Platform Lock-In and Exporting Your Content

The short answer: self-hosted WordPress lets you take the whole site; Webflow, Squarespace and Shopify let you export content or product data but not the design or store; Wix keeps the site on its own servers and exports collection data only. Whatever you use, keep master copies of content and images outside the platform and own your domain in your own name. The table below sets out each platform's own export rules.

What lock-in means for a website

Lock-in is the cost of leaving. For a website it shows up in three places: content you cannot export in a usable form, design you cannot take with you, and features that depend on one vendor's apps. The cost is seldom nothing at all, even on open platforms, but it ranges from an afternoon of copying files to rebuilding a site from scratch.

Lock-in is not automatically bad. Hosted builders trade portability for convenience, and that trade can suit a business well. The point is to make it knowingly, and to keep the parts of your site that matter most in a form you control.

Export options by platform

The sources for each row are listed at the bottom of this page. Platforms change their export features, so check the current help article before you rely on any single line.

The three layers of a site

It helps to think of a website as three layers, each with its own portability.

1. Content: words, images, products, posts. This is the most valuable layer and, on the platforms in the table above except Wix's editor pages, the most exportable, at least as a spreadsheet or XML file.
2. Structure: page templates, navigation, the way content is laid out. No platform in the table exports it in a form another platform can use; it is rebuilt.
3. Features: forms, bookings, search, member areas, shop logic. These depend on the platform or its apps and are replaced, not moved.

So the real question is not "can I export?" but "how much of my content survives, and how long will rebuilding the other two layers take?"

How to keep your options open

You can reduce future lock-in on any platform with a few habits:

• Keep a master copy of key content outside the platform. Product data in a spreadsheet, articles in documents, original images in a folder you own.
• Own your domain in your own name through a registrar account you control, not only through the website platform.
• Use the export tools once a quarter and look at the result. An export you have never opened is not a backup.
• Prefer standard formats. CSV, XML and plain image files can be read by any future system.
• Note which features come from apps. Each one is a piece you will have to replace if you move.

Moving off each platform, in practice

The export rules translate into very different amounts of work:

• From WordPress to another WordPress host: copy the files and database, point the domain, test. For a modest site this can be done in a day.
• From Squarespace to WordPress: import the XML file for pages and one blog, then rebuild store, portfolio and other page types that did not export, and reapply the design.
• From Webflow: export Collection items as CSV, rebuild the templates on the new platform, import the CSV files and check every item, then set up redirects for every Collection page address.
• From Wix: export any CMS collections as CSV, copy text and images out by hand, and rebuild every page on the new platform.
• From Shopify: export products as CSV, fetch product images while the old store is still live, export orders for your records, then rebuild the theme and replace app features.

In every case the redirects step from the migration guide applies, because page addresses almost always change.

A quarterly export routine

Testing your exit regularly costs little and tells you exactly what you would have if you needed to leave. Once a quarter:

1. Run every export the platform offers: content XML, collection CSV files, product lists, orders.
2. Open each file and spot-check that recent items are present and readable.
3. Download original images you have added since the last export, keeping their file names.
4. Save everything to storage you control, with the date in the folder name.
5. Note anything that did not export, so you know what a future move would need to rebuild.

On self-hosted software, the equivalent is a full backup of the database and files, restored once in a while to a test location to prove it works.

Questions to ask before signing up

• What does the platform's own help center say you can export, and in what format?
• Can you export everything at once, or only one section at a time?
• Do exports include images, or only links to images hosted by the platform?
• Which of your planned features come from third-party apps rather than the platform itself?
• Is your domain registered in your own account, separate from the website platform?

Domains, email and other loose ends

Content is not the only thing tied to a platform. Three other pieces cause trouble in a move if nobody thought about them early:

• The domain name. If you bought it through the website platform, find out how to transfer it out, how long that takes and whether the platform charges for it. Registering the domain with a separate registrar from the start keeps it separate from any website decision.
• Email. Business email set up through the platform or the same account as the domain may stop working, or need reconfiguring, when you change providers. Note which service runs your mailboxes and where its settings live.
• Connected services. Payment accounts, booking systems, email marketing lists and analytics can be linked to the platform by a plugin or app. List each one, who owns the account and how it would reconnect to a new site.

A single page listing these, kept with your logins, turns a stressful migration into a checklist.

When lock-in is worth accepting

A hosted builder makes sense when the cost of leaving is lower than the cost of running something yourself. A ten-page service business site might take a few days to rebuild elsewhere, which is a fair price for years without server work. A content library of hundreds of articles or a store with thousands of products is different; there, export quality matters a great deal, and open software such as WordPress or a headless CMS deserves a close look.

If you are already on a platform and planning to leave, the migration guide explains how to protect your search traffic during the move, and the migration planner builds a dated checklist.

Sources for this page

1. WordPress.org: About. Official source, read November 4, 2026.
2. Webflow Help Center: How do I export my Webflow site code?. Official source, read November 4, 2026.
3. Webflow Help Center: Collection items overview. Official source, read November 4, 2026.
4. Wix Help Center: Exporting or Embedding Your Wix Site Elsewhere. Official source, read November 4, 2026.
5. Wix Help Center: CMS: Exporting Content from Your Collection. Official source, read November 4, 2026.
6. Squarespace Help Center: Export your site content. Official source, read November 4, 2026.
7. Squarespace Help Center: Export Commerce orders. Official source, read November 4, 2026.
8. Shopify Help Center: Exporting products. Official source, read November 4, 2026.
9. Shopify Help Center: Exporting orders. Official source, read November 4, 2026.
10. Strapi: Strapi pricing (self-hosted CMS). Official source, read November 4, 2026.