Strikingly vs. Weebly 2024 ⚠️ Which Site Builder is Better?

When starting a business, choosing the right website builder is crucial for establishing an effective online presence. Strikingly and Weebly are two popular options in the website builder software category, and each has its own strengths and weaknesses.

In this comprehensive Strikingly vs Weebly comparison, we will analyze how Strikingly and Weebly stack up across key criteria like market position, ease of use, design capabilities, features, performance, customer support, pricing, and reviews.

The sections that follow will break down how these two popular platforms compare feature by feature. Read on.

1. Understanding the Basics

Strikingly was founded in 2012 by former Google engineers David Chen, Danyang Lin, and Lei Xin. It is headquartered in Shanghai, China. Strikingly focuses exclusively on website building and has over 2 million users worldwide. It is particularly popular in China and Southeast Asia but has expanded to serve customers globally.

Weebly was founded in 2007 by David Rusenko, Chris Fanini, and Dan Veltri in San Francisco, California. As of 2021, Weebly had over 60 million users worldwide. Weebly has established itself as one of the most widely-used website builders. Beyond websites, Weebly also provides e-commerce capabilities and marketing tools.

Weebly has an active Facebook user community at present, while Strikingly does not:

Weebly Users Group

In terms of market position, Weebly is the more established option with greater brand recognition and a larger user base. However, Strikingly has seen rapid growth in recent years. It offers a competitive alternative, especially for the Asian market.

2. Ease of Use

Strikingly

Strikingly aims to provide an intuitive website builder for users of all skill levels to build professional looking websites. The editor has a clean, minimalist interface with three main modes: Build, Design, and Manage. Users can easily toggle between these modes using the toolbar.

The Build mode allows you to add and customize pages using pre-designed building blocks called Strikingly Elements. These include sections for hero images, text, galleries, counters, and more. The block-based editor is beginner-friendly. You simply drag and drop elements where you want them to build your site.

Strikingly uses a responsive drag-and-drop design. This means your site automatically adapts to mobile devices as you build. You don’t need coding skills to create a mobile-ready site. The responsive builder makes it easy for novices to get started.

Overall, Strikingly has a shorter learning curve compared to developers like Weebly. The block-based editor is intuitive. New users can quickly grasp how to operate the interface and start building professionally designed pages. The system guides you through the process in a user-friendly way.

Weebly

Weebly also uses a drag-and-drop editor, but it provides more freedom and customization options compared to Strikingly. Users can drag elements like text boxes, images, and buttons onto a page and position them precisely where they want.

Weebly offers building blocks called modules that integrate features like photo galleries, blogs, contact forms, etc. However, the open editor doesn’t lock you into using preset blocks. This flexibility benefits experienced users but can overwhelm beginners.

While Weebly is easy to use on a basic level, it has a steeper learning curve. New users may find the expansive options confusing initially. You have more control over design but need to learn how to use the advanced tools effectively.

Weebly does provide hundreds of professionally designed templates. But if you want extensive customization, there is more of a ramp-up. You’ll need to learn how to leverage containers, layers, and various editing tools. This provides more power but less guidance.

Winner: Strikingly

Weebly vs Strikingly: Which site builder is easier to use? With its block-based editor and guided approach, Strikingly offers a more beginner-friendly experience to build your own website. The platform is quicker to pick up compared to Weebly’s wider range of options. Strikingly’s templates and site building blocks simplify the process for novices.

3. Design and Customization

Strikingly

Strikingly provides 100+ mobile-optimized templates across categories like business, portfolio, e-commerce, and blogging. The templates are professionally designed with visually appealing layouts and feature-rich web pages and landing pages.

You can customize colors, fonts, and images in the template to match your brand. However, you are limited to using Strikingly’s preset sections and layouts in the website editor. There is no option for a completely custom CSS/HTML design.

Strikingly uses a responsive drag-and-drop builder that automatically adapts your site for mobile. You can preview the mobile design and make adjustments as you build. Useful mobile features include mobile menus, tap-to-call buttons, and SEO for mobile search.

Weebly

Weebly offers hundreds of professional templates optimized for web and mobile. Templates span industries and common site types like online stores, portfolios, and blogs.

Weebly provides more customization flexibility compared to Strikingly. You can modify template elements or design your own sections from scratch using containers, grid cells, and design tools. Developers can also inject custom HTML/CSS.

With Weebly, you design your desktop and mobile sites separately. The mobile editor allows you to create customized mobile layouts. Useful mobile features include adjustable font sizing, alternate navigation menus, and mobile-ready forms.

