Weebly vs Shopify, Which Is Better For Your Online Store & Blog

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Choosing the right platform for your online store in business blogging can feel like searching for a needle in a haystack. Do you opt for Weebly's simplicity or Shopify's robust e-commerce features? Each has strengths, and your decision could significantly impact your business success. Our article breaks down the pros and cons, helping you make an informed choice.

Feather's notion to blog can also help streamline your decision-making process, offering tools to effectively compare platforms and find the best fit for your needs.

Weebly vs Shopify at a Glance

Weebly vs Shopify

Weebly and Shopify are potent tools for building websites, but they serve different purposes. Shopify is all about e-commerce, while Weebly is more versatile, offering:

Blogs

Portfolios

Business sites

A User-Friendly Platform for Local Businesses

Since Square bought Weebly in 2018, it's become more e-commerce-friendly. Weebly shines with its design tools and ease of use. The drag-and-drop builder gives you complete control over your site's appearance, making it an excellent choice for small businesses with a strong brand identity that plans to sell in just one location.

Easy Product Management with Shopify

On the other hand, Shopify focuses on online store features, making it perfect for businesses looking to sell across multiple platforms. Shopify makes adding products a breeze, allowing you to quickly add descriptions and images before launching them on your site. Other features like abandoned checkout data and discount codes help bring customers back to your store.

What is Weebly?

Weebly vs Shopify

If you’re setting up an online business, you’ve probably come across Weebly at some point. Founded in 2007, Weebly quickly gained traction as an intuitive, drag-and-drop website builder. Its acquisition by Square in 2018 supercharged its capabilities, integrating features designed to streamline commerce and mobile payments.

Today, Weebly powers over 50 million sites globally. Users are drawn to its straightforward interface and comprehensive feature set. You can build a professional site with e-commerce functionality and other essential tools with just a few clicks. It’s no wonder Weebly is often pitted against competitors like Wix, Squarespace, and Shopify.

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What is Shopify?

Weebly vs Shopify

Shopify is a powerful ecommerce platform designed to help you quickly build and manage an online store. Whether you're a novice dropshipper or a fast-growing D2C brand, Shopify makes it simple to sell products online and in person using a point-of-sale app. Its user-friendly interface and robust features ensure you can focus on what matters most—growing your business.

Offering a free trial, Shopify invites you to explore its range of tools, from inventory management to seamless payment processing. The platform’s cloud-based architecture means you can access it from anywhere without the headache of managing your own hosting.

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Weebly vs Shopify: Detailed Feature Comparison

Weebly vs Shopify

1. Ease of Use

Shopify is known for its streamlined e-commerce setup, with features designed to help even beginners create professional online stores. It offers an intuitive but somewhat segmented interface, where product management and storefront design are handled separately. This can be slightly clunky, as users have to navigate between the backend (for inventory management) and the frontend (for storefront customization).

Weebly's Drag-and-Drop Simplicity

Weebly, on the other hand, shines with its straightforward drag-and-drop editor. Users can simply click on elements (such as text boxes or images) and place them where they want. This live editing experience means what you see while building is what you’ll get on the live website, which many find easier.

Weebly’s simple setup is ideal for beginners but may lack the depth needed to manage a complex e-commerce store.

Onboarding

Shopify’s onboarding process is more thorough and designed to guide users through the complexities of setting up an online store. Weebly’s onboarding is still strong but geared more towards simpler websites.

Verdict: Shopify is tailored for businesses prioritizing e-commerce, while Weebly is more suitable for more straightforward websites or smaller stores.

2. Website Design

Weebly offers around 50 themes suitable for various industries, such as blogs, portfolios, and small businesses. While well-designed, these themes are standard and could be more visually striking. Nevertheless, Weebly does make it easy to customize your site, thanks to its drag-and-drop tools.

A Variety of Options

Shopify, meanwhile, has a more extensive selection of 74 themes, many of which are highly polished and built specifically for online stores. Although only nine themes are free, the premium ones (ranging from $100-$180) provide diverse styles and functionality. The themes are designed with features like:

Product zoom

Slideshow galleries

This makes them ideal for e-commerce.

