Webflow and WordPress are both popular platforms for building websites. Just like any software, though, they have both their strengths and weaknesses. If you're planning on building a website and facing the Webflow vs WordPress dilemma, this post should give answers to most of your questions.
Both platforms have their pros and cons. Here’s how you can make the best decision.
Finding the best website builder is not an easy task. Both Webflow and WordPress are popular platforms for building websites with little or no technical knowledge. At the time of writing, over 36.2 million live websites out there are built with WordPress, and that number only continues to grow.
Weblow is a newer platform but according to Weblow usage statistics, it is already used by 0.6% of all websites. And while it’s hard to predict which platform is going to be more popular in the future, it is fairly simple to pick the right platform when you know what are you looking for.
By the end of this article, you should be able to make the right decision and pick the best platform for your needs.
But before we begin, please keep in mind that there is no perfect website builder out there. No matter which platform you choose, there will be always tradeoffs. Thus, our main task is to evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of both platforms and pick the right tool for the job.
To make things easier for you, we prepared a list of important questions to ask yourself before you commit to one particular platform, be it WordPress or Webflow.
How much are you willing to spend on your new website? And how much do you really need to spend in order to get the website of your dreams?
WordPress offers free plans and plugins. To be completely honest, it has the potential to be cheaper than Webflow. Still, at the very least you’ll need to spend money on both hosting and a domain.
Fortunately, a lot of the top WordPress hosting services feature affordable plans for WordPress websites. Some shared plans start at only $5 a month!
But since free WordPress websites don’t look very professional, you’ll need to spend around $15 or so a month on a PRO subscription. Then, you’ll probably want a professionally-looking WordPress theme and a paid plugin or two. So while a WordPress website can be completely free, there are a lot of hidden costs that you need to be aware of.
Tip: WordPress is a free and open-source platform. However, it will cost you $150 or more per year if you also count premium plugins, themes, and hosting.
The Webflow platform also offers both free and paid plans. As of today, its most expensive plan will cost you $36 a month, billed yearly. However, you get a lot of add-ons and integrations for free. Granted, you still have to pay for a custom domain, but the main advantage is that you get a lot of functionality right out of the box.
Just keep in mind that WordPress has more, way more plugins to offer than Webflow. With Webflow, you also get complete design freedom and nice templates, while with WordPress, you need to buy expensive themes and WordPress design builders or design everything from scratch.
Tip: A basic static Webflow site will cost you at least $144 per year. However, a more realistic price is $300+ if you add a premium template and dynamic functionality.
Once you figure out the costs, it’s time to think about another important aspect – how easy is this platform? How long is it going to take to build a website? How hard is it to maintain and upgrade this website in the future?
Overall, Webflow has a cleaner UI. Since the entire website builder was built by one group of people, it’s naturally easier to use and understand. WordPress code, on the other hand, can quickly become cluttered due to the extensive need for plugins. WordPress is like a patchwork made of different elements that sometimes don’t match or don’t work well together.
Generally speaking, WordPress is a good platform for more advanced users just because it allows endless possibilities for customization. But in order to make an advanced WordPress website, you have to know some PHP, JavaScript, HTML, and CSS. WordPress users also have to handle important aspects such as website performance and security by themselves.
Webflow users, on the other hand, have hosting, website security, and performance figured out for them. So if you are an aspiring web designer who is looking for a nice visual tool, choose Webflow. If you love to fiddle with code or if you are looking for a certain level of independence, WordPress is the perfect platform for you.
Are you looking to build a static website, landing page, or complex portal for your clients? Do you plan to have a blog?
Generally speaking, WordPress is a better platform for blogging. This platform gives you all the tools for creating visually appealing blog posts and articles. Then, you can use any number of free and paid tools to optimize, promote, and advertise your content.
You can also use Webflow CMS to create a blog or e-commerce store. However, Webflow isn’t quite as strong as WordPress when it comes to integrations.
So again, if you are looking to build something way more complex, WordPress is the platform to go because you can find plugins for pretty much any integration imaginable. But if you planning to build just a simple page or two, it’s easier to get started with Webflow.
