Ultimate Weebly Pricing Review – Which Plan Is Best?

Have you heard about Weebly’s free website builder?

If you’re like me, the word free makes you just a tiny bit skeptical.

But the truth is…

Weebly does offer a free plan. And as you might expect, it’s extremely limited and does not come with the ability to sell products online.

Not to knock the free plan, but it’s simply not good enough for any business site.

And that’s okay because…

Weebly’s ecommerce plans are some of the most affordable in the business (starting at just $12/mo.).

Weebly Pricing Plans

So we’ve already covered that Weebly has a free website plan.

Weebly’s free plan is ok for someone setting up a small personal website. But the it doesn’t cut the mustard for business. (Click to Tweet)

If you’re running a service-based or local business, you can get away with the Connect or Starter plans.

But if you’re interested in ecommerce, you’ll need the Business or Performance plans.

Now that we’ve covered Weebly’s pricing on a broad level, you’re probably wondering what’s included in each plan.

And that’s a great question…

Because features can make or break any ecommerce plan.

But no worries. We’re going to dig into the details right now.

What’s Included in Each Weebly Plan

With Weebly, price is often a major selling point. But is Weebly really cheaper than other all-inclusive ecommerce platforms? (Click to Tweet)

Let’s explore…

Free plan

If you look on Weebly’s website, there’s not a whole lot of information on the free plan. And there’s a reason for that. The fact that you don’t have to hand over your credit card information is enough of a draw for many people.

But time is money.

And you don’t want to spend time evaluating the free plan if it’s clearly not right for you.

So, here’s a quick breakdown of what the Free Weebly plan includes:

• Weebly.com subdomain (yourwebsite.weebly.com)
• SSL security
• 500 MB storage
• SEO features
• Chat and email support

This plan offers an amazing value for literally no money, but there’s one reason why it won’t work for any business. And that’s the Weebly subdomain. It’s just not professional enough for any online business.

Connect Plan

This inexpensive plan will only set you back $8/mo., which includes a hosted site with some features.

For that reason…

It’s a great value. And it may work for very small businesses that just need a very basic online presence with their own domain. And absolutely nothing more. For example, if you own a barbershop or local restaurant and don’t need to take reservations through this site, you may choose the Connect plan.

But there’s a catch…

The connect plan doesn’t come with any email marketing capabilities. And email is still the highest-converting online marketing medium – For 10 years running!

Here’s the bottom line:

If you’re going through the trouble of setting up a website for your business, you need to be collecting emails. And you simply can’t do that with the Connect plan.

You should also know that storage is capped at 500MB with the Connect plan. And although this plan doesn’t have ads, and your url won’t be a Weebly subdomain, you will still have the Weebly favicon and Weebly branding at your site’s footer.

Moving along to the business plans…

Pro Plan

This is the first of three plans that are actually targeted towards business. One of the standout features of Weebly’s business plans is that they offer membership option, so you can create a community on your own website. This, combined with being able to sell up to 25 products makes this plan ideal for authors and online content creators who want to build and monetize an online community.

Here are some of the features you’ll get with the Pro plan:

• No Weebly branding (use your own favicon)
• Advanced site statistics
• Sitewide search
• Password protection (can be used for your membership content)
• Video backgrounds
• Unbranded HD audio and video player
• Membership registration
• 3% transaction fee
• Weebly checkout (checkout.weebly.com)
• Capture leads with customized forms
• SEO tools
• Phone support

The Pro plan is a solid entry-level ecommerce plan. It’s extremely versatile for owners of very small businesses and membership sites.

But there’s something glaringly missing…

With the Pro plan, you don’t get email marketing. It’s still workable because of the lead capture feature, though. As long as you can capture emails, you can market to those people. You’ll just have to do it outside of Weebly if you have the Pro plan.

But that’s not really a problem. There are many tools that have free options for small-scale email marketing, like MailChimp or Constant Contact. You could easily import  your captured email addresses into one of these platforms and create your email marketing campaign.

Business Plan

Weebly’s business plan is a great starter plan for small businesses and online stores. This plan has all the features of the Pro plan with Unlimited members and products allowed, zero transaction fees, the ability to sell digital products and more.

It’s perfect for a small business that’s selling (or planning to sell) more than a handful of products or have a robust membership site.

Here are some features that are unique to the business plan.

• Unlimited members
• Membership registration (members can register themselves online)
• Unlimited products
• Zero transaction fees
• Your own shopping cart (buyers see on your domain at checkout instead of Weebly’s)
• Digital product sales
• Product reviews
• Inventory management
• Shipping & tax calculator
• Coupons
• Up to 40% off shipping rates
• Priority phone support

It’s worth noting that you still won’t get an email marketing solution within Weebly with the Business plan.

