What Is Webflow and Who Is It For?

What is Webflow & How It Works

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Webflow is a visual website builder promoted as the ultimate no-code development tool.

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In a nutshell, you can create websites with Webflow without writing a single line of code. 

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Webflow uses HTML, CSS, and Javascript as the main tools for website building, but the thing is that you don’t have anything to do with the code itself – it’s being written in the background automatically, while you’re using drag-and-drop builder.

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So how does it all actually work?

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Well, we’re not going to go into many technicalities such as which technologies Webflow used to build its product and services – rather than that, we’ll elaborate on its ins and outs that will help you understand how it works.

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You signed up and answered a few questions related to your profile, and now what?

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Webflow CMS

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The first vital part to understand is Webflow’s CMS.

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Webflow’s CMS is a web development tool that allows you to manage and manipulate content in a straightforward structure.

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It is a starting point for using other parts of Webflow such as The Designer and The Editor, as both of those tools partially rely on the data from CMS.

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There are 3 levels of CMS’s structure:

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1. Collections 
2. Items
3. Fields

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Fields allow you to define any type of content a particular field will have.

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Items allow you to combine Fields, and form a group that serves a purpose. Successful projects in web development often include various combinations of Items.

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Collections are content databases that sum up all required data (Fields & Items) for a particular project.

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This structure can be used in various projects, that can later be styled in The Designer.

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CMS can also be integrated with external data sources, and you can even upload your own data from a CSV file.

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Here’s how it works in a nutshell:

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Webflow CMS for beginners

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Webflow’s Designer

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The Designer is Webflow’s core product – it’s a tool that lets you visually design and develop websites. 

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Its drag-and-drop model works perfectly with a visual CSS interface where you can define any parameter of your design all while Webflow is translating your design into optimized code in the background.

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With Designer, you can add any element to your website that you want, you can style any element however you want, and you can preview all that on different devices and browsers.

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The Designer can be used as an independent tool for building design prototypes, and any creation built in it can be exported. However, it is only with other aspects of Webflow that the Designer works the best. 

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Webflow’s Editor

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The Editor is a tool that allows you (or your clients) to make content-related changes to your website, without affecting the design.

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This came out as a logical solution to the problem users experienced on other CMS platforms, so with Editor, you or your clients can adjust the content without having to worry about how will that reflect on the design setup.

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When it comes to content, The Editor allows you access to any type of content – with it, you can edit and create new blog posts, change images, manipulate the text in headings, etc. 

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Besides content, The Editor allows you to edit basic post’s SEO settings, manipulate items and files of Collections in CMS, and manage forms (if you use them), but in order to better understand The Editor’s capabilities, make sure you check out Webflow’s Intro to the Editor or watch this video.

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Using the Editor for clients and collaborators - Webflow tutorial

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Webflow Hosting

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You can build websites in Webflow and host them with other hosting companies, but to experience the true power of Webflow, it’s highly recommended that you choose Webflow’s hosting.

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Webflow partnered with AWS and Fastly, which means their hosting is super reliable with 99.99% up-time and extremely fast, where your website can connect with 95% of the world within 50 milliseconds.

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Some of the features their hosting provides for their users are:

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• CDN
• Automatic backups
• Image optimization & compression
• Free SSL/TLS
• Global DDoS & WAF protection

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It’s fair to say that many hostings out there have these features as well, but it’s crucial to understand that for optimal website performance, users building with Webflow should utilize Webflow hosting rather than exporting sites to other hosting solutions. Webflow hosting enhances the ultimate website-building experience, ensuring peak performance.

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And yes, in order to host with other providers, you’ll need to export the website you made in Webflow – you’ll get multiple files that contain the code which you’ll need to upload, which makes entire process even more complicated.

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These 4 pillars (CMS, The Designer, The Editor & Hosting) are what makes Webflow what it is, and understanding them will allow you to get into the no-code web development era!

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Who Should Use Webflow

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Webflow is made for designers and generally everyone who wants to build websites without coding.

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Considering how The Designer looks, it makes sense that Webflow had designers in mind when creating their products, as one must understand basic design concepts in order to find its way around Webflow.

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That being said, designers will definitely have the lowest learning curve, but in general, Webflow keeps improving its product and making it more intuitive, which is something inexperienced users are definitely benefiting from. 

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Thanks to Webflow’s structure and business model, there are many agencies out there that specialize in Webflow and make it the only technology they work with.

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We, the Good Guys agency, recognized incredible quality Webflow offers and made the switch – since then, our client satisfaction level significantly improved.

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However, we also saw the downsides, so if you’re a designer or agency considering working with Webflow, here are the pros and cons you can expect to encounter – they will most certainly help you decide if Webflow is the right choice for you. 

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Webflow Pros

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There are definitely more pros than cons, and these ones would be the most meaningful to mention.

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No coding required – As we already mentioned, even for advanced users, there’s no coding knowledge required. You can literally build everything visually and Webflow will take care of the rest. 

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However, it’s still recommended that you learn HTML and CSS properly and at least the basics of Javascript as this will serve you well when the time comes to go even level up. Webflow doesn’t require you to know coding in order to use the product, but they still offer you an option to write custom code, which is something you might need in the future. 

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Design Flexibility – There is literally no web development tool out there that offers you design flexibility like Webflow. We worked with WordPress, Squarespace, Wix, and a few others, and they have some amazing features that make life and work a lot easier, but none of them come even close when it comes to design flexibility. With Webflow you can create literally everything you imagine.