Who is your main audience? How many active users are you planning to have? Is it a public-facing or an internal website?
Think about all those people who are going to use your website. Does your website need to be pretty easy-to-use, fast, functional, or all of the above?
If you think that your website is going to be used by a lot of people, Webflow will help you to build a fast website that scales well. And even though it’s possible to speed up a WordPress website, it’s going to be way harder to support and update it when you have a lot of active users.
How fast can you learn this platform? Is it easy to find answers to your questions? Are there a lot of learning resources, tutorials, and helpful guides out there?
Unless you are planning to build a complicated WordPress portal with dozens of integrations, WordPress has a lower learning curve than Webflow. Since WordPress is an older and more widely used platform, there are a lot of learning resources out there.
As a free and open-source platform, WordPress has a strong community. When you need help, you can almost always find it online.
Webflow, on the other hand, has a very powerful visual editor, so you won’t need a lot of help to figure things out. Most of the time, designers love Webflow more because a lot of its features are self-explanatory.
This platform also gives you everything you need to build a basic website – no need to install plugins or integrate anything. Since its functionality is not as vast, Webflow can be easier to learn and use.
What’s your 10-year plan? Do you have time to support this website? How often do you plan to change the content and add new features?
It’s important that you think ahead. With WordPress, you can’t just set the website and forget about it – it needs maintenance, constant updates, etc. Webflow websites are generally easier to maintain but again, a lot depends on what kind of functionality and integrations your website has. The easier the website, the easier it is to support it.
To sum it up, Weblow is a perfect platform if you need a basic website and don’t want to mess with hosting, plugins, security, etc. yourself. To build a more complex solution, you will need WordPress.
WordPress is a real powerhouse when it comes to building interactive custom websites. However, be ready to invest your time, effort, and money if you decide to go that route.
| Pros | Cons |
| Free and open-source | Hidden costs |
| Endless possibilities for customization | Needs constant support, maintenance, and updates. You’ll also be responsible for security and performance. |
| Lower learning curve if all you need is a basic website | Need to know HTML, CSS, JS, and PHP for more advanced customizations. |
| A lot of plugins and themes | WordPress websites can become pretty cluttered and slow once you add all the plugins and extra functionality |
| Since it’s a very popular platform, it’s easy to find learning resources and answers to your questions online | No direct customer support |
| Pros | Cons |
| Powerful visual editor | Less creative freedom, working with an editor can be challenging at times if you don’t know basic HTML and CSS |
| Straightforward pricing model | Premium templates and more complicated integrations will cost you extra |
| Direct customer support | There are not a lot of learning resources online |
| Has everything you need to build a functional website, no need to install plugin | Native functionality is pretty limited |
No matter which of these wonderful platforms you ultimately choose, GetDevDone can help you make your website visually attractive, feature-rich, fast, and secure.
We offer all kinds of Webflow development services:
We’re also experts at WordPress development. With 16+ years of industry experience and thousands of successfully completed WP projects, we know everything about the world’s most popular CMS.
Get in touch with us for any WordPress development project, from crafting a unique theme or tweaking an existing one to creating plugins and optimizing Core Web Vitals.
Over the years, the QA process at our company has been polished to perfection. That allows us to deliver only high-quality web pages and websites regardless of the technology they are based on. If you're curious about what happens under our QA hood, read this interview with one of our leading Quality Assurance experts.
Looking for a perfect WordPress page builder? Get familiar with the main distinctions between Elementor and WPBakery In this post, you will find a comparison of two popular designing tools for WordPress — WPBakery vs Elementor, vying for the title of the best WordPress page builder currently available on the market. You will learn how […]
Why choose Angular 2+ framework for your next enterprise project this year and beyond. In this post, we discuss one of the most popular JavaScript frameworks — Angular. We briefly touch upon its history, the transition from the AngularJS framework to Angular 2+, and explain why this tool is particularly suitable for building large-scale applications. […]
