There are countless website-building platforms out there, but in this article, we will mainly compare WordPress and Webflow. Which website builder is best for your business will depend on your specific needs and skills, as no two businesses are identical.
39% of all websites on the Internet use WordPress. Even though it is a familiar platform, there are some alternatives that offer more extensive features or capabilities with varying levels of involvement or required knowledge.
When it comes to deciding which website builder is best for you, it depends on what you value most, but overall there are definite differences that should not be ignored. WordPress fanboys will point to Webflow’s lack of an established marketplace for add-ons and plug-ins as a negative, but we see it differently. On a WordPress site, you need plugins to design your site, fix SEO, create forms, and add fancy animations.
A Few Questions to Consider
- What is the purpose of your site?
- How much time do you want to invest in building your website?
- How much design control do you want?
- How big will your site be?
- How flexible do you want to be with the host?
What is WordPress?
WordPress is an open-source website builder. So users can use it to create websites without spending a penny. For this and many other reasons, WordPress is one of the most popular website building tools around and has been in business since 2003.
Although WordPress software is free, elsewhere you will need to buy a domain name and web hosting to run it. However, the process is relatively simple. Let us take a look at the main reasons why WordPress is the leading website builder.
Feature Highlights of WordPress
Thanks to its customizable designs, WordPress has come a long way over the years, allowing designers to build their websites from scratch. As a highly SEO-friendly website builder that integrates more than 54K plug-ins, this tool has always helped businesses rank highly. Websites built with WordPress are also mobile-friendly, and there are mobile apps that allow you to edit your website from anywhere. High performance and high security are also hallmarks of the leading website builder. In addition, WordPress websites offer extensive media management capabilities. Finally, WordPress is easy to use, and its longevity in the market has created a huge community of users who help each other with questions whenever they arise.
Pros of WordPress
Free to Use and Affordable Set Up
The cost of design, development, and maintenance is relatively low. With some technical understanding, it is easy to manage and update your website. You can install WordPress with any hosting provider because WordPress is self-hosted. WordPress is an attractive option if you are trying to get a website up and running quickly and do not want to spend a lot of money on domains and hosting.
Popularity
The name alone may also be a reason why many clients already have or want to use a WordPress site. Over the past 20 years, the platform has become synonymous with website creation. It’s no surprise that more than one-third of all websites use WordPress due to its name recognition. Originally, WordPress was designed for blogging, so it provides you with a blog by default. But besides the standard blogging features, it also includes many advanced features like tags, plugins, widgets, and categories.
Countless Plug-Ins and Seamless Integrations
Plugins are a popular feature of WordPress. Plug-ins allow you to add features and functionality to your website. Do a quick Google search and you’ll find a plugin for just about anything you need. Need a website for your eCommerce business? Plugins are available for both. Just make sure you are using the latest version.
We have heard all about the good things of WordPress, so why would we even have to consider WebFlow or other sites. Take a look at the top Cons of WordPress.
Cons of WordPress
Expertise
Although open source software has many advantages, such as low cost and easy setup, there is always the possibility of running into a terrible bug that will break your website. It’s up to you to fix the technical issues unless you can contact a WordPress developer, but otherwise, you’ll need thorough knowledge of the platform to fix these issues quickly. Moreover, WordPress is an easy platform for blogging, but what about creating an online shop? It is possible to turn your WordPress website into an eCommerce platform using plugins like WooCommerce, but it can be quite complex, especially if you do not have the expertise of a developer.
Loading Times
When you use a theme on WordPress, it tends to generate bloated code on the backend, which can cause your site to run slower, generate errors, or crash completely. All of these issues can lead to a higher bounce rate and a poor user experience, which affects how Google ranks your site in search. SEO is increasingly dependent on the on-site experience, so the cleaner the code, the better.
Updates
Updating WordPress or plugins may cause errors or temporarily affect your site. Since plugins add additional functionality, you need to be aware of their updates. Since WordPress is a software, regular updates are also required. To avoid malfunctioning, it is essential that you keep an eye on both.
What is Webflow?
