Webflow Review: Is This the No-Code Website Builder You’ve Been Searching For?
The world of low and no-code tools is finally starting to take off. More people now have access to tools that help empower creators to bring their ideas to life, even with limited coding knowledge, and turn them into functional websites, apps, and more.
One such tool leading the pack is Webflow—largely considered one of the best no-code solutions available today. So, does it really live up to the hype?
Let’s find out.
What is Webflow?
Webflow is (among other things that we’ll cover later) a no-code website builder.
It allows people with no coding experience whatsoever to create beautiful, interactive websites quickly and (relatively) easily. In just a few clicks, drags, and drops, you can have a professional-looking website with all the bells and whistles you could want—from parallax scrolls to e-commerce and beyond.
How Webflow Works
Webflow is what’s known as a “visual website builder”. It’s a system that translates the building blocks of websites (HTML, CSS, and JavaScript) into a visual, drag-and-drop interface that’s more intuitive for beginners.
When you create a website from scratch in Webflow, you’re presented with a blank canvas. From there, you can drag and drop elements to build up your website—buttons, images, text boxes, forms… anything you need. You can also use integrated design tools to tweak the look of your website, add animations and interactions, or preview your work.
When you’re happy with your design, just hit “publish” and your website will go live.
Webflow Key Features
Designer
Designer is where the magic happens, so to speak. This is the interface you’ll use to build your website from the ground up—adding elements and customizing them to your liking.
To add elements to your pages, navigate to the “Add” tab at the top of the left-hand menu and drag the ones you want onto the page. You’ll find a bunch to choose from, including (though not limited to):
- images & videos
- text boxes
- buttons
- forms
- carousels
- CAPTCHAs
- Search bars
You can also add pre-built page layouts like columns, galleries, nav bars, and feature lists from this tab—great for getting the basic structure of your website up and running quickly.
Once you’ve got the elements in place, you can click on them to use Designer’s tools on the right-hand menu to tweak their look and feel. You can change background colors, fonts, borders, and more with just a few clicks.
Every element and setting in Webflow’s Designer falls under a heading that more-or-less describes what it is (or does), but the sheer number of options may still be intimidating for beginners. Luckily, there’s a decent tutorial that walks you through the basics when you create your first site.
Interactions
Interactions and animations are little details that add a ton of life to your website. In Webflow, you can use Interactions to do pretty much anything, including:
- moving
- fading in/out
- scaling
- skewing
- rotating
- toggling visibility
- and more
You can also use a pretty wide array of triggers to set off these interactions—things like first and second clicks, movement, and page scroll. These triggers, combined with the extensive range of actions available in Interactions, make Webflow feel super powerful—even for complete beginners.
Adding these interactions is pretty simple, too. Just click on an element, click on the “Interactions” tab in the top right corner of the design menu, click the “+” symbol, and choose your trigger(s) and action(s). There’s also a handy feature here that will optimize your website by deleting unused or conflicting Interactions.
CMS
Not all website builders offer a CMS, but Webflow does. With a CMS (content management system), you can create and manage content without any code—which is great for content-heavy websites like blogs.
To use the CMS, you just need to populate “Collections” (think of them as categories) with content in the form of “Items”. These Items could be blog posts, products on an e-commerce store, or just about anything else you can think of.
For every Item, you can link data fields that help Webflow make your content fit within the structures you build. There are templates for common content types like blog posts, which include fields for author, main image, title, and more.
Then, when you want to display your content on the site, just pick an element and link it with the Collection you want to show. For example, linking a “Blog Post” Collection with the columns layout is an easy way to create a blog post showcase.
Ecommerce
As a standalone system (without add-ons or plug-ins), Webflow’s Ecommerce feature is decent—but far from the best.
Starting with the good, setup is very easy. The e-commerce system is essentially the same as the CMS system we covered above. You start by creating Collections for “Products” and “Categories” and populating the Items within with thumbnails, photos, price points, descriptions… whatever data points you need. These Items and Collections can then be dragged and dropped wherever they need to go.
