Weebly is actually a site builder but each of its plan also include web hosting. The drag and drop site builder is available on all Weebly plans. Weebly is designed for people who don’t know how to create a website from scratch with CSS and HTML. On Weebly, you also have the option to edit the CSS and HTML codes of the website. Custom javascript can be added onto the site. The first step is to choose a theme. It comes with a lot of free themes that can be customized for your needs. Themes can be changed without having to build the site all over again. After you have selected a theme, it will ask you for the domain name.
You have the option to use a subdomain on Weebly or a domain name that you have bought from another registrar.
Features of Weebly Site Builder
The Weebly drag and drop site builder allows you to drag various types of elements and drop them on the right position on the webpage. Some of the different types of elements that you can drag and drop onto your webpage are title, text, gallery, image, newsletter form, surveys and map. The features on the left panel can change as you switch to different tabs such as build, pages, and themes. You will be able to preview the webpage in real time as you edit it. When you select the Pages tab, you can choose what type of page you want to add including standard, blog, store and external page.
After you have dragged the text element onto the webpage, you can directly type in the text on the page You can tag your posts with different keywords. It is possible to save your post in drafts prior to publishing it. When you want to publish the post, you simply have to click on the orange publish button. It can produce RSS feeds for your blog automatically. Weebly allows more than one persons to work on the site. You can assign different types of rights to the person including Admin, and Author.
Free Weebly Web Hosting Plan
Many people have started their own Weebly site by signing up for the free plan. The free plan lack the extra features in other paid plans and has a limited storage of 500 MB. In the free plan, your website will be hosted on the subdomain and it will show some ads. You will be able to check the basic stats such as number of pageviews and unique visitors. You will be able to download the site as a zip file for backup. The zip file can be sent to your preferred email address.
Paid Weebly Web Hosting Plans
The advantage of the paid Weebly web hosting plan is that you can connect your domain, no limit on the disk space usage and no displaying of advertisements. In the paid plan, you will get to see more details of the site statistic compared to the free plan for example referring sites, keywords user type in the organic search result to find your site and etc. The starter plan is the cheapest paid plans. The more expensive plans allow you to display background video and add podcast to the site.
The pro plan allows you to add up to 25 products in your e-commerce store. Both the starter and pro plan charges 3% fee for every sale you make on your store. The pro and performance plan are suitable people who want to start a large online store as they offers features such as add unlimited products, no transaction fee, sell digital goods, shipping, coupons, and checkout on your domain. The pro and performance plans are also suitable for setting up a membership site. You will have complete control over the membership site including adding new members manually and determining the pages that members see. You can choose to have new members automatically approved or take your time to review each one.
Uptime and Security
Weebly offer good uptime and your website will load very fast. They have a team of technical staff that constantly monitor the websites against unauthorized intruders like hackers. You can password protect certain pages or the entire website so that only authorized people can access the site. If you are on the business plan, you will get a free 128 bit encrypted SSL to enhance the security of your website. Every site hosted on Weebly will be protected by a DdoS mitigation.
Monetization
Weebly site can be monetized in a number of ways. The premium Weebly plans allow you to build a store with the products imported through the uploading of a CSV file. You can also import the products from a number of sources including Shopify, and Etsy. You can paste advertisement code to display ads like Google Adsense. It allows you to accept payment from payment processors like Paypal, Authorize.net and Stripe. When you are on the premium plans, you will have access to a full range of store builder elements.