Comparison: WordPress vs. Webflow

There is nothing more important than the website for a modern business. Especially after that little thing called the Global Pandemic, which threw society in disarray and panic, forced the mass digitization of almost all services. There is rarely a product or service that can't be found online, which gives a massive boost to the providers when it comes to reaching potential customers. 

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While Digital Marketing strategies can make or break your business, there won't be any business to break without a proper website. That's why creating a good-looking, SEO-friendly, customer-friendly, well-organized, and eye-pleasing online home for your company is of utmost priority. Thankfully, today, easy-to-use website builders allow even beginners to make a usable and good-looking website. However, this begs the question of which one is the best. 

There are two leading candidates for this position - Webflow and WordPress. Let's see which one is the best.

Who are Webflow and WordPress

Webflow is a relatively new cloud-based website builder founded in 2013. It started as a niche builder for designers who wanted a more responsive and clean way to make websites for their customers without extra plug-ins and with cleaner code. Over time, as it always happens, the platform became widely used by non-professionals who wanted the same benefits. 

Although Webflow has only 0.6% of the market, it's the preferred website builder for high-traffic, high-revenue companies. For example, 74% of users operate companies that have between 1 and 50 million annually, while around 7% of them are with over 1 billion dollars of revenue. 

Webflow is constantly gaining traction and is becoming more and more popular with its easy-to-use, drag-n-drop interface that allows customization that in other platforms need in-depth knowledge of HTML, CSS, and Javascript.

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WordPress, on the other hand, is a grandpa in the website builder's universe. With its 18 years of age, it's one of the oldest and most influential entities on the market. It comes as no surprise that WordPress has 37% of all websites and a whooping 60% of the CMS market. With over 455 million websites created, WordPress, without a doubt, is a leader in the developer's community. The best part of WordPress is its open-source nature, allowing anyone to use the platform for free or sell themes without extra charge. 

Which one is easier to use?

Webflow is the wet dream of every beginner looking for a well-designed, DIY website. The visual page builder allows you to take complete control over the HTML, CSS, and Javascript without knowing even the slightest thing about them. The best part is that by using Webflow, you will eventually learn the basics of all these otherwise tricky languages.

Webflow uses an intuitive drag-and-drop interface that allows you to fully customize your website and make it just like you envisioned it. The best part is that you can create an interactive and fully animated website without the extensive knowledge of CSS it usually requires. With just one click on an element, you can change a lot of its processes and functions. Webflow allows you to create a well-designed, fully functioning website with little to no prior experience.  

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WordPress is also straightforward to use, as there are many free templates, themes, plug-ins that basically make a skeleton of your website, and you only need to fill in the blanks. However, this limits your customization significantly, and if you want to do that, you must have extensive HTML, CSS, and JavaScript knowledge. As WordPress was firstly designed for bloggers, their CMS is extraordinarily easy to work with and makes creating new content as easy as finding a cockroach in a dirty New York apartment. 

Winner: Webflow

With its limitless visual interface, drag-and-drop features, and cleaner HTML, CSS, and JavaScript, Webflow is far easier to operate, and you need little to no experience to create outstanding websites. 

How much will it cost?

At first glance, this is probably the only downside of Webflow. Understanding the pricing of Webflow is a bit challenging, to begin with. There are two types of plan, a "Site Plan" or an "Account Plan." The "Site Plan" is for the regular fellow who just wants to make one or two websites for his own brand, while the "Account Plan" is specifically for developers who will sell the websites they create.  

With the "Site Plan," you will get not only a chance to create a uniquely complicated website as easy as beating a 1-year-old at chess, but you will also get a free SSL Certificate, fast hosting, and backups. The lowest you will go here is $12/mo, which, however, is only suitable for static websites that don't need a lot of new content. With this plan, you won't get an extremely comfortable CMS system. To get it, you will need a $16/mo subscription at least. This plan is best suited for bloggers and other content-driven websites. The "Business Plan" is perfect for high-traffic websites. You will get up to 1 000 000 visitors and a lot of other perks. 

