Wix Introduces Editor X, Offers Designers Advanced Tools for Building Custom Websites

It’s impossible to deny Wix.

Just ask supermodel Karlie Kloss, the star of their 2019 Super Bowl ad – and founder of a code camp for young women.

In 30 seconds, she shared her personal Wix website with millions of viewers, highlighting features like the Wix Pro Gallery and SEO Wiz (both catchy names for an event that involves a lot of catching).

Needless to say, it was a touchdown.

Kloss isn’t the first celebrity to promote Wix as the world’s premier website building and content management platform. A quick YouTube search will bring up the likes of Jason Statham and Gal Gadot in a 2017 Big Game spot. And it’s no surprise they can foot the bill for these heavy hitters and massive media buys: at last count, Wix is host to 160 million websites.

That’s worthy of a Super Bowl ring. Or five.

Wix has certainly established itself as the go-to solution for small, do-it-yourself entrepreneurs (think local florist or photography studio), competing with other “pre-fab” solutions like Squarespace and Weebly.

Like these platforms, Wix has always lead with simplicity. Basic templates and attractive themes allow for mobile responsiveness and limited control over images, color, content, and other dimensions. You can easily add features like photo galleries or browse the Wix App Market for some nifty integrations. It’s also one of the only platforms that allow you to animate elements and offers an AI-driven design bot that (sort of) assists with simple tasks.

When it comes to offering more advanced designers the freedom to explore and customize – while still delivering a low-code experience – Wix has generally fumbled the ball. But the game might be changing with Editor X.

Introducing Editor X

Previously available as a closed beta program, Wix recently launched its new Editor X, specifically built for web designers and digital agencies that are seeking to push the aesthetic limits without the hassle of coding from scratch. Much of the emphasis has been on adopting drag-and-drop feature sets, which has been the main focus of many CMS platforms – the most popular being Gutenberg.

Wix has now entered the competitive field with Editor X, combining advanced drag-and-drop capabilities with cutting edge responsive design, flexible grids with full breakpoint control, and advanced CSS editing and control (in fact, you don’t even need to know CSS). For designers who are seeking to create more bespoke, hand-crafted experiences, Editor X could be a win.

“Gifted and talented creators have the ability to see the invisible and create the unimaginable,” said Wix Co-founder and CEO, Avishai Abrahami. “Until now these creators’ only option was platforms with restricted design freedoms or limited business web infrastructure that demanded code and multiple plugins. With Editor X, we’ve built the world’s best CSS editor and designed a radical new creative landscape for designers and web professionals, one in which the technology keeps pace with designers’ visions and enables them to swiftly create breathtaking websites, applications and digital experiences that continually raise the standard of the web.”

Here's a short video introduction to Editor X:

What Features Come with Editor X?

Editor X is made with designers and agencies in mind. It offers advanced layout capabilities that allow you to create more complex website designs for any device – all without using code.

While that’s the main selling point of Editor X, it actually comes with a number of additional features and capabilities for development, business solutions, digital marketing, and SEO.

Main Features

Editor X manages to solve some of the biggest challenges facing modern designers and web professionals – from custom code to no code. The core features include:

• Breakpoint Precision: Create custom breakpoints, rearrange layouts, choose what to show or hide, and fine tune sites at every viewport.
• CSS Grid: Design with CSS – without even thinking about CSS! Editor X brings a truly accessible, easy-to-use gateway to CSS.
• Flexbox Technology: Let your content automatically adjust to every screen in single, multiple, and repeating layouts.
• Custom Code: Integrate custom code and connect to internal/external APIs.
• Integrated Business Infrastructure: Access Wix’s expansive range of business solutions to manage multiple sales channels, set up online bookings and scheduling, improve SEO performance, and more.

Design & Layout

Editor X was built to expand the Wix design potential. It offers granular layout capabilities that allow you to create complex website designs for any device, all without using code. Some of the coolest design features include:

• Grid Layouting: An advanced two-dimensional layout system based on CSS grid.
• Docking: Anchors elements to a specific position as the viewport changes.
• Stack & scale: Reorient media for seamless responsive behavior.
• Text scale: Create scalable font sizes as part of a design solution.
• Flex Layouter: A smart layout system that relies on Flexbox technology for automatic reorganization of content while resizing.
• Custom Breakpoints: Tailor designs to any viewport, not just classic devices.
• Flexible canvas: Leverage resizing handles to instantly see and customize your design across viewports.
• Advanced sizing control: Define your element as fixed or fluid, using wide support for modern CSS units.
• Wix Design System: Features sections with built-in responsive behavior matched to the color palette of your site.

