Weebly Vs. Squarespace: Which One Is Best?

Weebly and Squarespace offer many of the same standard website features, including blogging capabilities, SEO, unlimited storage and mobile apps that let you access your website anywhere.

With more than 100 modern, stylish templates, Squarespace has the advantage in terms of design options. Weebly offers 40-plus templates that are attractive yet simple but couldn’t be described as cutting-edge. Neither website builder is particularly strong in design customization; hence it’s important to go with a template that best reflects how you want your site to look.

Weebly allows e-commerce on all its plans, including its free version. Both platforms allow you to sell on your website as well as your social channels.

Weebly comes with over 300 third-party app integrations, compared to around 30 for Squarespace. More integrations give Weebly an edge when it comes to the variety of functions you can add to your site, such as accounting, scheduling, customer service and marketing software integrations.

Squarespace recently introduced its Video Studio, which features guided video templates, an auto voiceover tool and a teleprompter with script length suggestions. The Squarespace Video Studio is available on every plan, though access is limited on the Personal plan. Weebly does not offer a video creation tool on any of its plans.

Weebly offers a free plan and three paid plans, which are available on month-to-month and annual payment plans. Key differences among the plans are listed below.

Key Weebly Plan Differences

	FREE	PERSONAL	PROFESSIONAL	PERFORMANCE
Annual Plan Price (per Month)	$0	$7 CAD	$15 CAD	$30 CAD
Month-to-Month Price	$0	$10 CAD	$20 CAD	$35 CAD
E-Commerce	✔	✔	✔	✔
Unlimited Items	✔	✔	✔	✔
Digital Goods	–	✔	✔	✔
Coupons	✔	✔	✔	✔
Gift Cards	✔	✔	✔	✔
Pop-Up Notifications	–	✔	✔	✔
Shipping Calculator	–	✔	✔	✔
Connect a Custom Domain	–	✔	✔	✔
Unlimited Storage	–	–	✔	✔
Free Domain	–	–	✔	✔
Remove Weebly/Square ads	–	–	✔	✔
Advanced E-Commerce Insights	–	–	–	✔
Abandoned Cart Emails	–	–	–	✔
Accept Payments Through PayPal	–	–	–	✔
Customer Support	Community forum, chat and email	Community forum, chat and email	Community forum, chat, email and phone	Community forum, chat, email, phone and priority support

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Weebly charges $19.95 USD ($26.87 CAD) for registering a custom .com domain, although the two top-tier plans include a free domain. Weebly Promote is the platform’s add-on email marketing tool; plans start at $6 USD ($8.08 CAD) per month.

Squarespace does not offer a free plan, though it offers a 14-day free trial. Plan prices and fees for add-on features make Squarespace more expensive than many other website builders, including most Weebly plans. Many users feel that Squarespace’s stunning designs make up for its higher price tags. You’ll get your best deal with Squarespace by purchasing an annual plan rather than going month to month.

Key Squarespace Plan Differences

	PERSONAL	BUSINESS	BASIC COMMERCE	ADVANCED COMMERCE
Annual Plan Price (per Month)	$21 CAD	$32 CAD	$36 CAD	$66 CAD
Month-to-Month Price	$30 CAD	$45 CAD	$50 CAD	$90 CAD
Contributors	2	Unlimited	Unlimited	Unlimited
Free Custom Domain	✔	✔	✔	✔
Unlimited Bandwidth and Storage	✔	✔	✔	✔
Basic Website Metrics	✔	✔	✔	✔
Professional Email from Google	–	✔	✔	✔
E-Commerce	–	✔	✔	✔
Gift Cards	–	✔	✔	✔
Sell Subscriptions	–	✔	✔	✔
Advanced Website Analytics	–	✔	✔	✔
E-Commerce Analytics	–	–	✔	✔
Products on Instagram	–	–	✔	✔
Abandoned Cart Recover	–	–	–	✔
Sell Subscriptions	–	–	–	✔
Advanced Discounts	–	–	–	✔
Squarespace Video Studio app	Limited access	Full access	Full access	Full access

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Popular Squarespace add-ons include Squarespace E-mail Campaigns that range from $7 CAD to $64 CAD per month and Squarespace Scheduling, which lets you add appointment scheduling to your website for $22 CAD to $66 CAD per month. You can also add a members-only area to your website for $12 CAD to $119 CAD per month. Squarespace’s Tock all-in-one reservation system is a helpful tool for managing reservations and takeout orders; plans vary by services purchased.

