Webflow Review: Use or Avoid This Website Builder?

Are you still deciding which website builder to choose for your projects? There seems to be big hype around Webflow. Everyone keeps praising this website-building platform for its flexibility and ease of use. But is Webflow really that good?

You don’t want to spend hours exploring a platform only to discover it doesn’t have all the features you need or has a steeper learning curve than expected. You want flexibility, top-notch SEO performance, and the ability to craft unique designs without diving too deep into the coding abyss.

Webflow is not for everyone. Choosing it for your upcoming project can either be a perfect choice or a mistake.

I’ve been in the web design industry for over a decade now, with over 500 websites under my sleeves. Although I always recommend building a site from scratch, my Chicago web design agency is also well-versed in using popular website builders.

In this honest Webflow review, I’ll help you discover if it’s the right platform for you.

You’ll learn all Webflow pros and cons. Together, we’ll explore how flexible this website builder is regarding design, blogging, SEO, eCommerce, and more. No more endless searching, no more second-guessing – just clear, actionable insights. Let’s start.

A Quick Overview: What Is Webflow?

Back in the day, it was nearly impossible to build a website without coding skills. This was a huge problem for marketers and freelance designers. A problem that was solved with the rise of popular website builders. And Webflow is one of them.

Founded in 2013 in San Francisco, Webflow is currently valued at $4 billion, which means it’s one of the most prominent players in the market.

Webflow is an in-browser design tool you can use to build websites without knowing how to code. You just need to pay a monthly or yearly subscription to use it. You’ll then be able to either:

Create and host your websites within the platform (this is not possible with WordPress).
Create a website on Webflow and then host it on your server. (I recommend the previous option for most users; I’ll show you why later in this Webflow review.)

And Webflow does many things better than other website builders. It does offer more customization options but with the cost of a steeper learning curve.

It’s Not The Best Suit For Everyone – Here’s When To Avoid Webflow

Webflow completely cuts the need to hand off your designs to developers. As a visual web development tool, it offers an interface similar to Adobe Photoshop. It allows you to start creating websites without writing a single line of code yourself.

This makes it an excellent choice if you’re a non-developer. Marketers, freelance designers, solopreneurs, and small businesses – can all benefit from this platform. But don’t get me wrong – even web development teams providing professional website building services can use Webflow to speed up the delivery process (although I’m still skeptical about code quality on any website builder).

Webflow does many things better than other website builders. It does offer more customization options but with the cost of a steeper learning curve.

It also comes with specific limitations, so Webflow is not the best choice if you want to build the following:

Blog-only websites
eCommerce websites
Enterprise solutions (you might need to deal with the limited number of pages)

Why?

The answer will become clear as we explore Webflow pros and cons in the upcoming sections. This Webflow review will help you better understand if this website builder is the right fit for you.

An Honest Webflow Review: All You Need To Know

It’s not difficult to notice that Webflow does many things better than other website builders. But it also comes with its own set of limitations compared to custom-coded websites. I’ll help you understand all of these pros and cons in this honest Webflow review.

Here is what you’ll discover in the following sections:

Why you must be careful when choosing your Webflow template
Which features you’ll love and which ones you’ll miss within Webflow
Will it take long for you to master Webflow
Is using Webflow for blogging a smart idea?
Are Webflow websites secure?
How do Webflow websites perform in terms of SEO?
Should you use Webflow for creating online stores?
Is Webflow easy to integrate with other apps?
How much does Webflow really cost?

There Are Over 2,000 Webflow Templates – Their Quality Is Impressive

It’s possible to design your website from scratch with Webflow. But if you’re in a hurry or need some inspiration, this platform does offer a wide range of templates you can choose from.

You’ll find over 2,000 templates in the library. These templates suit different kinds of needs, including:

Business
Technology
Fashion
Design
Marketing
Travel
Education
Medical
Sports
Beauty & Wellness

But only 50 Webflow templates are free – the price for others usually ranges from $24 to $149.

