Wix and Squarspace have to watch out, Shopify, a Canadian startup specializing in shopping sites, has taken over their runner-up position in the Content Management System sweepstakes Both Wix and and Squarespace are saddled with same dynamic – low usage websites and comparatively a small number of website than their competitors.
Wix appeared to have the a winning formula – Cloud web service to address update, back-up and security problems plaguing WordPress shared hosting websites. Yet Wix delivered solid performance and SEO.
So on the surface Wix appeared to have a major competitive edge – the best Drag and Drop Editor among CMS PageBuilders. Layering allowed users to space containers and components anywhere on a screen with user resizing them either smaller or larger. Wix even developed a mobile phone edit view so one could fit pages Mobile cellphones. But the Wix editor had two problems – Wix screen were not completely responsive. If a Wix screen is resized less than the mobile breakpoint, the desktop screen gets cut-off. In addition scrolling effects in tablet portrait or landscape mode go awry. As well Wix add-ons get midrange ratings and are not as many as for Shopify, WordPress and other CMS. tools. Finally there are template and preset Wix featurs that lack the robustness of other PageBuilders.
So the natural question is – will Editox bring enough improvements to attract a new set of developers and end users.
Editorx Beta
So what does Editorx bring to the improved Wix table. Well certainly an improved responsive editor:
All of the layering capabilities are there – components and and sections can be placed anywhere on screen, resized and positioned with a layer stack available for adjustments. And the placement of elements are fully media query aware so now tablet plus portrait versus landscape mode are supported. And as you can see in the screen shot live editing of text blocks have a robust text edit control bar. Also you can see in the right sidebar a range of styling options are also available.
However, I was surprised to see the styling option broken up into 2 control panels as seen below:
For example, the Image styling options are split into the right sidebar but also the Change Image style bar settings as well. In all of the major WordPress Page Builders the styling options are all contained in the last two tabs in the widgets styling sidebar. But as seen in the My Design left menu, I have access to a wide array of layout tools. In Sections there are a number of special widgets such as Products, Features and Testimonials. In addition there are 5 important Gadgets – Blog, Store. Bookings, Events, Members which have added functionality including templates for use with each of them. Unfortunately I have not been a Wix user of these add-ons to judge how well these gadgets work.
There are a wide range of positive design features in the new Editorx. Resizing handles are available for all containers and most widgets. Couple this with the Stack and Layout implementing smart Flexbox and CSS grid spacing and it is easy to see why Editorx delivers strong responsive design. Behind the scenes users can style at every breakpoint setting fluid, fixed or scale setting for each element/widget. Responsive breakpoint problems have been banished However, this reviewer was surprised to find that a slider is “comming soon” . For a lot of marketing websites for real estate or shopping, Hero sliders with click links are key components.
On the backend , Editorx addresses a number of database issues. Node.js allows for connections to a wide array of third party and local access points and data sources. Joins to the complex of Members, Events, Payments and other gadgets is enhanced with the new Data API. Thus Data Import and Export and new Site Monitoring capabilities should nor be a surprise. But the most important development is the availability of NPM and the Built-in IDE [Corvid] having Elements API – this is the recipe for DIY local development and user customized Web modules. Developers appear to have access to more of the Wix and Editorx Engine. Add in Smart Routers and Data Collections and developers have a wider access to the Wix/Editorx system
As well there are a number of Business Solutions pledges made by Wix But the following screen shot adds a note of caution about the the effectiveness of such commitments:
Note the ratings that Wix users are giving to their own key gadgets and tools. This is sort of like the 2/5 rating for WordPress Gutenberg Visual Editor – a warning for potential users.
Summary
I did develop a quick website in Editorx and was impressed with a)the relative ease of editing given a complex and wide range of tools available including a solid gallery display tool. See the website here – https://jbsurv6.editorx.io/mysite
However, as noted before I was not able to do a comparative test of the new Gadgets like Members, Events, etc. This is too bad because Wild Apricots has a similar line-up of gadgets which will require a future comparative review. Also when I attempted to use the CORVID built-in IDE Editor it was with mixed results.It was nice to have NPM, JS, and Node.js savvy. And the Database and API connections are worth exploring as seen in the EditorX tutorials
Finally I did is produce a multi-section web app in Editorx with the purpose of testing it in Pingdom and GtMetrixThe response time for the app as measured at GTmetrix was 13 seconds, 2.94MB, and 117 requests. Pingdom was better response time at 4,5 seconds but 3.54MB size and 113 requests. Clearly Editorx has response time problems. Also the bet widget tools misbehaved from time to time justifying keeping the program in beta. So expect Editorx to remain beta for a month or two giving me a chance to explore some of the heavy duty gadgets like Members and Events.