Wix vs. Weebly: Picking the Perfect Website Builder for Your Business

“How do I build a website that looks great and works hard for my business?”

The good news? You don’t always need to hire a seasoned developer or learn complex coding from scratch. Website builders like Wix and Weebly have democratised web design, promising intuitive drag-and-drop interfaces to help you create an online storefront for your business. But here’s the kicker: while they both promise ease, they cater to slightly different needs and offer distinct experiences.

Ease of Use: Who Wins for Beginners and Beyond?

When starting a business, simplicity is golden. After all, you want to focus on running your business, not wrestling with website code.

Wix: The Free-Form Canvas

Wix operates on a true drag-and-drop philosophy. You can easily drag elements anywhere on the page, layer them, resize them, and design them with incredible precision. Say you want a text box to overlap an image for a unique effect. Wix lets you do that with ease. It also offers an Artificial Design Intelligence (ADI) wizard that can build a basic site for you in minutes by asking a few questions. That’s a great starting point for those who feel overwhelmed.

• Pro: Unparalleled design freedom, great for creative types who want full control.
• Con: The sheer number of design options can overwhelm complete beginners. Plus, once you pick a template, switching to a different one can be difficult (sometimes impossible) without rebuilding your site.

Weebly: The Structured Builder

Weebly is also a drag-and-drop platform with a more structured, section-based editor. It’s like building with LEGOs: you drag elements into predefined content blocks or columns. This provides a clear framework, making it hard to “break” the design or mess up your layout.

• Pro: Incredibly easy to learn, intuitive for true novices, and ensures a consistent, clean layout.
• Con: Less design flexibility; you’re often confined to the theme’s structure. For example, you can drag a text box, an image, or a button into a column, but you can’t freely position them anywhere outside those columns.

Our Pro Tip: If you have a specific visual brand identity in mind and want absolute control over every pixel, Wix might be a better option. Pick Weebly if you prefer a simpler, guided approach that ensures a clean, responsive layout without much fuss.

Design and Customisation: Which Will Unleash Your Creativity?

Beyond ease of use, how much can you make the site yours?

Wix: The Designer’s Playground

Wix boasts an enormous library of over 2000 professionally designed templates, covering virtually every industry imaginable. They are modern and stylish and can be customised. With the pixel-perfect editor, you can change fonts and colours, add animations and video backgrounds, and bring your brand’s design vision to life.

• Pro: Incredible template variety and granular control over every design element. Wix is perfect for portfolios, artistic brands, or businesses needing a unique visual flair.
• Con: While it offers mobile editing, sometimes you have to manually adjust elements for different screen sizes, as the “pixel-perfect” desktop design doesn’t always translate flawlessly to mobile automatically.

Weebly: Clean and Contemporary

Weebly offers a more modest selection of templates (around 50-100), but they are generally clean, modern, and mobile-responsive right out of the box. Customisation is more about changing colours, fonts, and images within the existing theme structure rather than repositioning elements freely.

• Pro: All themes are inherently mobile-responsive, so your site will look great on any device without extra effort. Weebly is great for a minimalist, professional look.
• Con: Limited design flexibility means it’s harder to stand out with a unique look if you don’t delve into custom code.

Our Pro Tip: Think about your brand’s visual identity. Do you value uniqueness and artistic expression? If yes, Wix’s design depth is hard to beat. If a clean, functional, and automatically responsive design is your priority, Weebly delivers.

E-commerce Power: Which Website Builder Is Better for Your Online Store?

A website isn’t just an online brochure for e-commerce companies; it’s also a sales engine. So, in terms of e-commerce power, which is better: Wix or Weebly? 

Wix (Wix Stores): A Full-Fledged Virtual Storefront

Wix has invested heavily in its e-commerce capabilities, and it shows. It features Wix Stores, which offers a comprehensive suite of features, including abandoned cart recovery, product variations, inventory management, shipping calculators, multiple payment gateways (including Wix Payments), dropshipping integrations, and even multi-channel sales (selling on Facebook, Instagram, and eBay). It feels like a robust e-commerce platform in its own right.

• Pro: Rich feature set, suitable for small to medium-sized online stores with diverse products.
• Con: While Wix is excellent, it may not suit those with large inventories (thousands of products) or highly complex fulfilment needs. A dedicated e-commerce platform like Shopify might be more specialised.

Weebly (Square Online): Simple & Integrated Sales

Weebly’s e-commerce is powered by Square Online (Weebly was acquired by Square). This integration is fantastic if you’re already using Square for POS in a physical store. It offers straightforward product management, inventory tracking, and seamless payment processing through Square. It’s well-suited for smaller stores or those needing a simple online presence for their existing brick-and-mortar business.

• Pro: Easy to set up and manage, especially for those with smaller product catalogues and those already using Square. No transaction fees beyond the payment processor’s fee.
• Con: Fewer advanced e-commerce features compared to Wix (e.g., less sophisticated abandoned cart recovery, fewer shipping options), but still better for simpler online sales.

