Whenever you’re constructing web sites for a dwelling, you need to be sure to decide the suitable software for the job. We’re evaluating Webflow vs WordPress on this article that will help you resolve between two of the preferred website-building platforms.
Each options provide highly effective options however take very completely different approaches to web site constructing and design. We’ll look at key areas like setup, consumer expertise, design flexibility, efficiency, safety, Website positioning, and pricing. The objective is that will help you perceive which platform higher suits your and your purchasers’ wants.
What’s Webflow?
Webflow is a SaaS platform that mixes visible design instruments, content material administration, and internet hosting into one streamlined web site builder.
Amongst content material administration programs, Webflow has a market share of 1.2% and powers 0.8% of all web sites.
What’s WordPress?
WordPress is the preferred software program resolution for web site constructing. Free, open supply, and initially constructed for running a blog, WordPress has developed into a versatile CMS able to powering every part from portfolios and enterprise websites to ecommerce shops and enterprise purposes.
WordPress delivers a lean core product you can lengthen and customise on demand due to themes and plugins created by its large group. WordPress’ market share is 43% of all web sites globally and 61.3% amongst CMSs, with a big lead over its subsequent opponents.
WordPress vs Webflow: key variations
This part breaks down vital variations between the 2 platforms. Strapped for time? Right here’s every part that you must know in a single helpful desk:
| Webflow | WordPress | |
| Setup | No set up required | One-click set up with most hosts |
| Consumer friendliness and onboarding | Intuitive for designers, however has a steeper studying curve for non-technical customers | Consumer-friendly dashboard and Block Editor for each newcomers and superior customers |
| Design | 6,000+ principally paid templates, highly effective editor geared in direction of designers and builders | 13,000+ themes customizable through block-based editor, plugin extensions, and customized code |
| Flexibility and extensibility | Helps customized code and third-party integrations with round 300 apps within the market | 60,000+ plugins, help for all web site varieties, headless setups, and full customized code entry |
| Content material administration | CMS is a paid characteristic and helps visible modifying, much less fitted to high-volume publishing | Constructed for content material creation with a strong editor, revision historical past, scheduling, and taxonomy instruments |
| Efficiency | CDN-backed internet hosting and picture optimization are inbuilt with restricted efficiency controls | Efficiency and management over optimization depends upon internet hosting and setup |
| Safety | Updates, SSL, DDoS safety, and backups are dealt with by Webflow | Safety is as much as the consumer and managed through updates, plugins, and your internet hosting supplier |
| Collaboration | A number of consumer roles, however consumer limits and added price for group options | Limitless customers with customized roles and plugins can be found for superior collaboration |
| Website positioning | Primary Website positioning instruments inbuilt, metadata is pattern-based, and restricted management with out code | Full Website positioning management, plugins for schema, metadata, and analytics |
| Developer options | Robust frontend instruments and restricted backend entry with no server entry | Full code and database entry, helps code customizations, CLI, headless setups, and native growth |
| Scalability | Content material and bandwidth limits primarily based in your plan, with larger prices as your web site grows | Scales with internet hosting, content material and bandwidth limits primarily based on host, and enterprise-capable |
| Upkeep | All upkeep is dealt with by Webflow | Guide updates on self-hosted websites, and automatic with managed internet hosting |
| Assist and group | Electronic mail help, boards, tutorials, and AI assistant can be found | Huge world group and help construction, plus internet hosting supplier help |
| Ecommerce | Primary ecommerce for bodily/digital merchandise and restricted cost choices with larger charges | Helps all retailer varieties and monetization through plugins, and helps world funds |
| Pricing | Complicated pricing construction with separate web site/workspace plans, and prices add up shortly | A free software program, so prices rely upon internet hosting, themes, and plugins |
1. Setup
As a result of Webflow is a SaaS platform, it doesn’t want any set up. You simply enroll and might begin constructing web sites straight away, together with the choice to purchase a website and robotically join it to your web site.
If you happen to use self-hosted WordPress, you need to buy internet hosting and a website, join the 2, obtain WordPress, and set it up within the internet area with the well-known five-minute set up.
In actuality, most suppliers now provide one-click computerized installs for WordPress, so you possibly can forgo the guide setup course of.
