Wix Studio 2 features: what's changed since Wix Studio, and what it means for your business

Wix lists 43 features in Studio Two. The list on its own doesn't tell you much.

What matters is which jobs on a build get shorter, and what a business can now ask for that used to cost too much. We went through every item on Wix's own feature list, Get to know the editor. Then we compared it with how we build on Wix Studio today. The short clips in this post are Wix's own, taken from that page and credited under each one.

TL;DR

• A site can now start from a brief. Aria plans it with you and offers three homepage options.

• Breakpoints apply to the whole site, and Auto mobile lays out phones from your desktop design.

• Any element can show CMS or app data, and repeaters are always connected.

• Custom code is standard React. Aria writes it, and you can paste in your own components.

• Content mode and Multilingual make handover and second languages easier.

• For a business, that means a first version sooner, less fixing on phones, and custom features that used to be too expensive.

What's new in Wix Studio 2?

Three changes do most of the work. A site now starts from a brief instead of a blank page. Much of the phone layout happens on its own. And custom code is now standard React, which Aria can write and you can paste in.

Wix groups the 43 features like this:

Editor tools and code make up 21 of the 43. The editor items are mostly about getting around faster. There's an action bar that only shows what you need, one panel for pages, layers and global sections, and a canvas you pan, zoom and resize.

How a site starts: from a brief to three homepages

In the Studio Editor, a build starts from a template or a blank canvas. In Studio Two, it can start from a conversation. Plan mode lets you work through a full site brief with Aria, adding site media, design references and client documents. Aria then generates three homepage options to choose from.

Plan mode in Studio Two. Video: Wix, from its feature page Get to know the editor.

That changes the first meeting. A client can react to a real homepage in their own brand, not a moodboard. [Matt: one line on how we'll use Plan mode with clients, or what happened the first time we tried it.]

Aria designs the desktop layout only, and phones come from Auto mobile. It can also get a layout or a fact wrong, so we check every page it builds before a client sees it. Our guide to building a site with AI in Studio Two covers the steps.

Responsive design: less fixing, screen by screen

In the Studio Editor, there are three breakpoints by default, set per page. In Studio Two, breakpoints apply to the whole site, global sections included, and you can still add your own.

A few more features cut the time spent on phones and tablets:

• Auto mobile. You design on desktop, and the mobile layout adjusts on its own. You fine-tune where it needs it.

• Auto vertical spacing. Wix calls it the Wix Editor's auto push. Layouts adapt as content and screen size change, so elements don't overlap.

• Limit scaling for mobile. Elements stop growing past a set point on large phones.

• Font size per breakpoint and advanced size settings for exact units on every breakpoint.

• CSS grid when a section needs manual control.

Auto mobile in Studio Two. Video: Wix, from its feature page Get to know the editor.

For a business, that means the phone version is less likely to be the part that slips. Our guide to Auto Mobile in Studio Two explains when it switches off.

Design: styles, AI edits and ready-made sections

Site styles hold the brand in one place: fonts, colours, buttons, lines and containers. Change a style and every element using it updates.

AI actions work on the canvas. They improve a layout, rewrite text or edit an image. Smart edits go further with images, changing colours, moving objects or adjusting angles. On 3 November, Wix's Studio Two product page still marked Smart edits as coming soon, so check it's on your account.

AI actions in Studio Two. Video: Wix, from its feature page Get to know the editor.

Designed sections and pages are responsive layouts you can change completely. Draw element puts a box on the canvas at the exact size and position you draw. The parts picker lets you design one part of an element that's made of several.

Content and data: any element, connected

In the Studio Editor, CMS content comes through datasets, and each item gets its page through dynamic pages. In Studio Two, you connect any element straight to a data source: the CMS, a Wix app's business data or your own code. Aria can make those connections too.

Connecting elements to data in Studio Two. Video: Wix, from its feature page Get to know the editor.

Dynamic repeaters are always connected to data. Each item shows its own CMS content in the same layout, and an item can hold videos, multi-state boxes or even another repeater.

That's the setup behind sites that clients keep up to date themselves. Aldenham Residential's site runs 30 development pages and 89 plot pages from three CMS collections, and their team updates prices and availability. We built that on Wix Studio. Studio Two connects the same kind of structure element by element. Our guide to CMS data sources in Studio Two shows how.

