Sometimes, it is inevitable to be caught between Wix and Weebly when trying to pick a website builder. When this happens, an old-fashioned comparison involving the pros and cons of the companies comes in handy. To be honest, comparing these two services is like a competition between an expert and an upcoming professional. Though, we couldn’t say who is who yet since it would spoil the fun.
At the end of this thorough comparison, you will be able to decide whether Wix or Weebly is better since you will have all the information you need. So stay tuned!
Weebly vs Wix: Which is Easier to Use?
Ease of use is very important when choosing a website builder. It goes a long way in making the design and management of your site straightforward and interesting. Besides, it makes your site design very fast and your life easier. Hence, serving the purpose of getting a drag-and-drop builder in the first place. Now, let’s review both tools to know whether Weebly or Wix is better.
Designing with Wix
Wix does great in its comparison versus Weebly. It is a drag-and-drop builder that lets you design based on the What You See Is What You Get (WYSIWYG) model. Meaning that you don’t need coding skills or web design knowledge to use the editor.
Wix Editor is arranged in a very intuitive manner. The main tools for the editor that you can use to design your web pages are in the left sidebar. You can effortlessly drag elements and sections to your web pages from there. Moreover, settings like marketing and SEO, online store management, media and collections manager, Wix apps insertion, and site design are all there. This ensures that you have everything you need to design your pages without leaving the editor. The downside of this interface is distraction since you may lose focus on what you are doing and decide to try something else.
Additionally, the editor makes element customization available to you easily. Once you click on an element on your web page, all the customization options are revealed to you. Hence, you can smoothly configure and design them as you like. If you are not interested in designing or making big customizations, you can choose templates of sections or elements from the toolbar (sidebar). There are numerous layouts per element and section, so you will get the one you like.
Furthermore, you can comfortably switch between pages and design them from the editor. If there is an element, section, page, or setting you cannot find, you can use the search bar to look for it. The search results will also bring out helpful articles related to the search term(s) so that you may use them as a guide when stuck.
In addition, if you make a mistake, you can simply undo your previous customizations like a Ctrl + Z action. This saves you the time you would have spent finding out where the design went wrong since you can “undo and redo” to see the differences.
Designing with Weebly
Just like Wix, Weebly is a drag-and-drop builder. Its interface makes it easy for you to add elements to your web pages by merely dragging them from the toolbar.
Yet, the Weebly editor interface is less intuitive or well-arranged than the Wix editor. For instance, all the elements in its toolbar are not grouped or arranged systematically. They are just there randomly with no sense of direction. Therefore, even if you know what you need, you will have to look for it among the grids of elements. This is contrary to the better arrangement on Wix, which groups the elements in a list format so that you can find the exact element you need faster.
Additionally, the Weebly editor has no extra templates for sections and elements, putting it behind in its comparison with Wix. You have to rely on your theme’s section and element layouts, but that’s almost nothing to work with since they are very poor.
Unlike Wix, extra care is needed when designing your web pages with Weebly. When you make a mistake on Weebly, there is no undo or redo button. So if you don’t know where the mistake is from, you have to delete the affected areas and design again. Besides, it does not allow you to edit the mobile version of your site. So it is virtually impossible to design a mobile responsive website.
Verdict on Wix vs Weebly Ease of Use Comparison
Wix is easier to use than Weebly. This conclusion is from the fact that Wix has a better interface with good templates for sections and elements that make your designs faster and more efficient.
In addition, we found out during this Wix vs Weebly duel that the former is easier to work with because of the availability of a search bar and the undo-redo feature. Hence, when the option is Weebly or Wix, the right builder for greater ease of use is the latter.
Which is Better for SEO, Weebly or Wix?
Another area we reviewed in our Weebly vs Wix comparison is SEO. The ability to customize the SEO settings for your site goes a long way in determining how well your website ranks on search engine results pages (SERPs). As we have seen, this is determined by your website builder. So, let’s see if Wix or Weebly is superior in SEO.
