Is Webflow Right for Your Business? Webflow vs Wix, Wordpress & More

Intro To Webflow

Whether your business needs its first website, or it’s time for a design overhaul of an existing one, addressing which web design platform your business will use for the foreseeable future can be a daunting task. With many options out there, all with vastly different prices, feature sets and limitations, it’s important that you find a system that aligns with your business’ web needs. In this article, we explore a strong (and relatively new) candidate for your next website CMS called Webflow. We’ll address its ups and downs and find out whether Webflow is the right fit for your business.

Comparing Web Development Platforms

For the purpose of this article, we can isolate some of the major platforms into 3 categories, each with varying balances of user-friendliness and advanced functionality. Though there are many options out there, we are going to focus on some of the more notable names including Wix, Squarespace, WordPress, and of course, Webflow.

Easiest to use (Wix & Squarespace)

In the first category, we have simpler, template-driven platforms such as Wix and Squarespace that allow the everyday business owner the ability to create a website through a fairly simplistic drag and drop environment. Though these systems are fairly simple to operate and often come at a lower price point, they have significant limitations in terms of custom design and functionality.  

Design

Through a drag-and-drop web building experience, business owners can begin with a pre-developed template and simply move content, resize headings, adjust colours and typography, and upload their own images with ease. However, though the areas that Wix and Squarespace let you edit are easy to do so, any areas they do not allow you to manage are either difficult to adjust or simply not possible. If you’re happy working within the confines of the template you choose, either Wix or Squarespace can be a great option, however larger more unique sites will struggle to present a more brand-driven design.

Back-End

These platforms work on a cloud-based hosting setup that Squarespace or Wix manage themselves. In terms of security, firewalls and server upkeep, the platform itself holds this responsibility, allowing you to focus on the website’s look and content exclusively. This can be a relief to less "tech-friendly" business owners who don’t want to manage the more daunting sides of web development themselves. However, business owners who require a more hands-on approach to server and site management, are working with comprehensive databases, or rely on unique plugins, will not be able to access or control these areas directly.

Advanced (WordPress)

In sharp contrast to design tools like Wix and Squarespace, more advanced options, namely, WordPress, allow for deeper functionality through plugin-based technologies. Platforms like WordPress let you host your own website on your own server, allowing you to manage your hosting more directly, install your own firewall and ultimately have a far more hands-on experience with your website’s back-end.

Design

WordPress uses a similar “template-like” system called “themes” that allows you to build within the confines of custom-built or likely pre-created design frameworks to expand your website. Though WordPress allows designers to build far more unique themes than those found in Wix or Squarespace, business owners are often quite limited in terms of what they can design/edit themselves once their designer hands them the keys to their website.

Back-End

With the technical know-how to install, set up and manage WordPress, more tech-friendly business owners will have far more access to their back-end than the other categories. Managing files, connecting databases, and installing plugins and firewalls are all possible with a WordPress setup. For some, this is a big advantage, allowing for more control and customization. For others, this sounds like a lot of tech-jargon that may be overwhelming.

Balanced (Webflow)

Disclaimer: Though there are a few platforms in 2024 that could fit under this category, possibly including Framer, Wix Studio and Elementor, these platforms either share similar limitations or don’t include some of the major features Webflow offers. For this purpose, we’re focusing on Webflow as the primary alternative, though we encourage you to explore those options as well.

For a more balanced approach, no-code tools such as Webflow offer a more modern approach to web design and website management. With a no-code visual canvas, Webflow allows business owners and web designers a virtually limitless design experience, pulling directly from the semantics used to create custom coded websites. Utilizing a similar cloud-based hosting system to Wix and Squarespace, Webflow saves business owners the hassle of maintaining their own server.

Design

Webflow’s design capabilities are what makes no-code platforms a standout in today’s internet landscape. Though Webflow does offer a large template library to build from, users are not limited to templates and themes. Webflow’s visual canvas provides a hybrid development experience combining dragging and dropping with advanced editing features to get a pixel-perfect, brand-driven website. With no technical experience, Webflow does require a fairly steep learning curve, however their expansive Webflow University has you covered from the basics through to advanced building techniques.

