In the world of web design and development, two of the most popular and powerful website builders developers have to decide between are Wix vs Weebly. Wix and Weebly have been around since 2006 and 2007, respectively, so they both have the test of time and have an understanding of the needs of website developers and web designers.
Both Wix and Weebly have a relatively easy-to-use UI, a ton of features, and competitive pricing plans compared to the competition. This Wix vs Weebly comparison article will provide insight into these website builder platforms' features, pricing, support, and other key areas to help you determine which might be your best option for building a website, a landing page builder, or for some other use case.
These two website builders have many similarities but also many differences, some large and some nuance. Let's discover how each compares and how each might satisfy your requirements.
This article compares Wix vs Weebly using the parameters that are important when choosing the best website builder to use. These are outlined below, with the winner noted for each.
Wix vs Weebly – Areas of Comparison
- Comparison of Designs/Templates – Wix
- Comparison of Features – Wix
- Comparison of Ease of Use – Wix
- Comparison of Security – Wix
- Comparison of SEO & Marketing Features – Tie
- Comparison of Performance – Wix
- Comparison of Pricing – Weebly
- Comparison of Support – Weebly
- Out of the Box – Wix
Wix vs Weebly Overall Winner
| Category | Winner |
|---|---|
| Best Website Builder for Bloggers | Weebly |
| Best Website Builder for Beginners | Weebly |
| Best Website Builder for eCommerce Stores | Weebly |
| Best Website Builder for Experts | Wix |
| Best Website Builder for Performance | Wix |
| Best Website Builder for Companies | Wix |
| Best Website Builder Overall | Wix |
Both Wix and Weebly are reliable web builders, with just enough features that will meet the needs of almost every website. They are both easy to use and offer most of the tools you need for SEO, marketing, and designing your website. However, Wix has a slight advantage when it comes to web design flexibility.
Wix offers more template options than Weebly. Its page editor is also more flexible, allowing you to make changes to the templates the way you wish. Weebly also has a couple of things that it does better than Wix. Some of these include the ability to edit your source code of the templates and the extra eCommerce feature you will get with its most expensive plans.
But overall, Wix is a slightly better web builder. Continue reading to learn more about how these website builders compare in all the crucial areas that you should consider while choosing a web builder.
Wix vs Weebly – Designs & Templates
One of the crucial factors you need to consider when choosing a website builder is the web design flexibility the website builder provides and the number of templates you can choose from. Here is how Wix vs Weebly compared in this regard.
Wix Designs & Templates
One thing that makes Wix a better web builder is the level of design flexibility it gives you compared to the competition. They have over 700 templates that you can choose from. These templates are for building websites in a wide range of categories, including eCommerce, blogs, travel websites, agency websites, local business websites, etc.
Once you get to the Wix template store, you will find at least one template that will perfectly fit the kind of website you intend to build. Over 100 Wix templates are built with some eCommerce functionality. So, if you intend to integrate an online store into your website, you don’t have to make so many fundamental changes to these templates.
Besides the templates, Wix also gives you more flexibility while designing your website. You can literally change any section of the template to your liking. They have a drag-and-drop builder that is intuitive and easy to use, making it faster to make changes to your template. Wix also gives users the option to preview the theme before choosing it. So, you will have a chance to see what the theme will actually look like when installed on your website.
However, one of Wix's limitations when it comes to design is the inability to change your template once your website is live. Yes, it is possible to change the template, but once you change it, you will have to redo the entire design process from scratch. So, always take your time while choosing a template if you are using Wix because once you have made the choice, the cost of switching to another template is so high.
Wix also doesn’t give the developers access to the template's source code, which Weebly does. So, if you are a geek who wants to completely overhaul the template by editing the code, Wix won’t let you do so. Of course, this is not an issue for the majority of Wix users since most of them choose Wix because they don’t want to write code for the website.
Weebly Designs & Templates
Weebly also gives users some flexibility when it comes to design. They have over 70 templates in their store that you can choose from depending on the kind of website you are building. These templates are available for all the popular website categories, including eCommerce, blogs, professional websites, etc.
