Wix vs. Weebly | Which One is Better?

Wix or Weebly? Which one to choose for creating a website? I’d say it won’t be easy to make your final decision since both solutions are similar and offer quality services. Chances you have chosen them because you wish to build a professional website quickly and without coding hardships.

If you need a direct response, both Wix and Weebly can bring you a satisfactory result. However, Wix is a more powerful means. Yet, if I’m to define Wix as the winner, there should be a big score in this match, with both parties kicking almost the same number of goals.

So, the differences between the platforms are non-obvious, but they do exist. Bearing them in mind is crucial for making a choice. Join my Wix-Weebly comparison, and you’ll know why Wix is more likely to win the palm and which site builder is better for your exact project.

Quick Summary

Interestingly, Wix and Weebly were founded in 2006. Both were designed to make the site-building process as simple as possible. Their key audiences are non-coders and web design beginners. This has made both platforms the top-popular website builders in the world.

With Wix, you can create any website. The software now incorporates two editors, one of which is AI-powered, so that a ready-to-use website can be built in three simple steps. Wix offers hundreds of top-quality themes and allows connecting a website to a variety of apps.

Weebly, in its turn, has one editor, but its ease of use is hardly beatable at all. This is the key advantage of the platform. Another one is the solid coverage of eCommerce features available across all the plans. The site builder can also empower a website for whatever purpose. Still, Weebly offers a significantly smaller number of themes. Its integration options are also a bit more limited.

So, at first glance, we come to the following conclusions:

• Wix seems a more reliable and universally fitting choice since it gives more options.
• Weebly would be an ideal solution for a simple website that does not require too many features and can do with a less customizable design.

Let’s collate the platforms aspect by aspect to know if the preliminary estimate is correct.

Price

I’d like to start with the price comparison since budget limits can play a decisive role in selecting a site builder. As to similarities, Wix and Weebly offer diverse pricing systems and have business-oriented offers and refund policies.

Wix Pricing

Wix’s packages are definitely more expensive. I didn’t find a free plan previously available on the platform. Even if it still were on the list, I’d advise against it since it would go with Wix ads.

So, you’ll have a choice of four website plans with a price range from $16 to $45 a month. Each of them goes with a free domain for one year, SSL security, and is Wix-ads-free. There are also three business-oriented plans on Wix, the cheapest of which will cost you $27/mo., while the most expensive is $59/mo.

Mind that all Wix plans are supplied with better capacities and a wider range of features than Weebly. If you’re launching a truly complex eCommerce website with even more extended needs, custom Enterprise plans from Wix are at your disposal.

Weebly Pricing

Weebly offers a similar model of plans, with the only exception of a free plan available. This free solution, by all means, has strong points. For instance, it goes with 24/7 support, SEO tools, and basic eCommerce features. Still, the plan is too limited to let you build a professional website.

Your Weebly site for free will be loaded with Square ads (Weebly has been part of Square Inc. since 2016.) The storage will contain only 500Mb, and there’ll be other limitations. So, choosing one of the prepaid plans is a more reasonable solution. The prices range from $16 to $29 a month.

So, Weebly is more generous in supplying all its plans with important eCommerce features. Their only drawbacks are ads and fewer options. For more complex businesses, Wix’s packages seem to be more reliable.

Creating a Website

At once, both platforms are easy to use, so building a website is not a problem on any of them.

Wix has extended its options: today, it offers Wix Editor or ADI Editor for site-building. The former may seem a bit tricky to a total beginner, but it allows more customizations. The ADI Editor is based on Artificial Intelligence techs. So, the creative process will include the following simple steps:

• You answer a number of questions so that the Wix AI knows which site exactly you need.
• Wix ADI builds your site itself!
• You can add light changes to your ready-to-use website before publishing it.

Weebly offers one editor, but even a complete starter can cope with it. The building process is based on Drag & Drop. A significant downside is that you cannot place elements just anywhere on your website, and the customization freedom at Weebly is limited.

Still, the options are enough to create a professionally-looking website working equally seamlessly across all devices. A vital advantage of Weebly is that even a newbie won’t bugle the job. The result will be fitting anyway.

Interface

Wix and Weebly have done their best to offer users clear interfaces with everything in a proper place. You have to open an account – the procedure is common – and then, you can go straight to the site-building process.

Both Wix and Weebly belong to website constructors that let a user observe the progress in real-time. There’s a Preview option, too. Both platforms give easy access to coding if necessary. You can intuitively find the required option, be it general settings for your pages, the help center, or whatever.

So, in terms of interface, it’s a tie between Wix and Weebly.

Templates

Wix’s template set includes over 800 items. These are well-customizable themes, and there are nine blank templates ready to be built from scratch. It’s convenient to sort out proper themes for your project since they can be arranged by categories like Blog, Store, Services and Business, etc.

But be careful with your choice. It may be a situation when you have picked a template and filled it with all the necessary content, but you dislike the final outcome. Wish to change the template? Then, be ready to start from the very beginning – your content will be lost together with the deleted theme.

Weebly’s options are modest in comparison with those offered by Wix. Expect only 40+ templates. However, their big plus is that they all are of good quality and fit any screen – desktop or mobile – automatically.

Each template on Weebly goes with preset elements and features. No deep customizations can be done, but it isn’t necessarily a drawback! You’ll have enough permissions to make your website look professional and unique.

Website Design

From a design perspective, Wix gives more opportunities. Do not wish to spend hours tuning it up? OK! Opt for Wix ADI, and it’ll define your website’s appearance itself. If custom modifications are not a problem for you, you can do the job with the Wix Editor.

Wix also gives access to HTML/CSS/JS code. Finally, one more option on Wix is the Wix Marketplace. Here, you can hire a specialist to build a unique website with a one-of-a-kind design.

