New Weebly Cloud Designer Platform

[gbdigitalca]

It appears that Weebly is no longer onboarding clients to it's old Designer Platform and has replaced it with a new platform. I've been told that Legacy Accounts will be transitioned within the year but I would like to learn more about the new platform if possible. Can anyone at Weebly fill me in or is their an online resource other then sales material?

Thank you.

[Adam7]

You can get a better idea of the platform on this page of our site, @gbdigitalca:

https://www.weebly.com/industries.html

[blockbeta2]

Can we get more background on how this transition will take place? And why haven't we received any communication about it? I just happened to stumble across the new "cloud" service when logging into the "legacy" platform.

[Bernadette3]

Hi there. I don't have any information on that but you can fill out the form on the cloud page with your current account details and someone from the department will reply back to you. 

[blockbeta2]

NO ONE FROM WEEBLY IS GETTING BACK TO US. AND YES, I'M SHOUTING ON PURPOSE.

[mattnzw]

I enquired some time ago by entering my email address into the website to be contacted about the new system,  but never heard anything. But am a current design platform customer.

However looking at the new deisgner cloud system at https://www.weebly.com/cloud/webpros? it looks a lot more expensive per website, and also it isn't white labeled, nor does it allow custom branding. Yet the current Designer platform system allows both of those. The current price is about $7.95 for pro or $24.95 for business, whereas the new one is $13 for pro, and $30 for business. Not unless we pay $499 US - $1499 per year, for white label and cheaper plans.  .

I am really concerned about this. As soon as our clients see the weebly branding, they will want to know why they are paying more, when they could just buy directly from weebly, so I can't understand why the A La Carte plan isn't white labeled.

[gbdigitalca]

From what I can see you're also getting access to the app store but how limited that will be I'm not really sure. The point is it's an extra $499 (WebPro) per year I will now have to pay to get an app store where I still need to buy apps if I want to use them, access to domains which could be cool but using GoDaddy is so easy who really cares?

Also upgrading to Agency is $1499 per year and doesn't seem to offer anything more then WebPro with the exception of cheaper monthly hosting fees and unlimited staff members.

Overall I think it's going to be a better platform to build client websites but I don't think the amount being charged is justified for what's being offered.

[#8]

I'm inside Cloud and it's a lonely place. Like being inside the matrix at the train station. They treat you like you should know better and not need any help. "Submit" you ticket. Anyway, I just started up rough draft of #3 website and notice the apps I bought do not seem to transfer into other sites. IOW's, A Tesomonial Slider has to be purchased anew for every site. I plan on having clients access their sites someday but if your just building sites. I don't know its just weird.

[blockbeta2]

And basically, they're asking for $500/year for the privilege of using their platform and helping them sell customers to their platform. If this is the case, I'm out. I'll put clients on Wix, Squarespace or Wordpress. It's unfortunate, because Weebly has served me and my clients well for quite a few years now. I hope someone at GoDaddy is listening, because Weebly management never has.

[gbdigitalca]

What I'm wondering is when will the transition take place and how much time will we have to talk to our clients about the increase in hostings costs? For some clients it won't even need to be addressed but for smaller clients on limited budgets, this will be a problem and if I didn't stumble on the information I would still have no idea this was happening. Many people using the Designer platform will be completly surprised by this when it happens. Weebly should really get in front of this and let us know how the transition will go down.

[tmahada]

Thank you @gbdigitalca if it wasnt for your thread I would not have found out about this change. As developers we are stakeholders in this platform, I am really concerned because these price increases are really going to hurt smaller businesses and my ability to offer weebly as a solution. I have been using weebly since the beggining but without the cost and feature advantage it is going to be a tough sell especially because I find clients are much more informed about other competing platforms than in the past, I am finding myself making more wp, wix and squarespace sites. I would like more core functionality included in the websites for example forums, fresh themes, more core functionality that does not require the app market.

Definitely concerned, I will be checking in on this thread to see what others are thinking about these changes.

