Velo by Wix Pricing: A Developer's Guide to What It Really Costs
Z
Zack Saadioui
8/11/2025
Here’s the thing about diving into a powerful development platform like Velo by Wix: the first question that usually pops into your head is, "Okay, how much is this gonna cost me?" It's a totally fair question. You're looking at this awesome tool that lets you bend a Wix site to your will, add custom code, build your own applications, & connect to any API you want. It feels like it should have a complicated, developer-focused price tag.
You start searching around, maybe you see terms thrown about like "Velo 3," "credits," or "bundles," & it all gets a little confusing. So, let's just clear the air right now. I've spent a ton of time in the Velo environment, & I'm here to give you the straight scoop, the kind of inside knowledge you get from actually using the thing.
First, let's bust a couple of myths. There is no "Velo 3." It's just Velo. It's the current, constantly evolving version of Wix's open development platform. Think of it as Velo, full stop. Second, there's no confusing credit system where you have to buy tokens to run your code. It's MUCH simpler than that, which is honestly a huge relief.
The real answer to the pricing question is both super simple & a little bit layered. Velo itself is technically free. But the power & resources your Velo-driven site has are directly tied to your website's Wix Premium Plan.
Think of it like this: Velo is the engine, but the Wix plan is the chassis, fuel tank, & transmission you put that engine into. You can have the same powerful engine in a basic go-kart or a souped-up race car. The engine is the same, but what you can do with it changes dramatically.
This guide will break it all down. We'll go from the free plan's nitty-gritty limitations to what each premium tier really gets you from a developer's perspective. By the end, you'll know exactly what you need & what you don't, without the marketing fluff.
The Foundation: What You Get with Velo on a FREE Wix Plan
This is where everyone starts, & honestly, it's pretty generous. You can enable Velo on a completely free Wix site & start coding right away. This is HUGE for learning, prototyping, & building personal projects. You get access to the full Velo development experience: the built-in IDE, the ability to write front-end & back-end code, & access to most of the Velo APIs.
But, as you'd expect, there are some hard limits. These are the "go-kart" specs I was talking about. They're totally fine for a spin around the block, but you wouldn't take it on the freeway.
Here’s a detailed look at the resource constraints you'll be working with on a free plan, based on real-world usage & documentation.
Data & Collections
Right off the bat, you'll interact with Wix Data, Velo's built-in database solution. It’s surprisingly capable for being free.
Data Collections: You can create up to 10 different data collections on your site. For a portfolio, a small blog, or a simple business directory, this is often enough.
Database Storage: You can store up to 1,000 items (think of them as rows) across all your collections. Again, for a small project, 1,000 records is a decent amount to play with. But if you're planning a user-generated content site or a large catalog, you'll hit this ceiling FAST.
Backend & Serverless Functions
This is where Velo gets really cool. You get access to a Node.js backend environment without having to manage any servers. But on the free plan, your server is, let's say, modest.
Backend Containers: You get one "micro" backend container. This comes with about 1 vCPU & 400MB of RAM. It's enough to run some basic server-side logic, process a form submission, or make a third-party API call. It's not designed for heavy computations or high-concurrency tasks.
Request Timeouts: This is a big one. Your backend code has a 14-second timeout. If your function takes longer than that to run, it will fail. Similarly, data requests from the client-side have a 5-second timeout.
Scheduled Jobs: You can schedule code to run automatically, which is awesome for maintenance tasks or daily updates. On the free plan, you can have up to 20 scheduled jobs, but they can only run, at most, once per hour.
API & Traffic Limits
Every site, even a free one, has to handle traffic. Wix puts some "fair use" guardrails in place.
Data Request Limits: You're limited to about 1,000 read operations & 60 write operations per minute. For a site with just a few visitors, this is totally fine. But if you have a page that displays a lot of data to every visitor, you can see how you might hit that read limit during a traffic spike.
General API Rate Limits: When you start using Wix APIs more heavily, like building a custom app, you'll run into the general rate limit, which is around 200 requests per minute for a given app instance.
What's Missing on the Free Plan?
The limitations aren't just about numbers; some key features are completely locked until you upgrade.
No External Database Integration: This is probably the biggest one for developers. If you want to connect your Velo site to a MySQL, Postgres, or any other external database, you can't do it on the free plan.
