedom - which is great for reach and conversions, and exactly why some Wix sites look chaotic. The free tier with Wix-branded ads is the top of a giant funnel that upgrades millions of users to paid plans.
It is a public company doing well over a billion and a half dollars a year, the bulk of it recurring subscriptions, with a fast-growing 'Business Solutions' layer - payments, bookings, restaurants, email marketing - sold on top of the core builder. The strategic insight worth stealing is the funnel itself: get to value for free, monetize with premium plans and a marketplace of business apps. The editor is almost a loss-leader for everything attached to it.
For a builder, Wix's absolute-positioning editor is hard and not the interesting part to clone. The winnable angle is the freemium funnel pointed at a vertical: a free, fast site generator for one type of small business (salons, gyms, food trucks) that upsells the few paid features that business needs - online booking, payments, a menu - once they're hooked on a free, live site.
Who it's for: Small-business owners, freelancers and hobbyists who want a free, easy way to get online and will upgrade for a custom domain, more features and to remove ads. The clone opportunity is a freemium, vertical-specific site builder.
How Wix makes money
- $ Premium plans: tiered monthly/annual subscriptions that remove Wix ads, add a custom domain and unlock storage/features - the core revenue.
- $ Business Solutions: payments, bookings, restaurants, email marketing and other modules sold on top, often per-feature.
- $ App Market: a cut of third-party apps and themes sold to site owners.
- $ Domains & email: registration, renewal and professional email accounts bundled with plans.
- $ Payments take-rate: a slice of transactions processed through Wix Payments on users' stores and bookings.
Rough estimate derived from reported annual revenue (~$1.5Bโ$1.7B) divided across the year. CloneMRR is not affiliated with Wix; figures are for educational purposes.
Features to build
MVP ship this first
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โ Drag-and-drop editorAdd elements (text, image, button, shape, gallery) onto a page and position them freely on a grid with snapping.
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โ AI site generatorAnswer a few questions (business type, name, vibe) and generate a starter site with sections and copy to edit.
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โ Free tier with brandingAnyone can build and publish for free on a branded subdomain with a small 'Made with' banner.
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โ Templates by categoryStart from templates grouped by business type (restaurant, fitness, portfolio, store).
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โ Publish to subdomainOne-click publish to a hosted subdomain with SSL; the free banner stays until they upgrade.
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โ Accounts & dashboardEmail/Google auth, a dashboard of the user's sites, autosave and an upgrade prompt.
Full version add later
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+ Custom domain & ad removalThe flagship upgrade: connect a custom domain and remove the platform banner on a premium plan.
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+ Online bookingAn appointments module so salons, trainers and consultants can take bookings and payments on-site.
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+ Store & paymentsProduct catalog, cart and integrated payments with a take-rate on transactions.
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+ Email marketingSend branded campaigns and automations to contacts collected through the site's forms.
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+ App marketInstall third-party widgets and apps; platform takes a revenue share on paid installs.
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+ Multi-language & SEO toolsTranslate sites, plus a built-in SEO wizard, sitemap and meta editing.
Recommended tech stack
| Layer | Our pick | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Frontend (editor) | React + TypeScript + Zustand | An absolute-positioning canvas with selection, drag, resize and snapping is a heavy stateful SPA; React + a fast store fits. |
| Canvas | Absolute layout engine + snapping grid | Wix's signature is drag-anywhere placement; you need an x/y/width/height model with snap guides, not flow layout. |
| AI generator | LLM API (Claude) + section templates | Turn a short questionnaire into a structured site: the LLM picks sections and writes copy, filling a template schema. This is a genuine third-party dependency and cost. |
| Backend | Node.js (Next.js API routes or NestJS) | CRUD for sites/pages/elements plus publish and billing orchestration in one language. |
| Database | PostgreSQL (Supabase) + JSONB | Relational for users/sites/plans; JSONB stores each page's absolutely-positioned element list. |
| Hosting & payments | Cloudflare + Stripe | CDN hosting with SSL for published sites; Stripe for premium subscriptions and store/booking payments. |
AI prompts to clone Wix
Pick your builder, copy the prompt, paste it and iterate. Enter your email once to unlock all prompts on every page - we'll also send you this full prompt pack.
Build a freemium drag-and-drop website builder web app called Pixapress, modeled on Wix: free to start, drag elements anywhere, and an AI flow that generates a starter site.
