What is Weebly?
The manufacturer was recently acquired by the Square payment gateway. This union has made it an all-in-one platform, combining e-commerce, marketing and a simple solution for creating websites.
It makes difficult things simple and combines a useful drag-and-drop editor with quality professional tools. If you are looking to create a simple and pleasant website or to sell quickly and easily, this is a great choice.
It is practically the ideal solution for combining a website builder and professional tools. Even if it's not, it's still a great choice for newbies.
Because at the end of the day, it's very easy to use and you can seriously launch an entire business in under an hour.
Who is Weebly for?
Weebly is a website creation platform that offers a number of interesting features. However, its use is not suitable for everyone. Here's who this service could be most useful for:
1. Small businesses
- Small businesses that want to stay small : Weebly is presented as an excellent solution for the needs of these. Although site creation tools are relatively simple, they allow for quick and hassle-free implementation.
- A complete application store : Weebly has a large application store that makes it easy to add new features to the site, according to business needs.
2. Individual projects
- Personal projects, blogs and resumes : Weebly also stands out for its ease of use for personal projects. The proposed themes, which are easy to set up, can be used as an excellent medium for presenting personal or professional achievements, or for a blog.
- Social functions and SEO : Additionally, Weebly offers several options for sharing on social networks, adding comments, and referencing specific to blogs.
Weebly: What types of sites can you create?
Weebly is a versatile platform that allows the creation of various types of sites, although it is particularly well suited to small businesses. Let's take a closer look at the types of sites you can build with Weebly.
1. Corporate sites
Businesses are Weebly's main target. Here's why:
- Dedicated to the growth of online businesses : Weebly offers a wealth of resources to help businesses start and grow online.
- Features tailored to businesses : Specific themes, solid SEO tools, e-commerce features on all plans (even the free one!) , marketing tools such as blogs and newsletters, and analytics to understand visitor performance and engagement.
- Seamless integration with Square : Weebly makes it easy to sell online through integration with Square's payments suite, making selling easier for pop-up stores, physical stores, and e-commerce sites.
2. E-commerce sites
Weebly, with its range of business features and integration with Square Online, can be a smart choice for smaller online stores.
However, if you're looking for a dedicated platform with deeper features, it might be best to go with Wix, Shopify, or even Square Online.
- Optimized for e-commerce : Weebly offers solid SEO and marketing tools, and the themes are optimized.
- Simplified store management : Add products, view orders, and design your window from the e-commerce dashboard.
- Free sale for new sellers in the US : It is one of the only manufacturers that allows you to sell for free. However, Square Online also offers a free plan with more impressive sales tools.
3. Personal sites and portfolios
can be an attractive choice for personal projects thanks to its simple and uncluttered approach.
- Simple and elegant design : While the designs aren't the most flamboyant on the market, they're clean and stylish, perfect for a personal site or portfolio.
- Features adapted to personal projects : Built-in image editor, animation effects, custom fonts, custom fonts, video backgrounds, newsletters, and social media marketing.
4. Blogging sites
Weebly is a robust choice for blogging, offering a variety of tools to help bloggers create and manage their content.
- Blogging tools : Blog-specific themes, built-in RSS and social sharing functions, scheduled sharing on Facebook and Twitter, media integrations, customizing categories, tags, and sidebar, and advanced comment management.
- SEO for blogs : Addition of custom header and footer codes, URLs, title tags, and custom meta descriptions.
However, Weebly isn't the best blogging platform out there, with platforms like Squarespace and Wix offering more features.
Feel free to try Weebly to see if its features fit your needs. Our detailed Weebly review explores every aspect of this platform, including its ease of use, designs, pricing, and features.
Features
As soon as Weebly joined forces with Square, it was obvious to think that the platform would be heavily focused on providing the best business features. Did this merger work? I would say that Weebly can be a powerful platform for small and medium businesses.
This website builder is an e-commerce solution for personal users and small businesses, and it certainly acts like one. It's also very cheap, starting at $12 per month. But if you choose this formula, be careful: the 3% transaction fee and the 25-product limit may be a bit too high for some (the $25/month formula without these limits is the best).
Overall, though, I really enjoyed the e-commerce experience. The entire e-commerce store dashboard is easy to understand and follow, making it easy to add a shopping cart to your site.
If you've already used a different platform for your store, you'll be able to migrate to Weebly quickly. Here, I was able to either add my items manually, migrate from another platform like Shopify or Etsy, or download everything I wanted using a CSV file.