70 templates may seem reasonable enough compared to some other website builders, but they are a drop in the ocean if you consider Wix’s whopping 700+ templates. So, if you are looking for a variety of choices, you will definitely have to go for Wix. Weebly also doesn’t give you a lot of flexibility when it comes to customizing the template you have chosen.
Their templates create a more structured editing experience. You don’t get the kind of freedom to change things around like you would with Wix. This might be a good thing, especially for beginners who are cautious about making lots of changes. However, for experienced website designers, this is a limitation that can be really frustrating.
The limited flexibility to make changes to the templates also makes it a little challenging to make your website unique from other websites that use a similar template. However, if you really want to make your website unique, Weebly gives you access to the template code via the Weebly code editor. Once you get to the code editor, you can change almost anything, from adding custom features to fine-tuning the wanky visuals.
Unlike Wix, Weebly allows you to change your template even after publishing the site. Most of the content that you had already added to your site will automatically be integrated into your new template. You may just have to change a few specific things to the new template.
Winner: WIX
The overall winner for design/templates is Wix in this Wix vs Weebly comparison. Wix has almost ten times more templates than Weebly, and it also gives users more freedom to customize the templates without making changes to the source code making it the better website builder in this case.
Wix vs Weebly – Features
Another crucial factor that you will have to look into while choosing a website builder are the features you get for the different plans. Let’s look at Wix vs Weebly when it comes to features.
Wix Features
Advanced SEO tools: Wix comes with advanced SEO tools that you can use to optimize the content on your website to make it more search engine friendly. Some of these features include Structured data markup, URL customization, Custom meta tags, Image optimization, Google Business Profile integration, and many more.
Mobile optimized: Wix will automatically optimize your website to make it mobile-friendly. All the content on the web pages is rearranged to ensure it fits on the small screens of a smartphone.
Page builder: Wix has a robust page builder with drag-and-drop tools that you can use to create different pages on your website.
Mobile apps: Wix has an iOS and Android app that you can use to manage your website on the go.
App market: The Wix app market allows users to enhance the functionality of their website further by installing some useful plugins and extensions.
Multiple fonts: Wix has over 100 fonts to choose from while designing the various sections of your website. You also have the option to upload your custom fonts or those you got from other marketplaces.
Multiple scroll effects: You can choose from the different scroll effects that Wix offers depending on the web page you are working on. Some of these effects include parallax, reveal, zoom-in, and fade-in scrolling.
Media galleries: This feature allows you to display your images, videos, and text in a beautiful gallery layout.
Analytics: This allows you to see the performance of your site and the behavior of your website visitors.
Social tools: You can easily integrate your social media accounts into your website using Wix’s customizable social icons.
eCommerce tools: If you are building an eCommerce website, Wix has plenty of online store features that you can take advantage of. Some of these include a Beautiful Storefront, store manager, product pages, multiple options for online payments, coupons and discounts, and many more. All these tools make your Wix store very manageable.
Blogging features: Wix has features such as a blog editor, a comment manager, and the ability to add multiple writers to improve your blogging experience with a Wix site.
Weebly Features
Page builder: Weebly website builder has drag-and-drop tools for creating different sections of your website’s web pages.
Mobile apps: You can build, edit, and manage your website on the go using Weebly’s iOS and Android applications. Weebly’s mobile app offers you more functionality than Wix since it allows you to create and edit pages, and Wix doesn’t.
Mobile optimized designs: All Weebly templates are responsive, making it possible to create websites that automatically adjust content based on the user’s device.
Multiple fonts: Weebly also supports multiple fonts that you can use while creating the different sections of your web pages.
App market: Just like Wix App Market, Weebly also has a Weebly App Center that allows you to integrate both free and paid apps into your website to enhance its functionality. Weebly’s app center has over 360 apps and add-ons that you can easily install on your website with a few clicks.
Blogging features: If you intend to add a blog to your website, Weebly has features, such as an intuitive blog editor with drag-and-drop tools, blog templates, and SEO tools that will make the blogging experience on your Weebly site much better.
Forms: Weebly has a drag-and-drop forms builder that allows you to create custom forms, RSVP lists, and surveys with just a few clicks.
