Wix grows revenue 13% but cuts its full-year free-cash-flow outlook (NASDAQ: WIX)

What happened

Wix.com Ltd. (NASDAQ: WIX) grew third-quarter revenue 13% to $570.2 million but cut its full-year free-cash-flow margin outlook.

The company now expects a full-year free-cash-flow margin of approximately 16%, excluding acquisition-related and restructuring costs. It had expected a high-teens margin. Wix blamed the cut mainly on faster sales and marketing spending on Base44, the no-code application platform it acquired in 2025.

Revenue guidance is unchanged. Wix still expects full-year revenue to grow at a low- to mid-teens percentage and bookings at a low-teens percentage. Third-quarter bookings were $573.0 million, up 11%. Total ARR ended the quarter at $2.02 billion, up 15%.

Key numbers

Metric	Latest	Change	Source
Q3 revenue	$570.2 million	from $505.19 million, +13%	SEC 6-K, Exhibit 99.1
Q3 bookings	$573.0 million	from $514.54 million, +11%	SEC 6-K, Exhibit 99.1
Q3 free cash flow	$74.47 million	from $127.28 million, -41.5%	Calculated from SEC 6-K, Exhibit 99.1
Total ARR at quarter end	$2.02 billion	from $1.76 billion, +15%	SEC 6-K, Exhibit 99.1
Q3 non-GAAP operating margin	12%	from 18%, -6 percentage points	Calculated from SEC 6-K, Exhibit 99.1
Base44 Q3 non-GAAP gross margin	58%		SEC 6-K, Exhibit 99.1

Read more: Wix.com (WIX) company research

Where Base44 stands

Wix says Base44 pushed revenue and bookings ahead of plan. Base44 ARR is nearing $250 million, which the company ties to strong demand and faster marketing spending.

Retention is improving. The earliest Base44 cohort, now a year old, renewed above Wix's expectations at the 12-month mark on both monthly and annual plans. Renewal rates rose with each later cohort. Annual plans made up more than 20% of subscriptions bought by the September 2026 cohort, up from 5% for September 2025.

Margins moved faster. Base44 non-GAAP gross margin reached 58% in the third quarter, up from near-zero in the first. Wix links the gain to its own Base 1 model. The company expects 60% for the second half and above 60% in the fourth quarter. Total non-GAAP gross margin was 69%, the same as a year earlier.

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Why it matters

Growth is currently costing cash. By OptimistFi's calculation, third-quarter revenue rose $64.97 million from a year earlier, while free cash flow fell $52.81 million, or 41.5%, to $74.47 million from $127.28 million.

Selling and marketing is the visible pressure. GAAP expense in that line reached $193.19 million, up 40.6% from $137.43 million a year earlier by OptimistFi's calculation. That is much faster than revenue. Non-GAAP operating margin slipped to 12% from 18%. The GAAP net loss was $13.7 million, or $0.32 a share, versus a $0.6 million loss a year earlier.

Excluding acquisition-related and restructuring costs, free cash flow was $99.6 million, or 17% of revenue, against $159.4 million a year earlier.

OptimistFi has argued that Wix creates value when AI-assisted creation becomes high-margin, cash-generating subscriptions without a return to heavy reinvestment losses. Base44's margin climb supports the first half of that view. The lower cash outlook and the GAAP loss test the second.

The filing also limits how fast ARR becomes cash. Most Base44 subscriptions are billed monthly, so Wix expects ARR momentum to reach bookings and revenue only gradually over the coming quarters.

A second chief executive

Wix named Nir Zohar, its co-founder and president, Co-CEO alongside Avishai Abrahami, effective immediately. Zohar has been chief operating officer since 2008 and president since 2013.

Zohar will lead business strategy, go-to-market and operations. Abrahami will focus on product, AI and technology. The split puts the sales and marketing spending that is squeezing cash flow under one of the two leaders.

What's next

For the fourth quarter, Wix expects revenue to grow at a low-double-digits percentage. It expects bookings growth to lag revenue growth because Partners softness hits sooner.

The company plans to put more of Base44's gross-margin gains into sales and marketing in the quarter. It also expects a $10 million working-capital headwind from prepaying for the GPUs that run its models for the next couple of years.

The next test is Wix's fourth-quarter 2026 report. Base44 non-GAAP gross margin above 60% and a full-year free-cash-flow margin near the approximately 16% target would support the case. A miss on either would weaken it.

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