Weebly

Weebly offers three premium plans and one free plan.

The Free plan gives you full access to the website builder to create your website, but you cannot customize the site footer and you cannot have your own Favicon. Weebly puts ad links on every page of your website and cannot be removed. You also won't be able to add a header slideshow on your website and you are limited to only 5-pages. Like other free website builders, you will be assigned a free Weebly.com sub-domain (ie. sitename.weebly.com) as your web address.

To remove the Weebly ads on your website, use your custom domain name, and/or to unlock more features, you will need to upgrade to one of the Weebly premium plans.

When subscribed to the Starter Plan, ad links are removed and there is no limit on the number of pages you can create. It also comes with a free 1-year domain name registration and $100 ad credits. Some basic features are still lacking, including video player, password protection, as well as limited eCommerce features (3% transaction fee, up to 10 products). The Starter plan is offered at $8.00/month, billed annually. You can sign up for a 2-year term for a discounted price at $5.00/month. If you don't want to commit to an annual term, Weebly offers a 6-month term option for $9.00/month.

The next level is the Pro plan. In addition to the free 1-year domain name registration and $100 ad credits, you also many of the missing features on the Starter plan, including video and audio players, password protection pages, and membership system. You can have up to 25 products on your online store but there is still the 3% transaction fee. This plan also opens up phone support should you need more than the live chat and email support. The Pro plan is offered at $12.00/month, billed annually. Again, signing up for a 2-year term will give you a discounted price of $9.00/month, and the 6-month term option is $14.00/month.

The Business Plan is a huge jump from the Pro Plan but if you look at the features that are included in the Business Plan, it's definitely worth it. This plan builds upon the Pro plan but with full access to the eCommerce features and more. For example, you get SSL security on your website. SSL security allows your online store to checkout on your website (if you add a shopping cart on the Pro or Starter plans, your shopping cart is on checkout.weebly.com). You also get to add unlimited products and digital/downloadable products are supported. Weebly charges 3% per transaction with the Pro and Starter plans, but with the Business Plan, there is no fees. Advanced ecommerce features are also included: inventory management, shipping and tax calculations, and coupons. The Business plan is offered at $25.00/month, billed annually. Sign up for the 2-year term and you can get the plan for $21.00/month. The 6-month term option is $34.00/month.

When you browse for a template in the Weebly Theme Library, you will see that the templates are not sorted into discrete categories such as Restaurant or Business. Weebly's templates are categorized from a design angle – blog, business, creative and non-profit. This approach makes perfect sense from a web-designing perspective, but users with little experience may find the ambiguity a bit overwhelming.

Many templates offer multiple color options. For example, in the template below, you will see the different color options on the bottom left side.

Unlike Wix and Website.com, which let users place elements literally anywhere on the page, Weebly (and Webs.com) apply certain limitations. Not only does this help avoid many frustrating page editing scenarios and prevent user errors for users new to the website-building process, it also makes it possible to change templates anytime during your site editing process. More experienced users will find this feature limiting, though.

Compared to other site builders (such as Website.com, Wix or Website Builder), most of Weebly's templates may seem unimpressive and the overall template selection is disappointing. However, template customization is not limited to just font, background and layout editing. You can modify Weebly templates using the built-in HTML/CSS editor.

If you want to go beyond what's offered in the official library, you can hire a professional web design to create it for you. There are agencies and individual designers who create templates specifically for Weebly. However, keep in mind that Weebly support is not going to be able to help you once you start editing the code of your template.

Weebly's site builder is very simple and organized. Weebly doesn't overwhelm you with excessive tools and the interface is never cluttered. Everything you need to build your website is right in front of you. And because it is simple, there is almost no learning curve and everything is straightforward.

One complaint though, unlike Wix and Website.com, there is no Undo feature for site changes like adding elements. There are Undo and Redo buttons for simple text entry, however.

