Why I ditched Weebly (and why you should too)
By Jabin | 12/8/2022
The Problem
Weebly is a no-code website creator and publisher owned by Square. It’s a great tool for beginners to create and publish custom websites for free. For that purpose it’s a good editor, but what if you want a professional website with more features like HD video and effects? And what if you want to connect a custom domain? That’s where the problem begins.
The Pricing
Weebly charges money for these features. To only connect a custom domain the price is $10/month. Even if you buy the basic tier for $10/month your website will still have intrusive Weebly branding at the bottom and you won’t unlock any special features.
If you want to connect a custom domain, password-protect pages, and remove Weebly branding that will cost you $12/month. To unlock all features it will cost you $72/month.
Why ditch Weebly?
I ditched Weebly because of their high prices, but also because their editor was buggy and frustrating for me. Some features and aspects of their website were especially confusing and I found myself continuously searching for how to resolve my problems with Weebly. You should consider some alternatives to Weebly before creating a website.
Weebly is still a powerful tool
Weebly is a great tool for anyone trying to create their own blog or site with the free tier features, but it’s too expensive and difficult to inexperienced users to use some of the paid tier features, such as connecting an external domain. Weebly can be used to create personal websites, family websites, and other websites that you don’t necessarily want to spend money on, however the same is true for most alternatives.
Alternatives
If you don’t need a custom domain and you don’t want to do any coding yourself, using Google Sites or Blogger are great options for free sites and blogs. If you do need a custom domain you can connect your Google Site or Blogger site to a domain purchased from Google Domains. If you want to code your website yourself but are a beginner you can use a free website template from html5-templates.com and publish that with GitHub Pages.
GitHub Pages is an awesome way to publish your website through one of the most popular code websites. Connecting to a custom domain is free, and they have helpful documentation on how to do that. Whether you’re just starting to learn HTML and CSS for your website or if you’re already experienced with them, you can easily create and edit your own website with GitHub Pages and collaborate with others as well.
I published my website with GitHub Pages and it works amazingly well. It can be accessed on many different platforms and is secure as well as easy to set up.
Hopefully this article will help you choose which website builder is right for you and how you’re going to do it. If you have any questions, comment below!