Google Sites vs Weebly: Comprehensive comparison guide for 2024

Final verdict

Weebly and Google Sites serve different needs with their unique strengths, but overall, Weebly offers a more comprehensive solution for most users.

Google Sites (Overall Grade: 5.6/10)

excels in ease of use and integration with Google Workspace, making it a solid choice for simple websites and collaborative projects. Its user-friendly interface and seamless Google service integrations are ideal for users looking for a basic web presence without the need for advanced features or ecommerce capabilities.
Weebly (Overall Grade: 7.3/10)

stands out with its robust ecommerce features, superior design functionalities, and a wider range of templates. It caters well to small to medium-sized businesses looking to establish a more sophisticated online presence. With better support for ecommerce, marketing tools, and overall flexibility, Weebly is the go-to for users seeking a comprehensive website builder and hosting platform.

	Overall grade: 5.6	Overall grade: 7.3
Design functionalities & templates	4.9	7.4
Ease of use	8.3	8.1
Ecommerce	1.8	7.1
Website Editors	7.0	7.6
Product testing options	6.9	8.3
Price	8.1	8.4
Hosting quality	8.2	7.7
Website speed optimization	3.3	7.9
Plugins and integrations	6.4	7.5
Marketing features	2.6	7.1
Customer support	7.2	7.3
Security	9.3	8.3
AI capabilities	0	1.8
User Management	7.8	6.5
Overall	5.6	7.3

Best for ecommerce

1.8

7.1

Verdict

: For those looking to build an ecommerce site, Weebly is the clear winner over Google Sites, offering a robust set of features tailored for online stores.

Google Sites

: While Google Sites allows for easy website creation with integration of various Google services, it falls short for ecommerce. Lacking built-in ecommerce features, it requires external integrations for any online store functionality, making it less ideal for those looking to sell online.
Weebly

: Weebly shines in the ecommerce space with features like unlimited product listings, secure checkout, and customizable shipping options. It’s designed to support businesses of all sizes, from small shops to large online stores, making it the superior choice for ecommerce compared to Google Sites.

Best for informational & business websites

7.2

7.9

Verdict

: Weebly is the superior choice for informational and business websites, offering a more versatile and user-friendly platform with better design options and functionalities.

Google Sites

: Google Sites is a straightforward option for creating basic informational websites, especially for users already embedded in the Google ecosystem. Its ease of use and seamless integration with Google services make it a viable choice for simple projects and collaborative efforts.
Weebly

: Weebly stands out with its superior design capabilities, a wide range of templates, and a more comprehensive set of tools for creating detailed and engaging informational websites. Its platform is more adaptable to various business needs, making it the better option for users looking to build more complex sites.

Detailed comparison

4.9

7.4

🏆

Winner: Weebly.

Weebly offers a more comprehensive set of design functionalities and templates compared to Google Sites.

Google Sites offers a limited number of templates suitable for various purposes, from personal blogs to business websites. These templates are designed for user engagement, simplicity, and functionality, allowing for customization to meet specific needs. However, compared to other website builders, Google Sites might offer less variety in templates and design customization options.

Google Sites Themes

On the other hand, Weebly offers a curated selection of templates, which is fewer than some competitors. However, the emphasis is on high-quality, professionally designed templates covering various categories such as business, ecommerce, portfolio, blog, personal, and events. Weebly’s templates are praised for their clean, modern, and responsive design, with easy customization options for colors, fonts, layout, images, and content.

Weebly Themes

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8.3

8.1

🏆 Winner: Google Sites

. With a score of 8.3, Google Sites edges out Weebly, which scored 8.1. Google Sites’ user-friendly interface and seamless integration with other Google services make it a straightforward tool for creating basic websites. Weebly, while also user-friendly, has a learning curve for its advanced features.

Learning Resources

🏆 Winner: Google Sites

. Google Sites offers a wide array of learning resources, from practical guides for educators to comprehensive digital skill development programs. Weebly also provides valuable guidance through its Help Center, blog, video tutorials, webinars, and community forum, but the quality varies across different mediums.