Webflow is the most popular no-coding website builder on the market. Apart from designing websites, it also serves as a content management system and hosting platform. Design professionals can easily create professional custom websites using the Webflow editor. By combining both approaches, the scope for design creativity knows no bounds. With these two features, you get the convenience of a visual editor along with the freedom to create a unique website from scratch. This is just the tip of the iceberg, let us dive deeper into the world of website creation with Webflow.
Feature Highlights of Webflow
Webflow lets you drag-and-drop elements to create pages, making it feel like a smartphone application. What’s more, these drag-and-drop features are contained in an intuitive editor panel, much like Paint or Photoshop, so you may already know how to use it without actually having done so.
Another advantage of Webflow is that it provides direct access to data from the CMS, so you do not have to use Google Tag Manager and Google Analytics to see who is visiting your site. This website builder uses sophisticated code that also ensures fast loading speed, so customer satisfaction is guaranteed at all times. Last but not least, the complete platform integrates other marketing tools with data from forms and surveys and provides website backups so that you are protected from any website failures.
Pros of Webflow
No-Code Oriented but also Code-Friendly
With Webflow, building a website is no longer a two-step process because any changes you make, either with the drag-and-drop tools or with code, are presented to you instantly as a result. Design and coding are no longer separate. With this nifty website builder, you can design and develop your website with a single tool. Plus, you can preview your site before you publish it, so you can see exactly how it will look. Besides, there is a code editor that is open to all savvy developers, so you can feel free to add your de and design the site the way you want.
Uncomparable eCommerce Site Building
Unlike WordPress, Webflow does not require any additional integration to enable eCommerce settings on all pages of your sites, ensuring consistent customer checkout as well.
Responsive Page Designs & Modern Animations
Webflow opens the door for unique creations of interactions and animations throughout your website. The room for creativity is immense, and some of the coolest and most cutting-edge animations like scroll-based parallax are a staple of these sites. Additionally, Webflow offers live updating of data on your site, so animations like progress bars can also be displayed with real-time updates.
Cons of Webflow
Too Technical
One of Webflow’s greatest strengths is the ability for developers to design websites exactly the way they want, but that also means that all non-developers can not take full advantage of this tool. It’s like using Thor’s Mjolnir to hammer in a nail; it does the job, but how necessary was it?
Cost
Moreover, the price of Webflow can be high for some of the users of WordPress, considering that the price ranges from 12 to 200 per month. Remember that WordPress is free, and the only real cost comes from hosting the site with a hosting service.
Support
Although there are plenty of community and chat groups, actual customer support directly from the Webflow team is lacking. There is no live chat or phone support, so something like talking to a Webflox developer when you get stuck on something may never actually happen.
But of course, there are a ton of website builders out there and some may serve your needs better than either Webflow or WordPress. Let’s look at some other options.
Best by Difficulty to Use: Wix
Wix offers more ease of use than WordPress or Webflow, and a lot of apps and add-ons are offered to add extra functionality to all of your desired sites.
Best Prepackaged Designs: Squarespace
Squarespace lacks the flexibility of Webflow, Wix, or WordPress but excels with its expertly designed templates and designs. This lack of flexibility is by design. If you’re looking for a clean, professional, and inviting design, but don’t need the layers of design power or freedom you get from other builders then Squarespace might be the right choice for you.
Best for eCommerce : Shopify
If the reason you are building a website is your eCommerce business, then building a website with Shopify may be the way to go for you. With more than 70 easy-to-implement website templates, Shopify expert website builders, and all the tools you need to build a website the way you want, Shopify offers the best of both worlds. Shopify is undoubtedly the best provider for eCommerce with your own website, offering your own domain, instant secure transactions, and incredibly fast servers, so you can rest assured that your website will always be up and running.
We love WordPress, so much that even this site is built on WordPress. This is how the NoGood team feels:
But if we were starting from the beginning today, we would definitely consider using Webflow instead. WordPress isn’t a bad option, it’s just that Webflow delivers cleaner code and makes even a novice webmaster look like a design pro.
So are you ready to build a website that SEO friendly? Talk to our SEO experts today!
