There are so many ways to develop a website these days. You’ve probably heard of Wordpress, Squarespace, Wix or even JAMstack websites.
You may have also heard of Webflow.
If you haven’t, their customers include the likes of Dell, Zendesk and more than 100,000 other websites.
With a massive $140 million Series B investment raised in 2021, Webflow has a valuation of over $2 billion. It is a big deal and has become the ‘go to’ website development platform for web designers.
Why is Webflow a big deal?
Webflow is a no-code, or rather low-code, platform for developing websites and content management systems.They’ve made it super easy for web designers to develop websites without having to write code. It therefore empowers designers to self serve and complete websites end-to-end without having to employ a web developer.
Essentially it speeds up web development ensuring more cost effective, and more easily maintained, solutions for startups, nonprofits, and companies needing a website.
From our experience using Webflow the benefits you get are:
- speed of development
- easy to use CMS that marketing staff and founders love to use
- hosting included
- CDN and security included
- backups and version control included
- has an API so the Webflow CMS can be used as a 'headless CMS' (we've used it as a CMS for a mobile app)
- extensible as it allows you to add your own CSS and Javascript if needs be
- staging and production environments out the box
- super simple deployments to staging and production
Is Webflow just for websites?
Websites, with or without a content management system, is what Webflow currently does very well. They also make website interactions and web animation easier for designers to implement without knowing Javascript.In the very near future Webflow plans to be more than just a tool to create marketing websites.
They currently offer eCommerce functionality and will soon be launching memberships and logic flows meaning you will be able to develop some startup ideas with it.
For example, you’ll probably be able to develop a job board or a even a 2-sided marketplace startup all in Webflow and with very little development experience*.
*Keep in mind though that not all startups will be possible and startup developers will still be required for most startup software development.
Can anyone use Webflow?
If you can type and upload images then anyone can use the content management system (CMS).When it comes to using the Webflow Designer (the interface where you build your Webflow website) the short answer is yes, as long as you’re prepared to watch a lot of videos, on Webflow University, and learn how to use it. Plus, having HTML / CSS experience will make it more intuitive and will lead to better end products.
Being able to write your own Flexbox and Grid CSS, and having a good understanding of responsive design, helps immensely when working with the Webflow Designer.
If you want to extend Webflow by adding custom scripts or your own CSS, use 3rd party APIs, or by using their API you’ll probably need help from a web developer.
As an aside, Webflow provides an API which we’re currently using on a project that enables us to use it as a CMS for a mobile app we’re developing.
How do I know if Webflow is right for my website?
If your new website is a marketing website, with a blog, lead generation pages (landing pages) and requires an easy to use content management system (CMS) then Webflow probably is a very good fit.If you're currently using Wordpress or something similar, be sure to look into Webflow before developing your new website.
Is Webflow expensive?
No. You can get started for free and only pay when your website is ready to go live.The Site plans are competitive, especially when you factor in that the fee includes website hosting.
It's also hassle free and most Webflow issues are solved with a quick Google search (which in most cases returns easy to follow, and quirky, how to videos).
Is Webflow only for small websites?
No. While it is perfect for startups, it is a great solution for business and enterprise websites. Webflow's pricing caters for all business sizes and while the cost of Webflow Enterprise is a giant leap from the cost of a Business Site Plan it comes with many additional enterprise features as we as enterprise support.Webflow designer in Sydney
Launch Lab is a web design and web development company in Australia.
We develop websites using Gatsby.js and headless CMS' and now also offer Webflow websites as a service.