How Wix Templates Work (and the Rule Most People Miss)

A Wix template is a starting design you pick once per site, and Wix's own help center is direct about the catch: "once you select a template and start editing it, you cannot change it." You choose between a blank canvas and a pre-designed layout, build on top of it, and that choice is permanent for that site. The only way to a different template is a new site. Here's how the system actually works, sourced from Wix's help center, and what to do instead of hunting for a way to switch.

How many templates does Wix offer, and how are they organized?

Wix's help center states the current scale plainly: "Wix offers 2000+ website templates to help you get started on your website creation journey" (Wix, "About Templates", checked September 2026). They're grouped for browsing rather than presented as one long list: "Our templates are organized into categories for easy browsing: Business & Services, Store, Creative, Community and Blog website templates" (same source). That's a lot of starting points, but the number matters less than the next distinction, because it decides what your site can look like from day one.

What's the actual difference between a blank and a pre-designed template?

Wix draws this line clearly, and it's the first decision you make before anything else:

• Pre-designed templates — Wix describes these as templates "that already include sample content, color themes, galleries, inner pages and built-in business features" (same source). You replace the placeholder content and adjust the design, but the structure, pages, and style choices already exist.
• Blank templates — the opposite approach: these "allow you to start completely from scratch and take charge of your site design from the get go" (same source). No sample sections, no pre-built pages — you add every element yourself.

If you've never used the Wix Editor before, a pre-designed template gets you to a working site faster, because the layout decisions are already made for you. A blank template is the better starting point only if you already know exactly what you want and don't want to undo someone else's structural choices first.

Can I switch my site's template after I start editing?

No — and this is the rule most people run into after it's too late to matter. Wix's help center is unambiguous: "once you select a template and start editing it, you cannot change it" (Wix, "About Templates", checked September 2026). This isn't a plan restriction or something you can unlock — it's how the Wix Editor and Harmony Editor work structurally. Once your content and design choices are built onto a specific template's code, there's no in-place conversion to a different one.

Wix's own instructions for getting a new template confirm the same limit from the other direction: "If you want to switch your site's template, you can create a new site and select a template from the available options" (Wix, "Wix Editor: Getting a New Template for Your Site", checked September 2026). There is no button, setting, or support request that changes an existing site's template in place. If you want a different one, you are building a second site, not editing the first.

This is one reason a rushed template choice costs more on Wix than it does on some other builders: our Wix vs Squarespace comparison covers how Squarespace's 7.0 template families work differently, since Squarespace lets a 7.0 site switch templates later — at the cost of losing template-specific features. Wix doesn't offer that middle ground at all; it's commit-or-rebuild.

What if I'm building on Wix Studio instead of the regular Editor?

Wix Studio runs its own, separate template system, and the switching rule there is just as firm — you can't move a site built in the classic Wix Editor into Studio at all, let alone swap its template. Studio's own help pages describe the template gallery as "hundreds of templates, carefully curated by our in-house design team," organized "by website type, industry, business features and style" — a similar shape to the main Wix gallery, but a distinct set of designs built for Studio specifically (Wix, "Studio Editor: Building a Site with a Template", checked September 2026). Studio also gives you a blank option, reached by hovering over "Blank Canvas" on the templates page and clicking "Edit" (same source) — including a version with a guiding wireframe layout already placed, for people who want structure without a full pre-designed look.

Studio adds one option the regular Editor doesn't have: buying a template from another designer. Wix's marketplace page for this states you can "Browse our collection of Studio templates in the Wix Marketplace, built by Wix Partners" (Wix, "Wix Studio: Buying Studio Templates in the Wix Marketplace", checked September 2026). Two things to check before buying one: "Studio plans are not included when purchasing Studio templates" (same source), so the template price and your Studio subscription are billed separately, and "some templates might include apps that require additional payment" (same source) — a template can carry ongoing app costs beyond its one-time price. For the fuller picture of how Studio, Harmony, and the classic Editor relate — including which one your existing site is actually on — see our Wix Harmony vs Wix Editor guide.

What should I actually do instead of trying to switch?

Since there's no in-place conversion on either the classic Editor or Studio, treat a template change as a small migration project, not a settings change:

1. Make a list first. Wix's own advice here is specific: "Before starting with a new template, make a list of the elements and content you want to transfer or recreate to streamline the process" (Wix, "About Templates"). Write down every page, image, and piece of copy you need to bring over before you touch the new template.
2. Build the new site under a separate draft, not by editing the live one, so your current site keeps working while you rebuild.
3. Move your Premium plan and domain when the new site is ready. Wix's guidance confirms this is the intended path: create the new site with the template you actually want, then reassign your plan and domain to it rather than trying to reuse the old site's URL by editing in place.
4. Check forms, blog posts, and store items individually. These don't carry over automatically just because you're staying on Wix — each content type has its own export or rebuild path, which is different from switching a design.

Example (hypothetical): A small business owner picks a pre-designed template, builds five pages of content, then decides the layout doesn't fit a new logo and color scheme. Rather than hunting for a "change template" button, she creates a second site, selects a template that fits the new branding, and works from her page-and-content list to recreate each page. Once the new site is checked on desktop and mobile, she reassigns her Premium plan and domain to it and keeps the old site as an unpublished backup until she's confident nothing was missed. This is illustrative only, not a test we ran.

What if I picked the wrong template and I'm already deep into editing?

There's no shortcut back — the recovery path is the same rebuild described above, just with more content to move. The earlier you catch a template mismatch, the smaller that job is, which is the real argument for spending time on the blank-vs-pre-designed decision and a category browse before you start adding content, rather than after.

Is Figment a fit for a Wix redesign?

Not for this. Figment publishes a Figma design as a live website through its Figma plugin — it has no template gallery, no drag-and-drop editor, and no built-in blog or store. If your "template problem" is really that you want full design control over a marketing site and you're comfortable designing it in Figma first, that's a different route than picking a new Wix template; if you need Wix's template system, editor, blogging, or store, this guide and the comparisons linked above are the honest ones to use, not us.

Bottom line: Wix's 2,000+ templates split into pre-designed and blank, and whichever one you pick — on the classic Editor, Harmony, or Studio — is locked to that site the moment you start editing. There's no setting that undoes that. Decide deliberately before you build, and if you do need a different template later, treat it as building a second site and moving your plan and domain over, not as an edit to the first one.