Weebly vs Zenfolio: guide for 2024

Final verdict

Weebly and Zenfolio both offer unique strengths, catering to different user needs and preferences.

Weebly (Overall Grade: 7.3/10)

is a versatile website builder known for its user-friendly interface and robust set of features. It excels in ease of use, design functionalities, and comprehensive customer support. Weebly is ideal for small businesses and individuals looking for a straightforward, drag-and-drop website builder with solid ecommerce capabilities and extensive marketing tools. Its reliable hosting and security measures further enhance its appeal.
Zenfolio (Overall Grade: 6.4/10)

is tailored specifically for professional photographers and visual artists. It offers elegant, customizable templates and integrated ecommerce features designed to showcase and sell photographic work. While it may not match Weebly in terms of overall versatility and ease of use, Zenfolio provides specialized tools for client proofing, secure photo storage, and marketing, making it a strong choice for those in the photography industry.

	Overall grade: 7.3	Overall grade: 6.4
Design functionalities & templates	7.4	6.8
Ease of use	8.1	6.3
Ecommerce	7.1	6.3
Website Editors	7.6	7.6
Product testing options	8.3	8.4
Price	8.4	8.2
Hosting quality	7.7	5.7
Website speed optimization	7.9	5.2
Plugins and integrations	7.5	6.5
Marketing features	7.1	6.1
Customer support	7.3	6.7
Security	8.3	8.0
AI capabilities	1.8	2.4
User Management	6.5	2.8

Best for ecommerce

7.1

6.3

Verdict

: Weebly is better suited for general ecommerce needs with a user-friendly interface and comprehensive features, while Zenfolio excels in providing specialized ecommerce tools for photographers and visual artists.

Weebly

: Weebly offers a robust set of ecommerce features that cater to a wide range of businesses. With unlimited product listings, secure checkout, customizable shipping options, and marketing integrations, it is well-equipped to handle various ecommerce needs. Its user-friendly drag-and-drop interface makes it accessible for both beginners and experienced users. Weebly’s ecommerce score is 7.1.
Zenfolio

: Zenfolio is designed specifically for professional photographers and visual artists, providing an integrated ecommerce platform to sell prints, digital downloads, and other products. It offers customizable templates, multiple currency support, and tools for marketing and client proofing. While it may not have the extensive ecommerce features of Weebly, it excels in its niche market. Zenfolio’s ecommerce score is 6.3.

Best for informational & business websites

7.9

6.9

Verdict

: Weebly is the superior choice for informational business websites, offering a more user-friendly interface and a broader range of design functionalities compared to Zenfolio.

Weebly

: Weebly scores 7.9 for informational business websites, making it a strong contender in this category. Its drag-and-drop interface, WYSIWYG editing, and mobile-friendly design make it accessible for both beginners and experienced users. Weebly’s variety of themes, SEO tools, and robust blogging platform further enhance its suitability for informational sites. Additionally, its seamless integration with third-party apps provides enhanced functionality, making it a versatile choice for business websites.
Zenfolio

: Zenfolio, with a score of 6.9, is tailored specifically for professional photographers and visual artists. While it offers elegant, mobile-friendly templates and integrated e-commerce capabilities, its focus on photography may limit its versatility for broader business needs. Zenfolio’s tools for marketing, client proofing, and secure photo storage are excellent for managing a photography business but may not provide the same level of flexibility and functionality required for other types of informational business websites.

Detailed comparison

7.4

6.8

🏆

Winner: Weebly.

If you’re looking for a platform that offers more creative control and a wide array of design features, Weebly is the preferred choice.

Weebly offers a curated selection of templates, numbering in the low hundreds, 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

Compared to Weebly, Zenfolio offers a variety of customizable templates and features specifically tailored for photographers, with a focus on showcasing and selling their work. While it provides several customization options, including blocks for different layouts and styles, it may not offer as much versatility outside of photography-specific needs. Compared to broader website builders like Wix, Zenfolio is more niche-focused, catering well to photographers but potentially limiting for those seeking extensive customization or business tools beyond photography.

Zenfolio Themes

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8.1

6.3

🏆 Winner: Weebly

. Scoring 8.1, Weebly stands out for its user-friendly interface, making it accessible for both beginners and experienced users. Zenfolio, with a score of 6.3, offers a specialized platform for photographers, but with limitations in design flexibility and a more complex dashboard. If ease of use is a priority, Weebly is the clear winner in this category.

