Weebly vs Shopify – simplicity or top features?

Both Weebly and Shopify are website builders that allow users to build eCommerce websites, but they take different approaches. Shopify is built for bigger online businesses, with powerful sales and marketing tools. Weebly keeps things a lot more simple and is focused on individuals looking to sell online with ease. In this comparison, I’ll cover pricing, ease of use, template options, and features to help you choose the best fit for your needs.

	Editor's TOP Choice
	Wix	Shopify	Weebly
⭐ Rating:	4.8 ★ ★ ★ ★ ★	4.4 ★ ★ ★ ★ ☆	3.9 ★ ★ ★ ★ ☆
🥇 Overall rank:	#1 out of #32	#5 out of #32	#17 out of #32
💵 Price:	From $10.50/month	From $29.00/month	From $10.00/month
🪄 Ease of use:	Powerful interface, pretty easy to use	Foolproof design options	Very simple to use
🎨 Templates:	900	240	70
🏢 Business features:	Massive array of various business features	Excellent first party features, good app market	Good in-house eCommerce
👨‍💻 24/7 live support:	Yes	Yes	Yes
✂️ Free domain (first year):	Yes	No	Yes (with Professional / Performance plans)
🔒 Free SSL certificate:	Yes	Yes	Yes
🔥 Coupons:	Wix coupon 50% OFF	Get Shopify deal - 25% OFF	Cybernews Website Builder Coupons
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Pricing

Both Weebly and Shopify have several different plans, suited for different types of users.

Weebly includes a free plan as well as 3 premium ones. The premium plans include eCommerce capabilities, and they cost from $10.00 to $26.00/month.

All Shopify plans include eCommerce, and they're a lot more expensive, ranging from $29.00 to $2 300.00/month. Let’s have a look at these plans in more detail.

Weebly plans

These are all the plans available on Weebly:

Plan	Features
Free	Website on Weebly's subdomain, Weebly ads displayed, 500MB storage
Personal ($10.00/month)	Can connect your own domain, free SSL security, basic marketing features
Professional ($12.00/month)	Weebly ads removed, unlimited storage, advanced site-building features, eCommerce (25 items, 3% transaction fee)
Performance ($26.00/month)	All eCommerce features (unlimited items, no transaction fee), advanced eCommerce insights

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Note that these prices are only valid if you pay for a year in advance. If you wish to pay monthly, the prices for Weebly plans will increase – from $10.00, $12.00, $26.00, and $38.00 a month, to $13.00, $16.00, and $29.00 a month.

If you have a slightly higher budget, I don’t recommend Weebly’s Free and Personal plans because of the limitations. The free plan includes very little storage and won’t allow you to use a custom domain. Although the Personal plan allows you to connect a custom domain, you will see Weebly’s branding on your website.

There are 2 premium plans that will remove all these limitations and let you sell online as well. Let's have a look at them.

Professional plan

This plan cost $12.00/month and is a pretty good option for small business websites because it offers:

• Unlimited storage
• No Weebly ads and a free domain
• Advanced site stats and password protection

The Professional plan is a good choice for businesses. It’s affordable, ad-free, and includes full website features and membership options.

Performance plan

The Performance plan costs $26.00/month but for the extra price it introduces features for your website’s growth and management. These are the perks that come with the Performance plan:

• PayPal payments
• Item reviews
• Abandoned cart emails
• Advanced eCommerce insights

The addition of these premium tools makes selling through Weebly a genuinely better experience.

Shopify plans

Shopify provides 3 premium plans and 1 plan designed for complex businesses, but it doesn't offer a free plan. However, you can test Shopify free for 3 days and then get 3 months for $1.00.

Plan	Features
Basic ($29.00/month)	Provides all the essential elements for creating a new online store and charges a 2.9%+30¢ transaction fee.
Shopify ($105.00/month)	More staff accounts, professional reports, international pricing, more shipping options, and lower (2.7%+30¢) transaction fee.
Advanced ($399.00/month)	Third-party calculated shipping rates, up to 15 staff accounts, and an even lower (2.5%+30¢) transaction fee.

Visit Shopify

Let's compare their features one by one:

Basic

Despite being called Basic, this Shopify plan includes a lot of advanced features. You can set up multiple collaborator accounts and assign the stock to up to 10 warehouse locations for easier management. Other eCommerce features include:

• Abandoned cart recovery
• Discount codes
• Gift card creation
• Multilanguage website features
• Point-of-sale capabilities, letting you accept payments in person

Shopify charges a 2.9% + 30¢ fee for Shopify Payments, with no extra fees. Using a different gateway adds a 2% fee. Despite this, Shopify's basic plan offers many eCommerce features.