For instance, in the event you get internet hosting via WordPress.com, you robotically land within the again finish of your readymade web site.
As well as, you should purchase a website via WordPress.com, and we’ll robotically join it to your web site and account. Annual plans even embody a free area for the primary 12 months.
2. Consumer friendliness and consumer onboarding
If you happen to’re a designer or developer who’s used to working with structure instruments, you’ll really feel proper at dwelling in Webflow’s visible editor. It lets you create structure components, assign lessons to them, and magnificence them utilizing acquainted CSS properties.
Whereas that is nice for folks with CSS and internet design expertise, it might be a studying curve for purchasers or content material editors with out such data. Whereas Webflow has an automatic tutorial and AI-powered studying assistant, much less technically inclined purchasers might wrestle.
If you happen to examine Webflow to WordPress, the latter is understood for being user-friendly for newcomers and skilled customers alike. Its dashboard gives quick access to the menus for creating posts and pages, making design modifications, or modifying settings.
On the similar time, the WordPress Block Editor gives highly effective instruments to change your web site design and create multimedia content material.
As a developer, you need to use it to make total web sites with out a single line of code, from navigation menus to headers, footers, and media administration.
That stated, the flexibleness of utilizing code to create websites, themes, or plugins is at your disposal as effectively.
3. Design choices
To enrich its visible editor, Webflow provides 6,000+ templates, about 50 of that are free.
You should use them as beginning factors on your web site and modify them to suit your wants. Nonetheless, you possibly can’t apply a brand new template to present content material; you would need to begin a brand new venture as an alternative.
For constructing out your pages, Webflow provides 20+ customizable components and layouts from containers and sections to headings, textual content, buttons, pictures, animations, headers, footers, and galleries.
You may outline properties like peak, orientation, padding, margins, backgrounds, and borders, in addition to implement styling modifications in cellular design.
You even have the flexibility to create reusable parts, referred to as “collections,” for issues like weblog posts, and you may export Webflow markup to make use of elsewhere.
In WordPress, you most frequently begin with one of many 13,000+ free responsive themes. They exist for a lot of particular niches—like blogs, portfolios, and enterprise websites—making it simple to start with a tailor-made look.
You may change themes at any time on present web sites to change their design whereas preserving content material.
Themes are additionally absolutely customizable. You may change primary styling like fonts, font kinds, background colours, and coloration palettes within the Website Editor with a number of clicks. Many themes additionally include variations inbuilt.
Web page templates let you outline and customise layouts and designs for various kinds of content material.
On the similar time, block patterns let you drag and drop frequent design parts with a number of clicks.
As well as, you possibly can add structure components and customise them individually, each within the sitewide editor and for particular person posts and pages. That features the flexibility to edit HTML instantly or use the customized HTML block.
Design capabilities might be prolonged with plugins, third-party themes, or customized code.
4. Flexibility and extensibility
To transcend Webflow’s built-in options, you possibly can embed customized code or combine third-party instruments like varieties, social feeds, or chat widgets.
Once more, these are nice decisions for builders; nonetheless, they is likely to be past the technical capabilities of purchasers or finish customers. Webflow additionally has a market for apps, integrations, and APIs for instruments like Hubspot, Typeform, or Occasions Calendar. There are round 300 choices, each paid and free.
In distinction, WordPress provides almost 60,000 free plugins for just about any function, be it electronic mail advertising and marketing, type constructing, or social media sharing.
Its huge ecosystem provides WordPress the flexibleness to construct something from private web sites, membership websites, on-line outlets, and boards to one-page websites, meals blogs, and plenty of different forms of web sites. And each you and your purchasers can handle all of it conveniently from the WordPress dashboard.
Moreover, headless WordPress lets you construct customized entrance ends together with your favourite JavaScript framework and use the content material administration energy of WordPress within the backend.
5. Content material administration
Webflow features a CMS possibility, and like the primary editor, it lets you edit content material in or exterior the visible canvas.
This setup makes it simple to make primary updates and is nice for design however might be cumbersome for pure content material creation and fewer intuitive for large-scale publishing. To make use of it, you want not less than the CMS plan, which is at present $29/month and has limits on how a lot content material you possibly can retailer in your web site.