No Dedicated Infrastructure: Your free site shares server resources with other free sites. This can sometimes lead to performance fluctuations if you're on a "noisy" server.
No Data Indexing: You can't create custom indexes on your data collections to speed up complex queries.
A Big, Obvious Wix Ad: And of course, the most visible limitation: you'll have a Wix banner ad plastered at the top of your site, & your domain will be a Wix-branded one (e.g.,
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yourname.wixsite.com/mysite
). This is usually the main non-technical reason people upgrade.
The Upgrade Path: How Wix Premium Plans Supercharge Velo
Okay, so you've built a cool prototype on the free plan, & now you're ready to get serious. This is where the Wix Premium Plans come in. Upgrading doesn't just remove the Wix ad & give you a custom domain; it directly impacts the resources available to Velo.
The tricky part is that Wix doesn't publish a neat little table saying, "The Core plan gives you X more RAM." Instead, the benefits are a mix of specific feature unlocks & a general increase in "power" & robustness. Let's walk through the main plans & what they mean for a Velo developer.
Wix Light Plan ($17/month approx.)
The Light plan is the first step up. Think of it as the most basic "real website" package.
What it's for: Personal sites, portfolios, blogs that need a professional look.
Key Benefits:
Removes Wix Ads: This is the big one. Your site looks professional.
Custom Domain: You can connect your own domain name (e.g.,
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mycoolsite.com
).
Increased Storage: You get 2GB of general storage space. This is for your site's media (images, files), not to be confused with your database storage, but it's a step up.
Velo Impact: The direct impact on Velo's computational resources isn't massive here. You're still on the standard shared infrastructure. However, by removing the ads & allowing a custom domain, it makes any Velo project you've built viable for a real audience. This is the plan for when your Velo-powered blog or portfolio is ready to go live.
Wix Core Plan ($29/month approx.)
This is where things start to get interesting for developers building more than just a simple site. The Core plan is the first tier that introduces e-commerce & other business tools.
What it's for: Small businesses, online stores, sites that need to take payments or bookings.
Key Benefits:
E-commerce Enabled: You can start selling products. This unlocks a whole suite of e-commerce APIs in Velo that are useless on the Light plan.
50GB of Storage: A significant jump in media storage.
Basic Site Analytics & Marketing: You get tools to see who is visiting your site.
Accepts Payments: You can use Wix Bookings, Events, & other payment-related apps.
Velo Impact: THIS is a major turning point. The Core plan is often the minimum requirement to unlock those crucial advanced Velo features. While Wix is cagey about the exact specs, this is the tier where you generally get access to:
External Database Integration: The ability to connect your site to an external data source. This is a game-changer for serious web applications.
Increased Resources: You're on a better slice of the shared infrastructure. Your site can handle more traffic & more complex backend operations before hitting limits. Your API call limits are generally higher, or at least, the system is more tolerant.
More Data: While not explicitly stated, the database item limit is effectively raised because the platforms assume e-commerce sites will have thousands of products, orders, & customers.
If you're building an interactive web app, a small SaaS, or a custom e-commerce experience with Velo, the Core plan is your starting line.
Building Interactive Experiences with Velo & Arsturn
When you reach the Core plan & beyond, you're not just building a static website. You're creating an interactive experience. Velo gives you the power to code custom user journeys, dynamic pages, & complex forms. But what about the most fundamental interaction: conversation?
This is a perfect place to think about tools that complement Velo's strengths. For instance, you could use Velo to pull user data & then trigger a highly personalized interaction. But for the interaction itself, especially for customer service & engagement, you might want a specialized, no-code solution. This is where a platform like Arsturn comes in.
While you could try to build a rudimentary chatbot from scratch with Velo, it's an immense amount of work. Instead, you can use Velo to handle the core site logic & then integrate a purpose-built AI chatbot. With Arsturn, you can build a no-code AI chatbot trained on your own business data. It can be added to your Wix site to:
Provide instant, 24/7 customer support.
Answer detailed questions about your products or services.
Engage with website visitors, capture leads, & book appointments.
It's a perfect example of using the right tool for the job. Use Velo for the deep, structural customization of your site, & use Arsturn to handle the conversational AI layer, creating a seamless & powerful user experience without having to code every single interaction.
Wix Business & Business Elite Plans ($36 - $159/month approx.)
These higher tiers are about scaling. They are for established businesses with significant traffic & operational needs.