Wix and SEO
Wix has one of the best SEO tools we have seen in website builders and CMS. The tool is so powerful that it allows you to configure most of your basic and advanced SEO settings.
The SEO tool lets you set meta descriptions, titles, image alt texts, and featured images for your posts and pages. In addition to that, you can set Open Graph meta tags for your pages and take full control of your social SEO.
Furthermore, Wix automatically creates robots.txt and sitemap.xml files for your site. You will be able to edit your robots.txt file and control how robots access or crawl your website. Moreso, you can link your site to your Google Search Console account to aid in fast indexing and data crosslinking. Using this connection well will lead to better SEO performance for your site.
Some advanced features you will find on Wix are schema markup data and robots meta tags. Not only does it support schema markup data, but it provides some as default. These automatically help your posts and pages get rich results on SERPs. If you need more, you can easily add them manually in the JSON-LD format.
The most commendable approach Wix takes in helping your site rank well is the provision of the SEO Wiz. This is an onboarding wizard that guides you through the initial SEO setup for your site. It ensures that you configure your website well before launching in order to increase your chances of ranking rapidly. Moreover, it helps if you are a beginner with no idea of what to do in the first place.
Weebly and SEO
Sadly, Weebly is not very good regarding SEO. I mean, we have definitely seen tools with better performance. For instance, it has only a few basic SEO settings like meta descriptions, page titles, and image alt texts. The only advanced feature it has is 301 redirection. Features like Open Graph, meta tags, and schema markup data are not available. Although, if you are tech-savvy, you can generate the schema markup data and paste it on every page you wish to show it. But, honestly, that is really stressful and not worth it.
Furthermore, the website builder has features like sitemap and robots.txt files. However, a quick side-by-side Weebly vs Wix comparison showed that the latter does this better. Unlike Wix, Weebly does not allow you to manually edit your robots.txt file. Hence, you will have no control over how robots crawl your website. The only way to modify the robots.txt file is to toggle on the “Hide page from search engines” option in your page settings. But this does not even work for blog posts.
Also, the creator does not have heading tags, which is terrible. As a matter of fact, this alone disqualifies the editor and makes it the loser in the Wix vs Weebly comparison.
Conclusion on Choosing Weebly or Wix for Outstanding SEO Performance
It is quite obvious and evident that Wix is the winner in the Weebly vs Wix battle for SEO. First, the site builder has more features than its adversary, which means you can handle more SEO aspects of your website to improve your rankings. Besides, SEO Wiz makes configuring your website a lot easier.
Wix vs Weebly: Blogging Features Comparison
The availability of blogging features was another area we looked at during the Weebly vs Wix duel. If your site revolves mainly around blogging, then you need to choose the best tool for that purpose. But is the right website builder Weebly or Wix? Let’s find out.
Blogging with Weebly
Weebly’s blogging features are not terrible. Though, they are just average. You can create blog posts, categories, and tags on your site. You can even add a sidebar to your blogs to display newsletters, archives, tags, etc. What’s more, you can add sharing buttons and commenting features to your blog posts to improve engagement.
Though, while the commenting feature is commendable, the sharing button attribute is awful because only Facebook and Twitter are available.
One major blogging issue Weebly has is content creation and optimization. It is practically impossible to correctly organize your content using headings because the editor lacks them.
The best you can do is change the font of your texts to make them larger than others. Not only is this stressful, but it is not ideal too. You cannot even set featured images for your posts. Besides, the only optimization settings you can configure for your blog posts are meta descriptions and titles. It lacks meaningful post meta like author name, post views, reading time, etc.
Blogging with Wix
Wix’s blogging tool is more powerful than Weebly’s in several ways. It has more advanced tools and settings that make blogging with it easier. Aside from having all the features Weebly has, it provides them better and makes them more useful. For example, you can control who leaves comments on your blog posts and include the rating feature, which is especially useful for posts about topics like recipes, etc.