Learn Google Sites

Learn Weebly

1.8

7.1

When it comes to ecommerce, Weebly clearly outperforms Google Sites. Google Sites does not have built-in ecommerce features, and to set up an online store, users would need to rely on external integrations or services. On the other hand, Weebly offers a comprehensive ecommerce solution with features like unlimited product listings, secure checkout, customizable shipping options, and discount promotions.


Ecommerce themes and templates	0.0	6.5
Product page customization	0.0	6.8
Payment processing and commissions	1.0	7.0
POS capabilities	0.0	6.0
Payment gateways	2.0	7.5
Product numbers	0.0	7.0
Additional ecommerce features	0.5	6.7

Google Sites ecommerce features:

Google Sites itself does not have built-in eCommerce features. To have a full-fledged eCommerce platform with Google Sites, you’d need to rely on these external integrations or services.

Weebly ecommerce features:

Unlimited products
Inventory management
Product reviews and ratings (Paid plans)
Secure checkout
Shipping options
Abandoned cart recovery (Paid plans)
Basic analytics
SEO tools
Marketing integrations (Paid plans)

Weebly add a product

Ecommerce themes & templates

Google Sites does not offer any ecommerce templates. On the other hand, Weebly provides ecommerce-specific themes with a decent range of styles, offering built-in features like product galleries and optimized checkout flows. However, there are limitations in terms of design flexibility and theme selection compared to dedicated platforms.

Product page customization

Google Sites lacks any product page customization features. On the other hand, Weebly allows a decent level of product page customization through its user-friendly interface, offering options for layout, colors, fonts, backgrounds, and content. Advanced customization, including custom CSS and app integrations, is available with paid plans.

Payment processing

Google Sites does not offer native payment processing features. Instead, users can integrate payment gateways using external tools or links. This can be done by embedding HTML code for payment buttons from services like PayPal, Square, or Stripe, or by linking to an external checkout page. On the other hand, Weebly seamlessly integrates with popular payment processors such as Square, Stripe, PayPal, and others, enabling secure and convenient online transactions for your store. Users can choose their preferred gateway, set up payment processing within Weebly’s settings, and benefit from features like secure checkout and, on paid plans, options for recurring payments and international transactions.

7.0

7.6

🏆

Winner: Weebly

. Weebly, with a score of 7.6, stands out for its drag-and-drop simplicity, catering to beginners with an intuitive interface and visual editing. The editor features a range of pre-designed templates, customization options, and content management tools, making it accessible for users without coding knowledge. While offering ease of use, it has some limitations in design flexibility and advanced features, with certain functionalities requiring a move to paid plans.

Weebly editor

Google Sites’ editor, scoring 7.0, offers a user-friendly website builder editor that allows users to create and design websites without needing coding knowledge. With its drag-and-drop interface, users can easily add, customize, and arrange elements such as text, images, and videos on their web pages. It also provides a variety of templates and design options to help users get started quickly and ensure their site looks professional. Additionally, Google Sites integrates seamlessly with other Google services, enabling the incorporation of Google Docs, Sheets, Slides, and Maps directly into the website.

Google Sites editor

Mobile editor/app

8.1

🏆

Winner: Weebly

. Google Sites does not offer a mobile editor app, which can limit the flexibility and convenience for users who want to make changes to their website on the go.

Weebly, on the other hand, provides a mobile app that allows users to manage and make basic edits to their websites from their mobile devices. While the app does have some limitations, such as no advanced editing capabilities or extensive design flexibility, it is still a valuable tool for quick content updates and basic design customization.

In conclusion, Weebly’s mobile app gives it an edge over Google Sites in terms of mobile editing capabilities.

6.9

8.3

Overall Result

:

Weebly Wins

. Weebly scores 8.3 in product testing options, outperforming Google Sites which scores 6.9. Weebly offers a 30-day money-back guarantee for all paid plans, allowing users to explore all features and get a full refund if not satisfied. Google Sites, on the other hand, offers a 14-day free trial with the possibility to test some premium features, but does not provide a money-back guarantee.