But if I’m being honest…

Most people, myself included, prefer using 3^rd party email marketing platforms because they offer much greater flexibility. But it does add an extra step.

For this reason, integrated email marketing is actually really nice to have in the entry-level plans where you may not be orchestrating complex campaigns.

Performance Plan

There are only a few standout features of the Performance plan, but if you need them, they mean everything.

We’ve talked a bit about the lack of email marketing in Weebly’s campaigns so far.

Well, as you might expect…

The Performance plan does have email marketing – At least, to some extent.

With this plan, you can send up to 5 campaigns per month, but each email can only go to 500 people at a time. That means you’re limited to 2,500 emails within the month.

For most businesses who would use this plan, that’s not much of a problem. But if your business relies on a strong email list with frequent communication, it may not be adequate. Still, you can supplement with 3^rd party applications.

With that being said…

The Performance plan does come with a very welcome addition to any email marketing campaign, and that’s the abandoned cart email. With the professional plan, Weebly will send emails to anyone who leaves the site without purchasing the products in their shopping cart.

And some research estimates that the simple act of sending abandoned cart emails can increase revenue by as much as 25 percent.

You can also view advanced reporting on abandoned carts and email marketing campaigns with this plan.

And there’s one more thing…

It’s a biggie. With the Performance plan, your customers can purchase and redeem gift cards on your website. And for most of us, that’s a major advantage during the holidays and gift-giving seasons.

Okay, so that’s everything you need to know about Weebly pricing.

I know it’s a lot to take in.

That’s why I’m going to do a quick refresher in the next section to highlight the major features of each plan. From here, you can decide which one works best for your business.

Are the Upgraded Weebly Plans Worthwhile?

If you’re looking to upgrade from the free plan, an upgrade of some sort will be worthwhile.

Unless…

You only have a personal website that no one ever visits.

But if you’ve made it this far, I’m going to guess that’s not the case.

So as promised, here’s the quick-and-dirty advice on when you might want to upgrade from each plan above Connect (because Connect is the upgrade everyone should take from the free plan).

Are you with me?

Let’s go…

Should I upgrade to the Weebly Pro plan?

The Weebly pricing of its pro plan is suffice if your business demands it. If you’re at Connect right now and thinking about upgrading, it’s a good idea in the following cases:

• You have a business and want to collect email addresses and contact info
• You have a personal site and still want email addresses and contact info
• You want to create members-only content or products
• You want to sell products (up to 25)

Should I upgrade to the Weebly Business plan?

If you’re at Pro right now and thinking about upgrading, it’s a good idea in the following cases:

• You have more than 25 products to sell
• Your website is making $500/mo. or more
• You’re creating a robust membership site with plans for more than 100 members
• You want to be able to track analytics
• You want to offer coupons
• You’re shipping products and want discounted shipping rates

Should I upgrade to the Weebly Performance plan?

The Weebly pricing in its performance plan is a smart thing. If you’re at Business right now and thinking about upgrading, it’s a good idea in the following cases:

• You really want to offer gift cards
• You want to send abandoned cart emails and increase revenue

Although it seems like there are fewer reasons to upgrade to the Performance plan, you have to take a look at how these additions will impact your business.

And this is true for every upgrade decision.

Here’s one example:

Let’s say you only offer 5 products, don’t have membership needs and never offer discounts.

You might instantly think you can save money by upgrading to the Weebly business plan from the Pro plan.

And you’d be right…

…except for one thing.

You’re missing a key piece of information, and that’s revenue. If you earn more than $500/mo. from those 5 products (which is highly probable), you’re paying enough in transaction fees to make the upgrade worthwhile.

$500 x 3% = $15.

That’s what you’d pay in monthly transaction fees with the Pro plan, and it’s about what you’d save by upgrading to the Business plan.

When you’re deciding whether to upgrade, look at the financial value of each benefit. How much more money could you make on gift card sales annually? If it exceeds the cost of the upgrade, it’s a worthwhile decision.

If you want the truth…

You’re the only one who can make this decision. But the good news is that it’s easy when you look at the value of what you’re getting.

Don’t make the mistake of upgrading because you think you may soon get an influx of business or traffic. Figure out whether the upgrade makes financial sense for your business in this moment.

If it doesn’t make sense right now, there’s always next month or year. There’s no need to rush this decision.

Frequently Asked Questions

Weebly Pricing Conclusion

Weebly is one of the most affordable ecommerce platforms out there, and it offers some really unique features (along with weebly pricing factors) that target more than just the typically business selling physical products.

But the plans also have their limitations.

Take a look through the features and decide which is right for your business.

When you’re ready, you can signup here.

And if you’re on the fence at all, you’ll want to read this post on ecommerce platforms where all the major players are pitted against one another.

But back to Weebly pricing…

What are your thoughts on the value this platform offers?