Customization

Weebly excels at ease of customization, offering simple drag-and-drop functionality without needing any coding skills. While Shopify offers customization, it requires navigating between backend and frontend editors, making the process more cumbersome.

Verdict: Weebly is the best choice for general websites because of its more varied design and ease of customization. With its sleek e-commerce templates, Shopify is better suited for professional online stores.

3. Credit Card Fees

Both Weebly and Shopify charge 2.9% + 30¢ per transaction when using their default payment processors. Shopify uses Shopify Payments, while Weebly uses Stripe and Square for integrated payments. Using third-party payment gateways on Shopify will incur additional transaction fees (up to 2% on the Basic plan, decreasing to 0.5% on higher tiers).

Verdict: Both platforms have similar fees for integrating payment gateways, but Shopify’s additional charges for external gateways can be a downside.

4. Marketing Features

Weebly edges out Shopify in terms of built-in marketing tools. It offers robust SEO features and a native email marketing tool, Weebly Promote, which allows users to send newsletters and promotional emails.

Weebly’s blogging tools are more versatile, allowing social bookmarking, archive features, and search functionality.

Shopify's Marketing Integrations

Shopify offers more third-party marketing integrations (over 1,300 apps), allowing users to tailor their marketing strategy with tools like:

Google Ads, Facebook

TikTok

Email marketing solutions

While Shopify's built-in email marketing is decent, it needs some advanced features Weebly offers.

Blogging

Weebly’s blogging tools are superior, offering features like post-scheduling and in-editor support for a more seamless experience. Shopify also provides blogging functionality but lacks some advanced features like social bookmarking.

Verdict: Weebly offers more built-in marketing tools and superior blogging features. Nevertheless, Shopify provides access to a much broader range of third-party marketing integrations, making it better for businesses focused on scaling their e-commerce marketing.

5. Available Payment Gateways

Weebly integrates with three payment gateways:

Stripe

Square

PayPal

It’s a straightforward setup, but the options are more limited than those of Shopify. Square users have the major advantage of accepting Apple Pay and Google Pay.

Shopify partners with over 100 payment gateways globally, including popular options like:

Stripe

PayPal

Authorize.net

This provides much greater flexibility, especially for international merchants. Yet, as mentioned, using third-party gateways incurs additional transaction fees.

Verdict: Shopify offers significantly more payment gateway options, making it a better choice for global businesses.

6. Products

Both Weebly and Shopify allow unlimited product uploads. Nonetheless, their product management differs. Weebly allows users to add search functions by dragging and dropping elements into their templates, with filtering options based on attributes like:

Color

Price

Others

Shopify has a more advanced product management system. Its backend system allows users to search and filter up to 50 products at a time and sort by different criteria, like date or inventory level. This system is more suitable for handling more extensive inventories and product variations.

Verdict: Shopify has better tools for managing extensive product inventories, making it ideal for businesses with a comprehensive product range. Weebly’s system is more straightforward and more suited for smaller shops.

7. Storage

Both platforms offer unlimited storage on their paid plans, meaning you can upload as many as you need, such as:

Product images

Videos

Files

Weebly has specific file size limitations: 250MB for audio files, 1GB for videos, and 250MB for other file types. Shopify limits files to a maximum of 20MB but does not have separate caps for different file types.

Verdict: Both offer robust storage options, but Shopify’s limitations on file sizes might be restrictive for certain types of businesses.

8. Integrations

Weebly's marketplace offers around 370 apps, including tools for e-commerce, communication, social media, and marketing. Popular apps include Google Ads and Facebook Live Chat.

Shopify blows Weebly out of the water with over 8,000 apps. These cover everything from drop shipping to advanced SEO tools and accounting software like QuickBooks. Shopify’s integration ecosystem is geared toward helping businesses manage and scale their online store operations with advanced tools.

Verdict: Shopify’s app store is more extensive, making it the better option for businesses looking to expand their store’s functionality through third-party apps.

