Headless Connect for Wix · hosting and page builder partnerships · concept

Wix inside WordPress, sold by our partners.

A vet clinic needs bookings, events and a shop on WordPress. Five ways that can go. Follow the blue highlight, or use the arrow keys.

B2B2C

Direct to consumer

Wix → IONOS → site owner

Real IONOS screenshots

1Current flow

Today: AI builds the site, then three separate plugins for bookings, events and shop.

plugins

accounts

paid plans

Designed concept

2Free tier

Pick features at checkout. IONOS creates the Wix project and connects one plugin. Upgrade only to take payments.

plugin

account (Wix, at upgrade)

optional upgrade

Designed concept

3Package included

A Complete plan with bookings, store, events and payments built in.

0add-ons

0extra accounts

0upsells

B2B2A

Resell to agencies

Wix → Kinsta → agency → client

Real Kinsta material + designed concept

4Agency via Kinsta

Kinsta sells agencies a bundle for every install on the plan. Agencies connect client sites to Wix from MyKinsta and track rev share on a Wix Partners page.

1plugin per client site

0client vendor accounts

0subscriptions per client

Who pays whom

Wix→Kinsta pays wholesale per bundled install

Kinsta→Agency pays hosting + bundle tier × installs (Agency 20 / 40 / 60)

Agency→Client pays the agency's retainer or project fee

Client→Never sees Wix or Kinsta billing

Bundle price in the flow is illustrative.

B2B2C

Resell to Page Builders

Wix → Elementor → site owner

Real Elementor session + designed concept

5Elementor Hosting

Elementor adds one onboarding question, "Online store?", and sets up Wix behind it. The store page gets built with the Elementor MCP or by dragging Wix widgets in the editor.

1plugin

0vendor sign-ups

2ways to build

Who pays whom

Wix→Shares commerce revenue with Elementor on every store

Elementor→Site owner pays the Elementor Hosting plan

Owner→Billing stays on the Elementor invoice. Wix is the engine, never a login

Compare the hosting flows (1 to 4), who builds what, and the open questions.

Screens: flow 1 and the start of flow 4 are real captures. The rest are designed concepts. Pickers are interactive.

Compare

What gets easier for the customer, and what the host gains

Same customer, same goal (bookings, events and a shop), three setups. Counts are taken from the click-throughs; cost figures are from the distribution deck. Flows 2 and 3 show only the screens that differ from flow 1.

	1 · Current flowSeparate plugins	2 · Free tierHeadless Connect for Wix, free to start	3 · Package includedComplete plan
Plugins to install and set up	SimplyBook.me, Sugar Calendar, WooCommerce	Headless Connect for Wix, installed and connected by IONOS	already active
Extra accounts	SimplyBook.me, Sugar Calendar, WooCommerce / payments	Wix, created by IONOS, claimed only to upgrade
Annual cost of the business stack (deck figures)	$1.2–2K a year in plugin licences, before hosting and 2.9% + $0.30 per payment	$29–39/mo for one payments upgrade when they sell online (Wix plan, or an IONOS add-on if host-billed); 0% commission on stores and bookings	incl. in the IONOS plan price
Paid plans to buy later	SimplyBook from €13.9/mo, Sugar Calendar from $49.50/yr	one Wix upgrade when they need payments	included in the IONOS plan
Where bookings, events and orders live	3 separate dashboards	One Business Manager in WordPress	One Business Manager in WordPress
Setup checklist on day one	IONOS "0 of 4" + SimplyBook "10 tasks open" + Woo wizard	Connected on arrival; payments to add later	Plugin: 8 of 8
Host revenue from the business stack	0 every licence goes to a third party	Revenue share on the payments upgrade; wholesale margin if IONOS bills it	+$8/mo tier delta on every Complete plan (illustrative), plus payments underneath
Who bills, who gets the support ticket	Three vendors bill; IONOS still gets the ticket	IONOS bills hosting; Wix bills the upgrade unless host-billed; one plugin to support	IONOS bills everything and owns the relationship; Wix powers it
Where the customer decides	After install, plugin by plugin, over days	At checkout, in one picker; payments later	At checkout, plan and picker; nothing later

