Webflow promises professional websites without code. After building multiple production sites, here's whether it lives up to the promise.
What is Webflow?
Webflow is a visual web design tool that generates clean HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. It combines the power of code with the ease of drag-and-drop, targeting designers and non-technical founders.
Pricing Breakdown
Site Plans (per site)
- Basic: $14/month (custom domain, 25K monthly visits)
- CMS: $23/month (2K CMS items, 100K monthly visits)
- Business: $39/month (10K CMS items, better performance)
- Enterprise: Custom pricing
Workspace Plans (for teams)
- Free: 2 unhosted projects
- Core: $19/seat/month
- Growth: $49/seat/month
E-commerce
- Standard: $29/month (500 items, 2% transaction fee)
- Plus: $74/month (1K items, 0% transaction fee)
- Advanced: $212/month (3K items, enterprise features)
Real cost: For a startup with 3 sites:
- Marketing site: $23/month (CMS)
- Blog: $23/month (CMS)
- Workspace: $19/seat × 2 = $38/month
- Total: ~$84/month
Design Capabilities
We tested by recreating complex designs:
Layout control: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Flexbox and Grid built-in. Precise control over every element.
Responsive design: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Breakpoints for tablet, mobile landscape, and mobile portrait. Design for each independently.
Animations: ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Powerful interactions and animations without code. Some learning curve.
Custom code: ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Can add HTML, CSS, JavaScript when needed. Good escape hatch.
Typography: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Full control over fonts, including Google Fonts and custom uploads.
Components: ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Reusable components (symbols) work well but less powerful than modern frameworks.
Performance Testing
We built identical sites on Webflow and Next.js:
Page load times (homepage, 5 locations avg)
- Webflow: 1.2s
- Next.js (Vercel): 0.8s
- WordPress: 2.5s
Lighthouse scores (Webflow site)
- Performance: 85/100
- Accessibility: 92/100
- Best Practices: 95/100
- SEO: 100/100
Observations:
- Clean code output
- Good but not exceptional performance
- Some unnecessary CSS bloat
- Images auto-optimized
CMS Features
Webflow's CMS is surprisingly powerful:
Collections
Structure content with custom fields. Similar to Notion databases.
Reference fields
Link collections together for relational data.
Multi-reference
Many-to-many relationships (e.g., posts to categories).
Rich text
Formatted content with embedded images and videos.
API access
Read/write via API for headless CMS use cases.
Limitations:
- 10K items max on Business plan
- No advanced queries or filtering
- No user authentication built-in
E-commerce Testing
We launched a small store:
Product management: ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Easy to add products with variants, images, descriptions.
Checkout experience: ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Clean, customizable checkout. Stripe integration works well.
Inventory management: ⭐⭐⭐
Basic tracking. No advanced warehouse features.
Shipping: ⭐⭐⭐
Zone-based rates work but manual setup is tedious.
Analytics: ⭐⭐⭐
Basic sales reports. Need Google Analytics for detailed insights.
Verdict on e-commerce: Good for <100 products. Beyond that, use Shopify.
Pros
✅ Design freedom: Build exactly what you envision without code constraints
✅ Clean code output: Semantic HTML and organized CSS
✅ SEO-friendly: Full control over meta tags, sitemaps, 301 redirects
✅ Responsive design: True multi-device design control
✅ CMS capabilities: Powerful for content-driven sites
✅ Hosting included: No need to manage servers
✅ SSL automatic: HTTPS enabled by default
Cons
❌ Learning curve: Steep for non-designers. Requires understanding HTML/CSS concepts
❌ Cost: Expensive if running multiple sites
❌ Performance: Good but not best-in-class
❌ Vendor lock-in: Hard to export and move elsewhere
❌ CMS limitations: Not suitable for complex data models
❌ No user accounts: Can't build member-only sections natively
❌ Form limits: Basic forms only; complex logic requires integrations
Real-World Build: SaaS Marketing Site
We built a complete marketing site:
Scope:
- Homepage
- 3 feature pages
- Pricing page
- Blog (20 posts)
- Contact form
Time investment:
- Design in Figma: 3 days
- Build in Webflow: 2 days
- Content entry: 1 day
- Total: 6 days
Result: Professional site that would cost $10K+ from an agency.
Performance:
- Lighthouse: 88/100
- Monthly visitors: 15K
- Load time: 1.1s
- Zero downtime
Comparison to Alternatives
vs. Squarespace
- Webflow has more design control
- Squarespace is easier for beginners
- Similar pricing
- Webflow better for custom designs
vs. WordPress
- Webflow is cleaner and faster
- WordPress has more plugins/features
- WordPress is cheaper (but needs hosting)
- Webflow has better design experience
vs. Framer
- Framer is easier for designers
- Webflow has more powerful CMS
- Framer is better for prototypes
- Webflow is better for production
vs. Custom code
- Code is more flexible
- Webflow is much faster to build
- Code has better performance
- Webflow is easier to maintain
When to Use Webflow
Perfect for:
- Marketing websites
- Landing pages
- Portfolio sites
- Content-driven blogs
- Small e-commerce (<100 products)
- Agency client sites
Not ideal for:
- Web applications
- User authentication systems
- Complex data relationships
- High-traffic sites (>500K/month)
- Real-time features
- Backend-heavy projects
Webflow University
Webflow's free learning platform is exceptional:
Content:
- 200+ video tutorials
- Courses on HTML, CSS, CMS
- Advanced interactions training
- Certification programs
Quality: Better than most paid courses.
Time to proficiency: 20-40 hours to become productive.
Common Mistakes
Over-complicating structure
Keep class names simple. Avoid nesting too deeply.
Ignoring interactions
Animations make sites feel premium. Learn the basics.
Not using components
Create reusable symbols for navigation, footers, CTAs.
Poor mobile design
Design mobile-first or at least test thoroughly.
Forgetting SEO
Set meta descriptions, image alt tags, and page titles.
Integrations That Matter
Zapier
Connect forms to 5,000+ apps without code.
Memberstack
Add user authentication and gated content.
Finsweet
Powerful attributes for advanced functionality.
Jetboost
Real-time filtering and search for CMS content.
Make (Integromat)
Complex automation workflows.
The Verdict
Rating: 8.5/10
Webflow excels at what it promises: professional websites without code. The design control is unmatched among no-code tools, and the output is clean and professional.
However, the learning curve is real, and costs add up quickly. It's not truly "no-code" for non-designers—you need to understand web design fundamentals.
Highly recommended for:
- Designers who don't want to code
- Agencies building client sites
- Startups needing custom marketing sites
- Content creators with design skills
- Anyone willing to invest time learning
Consider alternatives if:
- You need a site in hours, not days
- You're building an application, not a website
- Budget is extremely tight
- You need advanced backend features
- You want truly zero learning curve
Webflow sits in a sweet spot: more powerful than Squarespace, easier than code. For content-driven sites with custom designs, it's hard to beat.