And how do templates in Webflow stand in terms of quality? In my opinion, they look much better than most templates you’ll find within other platforms such as Squarespace, Wix, Elementor, etc. Paid templates look aesthetically pleasing and include various pre-built elements such as landing page forms, background videos, and similar. And as expected, you can customize these elements however you like.

I liked that most of these templates include Webflow interactions, which means you can create unique scrolling, zoom, and hover effects.

However, you must be aware that using website templates always comes with the risk of poor code quality. Webflow templates are great if you’re working on a small project. But if you plan on building large websites, I recommend avoiding any kind of templates.

You’ll Love a Wide Range Of Available Typefaces – You Can Upload Your Own Fonts Too

If you’re like me and pay a lot of attention to typography in web design, I have some great news: Webflow offers an impressive range of fonts and typefaces you can use on your website.

To put it in numbers – you can choose from more than Google’s 1,500 fonts and over 20,000 typefaces from Adobe Fonts. I found no other website-building tool that comes close to Webflow in this aspect.

Thanks to a wide range of fonts and typefaces, you won’t have much trouble adapting to any client’s brand guidelines.

But even if you want to upload custom fonts, you can do it in Webflow. It currently supports five font formats:

SVG
WOFF
WOFF 2.0
EOT
TFF/OTF

Webflow Templates Are Mobile-Responsive

Imagine spending countless hours and resources on crafting a mesmerizing website, only for it to fall apart on smaller screens. The tragedy! Not having a mobile-friendly website is akin to shutting your door to a vast majority of potential customers. In fact, it’s an oversight that can seriously undermine the profitability of your website.

All of Webflow’s templates are fully mobile-responsive. They perfectly adjust and reformat based on your visitors’ device, be it a desktop, tablet, or smartphone. You won’t have to worry about distorted images or awkwardly stretched text. Your content will seamlessly adapt, ensuring a cohesive experience for every visitor.

Within the Webflow editor, you’re handed the reins of creativity. You can dive into separate canvases for desktop and mobile versions, allowing you to curate and customize every pixel of your site’s mobile display.

You can also preview your designs across a spectrum of smartphone types, from Apple to Samsung and more. Such features genuinely set Webflow apart, marking it as a superior choice to other site builders, especially if you value (and should) a mobile-first design approach.

Warning: You Can’t Switch From One Template To Another in Webflow

One of the main things I don’t like about Webflow templates is that once you choose one and base your website around it, you can’t reconsider your choice.

Yes, Webflow does allow you to preview your design before making the website go live, but what if your needs change down the road? What if you decide to use a completely different layout? It might become impossible to edit your template according to those needs.

To prevent this from happening, you must carefully choose the template before committing. I also recommend playing around in Webflow Designer to get an idea of how editing that specific template will look like later on.

Webflow CMS and Interface Review: Let’s Explore Functionality and Ease of Use

Moving on with this Webflow review, let’s explore this platform’s CMS and ease of use. When choosing a website builder for your upcoming projects, one of the first questions that comes to mind is – “How easy is it to get a full grasp on this tool?” You don’t want to spend months struggling with confusing features and a messy interface, right?

In this section, I’ll help you understand how Webflow compares to site builders. You’ll understand how long it will take to get used to this platform and the general capabilities of the Webflow designer interface, where you’ll spend most of your time crafting websites.

Webflow is Not For Total Beginners – But the steeper learning curve comes with greater rewards

If you don’t have any previous experience with web design or development, I have disappointing news: you may find it challenging to design websites in Webflow. It’s less beginner-friendly than other website-building tools.

Why? Because it doesn’t exactly have a drag-and-drop interface, unlike many people think. Yes, there is a visual editor (the Webflow designer), but its interface looks similar to the one in Adobe Illustrator.

So, if you’re unfamiliar with the ‘box model’ of web design, you might find yourself a bit overwhelmed initially. However, if you understand the basics of CSS and HTML, you can quickly start creating fully customizable websites with Webflow. Otherwise, your website design projects might become messy very quickly.

But despite the steep Webflow learning curve, I’d argue that investing time is well worth it. This is because Webflow gives you more control over your design than Wix, Elementor, and other solutions in the DIY website-building market.

