Wix is one of the biggest hosted website builders - drag-and-drop design, a huge template and app library, and a free tier (with Wix ads). It is genuinely easy to start. The catch is ownership: your site lives entirely inside Wix, you pay monthly to remove the ads and unlock features, and Wix is well known for having no real export - you cannot move your site, or even your template, off the platform. lazysite is the opposite trade-off: a little setup, for a site that is plain, portable files you own outright.

Feature	lazysite	Wix
Architecture
Content format	Plain Markdown files you own	Visual drag-and-drop editor
Build step	None - renders on request, caches the result	None - fully hosted
Database	None - files only	Managed for you (hidden)
Footprint	Tiny - one CGI script plus Perl modules from your distro	Fully hosted by Wix
Capabilities
Dynamic content	Server-side templating, remote data, query parameters	Built-in platform features
Built-in forms, auth & payments	All built in (forms, sign-in, x402 pay-per-read)	Yes - forms, member areas, commerce
AI-first management	Built for it - agents edit over WebDAV, an API or MCP	No - AI generates a template, not agent publishing
Memberships & paid content	Pay-per-read (x402) and per-user access	Yes (member areas, paid plans)
Design & experience
Themes & customisation	Layout plus theme tokens - one file to re-skin	Templates + drag-and-drop editor
Editing experience	Markdown files, a simple manager, or an AI agent	Drag-and-drop, no code
Hosting & operations
Hosting	Any CGI host, or its own built-in server	Included; you cannot self-host
Performance	Cached static HTML after the first hit	Managed CDN
Backup	Copy the files - nothing else to dump	No file-level backup
Migration & portability	Move the folder anywhere - plain files	Very hard - no export, locked to Wix
Maintenance & security surface	Small - static files, no database, a compact codebase	Fully managed by Wix
Cost	Free, with minimal hosting	Free tier with Wix ads; paid plans monthly

Leaving Wix

This is Wix's weak point: there is no clean export, so moving off it means rebuilding your pages elsewhere. The upside is that once you do, you are never locked in again - a lazysite site is text files you can move any time, and an AI agent can do the rebuild and the ongoing edits for you.

When Wix still wins

If you are non-technical, want the widest drag-and-drop template and app selection in one hosted place, and never want to touch hosting or code, Wix's convenience is hard to beat.

When lazysite wins

If you want to own your site outright, avoid a monthly fee and ads, keep hosting cheap, and never be locked to a platform - or you want an AI agent to handle the building and editing - the self-hosted route pays off.

Ready to try it? Install lazysite in minutes.