Why flows 2 and 3 are this short

From the plugin code (Headless Connect for Wix v1.13.0)

The plugin only needs three WordPress settings to work: wixhc_client_id, wixhc_api_key, wixhc_site_id. A host can write them during install, and the repo's own setup script already does this.exists
Without IONOS, the user creates a Wix project, an OAuth app and an API key by hand and pastes 3 IDs back. See the appendix below.
Domain and mailbox are already IONOS products, so the checklist can mark them done (flow 3).plugin change

What IONOS builds

Checkout and provisioning

The Wix Headless checkbox at installation (flow 2), or the Complete plan (flow 3).
A provisioning step during install: create the Wix project, register the site domain for secure checkout, generate the API key, write the 3 settings.
Preset PHP max_execution_time ≥ 120s. The plugin's Diagnostics page asks users to "ask your host" today.

What Wix builds

Partner platform

A partner API that creates a Headless project with the chosen apps for the customer's email, used by both flows 2 and 3 (one provisioning path, one account-claim flow).build
Programmatic OAuth app (with redirect domain) and a scoped API key.build
Billing through IONOS for the Complete plan, so payments unlock without the Wix package picker.commercial

B2B2A: the agency route via Kinsta

Flows 2 and 3 are B2B2C: the host resells to the site owner. Flow 4 adds a layer: the host sells a bundle of seats to agencies, and agencies run the business features for their clients under their own brand.

Wix

Wholesale bundle

Partner API: create a Headless project per seat, install apps, return credentials. White-label flag.

Paid by Kinsta per active seat

Kinsta

Agency plan + Wix Business Bundle

Bundle priced per install × Agency 20/40/60. MyKinsta gets a Wix OS column (Connect to Wix-OS) on Sites and one Wix Partners page.

Agency pays Kinsta: hosting + $5 / $9 / $20 per install / mo (illustrative)

Agency

White-labeled business tools

Picks features per client at site creation. One plugin to maintain across all sites. Proof of value in one report.

Client pays the agency's retainer or project fee

Client

WordPress with "Agency Business Tools"

Bookings, store, events and payments on day one. No vendor accounts, no upgrade prompts, no Wix branding.

Never sees Wix or Kinsta billing

Open questions for the agency route

Who owns the Wix project: the agency (portable when a client leaves the agency?) or the client (claimable later)? Kinsta's seat model suggests agency-owned with a transfer path.
Payouts under white label: checkout is Wix-hosted. Whose name is on the receipt and the payout account: the client's business, via the agency-owned project?
Seat lifecycle: what happens to a client's bookings and orders when a seat is unassigned or the agency downgrades.
Plan-wide billing: the tier is multiplied by the plan's installs (20 / 40 / 60). Simple to sell and invoice; watch whether small agencies on Agency 20 balk at paying for unused installs, and whether a Starter-only entry needs to exist.
Kinsta scope: one column on the Sites page and one Wix Partners page (sites connected, premiums remaining, rev share, GPV, per-site analytics). The plugin side is the same as flows 2 and 3 plus a white-label setting.

Open questions

Account ownership: in both flows the Wix project is created for the order email and claimed later (flow 2: at upgrade). What does the customer own if they leave IONOS, and can they take the project with them?
Picker vs. AI brief: both collect intent. Recommended: the picker decides what is provisioned; the AI brief can only add, in one click, never install a plugin.
Credential custody: the plugin stores the API key server-side in WordPress. IONOS needs a rotation path.
Upgrade surface: recommended IONOS-billed ("Add online payments", one line on the hosting invoice). Wix's plan picker (real page, local currency) is the fallback shown in the flow. Host-billed keeps one invoice, removes the Wix login from the funnel, and settles revenue share wholesale.

Appendix: connecting the plugin without IONOS. The 17 steps a user takes today to set up Headless Connect for Wix by hand: Wix account, Headless project, OAuth app, API key, three pasted IDs. This is the work IONOS provisioning removes in flows 2 and 3.