Back-End

Webflow’s back-end works similarly to Wix and Squarespace, letting the platform manage the more complicated areas of web development including server management, SSL certification, firewalls and spam protection. Similarly to our “Easiest to use” category, this can be a huge benefit to business owners who want to focus specifically on their website’s look and functionality, without having to worry about the technical side. That said, those more familiar with an in-house approach like WordPress may dislike the lack of control in this department.

Working Solo VS Through an Agency

Deciding what’s the right web development platform for your business largely depends on whether you’re looking to build your website yourself, or if you’re hiring a web design agency to build it for you. Furthermore, the nature of your relationship with your web design team (i.e. Are they in-house? Are they on-call for future-updates and management? etc.) should also weigh into your choice.  

I’m building my own website

If you’re building your website yourself, the main points of interest are typically price and ease-of-use. Almost all web development platforms charge a monthly bill which can vary heavily depending on the system you choose. In the case of Webflow, their tiered pricing is certainly not the cheapest (comparatively to Wix or Squarespace) however their price based on the value of the platform is fairly competitive to others in its space. With that said, if you’re building your own website and don’t plan to utilize Webflow’s full feature set, their pricing model may be a bit expensive for a basic site.  

When it comes to ease of use, many parts of Webflow are far less confusing than those who venture into the world of WordPress. Without the need to manage your own servers and security, Webflow’s back-end is fairly seamless, making it a great option to explore for self-designers. With that said, Webflow’s comprehensive designing experience may be a bit overwhelming for someone with little technical experience. Unlike Squarespace for instance, where site components are more or less pre-created, Webflow requires you to map out every element on the page. In other words, a “designers dream” but a “non-techy’s nightmare”. All in all, those with time and interest to explore Webflow’s building environment will love the limitless design possibilities, but if time and budget are your main concerns, you may want to look elsewhere.

I’m hiring a web design agency

Though price and ease-of-use are important, businesses looking to hire a web design agency are likely to value other factors like design quality, site performance, conversion-metrics and scalability above all else.

In short, Webflow shines best through the support of a qualified web design agency.  

Breaking through the boundaries of most website builders like Wix or Squarespace, and avoiding the unnecessary technical requirements of WordPress, Webflow serves as an excellent no-code alternative in the web design platform space.  

Highlights For You & Web Designers:

Fast & Functional

Experienced agencies can leverage Webflow’s native performance and SEO benefits, along with their unique, fast and user-friendly development tools to build and launch websites that look great and don’t rely on 3^rd party plugins for advanced functionality.  

Brand-Driven Design

Your website is often your first point of contact with your customer. Template-based websites where you’re limited to changing colours, swapping images and tossing in your logo leave your website looking like a carbon copy of every other business using a similar template. One of, if not the largest benefits of Webflow is its foundation for custom design. Experienced agencies developing through Webflow can utilize Webflow’s unique visual canvas to achieve virtually any design you’re hoping to see.

Site Launch & Client Access

Once your website is ready for launch, Webflow makes it easy for your agency to hand the keys to you, the client. Making changes to your site is a breeze, even for the less technical business owner through Webflow’s 3 levels of editing access, as outlined in the next section below.  

What Makes Webflow Unique?

No-Code Visual Canvas

Create custom website designs through a hybrid drag-and-drop style development environment. Add elements to your webpage, and style them exactly how you’d like through Webflow’s style panel.

3 Levels of Editing Access

Edit: Change images, edit text and create new “collection” items such as blog posts, products, listings and more.

Build: Develop new pages from pre-created components provided to you by your web design team, allowing you to expand your site, but maintain your brand.

Design: Fully develop and launch your website through Webflow’s powerful visual canvas.

Webflow University

Introduce yourself to the basics or dive deep into the advanced functionality Webflow has to offer through Webflow’s comprehensive university, providing guides and videos on almost everything the platform can do.