If you choose to add items manually, you'll be spending a lot of time on this screen. Here you can choose the type of item you're selling (physical products and digital download options are both available), as well as set prices, photos, and descriptions. Additionally, Weebly allows you to edit and delete products in bulk and redefine categories.
You can also specify item variations such as size or color there.
The “Modifiers” options will also allow visitors to modify the article according to their preferences.
Each item also has an SEO optimization screen, where you can choose the link and write the title and description that's most appropriate for search engine results.
Finally, how do you add your store to Weebly?
Luckily, it's pretty simple: I simply went to my Weebly site editor, added a new page, and selected an item called “Products.” From there, I was able to manage the appearance of the products on my website, including their layout and the various display options.
So long story short, Weebly eCommerce is pretty solid. It's a beginner-friendly platform, and if you're looking for a simple option to manage your business, it's a great choice.
Do you have another idea in mind for your online store?
SEO
SEO optimization is the art of trying to improve your website's ranking in search engine results. 93% of online experiences start with a search engine - so good SEO is vital if you want to develop your online presence!
Website creation tools have often had a bad reputation when it comes to SEO in the past, and it's true that some website building tools still let the side down. However, you don't need to worry about that with Weebly, as it has always had a solid set ofSEO tools.
All Weebly sites come with:
- A sitemap file
- HTML formatting adapted to SEO
- Meta Descriptions
- Responsive design
You can also change your meta titles and descriptions, customize URLs, and take advantage of more advanced SEO features, including adding alt text to images and page-specific descriptions.
However, it lags behind when it comes to more advanced SEO tools. For example, it does not provide any support for keywords and, as we said before, its mobile optimization is insufficient.
Also, when we ran our site speed test, it came in last place for its low server response time. In the past, this may not have mattered too much, but since the introduction of Google Core Web Vitals, load time is more important than ever.
Despite that, it's still a good choice if you're new to SEO. It has a really great ultimate SEO guide that guides you in optimizing your website from start to finish.
You can install Google Analytics on your site to make it easier to track performance. Weebly also has its own built-in site statistics tracking tool, called Insights, which provides you with real-time stats about your site's data and traffic.
Overall, Weebly has a solid SEO offering, especially for people who are new to the world of website building and feel a bit lost. However, those with more experience may find the lack of advanced features frustrating.
Email marketing and pop-ups
Weebly allows you to create a G Suite business email address directly from the dashboard, but the serious stuff starts as soon as you try to use your email address for professional marketing purposes. Indeed, Weebly offers very good email marketing features, and while most of them are free, using this platform for marketing purposes means you'll have to pay extra.
In the Emails section, Weebly gives you some quick ideas for sending messages. For example, to add a coupon to your store or to put an item on sale, the platform will automatically create an email to be sent to the public.
In addition, you can compose your e-mails yourself. Weebly has taken care to provide you with fifteen very interesting predefined templates and an editor, very similar to the website builder itself.
Weebly also has a section for automated emails - think of a welcome email for new contacts or an additional product offering for existing customers.
However, as you can see on the yellow ribbon here, this feature will be under a paywall.
In fact, all email features fall under Promote - a separate service with separate pricing.
- The free plan allows you to create two emails and send them to 500 recipients. The monthly email quota is 1,000.
- The Build plan costs $8/month, allows you to create 5 emails and send them to 1,000 recipients. Lead capture allows you to add custom forms to your visitors. The email quota is increased to 2,500.
- The Grow plan costs $25/month, entitles you to 20 email campaigns, allows 2,500 email recipients, and increases the monthly quota to 50,000. You can also create up to 5 automated emails and segment your visitors into specific email groups.
- The Accelerate plan will cost you $75/month and, for that, it removes all limits except for the total email quota, which is raised to a respectable 250,000. But for an additional fee, the limits can be increased even more.
You know, those pop-up windows that pop up from a website to tell you news, offer you a coupon, ask for your email address or verify your age? A bit boring, no?
Well, they are effective! And with Weebly, you can do them too!
The pop-up generator is quite simple and intuitive, and you can very easily create a message that your visitors can read (and possibly pass by).
Weebly Promote
Marketing is a critical part of online growth and success. The application center offers numerous marketing applications. For example, you can add an Instagram feed, create popups, or launch Google Ads campaigns using apps in the Marketing category in the App Center.
One of the main marketing methods is email marketing, and that's where Promote comes in. This is the newsletter tool that aims to make email marketing as easy and effective as possible for users.
Promote automatically syncs with your Weebly website, comes with ready-to-use layouts that you can customize by drag and drop, makes it easy to import contacts, and provides you with reports showing how many people opened or clicked on your emails.