For eCommerce websites, the prices are different. Depending on the size of your online shop and your yearly sales volume, you will pay between 29/mo and 212/mo.  

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WordPress, on the other hand, can be absolutely free. Well, you will have to pay for hosting and domain, but it's still cheaper than Webflow. However, if you want a custom website, or you want a specific feature, you will need to pay either for a paid theme and/or plug-ins, or you will have to pay a developer to create your website for you, which will be much more expensive than using Webflow. Thus, depending on the type of website you need, WordPress may be a great deal or a golden hen, laying regular spoiled eggs. 

Winner: WordPress

While it heavily depends on the website you need, in most cases, WordPress will be less pricey for your website needs. Although Webflow has some major advantages, its pricing is still a bit heavy for newcomers who just need some online representation.  

How do they play with Google?

Webflow has an in-build SEO integration, which means you won't need 3rd party plug-ins to make your website as visible as an Elephant in an all-mice convention. You can natively enter all your Meta-Description, and your perma-links automatically are created as SEO-friendly as possible. With the free SSL certificate, cleaner code (which makes the whole website faster), Easy to create and maintain Mobile version, and easy redirects, every SEO specialist will ask Webflow to the prom with them. Furthermore, the all-important Google Analytics addition to your website is done by simply entering the ID code. The same is the procedure with Google Webmaster Tools (now known as Google Search Console), from which you can check your website for issues and check for backlinks. 

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WordPress is also as SEO-friendly as a website can be. Unfortunately, it doesn't have an integrated SEO interface, and you do need to install additional plug-ins. However, some excellent plug-ins like YOAST make SEO optimization effortless. Also, you will need to install an additional plug-in for Google Analytics and Google Search Console or integrate it in your HTML code by hand, which can mess up your whole website if you don't know what you are doing. 

Winner: Webflow

Although both builders are equally SEO-friendly, and you can easily make your website Number one in Google's heart, Webflow takes this round since there are no additional plug-ins needed, which keep the website lighter, more secure, and faster.

How fast are they?

Webflow is widely known for creating cleaner HTML code, making the website faster than lightning on steroids. This is actually where Webflow excels. No matter how complicated and visually stunning, your website is, its HTML, CSS, and JavaScript codes will be clean and in order. Thus your website will make the user experience better while at the same time making any malware or malicious third-party attempts on your website more visible and preventable. 

Webflow also has automatic minifying, deleting all unnecessary CSS code, making your website even faster. Also, it has automated caching, which makes the opening of your website even quicker. 

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On WordPress, it all depends on your web hosting. With crappy web hosting, your website will be as slow as a snail in a traffic jam. But even if your hosting is perfect, it still depends on your website functionalities and your developing skills. For example, WordPress HTML code is quite complex, and if you are not professional, trying to clean it up will probably destroy your webpage. On the other hand, all the plug-ins will also affect the speed of your website, so the more functionalities you look for, the worse the speed. 

Winner: Webflow

Both builders can produce websites with great speed. However, Webflow does it effortlessly, and even an amateur can create a stunning web design that opens fast and provides a great user experience. 

Which one is for the Bloggers?

Webflow has an outstanding CMS if you pay for it. It's highly responsive, and you can easily create content templates that will wow even the best designers. Then, afterward, you can effortlessly connect them to your site design. Also, you can design the content right on the page and see how it looks while still creating it. This makes it exactly like playing a game, and you can even outsource it to your children. The best part is that even if you have absolutely 0 developer skills, you still have complete control over how your content will look and function. 

The only downside to the Webflow CMS is some minor changes you won't be able to do, like changing your URL slug or placing a full-wide section in some areas of your post.

