If you are thinking about leaving Wix, the first thing to sort out is what you get to keep. Your domain, your words, your photos, your contact list and your booking history can all come with you, while the design, the forms and the booking rules get rebuilt on the new site, because the running website stays on Wix.
Wix says this in its external hosting guidance: the site runs on Wix’s own technology and services, which are part of your plan. So we plan every Wix move as a rebuild from day one, and the useful parts of your business come along with it.
What comes with you and what gets rebuilt
| Part of the site | What happens | How |
|---|---|---|
| Domain | Comes with you | Pointed to the new site, or transferred later as its own step |
| Business email | Stays where it is | The email settings stay untouched when the domain changes |
| Page text and photos | Comes with you | Copied from your own files and the current pages |
| Contacts | Comes with you | CSV export from Contacts |
| Booking history | Comes with you as a report | CSV reports from Booking Calendar |
| Blog posts | Copied across | Wix lists blog export as a feature request, so each post and image is moved and checked |
| Design and layout | Rebuilt | Screenshots of the current pages are the reference |
| Forms and booking rules | Rebuilt | Each one is tested end to end before launch |
The Wix Contacts guide covers exporting all contacts or selected groups, and the site owner has to run that export. The Bookings report guide covers booking and staff reports for a period you choose, and the blog export request is still open on Wix’s feature list.
What you can do yourself this week
You can start before anyone touches the website, and each of these steps makes the rebuild faster and the switch safer.
Export a few contacts and check them
As the site owner, open Contacts in the Wix dashboard, choose Import / Export, then Export. Select a small group, pick the CSV format and save the file in a protected business folder, since it holds customer information.
Open a copy in a spreadsheet and compare the record count with the group you selected, then look at a few contacts you know well. If your staff rely on a phone number or a service-interest field, check that those columns are there and readable. Keep the subscription status with each contact too, because a contact record and permission to send marketing are two separate things.
List the pages people already visit
Copy the address of every page you want to keep, including older blog posts and pages that your ads link to. Your menu is a good start, and your sitemap and Google Search Console will show pages that get visits without a menu link.
This list becomes the redirect map, so old links and the pages that rank today keep working after the move. Our URL map guide shows how to record each decision, including pages you plan to retire.
Collect your photos, files and logins
Gather the original photos and documents from your own files where you can. If a photo on the current site came from a stock library, check its license before it moves, and keep the license with the file. Brochures and PDFs can link back to old page addresses, so note any that need an update.
Write down where your domain is managed and who handles your business email, along with the logins for any booking, payment or newsletter service the site uses.
Send a test through every form
Submit a clearly labeled test with your own details through each form, then follow it through the business. Note whether it arrives as an email, a CRM contact or a calendar entry, and write down any manual step your team takes afterward.
Bookings need extra care. Write down which system holds the time slot and which calendar your staff check, because a new form can look the same and still only collect a preferred time.
What the rebuild covers
When we take on a Wix move, this is the part we do for you.
Domain and email
We point the domain to the new site and leave the email settings as they are, so your inbox keeps working through the switch. Moving the domain registration away from Wix is a separate step with its own timing, and Wix documents the transfer here.
Every link
We turn your page list into a redirect map, so each old address leads to its new home, and we check your search traffic for 90 days after launch.
Forms and bookings
We rebuild each form, connect it to where your team works and run your test inquiries again, following each one into the inbox, CRM or calendar. Where an outside booking or payment service still does the job well, we keep it and connect the new site to it.
An editor your team can use
The site and the editing system are separate pieces, as Astro’s CMS documentation explains, so the editor is part of what we set up. Before handover we ask you to try two real tasks on the preview, such as changing a staff biography and adding a service detail, then check the result on a phone.
Your accounts
Domain, hosting, code repository and analytics are set up in your name, and we are added as users.
The switch
Your Wix site stays live until you approve the new one on a private preview. On switch day we check every redirect and form, and you cancel the Wix plan after everything has moved over, down to the last image and booking setting.
Agree on the launch sheet
Before the domain moves, agree on these names and checks:
Person making the website switch: ___
Person checking business email: ___
Test inquiry and expected destination: ___
Old links selected for checking: ___
Procedure if the new site needs to be taken back: ___
Earliest date old services can be canceled: ___
Keep the sheet and your page list afterward, since together they describe what your website does and make the next change easier to plan.
If you would like us to do the move
A Wix move with us takes about six weeks from kickoff, and you get a fixed price and the go-live date in writing before you pay. Your part is a kickoff call, one review of your content and facts, and approving the preview. You can see how a Wix move works, or send us your site and we will reply with what we would move and rebuild.