Learning Resources

🏆 Winner: Weebly

. While both platforms offer learning resources, Weebly provides more comprehensive guidance, including a Help Center, blog, video tutorials, webinars, and a community forum. Zenfolio’s learning resources are somewhat limited and users have expressed a desire for more comprehensive learning materials.

Learn Weebly

Learn Zenfolio

7.1

6.3

Weebly and Zenfolio both offer ecommerce capabilities, but they cater to different user needs. Weebly’s ecommerce solution is user-friendly and includes features like unlimited product listings, secure checkout, customizable shipping options, and discount promotions. Zenfolio, on the other hand, is designed specifically for professional photographers and visual artists, offering an integrated ecommerce platform that enables the sale of prints, digital downloads, gifts, and other items directly from their online stores.


Ecommerce themes and templates	6.5	7.0
Product page customization	6.8	7.2
Payment processing and commissions	7.0	6.5
POS capabilities	6.0	3.0
Payment gateways	7.5	6.8
Product numbers	7.0	5.0
Additional ecommerce features	6.7	6.5

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

Zenfolio ecommerce features:

Multiple Currency Support
Discount Coupons
Order management
Gift Certificates
Tax management

Ecommerce themes & templates

Weebly provides ecommerce-specific themes with a decent range of styles, offering built-in features like product galleries and optimized checkout flows. Zenfolio provides customizable website templates with integrated e-commerce features for photographers, designed to showcase and sell their work across various genres.

Product page customization

Weebly allows a decent level of product page customization through its user-friendly interface, offering options for layout, colors, fonts, backgrounds, and content. Zenfolio users can detail their product pages with descriptions, images, and options such as size or color, allowing for each product page to be adjusted to clearly display its unique attributes.

Payment processing

Weebly seamlessly integrates with popular payment processors such as Square, Stripe, PayPal, and others, enabling secure and convenient online transactions for your store. Zenfolio supports Stripe and PayPal for payment processing, integrating them seamlessly into its platform designed for photographers to sell their work online.

7.6

🏆

Winner: Tie

. Both Weebly and Zenfolio score 7.6 for their website editors, indicating comparable quality and functionality.

Weebly editor

Weebly’s website editor 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.

Zenfolio editor

Zenfolio offers an intuitive, no-coding-required website builder tailored for photographers, featuring drag-and-drop customization, a wide array of templates, and a powerful Custom Layout block for personalized designs. Its integrated eCommerce capabilities enable selling both digital and physical photography products, supported by comprehensive security features for protecting photographers’ work. Additionally, Zenfolio provides tools for SEO, marketing, photo and video hosting, client booking, and management, backed by award-winning customer support.

Mobile editor/app

8.1

8.5

🏆

Winner: Zenfolio

. Both Weebly and Zenfolio offer mobile apps for managing your website, but they cater to different needs and skill levels. Weebly’s mobile app allows users to manage and make basic edits to their websites on the go. While it offers features like content management and basic design customization, it has limitations, such as no advanced editing capabilities or extensive design flexibility, making it best suited for quick content updates rather than major design changes.

Zenfolio, on the other hand, excels in general website editing through its mobile app. It provides a user-friendly, drag-and-drop interface, allowing users to edit various aspects of their website, including content, design, layout, and blog management. The app is particularly beginner-friendly, making it easy for users with no prior website building experience.

In summary, Zenfolio receives a higher rating due to its comprehensive features and functionality, while Weebly is strong in basic content management but may be better suited for users looking for quick content updates.

8.3

8.4

Overall Result

:

Zenfolio Wins

. Zenfolio scores slightly higher than Weebly with a score of 8.4 compared to Weebly’s 8.3. Zenfolio offers a 14-day free trial where users can test premium features, while Weebly does not offer a trial version. However, Weebly does offer a 30-day money-back guarantee for all paid plans, allowing users to explore all features and get a full refund if not satisfied.


Free Plan	Yes	No
Trial Duration	No (30-day money-back guarantee)	14 days
Testing Premium Features	Within 30-day refund window	During the free trial

8.4

8.2

Weebly and Zenfolio have similar pricing scores, but Zenfolio offers more significant discounts for annual billing.

