It is with great pleasure that today we compare the great and venerable WordPress.org against Webflow, the small but revolutionary CMS. A quick reminder: WordPress holds a monopoly in the CMS market, accounting for 65% of market share, continuing to grow and eroding the shares of others. By comparison, Shopify sits in 2nd position with 6% of the market. Webflow sits in 13th position with 0.4% market share. Naturally, one has to question the legitimacy of this duel. But is the battle really as one-sided as it seems? That is what we are about to find out!
Webflow vs WordPress: Open Source vs SaaS
WordPress and Webflow are 2 tools that are fundamentally opposed in their core principles. WordPress is open to community modifications, being Open Source and free. Webflow, on the other hand, is a solution owned by a company with protected code and operates on a freemium business model. However, nothing stops us from comparing what each of these CMS offers, both providing the same type of features — namely simplified website creation with a Drag & Drop interface and various modifications requiring not a single line of code (the code is auto-generated based on your actions). This is surely a major factor in WordPress’s popularity — a powerful, free and Open Source CMS that appeals to small businesses and multinationals alike. But Webflow is not quite like other SaaS online editors since it natively allows you to export the code it creates elsewhere. It is even possible to embed a Webflow page on WordPress using Webflow for free. Admittedly, you will probably need to pay at some point to use the Webflow editor, but thankfully so — otherwise such an editor could certainly not exist. You could easily compare this principle to software like Illustrator or Photoshop.
Who wins this first round?
I am not sure this is truly a battle of Open Source vs SaaS, especially since what follows will be far more concrete.
Price comparison
WordPress is free in itself, but in reality using WordPress will cost you money — whether for hosting, domain name and more. If we compare Webflow’s hosting to an equivalent quality WordPress hosting, only Kinsta ($30/month) or another managed WordPress host can compete. Webflow costs a minimum of €12/month. Admittedly it is possible to choose any type of hosting for WordPress and therefore opt for cheap hosting, but this is not a real solution — we are not living in a fairy tale, and if you have read our article on Kinsta you will understand what I mean. Unfortunately for WordPress users, once your hosting is chosen that will not be your only expense. The majority of WordPress users use paid themes that offer genuine website creation possibilities. We can mention 2: Divi costing $90/year and Elementor Pro at $49/year, which can barely imitate the website creation possibilities of Webflow. As you will have gathered, WordPress is much more expensive — and that does not even include the price of the various other plugins you might need.
In this duel, Webflow completely crushes WordPress in terms of cost. Unexpected perhaps, but it is a fact.
In depth: Webflow hosting
Webflow has hosting optimised for its platform and uses the power of Amazon Cloud servers, one of the most powerful services in the world alongside Google Cloud. Furthermore, to maximise performance and security, a CDN (fastly) is integrated into all plans. It also has an infinitely scalable server fleet to handle traffic spikes (scaling): “Instant scaling; Your site will be dynamic for the first or the millionth simultaneous visitor. Don’t worry about becoming popular overnight.” No maintenance required, self-managed, automatic daily backups… Webflow promises staggering response rates with performance scores close to 100/100 (Pingdom) and very low load times of around 1 second.
To compare its type of hosting, you inevitably need to compare it with managed WordPress hosting, which is the most powerful option. They do not hesitate to make this comparison on their website:
By choosing Kinsta as your hosting, you will achieve the same level of performance on WordPress. If you also use plugins such as WP Rocket alongside Perfmatters you will probably reach even better performance for the same page weight. Nothing comes for free though — WP Rocket and Perfmatters will cost you over €80/year. Webflow already integrates the right optimisation and speed basics (which you can customise) — not counting hosting:
Natural search engine optimisation: SEO performance between Webflow and WordPress
I will do you this favour — I know you are all already impatient to find out the difference between these 2 CMS in terms of SEO. And rightly so: when deciding on the right platform for your website, you naturally think about SEO. A beautiful site that is not visible on Google is of little use. Is it even necessary to look at WordPress from an SEO angle? No — WordPress is the best solution in the world for a well-ranked site on Google. Listing everything it can do is pointless since it can do everything. But can Webflow hold its own?
From constantly hearing that Wix is not optimised for SEO at all, people quickly conclude that WordPress is the only good CMS for visibility on Google. For context, Wix at the time offered almost no SEO capabilities and also produced HTML code that was unreadable for Google.
Webflow delivers very clean semantic code that search engine robots can easily analyse. Webflow even claims that “Search engines love us”.
And yes — Webflow does very well indeed. I am increasingly asked to work on the SEO of Webflow sites, and I regularly see this CMS on the first page of Google for competitive queries, sometimes in the very first position. So, it works. Here are some examples of what Webflow handles for SEO (natively, without a plugin):
- Title tag & meta title,
- OpenGraph
- Sitemaps & robots.txt,
- Alt tag (image)
- Page URLs (Slug),
- Ultra-fast hosting
- 301 redirect
- SSL certificate
- 404 page
- …
Battle results:
WordPress remains unbeatable on SEO since there are plugins for absolutely everything. For example, download a plugin to get 300 different schema types. Oh, I forgot: Webflow includes structured data natively:
In other words, there are no very significant differences, except that with WordPress you will pay more.