Webflow offers advanced design capabilities compared to other website builders

Simple designs are fine, but what if you want to implement some advanced elements and animations? From my experience, Webflow stands in a league of its own compared to its competitors in terms of advanced design capabilities.

I love Webflow’s extensive animation offerings. While many platforms enable basic animations, Webflow elevates this with its ‘Interactions’ feature. You can craft intricate animations similar to those you would achieve with Javascript but without delving into coding. About 20 preset animations, such as ‘fade’ and ‘shrink,’ facilitate quick customization. But what differentiates Webflow further is its ‘trigger’ animations, which are great for increasing user engagement and making browsing your website an interactive experience.

Webflow also allows you to create more complex navigation than any other website builder. Instead of limiting creators to typical 2-level navigation systems, Webflow’s platform supports expansive menus with images, multiple columns, and interactive dropdown areas. If you have a lot of content on your Webflow website, nailing down the secondary navigation won’t be a problem.

Of course, all of this comes with a steeper learning curve, which we’ve already discussed in the previous section.

Webflow Security

While website security might not be the first thing that comes to your mind when choosing among different platforms, it’s difficult to overstate its importance. A secure website not only safeguards your data but also builds trust among your users. You must ensure that your company’s and customers’ data remains uncompromised.

Webflow clearly understands these concerns, making security a top priority. All Webflow websites come with a free SSL certificate. This means all the data flowing between the server and visitors’ browsers will remain encrypted and far out of reach for hackers.

In addition to SSL, Webflow offers DDoS protection, a crucial measure against targeted attacks that could hinder a website. DDoS attacks are becoming more frequent, and if you choose Webflow, you won’t have to deal with this issue alone.

But what I particularly like about Webflow (and some other platforms are missing this) are unlimited site backups. If anything bad happens to your business website, you can restore it to its previous state without significant downtime or loss.

Is Webflow Good For Blogging?

While it’s possible to use Webflow as a blogging platform, I DON’T RECOMMEND this if you plan on publishing many articles. Why?

Because Webflow comes with specific limitations when it comes to page limits compared to other platforms. You can have:

Maximum of 100 static pages on all paid plans.
With the ‘CMS’ plan, you’ll also have 2,000 dynamic pages
And with the ‘Business’ plan, the number of dynamic pages rises to 10,000

Is this enough?

Ten thousand pages might sound sufficient at first. But if you’re publishing an article per day, this means you’ll reach the limit within years. You won’t be able to publish blog posts anymore on your website.

Also, Webflow will automatically change the ‘Published’ date on your blog posts, even if you’re updating them for SEO purposes. And this platform also lacks integration with Yoast SEO, one of the favorite plugins many bloggers use to polish content so it ranks better on Google.

That’s why I recommend choosing WordPress for professional blogging.

But if you only occasionally blog, you’ll probably find Webflow good enough for this purpose. Here are some pros of blogging on this platform:

You’ll have over 155 blog templates at your disposal, which you can use to make your articles look amazing.
Webflow offers tags and categories. This way, your visitors won’t have trouble filtering blog posts and searching for specific topics.
You can edit blog posts in Webflow on-page – within a user-friendly interface.

So, if you want to build a blog-only website, avoid Webflow, as its blogging capabilities are limited compared to WordPress. But if blogs will only be a sporadic part of your website, then you shouldn’t worry much.

Is Webflow Good For SEO?

The SEO-friendliness of your platform is one of the most important things you must pay attention to if you want to drive organic (not paid) traffic through Google and other search engines.

However, the problem with many website builders is that they lack advanced SEO capabilities and too often have bloated code. This leads to slower page speeds than websites coded from scratch (I recommend understanding the relationship between site speed and SEO before starting your project). There are also many other SEO-related issues I’ve witnessed first-hand with site builders.

But is Webflow good for SEO?

