IIt's Omari Harebin from SQSPThemes.com, and today's video is a breakdown comparison between two popular website builders: Squarespace and Weebly. Now, if you know me, I am a Squarespace guy. I've been building Squarespace sites for a number of years. But Weebly is something that I've never really played with so I decided to give it a try and do a comparison to show you which one is easier to use or more in line with your needs.

Let's start with how you get started on each platform. With Squarespace, the first step is to choose a template. This is your starting point, and everything else falls off of this. So, before you even sign up, you can pick a starting point. Let's say we want to make an online store for this demo, and I'm going to start with the Crosby template.

Now, let's look at Weebly. With Weebly, it's a little bit different. You have to sign up first before you can choose a template. Once you're signed up, you can create a new site and select whether you want a website or an online store. Let's pick online store here.

Now, let's compare the editing process. In Squarespace, you have a sidebar menu where you can access different sections like pages, design, commerce, marketing tools, and analytics. You can easily navigate and make changes to your website.

In Weebly, you have a dashboard where you can create new sites. From there, you can access the website editor. The editor allows you to add sections and customize the content. However, you can't drag and drop elements like in Squarespace. If you want more flexibility, you can use Weebly for Designers, but that's a separate product.

In terms of blogging, Squarespace allows you to create a blog with multiple authors, while Weebly does not have a built-in blogging feature. You would have to embed a blog from another source if you want to have a blog on your Weebly site.

Both platforms offer support options, with Squarespace providing chat and email support, and Weebly offering chat, email, and phone support. They also have comprehensive knowledge bases for self-help.

When it comes to pricing, Squarespace does not have a free plan, but they offer a 14-day free trial. Weebly has a free plan with a Weebly subdomain, and they also have paid plans with additional features.

In terms of customization and flexibility, Squarespace offers more options. You can easily customize different sections and elements, and you have more control over the design. Weebly, on the other hand, is more straightforward and doesn't allow you to edit HTML or CSS.

One advantage of Weebly is its integration with Square POS, which allows you to seamlessly track inventory and manage your online store if you use Square POS. Squarespace has its own commerce features, but that would require a separate comparison.

In conclusion, Squarespace is great if you want more customization options and flexibility. It's suitable for users who want to have more control over their website design. Weebly, on the other hand, is easier to use and works well for users who want a simple and functional website without the need for extensive customization.

Overview

Both Squarespace and Weebly have similar target markets. The web builders are generally suited to small- to medium-size businesses that need a professional online appearance. These might include company websites (including local businesses), freelancers needing a portfolio site, services of all kinds, and small ecommerce stores (larger sites may outgrow these platforms).

Both platforms offer “drag and drop” style web-building features and have optional features for blogging or ecommerce. Squarespace has been around slightly longer than Weebly, founded in 2003, while Weebly was founded in 2007. Both have built up loyal user bases over that time and have invested in continuous development.

Getting started with building a website

Most people who look to website builders for creating their websites are looking for a tool that will be easy to use. They’re not necessarily coding experts, or they just don’t have a lot of time to spend on tweaking code. So it’s an important question to ask; how easy is each platform to use?

Weebly

The sign-up process is super-easy and streamlined. There’s no clicking around looking for things, it takes you through a logical workflow to get started. You simply fill out a few basic details, then you’re asked whether you want a basic website or a website with an ecommerce store. From there, you select your website theme.

Once you have your theme and domain set up, you can start to build your website. The editor itself is very straightforward and it is easy to add apps via their app store. The search function to find what you’re looking for works well. The whole edit process is very intuitive - point, click and edit the text as you’d like.

Verdict: The process to create your website is very easy. Someone with no experience could quickly pick up the drag and drop editor.

Squarespace

Squarespace has a step-by-step walkthrough onboarding, although they ask a few more specific questions about your goals and individual stage. One noticeable difference as you work through the process is that they have a lot more free themes available than Weebly.

The Squarespace interface is at first glance a bit more complex to the beginner. Where Weebly shows clear individual elements you can drag and drop, Squarespace takes a bit more figuring out. They give a few prompts during the onboarding stage, but as a new user, you’d have to remember what those were as they are dismissed once you get started. However, you can use the optional assistant any time and once you’ve worked your way around, it is a simple setup.

