Weebly and Squarespace are popular no-code website builders, so it’s worth putting them head-to-head to see which is better. Weebly focuses on simplicity and ease of use, making it an attractive option for beginners. Weebly is also one of the cheaper website builders on the market.
Like Weebly, Squarespace provides an intuitive drag-and-drop website editor with professional prebuilt templates. However, Squarespace leans more towards creative freedom and is a terrific platform for showcasing your products or services in the best light.
Weebly and Squarespace Compared to the Best
Weebly and Squarespace both made our list of the best website builders. While these are solid choices, Shopify is the best site builder for most people, especially if you plan to sell products and services on your website. Try all of Shopify’s website building features free for three days, with no credit card required.
- Shopify – Best for selling products and services
- Wix – Best website builder for your first website
- Hostinger – Best for keeping website costs low
- Bluehost – Best for WordPress websites
- Squarespace – Best website builder for creators of all stripes
- Weebly – Best for solopreneurs
- GoDaddy – Best for building your website from your phone
Weebly vs. Squarespace High-Level Comparison
Weebly and Squarespace serve the same primary purpose of letting you build a professional website with little or no design experience. However, each platform takes a different approach to website building, so the better option boils down to your specific design needs. Where Weebly targets newbies and budget-conscious website owners, Squarespace delivers high-end features and functionality at a matching price.
Squarespace provides more built-in features than Weebly. So, Squarespace is a good option if you prefer to have certain critical elements at hand. However, Weebly has an extensive app marketplace for add-ons that expand the platform’s native capabilities, meaning you can still access Squarespace-level capabilities on an as-needed basis.
Furthermore, Squarespace offers more design templates than Weebly. These templates are also more visually appealing than Weebly’s, which is vital if aesthetics play a significant role in your success. However, Weebly offers some of the most accessible prices for an ecommerce store, which is good to know if you’re setting up your first store on a tight budget.
Products and Services Offered By Weebly and Squarespace
Weebly’s web design tool lets you create any website you want. You can create a business website, portfolio site, personal blog, or full-fledged online store cheaply and effortlessly. Weebly also offers complementary services to help you grow your website.
For example, the platform offers professional product photography services. Simply ship your products to Weebly, let them take the photos, then download the images from your Weebly account in 14 days or less. Weebly also has an email marketing platform called Weebly Promote that integrates with your Weebly website. Weebly is also part of Block, Inc. (formerly Square), a financial technology company.
Squarespace also offers additional products and services besides its website builder. Like Weebly, Squarespace can register and host your domain. And Tock is a reservation and events management tool that integrates with your website. Squarespace also offers marketing solutions and a logo maker.
Check out our complete Squarespace review and Weebly review for more details on what to expect from these website builders.
Company Health and Stability of Weebly and Squarespace
Weebly was released in 2007 and has powered over 50 million websites globally. The platform claims that its websites receive more than 325 million unique visitors every month, so there’s every reason to use it for your website. Block, Inc. (then Square) acquired Weebly in 2018 for $365 million.
Block, Inc. has long provided financial technology services to brick-and-mortar businesses. The acquisition resulted in a cohesive solution for starting and growing an omnichannel business. Weebly is also a secure platform with built-in SSL certificates and advanced DDoS protection.
Squarespace is Weebly’s closest competitor and is equally reputable and trustworthy. Squarespace was founded in 2003, hit $1 million in revenue just three years after its founding, and raised $78.5 million in venture capital by 2014.
Squarespace is a publicly traded company that has powered over 4.75 million websites. The company has also won numerous awards, including Best Company Culture by Comparably, Ireland’s Best Workplaces in Tech by GPTW Ireland, and Best Technology Companies by Fairygodboss.
Weebly vs. Squarespace Pricing Comparison
Weebly and Squarespace website builders offer similar products. So it’s easy to compare prices. Each platform provides a primary website builder with built-in functionality spanning website design, ecommerce, marketing, and support.
However, Weebly is generally cheaper than its competitor. Weebly’s paid plans start at just $10 per month, billed annually, with the most expensive plan costing $38 per month when billed annually. The cheapest plan on Squarespace costs $16 per month, billed annually, and the most expensive one costs $49 per month with annual billing.
Pricing Structure of Weebly and Squarespace
Weebly and Squarespace have a similar pricing structure. The platforms offer packages with different features, with more expensive tiers having more features. Simply choose the plan you want based on your required website functionality. You can also select the billing duration, including month-to-month or annual payments.
Weebly offers its services in two categories depending on the type of site you want to build. There’s one for making websites and another for creating online stores. Four plans are under the website category, from free to $25 per month, paid annually. Unfortunately, there’s no free-forever plan with the online store packages, with monthly prices starting at $12.
Squarespace doesn’t have different categories for websites and ecommerce stores. Instead, you choose from four plans from $16 to $49 per month with annual billing. The cheaper plans are ideal for personal websites, while the more expensive plans are suitable for online shops. Like Weebly, you can save money by choosing an annual contract.
Cost Comparison of Weebly and Squarespace
Weebly is the better option for creating a free hobbyist website or passion project. The main trade-off is you can’t connect a custom domain or remove advertising. It might be worth it for a bare-bones website that doesn’t need custom or professional branding.
However, Squarespace offers a better deal if you don’t mind spending a little extra to build a small professional website. Its entry-level plan is more expensive at $16 per month, while Weebly’s is $10. However, Squarespace doesn’t display ads on your website and offers unlimited bandwidth and 30 minutes of video storage.