I’d say that Webflow is better for SEO than most other visual editors and design tools. But it still lacks some features you can find in WordPress. Let me first show you the good sides. Using Webflow, you can efficiently perform the following SEO tasks:

Add image alt tags
Edit meta descriptions, page titles, and URLs
Edit robot.txt files
Design mobile responsive websites
Create 301 redirects

However, if you plan on building large websites, you might face severe SEO-related limitations if you opt for Webflow. WordPress remains the gold standard for SEO, especially for custom website designs. Here’s a breakdown:

Building a multilingual site can be very challenging on Webflow.
You can’t publish an unlimited number of blog posts.
Frequently updating content can become a mess (as Webflow will automatically update your ‘Publish’ date).
The code generated by Webflow isn’t as optimized as it needs to be for top-tier SEO. You’ll also miss a variety of plugins and tools WordPress offers.

However, don’t let these limitations discourage you. Webflow is doing great regarding SEO, and I believe things will only improve as this platform keeps evolving.

Webflow eCommerce Review – Should You Build Online Stores With This Tool?

As it introduced eCommerce features in 2018, Webflow is relatively new in this market. But how does it compare to Shopify, BigCommerce, and other eCommerce website-building giants? It largely depends on your needs.

Here are some things you can do with the Webflow eCommerce:

Sell both digital and physical products
Accept payments via Stripe and Paypal
Fully tailor checkout page design according to your needs
If you live in the US, Canada, EU, or Australia – you can automatically calculate your sales taxes
Customize the design of emails that you send to customers

However, if building an eCommerce store is your primary goal, I recommend going for a more established eCommerce website builder in the market. This is because Webflow still lacks some essential eCommerce features that other eCommerce platforms have. However, remember that you can get most of these features if you delve deep into integrations.

E-commerce Features That Webflow Lacks:

Limited Payment Gateways: Only Stripe and PayPal are supported, falling short compared to platforms like Shopify and BigCommerce, which offer a myriad of payment gateways.
No POS Solution: Webflow doesn’t support physical location point-of-sale (POS) solutions. There’s no way to integrate card readers and receipt printers or synchronize your online and offline sales data. This is a huge problem if you also plan to receive payments in physical locations.
Lacks Built-in Abandoned Cart Recovery: There’s no built-in feature in Webflow that allows you to send abandoned cart emails. If you want this feature, you’ll need to integrate with Monto, which adds to your monthly costs.
Restricted Dropshipping Options: Integration primarily exists for Printful, making it less suited for more extensive dropshipping ventures when compared to platforms like Shopify.
No Hosting for Digital Products: Selling digital products requires hosting them on external cloud storage platforms like Dropbox or Google Drive before being sold on Webflow.
Incomplete Tax Calculation for the EU: While Webflow provides automatic tax calculations, it doesn’t fully accommodate the EU’s VAT MOSS regulations for selling digital products.

Another potential limitation is the number of products you can place in your online store. Depending on your plan, you can either have:

500 products for the Standard plan
5,000 products for the Plus plan
15,000 products for the Advanced plan

Considering all these limitations, I recommend either hiring eCommerce website design services or using more established eCommerce platforms on your own. But if you plan on building a small online store, you’ll love the freedom that comes with designing in Webflow.

A Wide Range of Webflow Integrations With Other Apps

Do you rely on integrations to extend your website’s functionality? You’re in luck. Webflow presents a wide range of available integrations. Thanks to over 250 options in the Webflow integrations library, you can seamlessly connect your Webflow sites to popular services and platforms.

Whether you need to link your site to leading email marketing platforms like GetResponse and Mailchimp or with some of the best UX research platforms, Webflow has got you covered.

You can also use custom plugins designed by Webflow developers and enthusiasts. These plugins offer specialized features such as advanced collection item filtering, chatboxes, image sliders, and more. Integration is straightforward, often requiring only the addition of a code snippet to your site. But it’s fair to say that there aren’t as many plugins for Webflow as there are for WordPress.

Even if you don’t find the desired app within Webflow’s native integrations, you don’t have to worry. Webflow is compatible with Zapier, a popular syncing tool.

Webflow Pricing

Webfow’s pricing structure is confusing, which I didn’t see many Webflow reviews mention. You must carefully study three sets of plans (each coming with its own layers of plans):

Site plans (for individuals or teams that want to build a website)
eCommerce plans (gives you access to eCommerce tools)
Workspace plans (geared towards professional designers and agencies)

Let’s analyze the pricing structure of each tier so you can find the one that best suits your needs. As we explore each plan, I’ll show you who it’s best for.

