Advantages and Disadvantages of Webflow
Introduction
Website-building platforms are becoming increasingly helpful and advantageous to businesses looking to build incredible websites that they can design, personalise, publish, and manage without the requirement of any code. The benefit is that you don’t need extensive coding or technical expertise to build these websites. Choosing the right website builder makes all the difference because you can go for a desired style and customise the website by adding all the visual elements that you need. Some intuitive drag-and-drop tools make it easier for you. There are many website builders in the market, and choosing the right one helps you ace the game.
Choosing the right website builder – the factors to consider
Let’s go through a quick run-through of some parameters that will help decide the right website builder for your business/personal requirements.
Goals & requirements – Clearly, having a purpose for building the website defines the requirements, making it easier for you to choose a website builder. So are you creating an e-commerce store, a business website, or a portfolio? It is important to select the website builder accordingly.
Familiarity with coding – If you are trying a hand at building your website and have no prior experience in coding, then choosing a website builder with drag-and-drop interfaces would be the right answer. It would help you customise the website. Of course, you can also choose to hire a web development team to get things done for you.
Scalability requirements – Choose a website builder that supports your desire to scale up as and when required.
E-commerce capabilities – If you are planning to have a full-fledged e-commerce website with plenty of products, and you need to add on to those regularly, then it should contain the best in payment gateways, customer support, and of course, inventory management.
Templates & designs – Go through the template library of the website builder to help you choose the best design for your purpose. Most of the templates are mobile-friendly (functions on mobile devices) and you can customise them according to your purpose.
Of course, these are not the only parameters that you need to consider. You need to look into factors like data portability, cost and pricing, domain registration and hosting, SEO optimization, and other customization options among many others.
Webflow – one of the best website builders around
Webflow is special among all website builders because of its low-code or no-code platform that makes it possible for users to design, build, and launch websites that they need. There is no need to write codes to run your website anymore, so the platform has evolved to be a popular choice among entrepreneurs, designers, and businesses. Of course, just like there are two sides to the coin, there are some pros and cons that you need to consider before you decide if it is indeed the perfect choice for building your website.
The advantages that make Webflow a shining star among all platforms
Clean code
You have complete control over the codebase, so you can do SEO, and enjoy faster loading times, thanks to the well-structured coding system.
Design flexibility is amazing
Webflow’s drag-and-drop interface gives unmatched, pixel-perfect control over every design aspect. Complex animations, interactions, and layouts are now easy with Webflow. Helps you craft websites that will make your design dreams a reality.
Powerful interactions and animations system
The powerful interactions and animation system makes it possible for you to build websites with smooth scrolling, hover effects, click interactions, and other features. If you are looking for complex animations, it is easily possible with a visual timeline editor.
Great for SEO websites
If you want to promote your website through SEO, then features like meta tags, sitemaps, and robots.txt. Would be of great help when you want to make your site searchable.
Integrated hosting services
The Integrated hosting services make it possible to optimise your website for performance and security. Every site hosted on Webflow has an SSL certificate, making it safe and secure.
Easy to build dynamic websites
The built-in CMS allows you to create and manage dynamic content with ease. It’s perfect for blogs, portfolios, and e-commerce sites, where you need regular content updations.
The disadvantages that you need to consider before choosing Webflow
The steep learning curve
While Webflow claims to be user-friendly, there is still a learning curve that you have to ride before you use the platform to its maximum capacity. Designers and developers, comfortable with doing manual coding may think that the visual development approach is unintuitive. However, with time, you can learn the secrets of using the Webflow interface, features, and workflows.
Scalability could be a problem
Yes, that’s a factor to consider. When the site grows in complexity, Webflow may not scale as well as a manually coded website. You will start to feel the heat like performance issues or limitations of the platform when you have a very large website with thousands of pages or complex functionalities. Webflow is perfect when it comes to small to medium-sized sites.
Vendor lock-in
Definitely a disadvantage because you are tied down to using their platform when you choose Webflow. Sites made using Webflow are not easily portable to other platforms or frameworks. If you want to move away from Webflow, this vendor lock-in situation can make it difficult and time-consuming. So migration could become a deterrent.
The cost-factor
Webflow has a free option, but if you want to leverage all the features of the platform and remove Webflow branding, you need to choose a plan, and that makes it pricey. Pricing starts at $12/month for the basic plan options and goes up to $36/month, depending on the features needed with the advanced plan. If you run a high-traffic business website, you might need to choose the Business plan that comes at a whopping $212/month. And that’s not all, the costs can add up over time and might even turn more expensive than hosting a manually-coded site.
Limited E-commerce features
Webflow does offer e-commerce capabilities, but it is limited and not as robust as full-fledged e-commerce platforms like Shopify or WooCommerce. You won’t have advanced features that large-scale online stores require, such as complex inventory management or advanced shipping options.
Conclusion
The powerful combination of integrated CMS, design flexibility, robust hosting capabilities, and security features makes Webflow a cut above the rest. Designers and developers vouch for its visual interface and real-time preview capabilities and they leverage these features to create custom websites without wasting time on extensive coding. However, you need to weigh the pros and cons, especially the disadvantages because you don’t want to get stuck in your project because of them, especially with the learning curve, limitations in e-commerce, cost factor, vendor lock-in, and third-party integrations. Webflow is perfect for people looking for a balance between ease of use and design freedom and is an excellent choice for modern web design and development.
Interesting Links:
Pros and Cons of Using Webflow: Everything You Need to Know
Is Webflow Good? Pros and Cons of Webflow
Pictures: Canva
The author: Sascha Thattil works at Software-Developer-India.com which is a part of the YUHIRO Group. YUHIRO is a German-Indian enterprise which provides programmers to IT companies, agencies and IT departments.
