Webflow Review: 8 Pros & 2 Cons of Using Webflow Site Builder
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Webflow Review: 8 Pros & 2 Cons of Using Webflow Site Builder

Due to services like Webflow, website designing has reached new heights. What seemed complex a few years back, has been completely eased out by a lot of website builders.

Knowing which website builder suits your requirement requires some background knowledge about the website builder along with understanding what it offers.

One such website builder which has been increasingly popular is Webflow.

Webflow is a drag and drops website builder to build responsive websites. It was first started in 2013 and is headquartered in San Francisco, California, USA.

But, Webflow has a more unique pitch than most website builders:

What if you could combine the usability of a website builder with the power of code? And a fully featured CMS (content management system)?

So from that alone, Webflow probably sounds like a great website builder.

Which leads to questions:

What is like to actually use Webflow? Is it good? Is it suitable for YOU?

Well, hold on, before you decide if Webflow is suitable for you.

Through this review, I will unveil some of the pros and cons of the oddest website builders around.

Pros

  • loads of features provide EVERYTHING you need, including: an overall website builder; templates; content management system; ecommerce and marketing tools; and more.
  • Specifically, the design tools are very powerful and rival what you can do with code
  • wide range of plans means a lot of customer choice
  • secure host
  • easy to use, relative to powerful features
  • great performance
  • good customer support
Cons

  • limited code customization
  • plan variation may be confusing
  • more of a learning curve because of the many powerful features
  • Traffic limits on some plans

Pros of Webflow:

One of the biggest advantages with Webflow is that you can start using it for free. Well, this is free forever. A suitable place for individuals having a low budget.
webflow

WebFlow Features:

It would be appropriate to add their features as one of the pros.

Well, certainly there is a reason for this.

Its drag and drop website builder immensely supported by HTML, CSS, JavaScript is powered to build visually appealing and interactive websites which can also support animations.

However, no code is needed on your end to build your website on Webflow.

The CMS (content management system) and E-commerce supported by Webflow allow easy website designing. Similarly, the editor along with seamless web hosting capabilities makes it quicker to launch your website.

The plans include advanced SEO controls and the sites developed with Webflow are all SEO friendly.
advanced-SEO
seo-friendly

Apart from this, you get access to over 100 responsive templates. Webflow provides a REST-based API which you can use to update/add/delete items from your CMS.
plans

Plan Flexibility:

Webflow provides versatile plans. As I mentioned you have the option to choose their free plan which remains free forever. With the free plan, you can use two projects with full designing and publish on webflow.io.

But of course, you’re probably wondering about the real question: how much is Webflow, actually?

Let’s get into the real Webflow pricing. There are two types of paid plans:

The plans are divided as –

  • Site Plan – This is a basic website building
  • Account Plans – This is a more advanced website building with added features.

types-of-plan
Site plan provides 2 types of plans-

  • Website Plans
  • E-commerce plans

siteplans
There are 4 plans with the basic plan starting at $14/month.

Webflow Pricing

The E-commerce plans also contain 3 different plans, starting at $29/month.

Webflow Ecommerce Plans

This is a bit on the higher end, but overall the Webflow ecommerce price range is like other website builders, including e-commerce focused website builders.

The standard plan contains 2% transaction fees, while the other plans do not have any transaction fees.
webflow-payments
The plans support a host of marketing features with few basic and advanced level marketing support. This is available irrespective of the plan you choose.

The e-commerce plans possess a revenue cap for the first two plans.

A point to note is that the renewals are higher priced as compared to the first-time pricing.

So those three e-commerce and four “website” plans are ALL part of the first main category, of “site plans.”

While it has lot of options, the Account plans do too.

Accounts plans have 2 types of plans:

  • For In-house teams
  • For freelancers & agencies

Webflow Type of plans
In the in-house teams plan, you have one free plan along with 2 other paid plans. The plans available are as highlighted below.

Webflow In-house Team Plan

The Freelancers & Agencies there are 2 plans as highlighted below.

Webflow Freelancers & Agencies Plan

Overall the plans are affordable for the loads of features each plan offers. Given the fact that you have so many plan options, you can choose the best plan based on your website requirements.