WordPress, then again, was constructed for content-centered web sites and stays unmatched on this space.
Its content material editor is a default characteristic and allows you to insert textual content, pictures, media embeds, and anything you or your purchasers must write high-quality weblog posts.
Use the revision historical past, schedule posts forward of time, and manage content material utilizing classes, tags, and customized taxonomies to make them simple to search out and rank for related key phrases. There are additionally plugins for superior editorial workflows.
Briefly, if content material is a central a part of your web site venture’s advertising and marketing technique, WordPress has the instruments you want. Plus, in the event you host with WordPress.com, we provide much more methods that will help you develop your site visitors.
6. Efficiency
Webflow provides out-of-the-box efficiency optimization. Their internet hosting is CDN-backed and provides picture optimization, nevertheless it gives restricted management past that.
With self-hosted WordPress, efficiency depends upon your internet hosting supplier, performance-enhancing plugins, and web site structure. Since WordPress is an open supply software program, you might have entry to all components of the software program, which means you possibly can tinker with each side of web site efficiency.
Alternatively, you even have the choice to relinquish pace optimization to a managed internet hosting supplier. For instance, with WordPress.com internet hosting, you profit from optimized servers, caching, quick themes, and a CDN. Enterprise and Commerce plans may benefit from the Website Accelerator.
7. Safety
As a hosted resolution, Webflow takes care of safety. That features SSL encryption, DDoS and bot safety, vulnerability scanning, backups, and software program updates. That stated, they provide customers little management over safety settings.
With a self-hosted WordPress web site, web site safety is a part of your duties. Along with utilizing sturdy usernames and passwords, this consists of putting in software program updates for WordPress itself, its themes and plugins, in addition to doing backups. Devoted safety plugins are additionally obtainable.
With a managed internet hosting plan from WordPress.com, software program updates, SSL, computerized backups, firewalls, DDoS safety, and each day malware scans are all included. On larger plans, you additionally get entry to one-click restores.
8. Collaboration
Webflow has plenty of options to enhance collaboration. Its design, construct, edit, remark, and think about modes enable customers to entry completely different components of an internet site and work on them individually. You may as well department pages into separate variations and merge them later.
You must remember, nonetheless, that the variety of customers who can work in your web site is restricted, and including sure consumer varieties might price additional.
In distinction, on WordPress, you possibly can create limitless web site customers without cost and assign them consumer roles with clearly outlined permissions.
WordPress consumer roles allow groups to collaborate on web site design, performance, and content material with out interfering with each other whereas giving purchasers as a lot or as little entry as they want. As well as, there are plugins obtainable for added collaboration options.
9. Website positioning
Webflow’s built-in Website positioning instruments embody computerized sitemaps, redirects, and the flexibility to set picture alt textual content, web page titles, and meta descriptions.
Code options, like manually including schema markup to the header, are additionally potential. Whereas these workflows are tremendous for builders, they will depart entrepreneurs and content material creators wanting. Webflow additionally provides Website positioning add-ons to see insights into your web site efficiency.
WordPress is extraordinarily Website positioning-friendly and customizable. It provides you full management over permalink construction, the flexibility to set picture alt textual content within the editor by default, and, for websites hosted on WordPress.com, you possibly can customise title tags and meta descriptions for all content material out of the field.
There are additionally many free Website positioning plugins that make issues like schema markup implementation, on-page Website positioning evaluation, and metadata customization obtainable within the backend. Extra info might be present in our important information to WordPress Website positioning.
10. Developer options
Webflow is nice for frontend designers however restricted when it comes to backend and database management.
In distinction, WordPress provides full entry to the codebase, database, and server setting. It helps customizations through PHP, WP-CLI, and headless setups, making it extremely versatile for growth workflows.
Developer options like GitHub deployments, customized code, SFTP, and database entry can be found on WordPress.com’s Enterprise and Commerce plans. There’s additionally Studio, our native, free, and open supply growth software.
11. Scalability
You may scale Webflow web sites, however the platform’s plans all include content material and bandwidth limits. Which means internet hosting will get costlier the extra your web site grows and the extra site visitors it attracts. Although nice for static web sites, it’s more durable to scale content-heavy websites on Webflow.