Finally, it’s cheaper to start selling online with Weebly. The Pro plan costs $12 per month and offers a shopping cart and the ability to accept payments through third-party providers. The plan also provides basic marketing and SEO capabilities. You’ll pay at least $27 per month for a similar Squarespace website.
Trials and Guarantees for Weebly and Squarespace
Weebly and Squarespace both offer free trials to test the platforms before committing to a contract. However, the free trials are slightly different on each platform. Still, it’s an excellent opportunity to test each platform’s features before deciding.
Weebly has a 30-day money-back guarantee for all paid accounts except for month-to-month subscriptions. Weebly has a free-forever plan. The plan offers 500 MB storage, free SSL security, free search engine optimization, and lead capture and contact forms. Therefore, you can build a basic but functional one for free with Weebly.
Squarespace doesn’t have a free plan. However, the platform does have a 14-day free trial. You don’t need to provide your credit card information to try it, and you can cancel your account after the free trial if you are dissatisfied or upgrade to a paid plan to continue using the service.
Weebly vs. Squarespace Core Criteria Comparison
While price is essential when comparing software, it doesn’t paint the complete picture. It is better to think about what you want your website builder to do. Then, compare each option based on how well it fulfills your requirements.
We used the same approach when researching and testing contenders for the best website builders. Be sure to check out the review post for a high-level comparison of the best website builders on the market. We analyzed and shortlisted the best builders based on ease of use, depth of customization, and the ability to earn money.
Ease of Use – Weebly Wins
The ideal website builder easily lets you create a website without design experience. You can also create a beautiful and professional website without writing a single line of code. It’s a reason to use a DIY website builder in the first place.
Weebly and Squarespace are easy to use as far as website builders are concerned. However, Weebly has a significantly smoother learning curve and is a terrific option for creating your first website. You only need to drag an element from the toolbar and drop it wherever you want it.
Squarespace is less intuitive but not as tricky as alternatives like WordPress. Less advanced users may find the editor confusing. For example, you’ll have to click more times for simple editing than Weebly. In addition, some of Squarespace’s terminology may be difficult for people without design experience to understand.
Depth of Customization – Squarespace Wins
Website customization is vital for creating a unique brand. Unfortunately, template-based websites can sometimes appear generic. So, customization is critical for creating a professional website with the tools and features you need to accomplish your goals.
Squarespace has a steeper learning curve but rewards users with more in-depth template customization than Weebly. For example, Squarespace lets you edit virtually any aspect of a template, including rearranging elements, re-aligning sections, re-sizing blocks, and changing colors and fonts to fit your aesthetic preferences.
Squarespace also offers more templates than Weebly. Squarespace’s templates are also more modern and visually appealing than Weebly’s. As a result, you’re more likely to create a unique site with Squarespace than Weebly.
Ability to Earn Money – Squarespace Wins
Most website owners want to make money online. So you need a website that lets you grow and scale your business. Ecommerce features are even more critical if you’re building an online store.
Weebly markets itself as an ecommerce provider with impressive features to back up its claims. You can sell almost anything on Weebly, including services, physical products, and digital goods. Weebly also provides core ecommerce features, including shopping carts, payments, an automatic tax calculator, coupon codes, and abandoned cart emails.
Squarespace offers similar ecommerce features but has more robust business tools. For example, you can sell directly from Facebook and Instagram posts with Squarespace’s multi-channel integration. You’ll need a third-party application to achieve the same with Weebly.
Marketing Features – Tie
Creating a beautiful, professional, responsive website isn’t enough to attract visitors. You need to market your website to earn traffic. So built-in marketing tools are critical, especially if you want to profit from your website.
Weebly has a full-feature email marketing platform, Promote, with free and paid tiers. The drag-and-drop email builder connects to your main Weebly account and lets you build email lists and test and schedule emails, among other critical marketing functions. In addition, Weebly offers advanced built-in SEO capabilities with its site, page, and blog-level settings.
Squarespace has an equally robust email marketing tool called Unfold. The tool lets you share your marketing campaign across your favorite social media channels. Squarespace also has built-in SEO capabilities, allowing you to manage meta titles, descriptions, URL slugs, and image alt text. Although Squarespace has slightly more robust SEO management, Weebly has a free email marketing tool for up to two campaigns.
Customer Support – Squarespace
You need efficient technical support if something goes wrong with your website. Every second of downtime translates to productivity loss, missed sales opportunities, and reputation loss. Weebly and Squarespace offer customer support in case you need expert assistance.
Weebly has a community forum, chat and email, and phone support. The live chat is available Monday through Friday from 11 am to 9 pm EST. Unfortunately, Weebly doesn’t advertise its support phone number.
I like that Squarespace is more straightforward about not offering phone support. Instead, you can reach the support team via email and live chat. Live chat support is available from Monday to Friday, 4 am to 8 pm EST, so you get more support hours than Weebly. Squarespace also has a larger and more active community forum for self-service support.
Final Verdict – Squarespace Wins
Squarespace edges out Weebly in most criteria, including depth of customization, business features, and customer support.
However, Weebly is cheaper and easier to use than Squarespace, making it a good choice for novice web designers wanting to quickly create a free or cheap website.
More importantly, Squarespace provides excellent value for money. Of course, it’s more expensive than Weebly, but you get additional and more robust features across its template design, marketing, and SEO capabilities for generating income.
Source: quicksprout
Weebly vs. Squarespace