If the email marketing is one of your main marketing tactics, so Promote is definitely worth checking out. You can try Promote for free, and then there are three paid plans:
- Build plan: $8 per month - you get a lead capture form and can send five emails per month.
- Grow Plan: $25 per month - you get all the benefits of the Build plan, and you can send 20 emails per month, schedule emails, and automate emails.
- Accelerate Plan: $75 per month - you get all the benefits of the cheaper plans, but you can send unlimited emails per month.
Promote has a range of pricing plans and a free trial, catering to various types of marketing needs.
Application center
If you're looking for something a bit more specific to improve your website, the application center is where everything happens.
The applications are divided into a few main sections: e-commerce, communication, marketing, social and site tools. With over 350 Weebly and third-party applications available, it's not the largest marketplace of its kind that exists, but for most needs, it'll be more than enough.
Free applications (there are about forty of them) are mainly focused on editing websites and offer various functions for displaying content. You know, tables, animations, boxes, that kind of thing.
But there will also be great free, premium, and freemium apps linked to more specific business behaviors.
Using the app marketplace, you can easily view live sales notifications, accept donations, and even print on demand with Printful, which means you can sell merchandise with your designs, leaving the platform to print and ship on your behalf.
Overall, I found the app market to be quite solid. There are a good number of applications available, and they all improve the website creation platform, giving users access to more and better business functions.
Mobile app
Running a business is a job that is done 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, where you can't truly to be offline. But you won't always be able to access the computer to edit your site, manage your products, or see the overall performance of your project.
For this, it offers a mobile application, which can be used by any user. Honestly - it's one of the best features, period. The application is modern and very powerful.
Not only was I able to see how many users visited my site, but I was even able to edit my page directly on the phone and add new items to the store.
The mobile application is a great tool that is very easy to use. It offers you an alternative method of creation and management, always available in the comfort of your pocket.
However, it has a downside: while it has a great app for editing your site on the go, you can't preview how it looks on smartphones when you edit it from your desktop. To see it, you should definitely download the app.
Available models
Weebly certainly focuses on quality over quantity. There aren't a lot of themes to choose from, but they do offer a fully responsive theme experience:
- Offers around 40 original designs for you to choose from.
- How much do they cost? Each of the templates offered by Weebly is free. There are also third-party options that cost between $20 and $50.
- Are they good? They are simple enough, but diverse enough to offer a good selection for many different design niches and preferences.
When you start your website, you will be asked to choose a starter theme.
However, you can easily change the template while editing, without losing any content.
And you might want to try at least a few of these themes, which can be very varied and very enjoyable to look at.
That being said, there are not that many options to choose from. A drag-and-drop builder needs a reasonable amount of themes available, as these serve as a starting point for users.
But there may be an ace up the sleeve, as there is another curious option, allowing anyone to upload their own theme.
What does that mean? Well - it's actually one of my favorites in any website builder.
All you need to do is find these third-party themes in various marketplaces on the internet.
The options cost between $20 and $50 a piece, so they're not very expensive either. But there's a problem: there aren't a lot of third-party themes either.
Overall, Weebly could do a bit better with themes. With a nice, but small local selection, I expected the community to bail out this builder. Unfortunately, that is not the case.
Still, there are solid options for most people to choose from: and if you really like some of the Weebly themes, you'll have no problem.
SEO and blogging
Weebly has a search engine optimization option for each page. With it, you can add meta descriptions and keywords, as well as header and footer codes.
In addition to contributing to SEO, this means that you can optimize the website to work with most major analytics tools, such as Google Analytics and Microsoft Clarity.
The SEO page in the Settings menu allows you to configure your redirects and add tracking codes for the entire site.
And also (this is something I already mentioned), you can add custom URLs and meta tags to each of your sold items.
Let's get to the content: to create a blog, in the Pages menu, choose to create a blog page. It is on the blog page that you can add, modify and manage all your articles.
The blog editor uses, not surprisingly, an interface that is very similar to that of creating a website. Simply drag and drop items and edit them separately.
Also, this editor does not allow you to add titles to your text. From the point of view of SEO, this is a massive oversight, corrected by third-party plugins (paid!).
Honestly, I would have preferred something more writer-friendly: maybe a true full-featured editor, similar to something like WordPress ? The current option is not bad, but it is difficult to use this interface both to copy articles from elsewhere and to write the article directly in the interface. Overall, good SEO, but no bloggers.