Free Plan	Yes	Yes
Trial Duration	14 days	No (30-day money-back guarantee)
Testing Premium Features	Limited during trial period	Full access with refund option
Money-Back Guarantee	No	Yes (30 days for all paid plans)

8.1

8.4

Weebly offers a more diverse range of pricing options, including a free plan, while Google Sites’ pricing is tied to the Google Workspace package, which may offer more value for businesses already using or planning to use other Google Workspace tools.

	Offerings	Offerings
Free	No offering at this amount.	Free ($0/month): Basic template selection, 500MB storage, Weebly ads, limited features
$0-$10	Business Starter ($7.20/month): This plan includes basic features suitable for individuals or small businesses, offering professional email through Gmail, 30GB of storage per user, and video meetings for up to 100 participants. It allows to manage 1 website and there is no limitation on number of pages. Value for price: 6.0	Personal ($6/month): Custom domain, unlimited storage, ad-free, limited SEO and email marketing tools Value for price: 6.5
$10-$20	Business Standard ($14.40/month): Suitable for growing businesses, this plan provides 2 TB of storage per user, video meeting capacity for up to 150 participants with recording features, and access to smart booking pages and shared drives. It allows to manage 1 website and there is no limitation on number of pages. Value for price: 7.5	Professional ($12/month): Advanced design options, blog membership features, advanced SEO tools, form analytics Value for price: 7.5
$20+	Business Plus ($21.60/month): Designed for larger businesses needing more robust capabilities, offering 5 TB of storage per user, advanced security options, and video meetings for up to 500 participants. It allows to manage 1 website and there is no limitation on number of pages. Value for price: 8.5	Performance ($26/month): Advanced ecommerce features, lead capture tools, custom code injection, marketing automation Value for Price: 8.5

In some cases companies have different prices based on various components like a
location. As a result in rare cases the prices displayed here can differ from the ones you see on their
websites.

8.2

7.7

🏆

Winner: Google Sites

Google Sites offers basic storage with 100MB free per site, which can be increased by upgrading to Google Workspace. It operates 21 data centers across the globe and guarantees an uptime of 99.9%. On the other hand, Weebly offers unlimited storage and bandwidth on its paid plans, but does not publicly disclose the specific locations of their data centers. It guarantees a slightly higher uptime of 99.95%. However, Google Sites has a slightly higher Hosting Quality score of 8.2 compared to Weebly’s score of 7.7.


Do they offer hosting?	Yes, basic storage with 100MB free per site, can be increased by upgrading to Google Workspace	Yes, included in all paid plans with unlimited storage and bandwidth
Data Centers:	21 globally: 2 in Asia, 5 in Europe, 13 in US and 1 in South America	Not publicly disclosed due to security and technical reasons
Type of hosting:	Cloud based managed hosting	Shared Hosting, Cloud Based Hosting, Managed Hosting
Uptime:	99.9%	99.9%
Uptime Guarantee:	Yes, 99.9%	Yes, 99.95%

3.3

7.9

🏆 Winner: Weebly

Both Google Sites and Weebly prioritize website performance and page speed, but Weebly outperforms Google Sites in this area.


Focus	Automated Optimization, CDN, Mobile Optimization, Browser Caching, Code Minification, Use of AMP	Load balancing, CDN
Performance Tools	Google Lighthouse, PageSpeed Insights	Google PageSpeed Insights Integration
Key Strategies	Automated Optimization, CDN, Mobile Optimization, Browser Caching, Code Minification, Use of AMP	Load balancing, CDN
Load Times	Google does not disclose statistics about website Page Speed scores, or load times	2s to 4s
Page Speed Scores Range	Google does not disclose statistics about website Page Speed scores	Average 80+/100
Core Web Vitals Improvement	Emphasis on LCP, FID, CLS improvements	Significant enhancement in Core Web Vitals performance through automatic image optimization, lazy loading for content, code minification, and caching

Weebly has significantly enhanced its Core Web Vitals performance by implementing measures such as automatic image optimization, lazy loading for content, code minification, and caching. These improvements, along with streamlined JavaScript usage and an enhanced server infrastructure, aim to boost website loading speed and responsiveness. The load times for Weebly range from 2s to 4s, and the average PageSpeed score is 80+/100.

