Weebly review: Exploring the features, pricing, and more
Weebly review: Exploring the features, pricing, and more. Discover if Weebly is the right website builder for your needs.
Our Verdict
Our Verdict
Weebly is a website creation platform that allows users to build websites and online stores with ease, using a drag-and-drop interface. It offers various templates and tools for creating websites without requiring coding skills. Weebly is known for its user-friendly interface and is suitable for both personal and business use cases.
Pros
- Access to website statistics
- Eye-catching, mobile-friendly themes
- Unlimited data transfers included in all plans
- Allows theme changes without the need to rebuild your site
- Complete e-commerce capabilities, including selling digital products
Cons
- Absence of reusable photo storage
- Restricted theme customization options
- Lack of a system-wide undo function in the interface
- Delayed response times from customer service during testing
Starting price
$6 per monthMobile-responsive sites
YesUnlimited storage
On Professional plan and aboveWhat is Weebly?
Weebly is a user-friendly website builder that allows people to create professional websites without needing to know how to code. It's known for being one of the easiest site builders available. Weebly offers both a free plan and premium options starting at $10 per month with annual billing. Its features include unlimited storage and bandwidth for most plans, as well as tools for SEO, email marketing, and social media integration. Additionally, Weebly ensures that your site is mobile-responsive.
Weebly core features
Website builder and themes
To get started with Weebly, the first step is to create an account. You can then choose whether to create a website or an online store. If you opt for a website, you'll have a choice of over 38 themes, while selecting an online store offers 15 themes. Once you've chosen your theme, you can easily customize your site by replacing images and text. Weebly allows you to add, remove, and rearrange sections with ease using simple clicks or drags.
All of Weebly's themes are responsive, meaning they adapt smoothly to different screen sizes. For those who want more design control, there's the option to switch to the HTML/CSS Editor.
Blogging
Adding blog articles to your website is straightforward with Weebly's built-in blog feature. You can also ensure the privacy of specific posts or pages by password-protecting them. For instance, you could assign a password to a post containing an exclusive video lesson, making it accessible only to paying members or subscribers to your newsletter.
E-Commerce
If your goal is to establish an online store, Weebly has all the necessary tools. It provides essential features like a shopping cart, product pages, and payment processing options through Square or other third-party services. Weebly also offers seamless integrations with well-known payment gateways like PayPal and Stripe.
For those looking to enhance their online store, upgrading to Weebly's Professional plan or higher is an option. This upgrade unlocks additional features including Google Ads credit, item badges, a shipping calculator, and the ability to create coupon codes.
How much does Weebly cost?
Free plan
Weebly's Free plan includes a complimentary SSL certificate, support for third-party embed codes, lead capture capabilities, the ability to integrate your Instagram feed, and access to chat and email support. Additionally, it offers robust e-commerce features such as a shopping cart, unlimited product listings, item badges, customizable product options, quick shop functionality, inventory management tools, in-store pickup options, an automatic tax calculator, and support for coupons and Square gift cards.
Personal plan: Starts at $10 monthly
The Personal plan is priced at $10 per month with annual billing or $13 on a month-to-month basis. This plan includes all features of the Free plan, along with the ability to use a custom domain, sell digital goods, utilize a shipping calculator, generate shipping labels, and display pop-up notifications.
Professional plan: Starts at $12 monthly
Priced at $12 per month with annual billing or $16 on a month-to-month basis, the Professional plan includes all features of the Personal plan. Additionally, it offers unlimited storage, advanced site statistics, a complimentary domain name, password protection for pages, removal of Square advertisements, and access to phone support.
Performance plan: Starts at $26 monthly
The Performance plan is priced at $26 per month with annual billing or $29 on a month-to-month basis. This plan includes all features of the Professional plan, along with additional features such as product reviews, PayPal payments, abandoned cart email notifications, advanced e-commerce analytics, and priority customer support.
How user-friendly is Weebly?
The Weebly editor stands out as one of the most user-friendly website builders available. Adding content is straightforward: just click on the element you want to include, and a pop-up window will appear. From there, you can easily add text, images, videos, maps, and other elements. Rearranging elements is simple too; just click and drag them to the desired location.
