Wix published an article on August 26, 2026, titled “How to make a website in an AI coding tool”, discussing the difference between AI coding tools that give you actual code and AI website builders that create websites inside a hosted platform.
Near the end of the article, in the “Making a website in an AI coding tool FAQ” section, Wix answers the question:
“Who owns the code an AI tool writes?”
Their answer:
“Ownership matters less than portability.”
Wix then recommends you to “check that you can export your files and move them elsewhere, because that is what determines how stuck you are if the tool changes direction.”
That’s good advice.
There’s just one problem.
You cannot export a Wix website and host it somewhere else.
As Wix’s own Help Center explains, a Wix website must be hosted and operated on Wix’s servers because of its SaaS architecture and proprietary technology.
So there is the irony:
Wix is telling people to care about portability while a Wix website itself isn’t portable to another host.
Owning Your Content Isn’t the Same as Owning a Portable Website
Like other website builders, Wix says that the content you build on its platform belongs to you.
That’s different from saying you can take the functioning website somewhere else.
You can own your content.
You can own your domain.
But the website itself still runs on Wix’s infrastructure.
You can transfer your domain away from Wix, but that doesn’t transfer the website with it.
Your domain is the address. Your website is what runs behind the address.
If you leave Wix, you can take the address.
You cannot take the Wix website and simply upload it to another hosting company.
That’s what portability means in practical terms: you can move the website itself.
Other SaaS Website Builders Don’t Let You Take the Complete Website With You Either
Wix isn’t the only SaaS website builder with this limitation.
The important distinction is between website-building software you can host yourself and a hosted SaaS platform where the website depends on the company’s infrastructure.
With Wix, you can’t export the website and move it to another host.
Webflow lets you export HTML, CSS, JavaScript and assets, but its export leaves out major platform functionality such as CMS content and functionality, User Accounts, ecommerce functionality, site search and native form processing.
Squarespace lets you export certain content, but not the complete Squarespace website and its functionality.
Shopify lets you export store data and download themes, but a downloaded theme isn’t a complete Shopify store. You still need to recreate the store on another platform.
Framer doesn’t provide traditional HTML export for self-hosting.
The details are different, but the important question is the same:
Can you take the complete, functioning website and move it to another hosting company?
If you can’t, then you’re not actually transferring the website. And that’s the huge drawback of SaaS builders.
Switching hosts means you’re migrating away from the platform and rebuilding the website somewhere else, using whatever content, assets, code or data the platform lets you take with you.
That’s fundamentally different from a website you can simply move from one server to another.
Related: The Hidden Risk of SaaS Website Builders: Lessons from the Recent Wix Outage
Why So Many Businesses Are Switching from Hosted Platforms to Self-Hosted Builders
AI Doesn’t Change the Portability Question
AI is making website creation dramatically easier.
An AI coding tool can generate actual files in a project. You can inspect those files, modify them and move them to another environment.
A hosted AI website builder can also create a website from a prompt, but the resulting website may exist inside the platform itself.
To a beginner, the process can look almost identical:
Type a prompt → AI builds a website → Publish.
But what you have afterward can be completely different.
With one approach, you may have a website codebase you control.
With the other, you may have a website that depends on the platform that created it.
AI can build the website. But it doesn’t automatically give you control of the website.
What Should You Ask Before Choosing a Website Builder?
Don’t just ask:
“How quickly can it build my website?”
Ask:
- Can I download the actual website files?
- Can I access the database?
- Can I host the website somewhere else?
- Can I move to another hosting company?
- Will my forms still work if I leave?
- Will my ecommerce functionality still work?
- Will my CMS still work?
- Can another developer take over the website?
- Can I restore the complete website from a backup?
- What happens to my data if I cancel?
The answers tell you how much control you actually have.
That may not matter much when you’re experimenting with a website.
It matters a lot when the website becomes the home of your business.
A Different Model: Website-Building Software You Control
This is one of the fundamental differences between a hosted website-building service and website-building software.
With UltimateWB, you download the website-building software and build your website using it. You can host with UltimateWB or the hosting company of your choice rather than being required to host it on UltimateWB’s infrastructure.
You have access to the website files and database, so you can move the website to another server or hosting company.
That’s portability.
You’re not simply being told that you own your content.
You control the website and where it runs.
And that’s important because a business website isn’t just content. It’s an asset that you may need to maintain, modify, back up, move or hand over to another developer for years.
Your Website Shouldn’t Be Trapped by the Tool You Used to Build It
A website can be beautifully designed, packed with features and built in minutes with AI.
None of that answers the most important question:
Who controls the website once it’s built?
If the website only works on the platform that created it, you’re dependent on that platform.
If the platform changes its pricing, features, policies or technology, you have to adapt.
And if you decide to leave, you will not be taking your website with you. You may be taking your content, your images and perhaps some exported code – and then rebuilding the website somewhere else.
That’s a very different kind of ownership.
With website-building software that lets you access and host the actual website yourself, you have another option.
You can choose where the website runs. You can change hosting companies. You can change developers. You can keep working with the website even if the company that created the software changes direction.
That’s why portability isn’t some technical detail to worry about after you’ve built your website.
It’s a choice you make before you build it.
And that’s the question we’d ask before choosing any website builder – AI-powered or not:
If I decide to leave, can I take my website with me?
If the answer is no, understand that before you build your business on it.
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Looking for a website builder that you can host anywhere you want? Learn more about UltimateWB! We also offer web design packages if you would like your website designed and built for you.
Got a techy/website question? Whether it’s about UltimateWB or another website builder, web hosting, or other aspects of websites, just send in your question in the “Ask David!” form. We will email you when the answer is posted on the UltimateWB “Ask David!” section.