Stefan SchulzWhen designing your website, you’ll need to choose the best platform for you. Two popular options are WordPress and Webflow. At their core, they serve the same purpose — they’re site-building platforms. But their features, design options, and functionalities differ wildly.
If you can’t decide on WordPress vs. Webflow, we’d like to help. Below, we’ve outlined a clear-cut picture on which each platform options. Keep reading to see what’s best for you.
We offer this website completely free to our visitors. To help pay the bills, we’ll often (but not always) set up affiliate relationships with the top providers after selecting our favorites. However, we do our best not to let this impact our choices. There are plenty of high-paying companies we’ve turned down because we didn’t like their product.
An added benefit of our relationships is that we always try to negotiate exclusive discounts for our visitors.
A Closer Look at WordPress
WordPress is, inarguably, the most popular website builder out there. Currently, 34% of the Internet uses it to build their webpage.
The software is open-source and entirely free, aside from hosting. You can do plenty with the platform — but is it right for you?
Check out the features, pros, and cons to find out.
Features
Content Management
WordPress was built for the blogger, so its content management system (CMS) is quite intuitive. You can manage all your content directly from the WordPress dashboard and easily navigate pages with the menu bar on the left.
You can add as many pages to your site as you’re like and even add additional authors.
Customizable Designs
You don’t need to know coding to use WordPress. It’s highly accessible and easy for anyone to use.
The site offers thousands of website themes as a starting ground. You can customize the theme according to your needs.
Advanced Coding Options
Even though you don’t need to know code, developers who want to code can get a lot of mileage from WordPress.
The platform lets designers create websites from scratch, allowing for more advanced codes than others.
WordPress Plugins
If you’d like to add something to your site, and WordPress doesn’t offer it directly, you can guarantee you’ll find a plugin.
There are over 55,000 plugins available, all of which add unique features and functionalities to your site.
Cost
One of the main “selling points” of WordPress is it’s entirely free.
You’ll only need to pay for a hosting platform, but providers aren’t expensive — usually a few bucks a month.
Additionally, WordPress offers premium themes. With premium themes, you’ll have to pay. Typically, payments are a one-time deal. Depending on what you need, themes fall between the $30-$100 range.
Pros
- Low-cost solution: It’s free, which is certainly cheaper than hiring a designer to build your site. There are optional premium features, but they’re not required to create a suitable site.
- Themes: WordPress offers a wide variety of website themes, making designing your page all the easier.
- Industry-established: WordPress has existed for 20 years and has the benefit of brand recognition. Over a third of Internet sites use the platform.
- Blogger’s advantage: The company started as a blogging platform and is still optimized for the task today. With it, you’ll see enhanced blogging functionalities and useful CMS software.
- Variety of plugins: Plugins allow you to fully customize your site. You can add functionalities, features — about anything you might need. Yes, this includes eCommerce plugins. Just make sure you keep them updated!
Cons
- Open-source: On one hand, open-source software offers easy setup and low costs. But on the other, your website is more prone to hackers. Fortunately, there are lots of malware removal services to choose from.
- Constantly updating: WordPress and its associated plugins will require frequent updates. If you’re not on top of updating your software, you risk downtime. Additionally, even minor updates may change your site appearance, meaning you’ll have to spend time reworking it.
- Optimized for blogging: If you want to turn your website into an online shop, you’ll have a much trickier time than your average blogger. You’ll have to learn how to navigate the plugin software required to run an eCommerce site.
- Few customization options: You have to work from a theme or code — those are your only options in terms of visual design. There are thousands of themes, but they’re not the easiest to manipulate. To truly build a site from scratch on WordPress, you either learn to code or hire a developer.
A Closer Look at Webflow
Webflow has branded itself as the visual website builder (no code required). On top of serving as a design tool, it’s also a hosting and CMS platform.
The user-friendly editing system helps even beginner designers create fully custom, professional websites. Unlike other visual sites builder, you can create your website from scratch without using code or a template.
Features
Intuitive Design
You’re given all the capabilities offered by HTML5, JavaScript, and CSS3 without having to know the language. The visual page builder lets you create precisely the webpage you’ve envisioned.
When you’re finished, you can publish your site straight to the web. You also can export your code to pass on to your developer team.
