Webflow vs WordPress: Which One to Choose in 2024?

When embarking on the journey of developing a website, the choice of a Content Management System (CMS) becomes a pivotal decision. In 2024, the dilemma often boils down to Webflow vs WordPress, the two prominent players in the field. Comparing them is crucial to determine which suits your situation and needs the best.

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A CMS, or Content Management System, is a dynamic data organization system facilitating website creation. Platforms like Webflow and WordPress empower users to design websites, create pages, and manage content dynamically. While both giants offer simplified design management and user-friendly interfaces, they diverge significantly in aspects such as pricing, flexibility, customization, content management, integrations, performance, security, and more.

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If you find yourself on the verge of launching your website in 2024 and pondering which one to choose: Webflow vs WordPress, this article will guide you through a point-by-point comparison of these two CMS options. First, we'll define both platforms and delve into their specifics.

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Presentation: Webflow vs WordPress

As numerous online platforms facilitate website creation, Webflow and WordPress stand out among the most popular choices. These have become go-to options for startups and entrepreneurs looking to establish a strong online presence. In this first section, we'll introduce both platforms along with their key characteristics.

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Webflow, an Emerging Powerhouse

Launched in 2013, Webflow is a "No-Code" platform with a mission to empower anyone to develop a website using the power of no-code. With over 3 million users and a skyrocketing growth rate in recent years, Webflow has become a reference in the startup ecosystem. Its user-friendly approach allows marketing teams to effortlessly update their online presence.

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In terms of usage, Webflow operates through a visual interface called the "Designer," where users can drag and drop elements onto an HTML base. All elements are customizable by applying styles (CSS) in an intuitive manner. Once developed, the site can be hosted on Webflow, as the platform provides ultra-secure and reliable hosting services. Among Webflow users are prominent names like Rakuten, HelloSign, Dropbox, Upwork, convincing reasons to consider making the leap.

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WordPress, the CMS Titan

WordPress stands as the most popular means to create a website today, with a market share hovering around 43% in the realm of websites. It aims to democratize web publishing through its free and open-source platform. WordPress is user-friendly and caters to a wide range of user profiles.

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It's important to note there are two versions of WordPress: WordPress.com and WordPress.org. WordPress.com allows users to develop and host their websites, while WordPress.org is the original open-source version. For WordPress.org, you'll need to invest in a domain name and hosting, but it provides greater flexibility. In this article, we'll focus on WordPress.org.

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How to Choose Your CMS?

Selection Criteria

Choosing the right CMS from the outset is crucial. If you're not developing the site yourself, website development incurs a certain cost. Therefore, discovering that the chosen CMS isn't the most suitable for your needs post-launch would be a waste of time and money.

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Among the key criteria, price comes first. WordPress.org is an open-source software, free to use, while Webflow operates on a subscription-based model covering site hosting and platform usage. If you opt for WordPress, you'll need to pay for hosting and a domain. Both tools allow relatively simple site creation, but the learning curve for Webflow may be steeper for beginners. It's generally advisable to seek assistance from an agency or freelancer if you're not comfortable navigating its usage.

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Additionally, consider the type of site you want to create. Is it a showcase site (e.g., a marketing site for your startup, a company's showcase site)? Do you want to sell products (e-commerce site)? Are you planning to publish content regularly (blog)? All these needs play a role in determining the platform that suits you best. In the following paragraphs, we'll delve into the different features of both platforms.

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Webflow vs WordPress for an E-Commerce Site

WordPress: E-Commerce Features

If you intend to develop an e-commerce site to sell products, WordPress has limitations in its native e-commerce features. To fully leverage the tool, you'll need to install extensions like WooCommerce to set up a store on your site. You'll also depend on installing numerous plugins to customize your store; otherwise, you'll find yourself somewhat restricted. More powerful alternatives exist today—tools like Shopify or Webflow offer more freedom in customization without the need for additional plugins or extensions.

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Webflow: E-Commerce Features

Webflow provides an E-Commerce feature for selling physical or digital products. The platform can be a good choice if you run a small store and desire more freedom in customizing your pages (checkout, products, etc.). However, Webflow may be more limited if you plan to use it for dropshipping or large-scale e-commerce. Webflow E-Commerce is under development and will likely become more robust in the years to come, but it might not be your first choice for more complex e-commerce needs.

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Webflow vs WordPress, Ease of Use

Using Webflow

To use Webflow, you'll need to create an account to access a dashboard from which you can create new projects. You'll have the choice to build a site from scratch or choose a pre-existing template that you can later customize. Once in the design interface (called the "Designer"), you can drag and drop elements onto your page (Webflow is a Drag & Drop site editor). Website development in Webflow relies on HTML and CSS semantics. Webflow differs from other traditional Drag & Drop CMS at first glance due to the richness of available settings, making it a comprehensive site editor. The learning curve may be a bit challenging, especially for beginners. However, once you've mastered the basics, you can explore Webflow's various features to customize your site from top to bottom.