Verdict: If you’re a total newb, Squarespace is a bit more of a learning curve than Weebly. However, it also seems to have a few more flexible features available.

Design flexibility

This is one area where we feel Squarespace has a clear advantage over Weebly. While Squarespace has somewhere around 90 free templates available, Weebly has less than 50. Looking at the designs themselves, Squarespace stands out for sleek, modern designs that actually look like a web designer has had a hand in your website.

If we look at the editing templates of each, Weebly is fairly rigid, keeping you pretty close to the original template. Squarespace allows you to customize each element, which can be great for some people, but might result in a mess for others.

On both Weebly and Squarespace, you’re also able to purchase and upload third-party themes (you can check out our Squarespace themes here). Both platforms only allow you to add custom coding if you’re on a higher plan (Pros for Weebly and Business or higher for Squarespace).

Tools and features

Even if you want a fairly basic website, you’re going to want a few features and tools to give you the functionality you need. Of the two, Weebly has its own comprehensive app market and overall, more built-in tools available.

Squarespace doesn’t have an app market, however the tools it does have available are of very high-quality. There are also third-party plugins and themes available, such as those we have at SQSP Themes.

Verdict: Weebly has a bigger selection of tools available, although these will vary in quality. Squarespace has less tools but they are of high quality. Both platforms cover all the basics that you will need.

Ecommerce

We’d rate both platforms pretty much neck and neck here. Both offer ecommerce functions for physical or digital products and both manage ecommerce items the same way - through CSV imports.

At the moment, Weebly doesn’t allow for customer accounts whereas Squarespace does. Weebly has an automatic tax calculator, but Squarespace doesn’t. There are pluses and minuses to each.

The bottom line is that ecommerce stores are easy to setup and maintain on each platform. You can get a nice, optimally designed store and provide a good customer experience.

Content management

Content can play an important part of marketing strategy for all types of online businesses. Blogging is a good way to put out fresh, SEO-friendly content, helping to draw traffic to your website.

Both Squarespace and Weebly offer blogging functionality via their platforms. Both even allow you to post or reply to comments via their iOS or Android apps. Blogging is easy to get started and simple to make updates.

One difference is that while Squarespace allows you to set up a blog with multiple authors, Weebly allows just one. Squarespace also has a few more blogging features available, particularly with their pro plan.

Getting help

Before you sign up with an online service, we’d always check out what sort of support they offer. It’s super-frustrating if you need help and can’t find a quick answer!

Comparing the two web builders, both make it easy to find help with it being clearly available in the menus on each. This is a big checkmark for a start - some online tools don’t make it easy to find help! 

Both tools have comprehensive knowledge bases available for self-help, and you can also get ahold of a human. Weebly uses chat, email, or phone, while Squarespace uses chat or email. Squarespace gets bonus points for having a few extra help features, for example an assistant that can take you through the basics of initially creating your website.

Pricing

Pricing is generally an important consideration for anyone wanting to use a web builder tool. One of the good reasons to use such a tool is because you don’t have a high budget for a web developer or designer.

To get started, neither Weebly nor Squarespace require you to input credit card details, which is a relief for anyone leery of unexpected charges. Weebly has a free plan where you use a weebly.com/yourwebsite subdomain, while Squarespace does not have a free plan. They do, however, have a free 14-day trial so you can figure out whether you want to stick with them.

Current Weebly pricing is shown below:

Current Squarespace pricing is shown below:

Final thoughts

Which is better, Squarespace or Weebly? There are compromises with each so it really depends on your goals and preferences. If you need more alternatives, start here with our comparison guide.

We love Squarespace for its beautiful designs and quality features. If you’re an agency or in a creative profession, Squarespace will give you the look you need. They have also put more thought into their blogging features and have a few more offerings with their advanced commerce plan.

Weebly is cheaper (even free if that level works for you), and may be less of a learning curve for the complete beginner. If you’re a small business that just needs to get a web presence going, you’ll find what you need. 

Which do you prefer?