WordPress.org vs Weebly: Comprehensive comparison guide for 2024

Final verdict

WordPress.org and Weebly offer distinct advantages, catering to different user needs and preferences.

• 
  WordPress.org (Overall Grade: 7.1/10)
  
  excels in customization, offering an extensive array of themes and plugins that cater to a wide range of website types. It’s particularly strong in design functionalities, website editors, plugins and integrations, and marketing features, making it ideal for users who require flexibility and have specific, advanced needs for their websites.
• 
  Weebly (Overall Grade: 7.3/10)
  
  , on the other hand, shines with its user-friendly design and comprehensive suite of features that are accessible to beginners and experienced users alike. It scores higher in ease of use, product testing options, customer support, and security, making it a great choice for users looking for a straightforward, reliable website building experience.

Best for ecommerce

Verdict

: WordPress.org is superior for those seeking extensive customization and control over their ecommerce site, while Weebly is better suited for users looking for an easier, more straightforward setup.

• 
  WordPress.org
  
  : Offers a powerful, flexible platform for ecommerce through WooCommerce, with extensive customization options and a wide range of plugins. Ideal for those who need a robust online store with specific requirements.
• 
  Weebly
  
  : Provides a user-friendly approach to ecommerce with built-in features and a simpler setup process. Best for small businesses or individuals who prefer ease of use over extensive customization.

Best for informational & business websites

Verdict

: WordPress.org is the superior choice for informational and business websites, offering unmatched customization and a vast array of themes and plugins. Weebly, while user-friendly, falls short in comparison for more complex site requirements.

• 
  WordPress.org
  
  : With a score of 9.2, WordPress.org stands out for its extensive customization options and flexibility, making it ideal for creating a wide range of informational and business websites. Its open-source nature allows for a high degree of creative freedom, supported by a vast ecosystem of themes and plugins.
• 
  Weebly
  
  : Scoring 7.9, Weebly offers a user-friendly platform with a variety of themes and easy customization options. It’s a solid choice for those who prioritize ease of use and simplicity over extensive customization. However, for more complex or feature-rich informational sites, it may not be the best fit.

Detailed comparison

Winner: WordPress.org

. If you’re looking for a platform that offers extensive customization options and a wide array of design features, WordPress.org is the preferred choice.

WordPress.org offers an extensive variety of templates and designs, catering to a wide range of website types beyond just blogs or ecommerce. Its open-source nature allows for high customization and creative freedom, appealing to diverse user needs. While WordPress itself doesn’t sell premium templates, numerous third-party theme shops offer sophisticated and specialized design choices, expanding the possibilities for users.

WordPress.org Themes

Compared to WordPress.org, Weebly offers a curated selection of templates, numbering in the low hundreds, which is fewer than some competitors. However, the emphasis is on high-quality, professionally designed templates covering various categories such as business, ecommerce, portfolio, blog, personal, and events. Weebly’s templates are praised for their clean, modern, and responsive design, with easy customization options for colors, fonts, layout, images, and content.

Weebly Themes

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Winner: Weebly

. With a score of 8.1, Weebly is more user-friendly, especially for beginners, thanks to its intuitive drag-and-drop interface and WYSIWYG editing. WordPress.org, scoring 7.2, offers extensive customization options but requires a steeper learning curve, making it less intuitive for beginners.

Learning Resources

🏆 Winner:
WordPress.org

. Both platforms offer solid learning resources, but WordPress.org stands out with its vast array of detailed documentation, community forums, online tutorials, and courses. This extensive support network is beneficial for users of all skill levels.

WordPress.org, with its open-source nature, offers extensive customization options for ecommerce through plugins like WooCommerce. It provides a robust platform for managing an online store with features like multiple payment gateway support, abandoned cart recovery, and ecommerce analytics. On the other hand, Weebly, with its user-friendly interface, offers a more straightforward ecommerce solution with features like unlimited product listings, secure checkout, and customizable shipping options. However, it has limitations such as less design flexibility and the absence of built-in marketing tools.