Unlike Weebly, its editor includes advanced settings for many post metadata. You will have meta like reading time, author, post views, etc.
At the same time, you can set featured images for your posts and add up to 3 custom, related posts under each post. You can even set featured posts on your blog.
Additionally, you will have access to blog templates for article types like product reviews, recipes, how-to/tips, etc. This helps you maintain the same post structure for content in the same category. You can create new blog templates that you want as well. Moreover, you will have access to an impressive analytics app for your blog posts without needing a third-party tool.
Verdict on Using Wix or Weebly for Blogging
Wix is clearly the better tool for blogging here. It has more basic blogging features than Weebly and still includes some advanced ones that the rival does not have. Thus, giving you the perfect tool. Conversely, Weebly will only make blogging hard and less rewarding for you since it lacks essential features.
Which Has Better Customer Support?
If you have ever been stuck with a product or service, you would know the importance of customer support. Luckily, both companies have well-established customer support. Having known that, let’s find out if it is Weebly or Wix that does it better.
Wix Customer Support
The popular website builder does not joke with customer support. As a matter of fact, it provides support through emails and live chats. You can access phone support or callback if you are on a higher package as well.
However, Wix live chat is not impressive. It is disappointing to know that, officially, it only works from 2 AM to 6 PM EST during the week, with no support over the weekend. Sometimes during the week, you may not even be lucky enough to chat with an agent as you would be prompted to submit a ticket instead. Therefore, the site builder does not provide 24/7 support, which is appalling.
Additionally, the company has a help assistant called WixBot. This assistant serves as an intermediary between you and the support agents when trying to initiate a live chat. It asks you a bunch of questions to troubleshoot your issue and offers solutions. Most of the time, the solutions are always exactly what you need. Luckily, they are linked to the articles in the Help Center, and they are really educative and helpful. In addition, there are many video lessons that will guide you in creating a good website in the Help Center.
Weebly Customer Support
Just like Wix, Weebly provides customer support through live chat, email, and phone calls at 1-844-493-3259. Its business hours are 9 AM to 9 PM EDT, 7 days a week. Hence, it offers support for longer cumulative hours weekly and for more days than Wix.
Like Wix, Weebly’s live chat channel can only be accessed through the support assistant, which is a bot. This works the same way as the WixBot, but it actually connects you with a support agent when you want. You can request the live chat feature immediately after you start the conversation with the assistant by just disliking one of its replies.
At the same time, Weebly has a Knowledge Base that is filled with articles that can help you navigate the website builder. Although, the articles are not as great as those you would find at Wix Help Center. Weebly also has a community forum where you can meet fellow users and share ideas. If you ever get stuck, you can ask questions, and those with an experience or knowledge of the issue will help you out. Sometimes, Weebly’s support agents reply to some questions as well.
Conclusion on Weebly vs Wix Customer Support Comparison
Weebly really takes the win in this part of the Weebly vs Wix duel regarding customer support. It offers support for longer hours weekly, replies faster, and offers more channels. Undoubtedly, you will enjoy better support with Weebly than with Wix.
Weebly vs Wix: Which One Has the Most eCommerce Features?
You need all the essential and useful features you can get if you plan to build an eCommerce website. Otherwise, you won’t be able to provide some services and access certain settings that could make your site as powerful as it should be. But could it be Weebly or Wix that is better for eCommerce? Let’s see!
Wix eCommerce Capabilities
Wix is one of the most powerful builders you can use to create an eCommerce site. It has many advanced features that are useful in creating any type of eCommerce site without needing third-party apps. Besides, if you use all the built-in features, there are many tools at the Wix App Market that will make accessing more features easy. Some of these features include print-on-demand and dropshipping.
In addition, you can use the Wix Owner app to manage your products, orders, pages, etc, and accept POS payments on your mobile devices. You can even chat with your customers from the app and help them make a buying decision since you can see the pages they are on.