What they're for: Growing e-commerce stores, larger businesses, sites with high traffic.
Key Benefits:
Massive Storage: The Business plan gives you 100GB, & Business Elite gives you unlimited storage.
Advanced E-commerce: Features like multiple currencies, automated sales tax, & advanced shipping become available.
Priority Support: This is a big one. When your site is mission-critical, you can skip the line & get help faster. Business Elite comes with VIP support.
Velo Impact: The impact here is all about performance & reliability.
Dedicated Infrastructure: As you move into these higher plans, especially Enterprise, you're moving towards more dedicated resources. Your site is less affected by other users, leading to more consistent performance. This is CRUCIAL for Velo applications that perform complex backend tasks. A slow, variable backend can kill a user experience.
Higher API Limits: While the public-facing limit might be the same, a call to support from a Business Elite customer who is hitting a limit is going to get a much different response than a free user. You have leverage to get your limits increased.
Robustness for Scale: These plans are built to handle more concurrent users, more database queries, & more complex Velo code execution without breaking a sweat. If your Velo-powered app starts to take off, you'll need to be on one of these plans to ensure it stays fast & responsive.
Enterprise Plans (Custom Pricing)
If you're running a massive operation like Clarins or Vevo (both of whom use Wix), you're on an Enterprise plan. Here, everything is custom. You have a dedicated account manager, custom features, & a service-level agreement (SLA). From a Velo perspective, you're essentially getting a tailored environment with resource limits configured specifically for your application's needs.
So, Which Plan is Right for Your Velo Project?
Let's distill it all down into a simple decision framework.
Are you just learning Velo, building a personal project, or creating a prototype?
Stick with the Free Plan. It's more than enough. Master the environment here before you spend a dime.
Are you building a professional portfolio, a blog, or a simple brochure site that needs some custom Velo flair (e.g., custom animations, unique layouts)?
The Light Plan is your sweet spot. It gets rid of the ads & gives you a professional domain.
Are you building a true web application? Does it involve e-commerce, user logins, saving data, or connecting to external APIs?
Start with the Core Plan. This is the minimum viable plan for any serious Velo application. It unlocks the key developer features you absolutely need.
Is your Velo application growing? Are you seeing increased traffic, or is the backend starting to feel sluggish? Are you an established business that needs advanced e-commerce features?
Upgrade to the Business or Business Elite Plan. You're paying for performance, scale, & priority support. Don't wait for your site to start failing under load before you make this jump.
The Business Case for Upgrading: Lead Generation & Automation
It's also important to frame the cost not just as an expense, but as an investment in capability. A more powerful plan lets you build more sophisticated business solutions.
For example, with the resources of a Business plan, you could use Velo to create a complex, multi-step lead qualification form. You could integrate it with a CRM via Velo's
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fetch
API. But what happens after the lead is captured?
This is another area where smart integrations are key. For businesses focused on maximizing every lead, a platform like Arsturn is a natural fit. You can use your Velo-powered site to attract visitors, & then deploy a conversational AI chatbot from Arsturn to engage them. Arsturn helps businesses build no-code AI chatbots trained on their own data, which can:
Proactively engage visitors who are lingering on a pricing page.
Ask qualifying questions in a natural, conversational way.
Book demos or meetings directly into a calendar.
Boost conversions by providing immediate answers & assistance.
By combining a Velo-powered site with an Arsturn chatbot, you're not just building a website; you're building an automated lead generation & customer engagement machine. The investment in a higher-tier Wix plan becomes justified because it supports a more powerful, revenue-generating tech stack.
Final Thoughts
So, there you have it. Velo pricing isn't about credits or weird, complex tiers. It's about matching the power of your website's hosting plan to the ambition of your development project.
You can start for free, which is amazing. You can run a professional-looking custom site for a very reasonable monthly cost. & as your needs grow, the platform provides a clear (if not always explicitly detailed) path to scale up your resources.
The key is to be realistic about your needs. Don't pay for the Business Elite plan if you're just building a blog. But DON'T try to run a complex e-commerce app on the free plan—you'll just be in for a world of frustration. Start where you need to be, & don't be afraid to upgrade as soon as your project's success demands it.
Hope this was helpful & cleared up some of the fog around how Velo & Wix pricing work together. It's a pretty cool system once you get the hang of it. Let me know what you think.