Export Wix Domain After Free Year to HTML

Wix offers a free domain for the first year with annual premium plans. Sounds great until you realize what happens next.

After that year? Full price renewal.

Here's the deal: Wix uses that free domain as an incentive to get you on annual billing. They're not losing money, they're making it back on the renewal. And then some.

Typical Wix domain renewal runs $15-25 per year for a .com. Some extensions cost more. That's on top of your monthly Wix subscription. Not outrageous, but not cheap either.

Compare that to dedicated registrars. Cloudflare charges at-cost pricing, around $9-10 for .com renewals. Namecheap is usually $12-14. Porkbun hovers around $10. You're paying a premium to keep your domain at Wix.

What actually happens when the year ends:

Wix sends reminder emails as the expiration approaches. Usually starting 30 days out. They'll tell you the renewal price and ask you to confirm payment info.

If auto-renewal is on (default), Wix charges your card automatically. Domain renews, you keep using it, easy. But at their price.

If auto-renewal is off, or payment fails, the domain enters a grace period. Typically 30 days or so. During this time you can still renew at regular price.

After the grace period comes the redemption period. Renewal is still possible but costs extra, sometimes $50-100 extra. Not fun.

After redemption? The domain releases to the public. Anyone can register it. If you've built traffic or brand recognition on that domain, losing it hurts.

Your options at renewal time:

Option 1: Pay Wix's renewal price. Simplest approach. Everything stays in one place. Just costs more.

Option 2: Transfer to a cheaper registrar. Unlock your domain, get the authorization code from Wix, initiate transfer at your new registrar. You'll pay for another year at the new registrar's price. Takes about a week.

Option 3: Don't renew at all. Only makes sense if you're abandoning the domain entirely. Remember, someone else might snatch it up.

The smart move is usually option 2. Transfer early, don't wait until the last minute. Give yourself time in case something goes wrong.

And if you're reconsidering Wix entirely? Export your site before your subscription ends. Our tool can save your pages as static HTML. Then you could host elsewhere for free and just pay for domain renewal at a cheap registrar. Way less than Wix's monthly fees.