	Offerings	Offerings
Free	Free ($0/month): Basic template selection, 500MB storage, Weebly ads, limited features.	No offering at this amount.
$0-$7	Personal ($6/month): Custom domain, unlimited storage, ad-free, limited SEO and email marketing tools. Value for price: 6.5	No offering at this amount.
$7-$15	Professional ($12/month): Advanced design options, blog membership features, advanced SEO tools, form analytics. Value for price: 7.5	Portfolio ($9.00/month): Basic entry-level with 15 GB photo storage, HD video, single-page website. Value for price: 6.0
$20-$30	Performance ($26/month): Advanced ecommerce features, lead capture tools, custom code injection, marketing automation. Value for price: 8.5	PortfolioPlus ($23.00/month): Balanced features with 150 GB photo storage, HD video, single-page website. Value for price: 7.5
$40+	No offering at this amount.	ProSuite ($40.00/month): Extensive features for photo and video, multi-page websites, blog, templates, and more. Value for Price: 9.0

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.

7.7

5.7

Winner: Weebly

Weebly offers a more reliable hosting service with a 99.9% uptime guarantee and a global network of data centers. Zenfolio, while offering cloud hosting, does not disclose any information about its uptime or the locations of its data centers. Despite some critiques about Weebly’s page loading times, its transparency and uptime guarantee give it the edge in this category.


Do they offer hosting?	Yes, included in all paid plans	Yes, included in all paid plans
Data Centers:	Weebly leverages a global network of data centers to deliver reliable and efficient website hosting. However, they do not publicly disclose, the specific locations of their data centers due to security and technical reasons.	Zenfolio does not disclose the locations of its data centers
Type of hosting:	Shared Hosting, Cloud Based Hosting, Managed Hosting	Cloud Hosting
Uptime:	99.9%	Zenfolio website builder does disclose any information about its uptime statistics, neither the platform has uptime guarantee.
Uptime Guarantee:	Yes, 99.95%	No

7.9

5.2

🏆 Winner: Weebly

Both Weebly and Zenfolio prioritize website performance and page speed, but Weebly outperforms Zenfolio in this area with a higher website speed optimization score and more detailed strategies and improvements.


Focus	Load balancing, CDN	Mobile responsive design
Performance Tools	Google Lighthouse, PageSpeed Insights	Google PageSpeed Insights
Key Strategies	Load balancing, CDN	Mobile responsive design
Load Times	2s to 4s	Varies depending on optimization and website complexity
Page Speed Scores Range	Average 80+/100	Varies depending on optimization and website complexity
Core Web Vitals Improvement	Significant enhancements	No information provided

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.

Zenfolio, on the other hand, does not provide any information on their Core Web Vitals improvements. The load times and PageSpeed scores for Zenfolio vary depending on optimization and website complexity. Zenfolio’s main strategy for speed optimization is mobile responsive design.

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7.5

6.5

🏆 Winner: Weebly.

With a score of 7.5, Weebly offers a wider range of plugins and integrations that can enhance various aspects of a website, from marketing and analytics to ecommerce and security. Zenfolio, scoring 6.5, provides a focused set of plugins specifically designed for photographers, but lacks the versatility of Weebly’s offerings.

Weebly Applications

Weebly plugins

7.1

6.1

🏆

Overall Winner: Weebly

. Weebly stands out for its more comprehensive and advanced marketing tools, especially in SEO, social media integration, and analytics. Zenfolio offers a decent range of marketing tools, but they are somewhat basic compared to Weebly’s offerings.


SEO Tools		✓ (limited)
Email Marketing
Blogging		✓ (on higher plans)
Social Media Integration	Easy link to social media accounts and share buttons	Sharing via Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and Pinterest
Analytics and Reporting	Built-in analytics for tracking site performance	Basic built-in analytics tools
Ads and Promotions	Integrated marketing tools for creating and managing ads	Custom discount coupons and automated marketing

7.3

6.7

🏆 Winner: Weebly

. In the Weebly vs Zenfolio comparison, Weebly takes the lead with a customer support score of 7.3. Weebly offers a variety of support options, including an extensive Online Help Center, a Community Forum, Email Support, Live Chat during limited hours, and Phone Support for Pro and Business plan users in the US and Canada. The 24/7 accessibility of the Online Help Center and Community Forum ensures users can find assistance at any time.

Zenfolio, with a customer support score of 6.7, provides comprehensive support through email 365 days a year, LiveChat from Monday to Thursday, and phone support for Advanced plan subscribers during specific hours. The rich Support Center with articles and video tutorials is a valuable resource, but the limited availability of live support options may be a drawback for some users. Overall, Weebly’s broader range of support options and higher accessibility make it the better choice for customer support.

