I ran Wix through my website audit tool. Even the "make websites easy" company has UX gaps.
Been building BurnRate, a tool that audits websites for conversion issues, and wanted to test it against a company whose entire business is website building: Wix.
Score: 74/100. Here's what stood out.
Conversion Flow & CTAs: 58/100
Multiple "Get Started" buttons exist on the page, but they're not consistently prominent. Visitors don't always have a clear next step.
Visual Hierarchy: 60/100
A lot of sections compete for attention on the homepage, which makes it harder to know what to look at first.
Mobile: 59/100
4.4s load time against a 2.5s target. That's real friction before someone even sees the page.
What's interesting is none of this is about bad design, Wix's homepage looks polished. It's about hierarchy and clarity, which are easy to lose track of even when you know what you're doing.
Curious if anyone here has run their own site through something similar, or has thoughts on the tradeoffs between "visually rich" and "conversion clear."
Link to the app is in the comments 👇
Interesting approach.One thing I’d be curious about is whether the product is really auditing pages, or auditing decisions.A homepage can look polished and still leave visitors uncertain about what to do next.If BurnRate could consistently identify the moments where user confidence drops — not just UX issues — that feels like a stronger position.Curious how you think about the difference between finding UX problems and helping founders decide what to change first.
Good distinction. Right now BurnRate scores UX/conversion criteria (hierarchy, CTAs, trust signals, etc.), but you're right that's a proxy, not the thing itself. The real signal is "where does someone hesitate or bail," which UX issues often cause but aren't identical to. Still figuring out how to measure that directly vs. inferring it from design patterns. If you've seen tools that nail this distinction, I'd love examples.
The closest examples are Clarity, Hotjar, and PostHog. None of them really measure confidence directly, but they get closer through rage/dead clicks, quick backs, repeated attempts, exits, and session replays.A small test before building a new metric: take 3 BurnRate audits from sites already using one of them and mark each top recommendation as matched / no match / unclear against 10–20 sessions. That should show whether the highest-priority findings line up with real hesitation.Do any of the sites you’ve audited already have Clarity or Hotjar data you could compare against?
Sorry for the late reply!
Not yet, none of the sites I've audited so far have Clarity or Hotjar installed that I know of. Good nudge though, I'll start checking for that when picking test sites so I can actually run that comparison.
One thing I'd keep an eye on is whether the product is auditing pages or auditing decisions.
A homepage can have perfect design and still make visitors hesitate. If BurnRate consistently identifies the moments where confidence drops—not just where UX guidelines are violated—that feels like a much stronger position.
Fair point, and it's the harder problem. Right now it's auditing pages against UX/conversion patterns, not directly measuring where confidence actually drops. Those overlap a lot but aren't the same thing. Curious if you've seen anyone measure the "hesitation moment" itself rather than inferring it from design signals, that feels like the real unlock.
That's a great question.
I don't think I'd answer it with a generic framework because the approach depends on what BurnRate ultimately wants to help founders decide, not just what it wants to measure.
I'd be happy to explain how I'd think through it in the context of BurnRate.
What's the best email to reach you on?
Sorry for the late reply! Send me a DM here and I'll walk through how I'd think about it for BurnRate.
I'd be happy to, but I don't think Indie Hackers supports DMs. If you're comfortable sharing it, what's the best email to reach you on instead?
Hi Aryan,
Sorry, I'm just not about sharing my personal email in a public chat, just to protect myself from spam. You can message me directly through my Indie Hackers profile, that should work fine on your end.
Totally understand. In that case, feel free to reach me at hello@beryxa.com whenever you're comfortable. I'd enjoy continuing the conversation.
Thank you!
I've just sent you email.
https://burnrateai.app