Webflow Security:

Along with providing several features, Webflow also has appropriate basic security controls. Each plan is supported with a free SSL certificate.

All its plans include a backup and versioning.

Webflow-security

Beyond this, the complete website can be password protected and secured.

webflow-password-protection

Webflow provides enhanced security by ensuring it has the required compliance.

In addition to meeting industry security standards with ISO 27001 certification, Webflow is undergoing another audit soon.

Moreover, the payment processor Webflow uses is secure:

Webflow-security compliance

Which is essential for having a secure online store.

Ease of Use:

You might be wondering about Webflow’s ease of use.

After all, even though you don’t have to know code at all, Webflow offers so many features that it might not seem easy to use.

But the good news is that even the features Webflow offers themselves are easy to use.

There are a lot of intuitive web design features added onto Webflow’s website builder.

Your website designing only requires simple drag and drop functionality. And again, with zero code required.

webflow-editor

The website editor provides a simplistic view with all menu aligned at extreme left.

You can select an element and customize it. Webflow supports over 2000 fonts.

webflow-fonts

While I say each element can be customized, I would also mention that this in no way is basic customization. You can create some really complex customizations.

webflow-customization

So that’s why Webflow is such an impressive website builder. And although Webflow offers tons of features in the site builder, the overarching focus is on ease of use.

The huge range of features that come by default negate the need for plugins, which you would usually need on a rival CMS like WordPress, or even rival website building companies like Shopify or Wix.

However, you can still add HUNDREDS of third party applications through the app Zapier, which Webflow allows easily.

But I’ll talk more on the CMS feature later in this review. For now…

Templates:

Webflow as a website builder provides a good 100 template collections. These templates are completely mobile responsive.

You can customize this using the inbuilt Webflow’s code-free editor.

Webflow provides a list of website templates to search from.

webflow-type-of-template

The best Webflow templates do cost money.

But luckily, Webflow also provides a good collection of free templates for e-commerce, CMS, Business, and others.

It’s easy to find a template right for your specific site.

Webflow segregates each template based on the domain and presents a list of template designs.

webflow-template-collection

All in all, Webflow provides a great selection of templates. The templates work well with the site builder, and are great for making a responsive website.

Response and Uptime:

Webflow has very good uptime and is super fast. It has to be, or it wouldn’t be as successful as it is:

Webflow processes 3x more pageviews through its customers’ sites a month than CNN.com and BBC.com combined.

It’s roster of high profile clients means that Webflow is trusted with, and successfully, delivers excellent performance.

Along with uptime, Webflow also provides a good response time with fast speed support. The infrastructure used by Webflow is designed to ensure consistent, fast speed for your site.

webflow-speed example

Webflow supports the immediate scaling of resources. All plans include CDN for fast speed. While the more advanced plans include Advanced Global CDN.

That’s essential for anyone who anticipates steady site growth, or even just if you want to be ready for the moment your site explodes in popularity.

The most basic plan supports 2,50,000 site visits per month.

I have an issue with that, that I’ll get to later in this review, but it’s not big.

CMS support:

Webflow’s CMS is flawlessly integrated into the rest of the software and features.

If you used another CMS, like WordPress, you would need to connect a web host and domain, plus perhaps even buy a page builder add-on within that CMS.

You can see my review of the best WordPress alternatives for more on that topic.

Or if you used a more normal website builder with less features, you’d probably have minimal CMS features (like Wix).

You can check out my review of the best Webflow alternatives to see more on how its competitors compare. But ultimately there’s a loss of features for Webflow alternatives.

So using Webflow’s CMS is much easier to use than another CMS but also more powerful than a typical site builder.

You can quickly create a blog post, and review and manage all your other content.

Additionally, Webflow provides good CMS support.

To illustrate this better, Webflow also provides elaborate videos showcasing each feature in more detail.
webflow-cms

E-commerce support:

Webflow has an equally good support for e-commerce designing. This is not only evident from its e-commerce plans, but also from the customizations it provides in its editor for e-commerce store development.
webflow-ecommerce-support
Setting up and designing your store can be completed in a matter of a few clicks.

As with regular site editing, no code is needed.