Site plans

Site plans on Webflow work similarly to those on other popular platforms. You pay a monthly or annual fee and get access to all essential features for building and hosting your website. Let’s analyze different Site plans within Webflow:

Starter (Free) – This plan is ideal if you want to familiarize yourself with Webflow. You’ll need to use the webflow.io domain if you opt for the Starter plan. However, you’ll get 50 CMS items (the number of editable pages you can have in the CMS database), 50 form submissions, and 1GB of bandwidth (the amount of data that can be transferred from the server to users).
Basic ($14/mo, billed yearly) – This plan is ideal for creating simple websites. It comes with a custom domain. However, you can create only static websites with the Basic plan. You won’t have access to CMS, which is a bit weird, considering the free plan gives you 50 CMS items. With the Basic plan, you also collect up to 500 form submissions each month (with the option to pay $1 per extra 100 submissions). And this plan comes with 50 GB of bandwidth, which is already a serious upgrade compared to the free plan.
CMS ($23/mo, billed yearly) – This plan is tailored to blogs and content-heavy websites. You get to create up to 2,000 CMS items and collect 1,000 form submissions per month. And you can count on 200 GB of bandwidth with the CMS plan. But the biggest advantage of this plan is that it allows you to have up to 3 content editors (making it ideal for team use). According to Webflow, this is the most popular plan among users.
Business ($39/mo, billed yearly) – The Business plan is ideal for high-traffic marketing websites. It allows you to have up to 10,000 CMS items, 2,500 monthly form submissions, 400 GB of bandwidth, and 10 Content editors. But this plan also promises accelerated website speed and gives you a chance to upload form files (which the previous three plans lack).
Enterprise (Custom pricing) – If you want advanced security, compliance, and scalability capabilities, choosing the Enterprise plan might be necessary. You can completely tailor this plan to your needs (with 10,000+ CMS items, a custom number of content editors, forms submissions, etc.). And the Enterprise plan comes with guaranteed uptimes thanks to SLAs (Service Level Agreements).

ECommerce Plans

If you want to build a website for selling products online, then you’ll need to choose one of the three eCommerce plans on Webflow:

Standard ($29/mo, billed yearly) – The Standard plan is ideal for new businesses taking their first steps in the online marketplace. It allows you to sell up to 500 eCommerce items within your store (including products, variants, and categories). You also get 2,000 CMS items (dynamic pages you can use for blog posts, image galleries, etc.). However, if you opt for this plan, you must pay a 2% transaction fee to Webflow (+ Stripe or Paypal provisions). The Standard eCommerce plan comes with all of the features included in the CMS Site plan (up to 3 editors, 1,000 form submissions, 200GB of bandwidth).
Plus ($74/mo, billed yearly) – If your store has a higher sales volume, the Plus plan is an ideal choice. With this plan, you can have up to 5,000 eCommerce items on your Webflow website, a significant increase and a must-have for larger stores. You also get all the features included in the Business plan (10,000 CMS items, 2,500 monthly form submissions, 400 GB of bandwidth, and up to 10 editors). And you won’t have to worry about additional transaction fees, as Webflow won’t take a single dollar you make from selling products.
Advanced ($212/mo, billed yearly) – The Advanced plan might be the perfect solution if you need an eCommerce store for a large-scale business. It allows you to have up to 15,000 eCommerce items in your store, plus all of the features included in the Plus plan.

Workspace Plans

While ‘Site’ and ‘E-commerce’ plans primarily benefit individual site creators, ‘Workspace’ plans are more geared towards collaboration and multisite management, which is crucial for professionals and agencies. A key advantage is the ability to export site code. But you should be aware, though, that exported sites operate as static designs without the Webflow CMS.