Another complaint, you can't drag header elements or reposition them. Header elements are locked into place. On one hand, it keeps things simple and structured (exactly what people with little-or-no experience needs), on the other hand, some users may want to be able to customize the header elements. Unlike the header, the footer is completely flexible. You can drop any element in it and build a wide variety of footers (only available on the paid plans, you cannot change the footer on the Free plan).

Unlike Wix and Website.com, which relies on ‘absolute positioning', Weebly uses the ‘box model'. This means you can only place elements in the allowed drag-and-drop areas. While you won't be able to place elements literally anywhere on the page as you could with Website.com or Wix, you can switch templates anytime during the edit process. The box model also helps avoid many frustrating scenarios and prevents user errors for users with little-to-no experience. However, for experienced users who want more flexibility, this limitation can become annoying fast.

When adding pages to your website, Weebly offers over 40 page layout designs to help you make your web page look professionally-designed.

Once you have selected a layout for your new page, pre-set content are automatically added so all you need to do is swap in your own images, text, etc.

Weebly offers a Desktop view and a Mobile view of your website in the editor, and when you click on the Mobile view, your website will open in the mobile editor.

You can change the template of your mobile site through the mobile editor so that the mobile version has a different look and feel from the desktop version.

You can manage your website via mobile devices. Weebly has an Android app and an iOS app that allow you to connects to your website on the go. Both apps allow you to check your website statistics, post a new blog entry, and access form data and your online store. Want to connect to your website on your Apple Watch, there's the Weebly for Apple Watch app.

Weebly Android app:

Weebly iOS app:

If you want to edit your website on the go, there is the Weebly for iPad app. The app brings the drag-and-drop builder to your iPad, letting you create and edit your website on your iPad. The app saves and syncs your work across devices so you can pick up where you left off on desktop or mobile.

Weebly offers all the basic features – blog, contact forms, photo gallery, file upload, video and audio player, eCommerce, forums, appointment scheduler, social icons. Note that these tools are all part of the Weebly platform – they are not third-party applications.

Images and galleries are probably one of the weaker areas of Weebly.

In addition to uploading your own images, Weebly lets you add images directly via the image's URL. You also have access to their stock library, which offers both premium and free stock photographs.

After uploading an image, you can edit it using the built-in image editor. Unfortunately, photo editing options pale in comparison to other website builders that offer the Aviary photo editor. With Weebly, you can crop the image, rotate it, customize the opacity and fade settings as well as add effects such as Black & White or add a Polaroid edge.

Weebly offers a free 1-year domain registration with all its premium (Starter, Pro and Business) plans. Note that the domain is only free for the first year, if you want to continue using the domain name after the initial first year, you will need to renew it at the then-current rate.

Weebly allows you to use multiple domains with a single website and if you need additional domain names, you can purchase them from Weebly at $19.95/year for a .com domain name.

This is definitely more expensive than many other website builders, such as Website.com.

Like Wix, Weebly has partnered with Google Apps to provide email for your domain name.

Unfortunately, this service is not free and you have to pay $3.75/month for 30 aliases/user accounts.

Weebly provides support via email, live chat and phone. Live chat is available Monday to Friday,8am to 6pm PST; toll-free phone support is only available 6am to 6pm PST and only for Pro and Business plan users.

Weebly also has an online Support Center where you can find an extensive collection of how-to guides to use the editor or the tools to build your website.

For additional tips, updates and inspirations, Weebly has a blog, community, and Inspiration Center.

The best thing about Weebly is because its site builder is very simple, there is almost no learning curve and everything is straightforward. Weebly doesn't overwhelm you with excessive tools and it has restrictions on the drag-and-drop areas – making its editor ideal for people with no experience in site building.

While you don't get all the fancy apps or gorgeous template designs, Weebly offers you a straightforward editor, on-the-go site management apps on both iOS and Android, the ability to customize the HTML and CSS of the website template, and the freedom to add multiple "editors" to your account. In additional, all templates are responsive – they automatically look great on all devices.

Areas that Weebly could improve is better way to get business email accounts (Weebly recommends Google App), and photo editing and gallery options.