Our Pro Tip: Consider your product catalogue size and complexity. If you have many product variations, need advanced marketing automation for sales, or plan to dropship extensively, Wix is likely a stronger choice. On the other hand, if you sell a few items, prioritise simplicity, or are already using Square for your physical business, Weebly is a solid, cost-effective option.

SEO Prowess: Which Will Help You Get Found on Google?

A beautiful website is useless if no one can find it. SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) is vital for marketers and startups trying to attract and convert more leads online. 

Wix: No Longer an SEO Underdog

There’s an old myth that Wix sites aren’t good for SEO. Let us bust that myth right now! Modern Wix is incredibly SEO-friendly. You get full control over meta titles, descriptions, image alt text, custom URLs, 301 redirects, and even schema markup (now essential for AI Search SEO). Their “Wix SEO Wiz” guides you through optimisation steps, which is helpful if you’re a novice in web development & SEO. 

• Pro: Comprehensive SEO features, user-friendly tools, and ongoing improvements to ensure search engine visibility.
• Con: While Wix is good for core SEO, it may not be enough for advanced technical SEO. You may find WordPress a better option for next-level SEO.

Weebly: Clean Code for Search Engines

Weebly has always been known for its clean, lightweight code, which search engines appreciate. You can easily customise meta titles, descriptions, and URLs, add alt text to images, and utilise their basic SEO settings. Like Wix, an SSL certificate is included.

• Pro: Solid, reliable SEO foundations with clean code that search engines can easily crawl and index.
• Con: Like Wix, Weebly is good for basic SEO, but its cons include a lack of advanced SEO features.

Our Pro Tip: Remember, while platform SEO features are important, truly crushing it in search results depends more on your content strategy, keyword research, and consistent link building. The platform provides the vehicle; your content is the fuel.

App Integrations: Which Can Be Easily Expanded?

Your website needs to do more than just display information. It needs to connect with other tools. Which can be more easily expanded between Wix and Weebly? 

Wix App Market: A Universe of Possibilities

The Wix App Market is enormous, boasting thousands of apps (both free and paid) that can extend your site’s functionality in almost any direction imaginable. Think booking systems, advanced analytics, customer relationship management (CRM) tools, social media feeds, live chat, email marketing integrations, and more.

• Pro: The sheer volume and variety of apps mean there’s usually a solution for any specific need, often with seamless integration.
• Con: With so many options, it can be overwhelming to find the right app. Plus, relying too heavily on multiple third-party apps can sometimes slow down your site or lead to compatibility issues. Premium apps can also add up in cost.

Weebly App Centre: Focused Essentials

Weebly App Centre is more curated, offering hundreds of apps primarily focused on e-commerce, marketing, and communication. While not as extensive as Wix’s, the apps available are generally high-quality and directly address common business needs.

• Pro: Quality over quantity, with apps that are generally well-integrated and serve core business functions.
• Con: The limited number of apps means that if you have a niche or specialised need, you might not find a direct integration or solution within Weebly’s ecosystem, requiring more custom code or workarounds.

Our Pro Tip: Don’t get carried away by the number of apps. Before adding an app, ask yourself: “Does this truly enhance my users’ experience or solve a specific business problem?” Too many unnecessary apps can slow down your site.

Pricing & Value: What’s Your Budget?

Wix and Weebly offer various plans, from free (with limitations) to premium tiers packed with features. 

Wix’s Pricing

Wix offers a free plan with Wix branding and limited features, making it great for testing. Its paid plans are tiered for personal use, business, and e-commerce. While often seen as slightly pricier than Weebly for comparable basic features, Wix packs more advanced design and feature sets into its plans.

• Pro: You pay for unparalleled design freedom, extensive app integrations, and robust e-commerce capabilities.
• Con: The tiered pricing can quickly become expensive as you add more features (like removing ads or getting e-commerce functionality), and some essential business features are only available on higher-tier plans.

Weebly’s Pricing

It also has a free plan with Weebly branding. Paid plans are generally perceived as more budget-friendly, especially for simpler sites or those primarily focused on blogging or a basic online store.

• Pro: Offers solid value for money for clean, functional websites and straightforward e-commerce. Its free plan is quite generous for basic use.
• Con: While Weebly is deemed more affordable, some features that are standard on Wix’s mid-tier plans might require a higher-tier Weebly plan or simply aren’t available, which can be a limiting factor for growing businesses.

Our Pro Tip: Don’t just look at the lowest monthly fee. Factor in the long-term cost, the features you need, and the time you’ll save (or spend) building and maintaining the site. Sometimes, a slightly higher monthly fee for a more powerful platform pays for itself in time saved and increased conversions.

Customer Support: Which Is Easier to Reach When You Need Help?

Even the most intuitive platforms sometimes require a helping hand.

Wix’s Customer Support

Wix offers live chat support, a phone callback service, email support, and an extensive knowledge base filled with articles and tutorials. It also has a vibrant community forum where users can find solutions and share insights.

