Shopify vs Weebly Review
Updated February 2019
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Determining The Most Suitable eCommerce Application For Your eCommerce Business
Ease of Use
Adding products, categories and making shipping options clear is essential for any ecommerce business.
We look at how easy this overall on each platform.
We look at how easy this overall on each platform.
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Shopify: Shopify's "add a product" means business, serious business. For each product a user has exceptionally detailed data fields to populate, ranging from Title, description (which you can link text to other websites or pages), to SKUs, barcodes, inventory policy application and photo gallery. Shopify's standard fields offer everything you need to upload a product with every specific presented. |
Weebly: We confess here to be a BIG fan of their website building tool, having used it to build over 2,000 client websites all over Australia. It’s a drag-and-drop platform and while it’s perfect for small and medium sized business needs, the ecommerce platform features have lagged behind other providers. However, while navigating the ecommerce platform isn't difficult, the features are comparatively limited - you can add colours, prices variations and sizes, but it's not as clearly displayed as it is in Shopify. |
Winner: Shopify
Ease of use for product addition is everything, and its extensive data fields beat Weebly easily. |
Support, a crucial element to moving your business forwards.
Any business needs support, and ecommerce platforms give rise to their own set of special questions. You'll need the best support you can get, even if you don't have the questions right away.
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Shopify: With 24/7 phone support and online authentication to save time, and a local Melbourne number to call, there is no ecommerce platform like it when it comes to helping customers. Shopify works 24/7 to answer your questions. Their ecommerce community is also very active meaning lots of tips are on hand. |
Weebly: Australian businesses can only access Weebly live support (phone/online chat) from 11pm Sydney time (!) to 10am the following morning, Weebly’s hours of operation in the USA. This won’t suit a lot of Australians, even if online assistance submissions will be answered same-day, i.e. overnight. There is far less of a community of users, and you'll feel comparatively alone if you're after on-demand help or an online community. |
Winner: Shopify
Weebly doesn’t come close! If you want answers, Shopify is standing by. |
Beyond Support, the ability to call in a professional web designer/expert for tricky requests
At some point in the life of your ecommerce business, you'll need an expert. Even if it's an hour of time, it can save your business significant time if you hire someone that knows Shopify. But how do you find someone who is familiar with the application, and can they be trusted? We look at the methods both platforms use to make hiring an expert seamless.
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Shopify: Shopify nails it with a number of approved platform experts listed on its own site located in Melbourne, Brisbane and Sydney. With a number of partner reviews, making the transition into hiring a web developer and getting someone who knows how to deliver the good, literally, in Shopify is transparent. Experts even list their hourly charges and what scope of work they perform. |
Weebly: Searching “Weebly designers Australia” gives a mixed bag of results, with nothing dedicated to a Weebly ecommcerce expert offering. Hiring a Weebly expert in any city in Australia for custom requests will be less straight forward. |
Winner: Shopify For transparency and making it too easy to find a Shopify Expert to help you. |
Apps, plugins and the integrations available
So, beyond the standard features of both ecommerce platforms, there will be a moment when you ask “oh, can I do….” and the answer is likely to be YES, but with an app. Apps are developed by external partners to Weebly and Shopify, and are either free or subscribed to for an ongoing monthly fee. These apps cover functionality and features in Marketing, Sales, Social Media, Shipping, Inventory, Customer Service, Accounting, Tools, Reporting and Sales Channels. With such a wide scope, we look at the number of apps and quality available on both platforms.
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Shopify: A lot of developers are flocking to Shopify as the platform dominates the ecommerce arena. As at September 2016, there were over 5,000 apps. With more being published everyday and introduced to the Shopify arena, there is a lot of choice. |
Weebly: Weebly offers a number of apps, but nothing like Shopify. An estimate would be under 200 apps available for the purposes of ecommerce. |
Winner: Shopify For the shear volume, transparent rating system and future potential, Shopify comes out as top when it comes to aps and integrations. |
Basic features and benefits for a beginner plan.
We start off looking at what you can get for under $40/month (the price point of entry level plans) and maximising the built-in features to build the best ecommerce experience for your customers.
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Shopify: At AU$29.95 on month-to-month terms, Shopify is affordable for the startup. It packs all the features of Weebly but has them in overdrive, and a lot of free add-ons are available to give you more ecommerce swag. |
Shopify: At US$39.95 on month-to-month terms, already this is close to twice the price of Shopify with the same features, but lacking the conviction of Shopify. Some feel more like dialed-in features rather than long term boosters. |
Winner: Shopify Shopify, given the number of additional features available with apps (many are free) and the 24/7 support available. Bonus: Physical Store? If you're a physical shop, you can upgrade to the Retail Plan for staff access to process sales for in-store customers, syncing your inventory and reporting effortlessly. |
Themes, and why the design of your ecommerce store is everything
Themes are the pre-set design of your website.
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Shopify: There is no competition - the endless number of Shopify Themes is unrivaled. Some are free with the platform, others are paid, but the individuality is endless and you can quickly edit your theme to make it unique. |
Weebly: Weebly Themes are limited to 10. Yep, just 10. |
Winner: Shopify Absolutely without question. |
Website features beyond ecommerce, such as blogs,
galleries and formatting tools.
If you’re a business that isn’t JUST in the business of ecommerce, then it's perhaps better to have a website tool that has all the features to make your business stand out. This applies to professionals selling items "on the side".
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Shopify: Shopify has page simple editing which is superior to BigCommerce and other ecommerce-driven platforms, but there are limitations and the design features aren't as beautifully intuitive as they could be. Shopify certaintly isn't the platform if you're 95% offline business and 5% ecommerce. |
Weebly: Given its origins as a website building tool before it branched into ecommerce, Weebly really has everything you need when it comes to custom features, making all of your required pages effortless to set up, manipulate and edit. It's a website builder and an ecommerce platform second. |
Winner: Weebly Weebly, given its natural growth from website builder to ecommerce platform. |
Per-Sale Charges
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Shopify: There is no competition - Shopify transaction fees comes standard with every Shopify account, and the fees are as followed:
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Weebly: Australian based businesses can only integrate with PayPal, which charges a standard 3.4% + $0.45 AUD per transaction. This is close to 50% more than Shopify. |
Winner: Shopify Shopify; 50% less transaction fees makes it a no-brainer. |
