Work with Development Sites

You can create and manage development sites from within an app you're building, regardless of the development framework you use.

In this article, you'll learn how to:

Create a development site

You can create a development site in the app dashboard or with the Wix CLI. For the editors and templates you can choose from, see Available editors and templates.

Note: If you've reached the maximum number of development sites, you can't create a new one. To create another, first remove a development site you no longer need.

Install your app on a development site

If you don't have a development site yet, create one first. You can install your app on any development site in your account, including one you just created.

You can install your app on several development sites and test on any of them, for example to compare a different editor or template on each.

Switch your Wix CLI project's development site

Your project keeps using the same development site until you change it.

Note: The CLI saves your selection in your project's .wix/app.config.json file, which Git ignores. Each collaborator on your project therefore selects their own development site.

To switch while your local development environment is running:

  1. Press C to open the Select development site prompt.
  2. Select Select an existing site and choose a site from the list, or create a new development site.
  3. If your app isn't installed on the site you chose, install your app on it. The switch takes effect only once the installation succeeds.

Note: To cancel the switch, press esc. Your project keeps the development site it was already using, even if you've chosen a different one.

To switch without the interactive prompt, such as in a CI job, an AI agent session, or when wix dev isn't running:

  1. Run wix dev-site list to find the site's ID.
  2. Run wix dev-site select <site-id>.

Caution: Both the prompt and wix dev-site list include every site in your account, not only development sites. A regular site doesn't become a development site by being selected, so it only gets Premium and Wix Payments capabilities if it already has a paid Premium plan.

Remove a development site

Removing a development site is only available in the app dashboard, so use the dashboard even when you build with the Wix CLI.

To remove one or more development sites:

  1. Open an app on the Custom Apps page.
  2. Click Test App and select Test on dev site.
  3. If the app was built with the Wix CLI or Wix Blocks, a prompt offers to test through your framework's tooling instead. To continue in the app dashboard, click test from here.
  4. In the Select a development site window, click Remove dev sites.
  5. Select the sites to remove and click Remove.
  6. In the confirmation dialog, click Remove.

Note: Removing the development site a Wix CLI project uses leaves that project without one. The next time you run wix dev, it prompts you to create or select a development site, as it did the first time.

Last updated: 15 September 2026

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