Weebly offers different types of upgrade options to cover various user segments. For a free user it is always a question of which plan to choose from the available ones. With performance and business plans being targeted for ecommerce users having online store and pro plan being sidelined with less features (compared to the price) the best bet is to look for a starter plan with nominal cost.
In this article we analyze the features and pricing of Weebly starter plan and help users to understand what exactly you can do with starter plan and why should you go for an upgrade at first.
| Upgrade Plan | Target Segment of Users |
|---|---|
| Free | All type of users wants to create a showcase site with few pages and a blog with no additional features. |
| Starter | Users want to build a basic site with minimal features. |
| Pro | Users want to build professional looking site with own branding like self hosted video player, search box and header slideshow. |
| Business Plan | Users with the need to have an ecommerce platform for selling goods online (both digital and physical products). |
| Performance Plan | Full fledged online store with discount coupons, gift cards and sending abandoned cart email to users. |
Why Should You Upgrade? – Restrictions on Free Weebly Site
Upgrading to a premium plan entirely depends on your need and how you want to present your site to online community. Here are some very basic reasons why should you upgrade perhaps if Weebly is your choice for that easy drag and drop site builder.
- Branding is the first and foremost point of being online. By using free Weebly site you always represent Weebly with subdomain URLs and footer ad. This essentially means that you are putting Weebly in front of your hard work instead of promoting your actual content.
- With 500MB storage restriction, footer ad and no option to add custom domain you need to think twice before building a free site with Weebly for long run.
- Free sites have lot other restrictions like no possibility to insert AdSense ads and difficult to migrate at later point of time. Migration is very important when your site is growing larger.
Unless you are satisfied with a site having few pages and a blog it is strongly recommended to upgrade to a paid plan if Weebly is your choice or look for different platform which suits your need.
Comparison of Weebly Free Vs Starter Plans
Below list shows the complete features offered by Weebly with the comparison of free and starter plans. Though starter plan does not have many features in the list, it may not be necessary to have those features for building a good looking site. For example, all ecommerce related features are not required for normal users who want to build a content site and most of the missing pro features can be added by modifying source HTML / CSS or using third party applications.
| Feature | Free Plan | Starter Plan |
|---|---|---|
| 1 Year Free Domain | No | Yes |
| Free Site Builder | Yes | Yes |
| Free Web Hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Storage | 100 MB | Unlimited |
| Custom Domain Connect | No | Yes |
| Remove Footer Ad | No | Yes |
| Drag & Drop Footer | No | Yes |
| Custom Favicon | No | Yes |
| Complete Site Statistics | No | Yes |
| Chat & Email Support | No | Yes |
| Phone Support | No | No |
| Full Editor Permissions | No | No |
| File Upload Limit | 100 MB | 100 MB |
| Header Slideshow | No | No |
| Audio Player | No | No |
| HD Video Player | No | No |
| Page Password Protection | No | No |
| Site Search Box | No | No |
| Site Members | No | No |
| Member Registration | No | No |
| Google Adwords Coupon | No | $100 |
| Product Element | No | 10 |
| Checkout | No | on Weebly.com |
| Transaction Fee | No | 3% |
| SSL Certificate | No | No |
| Domain Shopping Cart | No | No |
| Selling Digital Goods | No | No |
| Inventory Management | No | No |
| Shipping Details | No | No |
| Tax Calculator | No | No |
| Offer Coupon Codes | No | No |
| Realtime Shipping Rates | No | No |
| Abandoned Cart Email | No | No |
| Gift Cards | No | No |
Most important features you will get with a starter plan includes:
- Connecting your custom domain to Weebly site
- Unlimited storage and no free Weebly footer ad.
- Complete site statistics.
This ensures you to build a branded site and promote your content well in online. The moment you want additional features you always have an option to upgrade further to pro plan or migrate your site to another service provider.
Check out the comparison of Weebly Free Vs Pro and Weebly Starter Vs Pro.
Weebly Starter Plan Pricing
Both free and starter plans have a limit of 10 sites per account and the upgrade is on per site basis and not at account level. This means you need to upgrade each site in your account separately. Weebly offers pricing on 6 months, 1 year and 2 years timeframe with the total cost is calculated on per month basis. Once upgraded, you should continue the premium payment in order for the paid features to work on your site.
| Time Frame | Price per month |
|---|---|
| 1 Month | $14.00 |
| 1 Year | $8.00 |
| 2 Years | $5.00 |
It will cost $8 per month for a yearly plan to upgrade to a starter plan; this is two third of the price of pro plan of $12 per month.
Conclusion
Weebly starter plan definitely offers minimal required features to build a competitive site. For a nominal cost of $5 per month for a two years plan it also provides better cost / features mix to choose for. It is also worth to note that Weebly starter is nearly half priced than of pro which means you can upgrade two sites to starter plan with the cost of upgrading single site to pro.
Moreover it is not recommended to put your effort with free Weebly site by modifying HTML / CSS. This will not add any value over long term unless you have short term purposes for doing so.
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