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Regarding content publication, Webflow enables easy creation and management of content. The ability to edit databases offers increased flexibility in content management. Webflow is well-suited to your needs if you want to publish blog articles regularly without the hassle of managing their publication.

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In conclusion, all you need to use Webflow is a computer and a reliable internet connection.

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Using WordPress

WordPress is relatively easy to use. For a beginner, it will be easier to handle WordPress compared to Webflow initially, thanks to a quicker learning curve. WordPress uses a visual editor where you'll use blocks such as headers, buttons, and paragraphs to assemble your pages. However, you'll still need to familiarize yourself with the WordPress ecosystem to unleash its full potential: themes, plugins, widgets, categories, etc. Although it might seem overwhelming, you'll find plenty of resources to assist you in your learning process. WordPress themes allow you to define your site's design. For more customization, plugins have been designed to offer a Drag and Drop editor.

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Regarding content management, everything happens on your WordPress dashboard. You won't need to code or know HTML and CSS basics, simplifying things compared to Webflow. To host your site, you'll need to go through a third-party hosting service. However, most hosting services have made this process very simple. With just a few clicks, you can set up your site.

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Webflow vs WordPress, Customization and Integrations

If you're looking for a customizable tool, you'll need to consider the flexibility of Webflow and WordPress. Both have their advantages. Webflow offers total customization through its designer and the use of CSS classes to customize various elements of your pages. On the other hand, WordPress has a repository of plugins and themes that you can leverage to give your site the desired design.

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Here, we'll focus on the template libraries and themes offered by both tools and their integrations and plugins.

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Webflow Templates

Webflow has recently developed its Marketplace, a dedicated page for templates, libraries, Site Showcase, and applications that you can use. Its template range is quite extensive, with over 2000 templates categorized into UI Kit, Site Portfolio, Blog, Agency, Startup, and more. Most of these templatesare paid, but their prices are reasonable. If you decide to use one, you can customize it to match your brand.

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Third-party sites like Relume and Flowbase also offer Webflow component libraries that you can directly copy and paste onto your pages. These components provide a good development base and allow you to expedite your development process. If you lack experience and are looking for something simple to integrate, then templates are more suitable for your needs and are comprehensive.

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WordPress Themes

On the WordPress side, its theme bank is much larger, with over 10,000 themes that you can categorize by features and themes according to your needs. Like Webflow, these themes are customizable once in your possession, but they require a certain level of expertise. When it comes to templates, WordPress is the clear winner with its vast array of themes.

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Integrations

In terms of integrations, WordPress boasts an enormous plugin bank. With over 50,000 extensions that can be installed for free on your site to meet your needs—SEO, security, e-commerce, design, etc. Among the most well-known are Yoast SEO for optimizing your site's SEO and Elementor, which turns the WordPress editor into a Drag & Drop editor.

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On the Webflow side, the platform has chosen to limit features to the essentials. Integrations are possible but much more restricted than in WordPress. Among them are Webflow integrations with HubSpot, MailChimp, Facebook, LinkedIn, Stripe, Google Analytics. Webflow has also launched the ability to create and add apps to your site this year (apps you can install on the Webflow Marketplace), indicating a desire to expand its arsenal in that direction. Among these applications are Jasper, Make, Lokalize, TypeForm, and others.

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Webflow vs WordPress, Which Is More Suitable for SEO?

SEO Settings

SEO is a crucial factor in choosing a website editor. If you want to increase your online visibility, working on your natural referencing is essential.

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To set up SEO-related fields such as Meta Description and Meta Title for your different WordPress pages, you'll need to install a dedicated plugin. Yoast SEO is one such plugin, and it's straightforward to use.

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On the Webflow side, no additional installation is needed because all SEO settings are accessible from your pages' and project's settings. Optimizing your site on Webflow is therefore very easy, as there's no need for third-party applications. If you decide to go with Webflow, this guide will help you maximize your site's natural referencing.

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Both tools are suitable for SEO, but WordPress will always require plugin installation, whereas everything is integrated into the Webflow platform.

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Performance

Now let's talk about the performance of your site on WordPress vs Webflow. The loading speed of your site is crucial for your users' experience. Pages that take several seconds to load (indicating poor performance) can easily drive users away from your site. Moreover, poor site performance will penalize you for natural referencing and likely result in a drop in search engine rankings.

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On the WordPress side, as mentioned earlier, it's often necessary to install plugins to optimize your website. These plugins, although numerous, can slow down your site and impact its performance. The chosen WordPress theme can also impact performance.

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Webflow is more optimized in this regard. First of all, site hosting is provided by Amazon Cloudfront and Fastly, ensuring reliable and faster access due to server performance. Webflow also offers options to minify HTML, CSS, and JavaScript code, reducing code size. A Webflow developer has all the tools at their disposal to optimize page and element structures to the fullest, thanks to the flexibility Webflow provides.