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Business & Enterprise Partnerships – Webflow takes care of designers and agencies who work with their products and represent them as a focus service. There are levels to cross and benefits to achieve by becoming a Webflow Business Partner and Webflow Enterprise Partner. You can learn more about these programs on Webflow Experts page.

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Webflow Cons

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Webflow is amazing, but still, there are a few cons we encountered through the years, so it’s important you know them.

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Learning Curve – We guess you could see that one coming! Webflow’s dashboard, CMS, and The Designer are somewhat intuitive, but still, there is a significant learning curve if we’re talking about the master level of building websites. Technicalities are a matter of constant exercise, which means the more you play with options and use them in building dummy websites, the easier will get over time. Bear in mind that in order to truly master Webflow’s tools and ways of working, it will take a significant amount of time.

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Dependency on Webflow – The reason why many people out there prefer open-source CMS platforms such as WordPress is because they don’t depend on a single company that owns the product. If you’re starting in Webflow and you want to develop your business with it, bear in mind that Webflow is a proprietary platform and that you will be locked in with its ecosystem. If they decide to change anything (including pricing), regardless of whether you like it or not, there’s nothing you can do about it.

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Limited third-party integrations – Webflow integrates with popular tools and services, but its ecosystem may not be as extensive as other platforms. However, this is definitely something Webflow is still working on and developing, so we’re quite sure that over time, this will be taken care off.

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Frequently Asked Questions about Webflow

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Why Types Of Websites Can You Build With Webflow?

You can build literally any type of website using Webflow, but the most popular types are:

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• Business websites
• Blogs
• Ecommerce shops
• Portfolio websites
• Personal websites
• Membership websites

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Webflow has two types of plans in their Site Plans – general and e-commerce.

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E-commerce is pretty self-explanatory – the plan allows you to build and customize your online shop.

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The general plan includes any type of website except e-commerce – you have complete freedom to customize it however you want.

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Is Webflow Expensive?

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Considering competition pricing, but also unique features that it offers, Webflow is not considered expensive, but affordable rather.

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It’s fair to say that Webflow has a bit of complicated pricing, especially for people who are not familiar with how Webflow works. Some plans may cause confusion, but in general, any plan usually has a decent pricing that’s considered as definitely worth the price. 

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Truth be told, in some cases, Webflow may end up being the most expensive solution to a particular problem, but in the end, it’s all a matter of preference.

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How Long Does It Take To Learn Webflow?

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Absolute beginners can learn the basics of Webflow within a month. For the advanced level, at least a couple of months of dedication is necessary, and for the expert level, not only time is required, but also a significant number of projects are completed.

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With Webflow University learning the ins and outs of the platform is a seamless process, so absolute beginners can figure things out within a month. Of course, learning time significantly depends on users' capabilities and previous experience – designers will have a much easier time than users without a design background.

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After the beginner level, everything depends on practicing the tools of the platform while combining them with creativity. Again, Webflow has incredible design flexibility, so you can express every ounce of creativity you have.

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That’s exactly how you move to advanced and in the end expert level – the more projects you complete, the more websites you build, and the more experience you’ll gain, which means that you’ll become better and better with every new website you build.

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Will Webflow Replace Developers?

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No, Webflow will not replace developers, but it will (along with other platforms) filter the need for web developers.

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This is always a complicated question because regardless of how AI advances, need for human touch will always be necessary. This might not be a case in 50 years from now, but in time that we live in, and how fast no-code movement is advancing, it’s safe to say that there will still be plenty of front-end and back-end developer jobs.

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However, it’s safe to assume that the need will gradually drop. Also, it’s safe to say that eventually, beginner jobs will perish as no-code movement will be completely able to replace them.

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Saying that, Webflow and other no-code platforms will thrive as they bring a lot of benefits for businesses, but still, it will pass a long time until we lose the need for developers fully.

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How Does Webflow Compare With Other CMS Platforms?

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Webflow is currently the top competitor for all industry-leading CMS platforms, and looking at the trend from previous years, it’s safe to say that they will likely dominate the industry soon.

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When we say dominate, we don’t mean like market share domination – it will be quite impossible for anyone to reach the peak WordPress achieved. 

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By domination, we mean that we believe Webflow will become a go-to tool for building websites, especially for agencies and other web development businesses.

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Conclusion – Is Webflow Good?

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Considering the technical abilities, flexibility, and pricing, the answer is quite simple – yes, Webflow is a great tool for building websites.

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Even though they’ve been around for quite some time now, Webflow is still decently aggressive with rolling out the updates, which means that they are still developing the platform.

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They truly made an amazing software that’s on the right track to be the best CMS and website-building tool out there, but to be honest, we should keep an eye on the downsides.

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Integrations will be a subject of further development, learning curve will be lower, but there’s still that dependency that makes so many designers, developers and agencies out there simply walk away from the idea of switching their business to Webflow.

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And that makes sense – being trapped in one ecosystem without any control over the pricing doesn’t seem like the best possible solution, which is exactly why WordPress still dominates the market. 

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Webflow should invest more energy and resources into lining out the future and what their clients can expect, which would definitely ease the worries potential prospects might have.

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Either way, the most important thing is that there are definitely many more pros than cons, and as an agency working every day on the Webflow platform, we can verify it turned out so great for us. 

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Webflow is definitely one of the most powerful website-building tools out there, and if you want to learn more about it, you can do so by creating an account on the Webflow website. 

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See you on the other side!