Groups are not Forums.
No Search Topics
No Simple List to Scan Questions
Group Page Takes Over Entire Screen: Losing Header and Site Menu.
Lots of Extraneous Posting Like “Joe Joined Group”
View Counts are Just Refreshes
Forums answer a need for quick question and answer.
Groups are for discussions, networking and collaborating.
Why? WIX Why?
This is a horrendous alternative to Wix Forum.
Wix Forum is being discontinued and we must migrate to Wix Groups, but it’s nothing like Wix Forum. It’s more like a social media site and it doesn’t work in the same way, nor can it be customised to look like a forum. Why are you forcing us to do this? What a disaster.
Well, it’s always a bit troublesome when things suddenly change. I don’t think the Wix forum was all that bad, to be honest. 
I think there was still some demand for it as it was, so the change feels a bit puzzling. 
I’ve been trying out WordPress. WIX has been slow, not google friendly, does not upgrade features fast enough, has a stalled app market and is choosing to compete with template builders rather than feature builders.
OK, that’s a bit harsh. But it feels like that for many of us. I feel they never finish developing apps. They leave even the easiest and most obvious features undone. When an app isn’t used or doesn’t compete in the big pond, they end it. Like forums.
Forums are for product support from fellow buyers but not requested as much as groups when starting a website. Groups are called Communities by every other website builder and they are a much bigger ask.
The truth is, WIX is too quick to abandon brick and mortar apps for the latest eye candy. Forums are a must have for giving customers fast and clear access to thousands of answers and fellow customer thoughts. Communities are for lengthy discussions. Also great but too slow to find answers compared to forums.
WIX Groups could be a forum, but it must evolve to a cleaner faster interface first. But will they do that? And do it within the month they gave us to transition?
I sent a number of feature requests for Groups to WIX. They are all related to what I think Groups would need to have to replace Forums. They haven’t posted them yet. Please be on the look out for these requests. And vote. Voting seems to be the primary way they decide what to work on.
Add your own requests here: Product Roadmap
What about a third party will taking over the forum app? Third party apps are tiny compared to WordPress.
Hey!
Just want to acknowledge the conversation and feedback shared. I don’t have much else to add at the moment but have taken the feedback with the team 
I also noticed this issue. Some other problems I have noticed is Admin’s and moderator’s are no longer able to close comments, lock threads, or move threads to other groups. You can only pin one post per group. On the forum, you can pin many posts. I would prefer to keep the forum, rather then being forced to move to groups. Additionally hundreds of comments and reactions have not been able to move from the forum to the group. It is a known issue, they are trying to resolve it.
Many members on my website will now suffer and many will end up leaving. It is very difficult to make groups act the same as the forum.
What a f’n mess. Tried to migrate to Groups and encountered horrible issues. Really Wix??? You could have just left it alone and not added features to the forum would have been a better option. And we get only a month? Really? C’mon folks…
Do you not test these things??? Your QC is awful. Here’s some of my 8 hours of volunteer fun:
The conversion stalls on converting items. Now what??
The conversion ended up sending hundreds of emails to collaborators. Which in turn used up my email quota! Seems every old post sent an email and a notice. HUNDREDS. What?
The restricted forum sites did not transfer over the members who have access. So now you have to do it all manually by sending invites. BUT WORSE, invites don’t work right. Especially with private groups. The link sent does not work. So THERE IS NO WAY TO INVITE TO A PRIVATE GROUP. The workaround is to make them public, get the members, then go back to private. Perhaps we should expose the Wix customer database, financials, and internal memos for a while, then make them private? Of course not, but that’s what Wix is asking me to do. It is plain stupid that a nonmember of a group can view all the posts when the group is set to allow only approved members. Sheesh, who thinks of this stuff?
I concur with others in this thread, Groups are NOT Forums. Many missing features. We chose Forums over groups when we started because of the features and use cases.
Wix, you better listen and get stuff fixed. Seems discontent is brewing, and that will lead to less sales and really bad reviews. I’m already considering an alternative because of this mess…
Two angry cents.
I have previously tried out the Groups app; it being functionally confusing to use aside, it has so many pain points such as being unable to pin multiple posts, to pre-approve posts (for profanity etc), to migrate posts from one section to another, the Groups thing shutting out every other element on the page and occupying it completely, no unique url slug assigned for each post, incessant scrolling with no means to limit the number of posts displayed per page…the list goes on. Groups is NOT forums, and it will never be. In fact, Groups is way worse than forums, which is why I opted for the latter.