Google Sites, on the other hand, focuses on automated optimization, CDN, mobile optimization, browser caching, code minification, and the use of AMP for speed optimization. However, Google does not disclose statistics about website Page Speed scores or load times. It places an emphasis on LCP, FID, and CLS improvements for Core Web Vitals.

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6.4

7.5

🏆 Winner: Weebly.

Weebly, with a score of 7.5, offers a more comprehensive range of plugins and integrations compared to Google Sites, which scores 6.4. Weebly’s App Center allows users to add integrations for different needs, and advanced users can inject custom code for specific features. Moreover, higher-tier plans provide API access, allowing developers to connect websites with external services for added functionality. Google Sites, while offering a wide array of plugins and extensions, falls short in comparison to Weebly’s extensive offerings.

Google Sites Applications

Common Ninja Google Sites plugins

Weebly Applications

Weebly plugins

2.6

7.1

🏆

Overall Winner: Weebly

. Weebly offers a more comprehensive set of marketing tools, including email marketing, blogging, social media integration, analytics and reporting, and ads and promotions. Google Sites, on the other hand, offers basic SEO tools, social media integration, and analytics and reporting, but lacks email marketing, blogging, and ads and promotions features.


SEO Tools	Basic SEO settings	Comprehensive SEO tools
Email Marketing	No	Yes
Blogging	No	Yes
Social Media Integration	Basic social media integration	Comprehensive social media integration
Analytics and Reporting	Google Analytics integration	Built-in analytics for tracking site performance
Ads and Promotions	No	Integrated marketing tools for creating and managing ads

7.2

7.3

🏆 Winner: Weebly

. Weebly slightly edges out Google Sites in this category with a customer support score of 7.3 compared to Google Sites’ score of 7.2. Weebly offers a variety of support options, including an extensive Online Help Center with articles and tutorials, a Community Forum for peer-to-peer assistance, and Email Support for submitting tickets. Live Chat is available during limited hours, and Phone Support is offered to Pro and Business plan users in the US and Canada during specific hours. The Online Help Center and Community Forum are accessible 24/7.

Google Sites offers customer support primarily through self-service resources like a Help Center and community forums, accessible to all users. Direct support, including phone, email, and live chat, is available to Google Workspace customers, with the level of support varying by subscription tier. Google Workspace provides 24/7 support for critical issues to eligible customers, with support availability and response times depending on the user’s specific plan. Free users of Google Sites have access to self-help resources, while paid Google Workspace subscribers benefit from more comprehensive direct support options.

9.3

8.3

🏆

Winner: Google Sites

. Google Sites, part of the Google Workspace, offers robust security measures including data encryption, two-factor authentication, automatic malware scanning, and compliance with international data protection standards. It also benefits from Google’s regular security updates and DDoS protection, ensuring a secure environment for website creators and visitors.

Although it may not offer the same level of specialized security features as Google Sites, Weebly is committed to maintaining a secure platform for all types of websites. This includes secure data centers, routine system updates, encryption through SSL certificates, and compliance with PCI standards, ensuring that users’ websites are safe and their visitors’ data is protected.

1.8


AI Builder
AI Ecommerce features
AI content generation		Third-party tools for AI-powered content creation
Additional AI features		Third-party AI-powered plugins

🏆 Winner: Weebly

. Although neither Google Sites nor Weebly have built-in AI capabilities, Weebly allows for the integration of third-party AI-powered tools for content creation and other features. This gives Weebly a slight edge over Google Sites in terms of AI capabilities.