Winner: Tie

Strikingly and Weebly both provide ample quality templates and strong mobile customization options. Strikingly simplifies site design while Weebly offers more advanced flexibility. For most users’ needs, both platforms enable great site design and responsiveness.

4. Features and Functionality

Blogging Tools

Strikingly

Strikingly provides integrated blogging capabilities through its Post section element. You can add a blog post feed to any page. Posts support features like tags, comments, images, embeds, and more.

The editor is optimized for blog writing with options to bold, italicize, add links, and format text. You can schedule posts to publish later and allow comments/Disqus integration. However, you cannot have multiple authors or contributor accounts.

Blog management happens directly in Strikingly’s Page Manager rather than a separate dashboard. Here you can create, edit, publish, and organize posts. Useful features include drafts, categorization, SEO optimization, and promoting posts on social media.

Overall, Strikingly covers the basics for launching a simple business or personal blog. However, it lacks some advanced capabilities like user management and analytics.

Weebly

Weebly provides a more fully-featured blogging platform accessed via a separate dashboard. You get options for multiple blog authors, follower management, and in-depth analytics.

The editor allows for extensive formatting like embedding links/videos, adding code blocks, styling text, and inserting elements. You can even use Markdown for writing. Posts support categories, tags, comments, and sharing.

Weebly’s blog manager lets you handle everything from posts to design customization. Useful features include SEO optimization, scheduled publishing, archiving posts, managing comments, and more. You can password-protect posts and create subscriber-only content.

For bloggers needing a central hub to manage content, authors, and audience, Weebly provides much deeper functionality than Strikingly.

Winner: Weebly

Weebly offers a significantly more robust features for blogging with tools catered to multi-author blogs. Strikingly provides blog basics but lacks content and user management capabilities. For advanced blogging needs, Weebly is the clear winner.

E-commerce Capabilities

Strikingly

Strikingly provides basic e-commerce functionality through its Store section. You can add a store showcasing your products with options for custom design, promotion, and checkout.

The store builder lets you showcase products with photos, pricing, variants, descriptions, and calls to action. You can accept payments via Stripe or PayPal and leverage tools for coupons, taxes, and shipping.

However, Strikingly lacks some advanced selling features. You cannot manage inventory within Strikingly or sell digital/downloadable products. It also lacks robust reporting on sales and orders.

Strikingly stores are well-suited for simple online retail needs. However, the platform is geared more towards selling services versus physical/digital products with complex requirements.

Weebly

Weebly offers a much more extensive e-commerce solution through its Online Store plan. You get access to powerful store management tools, detailed sales reporting, and integration with major payment gateways.

Weebly supports physical, digital, and subscription products. You can manage advanced pricing, promotions, inventory, shipping, and tax calculations. Robust order management and fulfillment features are available.

The store builder provides numerous customization options for product layouts, design, etc. Weebly also makes it easy to market your store with built-in SEO and promotional tools.

For in-depth ecommerce needs from managing inventory to selling digital products, Weebly provides far more functionality than Strikingly.

Winner: Weebly

Weebly is the clear winner for e-commerce capabilities. Its online store platform offers expansive features for managing, selling, and marketing products online. Strikingly only supports extremely basic product sales and lacks inventory/order management.

SEO Tools

Strikingly

Strikingly provides basic e-commerce functionality through its Store section. You can add a store showcasing your products with options for custom design, promotion, and checkout.

However, Strikingly lacks some advanced selling features. You cannot manage inventory within Strikingly or sell digital/downloadable products. It also lacks robust reporting on sales and orders.

Strikingly stores are well-suited for simple online retail needs. However, the platform is geared more towards selling services versus physical/digital products with complex requirements.

Weebly

The store builder provides numerous customization options for product layouts, design, etc. Weebly also makes it easy to market your store with built-in SEO, Google Ads integrations, and promotional tools to help you sell online.

For in-depth ecommerce needs from managing inventory to selling digital products, Weebly provides far more functionality than Strikingly.

Winner: Weebly

Integrations

Strikingly

Strikingly offers a small selection of third-party integrations focused mainly on email marketing, analytics, and social media.

For email marketing, Strikingly supports integration with MailChimp and Drip. For analytics, you can connect your Strikingly site with Google Analytics.

Strikingly also allows integration of your social media accounts like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and LinkedIn. This allows sharing site content to social media and importing profiles.

However, Strikingly lacks advanced ecommerce and marketing integrations. There is no integration with CRM software, online booking systems, or automated marketing tools.

Overall, Strikingly covers the basics with email, analytics, and social media integrations. However, it does not support the extensive app integration available with some competitors.

