Editor X: An Advanced Website Builder for Designers
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In this post, we’ll give you our first impressions of Editor X, part of Wix’s website builder. We’ll discuss how it works and who it’s best for. We’ll also cover what’s included, and how much it costs (spoiler: it’s not the cheapest, but there’s a free plan!).
1 What is Editor X?
Editor X (a product from Wix.com) is a designer-orientated website builder. As such, it comes with a whole set of designer-orientated features for more sophisticated designs, with particular emphasis on a smooth transition between screen sizes.
If you’re pretty tech confident, are building for a client with super specific ideas, or are just pretty plugged into web design trends, you might sometimes find existing website builders limiting.
Editor X is designed to serve this tier of users, and it’s evident from the second you land on the site. The language steps up, with talk of ‘breakpoints’, ‘fluid design’ and ‘stacking’ from the get-go.
2 How does Editor X Work?
One important thing to note at this stage is that Editor X is still in its beta phase (i.e. testing), so it’s currently only available in English.
Getting started with Editor X is simple. You create a login, and can then choose from one of the templates on offer. There’s currently only eight available, but more are promised soon.
These templates are really fresh – they feature the kind of trendy, creative-focused style we’d normally associate more with Squarespace.
Customize, or build from scratch
As well as offering drag-and-drop tools, Editor X makes it easy to switch into ‘developer mode’ to customize your design with HTML/CSS. You can also set breakpoints to translate your design onto any device.
In fact, if you know what you’re doing, you can even build a site from scratch.
3 Editor X Features
So what exactly sets Editor X apart from existing website builders? Here are some of our favorite features:
- Grid layout – A two dimensional layout system that allows you to align elements in columns and rows, dictating how they’ll expand and contract according to screen size
- Docking – Hold elements in one position as the viewport changes
- Text scaling – Set text to automatically ‘zoom’ in and out as the viewport changes
- Set custom breakpoints – Instead of the design jumping automatically to reformat to set screen sizes, you can set it to collapse and fold in on itself at the most logical points, regardless of device
You’ll notice that a lot of these features focus on making designs not just responsive, but uniquely suited to the device they’re being shown on, or even just to a smaller tab on such a device.
Behind the scenes, things are really ‘light’, too. Older website builders were often built slow and sped up over time, but with Editor X, fast load times have been prioritized from the get-go
4 Websites Built Using Editor X
Rather than just talking to you about what Editor X can do, let’s show you some examples of Editor X in action:
Lumo Design Studio
Lines, an art book by Shantell Martin
A portfolio by Carista Eliani
Each of these projects uses clever animation to create something really unique – screenshots alone don’t do them justice, so definitely go check them out!
5 Editor X Cost
Editor X operates on a freemium model, with one free plan and three paid plans. The paid plans aren’t cheap (when compared to other website builders), but feel good value given the functionality.
Editor X Website Plans
| Editor X plan | Best for | Extra features | Cost per month |
|---|---|---|---|
| Free | Testing the water | - | $0 |
| Essential | Personal use | 10GB storage, 1 hour video | $22 |
| Extra | Growing your brand | 20GB storage, 2 hours video, analytics app, professional logo, social media logo files | $35 |
| Ultra | The 'VIP' experience | 35GB storage, 5 hours video, analytics app, professional logo, social media logo files, priority customer care | $49 |
All the paid plans above include:
- Ability to add a custom domain name
- Free domain name for one year
- $300 ad vouchers to spend
Editor X Business / Ecommerce Plans
| Editor X plan | Best for | Cost per month |
|---|---|---|
| Launch | Getting off the ground | $29 |
| Boost | Advanced store features | $69 |
| Scale | Long-term growth | $219 |
All the paid plans above enable you to take online payments, but you unlock more features throughout the more expensive plans, like the ability to set subscriptions, and accept multiple currencies. The feature list is actually pretty impressive, and reflects the steep hike in prices for the ecommerce plans.
Again, this product is in its beta phase, so the above prices were true at the time of writing, but may change.
6 Wrapping it up – Is Editor X Right for Me?
We think Editor X is actually a super exciting product, with a clear value proposition.
But is it right for you?
You should take Editor X for a spin if…
- You have some design experience, but want a quicker alternative
- You have specific plans for your website which require advanced design features
- You’re an agency building websites for others
You should stick to a simpler website builder, like Wix, Weebly or Squarespace, if…
- You value ease of use and speed of setup
- You don’t have any design experience, and aren’t looking to learn
- You’re happier working from a template
We’re really excited to keep an eye on Editor X and see how it develops – watch this space!
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