And now you guys are shoving this Groups thing down our throats, with hardly any time to react other than feeling shell-shocked. I just purchased a 3 year plan literally days ago, and I am giving serious thought to canceling it and demanding a full refund, because
PS: Out of curiosity, I attempted to migrate the forums to Groups, and even that got stuck midway. Jesus, and you guys have the audacity to force all of us to change?
I sent 5 suggestions to the WIX Groups Roadmap. I haven’t heard a thing.
Please you guys, post requests to the WIX Group Roadmap.
The wix forum to group migration doesnt work correctly, it pulled ALL categories and sub categories into the same level, its a HUGE nightmare and we’re unable to remove or repositioning.
Wix, you’ve dropped the ball and you need to keep forums and avoid forcing people to groups which is not a suitable replacement.
@noahlovell can you please discuss with the team how subcategories are all being pulled into the top level and if this cant be fixed that we strongly request that Forums stays with the wix platform.
Will this forum be closed too? After all, if we don’t need them you don’t either right?
This is expected behaviour since Groups has a flat structure, compared to Forum.
No - this forum is sticking around
All the feedback shared is being shared with the team
Good. But then where are my requests to Groups? Why have you not engaged us until now? Get on it. Step up. You gave us 1 month notice and now we have less than 2 weeks?!!! Seriously insane corporate decision.
Requests submitted to the Roadmap are not immediately added - they go through a review process. I’m unsure exactly where your requests are, but the team regularly review requests.
I did - earlier in the topic (10 days ago):
As I mentioned, I’ve been sharing the feedback from the community, and discussing this with the team. There’s been a few more meetings that I originally anticipated, but hope to be able to share more information early next week
Hey!
Looping around on this conversation with an update just shared on the Studio Discord.
I want to take a moment to acknowledge the conversations around Wix Forums being discontinued, and the transition to Wix Groups as the alternative solution for communities built on Wix Studio and Wix.
First, thank you for your feedback. It has been passed along to the product team, who are reviewing requests.
We understand that the initial timeline caused some concerns, and based on your feedback, we’re making the following changes:
- Forum support will now be extended until October 15th, 2025, so existing communities can continue interacting and posting through that date.
- The full deactivation of Forums will be extended to March 1st, 2026, giving you additional time to plan and make the transition.
- This adjusted timeline will soon be reflected in the Help Center articles, and you’ll receive updated communications with this change.
We know changes like these aren’t always easy, but we hope this extended timeline will help you make the best choices for your clients’ needs.
If you have any questions, I’m here to help
Good start. I urge you to consider not removing Forums at all.
You rejected my ask for at least showing group posts as Not Expanded. That is a must: you can’t browse a list of answers easily unless the topics are the only thing visible.
It still sounds like you don’t see a need for Forums which is pretty scary when WIX is so siloed compared to Wordpress. I know I represent a lot of folks here when I say if WIX has no forums in the future, I will be forced to move to Wordpress.
Don’t dump Forums. It works and solves a need that Groups cant, unless you make Groups look and work like Forums. Yes, that’s possible. But not understanding why we need a Forum in the first place means you don’t value a certain kind of website need.
I give you some feedback on this transition from Wix Forum to Wix Groups.
The biggest problem with this change is that members don’t receive an email every time a post is replied to. Members only receive an email when a post is created. Members must systematically log in to the site and check for a response. This improvement is CRITICAL for the proper functioning of a community…
I hope that these improvements can be implemented, especially the first one which is essential…
Yes. Totally agree. I have been frustrated with how or when notifications work. They basically never have worked for me or my users, no matter what options and settings I’ve tried. And yes, it has meant a real loss of revenue and a dream of a community that never happened.
I’ve been a fool to let this lack of “community” in WIX’s community efforts go on this long. Twice I’ve tried to move to other platforms: Wordpress, SquareSpace, Weebly, Joomla and others. They are all more capable, but they require much more effort and cost maybe double. WIX advertises many features that are just not as complete as they need to be. I think the internal structure at WIX obscures what is really needed by users. Its too ROI focused. They need a faster implementation response to real users like us who can focus them on finishing out Groups as well as notifications for all products.
WIX, make your Groups product work as a fully capable community forum. Put the resources in today to code these suggestions. Start it now so the job gets finished in the next 3 to 6 months. You will make us all happy and a transition may then be possible.