And to sum up the professional features, they're pretty good. Unfortunately, they are not as cheap as they seem at first glance. The $12 ecommerce plan requires additional payments, as does email marketing. But if the fact that these two elements are expensive is not a problem for you, Weebly is a very powerful platform.
Of course, you can use Weebly for various types of businesses: it's also very well suited for creating websites for artists and is a top performer among the best website builders for photography.
Customer Support
It is a website creation platform that strives to make the online presence accessible to everyone, regardless of their technical level.
Their range of intuitive tools allows anyone to create a website, blog, or online store in no time.
One of these indispensable tools is their customer service, which is ready to help you resolve any issues you may encounter.
Access to customer support
- “Support” option always available at the top of your screen
- Access to the support area leads you to useful articles and a comprehensive knowledge base
- Support is a veritable encyclopedia of tutorials of all kinds, always at your fingertips
Personalized support options
- Live chat for real-time support
- Email support for detailed queries
- Hotline for more personalized interaction (available from Pro plans)
Support availability
- Customer service is available during business hours, 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. Pacific Standard Time
- Outside of these hours, an effective automatic assistance system is at your service
- The automatic assistance system offers quick tutorials in real time
Customer service highlights
- The various options for communicating with live support agents
- A solid base of tutorials to deepen your knowledge
- The efficiency and availability of support make Weebly customer support a major asset of the platform.
In conclusion, the customer support is of high quality, ready to help you solve your problems and optimize your website creation experience: you are never alone in your online adventure.
Performance test
Creators aren't known for being fast, because they're not.
All the customization options of a builder generally have a negative effect on the speed of loading of their sites.
To test, I did a test on GTmetrix, here is what I got:
It could certainly be better. But overall, it's pretty fast - the entire page loads in just over 2.5 seconds. One of the main issues the tool has encountered is the slightly inefficient loading of images.
But even with this, the website loads below the 3-second threshold recommended by Google for good SEO and visitor retention.
Alternatives
You may have learned a lot from this review. One could be that Weebly is not the creator that's right for you.
I get it - while it's a solid choice, its hidden prices and the relatively low number of themes could make this option a cause for breakers. So here are some of the best alternatives and competitors I could find:
1. Wix
Wix is very versatile.
With a huge app market, over 700 templates, and two different editors (one for beginners and one for advanced users), it can suit just about anyone. If you have a website idea, Wix can probably make it work.
2. Squarespace
If these are the themes you are looking for to create a site, Squarespace is the solution.
With over 100 modern themes, anyone can have a beautiful website, even without any design knowledge.
On top of that, powerful integrated marketing and business management tools provide a very simple all-in-one mission control center experience that's perfect for the needs of small businesses.
3. Shopify
Do you need a place and an account to sell online?
Weebly is pretty good, but Shopify is the best, a very popular e-commerce platform, used by businesses of all sizes.
How is that done? Well, it offers great integrated e-commerce tools, as well as discounts on shipping and transaction fees. Add in a huge third-party app store, which gives you top-notch features, as well as a lively community that creates all sorts of brilliant designs, and you're on the right track.
Ease of use
Weebly focuses on ease of use. All elements of the platform are designed in such a way that a complete beginner has no trouble learning and mastering the system.
- Setup process - the setup process is really easy. It only takes a few clicks and a few choices to have a website, ready to be edited.
- Construction - everything is quite simple. You can choose from various items, which you then drag and drop. The navigation menus are simple and clear.
- Management - a clean dashboard focuses primarily on marketing and e-commerce functions, and makes managing the business quite simple.
Setting up the website was a very simple process, the editor was intuitive and easy to manage, and the overall experience of running the business was really enjoyable.
Weebly is one of best website builders when it comes to simplifying difficult things.
Here's how it goes:
Setup
To start using Weebly, choose the “Website” or “Personal Website” option. The “Online Store” option will take you to Square - an entirely different platform, with different functionalities and possibilities for creating websites.
Then, after choosing the right option, I had to go through a basic registration process. Nothing unusual, with the classic steps of “name-email-password”.
Once that was done, I was able to select a favorite theme.
Here, the themes have been separated into several categories, making it possible to choose a starting point that is closest to what the finished product should look like.
And that's really it! Once the theme was selected, I was able to start editing my website and doing it mine.
Build
It's a drag-and-drop builder, and its editor is simple enough to create a website.
The top menu allows you to choose what you want to change, whether it's pages or themes, and once you click on it, the left menu gives you all the editing options.
For example, this is what the “Build” menu looks like: it includes options for adding text, titles, and more complex details, like an image gallery.