Aside from all the general eCommerce features you will enjoy on Wix, it has some specific features for businesses like gyms, restaurants, artists, hotels, events, etc. These features can be accessed through the App Market, and they are completely free to use since they are Wix’s proprietary apps.
Furthermore, the site builder has a powerful eCommerce Analytics app that gives you the best insights into your online store activity. You can link it with Google Analytics and crosslink the data to make the reports even more detailed and comprehensive.
Additionally, there is numerous marketing automation you can set up for your site. They include orders, fulfillment and shipping, abandoned cart recovery, back-in-store notifications, etc. They make connecting with your customers and keeping them abreast easy. You can even install HubSpot CRM to better manage your relationship with them.
At the same time, adding products to your web pages is very easy, and you can choose several formats or layouts for the product pages. Also, you can add more than 20 payment methods to your site so that customers can have many options. It has a currency converter with support for up to 11 currencies simultaneously too.
Weebly eCommerce Capabilities
Weebly is not bad for eCommerce either. In fact, it has many features that make it an enviable tool. However, that does not mean it can win the Weebly vs Wix eCommerce comparison. For instance, compared to Wix’s 20+ payment methods, Weebly has only 3. Because of that, customers that cannot use certain payment methods from the region they are ordering from won’t be able to pay you. This will increase the abandonment rate in your store.
In addition, there is less marketing automation at Weebly compared to Wix. Not only that, you cannot customize the fields or actions of the automation or create custom ones. In contrast, you can do all these and more on Wix.
Adding products on Weebly is a little hard. Unlike at Wix, there is no specific page template for displaying your products, that is, your store. You have to create it yourself. This is pretty stressful, and compared to Wix, where there are many templates, it is not worth it. Moreover, even though you can change the layout of the store entry, they look quite horrible. You cannot even change the layout of your individual product pages.
Weebly has a mobile app that is not outstanding according to the customers’ reviews on Google Play Store. While the Wix Owner app has a 4.4/5 star rating, the Weebly by Square app has a 4.0/5. It is not even possible to install it on newer versions of Androids since it was last updated in February 2021. Although, it is still available for download on iOS devices and has a 4.7-star rating from only 69 reviews which is not enough to decide how good it is.
On the bright side, it has a formidable eCommerce analytics app. Though, in a Wix vs Weebly comparison, the former’s tool still outshines it. Nonetheless, it gets the job done.
Verdict on Building Your eCommerce Site with Either Wix or Weebly
After a side-by-side comparison of the two services, we came to the conclusion that Wix is the better tool for building an eCommerce site. Not only does it have more features, but it makes managing an online store easy and interesting as well.
Which Has More Third-Party Integrations (Apps)?
Another crucial aspect that can help in choosing either Weebly or Wix for your site is third-party integration. Website builders may not always have the features you need for your site. As a result, they let you add such features using third-party services for free or with a premium subscription. Now, let’s see if either Wix or Weebly has better third-party integrations.
Weebly App Center
Weebly has a lot of third-party applications in its App Center. At the time of writing this, it has almost 400 third-party tools you could use to add more features to your website.
Weebly’s apps are divided into about 5 categories, which are eCommerce, communication, marketing, social, and site tools & features. These categories are further divided into sub-categories that ensure that you know where to look for the apps that you need. Yet, some of these sub-categories are just placeholders as they have no apps under them. Some apps are not even available anymore but still occupy space in the App Center.
Sadly, out of about 400 apps, less than 60 are free. The free ones are pretty basic and not even crucial for a site. This means you have to spend extra money if you ever want to add advanced features that actually count.
Wix App Market
The Wix App Market is more resourceful than Weebly’s App Center. As we mentioned in our test of Wix, it has over 800 apps. That is more than double of its competitor’s apps. This means more features for your website. Out of all these apps, 50+ are made by Wix, compared with Weebly’s 13, and they are all free. They are more relevant too.
Additionally, the apps are divided into more categories and sub-categories for better grouping. What’s more, each sub-category actually has relevant apps.
