Weebly Website Builder Review

Weebly Website Builder Review

Weebly, with one of the largest customer bases around, boasts of being one of the most popular website builders out there. Weebly has certainly made a solid name for itself, from its affordability to the customizable coding options for the more advanced user. But is it still as good as it used to be?

Here, we will be going over some pros and cons of the Weebly website builder. We’ll dig into pricing, features, and even compare a similar website builder to see how Weebly stands up.

Overview

Weebly is a super user-friendly website builder, with a simple drag-and-drop editor. You can just click on any text, image, or content, and handy prompts will appear. Plus, if you happen to have some coding skills, Weebly is one of the most affordable website builders around that allows you to customize your HTML/CSS. Weebly also has a free option, letting you test out all its features before buying the right plan for you.

In 2018 SquareⓇ took over Weebly,  and this merger made signing up for Weebly a tiny bit tricky. If you already have an email attached to a Square point of sale account but want to use the Weebly website builder, you’ll have to enter a different email to get started. Or else you’ll be forced to use the less user-friendly Square website builder. Confusing, I know! But, this does mean that Weebly offers some impressive ecommerce options with any plan, great for anyone looking to get their online store up and running.

Weebly Pros and Cons

Pros

  1. The Weebly drag-and-drop editor makes it so easy to create a great-looking website— better than most, to be honest.
  2. Weebly offers a free plan, as well as other affordable tiers, for business owners on a budget and those ready to spend and grow more.
  3. The Weebly app store comes with hundreds of advanced features, like ways to book appointments, chat with customers, help with accounting, and more.
  4. Weebly is cloud-based, letting you manage and edit your website on the go, from any device. Plus, it allows you to try out different templates so you can keep your look updated.
  5. Weebly is one of the only web builders that will let you customize the coding of the template for your website. A huge plus if you’re tech-savvy.

Cons

  1. There’s no “undo” button, so if you make a mistake while setting up your website, it could be really hard to fix. Plus, the Weebly website builder can be a bit glitchy, causing you to close and reopen your website browser to fix it— possibly losing some of your work.
  2. Weebly customer reviews are not great. Most of the complaints deal with customer support issues which, to be fair, most providers struggle with.
  3. Having to choose between Weebly and Square to get started can be pretty confusing.

Weebly Pricing and Features

Weebly has four different tiers for its website plans: Free, Personal, Professional, and Performance. Each of the plans includes the Weebly website editor, cloud storage, ecommerce options, and search engine optimization (SEO). Below is a breakdown of each of these plans. Keep in mind that the pricing shown is based on the cost of an annual subscription. Weebly offers month-to-month plans at higher price points.

Weebly pricing.

Free = $0/mo.

The Weebly free plan is actually pretty impressive. You can still set up an online ecommerce store with unlimited items, inventory management, and in-store pickup. There’s even an option to connect your Instagram feed and get email and chat support from the Weebly support team. However, you can’t connect your own personalized domain name, and you’ll be forced to display Square ads on your website. 

When to use: The Weebly free package is a great way to get a feel for all the features Weebly has to offer. But treat this more like a free trial than a permanent solution. As a business owner or entrepreneur, having your own domain name is key to being taken seriously. Plus the limited features at this level will feel constricting very quickly so it’s best to upgrade.

Personal = $6/mo.

The Weebly Personal package is an absolute steal of a deal. Not only can you connect your own personal domain at this price, but it comes with ways to offer digital downloads in your online store, a shipping calculator, and pop-up notifications for site visitors. The one downside is you will still have Square ads on your site, even with a paid plan.

When to use: This super low-cost, no-fuss plan allows you to connect your own personalized domain, giving you that extra professional look. However, it does not remove Square ads from your website or provide advanced site stats. This would be a great choice for someone just starting out building their online store or web presence while working on a small budget.

Professional = $12/mo.

The Weebly Professional plan allows you to not only connect your own personalized domain but will give you a free domain for the first year of signing up at this pricing tier. You also get unlimited storage and can finally drop those Square ads from your website. There are ways to add up to 100 members to your site, allowing employees or clients to collaborate with you. Plus, at this level, you can start receiving phone support from Weebly, instead of just email and chat.

