If you're a marketer, web designer, developer, or anything similar, you know that the marketing tools we use are rapidly changing and its critical we stay on top of our game to deliver the best results for our clients, and we could be easily outcompeted by others if we don't learn about the latest developments within the industry.
Speaking of latest developments, If you're reading this post, you likely came across Webflow somewhere on the web or maybe heard something about "no-code tools" and you're wondering what all the hype is about in the web design/development space. Webflow is a relatively newer web builder platform that is revolutionizing how websites are built. In this post we'll explain everything you need to know about this platform.
What is Webflow?
Webflow is a web development platform that allows you to build a fully custom website by harnessing the power of HTML, CSS, and Javascript, which are the web's most common coding languages (known as frameworks), and translate them into a visual interface. Basically, you have the full control that coding provides, but without actually coding. Platforms like Webflow are known as No-Code platforms/tools, since they don't require you to learn how to code while giving you the power of code through a visual canvas.
About the company
Webflow was founded in 2013 at San Fransisco by 3 co-founders, Vlad Magdalin, Sergie Magdalin, and Bryant Chou. The company received funding across the years, which include Series A, B and C funding from various major venture capital firms such as Y Combinator to build the world's most powerful no-code development platform.
Webflow took the web development industry by storm, it was unlike any other website builder platform. Today the company has secured around $335 million of venture capital funding, with over 600+ team members and 3.5M users around the world. It started as a tool for a niche audience (web designers/developers) and today its competing with the major platforms like WordPress, Wix, and Squarespace.
Why was Webflow created?
Webflow came into the market because of many issues that existed in the web design and development industry for a long time (since the early days of the internet). For example, if you wanted to build a website, there was only two routes you can pick from. If you wanted to build a website without learning how to code, you had to take the path of templates which are very limiting since they're made to be easy to use, so you end up with a generic looking website.
Anything beyond templates had to involve coding and most people won't go that route because it has a steep learning curve, its expensive to hire a developer, and coding itself presents a lots of website maintenance issues as well.
Even if a website was coded, a lot of times it won't end up looking like the way the designer intended, so there is a big gap between designing a website and developing the designs into a functional website. The main goal of Webflow is to bridge the gap between design and development, so that even designers can now develop their designs and have a website that looks exactly how they want it to be, all without writing any code.
Webflow's Interface
Webflow has two different types of interfaces built for different purposes. The two interfaces are known as the Designer and Editor.
Designer
The designer is where the website is built (aka developed) by leveraging HTML, CSS, and Javascript properties that are translated into a visual interface, so we have the power of code without writing it. The interface may not seem beginner-friendly like other platforms such as Wix and Squarespace, but once you get over the learning curve, your creativity becomes limitless.
Editor
The Editor is the complete opposite of the Designer, its interface is a lot more beginner-friendly for an important reason. This is designed to be used by business owners or anyone who isn't tech-savy to able to update the content of their website without breaking its design. You wouldn't need to rely on a developer for every change that is non-design related, so this gives the business owner a lot more freedom.
Features of Webflow
Full design control
Inside Webflow's Designer, you have the ability to design any kind of website with full control to each and every pixel, all without writing a single line of code. You'll get a whole suite of elements that you can add and customize in any shape and form.
Content Management System (CMS)
Having a Content Management System (CMS) will unlock a world of possibilities when its combined with the design capabilities that Webflow has. Think of CMS as a database that can be customized for various applications, such as showing a portfolio, blog posts, real estate listings, company team members and many more. Webflow is famous for its CMS system that is unmatched by a lot of website builder platforms.
Industry-leading SEO
Webflow has put a lot of emphasis on Search Engine Optimization, not only it provides a wide range of SEO controls, but its also one of the most optimized platforms in the industry. Everything that is built on Webflow is backed by clean and semantic code in the background, that means your website will load super fast and doesn't have any bloatware or unoptimized code that slows down your website or leaves any security vulnerabilities.
E-commerce
Even though Webflow isn't a dedicated ecommerce platform like Shopify, its still a very capable platform for selling physical or digital products. One of the areas that Webflow excels compared to ecommerce platforms is its design capabilities. Most ecommerce platforms make it easy for people to set up their online store, as a result, they end up using templates that are easy to use, but present a lot of design limitations. Anything beyond a template's limitation will require custom code (that means hiring a developer), but not with Webflow.
