This is advice for individuals who want to migrate personal sites away from Wix. Our recommendation is to use Squarespace as an alternative (see context).
<aside> 💡 Wix is on the BDS list of companies under Organic Boycott Targets (https://bdsmovement.net/Act-Now-Against-These-Companies-Profiting-From-Genocide). This means while it is a company that openly supports Israel’s genocide against Palestinians, the BDS movement did not initiate the boycott and it is as a result of grassroots boycott campaigns. Our emphasis is on helping grassroots organisations think about using fewer tools that support Israeli genocide of Palestinians but also understand the numerous constraints (time, cost, skills) that make a migration hard.
For individuals, we advise a slow, intentional migration, which can be done once a Wix subscription ends (or sooner if you can afford to). Actions that can be taken now include adding a message of solidarity for Palestinians on your Wix site (or use our ‘Wix migration banner’), linking to where people can support various actions and boycotting other items on the BDS movement list.
Caveat: While we recommend Squarespace as a like for like replacement, Blackrock owns a 3% stake in the company and so it is not a perfect alternative but, as the BDS movement says, a focused boycott on Wix as the priority is likely to have the most impact. We recommend that organisations that can afford to do so migrate to Wordpress or any other open source CMS platform.
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This information is for individuals who want to migrate a personal site from Wix to another web builder (Squarespace). This information is provided with a few assumptions in mind:
<aside> 💡 Try as we might, we cannot make recommendations that work for everyone as each site is different. We did some digging around for automated tools and processes out there but nothing was suitable and we think a manual migration process is the best approach.
This documentation is a work in progress and we will be adding to it based on feedback from people going through the site migration process.
Other web builders are also available like Webflow, which is a good alternative for people with more technical knowledge as it allows for greater customisation than Squarespace. The migration principles still apply if using a platform other than Squarespace.
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Unfortunately, to migrate a website requires a little more than a ‘lift and shift’, especially where the site is built with a web builder. This is because of how differently website builders work from platform to platform. We’ve provided an overview on what a migration to Squarespace looks like, depending on your site content there may be less or more complexity involved. While we do not have the resources to help everyone step through this process we’re available to advise on issues you might run into as you migrate your site. This support is available on a case by case basis, as we aim to prioritise BIPOC people and those with limited resources.
Squarespace is a website builder similar to Wix in a few ways:
<aside> 💡 Keep your current Wix site live up until the very end (when you’re about to publish your new site), so that your site visitors have a live site to visit.
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