Since its inception, Weebly has been focused on making it as easy as possible to build your own custom website using a WYSIWYG, drag-and-drop interface. And it’s done a good job doing that — CEO David Rusenko says that based on a recent Netcraft‘s survey, Weebly powers around 2% of sites on the web.
But even though Weebly is relatively easy to use, there are still plenty of people who don’t know the first thing about putting together their own website, and who would much rather pay someone to build it for them. Which is why Weebly is launching a new Designer Platform. It’s essentially a whitelabeled version of the service, giving a designers a way to quickly build a client’s site and then to provide a CMS that the client will actually be able to use once the project is completed.
Here’s how it works: first, designers create their own account, uploading custom logos and creating additional accounts for any of their coworkers who will also have access to client pages. Then designers can set about building out their clients’ page — they can use Weebly’s standard drag-and-drop interface as usual, or they can also include custom code if they want to give the page a unique look.
Once the site is nearing completion, the designer can give access to the client (who won’t even realize that the site is running on Weebly, since it’ll be sporting the designer’s own logo). Depending on how the designer how configured the site, the client will be able to make simple tweaks (adjusting colors, fonts, etc.) using the Weebly interface. Then, once the project is complete, the client will be able to add additional content, pages, forms, and other features using Weebly’s CMS.
Pricing plans start at $7.95 per month, which includes hosting costs for the designer’s sites (prices go up the more pages and storage you use). And designers are free to charge their clients more than that.
