Bluehost and Weebly are very different companies, but they are also similar in a way. Weebly is primarily a site builder that also offers hosting, while Bluehost is a hosting company that also offers various types of site builders. They are fundamentally different, but at the same time, they offer customers a similar service, which is to let them create and host a website. Today, we’ll be taking a look at these two platforms, and find out which one is better suited for your needs. We’ll compare their hosting features, site builders and performance, so that you can pick which one is right for you.
Contents
BlueHost vs Weebly Comparison Chart
| Bluehost | Weebly | |
| Â |  |  |
| Price | Check Price at Bluehost.com | Check Price at Weebly.com |
| Hosting | Shared, WordPress, VPS, Dedicated, WooCommerce and Reseller hosting | Web hosting and Online store hosting |
| Sites | 1 – Unlimited | Up to 10 |
| Storage | 50GB – Unlimited | 500MB – Unlimited |
| Free Domain | 1 year | 1 year (n/a on Free and Connect plans) |
| Free SSL | Yes | Yes |
| Site Builder | Yes | Yes |
| CDN | Yes | No |
| Customer Support | 24/7 chat and phone Knowledge base | Chat Phone (n/a on Free and Connect plans) Community forum |
| Money Back | 30 days | 30 days |
Bluehost Hosting
Shared hosting from Bluehost is very affordable.
Since Bluehost is primarily a hosting company, they have more hosting options for users with varying needs. Bluehost offers shared hosting, shared and managed WordPress, dedicated hosting, VPS, reseller hosting and WooCommerce hosting.
Bluehost’s cheapest plan is the shared Basic plan, which starts at $3.95/month for a three year term. With this plan, you get to host one website and you also get 50GB of SSD storage, along with a free domain for one year, free CDN and free SSL. The more expensive plans come with more features, such as unlimited sites, unlimited storage, more resources and so on.
Bluehost offers better scalability than Weebly. Since they have more hosting options, you can easily upgrade to a more expensive plan once your site reaches a certain amount of traffic. Bluehost also offers better security features and more tools when it comes to managing your sites and viewing your stats.
Weebly Hosting
You can try Weebly for free.
With Weebly, you can choose from five plans—Free, Connect, Pro, Business and Business Plus. The Free plan, as its name implies, is free. However, it is very limited in features and you can’t use a custom domain. The Connect plan is the cheapest paid plan, at $5.00/month for a 1-year term, but the only advantage it has over the Free plan is the ability to use a custom domain. Both of these plans are limited in features and they both have Weebly Ads that you can’t remove. These plans are best used for personal blogs or simple landing pages.
Weebly’s Pro, Business and Business Plus plans start at $12.00/month, $25.00/month and $38.00/month, respectively. These prices are for a 1-year term. With these plans, you get a free domain, Google Ads credits ($100), unlimited storage and eCommerce features. These plans are great for small-medium sized online stores.
Some of the features that you get with with these plans include a shopping cart, Square and 3rd party payment solutions, advanced site stats and phone support. The more expensive Business and Business Plus plans, naturally, come with even more features that can greatly improve your online store. You’ll get the ability to offer coupon codes, shipping discounts, item reviews, a shipping calculator and more.
Website Builder
Both Weebly and Bluehost give users access to easy-to-use and intuitive drag-and-drop site builders.
Using the Weebly site builder is a pleasant experience. Even the most inexperienced users will have no issues getting used to it. It’s very intuitive and easy to use. You just drag and drop certain elements anywhere on your page, then click them to edit. You’ll be able to create a good-looking and functional website within an hour.
In addition to its ease of use, Weebly’s site builder also comes with plenty of themes to choose from. There are several themes with various layouts for different uses, and all of them are responsive, so they are optimized for desktop, smartphone and tablet users. With the Weebly site builder, you can create several types of sites, including personal blogs, online stores and more.
Bluehost also has their own proprietary website builder—the Bluehost Website Builder. With this site builder, you can create a WordPress site easily. Aside from this site builder, you can also use Weebly with Bluehost, since it is also included in their hosting packages.
On that note, Bluehost offers better flexibility, since you can create any kind of sites with them. You can create a WordPress site, an HTML landing page, a Weebly site and more. With Weebly, you are limited to their own site builder.
Performance and Support
Bluehost performs better than Weebly when it comes to uptime and loading speed.
Performance-wise, Bluehost trumps Weebly. Bluehost had the better uptime average and loading times. This is no surprise since Bluehost is a hosting company that also offers a site builder, while Weebly is a company that is primarily known for their site builder.
Uptime was close, with Bluehost maintaining an average of 99.95%. Weebly managed an uptime of 99.92%, which is still acceptable, but not ideal.
When it comes to loading speed, Bluehost leaves Weebly in the dust. One of the main complaints about Weebly as a platform, is that it can be slow to load websites. In our tests, we’ve seen that that is the case. It took quite a while for our Weebly site to load, while our Bluehost site loaded immediately. An added bonus here for Bluehost is that they offer free CDN integration.
As for customer support, both companies offer decent performance. Bluehost offers 24/7 chat and phone, while Weebly offers email, chat and phone support. Do take note, Weebly’s phone support is only available for users on the Pro, Business and Business Plus plans.
Verdict
If you are looking to host a site with plans for long-term growth, Bluehost is the better option.
Bluehost is the better hosting provider, without question. They offer better performance, more features and they have better scalability since they offer more hosting options. With Bluehost, you are not locked to a single platform, and you can create different types of sites, be it WordPress, HTML landing pages, Weebly sites, online stores and more. Furthermore, Bluehost gives you more control and freedom over your hosting environment, so you can tweak and optimize your site’s performance as your online presence and traffic grows.
Weebly, on the other hand, is great for personal blogs, small to medium sized online stores and landing pages. The Free plan is great for users that aren’t sure if they are willing to fork out the dough for hosting, and it is a great way to try out the Weebly platform.
FAQs
Yes, Weebly is included with most of Bluehost’s hosting plans. To use Weebly, go to your cPanel and choose Weebly on the Website section.
Yes, Weebly offers hosting plans.
Bluehost gives users access to their own Bluehost Website Builder, along with other third-party builders, including Weebly.
Yes, their free plan is free forever. However, it is quite limited when it comes to features.
