Weebly Review

We review the features, pricing, pros and cons and what to know of this website builder and hosting platform

With more than 40 million sites using the Weebly platform, it’s easy to see why you’d want to learn more. Weebly was founded on the idea that anyone should be able to launch their business idea online with little online knowledge or expertise. In this guide we look at:
Weebly - A Simple ​Overview
  1. Weebly users can build a free website using the Weebly platform that is customizable and will grow with their business.
  2. Weebly offers a drag-and-drop editing tool, making it possible for anyone (even those that don’t know code) to create a beautiful website.
  3. If you do know some coding, Weebly offers the option to use its built-in code editor which gives you more customization options. Beyond building your website, Weebly offers a variety of other tools that help with SEO, backups, eCommerce, and marketing.
  4. In summary, it's an all-in-one solution. 

Getting Started with Weebly - How it Works

Getting started with Weebly is simple with the following steps:
  • Sign up for a free account
  • Choose a website or eCommerce website
  • Choose a theme (the design of the website, which you can change at any time)
  • Choose your domain (the name of your website, e.g. yourbusiness.com.au, which can be either a free domain with the Weebly subdomain or a custom domain that you must pay for)
  • Create your website using the drag-and-drop editor
  • Add apps for social, sales, traffic and more
  • Add your store information if you’ll sell products on your website
  • Choose your price plan (optional)
  • Publish your Weebly site

Who is Weebly Best For?

As you probably guessed, Weebly is great for business owners that have no technical know-how. If you want to build a website but don’t know the first thing about code, Weebly’s got your back. It’s great for small businesses starting out as well as brick-and-mortar stores that want to branch out into online sales.

Weebly Features

We're huge fans of Weebly, and commenting on all of its features would be impossible. We've shortlisted our top ten to help you decide if Weebly is right for you.
  1. A easy-to-use drag-and-drop editor – Customize your site however you envision it by choosing a theme and using Weebly’s drag-and-drop features allowing you to change the layout, text, overlays, and more. Include video headers and background images to truly make your website unique.  
  2. Professional themes – Weebly offers a large variety of themes ranging from simplistic to eccentric. Each theme is fully customizable to your liking.
  3. Fully integrated shopping cart – Sell your products online with a fully integrated shopping cart and secure checkout process. Your site automatically has a shopping cart when you choose eCommerce, no technical skills required.  
  4. Professional photo galleries – Display your photos, create slide shows, and edit your photos to create a dynamic and professional-looking photo gallery.  
  5. Responsive design for mobiles – All Weebly themes are mobile-friendly and allow full mobile optimization allowing you to grab the attention of even more viewers. With its mobile preview setting, you can see exactly what your visitors will see when visiting your site on a mobile device.  
  6. Free subdomain – If you don’t mind having ‘.weebly.com’ at the end of your domain name, you don’t have to pay for a domain. However, if you want to stand out, it’s recommended that you purchase your own domain name, which you can do through Weebly at reasonable prices.  
  7. Access your account from any device – Whether you’re designing your site or you want to manage the back-end, you can access your account from your PC and mobile phone. This includes responding to customer inquiries, checking form responses, and managing blog comments.  
  8. Third-party app integration – Add additional apps or third-party services to make your website even more dynamic. Weebly offers a variety of apps including shipping, marketing, menu integration, multi-language, subscription capabilities, calendar apps and more.
  9. SEO Power - Weebly offers inbuilt SEO features that elevate a website's Google ranking equally to any other website builder, such as Wix or Wordpress. There is a misconception that Weebly sites don't rank as well, but this is completely untrue.
  10. Responsive Support - American-based support via chat, email and phone (depending on your subscription) has a trusted reputation for being responsive and delivering solutions to problems. The Weebly resource centre is extensive and helps you navigate many issues.

Weebly Ecommerce Features

In addition to building a robust eCommerce store that is easy for customers to access, Weebly offers extensive eCommerce features including:
  • Shipping tool – Get accurate shipping rates, offer shipping discounts, and choose from a variety of carriers.
  • Inventory – Manage your inventory easily so that you never run out of products and always know where you stand.
  • Create coupons and gift cards – Give your customers reasons to come back with custom coupons and gift cards
  • Customer reviews – Showcase your top customer reviews to give viewers more confidence in your store
  • Product search – Help visitors find exactly what they’re looking for with ease with a search bar
  • Checkout – You can use your Square, PayPal, or Stripe account to process credit card payments

Weebly Pros and Cons

Weebly is packed full of features, and we're fans of all of it, choosing to power most of our clients using Weebly's brilliantly easy interface. Still, it is not for everyone, and we point out the pros and cons below.

Pros
  • Simple and user-friendly interface – The What you See is What you Get Interface makes it easy for just about anyone to craft a nice looking website. It's effortlessly easy to create and edit a website.
  • More than 250 apps – It’s easy to ‘up your game’ with your Weebly site when choosing from the hundreds of apps available from the app centre – some are free and some are paid. This covers you for design features, surveys, social media promotion and many more.  
  • Basic analytics even with a free account – Analytics are the only way to tell what’s working and not working with your marketing efforts by showing you the number of visitors per day etc. Weebly offers extensive analytics for the paid versions, but the free version even has page views and unique visitor stats
  • Strong SEO capabilities – SEO features include meta tag fields and descriptions, covering everything you need for solid on-page SEO. Weebly's useful resources walk you through the most important steps to ensure that your website has a chance of ranking.

Cons
  • Weebly has a limited number of themes compared to its competitors – If you’re looking for extensive theme options, you won’t find it in the 50+ themes in Weebly. This is where Wordpress shines, but technical skills are needed whereas Weebly is arguably workable for anyone.
  • Customer service is based on your plan – If you have the free plan, you may have to rely on email and online support. The top tier paid subscribers get priority phone support.

Weebly Costs

Weebly offers four pricing options. All plans come with SSL security, advanced site stats, site search, and the ability to add 3rd party embed code. The current prices, in Australian dollars, are as followed:
  1. Free – Good for basic or personal use
  2. Personal AU$7/month – Good for personal use with a custom domain
  3. Professional AU$15/month – Good for businesses that want to build a brand with a custom domain, unlimited storage, and the elimination of Square ads
  4. Performance AU$30/month – Offers robust eCommerce features and scalability
 
Each plan comes with eCommerce capabilities and with the same Square processing rate of 2.9% plus $0.30 of every transaction. As you get into the Professional and Performance plans, you get a few more eCommerce features including shipping calculators, shipping labels, abandoned cart emails, and shipping discounts.
 
All plans include SEO capabilities, lead capture, and an Instagram feed. If you want advanced eCommerce insights, you’ll need the Performance plan.

Weebly - The Bottom Line

  1. If you're looking for a simple, easy to use interface, you’ve found it in Weebly.
  2. The platform has grown extensively since its inception in 2007 and powers millions of websites today.
  3. Small Business Web Designs uses Weebly to power 99% of its clients' websites, from sole trader businesses to multinational eCommerce companies. We have tried and tested Weebly for close to ten years and swear by it as the website builder of choice. 
  4. Whether you have basic or robust needs, Weebly offers many options that suit small to mid-sized businesses looking to make their mark online. Editing is easy ensuring easy updates without the need to have technical skills.