9. Shipping Discounts

Weebly integrates with Shippo for real-time shipping rates, offering discounts of up to 40% with USPS and DHL. While you can connect with other shipping providers, the discounts are less substantial.

Shopify offers more significant shipping discounts, up to 88% on higher-tier plans, with carriers like:

USPS

It also allows users to buy and print shipping labels directly from the dashboard, with some plans offering free shipping insurance up to $200.

Verdict: Shopify provides more significant shipping discounts and better carrier options, making it the better choice for businesses that ship large volumes.

10. Automated Marketing Emails

Both platforms offer email marketing capabilities. Weebly excels with its drag-and-drop email builder and ready-made templates for newsletters, promotions, and product launches. Yet, automated abandoned cart emails are only available on Weebly’s most expensive plan.

Shopify's basic plan offers up to 10,000 emails per month for free, along with features like the Shopify Magic subject line generator. Automated abandoned cart emails are available even on Shopify’s entry-level plan.

Verdict: Shopify’s generous email allowance and automated email features make it more appealing for growing businesses, but Weebly’s drag-and-drop design features offer more creative flexibility.

11. Blogging

Both platforms provide blogging tools, but Weebly has a slight edge due to features like:

Social bookmarking

Search function

Ability to create archives

Shopify allows users to schedule posts but needs some advanced functionality that Weebly provides, such as more flexible post layouts and content blocks.

Verdict: Weebly is better for blogging, especially if your site’s content is a significant part of your business strategy.

12. Performance and Reliability

In terms of performance, Weebly and Shopify offer excellent uptime records, typically exceeding 99.9%, ensuring that your store remains accessible. Shopify is known for its faster load times, aided by its content delivery network (CDN), which makes it a better choice for larger, complex stores that need to handle high traffic.

Verdict: Shopify’s performance is optimized for large-scale e-commerce, offering faster load times and superior reliability.

Is Weebly Cheaper Than Shopify? Weebly vs. Shopify Pricing Comparison

Weebly vs Shopify

Weebly and Shopify's pricing plans are starkly different. Shopify offers more sophisticated features at a higher price point. On the other hand, Weebly provides a more budget-friendly option, albeit with limited capabilities. Let's examine each platform's pricing plans and their accompanying features.

Weebly Pricing Plans

Weebly offers four pricing plans, starting with a Free plan, which allows you to create an essential online presence with:

SEO capabilities

SSL security

Analytics and more

The Personal, Professional, and Performance plans are for those who want more advanced features. The Personal plan costs $10 monthly and includes connecting a custom domain and selling digital goods.

In contrast, the Professional plan costs $12 monthly and offers:

Unlimited storage

Free domain

Phone support

The Performance plan, priced at $26 per month, unlocks advanced e-commerce features such as:

Abandoned cart emails

Item reviews

Ability to accept payments

It's worth noting that Weebly charges transaction fees on all paid plans, which can add up over time.

Shopify Pricing Plans

Unlike Weebly, Shopify doesn't offer a free plan but provides a 14-day free trial to test the platform before committing. Shopify's five pricing plans include:

Starter

Basic

Retail

Shopify

Advanced

Prices range from $5 per month for the Starter plan to $399 for the Advanced plan. The Basic plan costs $39 monthly and is the most popular option. It includes:

Unlimited products

Abandoned cart recovery

Marketing automation

The higher-tiered plans offer additional features such as:

Advanced reports

International market management

Lower transaction fees

While Shopify is more expensive than Weebly, it offers more advanced functionality and scalability for businesses that need it.

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Which Is Better To Use, Shopify Or Weebly?

Weebly vs Shopify

Choosing between Shopify and Weebly depends on your business priorities and long-term goals. If your business is centered around e-commerce, Shopify is your best bet. It’s designed to handle everything from an extensive product catalog to multi-channel selling and advanced inventory management.

Shopify excels in scalability, supporting your business growth. Be prepared for potentially higher costs, especially transaction fees and app integrations. For businesses focused heavily on sales, Shopify is the go-to.