Weebly

Weebly offers one of the largest app marketplaces among website builders with over 250+ integrations. These span e-commerce, marketing, analytics, web services, and more.

Notable integrations include accounting software like QuickBooks, CRMs like Salesforce, email marketing tools like MailChimp, booking systems like Calendly, and cloud storage like Dropbox.

Weebly also provides advanced marketing capabilities through SEO tools, email automation integrations, and integrations with payment gateways like Stripe and PayPal.

For users needing deep integration across business systems and marketing software, Weebly is a much better choice compared to Strikingly.

Winner: Weebly

With its vast app center, Weebly easily wins in terms of third-party integrations. Strikingly only offers bare minimum integrations. Weebly supports connecting hundreds of apps to enhance e-commerce, marketing capabilities, and more.

Analytics and Reporting

Strikingly

Strikingly provides basic analytics through integration with Google Analytics. You can connect your site to view data on traffic sources, visitor demographics, page views, and more.

Strikingly’s Page Manager also shows simple stats like the number of visitors and views for each page/post. However, you do not get access to sales or conversion tracking for e-commerce stores built with Strikingly.

For bloggers, Strikingly offers content performance tracking. You can see views and comments for blog posts. But you miss out on more detailed blogging metrics.

Overall, Strikingly analytics are fairly limited. Relying solely on Google Analytics means a lack of insights on conversions and sales for Strikingly sites and stores.

Weebly

Weebly provides detailed analytics and reporting across web traffic, conversions, and store sales. The integrated dashboard covers site visits, visitor profiles, most popular pages/products, conversions, sales, and more.

For e-commerce stores, Weebly provides powerful sales reporting on orders, revenue, inventory, shipping, and tax. You can also track blog readership and subscriber stats over time.

Advanced users can also leverage Google Analytics for additional web traffic data. Or integrate with business intelligence tools like Metabase through Weebly’s app center integrations.

With its integrated analytics tools, Weebly easily surpasses Strikingly’s very basic reporting capabilities.

Winner: Weebly

Weebly is the winner for analytics and reporting. Its detailed dashboards provide insights across website traffic, conversions, and online sales. Strikingly relies solely on Google Analytics and lacks e-commerce/blogging metrics.

5. Website Performance

Website Speed and Load Times

Strikingly

Strikingly uses optimized image compression and efficient code to provide fast page loading speeds. The lightweight editor minimizes bloat in the site codebase.

Average page load times for Strikingly sites fall between 1-2 seconds without caching. Strikingly uses a global CDN to deliver assets rapidly across regions.

However, Strikingly sites may load slower for some complex pages or if hosting large files. There is no integrated caching available, so site owners need to leverage a third-party caching plugin.

Weebly

Weebly also delivers excellent performance and fast page loads. Optimization features like compressed file sizes, minified CSS/JS, and browser caching enhance speed.

Average Weebly page load times are less than 2 seconds without caching enabled. Weebly also provides integrated caching capabilities to improve performance further.

For large sites, Weebly recommends its Large plan which uses a Varnish cache. Users can enable various third-party caching plugins for optimal speeds.

Winner: Tie

Both Strikingly and Weebly offer great page load speeds under 2 seconds on average. Strikingly has a quick, lightweight editor while Weebly provides more caching options. For most use cases, the two are comparable in website speed and performance.

6. Customer Support and Community

Strikingly

Strikingly provides customer support via email and live chat. Support is available 24/7 to assist with technical issues, registration, payments, and using the editor.

Average response times are under 1 hour for live chat and 24-48 hours for email requests. Support is mainly targeted at answering questions from new users.

Strikingly also has an active user community on Facebook. Users frequently post questions and feedback and Strikingly staff engage in discussions.

However, Strikingly lacks some community features like forums, a knowledge base, or formal customer community programs. Support is reactive rather than proactive guidance.

Weebly

Weebly offers email support, live chat, phone support, and extensive self-help resources. The knowledge base provides walkthroughs, guides, and FAQs for common questions.

Response times average under 1 hour for most support channels during US hours. Weebly also monitors community forums and proactively reaches out to assist users.

The Weebly user community spans discussion forums, Facebook groups, and a customer community called Weebly Circle where users provide feedback and suggest improvements.

Weebly takes a more holistic approach to customer support with multiple channels plus a focus on empowering users to self-serve information via the knowledge base and community.

Winner: Weebly

Weebly wins for customer support due to its wide range of support options and emphasis on creating a helpful user community. Strikingly solely provides reactive email/chat support.