The builder utilizes a simple “drag and drop” interface. You can begin from a blank canvas and quickly drag the elements you want onto it. There are no limitations, and you can place things exactly where you want them.
Of course, you can also preview your work as you go. And, unlike other builders, you can use whatever font you’d like.
Interaction Tools
Webflow allows users to implement customized animations and interactions throughout the site. These can be as simple or complex as you’d like. The possibilities are endless, and you don’t need to write a single line of code.
Content Management
In most payment tiers, you have access to CM tools. In your CMS, you can easily create your own templates and connect them to your site. You can even design content on the page, so you can see how it’ll look once it’s live.
eCommerce Options
Unlike WordPress, Webflow has its own eCommerce tools. No plugins (or plugin updates) are required.
Enhanced Performance
Webflow offers incredible hosting speeds and performance. Their downtime is almost nonexistent, which some users consider the best feature of all.
Cost
Webflow has a relatively complex payment plan system. It’s divided into two categories: ‘site plans’ and ‘account plans.’ Each plan is priced per month if paid annually but costs slightly more if you choose monthly payments.
Account plans allow you to manage multiple websites at once, and you’ll need to contact them to discuss your needs. On the other hand, site plans are priced per site. Within site plans, there are e-commerce plans that allow for customers to check out on your domain.
We know this sounds a little complicated, so we’ve broken down exactly what site plans entail below:
Basic Plan
The Webflow basic plan is ideal for your simplest website needs. It’s priced at $12 per month and includes:
- Free SSL certificate
- Hosting
- Up to 25,000 visitors per month
- 500 form submissions
CMS Plan
If you need a Content Management System (CMS), this plan is right for you. It’s a reasonable $16 per month and provides more allowances than the Basic tier.
Features include:
- CMS (up to 2,000 items)
- Limited CMS API
- Website search function
- 1,000 form submissions
- 100,000 visitors per month
- 3 content editors
It’s ideal for blogging and content-driven web pages.
Business Plan
The Business tier runs at $36 per month and is the best choice for high-traffic sites and blogs. You’ll receive everything from the above tiers, plus:
- 1,000,000 monthly visitors
- full CMS API
- unlimited form submissions
- 10 content editors
- form file uploads
eCommerce Plans
As mentioned, Webflow offers three eCommerce tiers. If you plan to sell products or services, and want customers paying directly on your webpage, you’ll need to choose one of these options.
- Standard: The standard tier is $29 per month. It includes the features of the CMS plan while also providing specialized eCommerce features. You’ll have three staff accounts and can take up to $50K in sales volume per year. However, this plan has 2% transaction fees. Plus, transactional emails contain Webflow branding.
- Plus: Here, you’ll find all the features from the Business tier. The cost is $74 per month and includes 10 staff accounts. Plus, you can take up to $200K in sales per year, and you’ll have a 0% transaction fee.
- Advanced: The Advanced plan expands upon the Plus tier. It costs $212 per month but allows 15 staff accounts and unlimited yearly sales.
Pros
- Design potential: The design aspect of Webflow is unique. You have the ability to create your website from scratch without needing coding knowledge. It gives users a visual design experience so they can see their changes as they work.
- Ease of use: The UI of Webflow is simple and flows well. Plus, the available tools are easy to understand.
- Plans for everyone: There are tiers for every website – from a simple portfolio to a full-fledged business.
- Customer support: Webflow is backed by an excellent customer support team that is easily accessible via email.
- Performance: Your website is backed by powerful hosting, which means minimal downtime for you or your visitors. Plus, it’s
- Secure host: All plans provide an SSL Certificate so your visitors can trust your site right off the bat.
Cons
- Confusing plan structure: There are a lot of plans, and with so many options, it can be challenging to decide which is best for you.
- Limited customization coding: The drag-and-drop design function is excellent, but complex-level code customizations aren’t possible.
- Learning curve: All of the platform’s features come with a learning curve. Thankfully, there are tutorial resources available.
- Traffic limits: Webflow has hard monthly traffic limits, but these limitations are reasonable for the pricing.
WordPress vs. Webflow — Which One Is Better?
There’s no objective “right” answer when choosing between Webflow vs. WordPress. In the end, it depends on what features you need from your web builder. Carefully consider your website requirements to select the best one.
Geoff Cudd
