Google Sites vs. Wix

Choose Google Sites for a simple, free page you'll maintain occasionally through your existing Google account; choose Wix if you need a store, bookings, a blog, or design control, and are willing to pay for the plan that unlocks them. Google Sites has no paid tier at all documented in its help center — it's part of a Google account, the same one behind Gmail and Drive. Wix has a real free plan too, but its free tier can't accept payments or use a custom domain, and most of the features people associate with Wix live behind Premium. Here's what each platform's own documentation says, checked September 2026.

What does each platform actually cost?

Google Sites doesn't have a documented paid plan of its own. Google's Sites Help Center describes creating and editing a site as something you do with your existing Google Account — the same help center that restricts Sites for "Google Accounts managed by parents" (Google Sites Help, "How to use Google Sites", checked September 2026) never introduces a subscription tier, storage upgrade, or paid feature for Sites itself. Sites content counts against your Google Drive storage, so a heavy site could eventually run into your account's Drive limit, but that's a Drive constraint, not a Sites price.

Wix's free plan is real and publishable, not a locked demo, with a working editor, but it lives on a Wix-owned subdomain, shows Wix ads, and caps storage at "500MB of storage and up to 1GB bandwidth" (Wix Help Center, "About Storage and Bandwidth", checked September 2026; see our full breakdown of what Wix's free plan includes). Wix's paid plans vary by billing location and currency, so this guide won't print a dollar figure — check wix.com/plans for the current number where you're billed.

Can I use my own domain?

Yes on both, but the path differs. On Google Sites, connecting a domain is self-serve from inside the site: open Settings > Custom domains > Start setup, verify ownership through Google Search Console, and follow the DNS steps for your registrar (Google Sites Help, "Use a custom domain for your site", checked September 2026). Google caps this at "up to five custom domains to one site" and requires a subdomain in the URL — "Your URL must include a subdomain, like 'www'" — so a bare root domain needs a different, Workspace-admin-level setup. Our full walkthrough of connecting a custom domain to Google Sites covers the verification steps, the "www" requirement, and Google's documented error messages in more depth.

On Wix, a custom domain is a Premium-plan feature, full stop: "Connecting a custom domain requires upgrading to a plan" (Wix Help Center, "Building a Website for Free", checked September 2026). There's no free-tier workaround — our guide to Wix's free plan covers exactly what else changes when you upgrade to unlock it (ad removal, storage, and payment acceptance all activate together, not separately).

What can I actually build with each one?

Google Sites' strength is what it doesn't require: no plan decision, no ecommerce setup, no app marketplace to navigate — you sign in and start editing. Its absence of ecommerce, bookings, and blog features in its own help documentation is a real ceiling, not an oversight to work around; if your project needs any of those, look elsewhere rather than trying to bolt them onto Sites through embeds. Wix's strength is the opposite: nearly everything a small business needs is available somewhere in its app ecosystem, but working out which plan unlocks which piece takes more research up front.

Who should actually pick Google Sites?

A Google Sites fit looks like: an internal team page, a simple project or event page, a personal portfolio you'll update rarely, or anything where free forever, with no plan to think about, outweighs design flexibility. Its editing model, described in Google's help center as content you "Add or edit text & images" and "Add Google files, video & more," is closer to a shared document than a design tool — you're not going to get pixel-level layout control the way Wix's editor offers.

Who should actually pick Wix?

A Wix fit looks like: a business that needs to sell products, take bookings, or publish a blog regularly, or one where visual design and branding actually matter to the pitch. That comes at a real cost and complexity floor — you'll need to pick a plan, and Wix's feature set is split across that plan ladder rather than bundled into one price, so budget time to confirm which plan unlocks which specific feature you need (a custom domain, Wix Stores checkout, Wix Bookings payments) before committing.

What if I start on one and need to switch?

Neither move is a simple export-and-reimport. Leaving Google Sites means rebuilding the design elsewhere — Sites doesn't document a code export, so plan on recreating pages by hand or with content you've kept separately (text, images) rather than expecting a portable file. Leaving Wix has the same shape: Wix's own documentation confirms you can't export a working copy of the site itself, though you can export certain data separately, such as CMS collections as CSV and uploaded media files. In both directions, keep your own copies of text, images, and any exportable data as you go, rather than assuming the platform will hand you a clean export the day you decide to leave.

Where does Figment fit in?

Neither directly. Figment publishes a website from a Figma design through its Figma plugin; it isn't a document-style editor like Google Sites, and it doesn't have Wix's app marketplace, ecommerce, or bookings system. If you're comparing Google Sites and Wix because you're deciding how much design control you want over the result, that's the actual question Figment answers differently: it starts from a Figma design rather than a template or a blank document, with no store or CMS behind it either.

Bottom line: Google Sites is free because it comes bundled with a Google account, not because it's a stripped-down Wix — it's a genuinely different kind of tool, closer to a shared document than a website builder with an app ecosystem. Wix has the store, bookings, and blog features Google Sites doesn't document at all, but expect to pick a paid plan to get most of them, and confirm the specific plan against Wix's own current pricing before you commit.