Video features: Wix allows you to integrate videos into your content using popular video services like YouTube or your own.
Statistics: Just like Wix’s analytics, the statistics feature helps you to track the performance of your website and the behavior of your visitors while on your site. All these stats are in real-time.
eCommerce: Weebly also has plenty of eCommerce tools that you can use to sell your products online.
Winner: WIX
Both website builders have all the essential features you need to create a functional website. However, Wix has a slight edge, especially when it comes to blogging, marketing, and SEO features which makes it the winner of this Wix vs Weebly comparison.
Wix vs Weebly – Ease of Use
No matter the number of features and capabilities a website builder may have, your experience will not be smooth if these tools are not easy to use. In this section, our focus will be on how easy it is to use Wix’s or Weebly’s page builders to create your site.
Wix Ease of Use
Wix offers two-page builders, Wix ADI, and Wix editor, that you can choose from depending on how much customization freedom you need while creating your web pages. Let’s start with Wix Editor. Wix editor has intuitive drag-and-drop tools for creating different sections of your web pages.
Wix’s editor is also very flexible as it allows you to drag and drop things anywhere on the page without any limitations. This freedom is very priceless, especially for website developers who have the coding knowledge required to know exactly what they are doing. The editor also allows you to resize the different sections of your web pages to your liking for better website development.
Some users find Wix’s editor a little overwhelming because of the too many features and flexibility it offers. However, when you get used to this editor, it is really fun to use.
Besides this default editor, Wix also has an AI-based editor called Wix ADI. ADI stands for Artificial Design Intelligence. This editor uses AI and a couple of inputs from the user to generate web pages and build a functional website. Some of the information you will have to input includes the name of the website and what it is for, and the rest of the job will be done by Wix’s AI.
It is also okay if you don’t put in this information right away; Wix allows you to input it later on along the way. You can also move your AI-generated design into a Wix editor if you want to make any further changes.
Weebly Ease of Use
Weebly’s page builder also has an editor with drag-and-drop tools that you can use to customize your templates. However, Weebly has more structure in its templates which somehow limits your flexibility while designing web pages. The only advantage that this brings about is the fact that it gives your website design a standard look and also allows you to change templates down the road.
Beginners may prefer the limited flexibility in Weebly’s editor since it allows them to create basic things faster. However, as your website grows, this limited flexibility will frustrate you.
Winner: WIX
Wix wins this Wix vs Weebly comparison category mainly because it allows users to freely and easily customize their templates the way they want to. Wix Artificial Design Intelligence also gives Wix an additional edge as it allows users to have a functional website without having to do much; just a few inputs and you will have your site up and running.
Wix vs Weebly – Security
Security is another core aspect that you need to consider while choosing which website builder to use to build your website. In this section, we shall look at the various security features that each of these platforms offers.
Wix Security
2-step verification: This feature will make your Wix account safer as it will require more than one verification whenever any login attempts. Wix will send you a code every time an unrecognized device attempts to log in to your account.
SSL certificate: This feature will give your website visitors confidence that your site is safe and that their data is sent privately over an HTTPS connection.
Level 1 PCI compliant: This is the highest level of payment industry standards that will ensure users’ payment details are safe whenever they make a transaction via a Wix website.
Website security monitoring: Wix has a security team that is always monitoring your site 24/7 for any abnormal activity and doing regular software security reviews
TLS 1.2: This is an extra layer of website security that keeps all transactions on a Wix website private.
DDoS protection: All websites hosted on Wix servers go through extensive hacker testing to ensure they are always up and running at all times.
GDPR and CCPA: Wix also works with a team of experts (internal and external) to help ensure that all its products and services comply with international privacy regulations.
Weebly Security
SSL certificates: Weebly automatically adds SSL certificates on all the sites built with this website builder to ensure your website visitors navigate the site over a secure 128-bit encrypted connection. This feature also enables users to securely checkout on their own domain name.
DDoS protection: Weebly also offers website owners DDoS protection that ensures sites are safe from attacks that could overwhelm the site’s servers with artificially generated traffic which could prohibit legitimate users from accessing the site.