Interactions/Animations

From mouse hover to click and scroll animations, Webflow’s “Interactions” allow you to animate elements of your website without a deep understanding of code. Many website design platforms miss the mark in this area entirely, allowing only for very basic animations.

SEO Friendly Production

Unlike most web design tools, Webflow websites produce extremely “clean code” that is far more accessible for search engines to understand. This in turn results in a boost to visibility in regard to search engine optimization.  

Code Export

Webflow uniquely offers the ability to export your entire website as clean, production-ready code. Though you may never need to use this feature if you plan to host with Webflow directly, the option to do so means that the website you create through their platform is completely custom and entirely your own.  

Where Does Webflow Fall Short?

Through our experience, Webflow has shined in many categories compared to its competitors. However, a truthfully thorough breakdown of where and when businesses should consider Webflow requires a list of its drawbacks to help identify both the best and worst use-cases for this platform.

E-Commerce

Though almost any service-based business can utilize all the bells and whistles Webflow has to offer, e-commerce-based businesses on the other hand will likely be disappointed with Webflow’s limited functionality in this department. Outside of general maintenance, Webflow hasn’t released any new e-commerce-related features in quite some time, signaling their disinterest in improving upon a relatively bare feature-set compared to other competitors in this area, mainly Shopify or Big Commerce.

Membership-Based Websites

A few years ago, Webflow introduced an in-house membership/login experience for businesses that require a member-based website, however they have since almost entirely abandoned this feature, offering no additional upgrades since. It’s extremely limited membership system offers very little personalization and isn’t entirely scalable. Though it’s simply our speculation, it’s possible that Webflow eventually sunsets this feature entirely. That said, powerful membership-based sites are certainly achievable by combining Webflow with 3^rd party systems like MemberStack.

Form Functionality

Web forms play an important role in capturing your customer’s data via contact, quote or newsletter forms. Though the basics of building these forms is entirely possible through Webflow, there are a few areas that Webflow has yet to improve upon at the time this article is being written. One of which is that all web forms on your website must be submitted to the same person or group of people. For instance, should you have different departments where various web forms should submit to, this functionality would require third party help through systems like Zapier. In other words, you cannot natively send different web forms to different email addresses.

Pricing Tier Limitations

Webflow offers different pricing tiers based on the functionality your website requires. Some of the items that differentiate price from each tier are: number of monthly form submissions, bandwidth usage, number of collection items, etc. Most small businesses can utilize the smaller more affordable pricing tiers, however in 2024, Webflow lowered some of the usage limits for various categories, resulting in some businesses needing to upgrade their plan to a higher tier. Additionally, some seemingly basic features require a more expensive plan than necessary, specifically the “file upload feature” which requires a Business plan or hire to use.

Summing Up

All in all, Webflow is a tremendous web development platform that has pioneered the way websites are built, launched and managed over the last decade. But like any great product, it does have an ideal audience. Through our experience, here is who we think will best benefit from Webflow, vs those who should maybe consider other options.

Who Should Avoid Webflow?

• E-commerce businesses

• Businesses that require webpages with member-only content

• Single-person businesses

Who Do We Recommend Webflow for?

Those who are looking to hire an agency with experience using Webflow will benefit significantly from the SEO, performance, design and scalability features the platform has to offer. Though this list certainly won’t cover everyone, here are some industries we know from our experience thrive on Webflow:

• Construction

• Oil & Gas

• Healthcare & Wellness

• Contractors

• Fitness Studios

• Automotive & Transportation

• Restaurants

• B2B Services

• Home Services

• Golf Courses & Sport Facilities

• Weddings & Events

• Law Firms

• Accounting Firms

• Real Estate  

• Government

• Agriculture

• Entertainment

How Do I Get Started with Webflow?

Getting started with Webflow is very easy. If you’re building your website yourself, you can head over to webflow.com and click the button labelled “Get Started” to walk through setting up your Webflow workspace. If you’re looking to hire an agency, a simple Google search for “Webflow Web Design Agencies” should give you some options, or please feel free to connect with our web design team here at Fairway. We are a web design agency with over 10 years of Webflow development experience. We’d love to help you with your next project!