• Pro: Multiple support channels and a thorough knowledge base mean you can often find answers quickly.
• Con: While live chat is a great addition, immediate live phone access is still primarily a callback system, which is not always available on demand. Response times for email support can sometimes be slower, especially during peak periods, and chat availability might vary.

Weebly’s Customer Service

Weebly provides live chat support (often preferred for quick answers), email support, and phone support for higher-tier plans. Its knowledge base is also comprehensive.

• Pro: Known for good, responsive support, particularly through live chat, which can be a huge time-saver.
• Con: Phone support is typically reserved for higher-tier paid plans. Users on free or lower-tier plans might not have direct phone access for urgent issues.

Our Pro Tip: Before committing, reach out to their support teams with a dummy question. Evaluate their response time and helpfulness. This small step can save you massive headaches down the line.

Scalability & Advanced Features: Which Can Handle Growth?

What happens when your startup explodes or when your marketing needs become more sophisticated?

Wix (Wix Velo): Power Under the Hood

For those who want to get under the hood, Wix offers Wix Velo (formerly Corvid). This allows developers to add custom code, integrate with external APIs, create databases, and build highly dynamic and complex web applications right on their Wix site. This significantly extends Wix’s capabilities beyond a simple drag-and-drop builder.

• Pro: Offers an incredible level of customisation and scalability for those with coding knowledge or who want to hire a developer for specific advanced functionalities.
• Con: While powerful, Wix Velo requires coding knowledge, which means it’s not a feature for the average beginner. Also, if you need extremely custom, complex web applications, dedicated custom development might offer more flexibility than Velo’s environment.

Weebly: Simpler Scaling

Weebly is more of a closed ecosystem. While you can embed some custom HTML/CSS, it’s not designed for extensive custom coding or complex database integrations. It scales well for growing content and products within its existing framework but may not be ideal for building bespoke web applications.

• Pro: Easy to scale content and products within its structured environment.
• Con: Limited options for deep custom development or complex integrations compared to Wix Velo.

Our Pro Tip: Think about your 3-5 year plan. Do you envision needing custom web applications, complex user interactions, or extensive API integrations? If so, Wix offers a better path for that growth. If your needs are likely to remain within the standard website/e-commerce functionality, Weebly is perfectly fine.

Who Is Best Suited For? The Final Verdict (at a Glance)

After all this deep dive, here’s our quick take on who should choose which platform:

Choose Wix if you are:

• Prioritising design flexibility and a specific vision for your brand’s look & feel
• Building a highly visual portfolio, an artistic website, or a small business site that needs to stand out creatively
• Looking for comprehensive e-commerce features for a growing online store with diverse product types
• Comfortable with a slightly steeper learning curve for powerful customisation options
• Wanting access to an enormous app marketplace to extend functionality
• Considering the possibility of advanced custom coding (via Wix Velo) down the line.

Choose Weebly if you are:

• Looking for a simpler, more structured, and quicker website build experience
• Building a straightforward business site, a blog, or a basic online store (especially if integrated with Square)
• Prioritising ease of use and out-of-the-box mobile responsiveness without much manual tweaking
• More budget-conscious and need a reliable, no-frills website solution
• Preferring a clean, modern aesthetic without needing pixel-perfect design control

The Canty Digital Advantage: Beyond the Wix vs. Weebly Debate

Phew! That was a lot of info, wasn’t it? Choosing between Wix and Weebly is a big decision; understanding their nuances is key to getting your website off to a good start. They are both fantastic tools for getting started. Plus, for many, the DIY approach is the perfect fit.

However, many businesses have learned this truth over the years: while accessible, building and maintaining a truly effective website—one that not only looks great but also converts visitors into customers, ranks high on Google, loads lightning-fast, and evolves seamlessly with your business—requires significant time, strategic thinking, and continuous effort.

This is where digital marketing nerds like us at Canty Digital come in.

We understand your website isn’t just a place to exist online; it’s the starting point of your digital marketing strategy. Over the years, we’ve created sites that deliver results through: 

• Strategic Planning: We start with your core business objectives, target audience, and competitive landscape. Every design and feature choice is driven by your goals.
• Cutting-Edge Design & UX: We create visually stunning, user-friendly web designs that reflect your brand identity, captivate your audience, and provide an exceptional user experience that keeps them coming back.
• SEO & Marketing Integration: We build with SEO from the ground up, ensuring your site is technically sound and primed for discoverability. We also integrate seamlessly with your wider marketing efforts, from email campaigns to social media.
• Ongoing Support & Optimisation: The digital world never sleeps. We handle the technical heavy lifting, security updates, performance monitoring, and continuous optimisation, freeing you to focus on running and growing your core business.
• Time & Cost Efficiency (Long-Term): While a DIY website might save you money upfront, a professionally built and optimised site by experts like us can save you countless hours of frustration and generate significantly more revenue in the long run. It’s an investment in your business’s future.

So, if you’re a startup owner ready to make a serious splash or a marketer needing a high-performing site without the headache of constant DIY, let our team take web design and development off your hands. Chat with us today to get started.