Password-protected pages: This feature allows users to password-lock some of the web pages or the entire site to limit unauthorized users from accessing them.
GDPR and CCPA compliant: Weebly complies with the international standards of user privacy.
Winner: WIX
Both Weebly and Wix have most of the core security features that you would need to ensure your website is secure from attackers. However, Weebly lacks the 2-factor authentication option, making users' accounts vulnerable if someone tries to log into their accounts. So, this gives Wix a slight edge when it comes to security. However, Weebly also has the rest of the core security features and some unique ones, like password-protected pages that Wix doesn’t have.
Wix vs Weebly – SEO & Marketing Features
It doesn’t make sense to have a website with no traffic; that is why it is important to consider the marketing features in the website builder you intend to use to build your site. Having the tools necessary to improve your rankings on search engines is also important.
In this section, we shall look at all the major SEO and marketing features each of these website builders offers its users.
Wix SEO & Marketing Features
Google Search Console integration: With Wix, you can verify your own domain and automatically create properties for Google Search Console right from your Wix dashboard. Google search console is vital for tracking your website's performance in Google – the world’s largest search engine.
Optimized site infrastructure: Wix has a well-optimized server infrastructure that aligns with the needs of search engine crawlers/bots to ensure your website’s SEO performance is not affected by server-side issues.
Freedom to control your SEO settings: Wix lets users change the default meta tags, URL structure and slugs, structured data markup, and more SEO settings to help them rank better on search engines. It also gives users the option to create their own SEO logic and apply it across all their web pages.
Customized structured data markup: Wix will add structured data markups to dynamic web pages of your websites to ensure they are eligible to appear in rich results and optimize better for a full site search.
Personalized SEO setup checklist: This enables you to get an SEO checklist for your business that is tailored for specific parameters, including a tailored checklist based on your business, location, and keywords.
Integrates with Google Analytics: Wix integrates with Google Analytics, which you can install on your website to monitor your traffic. You can track the number of visitors for each web page, where they came from, how long they stay on the page, and the exact keywords they use to find your site.
Integrates with Facebook Pixel & CAPI: This is an excellent tool if you intend to promote your business on Facebook and Instagram. Facebook Pixel will track all the visitors to your site to make it easier to target them with ads for your products when they get back to Facebook. This will eventually increase conversions for your ads.
Email marketing tools: Wix also has built-in email marketing features that you can use to send and share beautiful email campaigns with your target audience. You will also have the option of creating responsive contact forms that your website visitors can fill in to subscribe to your mailing list and stay updated about the new stuff happening at your business.
Weebly SEO & Marketing Features
Integrated email marketing with Weebly Promote: This feature makes it seamless to create, personalize, and send emails to your target audience. Weebly Promote comes with templates and customization features and integrates with the Weebly eCommerce site editor.
Optimize outreach with Weebly Promote: Weebly Promote also helps you automatically engage with your audience based on the activities on the online store. For instance, it will automatically generate email templates that you can send to your customers whenever you add new products to your online store.
Personalize messages with Weebly Promote: You can also use Weebly Promote to create personalized emails to send to your target audience. One simply has to set up their templates, input a couple of rules for when emails will be delivered, and Weebly will personalize and send out the emails to all contacts on the attached email list.
Intuitive coupon builder: Weebly also has an intuitive coupon builder that you can use to generate coupons for the different products in your marketing campaigns. The coupons generated could be for every product on the website or specific products that you choose. It all depends on you.
Google Search Console integration: Weebly also integrates with Google search console to help you improve your website's performance in Google Search. This tool is free and can be used to audit sites for errors, rate your keywords performances, and test how well Google can understand your content on the different web pages. It will also send you alerts if there are errors on your site that need to be fixed.
Google Ads keyword planner integration: Weebly integrates with this tool to help you with keyword research. You can use this tool to get keyword ideas and research the keywords that bring traffic to your competitor’s websites. Just like Google search console, this tool is also free.
Moz integration: This is another tool that you can use to improve your website’s rank in search engines like Google and Bing. Moz can evaluate your site to determine the most performing web pages and the type of content that your users engage with the most. Unlike the two Google integrations we have shared above, Moz is not a free tool.
