About Self-Hosted Apps

Wix apps are packages of reusable functionality that Wix users can add to their sites. They can contain anything from a simple site widget to a full-stack business solution, complete with backend logic, user interfaces, and databases. Learn more about Wix apps.

When developing an app with the SDK, we recommend hosting your app on Wix's servers using one of Wix's native frameworks: Wix Blocks or the Wix CLI. These platforms provide a superior development experience for most use cases.

However, if necessary, you also have the option of self-hosting your app outside of Wix.

Before deciding to self-host your app, you should consider the benefits of using Wix's native frameworks:

Advantages of Wix's native frameworks

Using Wix's native frameworks offers the following general advantages:

• Your app is hosted on Wix's cloud services, so server setup, maintenance, scaling, and security are all handled by Wix.
• Authentication is much simpler for apps within the Wix ecosystem.

Each native framework also has its own unique benefits, such as the Wix Blocks visual editor and the CLI's local previews. For more information about the benefits of these frameworks see About Wix Blocks and About the CLI for Apps.

Self-hosting considerations

Self-hosting your app gives you the freedom to use the tech stack of your choice, which may be the best fit for your use case. However, there are several factors to consider:

• You will need to build and host your app's features independently, integrating them with Wix using the Wix Dev Center.
• You will need to manually initialize and use a Wix Client. A Wix Client is used to call functionality from the Wix JavaScript SDK and manage the authentication of SDK calls. In Wix-hosted apps, such as apps created with the Wix CLI or Blocks, the framework can initialize and use the client for you, including choosing the authentication strategy.

Migrating to Wix's native frameworks

Even if you started development using the self-hosted framework, you can always continue developing your app using Wix Blocks or the Wix CLI.

For more information, see instructions for working with an existing app in Wix Blocks or The Wix CLI.