Weebly is all about comfort for beginners. Its editor is tailored to help them create decent designs for their websites without any ordeals. Here, much of your website’s design is predetermined. Your customization level will be limited to the following options:

• inserting blocks and content elements in certain places in the preset grid (believe me, in most cases, the options will be enough);
• modifying the background’s colors, fonts, styles, etc.;
• adding text, photos, audio/video content, maps, and more;
• making custom headers;
• connecting extra add-ons to your website.

The most precious thing about Weebly is the possibility to build a cheap and fully professional website with a smooth design. It’s a good compromise for total beginners with limited budgets.

SEO

The SEO aspect is equally developed on both platforms. Expect good SEO presets on Wix and Weebly. Frankly, there are more advanced site builders in this respect. You’ll be able to do the following when wishing to improve the SEO of your Wix/Weebly website:

• change metadata (titles and descriptions);
• edit URLs;
• create 301 redirects.

Still, both platforms have glitches in their SEO settings. Thus, Wix has a weird tendency to give SEO-unfriendly names to your images. However, it will let you create XML sitemaps and a solid system of headlines – tags from H1 to H6 are supported.

Weebly won’t let you do this. Instead of a built-in SEO manager, Weebly lets you connect a 3rd party app to tune up your SEO settings. Practice shows that such a solution doesn’t always seamlessly work since there can be problems with changing the predetermined settings of your chosen template.

So, in the SEO battle, Wix is a sure winner.

Publishing a Website

It’s awfully simple to publish a website on Wix or Weebly. After your edits are done, you can click on Preview and watch how your site will look in reality. Then, you press the Publish button, and here you are – your website is now available online.

However, Wix gives more options at this point, too, especially when compared with the cheaper plans from Weebly. On Wix, you can cancel the publication of your site if necessary. You can also make it invisible to search engines and bots.

On the Weebly free plan, you can upgrade to a premium one at this stage. This will let you connect a custom domain to your website. All the rest is done by Weebly itself.

Online Store

Wix is a good choice for an online store website, thanks to an abundance of eCommerce and marketing features included in its premium plans. Among them, such options are worth mentioning:

• a convenient product management menu;
• the ability to sell digital goods;
• customer accounts;
• easy sales via social networks;
• a choice of currencies;
• shipping management tools, and more.

The platform’s extras include Wix Ascend. This built-in app is designed to let you streamline interaction with your customers via email.

Together with this, Wix plans may lack an eCommerce essential necessary for your project. However, the platform’s App Market contains 250+ add-ons ready to supply you with a proper solution.

Weebly is an even better solution for an online store if it is not planned as too complicated. The site builder offers all the basic features your eShop might need. Interestingly, this is true even for the free plan. All Weebly plans include the following eCommerce and marketing features:

• unlimited products;
• inventory management instruments;
• a shopping cart;
• automatic tax calculator;
• Square Gift Cards;
• In-Store Pickup;
• Coupons, and many more.

The only reasons why I prefer Wix to Weebly when building an online store are Weebly’s fewer apps and customization limitations. You can sense these inconveniences when needing to modify a component like a checkout page, improve your pages’ SEO, or similar.

Blog

Again, you can create a blog website with the help of both platforms. Here, I opt for Weebly if there’s no other choice. Its blogging editor is more convenient and offers a bigger number of advanced options.

The Weebly Blog Editor is a good example of the software’s great usability. By the way, it concerns other aspects, too. Weebly allows you to edit practically everything through one menu. Whether you build an online store, a business site, or a blog, you do not need to move anywhere – all the tools are gathered in one place.

In Wix, you’ll be redirected to a separate window to create a blog. The creative process is not as smooth as on Weebly. However, Wix beats Weebly in designs – your Wix blog might look smarter than the one based on Weebly.

Forum

One of the most effective ways to connect your website to your customers is to supply it with a forum. Wix and Weebly have thought about it in advance and offer workable solutions.

Thus, Wix has its inner forum app. The process of adding it to your website isn’t intuitive, in my opinion. Still, there’s nothing too hard in it. You simply need to take the following steps:

• Sign in to your account and go to the Wix Editor.
• Click on the Add App icon.
• Type in ‘Wix Forum’ in the search line and press OK.
• When the app appears, click on ‘+Add’ to activate the forum.

You can customize it according to your domain. Your customers will be able to add posts, leave comments, and report improper content. You’ll be an admin, and your rights will include the ability to add, pin, and remove posts, allow/disallow comments for certain posts, and so on.

Weebly does not offer a built-in forum application, but it allows connecting the POWR Forum app to your website. The app merits your attention since it’s secure and professional. It includes all the options described above and even more. The app’s score is over 1,2M installations worldwide.

Technical Support

Customer support is an important advantage of such site builders as Wix or Weebly. Since their targeted audiences are users with a beginner’s level in site building, they both offer extended Knowledge Bases, FAQ sections, and Help Centers.

Both Wix and Weebly allow you to contact a specialist in order to get help via the following means:

• email;
• online chat 24/7;
• phone calls;
• tickets.

You can join the platforms’ communities on social networks like Twitter or Facebook. They both support inner forums with many issues discussed. Wix is also famed for its Marketplace. Here, you can contact a pro user and even hire them for an extra fee.

The Winner

Although my choice wasn’t simple, I gave the palm to Wix in the end. The main reason why is that the platform suits a wider range of projects and offers more creative freedom to users. Its plans are more expensive, but they include more features. If something is absent within them, chances you’ll easily add it using the Wix App Center.

It doesn’t mean Weebly isn’t worth your while. Instead, it can be the right solution for you. The site builder is fantastically easy to use, and it offers a free plan. However, its grasp is much narrower: Weebly is great for simple projects with basic requirements in terms of design and functionality.