Winner: TIE
This is a tight one. Weebly Promote is a very powerful tool that you can use to do almost every marketing task that is required to push your website to the next level. On the other hand, Wix also has just enough marketing features that can help you push your site to reach your target audience. However, Wix also has some built-in SEO tools, whereas Weebly relies more on third-party integration for SEO. Overall, both website builders will get the job done for this category, So it is a tie.
Wix vs Weebly – Performance
Another crucial aspect of your website that will affect its performance is speed. You need to choose a website builder to optimize your website to load web pages faster. So, let’s see how both Wix and Weebly compare when it comes to performance.
Wix Performance
If your Wix website is well-optimized, it will usually load the pages in under 4 seconds as Google recommends. However, the performance of your different web pages may vary based on the content they contain. For instance, pages with heavy images and videos will take longer times to load than pages with more text than media content.
Wix also has servers in the USA and Europe, so for most users, server location may not significantly impact the loading speeds of your site. However, the only downside with Wix is that you won’t get the option to use another host with faster server speeds if your wish to. All Wix websites are hosted on their servers.
Weebly Performance
Well-optimized Weebly sites usually load pages within 2 to 4 seconds, which is within the range that Google recommends. However, Weebly servers are only located in the US, which may lead to some performance differences for people in Europe, Africa, and Asia compared to those in the US and Canada.
However, Weebly lets users host their sites with any third-party platforms like GoDaddy, Bluehost, HostGator, etc. This gives users the option to choose a host based on server speeds and the location of their target audience.
Winner: Wix
Both platforms offer loading speeds that are within the acceptable range. However, Wix has a slight edge over Weebly in this Wix vs Weebly comparison since it scores an A in our GTMetrix performance testing and passes all core web vital measurements. It is one of the fastest website builders available from our testing.
Wix vs Weebly – Customer Support
The reliability of the platform’s customer support is one of the crucial factors you should never compromise when choosing a website builder for your site. Here is how these two perform as far as customer support is concerned.
Wix Customer Support
Wix offers 24/7 customer support for all its users. You can also contact them via different platforms, including email, on-page, social media, and phone support. Wix also has a helpful knowledge base with articles and FAQs that you can use to get most of the solutions that you may need while building your site. However, Wix doesn’t offer Live Chat support.
Weebly Customer Support
Weebly’s customer support is also available 24/7 and supports multiple support channels. You can contact their support team by phone, email, live chat, and social media. However, their phone support is only available for the more expensive plans, so you will miss out on this option if you choose the entry-level plans.
Weebly also has help center articles and FAQs that you can read to get solutions to some of the common problems that most Weebly users face.
Winner: Weebly
Weebly has a slight edge over Wix mainly because it provides more channels that you can use to contact their support team. However, this is not really a deal-breaker since the support channels available for Wix users are enough for most people.
And besides, the cheaper plans on Weebly do not get phone support; it is an option that is only available on their most expensive plans. But with all consideration, the winner has to be Weebly for this Wix vs Weebly comparison.
Wix vs Weebly – Pricing
Pricing is another crucial factor that you have to consider while choosing a website builder to use for your website-building needs. Wix and Weebly offer various plans priced differently, so you need to look through each of them before choosing which one to go with. Here are the details of the various plans that each offer.
Wix Pricing
Wix offers several plans that you can choose from depending on your budget and the kind of website you are building. Their plans are categorized into two; Website Plans and Business and eCommerce Plans. Let's look at each of them.
Website Plans
Free Plan at $0/month: In this free plan, you get to build a free website with free hosting. The problem is you have to use the Wix subdomain for your website, and also, Wix ads will be displayed.
Combo at $16/month: This plan comes with 2GB bandwidth, 3GB of storage space, and 24/7 customer support.
Unlimited at $22/month: This plan comes with unlimited bandwidth, 10GB storage, and 24/7 customer support.
Pro at $27/month: This plan comes with 2GB bandwidth, 3GB of storage space, and 24/7 customer support.