WordPress.org ecommerce features:

• WooCommerce Integration
• Multiple Payment Gateway Support
• Abandoned Cart Recovery
• Ecommerce Analytics
• SEO Optimization Tools
• Extensive Plugin Ecosystem

Weebly ecommerce features:

• Unlimited products
• Inventory management
• Product reviews and ratings (Paid plans)
• Secure checkout
• Shipping options
• Abandoned cart recovery (Paid plans)
• Basic analytics
• SEO tools
• Marketing integrations (Paid plans)

Ecommerce themes & templates

WordPress.org offers hundreds to potentially thousands of ecommerce and WooCommerce specific themes and templates, both free and premium. This provides users with a wide range of options for customizing their online store. Weebly, on the other hand, provides ecommerce-specific themes with built-in features like product galleries and optimized checkout flows. However, it has a smaller theme selection and less design flexibility compared to WordPress.org.

Product page customization

WordPress.org offers extensive customization for eCommerce product pages through WooCommerce, balancing plugins, page builders, and custom coding. Advanced features like product tabs, upsells, and related products are customizable. However, heavy plugin use may affect site performance. Weebly allows a decent level of product page customization through its user-friendly interface, but it has limitations in design flexibility compared to WordPress.org.

Payment processing

WordPress.org doesn’t handle payments directly but offers plugin options for payment processing. Popular gateways include PayPal, Stripe, Authorize.Net, and Square. Weebly seamlessly integrates with popular payment processors such as Square, Stripe, PayPal, and others, enabling secure and convenient online transactions for your store.

Considering the features, availability, cost, and flexibility, WordPress.org appears to be a more robust and flexible ecommerce solution compared to Weebly. However, if you are looking for a more user-friendly option with some free extras, Weebly might still be worth considering.

Winner:
WordPress.org

. WordPress.org, with a score of 8.5, offers a user-friendly interface with block-based editing, extensive styles customization, template management, page editing/creation, distraction-free modes, versatile saving options, and accessibility for users of varying skill levels. It also provides a wide range of blocks and widgets for creating websites, including free blocks like Core Blocks, Design Blocks, Media Blocks, and Widgets, providing essential elements and layout options. For advanced options, premium blocks are available through third-party plugins like Gutenberg Blocks, Getwid, and The Plus Blocks.

Weebly’s editor, scoring 7.6, stands out for its drag-and-drop simplicity, catering to beginners with an intuitive interface and visual editing. The editor features a range of pre-designed templates, customization options, and content management tools, making it accessible for users without coding knowledge. While offering ease of use, it has some limitations in design flexibility and advanced features, with certain functionalities requiring a move to paid plans.

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Winner: Tie

. Both WordPress.org and Weebly offer mobile apps that allow users to manage and make basic edits to their websites on the go. The WordPress.org Mobile Editor App enables users to create and edit posts, manage comments, schedule content, and analyze website traffic from their phone or tablet. However, it has some limitations compared to the web-based editor, including fewer advanced options, restricted code access, and limited design customization.

On the other hand, Weebly’s mobile app also offers features like content management and basic design customization. However, it too has limitations, such as no advanced editing capabilities or extensive design flexibility, making it best suited for quick content updates rather than major design changes.

In summary, both platforms offer similar functionality and user experience in their mobile apps, resulting in a tie in this category.

Overall Result

:

Weebly wins


. Weebly scores 8.3, slightly higher than WordPress.org’s 8.1. While both platforms offer a free version, Weebly stands out with its 30-day money-back guarantee for all paid plans, allowing users to explore all features and get a full refund if not satisfied. On the other hand, WordPress.org, being an open-source CMS, doesn’t offer a trial version or the possibility to test premium features.

WordPress.org is a free open-source platform, but requires separate purchases for domain, hosting, and website builder subscriptions. Weebly offers several pricing plans with different features, and provides discounts for annual subscriptions.

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Winner: Weebly



. Weebly offers hosting included in all of their plans, with an uptime guarantee of 99.95%. However, it has been critiqued for slow page loading times. WordPress.org does not directly provide hosting services, and its hosting quality depends on the chosen hosting provider.

🏆 Winner: Weebly


Both WordPress.org and Weebly prioritize website performance and page speed, but Weebly has a more structured approach to speed optimization and better average PageSpeed scores.

WordPress.org, being an open-source platform, relies heavily on the user’s ability to optimize their website for speed. It provides valuable resources for enhancing your website’s Core Web Vitals (CWV), such as analyzing CWV, choosing a reliable host, optimizing images, minimizing plugins, using lazy loading, and employing a CDN. Tools like Core Web Vitals, WP Rocket, Hummingbird, and AMP for mobile speed are recommended. However, the load times and PageSpeed scores can vary widely depending on the user’s optimization efforts.