7.8

6.5

🏆 Winner: Google Sites

. Google Sites and Weebly both offer collaborative website building, but Google Sites provides more flexibility with no strict limit on the number of users who can edit a site.

Google Sites allows multiple users to collaborate with different roles, including Owners, who have full control, and Editors, who can modify content but not site settings. Viewers can only see the site, with no editing permissions.
The number of users permitted to edit a Weebly website varies depending on the plan selected. The Free Plan allows only one user, suitable for personal or simple projects, while the Personal Plan accommodates two users, making it appropriate for small businesses or collaborative efforts. The Professional Plan permits up to 10 users, catering to growing businesses or teams with specific roles, and the Business Plan offers unlimited user access.

Weebly User Roles and Access Levels:

Role	Description	Access Highlights
Owner	The primary account holder and creator of the Weebly site.	Full access to all site features, including design, pages, settings, store management, and analytics.
Admin	Users granted significant control over the site by the Owner.	Can edit and publish site content, manage store orders, view analytics, and access most site settings, except for site ownership transfer and account deletion.
Author	Users with limited permissions, typically focused on content creation.	Can create and edit blog posts, manage comments, and sometimes edit specific pages if granted permission.
Store Manager	Specifically focused on e-commerce aspects of the site.	Access to manage and fulfill orders, view store analytics, and edit product details, but cannot change site design or settings.

Additional Features


SSL Certificate
Custom Domain
Free Custom Domain Included
International Domains
Mobile Responsive
Page Speed
Website Builder Mobile App
Convert a Website To An App
Website Analytics
Multilingual Sites
Multiple Users

User Feedback

Google Sites

42,340 reviews

4.6 out of 5 stars

Weebly

458 reviews

4.2 out of 5 stars

Google Sites, part of the Google Workspace, is highly praised by users for its seamless integration, ease of use, and collaborative features. It is a preferred solution for various professional and educational needs. The platform’s simplicity and user-friendly interface are lauded, enabling effortless website creation and sharing of information within organizations. While some users desire more customization options and additional features, overall, Google Workspace remains highly valued for its versatility and streamlined workflow facilitation.

On the other hand, Weebly (now Square Online) receives positive reviews for its user-friendly drag-and-drop interface and quick website development features, making it suitable for small businesses. Users highlight its role in efficient appointment booking, saving time in coordination and scheduling. However, some express a desire for more advanced building tools and better pricing. The platform is recognized for streamlining website and payment operations, though opinions on customer service and design limitations are mixed. Overall, it is considered a good, affordable solution for small businesses.

The making of this blog

We followed a clear, step-by-step process to write and research this article.

Our Ranking Criteria

FAQ

Which platform is better for beginners, Google Sites or Weebly?

Google Sites is slightly better for beginners due to its extremely user-friendly interface and seamless integration with Google Workspace, making it straightforward for creating basic websites. However, Weebly also offers a user-friendly experience with a drag-and-drop interface, making it accessible for beginners, especially those looking to build more complex sites with ecommerce capabilities.

Can I use both Google Sites and Weebly for ecommerce?

Weebly is the clear choice for ecommerce, offering a robust set of features tailored for online stores, including unlimited product listings, secure checkout, and customizable shipping options. Google Sites lacks built-in ecommerce features, making it less ideal for those looking to sell online.

How do Google Sites and Weebly differ in terms of customization and design flexibility?

Weebly offers a more comprehensive set of design functionalities and templates compared to Google Sites. While Google Sites provides a straightforward approach with limited templates suitable for basic websites, Weebly shines with its clean, modern, and responsive design templates that offer easy customization options for a more professional and engaging website.

What are the major differences in pricing and value between Google Sites and Weebly?

Google Sites is part of the Google Workspace package, which may offer more value for businesses already using or planning to use other Google Workspace tools. Weebly offers a more diverse range of pricing options, including a free plan, making it a versatile choice for users with different needs and budgets. Weebly’s plans are designed to cater to various website requirements, from personal projects to advanced ecommerce operations.