The Budget-Friendly Choice for Simple Websites

Weebly is your friend if you’re looking for a budget-friendly, easy-to-use website builder. It’s great for smaller businesses or individuals who need a simple, customizable online presence without the complexities of advanced e-commerce. Weebly shines with its drag-and-drop builder and affordable pricing, making it perfect for those with moderate e-commerce needs.

Blogging for Traffic: Why Feather Stands Out

Are you looking to boost traffic to your online store with blogging? Feather offers a powerful solution that surpasses Weebly and Shopify's blogging features. With Feather, you can easily add a subfolder blog (better for SEO) to your website, write in Notion, and automatically publish your content. It’s a game-changer for businesses wanting to enhance their online presence without diving deep into coding or design skills.

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Can I Use Shopify With Weebly?

Weebly vs Shopify

How about adding e-commerce to your Weebly site? Shopify's Buy Button lets you do just that. It integrates smoothly, offering a shopping cart experience without a full migration to Shopify. Here's how to make it happen.

Setting Up Your Shopify Account

First things first, you'll need a Shopify account. Already have one? Great. If not, signing up is quick and easy. Once you're set-up, head to your Shopify dashboard. This is where the magic begins.

Creating the Buy Button

In your Shopify dashboard, you'll find an option to generate a Buy Button. Select the products you want to sell and customize the button’s appearance to fit your Weebly design. This step is crucial for maintaining a consistent look across your site. Once you're satisfied, Shopify will give you an embed code.

Embedding on Weebly

Now, copy that embed code and head over to your Weebly editor. You'll want to add an HTML element to any page where you want the Buy Button to appear. Paste the code, and voilà—your Weebly site can now sell products directly.

Weighing Your Options

While this setup offers basic e-commerce functionality, it’s not the full Shopify experience. If you plan to scale or need more advanced features, you might consider moving entirely from Weebly to Shopify.

Shopify vs Weebly vs Wix, Which Is Better?

Weebly vs Shopify

Shopify is your go-to for severe online selling. It's like the Swiss Army knife of e-commerce platforms, with features like:

Inventory management

Multichannel sales

Payment processing

Shopify is built to handle large, complex product catalogs easily, so it's a great choice if scalability is high on your priority list.

A Powerful Tool With a Price Tag

Shopify’s robust capabilities don't come cheap. Expect to spend more on transaction fees and paid apps for extra features. And while Shopify is a beast in e-commerce, its flexibility for non-e-commerce customization leaves something to be desired.

Weebly: Simple and Budget-Friendly

Weebly shines for those who want a quick, easy setup without a hefty price tag. Its drag-and-drop builder is perfect for small businesses or individuals with modest product catalogs. Weebly offers basic e-commerce functionality, making it a straightforward choice for those who don't need advanced features.

But, if you plan on growing your business significantly, Weebly's limited e-commerce tools might leave you wanting more. Customization options are also restricted compared to platforms like Wix.

Wix: The Design-First Approach

Wix stands out for its design flexibility. If creative control is your thing, you'll love Wix's customizable templates and intuitive drag-and-drop editor. It's a versatile platform that allows you to build a stunning site with solid e-commerce capabilities.

While not as feature-rich as Shopify, Wix's e-commerce tools are sufficient for small to medium-sized businesses. Pricing can add up as you integrate more advanced apps and features, but for those who prioritize design, Wix is a strong contender.

Key Differences to Consider

When choosing between these platforms, consider your primary focus.

eCommerce functionality

Simplicity

Budget

Design flexibility

Shopify is the clear winner for those who need robust e-commerce tools. Weebly is great for users who want a simple, affordable option. Wix offers a flexible design platform for creatives and small to medium-sized businesses. Your choice will depend on your specific needs and priorities.

Go From Notion to Blog With Ease Today With Feather

Feather is a cutting-edge tool that transforms how businesses approach blogging and newsletters. It lets you write and manage blog content directly from Notion, no coding or design skills are needed.

Feather's subfolder setup, which places your blog at domain.com/blog instead of blog.domain.com, gives you a big SEO edge. This is especially useful for businesses juggling multiple digital assets, much like comparing the features of: