I’ve used both Weebly and WordPress for affiliate marketing websites and blogs. Both have there pros and cons. Firstly it has to be said that WordPress is far superior to Weebly in terms of flexibility and features but that doesn’t necessarily mean you shouldn’t use Weebly. I have used Weebly to build many successful websites. Weebly might be the right platform for you. Read on in this article to find out why.
What’s Good About Weebly?
1.) It’s very easy to use
Weebly is very easy to use. It’s intuitive. With a drag and drop interface, anybody can design a website. In fact, even my 9 year old has built his own website with Weebly.
You can choose a template and just fill in some text and pictures and you’re ready to go. It’s that easy. Additionally, all of the templates are designed for use on mobile devices.
All of this makes Weebly an excellent choice for beginners who want to start blogging without any technical know-how.
To work on a webpage, it simple. Just drag over the element you require and drop it on the main screen. You can drag over images, text, contact forms, titles etc. It’s easy to position the elements where you require them too.
2.) It’s quick to get started on your blog
It takes a minute or two to set up an account. Then just choose a theme and start designing your website. It’s that easy. You could have your first page up in an hour or less.
When you aren’t experienced with websites, weebly makes it simple. I remember the first time I looked at the back end of WordPress and I just couldn’t work it out. If you are unfamiliar with WordPress there is a huge learning curve. WordPress is much more difficult to learn in comparison to Weebly. You will need to invest time learning how to use it. Having said this, if you do learn WordPress it will pay dividends in the long run. It’s a great skill to have and one that is worth it if you want to be a paid professional blogger.
3.) A multitude of responsive templates to choose from.
There is a wide range of templates (about 50) you can choose from which are all responsive on mobile. There are several different categories of templates including one category specifically for blogging.
Weebly themes are clean and look really good without you having to worry about design.
If you are handy with code, another plus point is that Weebly gives you access to the template code for the themes too.
3.) It works for SEO.
I’ve read comments that Weebly doesn’t work as well for SEO as WordPress. Many experts say you may have a tougher time ranking for SEO terms. All I can say is that I have had several of my Weebly websites rank on the first page of google. Google seems to value content over anything else.
Weebly makes SEO simpler for beginners. With Weebly you can create custom URLs, title tags and meta descriptions. You can also customize header and footer code to blog pages for more SEO functions.
Another great feature is that it automatically compresses the images you upload to your site. This means that they are faster to load and Google likes websites which are quick to load so this is another plus.
On the downside, there’s less SEO support for Weebly than there is for WordPress. For example, WordPress gives you access to plugins such as Yoast SEO which is free and a great aid to making sure your websites are SEO optimised.
There are some other limitations with Weebly. Like the default is there is only option to use h2 tags in headings. Using h1 tags especially for the main title is best for SEO. However, there is a Weebly app you can download which does make this possible.
4.) Security is good
The other great thing about Weebly is that security-wise, everything is taken care of for you. They encourage strong passwords. I have never had a Weebly site that has been hacked. Weebly also offers SSL encryption on all plans (even the free plan), which means that all websites can run on https without any hassle.
However, you will need to back up your site regularly by downloading a zip file in case you need to restore your site. It would be good to have more options in terms of back up if needed.
5.) The pricing is simple and competitive.
Weebly has a range of pricing options ranging from free to business. The prices are compatible for what you would pay for hosting a WordPress site. You can start on a free plan or one of the cheaper plans and upgrade when you are ready.
6.) E-commerce options
If you want a blog to accompany and e-commerce store Weebly makes this easy for you too. You can even start an e-commerce store in the free online plan. Although it isn’t ideal to have an e-commerce store on a free website, it does give you the option to try it out before parting with any more.
The e-commerce option works well for a small business starting out. You can start selling quickly without getting lost in the technical details. It works with physical goods, products and services. If you want something simple that works quickly and easily this could be a good option for you. However, you will find that if your store grows you may want more features and options. If your main business is going to be a e-commerce store there are better option available.
So How Does WordPress Compare With Weebly?
So why would you choose WordPress over Weebly?
1.) WordPress offers more functionality
The simple reason is that WordPress is considered better than Weebly by many is that it offers a lot more functionality. When I used Weebly there are were features I would have loved to have used but just don’t exist. For example, I wanted a post carousel on the bottom of my articles so I could link to other blog posts automatically. This didn’t exist so I had to go into each post and create a unique post carousel on the end. Which took an awful lot of time. In WordPress you can get post carousel plugins so you can automatically have one at the end of each post.
2.) The support community on WordPress is extensive
Because WordPress is an open source software the support community is extensive. There are many people who have created free solutions and functionality that you can use on your wordrpess site. There are support forums for all kinds of issues to tap into when you need help too.
3.) WordPress has more design options
Weebly is limited to around 50 design templates whereas WordPress has thousands of themes you can choose from which can be customised to create the website with the look and feel you want. However, some of the best, most popular themes which are easy to use cost money (especially themes that are drag and drop like the Weebly templates). And you will need to spend time customising them. Of course, you can pay a website designer to do this for you. They can set up the design you require and your job can just be to add the content.
4.) WordPress always allows you to grow your website where your blog can outgrow Weebly.
If your blog grows, you may outgrow the functions on Weebly. For example, you may decide you want more e-commerce options to accompany your blog than Weebly can offer. You may want extra design features that Weebly can’t offer.
Overall Verdict: Weebly or WordPress
The main thing to bear in mind is that Weebly and WordPress are designed with different needs in mind.
Weebly is very much designed for the non-techy person who is starting out with a small or medium blog or business. Its focus is on ease of use over functionality. It’s easy to find a design that will work right from the start. You will need to spend less time on design and functionality so you’ll have more time on for content creation. However, the likelihood is that somewhere down the line, you will find something you want weebly to be able to do that it can’t. This can normally be overlooked but may be frustrating. If this is something you can get over weebly is a good choice for you.
WordPress has been designed with functionality and flexibility in mind. You can do everything with WordPress. Because its an open source piece of software there will be a plugin somewhere that can achieve what you want. The downside is you will need to spend a lot more time on designing your blog and making it work. However, once your website is established you won’t need to change to another platform at any point. WordPress will very much grow with your business. Learning WordPress is a good investment of your time if building websites and blogs is something that you want to concentrate on in the future.
Whether you choose Weebly or WordPress will very much be a question how much time you have to invest in design and how important functionality is to you. If you are happy with a simple blog where content creation is going to be the most important element to you and you aren’t techy, Weebly is a good choice. If you want to grow your blog, potentially have a big e-commerce store and are happy to invest time and energy learning – WordPress is a good option.