Plus, ecommerce features include more than just ecommerce site design. Marketing tools are also included to elevate every step of your ecommerce game.

Here’s one example of this:webflow-ecommerce-email design

Customer Support:

If you ever feel lost while using Webflow, then no need to worry, since Webflow provides a huge array of resources you can review.webflow-support

One of the best things about the forum is that you can always get the latest tips and fixes.

For example, some of these important topics were last updated with information less than an hour before I typed this:Webflow-forum

The forum is a great resource, but Webflow University is the real highlight here.

Webflow university has a ton of information that basically substitutes for a knowledge base.

Just about every single aspect of making a good website, or how to use Webflow specifically, is there, a further boon to ease of use.

Apart from the host of customer support options, Webflow also provides an instant resource finder option.

instant-answers

If still, you need help, then you can also message their customer support. The customer support typically provides email responses within a few hours.

webflow-send-msg

Webflow has a good blog collection which is also informative.

webflow-send-msg

Webflow provides support with a lot of video tutorials covering each topic.

For anything else, Webflow has an FAQ section as well.

webflow-faq

Cons of Webflow:

Webflow has a lot of intuitive features, no doubts about this. But does this also have any shortcomings?

Like every other platform, Webflow does have few shortcomings, which I would highlight over here.

I will not speak about their higher renewal rates or transaction fees in the e-commerce basic plan. This is something that a lot of its competitors also incorporate.

So, what exactly are these cons?

Code Customizations:

Webflow is easy to use with its drag and drop options. However, if you are looking for complex code level customizations, then this is not possible.

While Webflow works well with its predefined templates and editor customizations, it provides minimalistic code-level customization.

Additionally, while you can export your site’s code via download, you can’t wholly import site code into Webflow.

Plans:

The plans provided by Webflow are versatile, as I have highlighted earlier. While this gives a huge choice, in several cases users may find these plans confusing.

Additionally, it can feel unnecessarily complex at first: it’s not like most rival website builders, which don’t have the same range of plans.

On first glance, it does take some time to decipher which plan is the most suitable one. Having said this, I would also like to mention that Webflow’s customer support guides you through your queries pertaining to suitable plans.

Steep learning curve:

Webflow provides a huge list of features. With a long feature list also comes a steep learning curve.

So, if you are just getting started, this may require going through multiple tutorials before actually starting to explore and use their editor.

Thanks to their good resource collection along with a number of video tutorials it eases the learning curve to a greater extent.

Additionally, as I said earlier, the website builder and CMS are ultimately intended to make web design easier.

So it gets easier to use Webflow quickly, and the learning curve doesn’t last too long, thanks to both support and a good interface.

Ultimately there’s just a natural tradeoff that happens when you’re trying to develop websites with code, but without actually writing code.

Traffic limit

While most hosts and website builders will give a number as to how much traffic a given plan can support in a month, these are usually just estimates.

In fact, most companies will say explicitly that traffic numbers are not formal limits set by the plans, just an estimate of capacity.

This is not the case with Webflow:

Webflow Pricing

However, the limits are pretty reasonable proportionate to price, features, and performance.

Do I recommend WebFlow?

In this review I looked at a lot of pros and cons.

Like others Webflow does have few cons, but nothing that is a serious concern. At the end of the day, it’s clear there’s a lot more to like about Webflow than not.

Webflow provides plans which would fit any website budget, any type of site, and a range of site requirements.

Whether you maintain a blog or informational site that requires an extensive CMS, or whether you just need the best one-page site ever–all the tools are there.

Its feature list, ease of usage, template collections, seamless editor and great customer support, are something which you just can’t miss, they stand out among website builders.

Frankly, Webflow may add some complexity its competitors don’t have, but it’s also the closest a site builder has come to giving users power of code in terms of what they can create.

If you are truly looking for a simple to use drag and drop editor which can create visually appealing site designs, then Webflow is a one-stop shop for that and much more.

But if this review sounds too good to be true, don’t take my word for it! The best way to find out if you like it…is to just try it!

Remember, you can make a site for FREE and only pay when you feel ready:webflow-free

Hope this review was helpful to you.

Happy site building!

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