Conclusion on Wix vs Weebly Apps Comparison
Wix is far better than Weebly in the apps category. Aside from the fact that it gives you more opportunities to add advanced features through the App Market, the apps are more sophisticated and efficient. So you will have more customization options on them. Therefore, if you have to choose either Wix or Weebly based on the availability, power and relevancy of their apps, the former is the right choice.
Multilingual Support: Wix vs Weebly
Building a multilingual site is very important if you plan to provide services to visitors or clients from different regions with language differences.
Of course, Google Translate is there to help them, but it may incorrectly translate your content sometimes. A very recent example we encountered was its translation of the brand name “Hostinger” to “Hosting” on our French website. It took “Hostinger” as a French word, thereby confusing English readers reading the content with the translation.
Having said that, not all site builders are capable of creating multilingual sites. So you may have to rely on the correctness of the translations of Google Translate or any auto-translation tool visitors use for your site. Unfortunately, Weebly falls into the category of site creators that lack this feature.
In contrast, Wix supports the creation of a multilingual site. After creating the main language version of your site, say English, you can create additional versions in different languages from your Multilingual Dashboard.
Upon doing this, all the pages on your main site will be duplicated to the secondary language versions. Afterward, you can auto-translate them with the Google Translate integration. If the translations are wrong, you can manually edit the pages too. It is also possible to configure it from your settings so that visitors are automatically redirected to the version of their local language.
Furthermore, except for the designs and URLs of some special pages that cannot be changed, you can basically do everything else for the new pages. You can even do SEO in the new languages and change the URL slug of your posts and standard pages.
Thus, overall, the winner of the Weebly vs Wix comparison for multilingual support is the latter.
Wix vs Weebly Themes Comparison
Themes or templates are life savers when creating a site because they give you a foundation to build your website on. They make designing your pages faster and easier since most of the sections you need are pre-designed.
Quality and Quantity
Both Weebly and Wix have templates. However, Wix has more templates than Weebly, with the former having more than 800 and the latter with less than 100. I’d say Weebly is not giving you options at all.
Also, Weebly’s themes are very old and simple. They are just a bunch of texts arranged on a page with a few font changes and simple backgrounds. In contrast, Wix’s templates are modern and look more professional. You don’t need to restructure or redesign most of them before you start using them.
Changing Templates
Sometimes, we get tired of how our site looks and wish to change it. When it comes to Weebly and Wix, only the former supports this flexibility. You can change the theme of your Weebly site anytime you want without needing to delete the website. You can choose another theme from the builder’s free ones or import from elsewhere. Horribly, you will have to delete your website before you can change the template on Wix.
Theme Customizations
Wix templates are easier to customize than the themes of Weebly.
There is virtually no part or element you cannot customize, and you can import sections that are not part of your template to your pages. Weebly, on the other hand, has fewer customization options for its element and themes. Even some of the apps from the App Center don’t have any major options to add to the theme. At the same time, you cannot edit the themes in the mobile version.
Verdict on the Theme Comparison
Out of the 4 main factors used in the Wix vs Weebly theme comparison, Wix defeats the rival in 3 of them. Thus, it is the better option for your site. Since there are many section layouts that you can add to your website in case you don’t like the template you chose so much, you won’t need to change it completely. Like that, its rival’s only power (switching themes) is neutralized.
Pricing: Is Wix or Weebly Cheaper?
Looking for an affordable tool to build your site? Let’s see which one will suit your needs and budget.
Wix Pricing
With all the incredible features Wix has, we did not expect it to be so cheap. Unsurprisingly, the builder’s pricing starts at about $16 per month.
The plan in consideration, Light, lets you connect a custom domain name and gives you access to a free domain for one year. You will get only 2 GB of storage space and about 30 minutes of video hours/storage. Furthermore, you will get monthly backups and a server with 1 vCPU and 400 GB of RAM. Unfortunately, you cannot use this plan to create an eCommerce site.
The next plan, Core, costs around $27 monthly and has all the Light’s features. This plan gives you a better storage space of 50 GB, 5 hours of video storage, a live chat feature, and a powerful site analytics app.
