Wix website-building platform comes to Office 365

Two weeks ago I had never heard of Wix.com. The first I heard of the website platform was it’s commercial during Super Bowl XLIX:

I am much more familiar with Weebly–which offers a similar set of features and capabilities. Weebly has a commercial too:

I have not used either service beyond just glancing over the websites to see what they offer. I have heard anecdotally that Weebly is a better service, with better support, but I can’t speak to that personally. Check them both out and decide for yourself.

What I can say is that Wix has a distinct advantage now thanks to this partnership with Microsoft. It doesn’t really matter if Weebly or some other platform is better. What matters is that Wix is integrated with Office 365 so it’s the path of least resistance for Office 365 customers looking to build or host a website:

Microsoft announced that it has teamed up with Wix.com. Wix will be integrated with Office 365, and customers will be able to select Wix as a web-hosting provider — or just use Wix to build a website to be hosted with Microsoft.

Natalie Gagliordi pointed out that the Wix fills a web development void that was created when Microsoft shut down the Public Website feature of SharePoint. Microsoft didn’t feel the service was getting enough use to warrant continued investment and support.

Apparently, there is enough demand, however, that Microsoft felt it necessary to partner with a third-party to provide that service for Office 365 customers.

What is Wix?

Good question. According to a press release:

“Wix enables anyone to create a complete and professional online presence, as well as manage and grow their business from a single cloud-based platform. Wix.com offers a comprehensive web creation solution, including hundreds of designer-made templates, an intuitive drag-and-drop website editor, the ability to integrate business management applications through the Wix App Market, mobile and e-commerce capabilities, and much more.”I had never heard of Wix before this year’s Super Bowl. I actually watch the Super Bowl for the football — but, like millions of other viewers, I’m also anxious to see what kind of marketing magic will be unveiled during the commercial breaks. One of the commercials that stood out to me during Super Bowl XLIX was for Wix.com.

The clever ad showed a number of well known ex-NFL stars launching unique businesses and building their own websites using Wix.com. The tagline for the ad was “It’s that easy.”

Now, Office 365 customers are going to get to find out just how easy “that easy” really is.

Go crazy

As Wix mentioned in the press release, it has hundreds of HTML5 templates to choose from. You can simply drag-and-drop elements to create a professional-looking website without writing a single line of code.

Read the complete article at TechRepublic: Microsoft and Wix partner to bring simple website development to Office 365.