Shopify

The mid-tier Shopify plan costs $105.00/month. It lowers transaction fees to 2.7% + 30¢ and reduces the Shopify payment gateway fee to 1%.

There are some additional eCommerce features, too:

• Options for increased/decreased pricing for international locales
• Discounts for shipping via DHL, USPS, or UPS
• 5 staff accounts and 10 warehouses

Advanced

The best thing about this plan is the further reduction of the transaction fees. Shopify Payments fees are reduced to 2.5% + 30¢. And the fee for using a different payment gateway is reduced to 0.6%. You also get additional eCommerce features:

• International pricing can be set for each item individually
• Custom third-party shipping rates at checkout
• Advanced analytics and report builder
• 15 staff accounts and 10 warehouse locations

When choosing a plan, remember to consider all costs, such as transaction fees, payment gateway fees, and the monthly fee, and evaluate your sales volume.

Ease of use

Weebly provides easy-to-edit website templates, while Shopify focuses more on the store and product options. Both of these website builders are beginner-friendly, but Shopify is the better choice for those with little web design experience. However, I still found that other platforms like Wix provide more design flexibility.

However, let's continue exploring Weebly and Shopify. Here's my experience setting up an online store on each platform.

Using Weebly

Immediately upon signing up, I was asked what type of website I wanted to create.

Once I chose my preferred website type, I was sent to pick out a template of my choice.

And finally, I was transported to the website editor.

In the website editor you can move elements by dragging and dropping each of them onto the website.

Weebly is a drag-and-drop builder, meaning that you put each element wherever you please. There's a grid you'll need to work with, but you’re still given a massive amount of freedom.

Overall, I found the editor to be pretty easy to use. However, there weren't all that many elements to pick from, and while I could mix and match them to my preferences, I was limited by the platform's capabilities.

Once I left the editor, the dashboard offered me a checklist covering the basics of starting an online store.

And it also shows a clear overview of your sales, page views, and visits.

Overall, Weebly was easy to use, but I was disappointed that website editing features were limited for simplicity.

Using Shopify

Shopify started the onboarding process by asking a few questions. Once I registered to the platform, it asked me about my future website.

Then, I was sent straight to the Shopify dashboard.

The dashboard includes all the main information required to run an eCommerce store, plus it has a quick setup guide. The steps and the added information can differ depending on the answers to the questionnaire.

Overall, I liked this dashboard a bit more than I liked Weebly's. There is more to do, and I felt that there was more guidance – something very important if you're new at building websites.

One thing that's very different when comparing Weebly vs Shopify, is how both platforms approach the website editing. Shopify’s website builder has a lot more options, which may feel confusing at first, but it does give you more freedom and lets you find almost everything in a single sidebar.

In the editor you can add new sections, blocks, and edit your content.

For advanced edits, Shopify allows code customization, making it great for complex websites and custom solutions. However, this feature is best for experienced users.

Overall, Weebly is easy to use and works well for building simple and appealing websites, but its editing options are limited. Shopify focuses on functionality, offering more tools for customization. While both are beginner-friendly, Shopify allows you to build a more effective online store.

Templates

A good template is an excellent starting point for building your online store – especially if you're a beginner. This is where I compare Weebly vs Shopify in terms of their templates.

Weebly templates

Weebly offers 70. Depending on your goals, you can use different themes for online stores, businesses, portfolios, personal websites, events, and blogging.

All of the templates look modern and stylish. Plus, they’re free of charge. And while the templates are rather minimalist, they do look good when replaced with high-quality media of your own.

Shopify templates

Shopify has 240 templates, but only a small portion of them are free. Paid template prices start at $100, which is an investment, especially if you’re running a small business.

That being said, the free options are modern and focused entirely on increasing your sales.

Since Shopify is so popular and offers only a handful of free themes, your site may end up looking like many others. If you want a unique design, you’ll need to invest in a premium theme.

Another option is to use your own themes, and there's a massive community of creators making their own Shopify templates. The third-party options can cost several times less than the ones you can purchase on Shopify’s website.

Overall, Shopify offers more variety than Weebly, with a large selection of eCommerce-focused themes in different styles and price ranges. You'll save if you use Weebly, but you may not find the right template fit.

eCommerce

Weebly keeps online selling simple, while Shopify is built for eCommerce with powerful tools for businesses of all sizes. Let's find out how they compare.

Basic eCommerce features

Shopify offers a simple product management interface.

