WordPress VS Weebly…which is better?
WordPress.org is the platform where people host their sites. The numbers speak for themselves: WordPress powers over 43.4% of all the websites on the Internet.
Weebly has been around for 14 years and was acquired by payment processor Square for $365 million, allowing for further improvements, especially in ecommerce.
So, which one should you pick?
In this article, we will compare Weebly and WordPress and discuss their differences in terms of ease of use, pricing, and customer support.
When it comes to building a website, WordPress and Weebly are two of the most popular choices. However, these platforms differ significantly in terms of flexibility, customization options, and the type of user they cater to. Selecting the right one for your needs depends on your technical proficiency, specific requirements, and the kind of website you envision creating.
Weebly vs WordPress: Comparision Table
| Features | Weebly | WordPress |
| Ease of Use |
User-friendly drag-and-drop interface and integrated features for easy website creation. | User-friendly with a steeper learning curve and advanced customization options. |
| Blogging | Supports basic blogging features. | Originally a powerful blogging platform with advanced capabilities. |
| Security | Provides SSL security for websites. | Security depends on hosting and user practices, and various security plugins are available. |
| Cost | Subscription-based pricing for premium plans. | Open-source (free), costs incurred for hosting, domains, and premium themes/plugins. |
| E-commerce | Built-in e-commerce features for online stores. | Requires plugins like WooCommerce for full e-commerce functionality. |
| Flexibility & Customization | Limited customization compared to WordPress, pre-designed templates. | Highly flexible with extensive customization options through themes and plugins. |
| SEO Tools | Basic SEO tools for on-page optimization. | Comprehensive SEO tools with plugins available for advanced features. |
| Community Support | Smaller community compared to WordPress. | Large and active community with extensive support resources. |
Weebly vs. WordPress Ease of Use
Weebly
Weebly makes it super easy to create a website quickly. You can buy a domain name and set up an SSL certificate with just a few clicks.
Once that’s done, just pick a pre-made template and start building your site using their drag-and-drop editor, image tools, and mobile app.
You can add some code if you want, but you don’t need to know any coding to make your website with Weebly.
WordPress
Setting up a WordPress website requires more steps than Weebly’s. Weebly, on the other hand, is simpler to set up because it’s a website builder that provides hosting and other necessary components.
After you finish those tasks, designing and adding content on WordPress is quite similar to Weebly.
WordPress offers a wider range of themes, which you can easily install from your dashboard. Plus, WordPress has a drag-and-drop editor, making it simple to create posts and pages without needing to code.
WordPress VS Weebly Flexibility
Weebly
Weebly is less flexible than WordPress because it’s a closed platform. This means users and developers have limited access to the underlying code, making it harder to customize the site or add new features. While you can use HTML, CSS, and JavaScript to tweak the design, you can’t change most of the core code.
This limited customization is fine if you don’t need many advanced features and have little technical knowledge. Weebly offers around 100 add-ons to extend functionality, which is a decent amount. However, WordPress has over 55,000 free plugins available, giving you many more options.
WordPress
WordPress is an open-source platform, which means you can change any part of its code if you know how to code. This gives you much control over your website, but only if you have the skills or are willing to learn.
If you don’t want to code, you can still add more features to your WordPress site by installing plugins. There are over 55,000 free and paid plugins available, so you can find one for almost anything you want to do.
Weebly vs. WordPress Support
Weebly
Weebly offers helpful resources like tutorials, a knowledge base, and a blog for website tips. They have a chatbot for quick assistance, but it has limitations.
If needed, you can email customer support during business hours. Weebly’s community now merges with Square for a larger user forum, requiring a Square account for engagement.
WordPress
WordPress doesn’t have its own support team, but you can contact your web hosting company for help. AccuWeb Hosting, for example, offers 24/7 live chat and email support.
WordPress users often rely on community forums for assistance, including localized ones for different languages. Still, responses may not be immediate as these forums are managed by volunteers, not WordPress staff.
Weebly vs WordPress: Blogging
Weebly
Weebly’s intuitive drag-and-drop editor makes creating and managing a blog easy. You can organize posts using categories and tags and customize the sidebar content. Features include a comments section integrated with Disqus or Facebook and the ability to add media like YouTube videos or Scribd documents.
Creating a new blog page is simple, with options for header type, visibility, and SEO settings. Weebly also offers post-scheduling and social media sharing, making it user-friendly and comprehensive for maintaining a blog on your website.
WordPress
WordPress, initially designed for blogging, offers all of Weebly’s features plus advanced capabilities and extensions. It provides more control over your blog, allowing you to manage user roles, permissions, blog categories, and password-protected posts and pages.
WordPress supports content import from platforms like Blogger, Drupal, and LiveJournal. You can manage comments via Discussion Settings and customize your site with pre-installed widgets and design options based on your theme.
Additionally, WordPress offers numerous plugins to optimize your blog, such as MailOptin for managing subscriptions and staying in touch with your audience.
Weebly vs WordPress: SEO
Weebly
Weebly has basic SEO features built-in, like allowing you to set page titles, descriptions, image alt text, and other technical SEO elements. It also formats the HTML in a search engine-friendly way.
However, Weebly’s SEO tools are quite limited compared to WordPress. To get more advanced SEO features, you’ll need to install third-party apps from Weebly’s App Center. But most of these SEO apps come with a cost, and the quality can be hit or miss based on user ratings.
So while Weebly covers the basics of on-page SEO, it lacks the depth and flexibility of the SEO tools available for WordPress.
WordPress
WordPress offers more SEO features than Weebly, allowing you to easily customize alt-text, meta descriptions, headings, and URLs, and use responsive themes. WordPress’ flexibility lets you edit code to optimize SEO or use plugins like Yoast SEO, WP Rocket, and Redirection for advanced SEO tools without coding.
Weebly has limited SEO customization compared to WordPress’ extensive flexibility and tools for optimizing your site’s search performance.
Conclusion
Choosing between WordPress and Weebly ultimately comes down to your specific needs, technical skills, and goals for your website. WordPress offers extensive customization and plugins, ideal for users seeking flexibility and control. on the other hand, Weebly provides a simpler, drag-and-drop interface, perfect for beginners and quick setups.
Choose WordPress for advanced features and scalability; opt for Weebly for ease of use and straightforward site-building.