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WordPress is the most popular CMS in the world, with over 60% of the market share. Furthermore, WordPress was created especially for content creators, and it's their strength. Their CMS allows you complete modification of your content, and even though you will be using Dashboard and won't be able to see the end result in real-time, you can easily switch to preview to check your progress. 

Winner: WordPress

Even though Webflow's CMS is outstanding and gives you all the features you need, WordPress remains the Mother of all CMS. Furthermore, it's free to use, unlike Webflow's CMS and the latter still lacks some minor functionalities WordPress has. 

Which one's for Ecommerce?

Webflow is without a doubt the perfect builder if online sales are your gig. It gives you immense control over every aspect of your design and gives you the opportunity to follow the same patterns from the top to the bottle of the funnel. Probably the best part is that it allows you to design your check-out page just the way you imagine it, without deviating too much from your original design. Other platforms rarely give you this opportunity, and the check-out page is unmistakably different. Furthermore, Webflow allows you to create branded transactional emails, which confirm the sale. It's a minor touch but speaks volumes about your brand image and trustworthiness. 

As a plus, all major payment methods like Apple pay, Google Pay, PayPal and Stripe are compatible with the Webflow builder. 

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WordPress once again depends on a plug-in for eCommerce use. The plug-in WooCommerce is without a doubt the most popular eCommerce platform and is used by roughly a quarter of all online shops. Although WooCommerce is free and highly customizable, you'd need some HTML, CSS, and especially JavaScript knowledge to make it just like you want, which makes it a bit tardy. WooCommerce has several useful plug-ins of its own. However, they clog your website and slow your speed even further. 

Winner: Webflow

Although WordPress with WooCommerce by far is the most popular platform, Webflow gives immensely more opportunities to customize your website and make your brand visible through the whole process. This, without a doubt, makes the customer experience far better.

Which one will keep your secrets better?

When it comes to security, no platform is 100% secure. However, Webflow definitely comes close. The builder doesn't allow third-party plug-ins, which may be one of the most significant security breaches. In addition, the cleaner code allows your IT team to check your website more easily for malware and other issues. To top it all off, each Webflow plan comes with a free SSL certificate to ensure your website is the safest place on the internet. 

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WordPress is also as secure as a website builder can be. However, the use of plug-ins is a breach that may cost you security. To be fair, most plug-ins are malware-free, and if you are careful enough and read other users’r's comments on the plug-in, chances of infecting your website are minimal. The Open Source code of the platform is also not ideal, even if it's not a huge security risk on its own. 

Winner: Webflow

Even though both platforms are extremely secure, the lack of plug-ins and the clearer code give us the nudge to announce Webflow as the winner of this round. 

Support

Webflow really goes all in to make the user experience as flawless as possible. With the Webflow University, blog, forum, and community, there is rarely any question that will remain unanswered. But even if there is such a question, Webflow has a customer support team that is always ready to help. 

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WordPress Support, on the other hand, is entirely community-driven. Even so, there is rarely any question that won't be answered. With the forums, Facebook groups, dedicated websites, YouTube channels, you can find a solution to every problem. And if you can't, you can always ask. The only downside is that it's pretty easy to miss the exact answer you are looking for with so much information. 

Winner: Webflow

Although WordPress undoubtedly has the bigger community and it literally has answers to every question imaginable, the dedicated support team of Webflow is a perk when you are stuck and you don't have enough time to search through the whole database to find a solution on your own.

Verdict

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Although both website builder platforms are an excellent choice and very easy to operate. Both have outstanding CMS, SEO, and eCommerce solutions. However, in our opinion, Webflow is the better alternative. Although you will invest a slightly larger amount of money initially, what you get in return indeed is worth every penny. You get a faster website, cleaner code, visual building, which helps a lot when you are not a developer. Your security is better, as is the support. Even in the fields where Webflow is behind WordPress like the CMS, Webflow is close behind and offers innovative and alluring solutions.

Getting Webflow as your website builder is definitely what we, as experts, will suggest. 

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