Weebly

A Builder in Transition

Weebly launched in 2006 and by 2018 had 50 million websites. Square bought it for $365M, primarily for its e-commerce capabilities and user base. Since then, Square has been nudging users toward Square Online for e-commerce and keeping Weebly as the general-purpose website builder. Over 600,000 stores process payments through Weebly. But the pace of updates has dropped — the last major feature release was in early 2024.

What Still Works Well

The drag-and-drop editor is intuitive. Really intuitive. Beginners pick it up faster than Wix because there's less to overwhelm you. The element library covers text, images, galleries, contact forms, maps, social feeds, and more. Blog functionality is solid with categories, tags, and scheduled publishing. The free plan is one of the most generous available — 500MB storage, SSL, and basic SEO with no time limit.

The Square Connection

This is where it gets interesting. If you use Square for point-of-sale, payment processing, or inventory management, Weebly integrates natively. Your in-store and online inventory sync automatically. Square Payments processes transactions at 2.9% + $0.30 with no monthly fee. For small retailers with a physical store and an online presence, this unified ecosystem has real value.

Why the Uncertainty

Square has publicly focused its website building efforts on Square Online rather than Weebly. Some features that existed in Weebly haven't made it to the newer platform. Support resources are thinning. The template library hasn't been refreshed meaningfully since the acquisition. If you build on Weebly today, you might face a migration to Square Online in the next few years. That's not a dealbreaker, but it's worth knowing.