If you’re looking for a tool that makes it easy to build and manage a website, Weebly and Squarespace are both great options, particularly if your technical skills are limited. Weebly offers a simple drag-and-drop editor so designing a site is intuitive for every skill level.

Squarespace is simpler to use than some platforms, namely WordPress, but user feedback suggests the Squarespace site builder is not quite as user-friendly as Weebly’s. Squarespace offers more design options, and with more choices come more questions to answer. This makes the Squarespace editor a bit more complicated than Weebly’s. Those who are less tech-savvy may find it easier to build a site with Weebly than with Squarespace.

Squarespace Experts is a design service offered for those who need help building or managing their site. The Experts service connects you with a third-party designer or developer; fees vary based on the provider selected and the service required.

Both Weebly and Squarespace make it easy to create search-optimized blog posts. Weebly’s blog features include category and tag tools and advanced comment management. You can also schedule your blogs for a future post date.

With Squarespace, you can automatically share your new blog posts with your social media profiles or send posts as email campaigns. You can save posts as drafts, publish them immediately or schedule posts for a later date. Attach tags and category data to your blog articles, and enable or disable comments from readers. Multiple authors are allowed on Squarespace blogs.

Weebly is one of the few website builders that includes e-commerce functionality on its free plan. The free plan does not offer a custom domain, and website storage is limited. You cannot sell digital products on Weebly’s free plan. Still, if your selling needs are basic, the free plan could be sufficient for you.

Your Weebly online store comes with many top e-commerce features, including a standard shopping cart, item options (such as colour and sizes), inventory management, an automatic tax calculator, coupons and Square gift cards. The free option is the only plan that doesn’t include a shipping calculator. The Weebly Performance plan includes item reviews, shipping labels and abandoned cart emails.

Squarespace has two commerce plans—a Basic and an Advanced—though its Business plan also offers some e-commerce functionality, such as gift cards, unlimited products and the ability to accept donations. You’ll pay a 3% transaction fee if you’re on the Business plan; there are no transaction fees on the Basic and Advanced Commerce plans. Payment processing fees are determined by your payment services provider.

The Squarespace Basic and Advanced Commerce plans come with point-of-sale functionality for in-person selling, customer accounts for quicker checkout and checkout on your domain, so customers don’t have to visit a separate domain to complete their purchase. The Advanced Commerce plan also offers abandoned cart recovery, advanced shipping, advanced discounts, limited availability labels and the ability to sell subscriptions.

Weebly and Squarespace come with a tax calculator for Canadian stores.

Squarespace lets you accept payments through Stripe, PayPal, Apple Pay and Afterpay. With Weebly, which Square owns, you can accept payments via Stripe and Square on all plans; PayPal payments are only allowed on the Weebly Performance plan.

The best e-commerce builder depends on your specific needs. If you’re on a tight budget, Weebly is your best choice.

Weebly offers live phone and chat support Monday through Sunday from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. PT; phone support is available for those with top-tier plan accounts. Performance plan account holders receive priority support. Online support is also available through Weebly’s online knowledge base and its community forum.

Squarespace does not offer phone support or offer priority support on any of its plans. Customer service is provided through the Squarespace online Help Centre and chat; live chat hours are 4 a.m. to 8 p.m. ET. Additional support is available through online messaging, which Squarespace staffs 24/7.

Bottom Line

The race between Weebly vs. Squarespace is tight, as you can produce a high-quality, fully functional website with either of these all-in-one website builders. Forbes Advisor picks Weebly as the best website builder for small businesses, thanks primarily to Weebly’s low plan costs, ease of use, ample third-party integrations, e-commerce functionality and superior customer support options.

Squarespace is an excellent choice for those who are a little more tech-savvy or for sites where a sleek, modern design is a high priority.

Canadian specific editing and research (including pricing) conducted by Anna Rey.