To add a new element to your page, click on the "+Add" button located in the top left corner. This action opens a menu where you can choose from a variety of elements, including text boxes, images, videos, social media buttons, and more.
Is Weebly safe?
Indeed, Weebly prioritizes safety and security. It employs SSL encryption to safeguard your data and provides a complimentary SSL certificate with every plan. Additionally, with Square's backing, you can trust that your payments are processed securely and reliably.
Weebly customer service and support
Every Professional plan and higher includes phone support for customers. Additionally, you can utilize a community forum, chat support, and email support. The knowledge base contains articles addressing frequently asked questions, along with an inspiration center to assist you in getting started. Although 24/7 support is not available, you can email at any time, and the customer service team will respond during business hours.
Additional tools and functionality
App Center
With the Weebly App Center, you can enhance your website with various features without the need for coding. For instance, you can easily add a callout box or FAQ section. The App Center offers a mix of free and paid apps to choose from.
SEO features
Weebly provides a range of SEO tools to boost your search engine rankings. These include the ability to add meta tags, alt tags, page-specific descriptions, meta descriptions, responsive designs, and titles to your pages. Additionally, the Professional plan and higher offer Google Ads credit to assist you in kickstarting your paid advertising efforts.
Email Marketing
Utilizing Weebly's email marketing tool, you can send newsletters, promotional emails, and automated messages to your subscribers. The platform provides a selection of customizable templates for your convenience. With its drag-and-drop layouts, you can easily build your list, segment it, and nurture your subscribers. This feature, known as Weebly Promote, is accessible through the Business Plus plan.
Analytics and reporting
Weebly includes basic analytics in all its plans, allowing you to view metrics such as site visitors, traffic sources, and page views. For more comprehensive reports, upgrading to the Professional plan or higher is necessary to access advanced statistics.
Alternative options to Weebly and their comparative analysis
Comparing Weebly with Squarespace and Wix, Weebly stands out as an excellent choice for those seeking a quick and easy website creation process without the need for coding, thanks to its drag-and-drop interface. Squarespace and Wix also offer similar drag-and-drop features, but WordPress boasts the most customization options among the three.
Weebly is a good option for users interested in using their own domain name, as the Professional plan includes a free domain. Wix offers a free domain for the first year with an annual plan purchase, while Squarespace provides a free custom domain for the first year on an annual plan. Most WordPress hosts offer a similar domain option to Squarespace.
When considering pricing, Weebly's plans start at $10 per month when billed annually, while Squarespace's cheapest plan is $16 per month when billed annually, including a free custom domain for the first year. Squarespace offers more features than Weebly and has a wider range of integrations, although Weebly's App Center allows for easy feature additions. Squarespace also has more templates, making it a strong choice for e-commerce websites.
Weebly and Wix are both excellent choices for those seeking a code-free website creation experience, with Wix also offering drag-and-drop functionality. While Weebly's plans start at $10 per month when billed annually, Wix's free plan is available with limited features, and its paid plans start at $16 per month, although the cheapest plan displays Wix ads.
Wix offers more features than Weebly, including an app market with over 250 apps covering various features such as social media integration and email marketing. Wix also provides a wide range of templates categorized by business, online store, and creative themes.
WordPress, on the other hand, is more advanced and versatile than Weebly. However, it requires a steeper learning curve, as it is a self-hosted platform. While both Weebly and WordPress.com offer free plans, WordPress.org (the self-hosted version) requires hosting, which starts at around $3.95 per month. Weebly is suitable for those seeking an easy-to-use website builder, while WordPress is ideal for those seeking a highly customizable platform, albeit with additional hosting costs.
Is Weebly the right choice for you?
Weebly's personal use option offers a great solution for basic websites, like wedding announcements or simple blogs for family or classroom updates. It's incredibly user-friendly, making it perfect for personal sites without requiring any coding expertise.
For business needs, Weebly provides an easy drag-and-drop website builder with e-commerce capabilities, all at a reasonable cost. However, if you're seeking greater customization or extensive phone support, alternatives like Wix or, for robust e-commerce functionality, Shopify might be worth considering.