Development

Editor X also provides plenty of tools for developers who want to add custom code and build data rich websites. Some of these features include:

• Dynamic Pages: Design one-page layouts or create unlimited pages – each with their own content, URL and SEO.
• Database APIs: Use data APIs in your website’s front-end or backend code to manage and organize data.
• Built-in IDE: Make coding more productive using the built-in IDE, equipped with syntax highlighting, code completion and more.
• Custom Interactions: Create unique user interactions by triggering events when visitors perform specific actions.

Business Solutions

Running an online business always requires a few third-party applications. With Editor X and the Wix platform, you can have all of it in one place. Add an eCommerce store and accept payments, or a member section where customers can sign in and manage their personal accounts. You can also offer live chat, set up automations to collect leads, and so much more.

The Wix App Market offers a wide range of integrations like form generators, social plugins, marketing tools and more. But builder beware: like open source marketplaces, many of the apps are made by third parties – and aren’t guaranteed by Wix.

Web Solutions

On Wix, every website you build is completely hosted – and includes an SSL certificate (which is being deprecated and replaced by TLS). Wix provides automatic updates, so your websites stay secure without any hassles or concerns over managing your own security requirements.

You can also search, purchase, and register domains directly through Editor X.

Marketing & SEO

In addition to providing basic SEO tools such as XML site maps, structured data, canonical URLs and 301 redirects, Editor X offers custom SEO plans and email marketing. Every website comes with a tailor-made SEO package that helps ensure your websites rank decently on Google. You can also drive traffic with professional email marketing campaigns, and review how visitors interact with your client sites by tracking visits through their built-in analytics tools.

Performance

So far, Editor X looks a bit like “Weapon X.” It’s got everything that’s been missing from Wix and gives designers and agencies a more customizable platform to build on. Why choose anything else?

One word: performance.

When testing the page speed of editorx.com, the score is staggering 34 out of 100 – almost exactly the same as the Rotten Tomatoes score for “X-Men Origins: Wolverine.” That’s not good.

This is not a problem unique to Editor X, of course. All website builders since Dreamweaver have been plagued by the code bloat problem. In case you’re not familiar, code bloat is unnecessarily long or wasteful code that slows down websites. A lot.

When Squarespace pioneered code-free website building and attracted millions with its style and aesthetics, it seemed like everyone could build websites with no working knowledge of HTML and CSS. Over time, as it became more complex and conflated, the entire platform evolved into a page-loading nightmare.

If performance really matters, you might want to think twice about Editor X.

Conclusion

Editor X was conceived with designers in mind. And it tends to deliver with a richer, more complete set of tools and greater domain over the design experience. Even a small business or solopreneur that craves more control could get a lot of value out of Editor X. The problem lies with performance: if page speed and loads times are critical – and you have a larger, more expansive website – you might want an enterprise-worthy solution that can handle the demands of a content team.

Ready to try it out? Click here.

About Editor-X

Editor X is an advanced creation platform for designers and web professionals. The platform combines cutting edge responsive design with smooth drag and drop. Those that want to can add custom code and use a powerful CMS to build data-driven sites and complex web applications. Editor X offers an unparalleled range of integrated business solutions from a leading eCommerce infrastructure to professional marketing and SEO tools. Editor X is part of Wix.com Ltd.

About Wix

Wix is leading the way with a cloud-based development platform for over 170 million registered users worldwide. Wix was founded on the belief that the Internet should be accessible to everyone to develop, create and contribute. Through free and premium subscriptions, Wix empowers millions of businesses, organizations, artists and individuals to take their businesses, brands and workflow online. The Wix Editor, Wix ADI, a highly curated App Market, Ascend by Wix and Corvid by Wix enable users to build and manage a fully integrated and dynamic digital presence.