7. Pricing

Strikingly

Strikingly offers 4 paid plans ranging from $8 to $49 per month. Higher plans add more pages, and bandwidth, and remove Strikingly branding.

The Limited plan ($8/month) supports 2 limited sites, basic e-commerce, and core features. The Pro plan ($16/month) allows up to 3 websites and some advanced features like form building.

The Business plan ($16/month) increases the page limit to 15 and adds priority support. The VIP plan ($49/month) removes all page limits and Strikingly branding.

Overall, Strikingly is one of the most affordable website builders but also offers less extensive features compared to competitors.

Weebly

Weebly has 4 main plans ranging from $10 to $26 per month. Higher tiers add e-commerce features, more storage, and increased performance.

The free plan supports basic website building with a Weebly subdomain. The Personal plan ($10/month) includes email marketing, shipping calculators, and a custom domain.

The Performance plan ($26/month) is geared for higher-traffic sites with more storage and faster page loads.

Weebly costs slightly more than Strikingly but provides much more value through advanced features, extensive e-commerce capabilities, and better performance optimization.

Winner: Weebly

While Strikingly offers lower baseline pricing, Weebly provides far greater features and value across plans tailored to blogs, stores, and high-traffic sites. For most users, Weebly is the better value.

8. Reviews and Reputation

Strikingly

Strikingly earns positive reviews for its easy-to-use editor, quality templates, and affordable pricing. Users praise the intuitive drag-and-drop builder that makes site creation fast and simple.

Negative feedback focuses on the lack of advanced features and customization compared to competitors. Some users feel limited by Strikingly’s standardized templates and sections.

Overall, Strikingly is regarded as a great option for beginners wanting a fast, low-cost site builder. However, it fails to meet the needs of more experienced users.

Weebly

Weebly receives outstanding reviews for its balance of power and simplicity. Users love the drag-and-drop editor paired with advanced capabilities.

Users also praise Weebly’s extensive features for e-commerce, blogging, and marketing. The quality templates and designs are highly rated.

Negative feedback focuses on occasionally slow speeds and lack of complete design freedom. But most regard Weebly as the best all-around website builder.

Winner: Weebly

Weebly wins based on overwhelmingly positive reviews praising its features and flexibility for all user levels. Strikingly garners more mixed feedback given its limitations beyond basic site-building.

9. FAQ’s

Strikingly FAQs

What type of sites can I build with Strikingly? Strikingly is best suited for basic websites, online portfolios, and simple online stores. It lacks the complex features needed for advanced sites.
Does Strikingly have mobile optimization? Yes, Strikingly uses a responsive drag-and-drop editor so sites adapt automatically for mobile devices.
Can I sell products on Strikingly? Yes, Strikingly supports basic e-commerce capabilities but lacks advanced features like digital downloads or inventory management.
Is there a free plan? No, Strikingly does not offer a free plan, only free trials of paid plans. The cheapest paid plan starts at $8/month.

Weebly FAQs

What type of sites can I build with Weebly? Weebly is highly versatile for blogs, online stores, portfolios, and all types of websites.
Does Weebly have mobile optimization? Yes, the editor allows you to create customized mobile site versions separately from your desktop.
Can I sell products on Weebly? Yes, Weebly provides extensive e-commerce features through its Online Store plan starting at $29/month.
Is there a free plan? Yes, Weebly offers a free plan but it comes with Weebly ads and less storage. Paid plans start at $6/month.

Final Thoughts

Choose Strikingly if…

Strikingly is a great choice if you need an easy-to-use, affordable website builder for a basic online presence. Beginners love Strikingly for launching sites quickly with a minimal learning curve. The drag-and-drop editor and quality templates make site creation simple. Strikingly is ideal for portfolios, personal sites, and lightweight online stores.

Check out my Strikingly review if you’d like to learn more about this website builder.

Alternatively, you could also take a look at some Strikingly comparisons as well:

Choose Weebly if…

Weebly is the best option if you want a powerful, flexible website builder for advanced sites and stores. Experienced users will appreciate Weebly’s expansive features, customization, and e-commerce capabilities. Weebly works great for blogs, online shops, directories, and high-traffic sites needing strong performance and SEO.

This Weebly review expands on what we mentioned here so if you’d like to find out everything there is to know about this website builder, check there.

These Weebly comparisons may also come in handy:

Weebly vs. Squarespace

Choosing the right platform is critical for achieving your online business goals. We hope this comparison provides useful insights to inform your website builder decision. Please ask any questions in the comments, and we’re happy to provide personalized advice on selecting the best solution for your needs.