447 Battery St #250
San Francisco, CA 94111
413)375-3268
Weebly.com has been around since 2006. Offering both free and paid web hosting accounts, Weebly has been the recipient of numerous hosting awards and has been featured in Time magazine and the Wall Street Journal. Weebly offers one-size-fits-all Linux- based hosting plans.
Review
|
Sales
|
|
|
Those curious about Weebly can ask sales questions via a form on their website. I popped a few questions off to Weebly and had a response back within one hour. The sales rep was helpful and linked me to a section on Weebly’s website where I could find more information. Perfect! My only complaint here is that Weebly’s only form of support is by online form, which is difficult to locate on their website.
|
Setup
|
|
|
It quite literally takes five seconds to sign-up for a free Weebly web hosting account. New clients simply choose a username and password and they’re in. The process of upgrading to a Pro account or buying a domain name is similarly an easy task, and takes just seconds. After years spent filling out long and tedious web hosting sign-up forms, joining the Weebly team was a joy. Wonderful!
|
Billing
|
|
|
Weebly accepts all major credit cards and PayPal. I didn’t have any problems with the billing department.
|
Pricing
|
|
|
Weebly offers free accounts and paid accounts. Free accounts are subdomain based (or domain based if you already own a domain) and include advertising on the footer of each page. There’s no denying that this is a great deal! The Pro account runs $47.88/year, which works out to $3.99/month. Weebly’s rates appear average, though Weebly gives no indication at all as to how much space or bandwidth is included with each hosting plan, so it’s a bit of a toss-up. Before investing money into Weebly’s infrastructure, I’d like to know what I’m getting in return.
|
Reliability
|
|
|
I had no hardware issues with Weebly during a one year stay.
|
Help & Support
|
|
|
Weebly support comes by email. Clients fill out an online form for support and then Weebly addresses your questions through your registered email address. Weebly also answers some questions by Twitter and Facebook, though I wouldn’t rely on those places as a first means of support. On average, it took Weebly 2-3 hours to answer my questions or clear up any existing problems. Each support rep I spoke with was friendly, courteous and had a good working knowledge of Weebly.
|
Uptime
|
|
|
I use a premium uptime monitor to track my domains. Weebly maintained a 99.998% uptime average over a 12 month stay.
|
Guarantee
|
-
30-day money back guarantee.
|
Terms of Service
|
|
The Terms of Service for Weebly can be read on their website. Highlights include:
-
Illegal and adult content forbidden.
-
File hosting and copyrighted material not allowed.
-
Clients must be at least 13 years of age to apply for an account.
|
Bottom Line
|
Advantages
|
-
Very reliable.
-
Drag and drop site builder is easy to learn and use.
-
Free web hosting available.
-
Weebly promotes customer’s work on Facebook and Twitter often.
-
Inexpensive.
-
Supports multiple sites per account.
|
Disadvantages
|
-
Not clear on how much space and bandwidth is offered.
-
No uptime guarantee.
-
No phone or live chat support.
-
Doesn’t allow websites designed outside of Weebly’s site builder.
-
No Wordpress support.
|