On the other hand, Weebly has a more structured approach to speed optimization. It uses load balancing and CDN for faster content delivery. Weebly has also significantly enhanced its Core Web Vitals performance by implementing measures such as automatic image optimization, lazy loading for content, code minification, and caching. These improvements, along with streamlined JavaScript usage and an enhanced server infrastructure, aim to boost website loading speed and responsiveness. As a result, Weebly websites typically have load times between 2s to 4s and an average PageSpeed score of 80+/100.

🏆 Winner:
WordPress.org.

With a score of 8.8, WordPress.org offers over 60,000 free plugins and thousands of premium ones, extending its functionality across various domains. Weebly, scoring 7.5, also provides a wide range of functionalities through its plugins, but WordPress.org’s extensive plugin directory gives it the edge.

It’s worth noting that both platforms offer a variety of integrations to enhance website capabilities, but WordPress.org’s open-source nature allows for more customization and flexibility.

WordPress.org Applications

Weebly Applications

Overall Winner: WordPress.org

. WordPress.org stands out for its extensive customization options through themes and plugins, making it suitable for blogs, business sites, and online stores. Weebly is strong in user-friendly design and seamless integration with third-party apps for enhanced functionality.

🏆 Winner:
Weebly

. Weebly takes the lead in this category with a customer support score of 7.3, compared to WordPress.org’s score of 5.0. Weebly offers a variety of support options, including an online help center, community forum, email support, and limited live chat and phone support. For Business plan users, Weebly provides dedicated account managers, priority phone support, and enhanced onboarding and training resources, emphasizing personalized assistance and efficient issue resolution.

WordPress.org, being an open-source platform, lacks direct customer support. However, users can find assistance through community forums, the WordPress codex, hosting provider support, and plugin and theme support. For enterprises, WordPress.org relies on hosting providers for support. Despite these resources, WordPress.org’s customer support score is lower due to the lack of direct customer support.

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Winner:
Weebly

. Weebly’s security score of 8.3 outperforms WordPress.org’s score of 6.7. Weebly prioritizes the privacy and security of user data through various measures such as secure data centers, encryption, access controls, and regular backups. It also provides strong password security, two-factor authentication, and the ability to manage personal data.

WordPress.org, on the other hand, provides numerous functionalities and resources to enhance website security effectively. However, its approach to private data storage and protection can vary depending on the hosting provider, which may not provide the same level of security as Weebly’s in-house measures.

🏆 Winner:
WordPress.org

. WordPress.org, with a score of 6.1, offers a wide range of AI capabilities through its open-source nature and ecosystem of plugins. It allows for integration with various AI plugins for website building, ecommerce, and content generation. On the other hand, Weebly, with a score of 1.8, does not offer any built-in AI features but it allows for integration with third-party tools for AI-powered content creation.

🏆 Winner:
WordPress.org

. WordPress.org and Weebly offer different approaches to user management.

• WordPress.org’s editing access depends on user roles and additional controls. User roles, ranging from Super Admin to Subscriber, dictate the level of permissions, while plugins and controls such as role management plugins and revision control offer further customization for specific editing rights and collaboration.
• Weebly’s number of users permitted to edit a website varies depending on the plan selected. The Free Plan allows only one user, suitable for personal or simple projects, while the Personal Plan accommodates two users, making it appropriate for small businesses or collaborative efforts. The Professional Plan permits up to 10 users, catering to growing businesses or teams with specific roles, and the Business Plan offers unlimited user access.

WordPress.org User Roles and Access Levels:

Weebly User Roles and Access Levels:

Additional Features

User Feedback

WordPress.org is highly praised for its user-friendliness, cost-effectiveness, extensive themes and plugins, customization options, and supportive community. However, users have mentioned technical challenges, security concerns, a learning curve, and a lack of direct support. Despite these issues, it remains a widely used and versatile platform, especially beneficial for startups and small businesses.

On the other hand, Weebly (now Square Online) receives positive reviews for its user-friendly drag-and-drop interface and quick website development features, making it suitable for small businesses. Users highlight its role in efficient appointment booking, saving time in coordination and scheduling. However, some users express a desire for more advanced building tools and better pricing. The platform is recognized for streamlining website and payment operations, though opinions on customer service and design limitations are mixed. Overall, it is considered a good, affordable solution for small businesses.

FAQ