Here are Workspace plans for in-house teams. Analyze each carefully so you can get the best plan value:

Starter (Free) – Choose this plan if you’re a beginner who wants to explore Webflow.
Features:
- - Up to 1 seat
  - Two unhosted sites
- 2 Agency or Freelancer Guests
Core ($19/mo per seat, billed yearly) – This plan is ideal if you work in a small team that wants greater code control.
Features:
- - Up to 3 seats
  - Ten unhosted sites
  - Custom code & code export
  - Billing permissions
- 2 Agency or Freelancer Guests
Growth ($49/mo per seat, billed yearly) – It’s ideal for expanding teams desiring unlimited sites and advanced permissions.
Features:
- - Up to 9 seats
  - Unlimited unhosted sites
  - Custom code, code export, & publishing permissions
- 2 Agency or Freelancer Guests
Enterprise (Custom Pricing) – If you’re working for a large organization seeking advanced security and scalability, this plan is perfect.
Features:
- - Unlimited seats
  - Unlimited unhosted sites
  - Advanced security, performance, customer success
  - Page branching
- Custom code, code export, and publishing permissions

And finally, let’s explore plans for freelancers & agencies. These plans are primarily intended for design professionals who plan on using Webflow website builder to create sites for clients:

Starter (Free) – If you’re a freelancer or an agency starting with Webflow, the Starter plan should help you better understand its features.
Features:
- - One seat
  - Two unhosted sites on webflow.io domains
- 2 Agency or Freelancer Guests
Freelancer ($16/mo per seat, billed yearly) – This plan best suits independent designers and small teams
Features:
- - Up to 3 seats
  - Ten unhosted sites on webflow.io domains
  - Full CMS access on unhosted sites
- Free guest access in client Workspaces
Agency ($35/mo per seat, billed yearly) – If you work for a larger agency managing multiple clients, I strongly recommend this plan to you.
Features:
- - Up to 9 seats
  - Unlimited unhosted sites on webflow.io domains
  - Full CMS access on unhosted sites
  - Manage publishing permissions
- Free guest access in client Workspaces

Summary of Webflow Pros and Cons

Now that we’re reaching the end of this Webflow review, I think it’s best to give you a quick summary of Webflow pros and cons.

Webflow pros:

A wide range of visually stunning templates (for fair prices)
Over 20,000 available typefaces and over 1,500 fonts (+ you can upload your custom fonts) make it super easy to design websites according to branding guidelines.
Custom code & code export capabilities
Animations and interactions look beautiful + they’re easy to create
Websites come with hosting (optional)
Mobile responsive designs
More control over your design and code than with most other website builders
Free SSL certificates and DDoS protection – website security is great
Over 150 blog templates and all the necessary features if blogging is not your primary concern
Better SEO capabilities than most of the other website builders.
Webflow allows you to sell digital and physical products within your eCommerce store.
Custom code & code export capabilities
Websites come with hosting (optional)

Webflow cons:

Steeper learning curve than other website-building tools
If you opt for Webflow templates, be careful, as you can’t switch between them after you make the choice.
A limited number of ‘dynamic’ pages you can have on your websites (the number depends on your plan)
Its blogging capabilities are insufficient for professional blogging (you may reach the limit in page numbers within years). It also lacks some blogging features and plugins you can find on WordPress. So, I don’t recommend Webflow for blog-only websites.
Building multilingual websites can be problematic on Webflow.
Code quality is better than with most other website builders but still lacks the refinement of custom code – which can be vital for top-tier SEO.
Limited payment gateways for online stores (only Stripe and Paypal).
Limits in the number of eCommerce products and variations you can have in your store.

If you feel like the cons you found in this Webflow review are deal-breaking, it’s also worth checking Webflow alternatives.

Get Started With Webflow Today

Webflow is an excellent choice for beginners and professionals looking to build nice-looking websites without worrying about coding. From my experience, Webflow is the best no-coding platform currently available in the market. It beats competitors in many aspects – from extended customization to better SEO capabilities. And you can get started with Webflow here.

Webflow Review: Should You Use or Avoid This Website Building Tool?

Brian Dordevic

Founder of Alpha Efficiency

Table of Contents:

A Quick Overview: What Is Webflow?

It’s Not The Best Suit For Everyone – Here’s When To Avoid Webflow

An Honest Webflow Review: All You Need To Know