## Core concept
Anyone can build a site for free (published on a branded subdomain with a small 'Made with Pixapress' banner). They upgrade to a paid plan to connect a custom domain, remove the banner, and unlock features like booking and a store. Free is the top of the funnel; premium plans are the revenue.
## User roles
- Free user: build and publish on a branded subdomain
- Premium user: custom domain, no banner, business features unlocked
- Admin: all sites and users, plan management, revenue view
Tools to build your Wix clone
Describe your app in plain English and Lovable builds a full-stack web app with auth, database and deployment included.
Best for: Full-stack web apps without writing code
StackBlitz's AI builder. Prompt, run and edit full-stack apps directly in the browser, then deploy in one click.
Best for: Rapid prototypes and web apps
AI app builder with built-in database, auth and hosting. Strong for internal tools and CRUD-heavy products.
Best for: Dashboards, marketplaces and internal tools
The AI code editor. Full control over your codebase with AI agents that write and refactor code for you.
Best for: Developers who want full code ownership
Generates production-grade React + Tailwind UI from a prompt, deployable to Vercel instantly.
Best for: Polished UI and front-ends
Workers, Pages, R2 and D1 - host your clone on a global edge network with a generous free tier.
Best for: Serverless apps and APIs
Cheap VPS and managed hosting with an AI website builder. Easiest way to put a clone online on a budget.
Best for: Budget VPS and WordPress-style sites
How to make money with a Wix clone
Win one vertical's free tier
Don't out-Wix Wix. Be the free site builder for one trade - barbers, personal trainers, food trucks - so good and so relevant that that niche picks you. The free tier is the wedge; the vertical features are the upsell.
Free funnel, premium domain
The biggest upgrade trigger is wanting a custom domain and no banner. Keep the free tier genuinely useful (live site, real subdomain) and let the desire for a 'real' web address pull users to paid.
Sell business solutions on top
Booking, payments, email marketing and a store are where ARPU grows. Ship the core builder cheaply and monetize the modules the business actually runs on.
Take a slice of payments
Once site owners process bookings and store sales through your integrated payments, a small take-rate on transactions becomes a second, usage-based revenue stream that scales with their success.
Frequently asked questions
How much does Wix make?
Wix is a public company with annual revenue in the range of $1.5โ$1.7 billion - roughly $130Mโ$150M per month - mostly recurring premium subscriptions, plus a fast-growing Business Solutions layer (payments, bookings, email) and a take-rate on transactions and app sales.
How hard is it to build a Wix clone?
Medium-to-hard. The absolute-positioning canvas (drag anywhere, resize, snap guides) is more involved than Squarespace's section model but far short of Webflow's full CSS engine. The AI site generator adds an LLM dependency. A scoped, vertical freemium builder is very achievable; a full Wix with its app market and business suite is a large undertaking.
Is it legal to clone Wix?
Yes. Drag-and-drop website builders are a large, competitive category - Squarespace, Webflow, GoDaddy and Weebly all coexist with Wix. You can replicate the freemium model and editor concept, but not Wix's brand, templates, app market or code. Build your own brand, templates and funnel.
What tech stack should I use for a Wix clone?
A practical 2026 stack: React/Next.js + Tailwind with Zustand for the editor, an absolute-layout element model with a snapping module, PostgreSQL + JSONB to store pages, an LLM (Claude) for the AI site generator, Stripe for subscriptions and payments, and Cloudflare for hosting and SSL.
How much does it cost to build a Wix clone?
An MVP - drag-and-drop editor, a basic AI generator, free publish to a subdomain - can be prototyped with AI builders for under $100/month in tooling (plus LLM usage) over 3โ4 weeks. A production freemium builder with booking, store, payments and an app market is a bigger investment, realistically $40,000โ$100,000.
Does the free tier actually make money?
Indirectly, and it's the whole strategy. The free, ad-branded tier is the top of the funnel: it gets millions to a live site at zero cost, then converts a meaningful slice to paid when they want a custom domain, no banner, or business features. The economics live in conversion rate and upsell, not the free sites themselves.
More apps to clone
CloneMRR is not affiliated with, endorsed by or connected to Wix. Revenue figures are rough estimates based on public reports and are provided for educational purposes only. "Cloning" here means building an original product inspired by a proven business model - never copy a brand's name, logo, content or code.