Content management systems, such as WordPress or Webflow, are designed to give you what you need to manage your website with ease. With the right CMS, you can build everything from blogs to online stores, and you don’t even need to know PHP, HTML, or CSS.
WordPress is probably the solution you’ve heard about the most: more than 40% of sites worldwide are built with WordPress, which enjoys 60% market share on CMS alone. However, just because WordPress is popular doesn’t mean it’s your only option.
This article offers you to compare WordPress CMS in 7 steps with a new solution: Webflow. The steps for this comparison are as follows:
1. Introduction to WordPress and Webflow
WordPress, the first open source CMS on the market
WordPress is the most popular open source content management system on the market. It offers the simplicity of a flexible back-end and a ton of customization features.
You can design your WordPress site however you want, using a range of plugins for SEO, checkout processes, and more.
Webflow, a robust and recent CMS
Webflow is a SaaS cloud platform whose range of tools offered makes the system almost as robust as WordPress. However, you may need independent developers to help you make the most of this technology.
2. Ease of use
WordPress: no more code needed
WordPress is used by over 40% of all websites on the Internet. It has millions of users from all over the world and of varying skill levels.
It is easy to use, but comes with a slight learning curve: beginners will need to be familiar with WordPress-specific terms and concepts such as themes, plugins, differences between posts and pages, categories and tags, etc.
Adding content to your website is quite easy. WordPress comes with an intuitive visual editor called “Block Editor”. You can create your pages and customize their content using this editor, which allows you to create unique page layouts without writing any code.
Don’t like the WordPress editor? Don’t worry, there are plenty of drag-and-drop page builders you can use instead. These builders are available as add-ons (also called plugins) that you can install, and some have free versions.
You can start with a ready-made template and modify it to suit your taste, or you can start from scratch and create your own design.
WordPress comes with thousands of free templates and over 57,000 plugins to help you do everything you need without writing any code.
Webflow, Developer Platform
Webflow provides a clean and user-friendly dashboard to manage your website. Featuring a visual interface to organize your content, it lets you write and design layouts with a “live” preview.
Webflow offers various templates that you can use for your project and modify using its editor: the latter has a huge number of features, and beginners may have a little trouble finding their way around.
You can click on any item to edit its properties, and add new items using the “Add New Item” button in the left panel.
Webflow is designed for developers. If you are a content publisher, you might be missing out on quite common features in other CMS platforms, such as post types, categories and tags, discussions and comments, etc.
3. Privatization
WordPress and its plethora of themes
WordPress gives you access to thousands of WordPress themes (website templates). Many are free and most of them are mobile friendly.
You can start with one of these professionally designed themes to create your website. You can change the theme of your website at any time and switch to another. They are easy to use and you can customize them in WordPress using the “live” customization tools.
Additionally, WordPress separates the design elements from the content, which helps ensure consistency of the design throughout your website.
Can’t find a theme you like? As mentioned above, you can use page builders to create your own templates again without writing any code.
Multiple models of webflow
Webflow offers dozens of templates (paid and free) that you can use. They are all mobile-friendly and can suit different types of websites.
You can select a template when you start a new project. However, once you’ve selected a template, you won’t be able to edit it: you’ll have to create a new project and then select another template.
On the other hand, editing is easy. Since Webflow is a visual design tool, it comes with a powerful editor to edit any element on any page of your website.
4. Add-ons and Integrations
Plenty of Plugins on WordPress
The real power of WordPress comes from the available plugins: these are like applications for your site, which you can install to add new functionality.
There are over 57,000 free WordPress plugins. Even more so if you count paid plugins. They cover such a wide range of features that it’s hard to find what you’re looking for…
Of course, WordPress integrates all the third-party services and tools you might need to grow your business. Whether you are looking for an email marketing service, live chat software, help desk or phone service, WordPress integrates them all seamlessly.
Plugins to Connect to Your Webflow Project
Webflow offers a limited number of plugins. To interact with third-party services, you’ll need to follow a tutorial on how to connect them to your Webflow project.
Some integrations may break if you move your website to another hosting service. For example, the forms might not work on your new host and you’ll need to find a solution to get them working again.
5. E-commerce
WordPress and its WooCommerce Ecommerce Plugin
You need WordPress to use the most popular online sales platform in the world: WooCommerce. This WordPress plugin is used by millions of small and large online shops around the world.
WooCommerce also comes with its own plugins to help you add new features to your online store with ease. You have access to hundreds of WooCommerce themes to choose from for your site design.
With WooCommerce, you can also choose from a wide range of payment gateways, including PayPal, Stripe, and dozens more. WordPress also has many other e-commerce plugins that you can test.
Webflow: An E-commerce Alternative
Webflow offers limited e-commerce functionality: The number of products you can sell will depend on your plan (the eCommerce Standard plan for $29 allows adding 500 products per month).
Webflow uses Stripe as a payment service. With the Standard plan, Webflow will charge a 2% fee per transaction (on top of Stripe’s transaction fees).
It’s easy to add products to your site. Simply fill out a form to provide product details, pictures and other options.
Webflow is not suitable for selling subscription-based products, but can be used to sell digital products such as software, apps, music, eBooks, etc.
6. Cost
WordPress and its Thousands of Free Features
WordPress is free, but you have to pay for your domain name and hosting. You will also need to pay for any premium plugins or themes, or third-party services that you require.
However, WordPress has the advantage of having a huge ecosystem with over 57,000 free plugins and thousands of free themes in the official directory.
Webflow and its paid dual plan
Webflow offers a limited free version that allows you to build your website and host it using a subdomain named Webflow.
There are two types of paid plans: “Per Site Plans” and “Account Plans”.
- Per site plans are priced per site, so you can use your own domain name (domain price not included), and are priced based on the type of site you want to build. They are divided into Basic, CMS, Business and Enterprise levels. Each level increases your account limit and adds new features.
- Account plans allow you to manage multiple websites as separate projects, which you can host on Webflow or elsewhere. However, if you export the site code, things like some forms and payment gateways might not work.
7. Bracket
great wordpress community
WordPress is a community-driven, open-source software that provides free and fast support. There are official support forums, external resource sites, and even Facebook groups.
You can find answers to all your questions with a simple Google search and you can follow a step-by-step guided tutorial, or even watch a video if you need more visual help.
If you still need help, you can easily find and hire a developer to fix things up for you. Due to the popularity of WordPress, there are thousands of developers out there making it easy for small businesses to get help when they need it.
“Webflow University”, Webflow Tool Support
Webflow hosts a huge library of articles and tutorials called “Webflow University”. There are video tutorials, how-to guides and step-by-step articles covering a wide range of topics.
Webflow also provides email support to its customers from Monday to Friday, 6:00 AM to 6:00 PM. The site has an AI-powered chatbot, but it doesn’t actually offer live support…
Finally, there is a support forum where you can post your question and get help from Webflow users, experts, and even staff.
our advice
Can’t choose the best CMS for your project? Contact the WordPress and Webflow expert at Codeur.com. All you need to do is describe your problem for free to get instant quotes from multiple freelancers.