Apps
If you're looking to integrate third-party applications into your website, then Webflow has got your back. Webflow Marketplace is has a wide range of popular applications that you can integrate, and you can choose to integrate from thousands of other applications that aren't on the marketplace through embedded code or custom scripting for more advanced integrations.
Built-in automation
One of the recently released features from Webflow is the built-in automation tool called Logic, but Its not as powerful as Zapier, which is the most popular third-party automation tool from thousands of apps. You can still create various types of automations using Logic, such as sending leads from from submissions to a CRM, creating email campaign newsletters, and more. Its one less app you need to use for your website, reducing the cost of plans as a result.
Webflow's Pros
Design freedom
The biggest advantage of Webflow is its ability to design any kind of website with control down to every pixel without writing a single line of code.
Advanced SEO controls
Webflow is one of the few platforms out there that provides advanced SEO controls to help you get the best chances of ranking on search engines.
Easy to update
One of the reasons we've talked about earlier about why Webflow was created, one of the reasons was because the owner had no control over their site, so they had to hire a developer for every change they want to make, which is expensive, time-consuming, and provides no control for the owner. Thanks to Webflow's Editor, the site owner can easily update the content of their website without breaking the design.
Secure
Some platforms, especially WordPress, have got the reputation of their websites being hacked due to unoptimized code that is full of bloatware and not well maintained. Since Webflow is built on clean and semantic code, it protects the site from vulnerabilities in the code that hackers take advantage of.
Fast
Another advantage of having a website that is built on clean and semantic code in the background will result in a fast loading website, which will rank your website higher on search results and improve the user experience throughout the site. Additionally, Webflow's hosting uses state of the art servers and networks across the globe, so that your website loads fast wherever your users are based.
Webflow Cons
Learning Curve
With more design freedom comes at the cost of more complexity. Webflow University has courses that are very well presented that makes your learning journey a lot easier and enjoyable. Its not expected that business owners learn how to build a site on Webflow, which might sound ironic to the issues we mentioned earlier on web developers, but keep in mind, compared to hiring a developer to code a custom website, development with Webflow has way more benefits, such as time & cost savings, much lower maintenance, more control over your website, and overall a lot more flexibility.
Third-party apps
Webflow isn't like other website builders platforms such as Wix and Squarespace that try to be an all-in-one platform, which include a wide-scope of other features that integrate on your website within their platform, such as email marketing, analytics, social media, etc. Most people would prefer having an all-in-one tool for convenience.
Webflow is more of a niche product that is focused on building the best web development platform out there, so its trying to be the best at few things rather than trying to be everything. If you need additional functionalities, you would have to integrate third-party apps into your website, which is less convenient, but you have a dedicated tool for each functionality.
Cost
Webflow plans are slightly more expensive than other website builder platforms, however most of your additional cost will be coming from the integrations of third-party apps that may require purchasing their own plan.
E-commerce
We've mentioned earlier that Webflow has its own e-commerce feature, but its nowhere close to a dedicated e-commerce platform like Shopify. As of right now, Webflow's ecommerce is best for boutique online stores that have a small inventory with simpler operations. If you really want to take advantage of Webflow's design features, you can link your products from Shopify to Webflow through third-party apps.
CMS Limits
To recap, CMS (Content Management System) is basically database system of your website which can be customized for various purposes, such as portfolio, blogs, real estate listings, food recipes, or however you like to customize it. If you're planning to have more than 10,000 items in a database, then you're going to hit the item limit set by Webflow (although you can pay $1 for every 100 additional items). Most people won't reach anywhere close to the 10k limit, but its something to keep in mind for those who are planning to build a website with a larger database.
Conclusion
Webflow took the web design and development industry by storm and became a hugely successful web development platform with millions of users worldwide. You don't have to decide between easy-to-use templates that look generic or deal with the headaches of developing a custom website by learning how to code or hiring a developer. Even though Webflow is still technical, its way easier than coding a custom website because it already bridged the gap between design and development, so your websites are built a lot more efficiently, they much easier to maintain, and less issues overall.
We believe the popularity of no-code tools like Webflow will be exponentially greater in the years ahead due to their advanced capabilities for building websites or apps without learning how to code. Traditional coding isn't going anywhere either, but it'll be used by a smaller percentage of the market (such as enterprises) that require highly sophisticated functionalities.