Code: standard React, and Aria writes it with you

This is the biggest change for developers. Studio Two has no Velo, no page code and no $w. Wix code is now standard React, with the components and hooks developers already know.

What's in the code side:

• Built-in IDE. A browser version of VS Code, separate for each user, with live collaboration and revision history.

• Generative code. Ask Aria to write code, answer questions or fix a problem. The code it writes is plain source you can open and edit.

• Generate elements. Describe an element, upload code or attach an image, and Aria adds it to the site.

• Import React component. Paste or upload a component file and it becomes an element you can edit on the canvas.

• Code extensions. React components, data sources, function libraries, embedded scripts, site plugins, dashboard pages and backend extensions.

• Custom CSS. Add your own CSS straight to the site.

• Wix MCP. Gives an AI agent access to Wix's docs, coding skills and your Business Manager. We already use it in our own work.

• Import and export site code (Beta). Export the site as a React project, work on it in any AI tool or code editor, then import it back.

Generative code with Aria in Studio Two. Video: Wix, from its feature page Get to know the editor.

For a business, this is where "we can't afford that" starts to change. A quote calculator, a product configurator or a custom booking step used to mean Velo developer time. Now it can be built as a React component, generated or pasted in, and placed on the canvas like any other element. On our own site we built two calculators and a chat-style brief builder in code. In Studio Two, that kind of feature sits inside the editor.

Importing a React component in Studio Two. Video: Wix, from its feature page Get to know the editor.

The limits matter. Studio Two has no Velo yet, and outside services can't send webhooks to your site. Backend code runs on the same fixed limits on every plan. Export doesn't work yet on sites with item pages. Our guide to exporting a Studio Two site to code has the details.

Motion: Ani-Mate, Brik and scroll effects

Ani-Mate turns a section into a layered animation from a description, with no code, and you can fine-tune every detail. Brik integration adds a library of motion graphics and interactive pieces you can adjust. Scroll in and out gives the same element different animations as it enters and leaves the screen.

Ani-Mate in Studio Two. Video: Wix, from its feature page Get to know the editor.

Wix is rolling these out in stages. On 3 November its product page still listed Ani-Mate and Brik as coming soon, so we check they're on an account before we promise them. Our guide to Ani-Mate in Studio Two covers how it works.

Handover and growth: Content mode and Multilingual

Content mode lets clients update content without accidentally changing the design. [Matt: one line on how we hand sites over today, and what Content mode changes.]

Content mode in Studio Two. Video: Wix, from its feature page Get to know the editor.

Multilingual translates a site into more than 180 languages, by hand or with auto-translate for over 130, without changing the design. We run our own site in English and Polish, so we know how much work a second language adds.

Multilingual in Studio Two. Video: Wix, from its feature page Get to know the editor.

Site overview puts the domain, favicon, SEO, accessibility, social sharing and analytics in one place. And bringing a Harmony site into Studio Two is coming soon. The original site stays live until you publish the Studio Two version.

What Wix Studio 2 means for your business

You see a first version sooner, the phone version needs less fixing, and custom features cost less to add. This is how each one lands:

Less build time usually means one of two things: a lower bill, or more site for the same budget. [Matt: one real comparison from a Studio Two build, in hours or price, against a similar Wix Studio build. Don't publish the cost line without it.]

Faster isn't automatic, though. Aria gets a first draft on the page quickly, and the time saved there goes into checking it, the SEO and the content. A site built in an afternoon and never checked usually gets rebuilt.

What Wix Studio 2 still can't do

Most of what Velo did isn't in Studio Two's first release: datasets, page code, routers, scheduled jobs, data hooks and HTTP functions. There are no comments on the canvas yet either. If your site relies on any of those, stay on Wix Studio for now. Our guide What Wix Studio Two can't do yet keeps the full list. Our post on how to prepare your Wix site for Wix Studio 2 covers what to do in the meantime.

[Matt: one or two lines on what we've built or tested in Studio Two so far.]

If you want to know what Studio Two could do for your site, see our Wix Studio 2 service or book a free call and we'll tell you straight.

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