Difference Between Shopify and Weebly

If you are an entrepreneur looking to grow your start up or a small business, a very simple e-commerce solution with a few pages is all you need to get started. The best place to look for help so that you don’t end up spending a fortune is an online website builder. There are many good website builder solutions that are either free or available for small monthly fees. These sites enable you to choose from a plethora of pre-built templates or you can create your own design if you want. Two such popular website builder solutions are Shopify and Weebly.

Shopify

Shopify is an e-commerce platform and a fully-featured website content management system (CMS) that makes it easier to build an online store without any coding skills required. Shopify is a SaaS solution designed to help entrepreneurs build an e-commerce store, providing all the required tools to get started and sell your products or services across multiple channels. It is a complete e-commerce platform that offers sufficient flexibility to be easily integrated with other services, such as social networking, shopping cart, order processing and payment features. Shopify was launched in 2006 by Tobias Lutke, Daniel Weinand, and Scott Lake as a platform for selling snowboarding equipment online. Soon, it developed into a vast e-commerce platform with over 500,000 registered ecommerce stores.

Weebly

Weebly is another popular web hosting service that allows you to create a website, blog, or online store. It is an easy to use website builder that substitutes the manual coding process with an intuitive drag-and-drop interface. Headquartered in the famous Silicon Valley of San Francisco, California, Weebly was founded on the belief that anyone should have the tools to take their business to the next level without worrying about spending a fortune. Like Shopify, Weebly provides a range of templates that you can choose from and then edit to create your website. It also offers basic features for blogging, e-commerce site, and domain hosting.

Difference between Shopify and Weebly

Platform 

– Shopify is a complete ecommerce solution that is primarily designed for ecommerce websites, making it easier to build an online store without any coding skills required. The primary goal is to create an online store for your products and services, so the whole site is built around this. Weebly is a hosted website building platform that offers easy to use, point-and-click configurable templates that are automatically set up to work well and look good on a variety of web browsers.

Pricing

 – Shopify offers competitive plans to help you find the right one that best fits your needs, starting from the Basic plan that costs $29 a month to the Regular plan that is $79 a month, and then there’s this Advanced plan that costs $299 per month. On top of this, you also pay a transaction fee of 30¢. Weebly has four pricing plans, starting as low as $5 a month (if paid annually) and goes up to $25 per month (if paid annually). For online stores, Weebly has three plans – Pro for $12/month, Business for $25/month, and Business Plus for $38/month – when paid annually.

Usability

 – Both Shopify and Weebly are really easy to use, and you do not need to spend much time and effort to set up your store. Shopify, however, has more themes for online store compared to what Weebly offers for online store. Shopify also has more pre-built templates. But, the drag-and-drop feature is what makes Weebly truly stand out. You can simply use the mouse to point to a video or picture, and move it wherever you want. In addition, Shopify excels when it comes to customizability, which isn’t a very strong suite of Weebly.

Shopify vs. Weebly: Comparison Chart

Summary

Both the platforms are really easy to use, and you do not need to spend much time and effort to set up your store. Shopify has a plenty of templates that are divided into various categories to help you build the perfect online store for your business and the one that best fits your needs. You do not get that many options in Weebly. Also, when it comes to customizability, Weebly doesn’t offer much. Weebly, however, is very user-friendly and its drag-and-drop feature is what makes it shine. Also, the interface is pretty simple and easy to navigate.

Is Weebly compatible with Shopify?

Weebly is a drag-and-drop website building solution and a great platform for small business sites and portfolios, whereas Shopify is an ecommerce platform primarily designed for ecommerce websites.

Is Weebly good for selling products?

Weebly is a free website builder that only enables you to build a solid storefront for your online business, but also gives you complete control over what you can showcase and sell from any page on your website.

Can I sell on Weebly for free?

Weebly is more affordable than Shopify and its free plan is among the best in the market. With a starting price at only $5 a month (when billed annually), Weebly offers the best value for money pricing plans. 

Is Weebly good for dropshipping?

Dropshipping is not possible with Weebly.

Is Weebly cheaper than Shopify?

Weebly is a generic website builder with a wide range of pricing options to choose from. Starting as low as $5 per month on annual billing, Weebly definitely beats Shopify when it comes to affordability and value for money. However, features and app integrations are a whole new story.

Is Weebly a safe site?

Weebly is a powerful website building solution with decent ecommerce features, and it is best for small businesses and start ups. In terms of security, Weebly ensures a safe and secure space for all your data. So, Weebly is pretty safe.

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