Plugins and integrations:
Weebly:
When you make a website in Weebly, there is an admin backend area. It includes a long list of built-in tools and functionality like an online store, contact form, blogs, maps, images etc. You don’t have to install any Plugins to get a good level of functionality. Weebly manages the entire platform for you, so day-to-day plugin security management and the website unexpectedly breaking are less of a concern.
Pros:

• There is a reduced risk of having your website hacked through a vulnerability introduced by a third party plugin.
• Weebly provides an App Centre that has a few good apps and integrations available

Cons:

• There is less choice in adding additional functionality by Plugins or integrations, in comparison to WordPress

WordPress:
​WordPress is an open source website builder, as an open system, there is a lot more freedom for third parties to contribute and extend the system, when they have been doing for years by providing both free and paid “Plugins”. Using the right plugin can add a useful your website’s functionality, but a poorly built plugin can have negative implications for your website’s performance and security.
Pros:

• A large selection of available plugins to extend functionality – eg map embeds, contact forms, online shops

Cons:

• Security vulnerabilities exist in, and are often introduced by, 3rd party WordPress Plugins
• Occasionally conflicts between two or more plugins can arise that breaks some of the website or takes it offline
• Adding too many plugins to a WordPress install can add a speed bottleneck and cause your website to perform slowly

Ecommerce:
Weebly
The Weebly Ecommerce platform is designed to make it quick and easy to setup an online shop. It is a great Ecommerce solution for small businesses that need to build a simple online store with a few handy features.
Pros:

• Simple configuration without too many options lets you get setup with less customization
• Customers have easy access to the target market if they have a Weebly store.
• Many features built in that would otherwise be a plugin or custom coding in WordPress

Cons:

• Built in payments add a 3% transaction fee on top of your processor eg like Stripe or Paypal.
• To avoid the transaction fee you can upgrade to the “Business” plan which can increase hosting costs
• Limited eCommerce customization options in comparison to WooCommerce

WordPress:
WordPress, by way of the WooCommerce plugin, is a popular choice for building an Ecommerce website. It is used by many organizations from small one person shops all the way up to large enterprises.
Pros:

• Due to a larger WordPress community, you are able to promote your business among that community.
• You can accept payment in any form.

Cons:

• Without a competent web-developer or technical chops yourself, you may be on your own if any technical issues crop up.

Conclusion:
Weebly is a perfect solution for making small websites quickly, whereas WordPress excels at blogging and eCommerce. With a simplified page editor, and tech support on-call when needed Weebly is a great choice for small businesses who need a great website. In comparison, WordPress can be a good choice if you have a larger project that needs advanced customization.

Both Weebly and WordPress are able to have custom themes developed by a professional web developer. There can also be several other complexities involved in actually getting a website live which may mean you need to seek assistance or get a professional web developer.

From day one, 543 Design made the conscious decision to design in Weebly rather than WordPress. That has given us a unique perspective, and we definitely think that for most small businesses, Weebly is the way to go. In a nutshell:

• The drag & drop interface is MUCH easier for our customers and the average Joe to use than WordPress - it's fantastic and our clients constantly comment about how much they prefer it to their old WordPress CMS.
• The e-Commerce platform is incredibly easy to integrate and is getting better and better every day. Just this week Weebly added new features like 'reviews on products' and 'sale'/'out of stock' label options.
• Blogging is also super simple on Weebly - with tags, search functions and drag & drop editing of blog posts - it's very easy to use.
• The centralised system and Weebly continually updating their platform means you don't have to worry about security and patching etc. As of this week, Weebly also offers free SSL certificates - so all our sites now have that option free of charge.
• Weebly sites seem to perform well in search results out of the box, but the system also gives access to the source code and other important areas for us to really help with client's search engine optimisation.
• Lastly, as a Weebly Cloud developer/designer, we have a direct line to Weebly. That means that we can raise any core issues directly with the CMS provider, and are involved in their discussions on how the platform evolves - it's a great position to be in for our clients.

Weebly really is a fantastic platform and we love working in it. For a really complex build, sometimes we do suggest other platforms, but for 95% of clients out there, it's the ideal fit.

Get in touch with us if you'd like to get us to build your site, or try giving it a crack yourself direct with Weebly.

If you do decide to use WordPress, please get in touch with us and we can recommend a WordPress designer we trust. A big thanks to Keiran from Freeparking (a sister company to our domain provider Discount Domains) - if you have a WordPress site and are looking for a New Zealand web host - either of those companies would be a great place to start looking. Alternatively, if you want to stay in the 543 eco system, we can also offer you DIY domains and hosting solutions for WordPress and other sites here.