[MattDL]

I also wouldn't have known if I hadn't come across this thread purely by chance.  There hasn't been any communciation about this major change. But we also don't know how they plan to handle people on the Designer platform, apart from moving us across to the new system later this year. Will they grandfather in the previous prices etc, for existing designer platform users, and give us access to the white label service without paying a large anual fee? Currently it looks like the plans they are offering are best suited to larger companies, which have a lot of sites to absorb the annual price. But it is very difficult to scale up to that size if we can't start off with a white label service to begin with.  I don't have many sites using it currently, so couldn't justify the annual price as spliting that cost across the sites would be very large. The white label service designer platform is the sole reason I choose this system over the other main ones. I don't really care about access to apps, as many of those are addon are additional costs anyway, and IMO I would prefer some of the features in apps to be core features of the platform, instead of having to use a third party. I just hope Weebly look after us with this and listens to feedback from users like us.

[gbdigitalca · Accepted solution]

UPDATE: I contacted Weebly Support over the phone and they put me in touch with someone via email. I asked the following questions and got the following responses:

1) when is the transition going to move forward?

- We will be reaching out later this year to migrate you to the new Weebly Cloud platform. We are actively working on it and will keep you updated on when it's coming up.

2) how much time (advanced notice) will we have to select a plan and speak with clients regarding new pricing?

- Your pricing would be grandfathered in so that won't change. You will also have access the App Center and the addition of the Performance Plan at no additional cost.You can view the Performance Plan here- https://www.weebly.com/pricing on the Online Store area. That is the top e-com plan we offer. It is not available on the Designer Platform at this time, but will be available on Cloud Designer Platform.

It seems as though they will be taking care of the grandfathered accounts. I'm personally happy with this outcome.

[MattDL]

That sounds somewhat reassuring. Athough I am not sure what the Performance plan is, as from what I can see, there are 3 new plans, and only 2 are white label, which are the WebPro or Agency plan.

[gbdigitalca]

@MattDL click on this link https://www.weebly.com/ca/pricing and select "For Online Stores" and you will see the performance plan. It is the most robust plan they have to offer and I can confirm based on my back and fourth communication with Kristen (on the transition team at Weebly) the white labeling will be included. In terms of WebPro or Agency I am not sure.

[blockbeta2]

I for one would appreciate some direct messaging around the idea that our accounts and pricing will be grandfathered in -- I need to know if I should keep adding clients to Weebly or move to another platform. Weebly really needs to step up their communications. Their behavior builds very little confidence in their service.

[MattDL]

The other thing is whether new websites that we add to the platform after the change, whether they would also have the old pricing honoured.

[momzilla54]

I, too, came upon this thread by chance.  

I'm not clear on the "grandfathering" process, and I also want to know if third party Weebly themes can be used on the new cloud designer platform.

[Bernadette3]

Hey guys. Thank you for all of the feedback on this thread! I'm not sure why we were not alerted of new posts until today. Apologies if it seemed we were not paying attention or ignoring you all!

The best place to receive this information is going to be directly from the Cloud team as @gbdigitalca was able to do. I'll see what I do about getting some more clarification regarding the pricing and features. 

[julene]

Ahhhgh! Another 5 year Designer Platform user finding out about this because I can't login to my Designer Platform to edit sites. Only when searching to see if anyone else was having problems did I find this thread.

UNACCEPTABLE!

Why are the biggest supporters of Weebly being treated with so little respect. We have built companies, and trained clients on your platform. I would have thought this is the customer base you would reach out to FIRST! To get this information when the system is breaking is just bad form. 

So

PROBLEM #1 : I need access to my client sites! ASAP. No Designer Tab on my login anymore. I've checked on 3 different browsers.  Your great at sending out monthly invoices, but not so great sending out information critical to my business.

PROBLEM #2 I need to know what to charge new clients and when to start charging old clients new rates.

PROBLEM #3  I may have to convert every client to a new platform and will certainly do it if I don't start getting answers and access.

[blockbeta2]

Everything you said...I couldn't agree more. Just got off the phone with a customer rep, because I was having trouble getting into my sites as well. They're sending me an "application form" for the new Designer account. Why aren't we just be added? I have no idea. I gave the rep an earful about all the things Weebly should be doing; and not focusing so much on ecomm. Shopify has them so beat on that.