You can take anything here and drag and drop it to create a website.
You also have an option called “Sections,” which allows you to access ready-to-use parts that already include several elements woven together.
Is this option good enough for you? Well, I'm definitely missing more choices. Five types of sections is not much. Additionally, in a drag-and-drop constructor, replacing full customization with prefabricated groups could be considered a limitation of freedom.
On the other hand, you can use the regular elements to improve your sections.
Now on to the other editing options: the “Pages” menu allows you to quickly manage, you guessed it, all the pages on your website. This is where you can reorder and prioritize everything.
Then there's the “Theme” option, which allows you to make changes like fonts, or change various site design options. This is also where you can add and edit HTML and CSS code.
I was very impressed with the font options because you can change them for virtually any part of your website - and there are over 200 fonts to choose from! Unexpected, but as impressive as ever.
Unfortunately, there's a downside: Weebly doesn't have a feature for cancelling changes to the site, such as adding items or changing the theme. If you can get past it, we can continue to play with the editor.
Thus, the “Apps” menu will redirect you directly to the application store, and finally, the “Settings” menu will open a new page, which will include all the main information relating to your website.
It offers a simple and intuitive menu to build your website. The new option to add “Sections” is a bit different from the overall look.
But overall, everything is accessible and beginners should have no problem mixing and matching items according to the style they want.
Rates
The first thing to know about the prices and the value for money is that they are so good that they got a perfect score of 5 out of 5 in our search for this category. It is the only builder among our top 14 website builders that can boast such a high rating, which is worth noting!
They have a free plan. That means it's 100% free to create, publish, and even sell with Weebly - there are no time limits or hidden costs to trick you. The free plan is perfect for trying out Weebly and seeing if it's the right website builder for you, or for saving money while you're getting your site ready for publishing.
However, we don't recommend staying on the free plan. Why? Well, you'll have ads displayed on your site, you only have limited features (like 500MB of storage), and you can't use a custom domain.
These are three major drawbacks, which make it a good idea to upgrade to a paid plan if you expect someone else to see your website. The upgrade will also give you an extra burst of professionalism, so more people will take your website seriously.
It offers three paid plans, ranging from 6 to 29 dollars per month:
- Personal plan: $6 per month
- Professional plan: $12 per month
- Performance Plan: $26 per month
It offers four plans in total — one free plan and then three paid plans. This makes it easier to make it evolve while respecting your pace and budget.
The $6 per month Personal plan is quite similar to the free plan in terms of features, except that it allows you to connect a custom domain. We don't recommend this plan because it doesn't offer good value for money.
The $12 per month professional plan is best for any portfolio, small business, or blog that needs to make a good impression. Why? Because it's the cheapest plan that removes ads from your website.
Plus, you get unlimited storage space and a free domain!
The Performance plan, at $26 per month, is ideal for growing businesses or for any online store looking to boost sales. You have access to more advanced e-commerce tools, such as shipping labels and abandoned cart emails.
Just pay attention to the monthly and annual plans. it displays its prices per month, with annual billing. This is because taking out an annual plan saves you money - but it can be an unpleasant shock at the cash register to find out that you have to pay the year in advance!
The good news is that you can pay by the month if you want more flexibility, but it will cost you more per month - check out the chart below to compare monthly and annual prices.
You can save between 10% and 33%, depending on the plan you sign up for and the length of your subscription.
FAQs
Is Weebly good for SEO?
Weebly is quite good when it comes to SEO, since it allows you to change the code of the headers and footers, and to add meta tags on each of the pages and each of the products.
How much does Weebly cost?
Weebly has a free plan — and its paid options start at $5 per month, if you pay 12 months in advance.
What type of website can I create with Weebly?
Weebly offers personal and e-commerce features. Therefore, you can create just about any type of business and personal website with this website builder.
Final Verdict
During this review, I was impressed by how easy it is to do things that other builders barely allow: customizing the header and footer code, as well as customizing the HTML code on each page, are all great features.
And at the same time, the easy to use drag-and-drop builder allows newbies to build their page the way they want.
Lots of useful built-in tools and easy to use e-commerce make Weebly one of my top choices when it comes to selling and advertising online.
Unfortunately, Weebly isn't perfect. Great email features are hidden under a huge paywall. The $5 plan still maintains the brand image. E-commerce transaction fees are always an issue. And while some themes are really cool, I wish there were more interesting options for different types of websites.
Weebly is a solid choice if you want a simple personal website or a basic way to sell online. More than just a website builder, it's an intuitive and easy to use business platform that's suitable for beginners.