In terms of downsides, Webflow Ecommerce suffers from a lack of integrations, payment gateway inflexibility, and a clunky UI for viewing orders and customers. These combine to make it a poor choice for larger e-commerce businesses.
SEO
Last but not least, Webflow offers a few useful SEO tools that are worth mentioning. One of the most useful is the ability to automatically generate metadata using fields from your CMS Collections (e.g., [Brand] | [Product]). This will save you a ton of time if you’re consistently publishing new content within an existing structure.
There’s also a solid 301 redirects management system that makes it easy to migrate old URLs and web pages to new homes.
Finally, the site audit feature can help you identify and fix common SEO issues like broken links, missing alt tags, and poor loading speed.
What Makes Webflow Stand Out From Other Platforms?
Visual Focus
Webflow is focused on design and aesthetics. It’s something the tool does much better than most of its competitors.
Just take a look at the Made in Webflow page—the designs there are much more distinctive, dynamic, and unique than you typically see with no-code website builders. That’s all thanks to Webflow’s impressive visual styling features, like the Interactions mentioned earlier.
Of course, this does come at the cost of beginner-friendliness. Creating a good-looking website is harder with Webflow than it is with simper tools like Squarespace. It’s just that the creative ceiling is higher for those who know what they’re doing.
Educational Resources
On a related note, Webflow is one of the best-documented website-building platforms out there.
Webflow University is filled with lessons, tutorials, and full-on courses that help you learn how to use the tool. There’s also a wide-reaching community of Webflow users on YouTube and Reddit who regularly post guides and answer questions.
And last but not least, there are tons of no-code boot camps and programs that focus on Webflow specifically because of the freedom we talked about above. So, to summarize, there are plenty of options when it comes to learning Webflow.
No Need For Plug-Ins & Add-Ons
One of the biggest advantages of Webflow is that it doesn’t require any plug-ins or add-ons—it’s a standalone platform. That means you don’t need to worry about compatibility issues, third-party security risks, or learning a completely new system just to add a missing feature.
Plus, the platform’s robust feature set means you don’t have to worry about running into any roadblocks with your project. It’s all there… if you know where to look!
Webflow Pricing
Webflow’s pricing depends on whether you’d like to create a standard website or an e-commerce-enabled website.
There are quite a few plans for both:
Standard Websites
- Starter (free): webflow.io domain, 50 CMS items, 50 form submissions (lifetime), and 1 GB bandwidth.
- Basic ($14/month): Custom domain, 0 CMS items, 500 monthly form submissions, and 50 GB bandwidth.
- CMS ($23/month): Custom domain, 2,000 CMS items, 1,000 monthly form submissions, 200 GB bandwidth, and 3 content editors.
- Business ($39/month): Custom domain, 10,000 CMS items, 2,500 monthly form submissions, 400 GB bandwidth, and 10 content editors.
- Enterprise (custom): Custom domain, 10,000+ CMS items, custom monthly form submissions, custom bandwidth, custom content editors, and uptime SLAs.
eCommerce Websites
- Standard ($29/month): 500 e-commerce items, 2,000 CMS items, 2% transaction fee, and all CMS plan features.
- Plus ($74/month): 5,000 e-commerce items, 10,000 CMS items, 0% transaction fee, and all Business plan features.
- Advanced ($212/month): 15,000 e-commerce items, 10,000 CMS items, 0% transaction fee, and all Business plan features.
Webflow Pros & Cons
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| Impressive design and functionality freedom Easy drag-and-drop design UI is well signposted Excellent educational resources No need for plug-ins or add-ons Great template library | The steep learning curve may scare off some users Higher price than competing tools E-commerce features are underdeveloped Technical SEO capabilities are limited |
What’s the Verdict?
Webflow is without a doubt one of the best no-code website builders out there. It’s also likely the most comprehensive—with features ranging from hosting to e-commerce. However, this power comes with a price—namely, a steep learning curve.
If you’re curious about the Webflow alternatives out there, Findstack has your back. With in-depth reviews, product comparisons, and use cases, Findstack makes it easy to find the right tools for your business.
Start browsing today and find your dream stack!
