Where apps fit in to Wix

Before starting, it’s important to understand the different parts of the Wix ecosystem and the types of apps that you can build for them. Whether your app helps a user manage their business through a site dashboard on the backend or adds a useful widget to their Wix website, our platform makes it possible to integrate seamlessly, wherever your app fits in.

About third-party apps in Wix

Wix provides an open platform that allows third-party apps to extend the functionality of different parts of the Wix ecosystem. This includes extensions to frontend interfaces such as live sites and Wix site editors, as well as backend services such as data management. Whether your app helps a user manage their business through a site dashboard on the backend or adds a useful widget to their website, our platform makes it possible to integrate seamlessly. Before starting development, it's important to understand the types of apps you can build for different parts of the Wix ecosystem and the many developer tools Wix provides for you to develop your app.

Your app can offer a wide variety of capabilities to Wix site owners, as we'll explain below.

Wix’s frontend interfaces

Frontend interfaces include everything site visitors see and do on a site, as well as everything site owners see and do to manage the site and their business. Wix defines these as:

  • Live site: Everything site visitors see and do on the customer-facing site. As a third-party app developer, you can:
    • Add visual components to a live site, including pages, widgets, and pop-ups.
    • Run background code on each page of a live site, to track site visitor activity and manage background tasks.
  • Editors: Everything site admins see and do to manage the live site’s visual components. As a third-party app developer, you can add tools that site owners can use to design their site. Wix currently supports 3 editors:
    • Wix Studio
    • Wix Editor
    • Editor X - partially deprecated
      As an app developer, you can:
    • Add app panels, such as to customize the appearance and behavior of the live site widgets that your app provides.
    • Add and manage action bar buttons that customize extensions.
  • Dashboard: Everything site admins see and do to manage their site’s backend and their business. As a third-party app developer, you can:
    • Add dashboard pages, such as settings pages for your app.
    • Add slot widgets to specific Wix-managed business pages.

Wix’s backend capabilities

Backend capabilities include everything that keeps the site running, including application, server, and database. As an app developer, you can use:

  • APIs: Wix APIs allow access to the resources of a Wix account and/or website.
  • Webhooks: Register and listen to webhooks in order to react to changes in the state of an API entity. Wix will send an HTTPS-POST request to your server URL with the relevant data when an event occurs.
  • SPIs: Customize and extend Wix's ecosystem with Service provider interfaces - APIs intended for implementation by a third party - to enable extensions and replaceable components.
  • Data extensions: Store additional information about each object as extended fields - for example, external identifiers for items synchronized with a third-party platform.
  • Automations: Send automatic emails to site visitors, remind customers about their invoices, create tasks for staff members, and more.
Was this helpful?
Yes
No