When it comes to custom website builder, Weebly and Webflow are two very popular choices among a great number of them. Each of these have certain attractive attributes for those opting it, whether they are beginners or pros. If you are a startup business looking forward towards creating an online visibility for your business or just blogger with intent to share your perspectives with the rest of the word, this article will help to choose between Weebly or Webflow as your ideal choice of platform for website building.
Unlike the established businesses with seasoned programmers, it is always a challenge for the startup businesses to choose an appropriate web development platform to bring their digital dreams to realities. There are many choices when we think of a no-code / low-code platform with two of the most popular choices being Webflow and Weebly. Is Webflow better than Weebly? or vice versa? To help the startup decision makers, here we will take a detailed look at the most important features of these two platforms and compare them on various aspects.
Let's begin!
Advantage and Disadvantage of Weebly and Webflow
Weebly Pros
- Free SSL Certificate: The free account of Weebly has an important SSL certificate for securing data transmitted on the site.
- Free Plan: For starters, it provides a free plan, where you can try out developing your site with no costs at first.
- Intuitive User Interface: Just like most other eCommerce platforms out there, Weebly has a simple and friendly interface.
- Useful Mobile App: With the mobile app one can easily control their web page away from home.
- Supports Third-Party Extensions: Integrating different third-party extensions can improve onsite functionality.
Weebly Cons
- Limited Blogging Tools: In terms of the blogging features, Weebly is inferior to specific blogging platforms.
- Paid Plans Are Expensive: The free plan sounds good, but the paid ones are quite costly.
- Limited Photo Editing Capability: Weebly does not provide advanced photo editing options.
Webflow Pros
- Fully Customizable without Coding: Webflow allows you to build fully personalized web pages without coding.
- Great Variety of Templates: Webflow has more than 1,500 templates that guarantee a lot of design choices.
- Fast Loading: With an optimization process that includes using CDNs, we have found most webflow sites load fast.
- SEO ready: With in-built SEO tools and capabilities, you can build Webflow websites which can rank high on search engine results.
- Easy integrations: Webflow can be integrated with all popular third-part services like Google Analytics, WooCommerce, Mailchimp and more.
Webflow Cons
- Difficult to Use for Beginners: For newbies and startups, the learning curve may be a bit high, for which you can take the assistance of a reliable webflow development service.
- Expensive Plans: Considering their premium packages, they are costly, but still economical compared to Weebly.
Also read: Framer vs Webflow - A Ultimate Guide for Startups and Corporate
Comparing features of Webflow vs Weebly
Primarily, the choice of a website builder depends on their features. Let's explore the features provided by Weebly and Webflow:
Weebly Features
- Ecommerce: Finally, Weebly is a perfect application for small business owners interested in selling their products and services via the Internet.
- Landing Page Design: Make stunning homepages to catch lead or sell a particular product.
- Mobile App: Run your Website and Online Store with Weebly’s Mobile App.
- Multivendor Plugin: Perfect for markets having multiple vendors with one platform where they sell their products.
- Ready-to-Use Templates: There are also some pre-designed templates that people can use through Weebly but in some particular niches only.
- Website Design: Customize your website’s look and feel to meet your brand.
Webflow Features
- Backup: Backup is also provided by Webflow so that no crucial data would be lost when accessing the client’s website.
- Ready-to-Use Templates: Using a rich selection of templates available for different projects.
- Social Media Management: You can simply add a social media tab to your website.
- Templates Library: Use a wide range of layouts, suitable for all needs.
- Website Design: Webflow is designed in such a way that it enables full customization of your website’s design.
- SEO Tool: Make your website visible for searchers by ensuring it is optimized for the same.
- Built-in hosting: Webflow is an all-in-one service where you can design, build, and host your websites end-to-end.
Comparing the features, we can see that Webflow stands as a clear winner as it seems to an end-to-end service compared to Weebly.
Target audience Weebly vs Webflow
Understanding the target audience for each platform helps you assess which one aligns better with your needs:
- Weebly is ideal for freelancers to create portfolios and websites and for small businesses as well as new e-commerce ventures.
- Webflow is best suited for all types of development needs from freelancers to big enterprises and is widely accepted for its customization features and technology tools.
Company Information
Understanding the background and history of these companies can also provide insights into their evolution and commitment to users:
- Webflow: This company entered the market in 2012. The corporate address is Suite 2, 398 11th Street, San Francisco, CA 94103.
- Weebly: Being established in 2007, Weebly is much older when it comes to website building. It is located in San Francisco, CA 94107.
Website URL and Support
Both Weebly and Webflow provide official websites where you can access their services and support resources:
- Weebly: For further details on their services and support, you may visit Weebly’s official website. They also respond through email.