As an open supply platform, WordPress doesn’t have these limitations. With the suitable internet hosting setting, it scales into something from private blogs to enterprise-level platforms. That stated, many hosts enact site visitors and bandwidth limits throughout their plans.
If you wish to begin off on the suitable foot, WordPress.com internet hosting provides unmetered site visitors, limitless bandwidth, automated burst scaling, automated information middle failover, and excessive uptime throughout all plans.
12. Upkeep
As a SaaS providing, Webflow handles all software program updates, internet hosting, and backups.
Self-hosted WordPress requires customers to handle these manually, together with core, plugin, and theme updates. Alternatively, you can even outsource web site upkeep to a managed internet hosting supplier.
WordPress.com web sites are saved updated robotically except you manually disable this characteristic. As talked about, computerized backups are additionally a part of each plan.
13. Assist and group
In addition to its AI studying assistant, Webflow provides email-based help together with documentation and video tutorials. There may be additionally a group discussion board you possibly can flip to.
WordPress has a large world group. In addition to the official help boards, you could find tutorials, weblog articles, and movies on virtually any subject or problem. Common occasions, like WordCamps, meetups, and on-line conferences, let you meet and work together with hundreds of different WordPress customers.
Lastly, you possibly can flip to your internet hosting’s help. At WordPress.com, that features stay chat and electronic mail, on-line boards, video programs, and a complete data base.
14. Ecommerce
Webflow has built-in ecommerce options to promote bodily items, companies, and digital downloads. As a way to use them, that you must be on Webflow internet hosting and not less than the usual plan (at present $29/month), which features a 2% transaction price and solely a handful of cost processors.
WordPress provides full ecommerce performance via WooCommerce and different ecommerce plugins. These help digital and bodily merchandise, subscriptions, membership websites, tax guidelines, delivery, and world cost choices.
15. Pricing
Pricing is usually a bit difficult to determine in Webflow. It provides two various kinds of plans:
- Website Plans: You want this to create web sites and publish them.
- Workspace Plans: Required to handle your web site and unlock further options.
For instance, a Workspace helps limitless websites however limits you to a sure variety of pages, CMS objects, and customers per web site. The variety of Website Plans determines what number of web sites you possibly can publish and, amongst different issues, your bandwidth allotment. Costs additionally differ primarily based in your want for ecommerce performance or group utilization.
Right here’s a fast overview of present costs for Webflow’s annual plans:
- Normal web site plans ($14-$39/month)
- eCommerce web site plans ($29-$212/month)
- Group workspace plans ($19-$49/month)
- Freelancer and company workspace plans ($16-$35/month)
- Enterprise plan costs (obtainable on request)
There are additionally additional prices if you’d like further customers/seats on your workspaces:
- Evaluate/remark seats (free)
- Restricted seat for CMS entry ($15/month)
- Full seat for design/growth ($39/month)
You may additionally encounter added prices for issues like paid Webflow templates ($49-$79) or extensions. Briefly, you must be actually clear about what precisely you want on your web site venture; in any other case, prices can add up shortly in the event you’re not cautious.
WordPress itself is open supply and thus free to make use of. Typical prices you must calculate with past which might be:
- Area (~$10-$20/12 months)
- Internet hosting (~$5-$15/month)
- Theme (~$30-$70+ for premium)
- Plugins (~$10-$100+/month for premium)
Understand that there are literally thousands of free WordPress themes and plugins, so you might not must go together with a paid resolution in any respect.
You may as well cut back your wants for third-party parts by selecting a internet hosting supplier that comes with important performance inbuilt. WordPress.com takes care of pace optimization, safety, and plenty of different options.
WordPress vs Webflow: which is healthier?
Each Webflow and WordPress provide highly effective instruments for constructing trendy web sites, however they cater to completely different wants and talent ranges.
Webflow is a good software for designers, groups with a price range, and constructing extra static web sites. However if you’d like management, flexibility, and unparalleled options for content material creation and administration, WordPress is your software of alternative. It’s scalable, usable for nearly any web site venture, client-friendly, and infinitely extendable.
WordPress.com gives a streamlined, all-in-one web site resolution with the ability of WordPress minus the upkeep.
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