You'll be able to use the main Shopify dashboard to manage all aspects of your online business, such as abandoned cart recovery, where you can see who has left your site with a cart full of items without purchasing and try to bring them back.

Shopify also enables creating discount codes, so you can set up various custom discount codes of all types and purposes.

Weebly's item management interface is quite simple and minimalist as well.

The main dashboard allows you to set up and manage some of the core eCommerce features.And the editor is where the products can be added, with a total of 4 different layouts to choose from.

Comparing Weebly and Shopify, Shopify offers a more customizable eCommerce solution. You can edit more about your products. You are given the freedom to arrange and set everything up to your preference.Meanwhile, Weebly tries to simplify everything as much as possible.

Payment options

Shopify's payment solution is called Shopify Payments, and it allows you to sell in 10 major international currencies. This option has a transaction fee ranging from 2.4% + 30¢ to 2.9% + 30¢, depending on your plan.

However, this payment platform doesn't work all across the world. Some EU countries are excluded, leaving many vendors without access. Luckily, for pretty much anyone out there, Shopify has access to over 100 alternative payment gateways. Just remember that when using them, you'll also need to pay Shopify 0.5% to 2%, based on the plan that you're using.

Meanwhile, Weebly offers access to Stripe, Square, and PayPal Express. Stripe is meant for worldwide selling, PayPal Express is more suited for donations, while Square combines Weebly with various features of their own, such as point-on-sale and instantly accepting credit cards.

All of these gateways will charge a 2.9% + 30¢ fee on all plans.

If Shopify Payments is available in your locale, it's an excellent option that will get cheaper as you grow. If not, Weebly's options are better suited for you.

Shipping options

Shopify lets you easily manage the shipping rates and accepted locations through its interface. There will also be discounts provided, depending on the plan that you pick. Shopify fully integrates DHL, UPS, and US/Canada postal services.

There's even a calculator that will let you see how much shipping to a specific location will cost.

All paid Weebly plans include a shipping calculator and multiple shipping rate options. You can choose free shipping, a flat rate, or base it on weight and size.

Business features

Shopify offers a more extensive app store, providing a wide range of advanced marketing tools, while Weebly prioritizes built-in features. Here’s how Weebly and Shopify compare in terms of business functionalities.

Marketing

Weebly focuses heavily on email marketing. The marketing suite, called Weebly Promote includes several email marketing features.

I especially appreciated that the platform itself offered me what kind of letters I should send out to my visitors.

The email designer is intuitive and looks very similar to the Weebly site editor. There are also several elements suited specifically for newsletters.

You can also build these emails to be sent out automatically after the visitor performs a specific action, like signing up for your newsletter or making a purchase.

The free version of Weebly Promote is limited to 2 campaigns and 500 emails per month. To unlock its full potential, you’ll need a premium plan.

Shopify has a decent suite of marketing features, too. I enjoyed the Campaigns and Automations features, which help you set up automated emails when users complete specific actions.

Shopify helps you create emails easily by providing different templates that you only need to customize with your content.

The experience of editing the emails is also quite similar to the experience of editing the site. You simply get to choose from a few relevant options and adjust the color scheme and content.

Shopify emails are available on all paid plans. All stores on these plans have 10,000 free emails to send at the beginning of every month. After you send 10,000 emails, charges apply.

When it comes to features, Shopify wins with a wider range of automation and optimization tools.

App marketplaces

Weebly has a third-party app store with various eCommerce tools, making it easy to add features like dropshipping, popups, and analytics. I was also impressed that it offers free apps to choose from, and there’s no need to pay for apps if you’re building a rather simple website.

Shopify's app store has over 8000 apps, and it covers all the business-related niches, such as store design, sales, customer support, productivity, and finance management.

Shopify's app marketplace is its biggest strength, offering far more than most competitors. It has almost any eCommerce tool you can think of. And while most apps are paid, free trials are available.

Overall, Shopify offers more extensive business features, while Weebly only covers the basics.

Weebly vs. Shopify – conclusion

Overall, both Shopify and Weebly are fairly good.

Weebly is a solid option for beginner users looking for a simple way to sell online. Everything's nice and straightforward, and building a fully functioning store takes less than an hour.

That said, while weebly offers pre-made templates and a fully customizable drag-and-drop editor, there aren't enough themes or elements to choose from.

Visit Weebly

Shopify is certainly a more advanced option and that is also reflected in the platform's pricing – it's more expensive than Weebly. That said, it offers better eCommerce and marketing solutions.

Visit Shopify

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