When to use: When you’re ready to launch your own or a collaborative ecommerce store, the Weebly Professional plan is here for you. Connect your own domain, get those advanced site statistics to grow your brand, and add video and audio to your site for a fully immersive experience. If you’re a fairly established freelancer or artist looking to have a put-together and impressive website, this could be a good fit as well.

Performance = $26/mo.

With the Weebly Performance plan, you can connect unlimited members to your website or ecommerce store, and accept payments through PayPal®  as well as through Square. Plus, you can now send automatic emails asking customers to write a review or even notify someone when they’ve left something in their cart without checking out. There are also advanced ecommerce insights, shipping labels, and discounts. With this plan you also get priority support from Weebly, allowing you to cut the line to access its customer service team.

When to use: The Weebly Performance plan is for larger ecommerce stores and online brands ready to expand. At the highest price point in the bunch, this is a great package for when you are ready to launch a large online store or even collaborate with multiple brands and sellers.

Recommended

Personally, I think the Weebly Professional plan is the best bang for your buck. For an easy $12 per month, the features that come with this plan will help you present a professional and polished online store. However, if your main focus isn’t ecommerce, the Personal plan may be more your speed, although having Square ads for a paid plan is a bit of a deal breaker.

How Does Weebly Compare?

Since Weebly has become so ecommerce focused, we figured it made the most sense to compare Weebly to another ecommerce website builder. Comparing Weebly side-by-side with another builder will help to highlight what it does well, and also what needs might not be met.

We chose to compare Weebly with another popular website builder with similar features: Shopify.

Competitor – Shopify

Shopify is another user-friendly website builder that is designed for ecommerce. It offers simple ways to add products, customize each product listing, as well as add search tags and other functions to make a seamless shopping experience for your customers. To learn more about Shopify, read our review here.

Pricing: Shopify does not offer a free plan, but it does have a free trial to test out all that it offers. Weebly is by far the more affordable between the two, with its highest plan starting out below Shopify’s lowest pricing option. However, the Shopify plans come with more built-in ecommerce capabilities, and you’ll never have to worry about ads being featured on your site.

Features: Right out of the gate, Shopify offers shipping discounts and labels to its users. It also includes inventory features that allow you to have up to four physical locations as well as an online store— all organized and synced. However, if you’re not that big of a company and don’t need these flashy features, Weebly still packs quite a bit into even its Free and Personal plans, enough to get most anyone up and running.

Customer support: Shopify does come out ahead here— its customer support has better reviews and there isn’t a tiered system of pricier plans getting more or faster support. However, Weebly customer support is able to cater to the needs of many. It offers do-it-yourself community forums as well as chats, emails, and phone support— depending on your plan. 

Number of users:  Weebly is one of the most popular website builders around, boasting more than 30 million websites hosted on its platform. Shopify is a little less popular, with a bit above one million users.

Should You Use Weebly?

With its coding capabilities and fantastic ecommerce options, Weebly is a great way for any entrepreneur or small business owner to get a website or online store up and running. Plus, with its affordable plans, you can really create an impressive website and come in under budget. If you still need some more information on other website builders, check out our Best Website Builder Review.

After all we’ve discussed, I’d give Weebly 3.9 out of 5 stars. It is easy to use and affordable. You can have your ecommerce store up and running for free in no time.

Frequently Asked Questions for Weebly

How easy is it to get set up?

Weebly will automatically connect you to the Square website builder if you’re not paying careful attention. Be sure to double-check that you’re signing up to use the Weebly website builder— you might need to use a different email account if you already have a Square point of sale account attached to your current email.

Is there a free version?

Absolutely! And it comes with some amazing features. Keep in mind that you won’t have your own domain name and will have to deal with ads, making this more of a “free trial” than a viable business website option.

What extra features or perks are included?

All Weebly plans allow you to connect to your Instagram feed and create an online store with unlimited products. You can also embed your own code for that personalized touch.