How to Export Your Website Builder Content Before You’re Trapped

Most people only think about exporting their website content when they are already in trouble. They have decided to migrate, the platform has raised prices, or a key integration has stopped working. And then they discover how much is actually stuck.

The right time to export your content is before you need to. This guide walks you through the export process on every major website builder platform, tells you exactly what you can and cannot take with you, and gives you a repeatable process to keep a current backup at all times.

Why This Matters Before It Becomes Urgent

Your content took time to create. Blog posts, product descriptions, images, customer data, page copy. If you ever want to move platforms, that content needs to come with you.

The problem is that website builders are built to make publishing easy and migration hard. Not always intentionally. But the result is the same. Your content lives inside their system in a format that requires export tools, manual work, or both to move.

Exporting regularly means you always have a current copy of your content outside the platform. It protects against unexpected price increases, platform shutdowns, account issues, and the decision to move to self-hosted WordPress or a different platform.

The vendor lock-in reality of website builders goes deeper on what you own and what stays behind. This guide focuses on the practical steps.

What You Can and Cannot Export: Platform Overview

Before starting any export, understand what is and is not portable across platforms.

Design and layout cannot be exported from any platform in a usable form for another platform. Your visual design must be rebuilt when you move. This is the most significant limitation of all website builder migrations.

Before You Start: What to Prepare

Before exporting anything, do these steps first.

Create a folder structure on your computer

Set up a folder called Website Export with a date. Inside it, create subfolders:

• Blog Posts
• Pages
• Images
• Products (if applicable)
• Customer Data
• Form Submissions
• Email Subscribers
• Other

Write down your current URL structure

Open a spreadsheet. List every page URL on your current site. You will need this when setting up redirects on a new platform. Without it, you are rebuilding the map from memory.

Take screenshots of every page layout

Your design cannot be exported. Screenshots give you a reference when rebuilding on a new platform. Capture desktop and mobile views of every important page.

Note all third-party integrations

Write down every tool connected to your website builder. Email marketing, payment processors, booking tools, analytics. You will need to reconnect or replace each one on the new platform.

Step-by-Step: Exporting From Wix

Wix has limited native export functionality. Here is what you can do.

What Wix Lets You Export

• Blog posts: partial export via RSS feed
• Images: manual download from the media manager
• Contact and customer data: CSV export
• Form submissions: CSV export

What Wix Does Not Export

• Page content (only blog posts)
• Design and layout
• URL structure
• SEO settings

Exporting Blog Posts From Wix

1. Go to your Wix dashboard
2. Open the Blog section in the left menu
3. Click the three-dot menu next to a blog post
4. There is no bulk text export. You must copy content manually or use the RSS feed

For RSS export:

1. Your Wix blog RSS feed is at yourdomain.com/blog-feed.xml
2. Open that URL in your browser
3. Save the page as an XML file
4. The XML contains post titles, content, dates, and categories

This is incomplete. Images in posts are not included in the RSS feed. They need to be downloaded separately.

Exporting Media From Wix

1. Go to your Wix dashboard
2. Click Media in the left menu
3. Select all images you want to download
4. Use the download option to save them to your computer
5. Organise downloaded files by page or post in your export folder

Exporting Contacts and Customer Data From Wix

1. Go to your Wix dashboard
2. Click Contacts in the left menu
3. Click the More Actions or Import and Export option
4. Select Export Contacts
5. Choose CSV format
6. Download the file

Exporting Form Submissions From Wix

1. Go to your Wix dashboard
2. Click the relevant form in your site or open the Contacts section
3. Find the form submissions area
4. Look for the export option and download as CSV

Step-by-Step: Exporting From Squarespace

Squarespace offers a more complete export for blog content than Wix but still has significant gaps for page content.

What Squarespace Lets You Export

• Blog posts: full XML export
• Gallery images: manual download
• Products: CSV export (Squarespace Commerce)
• Customer data: CSV
• Form submissions: CSV

What Squarespace Does Not Export

• Regular page content
• Design and layout
• URL structure
• Custom CSS

Exporting Blog Posts From Squarespace

1. Log in to your Squarespace account
2. Go to Settings in the left panel
3. Click Advanced
4. Click Import and Export Content
5. Click Export
6. Select WordPress as the export format
7. Download the XML file

The XML file contains all your blog posts with their titles, content, publish dates, categories, and tags. It imports directly into WordPress using the built-in importer.

Images in your blog posts are referenced by URL in the XML file. They are not embedded in the file itself. When you import into WordPress, the importer can attempt to download those images automatically.

Exporting Products From Squarespace

1. Go to Commerce in the left panel
2. Click Inventory
3. Click the Export option at the top right
4. Download the CSV file

The CSV includes product names, descriptions, prices, SKUs, and stock levels. Images are not included in the export and must be downloaded manually.

Exporting Form Submissions From Squarespace

1. Go to the form block or the relevant page
2. Click on the form
3. Find the Storage tab or the form response area
4. Look for the export CSV option

Step-by-Step: Exporting From Webflow

Webflow offers the most complete export options of any major website builder because it is designed for developers who may want to host elsewhere.