What’s more, it has most of the eCommerce features available on Wix. Some of them include customer accounts, selling on marketplaces, memberships and subscriptions, selling up to 50,000 products, abandoned cart recovery, discounts, dropshipping, eGift cards, etc. In addition to these, all the business-specific features for gyms, restaurants, etc, are available.
The Business plan costs around $32 per month with 100 GB of storage and 10 hours of video hours. Aside from all the Core plan features, it has the POS feature and allows you up to 100 automatic sales tax calculations monthly. Additionally, you will get product reviews and multiple currency features. For better security, you will have access to 3 weekly auto-backups monthly with 3 manual backups.
Business Elite, the most powerful plan, costs around $159 monthly. With this plan, you will get unlimited storage space and video hours. At the same time, you will get priority support through phone calls. Aside from the addition of the loyalty program and custom reports features, it inherits all of the Business package’s features with more generous limits.
Weebly Pricing
Weebly plans, on the other hand, are more affordable. For instance, the first package, Personal, costs only $10 per month. This plan lets you connect a custom domain name to your site and receive payments. E-commerce features like pickup, automatic tax sales calculation, coupons, discounts, and shipping labels, come with the plan as well. Of course, you will have access to SEO, email, and social media marketing tools.
The Professional plan costs $12/month. Aside from all the features in the Personal package, you will get unlimited storage space, a free domain, and a high-powered site analytics app. This plan removes the annoying Square Ads too.
The last package, Performance, costs only $26 per month. In addition to the Professional plan’s features, Performance includes product reviews, abandoned cart recovery, and a powerful eCommerce analytics app.
Conclusion on the Price Comparison between Weebly and Wix
Evidently, Weebly is cheaper than Wix by a wide margin. So if you are on a tight budget, you can purchase the Professional plan. Nonetheless, if you can spare a few extra bucks per month, Wix’s Business package is highly recommended. It offers better value for your money.
Wix vs Weebly: Speed and Uptime
Both builders’ speeds are average and not recommended if you want to create a fast site. A speed test on our Weebly website using Google PageSpeed Insights showed very disappointing results. We recorded First Contentful Paint (FCP) and the Largest Contentful Paint (LCP) at 0.8 s and 1.7 s, respectively, for the site’s desktop version. For the mobile version, we recorded FCP at 3.5 s and LCP at 8.3 s. Therefore, the site will fail the Core Web Vitals test woefully.
At the same time, our Wix site had FCP at 0.7 s and LCP at 1.4 s for the desktop version. We then recorded FCP at 2.6 s and LCP at 4.8 s for the mobile version. Hence, it will fail the Core Web Vitals test too.
From the results above, it is clear that Wix will give you a faster website. Aside from that, you can still remedy the loading speed of a Wix site through caching and responsive design. This is not possible with Weebly.
On the bright side, both website builders maintained 100% uptime when we monitored them.
Developer Options
Even though both website builders are for beginners, sometimes, there is a need for some advanced features that require coding. For this, Wix provides you with a developer option (Dev Mode) through Velo. This mode allows you to customize your site using Node.js and get more features for your site. Hence, you can build a powerful project right on Wix.
On the contrary, this is not possible on Weebly. The best you can do is add some custom codes to the header and footer of your pages or, perhaps, embed some inside the pages.
That said, if you are a beginner with no coding skills, do not try to use the Dev Mode by yourself, as you may end up messing up your site. Get a Wix Expert or a Node.js developer instead.
Wix vs Weebly: which one wins?
After a careful and thorough Weebly vs Wix review and comparison, Wix wins overall.
It is superior for ease of use, value for money, eCommerce, SEO, blogging, multilingual support, great themes or templates, website speed, developer options, and third-party integrations.
So if you have to choose between the two, you know the better choice now.
Note that you won’t take any risk by trying Wix since its paid plans come with a money back guarantee.
Wix