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In summary, in terms of performance, Webflow is the undisputed winner. The flexibility of settings and ultra-performant hosting allow users to develop sites achieving top-notch performance (Google Lighthouse).

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Webflow vs WordPress, What Is Their Price?

The most important question: How much does it cost to create a website on Webflow and WordPress? It's essential to research; based on your budget and needs, one of the platforms will likely prove to be a more judicious choice.

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Webflow Pricing

Webflow's business model is simple. Through an annual or monthly subscription, you benefit from the platform's premium features.

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To note, there is a freemium version of Webflow but it remains very limited. You have access to the Designer and can only develop two static pages. Moreover, you can only publish your site on the webflow.io domain, which might not be of interest to you. Once you wish to connect a domain and want Webflow hosting, you'll need to subscribe to one of the paid plans.

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Regarding the paid plans, there are several. These vary depending on features and the traffic you anticipate. Here are the different types of paid plans:

• General: Basic, CMS, Business, Enterprise (starting from $14 per month).
• E-Commerce: Standard, Plus, Advanced (starting from $29 and up to $212 per month).
• Plan Workspace: Core, Growth, Enterprise (starting from $19 per month).

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WordPress Pricing

WordPress is an open-source tool and free to use. However, to publish your site, you'll need to invest in a site host as well as a domain name. Prices may vary depending on the providers. In addition to that, you'll need to add costs related to the use of various plugins and themes (if paid).

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If you have a small budget, you can manage well by relying on free themes and limiting the use of plugins, but you will quickly find yourself restricted. On the other hand, if you want to enhance the development of your WordPress site and optimize it (using Elementor, paid themes, etc.), you should budget more than €150 per year.

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Webflow vs WordPress, Their Support

Webflow Community and Support

Webflow is a rapidly growing company. Its community is relatively young but continues to expand. Webflow has established a forum fueled by the community. This is where you can ask your questions and hope that a community member or Webflow staff responds. Webflow also has support reachable through a form. They will respond within a few days of your request.

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In addition to this, there's the Showcase Made in Webflow, where you'll find numerous creations by Webflow developers as well as Cloneables, in other words, free templates that you can duplicate and use as you wish.

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The Webflow University can also be very useful as it contains all the documentation related to the tool as well as numerous tutorials.

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WordPress Community and Support

On the WordPress side, you will also benefit from its very large community. There are many forums where you will quickly find the answer to all your questions. The documentation is therefore broader and more developed than that of Webflow; the community is more significant in WordPress.

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Summary

These different comparisons should help you choose the platform that best suits your needs. Webflow and WordPress are two powerful solutions for creating your next site.

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On one hand, Webflow offers more flexibility and customization, providing clean code for publication, which is an advantage if you want to optimize your site's performance. Its hosting solution is robust, comprehensive, and fast but comes at a certain cost. Indeed, Webflow can be more expensive than WordPress if your needs align with the CMS or business plans.

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In terms of the learning curve, you will likely find it easier to get started with a CMS like WordPress initially, but if you want to invest time in learning, then Webflow is a viable and recommended solution, given all the customization features it has to offer.

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One major advantage that WordPress has over Webflow is its community and all the resources it offers (many themes and plugins). But it's only a matter of time before Webflow catches up.

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In a few points, here are the advantages and disadvantages of both platforms:

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Key Advantages of Webflow:

• Flexibility in design and site customization
• Easy maintenance
• Robust hosting
• Secure site
• Clean code (HTML semantics)
• SEO-friendly
• Optimized for excellent performance

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Key Disadvantages of Webflow:

• More challenging for beginners
• Fewer integrations
• Template bank still smaller compared to WordPress
• More expensive

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Key Advantages of WordPress:

• Free tool usage
• Richness of plugins
• A vast bank of themes
• Easier for beginners to grasp
• Very large community

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Key Disadvantages of WordPress:

• Less flexibility for more advanced designs
• Dependency on plugins
• Poor performance
• Security vulnerabilities
• More complicated maintenance due to external hosting

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Conclusion

If you are a startup and want to develop your site, then Webflow is the number one solution at the moment. WordPress could work well for you; however, the flexibility and customization offered by Webflow are much better and will satisfy you if you want to invest in a unique branding.

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You won't have to worry about hosting or its security because everything is managed by Webflow. Moreover, site maintenance is much simpler; there are no third-party tools to set up since everything is integrated into the platform, unlike WordPress. In terms of content, marketing teams find their happiness because editing text and image content is done in a few clicks thanks to the content editor. However, the learning curve can be challenging, which is why we recommend bringing in an expert, freelancer, or Webflow agency to ensure the proper development of your website.

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If you want to discuss a website creation project, feel free to contact us.