What Webflow Lets You Export

• Full HTML, CSS, and JavaScript code (paid plans)
• CMS content: CSV export
• Images and assets: downloadable
• Form submissions: CSV
• E-commerce products and orders: CSV

What Webflow Does Not Export in a Usable Form for Other Platforms

• Dynamic CMS templates (the code exports but CMS content must be re-imported separately)
• Webflow-specific interactions and animations (these are Webflow JavaScript and do not work independently)

Exporting CMS Content From Webflow

1. Log in to your Webflow dashboard
2. Open your project
3. Click the CMS panel in the left sidebar
4. Select the collection you want to export (blog posts, products, etc.)
5. Click the Settings icon next to the collection
6. Click Export Collection
7. Download the CSV file

Repeat for each CMS collection. Each collection exports as a separate CSV file.

Exporting the Site Code From Webflow

This option is available on paid plans and exports your site as static HTML, CSS, and JavaScript files.

1. Open your Webflow project
2. Go to Project Settings
3. Click the Export Code button
4. Download the ZIP file

The exported code is clean and well-structured. However, it is static. Any dynamic CMS content is not included in the code export. CMS data must be exported separately as CSV and integrated via a different system if you want a dynamic site elsewhere.

Exporting Images From Webflow

1. Go to the Assets panel in your Webflow designer
2. Select the images you want
3. Download them individually or in bulk depending on your plan

Step-by-Step: Exporting From Shopify

Shopify has good export functionality for e-commerce data but no export for page content.

What Shopify Lets You Export

• Products: CSV with full product data
• Customers: CSV
• Orders: CSV
• Discount codes: CSV
• Gift cards: CSV

What Shopify Does Not Export

• Page content (About page, legal pages, etc.)
• Blog posts (no native export)
• Design and theme
• Navigation structure
• URL structure

Exporting Products From Shopify

1. Log in to your Shopify admin
2. Go to Products in the left menu
3. Click the Export button at the top right
4. Choose whether to export all products or a filtered selection
5. Choose CSV for Excel or CSV for plain text
6. Click Export Products
7. Shopify emails you a download link

The product CSV includes titles, descriptions, prices, SKUs, variants, inventory, and image URLs. Images themselves are not downloaded, just referenced by URL.

Exporting Customers From Shopify

1. Go to Customers in the left menu
2. Click the Export button
3. Choose to export all customers or a filtered list
4. Download the CSV

Exporting Orders From Shopify

1. Go to Orders in the left menu
2. Apply any date filters you need
3. Click the Export button
4. Download the CSV

Exporting Page Content From Shopify

Shopify has no native export for pages or blog posts. Your options are:

• Copy content manually from each page and save as text files
• Use a third-party Shopify app that enables content export
• Use the Shopify API if you have developer access

Step-by-Step: Exporting From WordPress.com

WordPress.com (the hosted platform) exports in a format that works directly with self-hosted WordPress.

What WordPress.com Exports

• All posts and pages: full XML with content, metadata, and categories
• Comments: included in the XML
• Images: referenced in the XML, can be downloaded automatically on import

Exporting From WordPress.com

1. Log in to your WordPress.com account
2. Go to your site dashboard
3. Click Tools in the left menu
4. Click Export
5. Choose All Content or select specific content types
6. Click Download Export File
7. Save the XML file

This XML file is the most complete content export available from any hosted platform. It imports directly into self-hosted WordPress via the Tools and Import menu.

After Exporting: What to Do With Your Files

Once you have exported your content, organise and store it properly.

Verify your exports immediately

Open each CSV and XML file. Check that the content is there. Do not assume a downloaded file is complete without opening it.

Store exports in multiple locations

Save exports to your computer and to a cloud storage service like Google Drive or Dropbox. A single local copy is not a reliable backup.

Create a migration map

In your URL spreadsheet, add columns for:

• Old URL
• New URL on the target platform
• Redirect needed (yes or no)
• Content migrated (yes or no)

This becomes the master document for your migration.

Schedule regular exports

Set a monthly reminder to re-export your content. Do not let your off-platform backup go stale. The content you published last month is content you could lose.

What No Export Can Save

Even a complete export leaves some things behind. Be clear about this before you migrate.

Your design No platform exports your visual design in a form usable elsewhere. Your layout, fonts, colours, spacing, and interactive elements all need to be rebuilt.

Your SEO equity on platform URLs Backlinks point to specific URLs. When URLs change on a new platform, those links point to addresses that no longer exist. Proper redirects preserve most of this, but some loss is likely.

Platform-specific functionality Wix apps, Squarespace blocks, Webflow interactions, and Shopify apps are platform-specific. The functionality they provide needs to be replaced or rebuilt on the new platform.

Your existing search rankings during transition A migration, even a well-executed one, causes temporary ranking fluctuation. It is manageable but it is real. Export and migrate carefully, with redirects in place before going live.

The Export Checklist

Use this before every export.

• Blog posts exported and saved
• Page copy copied or exported where possible
• All images downloaded and organised by page or post
• Products and inventory exported as CSV (if applicable)
• Customer data exported as CSV
• Form submissions exported
• Email subscriber list exported
• URL structure documented in a spreadsheet
• Screenshots of every key page (desktop and mobile)
• Third-party integrations documented
• Exports saved to at least two locations
• Export files opened and verified as complete

Final Thoughts

Exporting your website builder content is not a one-time task. It is a practice.

Do it before you need to migrate. Do it regularly so you always have a current copy outside the platform. And do it now, not after something forces your hand.

The platforms are not trying to trap you. But they are not designed to make leaving easy either. The gap between easy publishing and easy migration is your responsibility to bridge, and bridging it takes about an hour once you know the steps.

An hour spent on this today is worth many hours saved if you ever need to move quickly.