David versus Goliat: Webflow and WordPress in direct comparison
Intro
Webflow and WordPress are both popular platforms for creating and managing websites. Nevertheless, they differ significantly in some aspects, making them interesting for different types of users and projects. In this article, we look at the most important points and clarify the question of which platform you should choose for your website project.
WordPress and Webflow explained briefly
Webflow is a revolutionary visual web design and development tool that is gaining momentum and is being used by companies such as The New York Times, Dell or Zendesk. Webflow makes it possible to create impressive websites without having to write the code themselves and is therefore primarily used by professional web designers.
WordPress, on the other hand, is one of the world's most used content management systems (CMS), which enables even novice users to create and manage websites by accessing pre-installed themes and plugins.
But let's look at the two platforms in detail.
Usability
WordPress is primarily a CMS and not a website builder. However, there are now many providers such as Elementor, which provide an appropriate service and are based on WordPress. Many of these kits are designed for beginners without previous knowledge. WordPress is therefore generally quite easy to use, as ready-made elements such as buttons or text blocks can be freely positioned in the layout using drag & drop.
Webflow, on the other hand, is aimed primarily at professional web designers who have basic technical knowledge in web development. Here, too, elements can be placed via drag & drop, but building layouts requires a certain structure that new users must familiarise themselves with.
Design and Animations
Webflow is a design-friendly platform with which you can develop individual and modern websites without spending much time, as the corresponding HTML, CSS and JavaScript code is generated compactly and cleanly in the background. Webflow impresses with full freedom of design and sets no technical limits for you when it comes to design. Even animations, such as those found on Apple's website, are no problem.
WordPress, on the other hand, is more focused on managing content. Many WordPress websites therefore use ready-made templates/themes, which, however, only have a limited number of design options. Since many themes are provided by the community, the quality of the code may not meet current standards, which can lead to poor loading speeds, for example.
In principle, you can also program your own themes, but this requires extensive experience in the area of classic web development and is associated with high effort and costs. That's why WordPress offers a large library of ready-made templates and designs. Webflow also offers a corresponding library, which, however, is comparatively small but is tested by Webflow. The templates therefore meet a high quality standard and can be used with a clear conscience.
Flexibility and Scalability
WordPress is an extremely flexible platform that allows you to create a wide variety of websites, from small blogs to large e-commerce stores. It has an extensive ecosystem of plugins and integrations that allow you to add just about any feature to your site.
Until a few years ago, Webflow was still a specialized platform for smaller, design-oriented websites. The team is working hard to develop the platform and regularly delivers new features. Webflow now offers an extremely powerful CMS that scales linearly with your business. You can also develop your e-commerce shop or blog with Webflow and draw on an extensive range of functions.
Hosting, Security, and Maintenance
WordPress is an open-source platform that can be installed on any web server. On the one hand, this gives you full flexibility to choose your own hosting provider and manage your website updates and backups yourself. On the other hand, WordPress is therefore attractive for hackers and requires a high level of maintenance, as plugin updates must be carried out regularly so that your website works flawlessly.
In terms of performance, it can generally be said that WordPress websites have less good loading speeds. This is primarily due to integrations and plugins from different providers, which do not always allow the quality of the code to be checked.
Webflow, on the other hand, is a cloud-based platform that takes care of hosting and maintenance for you. This can be really handy for users who don't want to worry about administration, but it also means that you're limited when it comes to server-side customization.
Webflow's fast, secure, and reliable hosting is the better choice in many cases because it requires no maintenance, automatically creates backups and never fails. My website, which you are currently on, has been online for over a year and was not available for a second. Webflow's global hosting network can easily handle even the biggest traffic peaks. Your website therefore loads incredibly fast, which is also good for your SEO performance. (Would you like to learn more about SEO and Webflow? 👉 This way)
Community and Support
Since Webflow is chargeable, a corresponding service is offered. My experience so far has shown that the service responds very quickly and courteously to questions and problems. WordPress doesn't have official support, but it has a very large and active community that provides you with support and resources. There are plenty of forums, blogs, and tutorials on YouTube that can help you successfully build and manage your website.
Webflow has a rapidly growing, albeit currently significantly smaller, community. Many professional designers create helpful tutorials and make their high-quality templates available to the community. Webflow itself offers an extensive e-learning platform with explanatory videos, which makes it easy to get started in the world of Webflow with lots of humor.
Pricing
WordPress is generally free to use. After all, it is open-source software. In principle, you still bear the costs for hosting, which vary depending on the provider. You can extend the functionality of your WordPress website with paid plugins or themes.
Webflow, on the other hand, isn't free. You can create two projects in your account for free, albeit with certain restrictions. However, when it comes to publishing your website with your own domain, you must expect at least 150-160 € per year (depending on the exchange rate) for hosting with Webflow per year.
Is Webflow the right platform for you?
More and more companies such as the New York Times, Dell or Zendesk are recognizing the benefits of Webflow and are switching from WordPress. But is Webflow also the right platform for you and your company? I would say: In most cases yes. You don't have to worry about maintenance and thanks to the intuitive CMS, which scales with your company, you can quickly and easily manage or revise the content of your website yourself.
But most importantly: Your website represents you and your company on the Internet and can be a valuable tool for you to acquire new customers. When developing, you should therefore always work with a professional web designer (like me 😉), unless you have a lot of fun, time and interest in learning Webflow.
I am convinced that Webflow will continue to gain attention in the coming years and that many companies will switch from WordPress.
That was a lot to read? Here you can find the most important ones again Benefits of Webflow in a compact overview.