- Webflow: Webflow’s official website is home for all their services and support. They additionally offer assistance through mail.
Comparison of pricing
For startups, choosing the right website builder surely involves cost considerations. Let's compare the Webflow vs weebly pricing structures of Weebly and Webflow:
Weebly Pricing Details:
For Websites:
Free Plan ($0 annually):
- Free SSL Security
- 500 MB Storage
- Domain with Weebly Branding
- Search Engine Optimization
- Lead Capture and Contact Forms
- Chat and Email Support
Connect Plan ($60 annually):
- Free SSL Security
- 500 MB Storage
- Custom Domain Name
- Search Engine Optimization
- Lead Capture and Contact Forms
- Community Forums
- Chat and Email Support
Pro ($144 annually):
- Free Domain ($20 value)
- Google Ads ($100 Credit)
- Free SSL Security
- Unlimited Storage
- Custom Domain Name
- Remove Weebly Ads
- Site Search
- Shopping Cart
This is just an overview of the pricing structures of Weebly. You may contact the sales team for other plans and customized pricing options.
Webflow Pricing Details
Webflow offers various plans to suit the needs of all types of businesses.
Website Plans:
Free plan (Starter):
- Webflow.io domain
- 50 CMS items
- 1 GB bandwidth
Basic ($15 monthly):
- Custom domain
- 50 GB bandwidth
CMS ($20 monthly):
- Custom domain
- 2000 CMS items
- 200 GB bandwidth
- 3 guest editors
Business ($45 monthly):
- Custom domain
- 10000 CMS items
- 400 GB bandwidth
- 10 guest editors
Enterprise plan (contact sales for price):
- Custom domain
- 10000 CMS items
- Custom bandwidth
- Custom guest editors
- Uptime SLAs
Ecommerce Plans:
Standard ($42 per month):
500 items (covers all Ecommerce products, variants, categories, and CMS items).
- 2% transaction fees
- $50,000 annual sales volume
- Custom domain
- 2000 CMS items
- 200 GB bandwidth
- 3 guest editors
- Plus ($84 per month):
1000 items
- 0% transaction fee
- $200,000 annual sales volume
- Custom domain
- 1000 CMS items
- 400 GB bandwidth
- 10 guest editors
- Advance ($235 per month):
3000 items
- 0% transaction fee
- Unlimited annual sales volume
- Custom domain
- 10000 CMS items
- 400 GB bandwidth
- 10 guest editors
Workspace Plans:
Starter ($0 per month):
- 1 seat
- 2 un-hosted sites
Core ($28 per month):
- Up to 3 seats
- 10 unhosted sites
- Billing permissions
- Custom code
- Code export
Growth ($60 per month):
- Up to 9 seats
- Unlimited unhosted sites
- Publishing permissions
- Custom code
- Code export
Enterprise (contact sales for pricing):
- Custom seat limits
- Unlimited unhosted sites
- Publishing permissions
- Custom code
- Code export
Also read: Explore Webflow Enterprise and Startups Pricing
Weebly has limited hosting, but Webflow stands out in terms of hosting services as it concentrates on optimization of the speed at which websites load with input of Amazon Cloudfront and Fastly through a Tier 1 Content Delivery Network (CDN). With these Webflows, websites load fast giving a better user experience as well as boosting their SEO ratings.
Weebly offer plenty of templates for different sectors and market segments including cool themes, plain themes, creative themes to interactive and animated layouts. Webflow has got an even greater number of templates with over 1,500 variations. Business templates are customizable for various uses such as business, portfolio, blogs, and many others.
Both Weebly and Webflow use the industry standard in terms of security measures such as two-factor authentication and SSL certificates that protect user’s information and transactions. Notably, Webflow provides an additional layer of assurance through its SOC2, Type 2 certificate on safety and information security. Webflow also integrates an SSO with G Suite improving user authentication, better physical security, redundancy, and scalabilities among other features.
Considering all the elements in this comparison, it is evident that Webflow comes out tops. However, as both Weebly and Webflow have impressive functionalities and design options, Webflow is better in such areas like marketing and SEO, faster loading time and hosting, wider range of templates and more comprehensive ecommerce capabilities.
Conclusion
In conclusion, on considering Weebly or Webflow for your startup website development, it all comes down to the purpose for which you want to use it for. Building a website on any of these two platforms can be an excellent idea depending on what you would want to do or how good you are. To start with, it is advisable to try out the free plans/trials of every platform before finalizing one. On choosing webflow for your startup web project, you may also take the assistance of a good webflow development agency in USA to weave a winning website.