VIP at $45/month: This plan comes with unlimited bandwidth, 35GB storage, and priority customer support.
Business/eCommerce Plans
Business Basic at $27/month: Unlimited bandwidth, 20GB storage, and 24/7 customer support.
Business Unlimited at $32/month: Unlimited bandwidth, 35GB storage space, and 24/7 customer support.
Business VIP at $59/month: Unlimited bandwidth, 50GB storage space, and priority customer care.
Wix also offers an Enterprise plan, but you need to contact them to get pricing. You can request a call by submitting the online form.
Weebly Pricing
Weebly plans have more value for less than Wix. Below are the details for the various plans.
Free plan at $0/month: The free plan offers unlimited bandwidth, 500MB storage, a sub-domain with Weebly ads, and customer support via email, chat, and forum. A lot of useful features are missing in the free plan.
Personal at $6/month billed annually or $9/month-to-month: This plan offers unlimited bandwidth, 500MB storage, a connected custom domain name, and customer support via email, chat, and forum.
Professional at $12/month billed annually or $16/month-to-month:: This plan offers unlimited bandwidth, unlimited storage, free domain name, connect a custom domain, Google Ads credit, and customer support via email, chat, community forum, and phone
Performance at $26/month billed annually or $29/month-to-month:: These plans offer unlimited bandwidth and storage, Google Ads credit, more eCommerce tools, and customer support via email, chat, forum, and phone.
Winner: Weebly
When it comes to value for money, you will get more with Weebly plans than with Wix. Weebly offers unlimited bandwidth for all its plans and unlimited disk space for its most expensive plans. It also has a more prolific free plan that you can get started with if you simply want to try out a few features.
Wix vs Weebly – Out of the Box
For users who simply want to open a website-building platform and have their website up and running in the shortest time possible, Wix is a much better alternative. It gives users the option of using Wix ADI, which automatically generates a fully functional website with just a few inputs.
You don’t get this option with Weebly. Wix also gives users the flexibility to create web pages in whatever way they want. However, Weebly uses a much more structured approach in its editing that could be beneficial to beginners who usually don’t want to make a lot of changes.
Winner: Wix
Overall, when it comes to a website builder that will enable you to have your site ready in the shortest time possible, Wix gets an advantage mainly due to its AI-powered Wix ADI for this Wix vs Weebly comparison.
Wix vs Weebly – When to Choose Wix
There are certain scenarios when it always makes sense to choose Wix over Weebly. Some of these scenarios include the following:
When you need more customization without coding
If you are someone who wants to design a website that is totally unique from other sites that use a similar template to your site, Wix will always do a better job. Its page builder has more tools and will give you more flexibility to change the template than Weebly’s page builder. Remember, Wix also offers way more templates than Weebly.
When you need more features
Generally, Wix offers more features in the different categories than Weebly. If you want to build a robust website that requires multiple third-party integrations and add-ons, Wix is always a better alternative.
When you want to launch a website as soon as possible
With Wix Editor, you have all the tools you need to build a website in less than an hour. All you need is to feed this AI-powered tool with the right information about the website you intend to build, and it will automatically generate it in a few minutes. Weebly doesn’t give you this option.
Wix vs Weebly – When to Choose Weebly
When you want more eCommerce features
Both Weebly and Wix have most of the eCommerce features that anyone would need to run an online store. However, Weebly offers some extra eCommerce features that could be a deal-breaker for some people.
When you need the flexibility to edit your template’s code
If you have web development skills, Weebly gives you the option to edit the source code of your templates. So, you can do things like adding custom features or fine-tuning the wanky visuals. Wix doesn’t offer you this option.
Wix vs Weebly Wrap-up
Use the information in this article on Wix vs Weebly to start your website builder platform exploration. Since both platforms are relatively easy to use and offer a ton of features that will make your website-building experience smooth, the choice logically comes down to how you intend to use the website-builder tool.
For most complex websites and e-commerce applications, Wix will always be a better option. However, you can't go wrong with Weebly, especially if you want to take advantage of its unique features and lower price points. Either way, take some time to review each, sign up for their trial or free accounts, and discover which performs better for your needs.
