Making the decision between WordPress vs. Weebly may not seem very easy. They are both good choices when it comes to building your website. However, they are not the same and one is significantly better for most websites.

WordPress provides one of the most popular choices and about 23% of the website found on the internet use WordPress. Weebly provides another option giving you the ability to create blogs, websites and online stores. Below, you will discover the differences between the two, and you will be able to make the right decision for your website.

Note: This is a comparison of Weebly and Self-Hosted WordPress.org, not WordPress.com.

<h2>Self-Hosted vs. Hosted</h2>

Since Weebly is a fully hosted platform, it's important to start by looking at the differences between self-hosted vs. hosted platforms. When you choose a hosted platform, like Weebly, your website will completely reside on their servers. You will need to follow their terms of service and switching to a new platform will not be very easy.

With a self-hosted platform, such as WordPress, your website resided on your server. WordPress is an open source, free software you can install with shared, VPS, cloud or dedicated hosting. You own 100% of the content you put on your side and it's very easy to move from WordPress to another platform, if necessary.

When it comes to the debate between hosted and self-hosted platforms, WordPress is the winner over Weebly. Since you get to own 100% of your content and migration to a new platform is much easier with WordPress, there's no doubt it's the winner.

<h2>Features</h2>

Comparing the features of Weebly vs. WordPress will help make the picture a bit clearer when it comes to the differences between the platforms. They both offer plenty of features, but in different ways. 

Weebly provides you with many built-in tools. You will be able to easily create a blog, add pictures, create a contact form and even create an online store. You won't need to install any additional plugins or extensions with Weebly since it's all built right into the platform.

The one major downfall to this type of platform is the customization. If you need a feature not offered by Weebly, you cannot have a developer create it and add to the platform.

When you choose WordPress, you not only gain access to a ton of built-in features, but you also gain access to over 37,000 free plugins. Many developers have created premium plugins you can use, as well.

You can do just about anything with WordPress from creating a blog to creating an online store. Plugins will allow you to increase your SEO, add contact forms, create galleries and so much more. 

Comparing Weebly vs. WordPress when it comes to features is much like looking at a regular phone vs. a smartphone. With the smartphone, you can install new apps for more functionality, which is how WordPress works.

The clear winner when it comes to features is WordPress.

<h2>Creating an eCommerce Website</h2>

If your goal is to create an eCommerce website, you should know which one of these two platforms will provide you with what you need. 

Weebly makes it easy to open an online store with basic features. You won't be able to do much when it comes to customizing your online store, however. Weebly also charges a 3% transaction fee, along with the fee you will pay to the payment processor, such as PayPal or Stripe. The transaction fee can be removed by upgrading to the $25 per month Business plan.

Using WordPress for your eCommerce website gives you the ability to use a number of plugins, such as WooCommerce, WP eCommerce, EasyDigitalDownloads and many more. These robust plugins make it easy to create and customize your online store. Most will even provide a variety of themes you can use. 

Some of the features you will find with the top WordPress plugins for eCommerce include adding coupons, customizing receipts, setting shipping costs and more. In addition, you won't pay any type of transaction fee other than the fee you pay with your payment processor.

The winner for eCommerce websites is clearly WordPress.

<h2>Layout and Design</h2>

One of the areas Weebly really excels is design. The drag and drop website builder makes it very easy to create a custom websites from scratch. Weebly provides about 100 themes, which you can easily customize to fit your specific needs. It's a very beginner-friendly system.

While WordPress will not give you a drag and drop page builder, they do provide thousands of themes you can choose from. Some of them do come with drag and drop functionality, while others don't. Many of the themes are free to use, while others can be purchased for a fee.

The winner when it comes to layout and design is Weebly.

<h2>Overall Usability and Scalability</h2>

While Weebly provides a good system for beginners, simple websites and blogs, it doesn't provide much room for scalability. It's much easier to use than WordPress, but you can only take your website so far with Weebly.

WordPress provides unlimited scalability simply because it's a self-hosted system. If you start to run out of resources or bandwidth on a shared hosting package, you can upgrade to VPS or dedicated hosting. The self-hosted WordPress option allows you to build a blog, website or online store to any size you desire without limits.

Even though Weebly is easier to use than WordPress, the scalability of WordPress makes it the winner here.

<h2>Best Choice for You</h2>

Unless you are just trying to create a quick and simple website, the best choice is WordPress. When it comes to the overall battle between WordPress vs. Weebly, WordPress is the clear winner.

You can do far more with WordPress because it's a self-hosted platform with thousands of themes and plugins. It may take a little longer to learn how to use, but it's worth it when you consider all the things you can do with WordPress compared to Weebly.
