Why WIX is a perfect solution for fitness professionals
Wix is a powerful website builder that makes creating and running your own website easy, primarily through the use of online drag-and-drop tools.
In 2019, Wix has launched a solution called “Wix Fit” which enables fitness professionals to get a complete online fitness solution and website that aligns with their brand in one tool. Since then, the company has continued to vastly develop the platform to keep pace with the industry's rapid shift to a hybrid fitness model. Wix has in-built features that allow you to:
Accept bookings and payments online,
Create online content like VOD and streamed classes,
Use built-in marketing tools and more.
The top 3 reasons I believe Wix is perfect for most small to medium fitness businesses:
It’s easy
It’s affordable
It includes relevant features
1. Wix is easy to use
Wix is quite easy to use, even if you’ve never built a website before. It uses “What You See Is What You Get” (WYSIWYG) editors and drag & drop for users to create their own website, meaning that for a simple website you won't need coding skills. You’ll just need to do a bit of research to make sure you know what a good website needs to include. Wix even offers two options to design your website: a super basic one (ADI) and a more flexible one (standard editor).
✨ Wix ADI (Artificial Design Intelligence): With this option, you begin by answering a few questions about the type of website you want, the features you need, and what kind of style you’d like the site to have. Using the information you provided, Wix ADI will generate a personalised website for you thanks to artificial intelligence. Amazing, right?! You can then customise your site style, and add more sections or pages. Wix ADI works in sections that can be chopped and changed a bit like Lego blocks. You can change their appearance and stack them in any order you want until you’re happy. You can go outside of the framework given by ADI.
✨ Wix Editor: If you prefer to have more flexibility and a more unique design for your website, you can use the standard Wix editor. The difference with WIX ADI is that Wix Editor uses drag-and-drop functionality, meaning that if you used something like PowerPoint before you will feel more than comfortable with it. You have complete freedom to rearrange elements on the page. You can also start by choosing a template, then selecting the features you wish to include (e.g. booking system, events, chat, etc.), and personalising your site styles (inc. colours and fonts) in order for it to match your personal brand.
Important note: If you wish to embed your timetable from Mindbody or another online booking system, you will need to have your site set up on Wix Editor. If you created your site with Wix ADI, you can easily switch to the Editor mode from the menu at the top right under the ‘Site’ option AND THE ‘Go to editor’ button.
Which one is right for you?!
I read this comparison which I thought was great: “Imagine you’re a kid again and you have a younger sibling who’s smarter than you. So Wix Editor is like the stronger, older sibling and Wix ADI, the younger, smarter one.”
Wix Editor and Wix ADI both give you access to most features that you’d need for your fitness business (booking system, event management, online programs, online payments, etc.). What mostly drives the type of features you have access is not so much the editor you us but really the Wix plan you’ll end up selecting to launch your website.
2. Wix is an affordable solution for your fit biz
You can technically have a free website with Wix but this means that you would have the default Wix domain name, which of course doesn’t look very professional and wouldn’t build trust with your site visitors.
Wix has organised their paid plans into three categories:
Website Plans: Great for showcasing a professional site. With these plans, you’ll mostly be able to use your own domain name, remove the Wix ad banner, between 3 to 35GB of Storage space and between 30min to 5h of Video hours.
👉🏽 Business and eCommerce Plans: Essential for accepting online payments. With these plans, you’ll get access to all the necessary features to run your Fitness business as well as more storage space and more video hours for your VOD channel. Prices range from AU$32/month to AU$58/month (Hot tip: Wix often runs promotions for your first site upgrade so keep an eye out for promo pop-ups).
Enterprise Plans: Custom solutions tailored to your brand. This is designed for larger businesses and prices get quoted on your site requirements.
Let’s see how this compares to other solutions available to fitness businesses…
Cost/annum = AU$384
Above price is for the Business Basic plan which will include all the features you will need to run your business. If you wish to upload more videos to your library you might need the Business Unlimited or VIP plan for respectively $528 and $696/annum.
Cost/annum = AU$655
Above price is for the Business plan + Growing Scheduling plan which would roughly give you access to similar features to the Wix solution. One could argue that you’d also take out a membership plan which would add $144/annum.
Cost/annum = AU$2,268
This is with the cheapest Mindbody plan, as it can cost up to AU$11,988.
This gives you access to all the features of their booking system, as well as being listed on the Mindbody app but doesn’t include your own website so you’d need to add that cost.
Cost/annum = A$U1,708
This would be with their mid-range plan that gives access to most of their features. Prices range from $1,018 to $4,470/annum (converting from US$ for ease of comparison). Same as with Mindbody, you’d need to add the cost of a basic website to this so around $300/annum.
Cost/annum = AU$1,035
Momence offers a free plan which is unbeatable! 😜 The free plan doesn’t enable you to embed your timetable to your website so I’ve used their Momence Pro plan to compare like for like with the other options. As per the other booking systems the price doesn’t include your website.
Want to see more options?
Have a read at my blog post comparing a range of fitness booking systems here.
3. Wix offers relevant features for fitness pros
Wix has developed a solution specifically for fitness professionals called Wix Fit. This package provides professionals in the fitness and wellness industry with all the necessary tools to run and promote their business, manage customer relationships, and establish a community. This solution has been designed to make it easier for Pilates or Yoga instructors, fitness or wellness coaches and personal trainers to manage all aspects of their business in one spot! You won’t need to worry about integrating third-party applications here.
Here’s what Wix promises to deliver for Fitness businesses.
Build your business by offering your clients:
A branded mobile app
Live streams & a Video-on-demand (VOD) channel
Online challenge programs
Memberships and packages
Manage your business with:
The online scheduling & payment solution
The Wix Owner mobile app
An integrated CRM solution
Custom reports & analytics
Grow your business using:
The built-in marketing suite
Live chat option
The blogging solution to run your Fitness blog
Lead capture forms
My favourite features:
ONLINE BOOKING SYSTEM: You can offer private appointments, group classes or courses and workshops for multiple participants that run over multiple days or weeks. This feature will allow you to add your services to any of your pages and allow clients to book straight from there.
EVENT MANAGEMENT & TICKETING SOLUTION: You can create free or paid events from your website, e.g. an information session, a yoga retreat, a special event/class at your studio, etc. You can also email invitations and track RSVPs from your site.
PRICING PLANS: You can set up memberships, packages (e.g. multiple class packs or a combo of online and studio classes, etc.), and subscriptions to sell your services. This feature will add a new set of pages to your site called “Plans & Pricing”, where you can customise how your plans look.
ONLINE PROGRAMS: You can create paid or free multi-step courses such as a fitness challenge, personal coaching program, nutrition plan, etc. Each program can be either self-paced or follow a set schedule.
ONLINE VIDEO LIBRARY: You can create your own VOD (Video On demand) channel either giving clients free access or selling a paid subscription to access your workout videos.
BLOG & PODCAST: To help you build a community and drive traffic to your site. The Wix Blog feature will allow you to create, manage and share your posts from your site. The Wix Podcast Player lets you stream all of your podcast episodes by easily connecting to your podcast host.
Example of the Wix Blog, Podcast and Program features on a custom Wix Website for a Physio practice.
Example of the class booking and pricing plan features on a custom Wix Website for a Pilates teacher.
Wix Fit is an awesome all-in-one product that can suit most Pilates and Yoga teachers, small studios or Personal trainers willing to work online!
You can get your Wix site designed all by yourself thanks to Wix ADI or to save time and get the best-customised solution from the platform, consult an experienced professional.
As a Wix website designer, I know how to achieve great tailored results from the almost endless capabilities of Wix.