8.3

8.0

🏆

Winner: Weebly

. Weebly’s security measures are comprehensive, covering both data privacy and website security. They use secure data centers, encryption, access controls, and regular backups to protect user data. Their website security measures include secure data centers, routine system updates, encryption through SSL certificates, compliance with PCI standards, automatic malware scans, spam prevention measures, robust password protection, optional two-factor authentication, and user permission controls.

Zenfolio also prioritizes security, but their measures are more focused on protecting the work of photographers and visual artists. They limit third-party access to personal data and adhere to data protection rights. Their website security measures include SSL encryption, watermarking, password-protected galleries, and cloud backup. While these measures are effective, they are not as comprehensive as Weebly’s.

1.8

2.4


AI Builder	Weebly does not offer a dedicated AI builder feature	Zenfolio does not have an AI website builder
AI Ecommerce features	Weebly doesn’t offer any built-in AI-powered features for ecommerce	Zenfolio offers AI-driven eCommerce features like PhotoRefine.ai
AI content generation	Weebly lacks native AI content generation features but allows third-party integrations	Zenfolio does not have AI content generation features
Additional AI features	Weebly allows integration of third-party AI powered plugins	Zenfolio does not have any other AI features

🏆 Winner: Zenfolio

. Despite the limited AI capabilities of both platforms, Zenfolio edges out Weebly with its AI-driven eCommerce feature, PhotoRefine.ai, which assists photographers in managing their photo collections. This feature can significantly streamline the process of preparing and selling work online for photographers. On the other hand, Weebly does not have any native AI features but allows for the integration of third-party AI tools.

6.5

2.8

🏆 Winner: Weebly

. Weebly offers a more robust user management system compared to Zenfolio.

Weebly allows varying numbers of users to edit a website 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.
Zenfolio, on the other hand, only allows one user to edit and manage a website.

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

Weebly

458 reviews

4.2 out of 5 stars

Zenfolio

3 reviews

4.2 out of 5 stars

Square Online (formerly Weebly) 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.

Users appreciate Zenfolio for its elegant and affordable site/portfolio designs, highlighting the platform’s suitability for photographers looking to showcase and sell their work online. The Starter plan is praised for its value, though some users express a desire to upgrade to the Pro plan for its enhanced client interaction features and customizable marketing tools. Criticisms include dissatisfaction with the platform’s handling of photo albums and a desire for more privacy and faster loading times. Overall, Zenfolio is valued for its ability to organize and share professional photographs and files, despite some navigational and performance issues.

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 photographers, Weebly or Zenfolio?

Zenfolio is specifically designed for professional photographers and visual artists, offering elegant, photography-centric templates, integrated ecommerce capabilities for selling prints and digital downloads, and tools for marketing and client proofing. Weebly, while versatile and user-friendly, caters to a broader audience and may not offer the same level of specialized features for photographers.

Can I sell products on both Weebly and Zenfolio?

Yes, both platforms offer ecommerce capabilities. Weebly provides a comprehensive ecommerce solution suitable for a wide range of businesses, with features like unlimited product listings and customizable shipping options. Zenfolio, on the other hand, offers an ecommerce platform specifically designed for selling photography and visual art online, with features tailored to this niche.

Which platform offers better templates and design options?

Weebly offers a wider array of design features and templates, making it the preferred choice for users looking for creative control and versatility. Zenfolio provides customizable templates and features tailored for photographers, focusing on showcasing and selling their work, but may not offer as much versatility outside of photography-specific needs.

How do Weebly and Zenfolio compare in terms of ease of use?

Weebly is known for its user-friendly interface, scoring higher in ease of use. It’s accessible for both beginners and experienced users, with a drag-and-drop interface and WYSIWYG editing. Zenfolio, while also user-friendly, is more specialized for photographers and may have a slightly steeper learning curve for those unfamiliar with photography websites.

Which platform is more affordable, Weebly or Zenfolio?

Weebly and Zenfolio have similar pricing structures, but Zenfolio offers more significant discounts for annual billing. Weebly’s plans are versatile and cater to a range of needs, from personal websites to advanced ecommerce features. Zenfolio’s plans are tailored to photographers, with options ranging from basic portfolio sites to comprehensive business tools for professional photographers.