An excellent web hosting provider is a lot of help for your brand. When you build your site on a good web hosting platform, there are lower chances of bringing your site's rank down. This is because a good web host ensures your website is not slow in responding.
Your needs, budget, and technical know-how are among the factors that determine which platform you settle for. As there are tons of web hosting platforms out there, this article will review one of the many platforms you can choose from, Weebly.
What is Weebly all about?
The web hosting company came to exist in 2006, and it has its headquarters in San Francisco. It is a Block Inc subsidiary that offers its users a variety of features. A prominent feature Weebly offers is website building. The idea to make the platform a website builder came from two of its founders who studied at Penn State University. As students, they were required to make internet portfolios. Therefore, they decided to make website building easy for everyone using Weebly. This way, everyone could disseminate information that is not already on the internet without having technical barriers.
As of January 2006, its founders had begun formal development of this hosting platform. Then, in June that same year, there was an announcement regarding the release of Weebly’s invitational beta. To that end, the Weebly private beta was launched about three months after the announcement.
Key Features of Weebly
Beginner-friendly layout: Weebly is a platform of great ease. Everything you need to create your website, regardless of its purpose, is easy to find. The developers of this platform have ensured that you do not have to get lost while finding the tools you need.
Search Engine Optimization: As always, SEO is necessary for any successful website. Although it might seem basic, Weebly offers SEO services that are enough for most websites.
Ready-to-use templates: In building a website with Weebly, you get some templates to start with. However, to reduce the time spent in deciding on a template, there are not so many templates. Using the drag and drop feature, you can customize these templates to suit your taste. However, if you seek a simple website, you might find the existing templates fitting.
Analytical tools: On this web hosting platform, you can view data analysis on how much progress you make on your site. You get to see how much your site traffic increases or what part of your site attracts visitors. The free version only shows you how many unique visitors you get and the number of views you receive. However, the information available increases alongside pricing plans.
An app center: While the drag and drop feature satisfies the needs of a basic website, an advanced site needs more. Therefore, the Weebly team developed the app center. In the app center, you have access to over 270 powerful website-building tools. Here is where you find features like social media integrations, e-commerce, and site traffic boost.
Weebly Price List
Weebly has four available pricing plans. They are;
The free plan
The personal version costs $6 every month.
The Pro Version at $12 monthly; and
The performance plan costs $26 each month.
Each version comes with a free Weebly domain name if you have not already purchased one. However, at the end of the first year, you will have to renew it each year at $19.95.
Pros
With Weebly as your website builder, you need not worry about previous coding knowledge. Website building on this platform is a matter of minutes. All you have to worry about is the content you include to make your website content-driven.
Weebly is excellent for e-commerce. Several available templates help you create catalogs for your products.
Cons
As Weebly is more of a website building platform, its blog hosting services are quite bare. If you seek a web host with enough blogging features at your fingertips, you might want to try another web host provider.
It is almost impossible to back up your progress on Weebly. All backups you make are on its server and not your device. This defeats the idea behind backups.
What Weebly offers is expensive help. Users on the free plan get nothing more than commonplace customer support. The price plan of this platform also reflects on the customer service you receive. Outside the Pro and performance versions, you do not get any form of priority or phone support.
Benefits Of Weebly Over other Web Hosts
Squarespace- Although this platform offers better customer support, it is not as intuitive and beginner-friendly as Weebly. In addition, the Weebly app center has more tools than Squarespace provides. Also, there is no free version on Squarespace.
Wix- In terms of the number of pre-designed templates and diverse features, Wix has a good range. However, you might want to steer towards Weebly if you do not want to spend all that time deciding on which template is the right one for your site. Although Wix is highly customizable, with Weebly, you could change your site's template while it is already running. One could agree that the free plan on Weebly tops that on Wix.
WordPress- Website building on WordPress is no walk in the park. To set up a functional site on WordPress, you would need knowledge of plugins. On this note, Weebly is easier to get around.
Amazon Web Services- The web host provider AWS is scalable and backed up by Amazon. However, it requires a lot more technical know-how than Weebly.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can Weebly aid my business operations?
Weebly can make your business operations easy in several ways. Apart from helping you set up your business website, you can integrate much more. The platform allows you to add Coupons and gift cards. It also allows you to set up shipping and tax rates on your products according to the location you will be shipping to.
What does the Weebly pricing plan look like?
Weebly offers four plans. There is the free version, the personal version, the Pro version, and the performance plan.
What Weebly paid plan is best for small businesses?
The Pro version is enough for small businesses. It costs $12 monthly and has unlimited disk storage. However, you can add a maximum of 25 products. Weebly also takes 3% for every transaction you make.
Is there a way to avoid Weebly’s 3% transaction fee?
Yes, there is. The transaction fee is only present on the Pro version. Therefore, if you run a business website, an online store, or more, you could try the performance plan. The performance package costs $26 per month. It comes with SSL security, free, or an attached domain. There is no limit on how many products you can add, and you also do not have to pay transaction fees. With it, your customers can make payments using PayPal as well.
How far can I go with Photo Editing on Weebly?
You probably would do more on Microsoft paint on any Windows system than on Weebly. In areas of photo editing, this platform’s functions are basic. It allows you to blur, zoom, apply color filters, darken images, and that is just about all it does.
Bottom Line
If you intend to focus on running a website, Weebly would be a good option. As a bit of blogging could boost your business, the platform accommodates creating blog content and posting. Weebly equally ensures that you get service according to your budget. With the various templates made available to you, a well-designed content-driven site is not so far off.
No web hosting platform out there is at perfection. They all have areas where they do better than their competition. For example, WordPress and Wix are more customizable than Weebly. But in the end, the Ajax web creator, Weebly, and its WYSIWYG interface make things easier for you.