Design, animations and customisation
Everyone already knows who is going to win here, and yes you are right — but let us explore what “WordPress” can offer.
For comparison, I decided to choose Divi and Elementor Pro as the WordPress themes, in order to have the least one-sided contest possible.
What makes Webflow indispensable and very attractive at first glance is its ability to create beautiful websites, animations and interactivity without writing a single line of code. Which is not the case with WordPress.
Getting to the point: if you want to create scroll effects or images that move based on your mouse position, you can also do this with Elementor Pro. If you want to go to the next level and perfectly control your scroll effect, you will need Webflow, which offers real parameters to configure it. Parameters that will open other sub-menus full of settings, and so on.
But what I consider Webflow’s greatest strength is that it offers no themes at all and has the ability to combine complex animations. Perhaps that sounds abstract — let me give you an example. A “parallax” scroll effect on WordPress requires a plugin, and you will not have total control over it. On Webflow, it is natively integrated. More concretely, creating a parallax effect on Webflow compared to WordPress is like comparing a professional recording studio to a basic recorder. The 4D parallax effect where everything moves in harmony depends on Webflow parameters that are practically impossible to reproduce on WordPress.
Battle results:
Webflow wins hands down on design. There is no contest and WordPress cannot catch up on this.
Which tool is easiest to use?
If you do not know WordPress, it will be difficult to install — fortunately today most hosts will do it for you automatically if you choose a WP plan.
In any case, Webflow is much faster to get started with: sign up, click 2 buttons and you are editing the visual of your first site (for free).
However, if WordPress is so widely used it is because it is relatively easy to set up. That said, comparing 5 minutes to 2 minutes for setup is not very illuminating. On the other hand, once your WordPress site is created, you will need to fiddle with a whole host of settings, such as configuring URLs to be consistent, setting up HTTPS straight away to avoid a pile of security errors with unsecured images — in short, once WordPress is installed that is not enough. A whole list of things will need to be done and set up. What about afterwards? You will need to update your WordPress plugins regularly to avoid any security issues (security is also generally weaker). Webflow handles everything automatically — you have complete peace of mind (better than a managed WordPress host would provide).
Nevertheless, once you get to designing your site, Webflow will cost you the time you gained compared to the Divi or Elementor editor on WordPress. Simply because Webflow is very comprehensive and you will inevitably feel out of your depth compared to any existing WP theme. Allow me to argue in its defence though: if you go no deeper than Elementor allows and limit yourself to the same number of possibilities in the Webflow editor, it will not take you that much more time.
Admittedly you will feel small the first time you open the Webflow editor, but since you have options for everything you will never be frustrated by not managing to do what you wanted — rather than desperately trying to achieve your goal through roundabout means!
Result:
I grant that throwing yourself fully into site editing with Webflow requires a moral effort, but it is necessary for a site that works anyway. Once you have mastered it, Webflow is the most UX-friendly tool of any. By comparison, WordPress settings are often useless and I am certain beginners have never opened half the tabs in WordPress settings. But what about the actual result? Which is easier? Hard to say — each has its own type of ease.
The learning difficulties with WordPress are basic and blunt, whereas getting to grips with a professional editor is a much more rewarding experience.
The community and the support it offers
It is well known that when using WordPress you can always find the answer to your question and the help you need, since it has the largest community in the world. Believe me, Webflow will probably give you more chance of finding a solution to your problem. Why? Just like WordPress, Webflow has a very active community blog and external sites that discuss it extensively to share tips and provide help.
However, Webflow has a wealth of online resources called Webflow University, offering video and text-format courses covering every feature and parameter of their front-end editor and their back-end features. If you are lost, simply watch their free online courses, designed for beginners, intermediate users and professionals. The only downside is that everything is available in English. Having tried it myself, it is perfectly acceptable to use YouTube’s automatic translator and that is sufficient to understand the essentials. A little effort and the knowledge is already on offer!
But that is not all — Webflow has dedicated support specifically for you if you cannot manage to do something, which does not exist with WordPress.
To be precise, support options do generally exist. If you use a theme to build your site like Divi, the support will not help you with problems on WordPress itself. Having tried both the Webflow support and the Divi support, the quality of response is incomparable. If the question is slightly complex, theme support teams will direct you to an “expert” who will take a full week and ultimately tell you they cannot help you. Webflow’s support, by contrast, is exceptional — with a response within 24 hours.
Result?
Even though WordPress is packed with community help and tips, the fact that Webflow also provides free online courses, (very pleasant) documentation on every aspect and dedicated support, gives it the win here. For beginners and professionals alike.
Flexibility and plugins
You may have always been told that WordPress is the most flexible CMS in the world — or perhaps you did not know — but in any case it is entirely true. By flexible we mean that it is Open Source and has the largest plugin library as well as a seasoned community. Webflow has what it calls “integrations”. It is a bit like a plugin but for Webflow. It is thus possible to integrate newsletters, a multilingual site, or even create your own integrations with their API just like WordPress (in a sense). But there is far less choice. If you are running a “simple” backend site — such as a showcase site, a blog or an e-commerce site that does not require a specific module — Webflow is more than sufficient. If you are not a backend developer and need specific things and want a relatively complex backend site, WordPress is unquestionably the best solution thanks to its variety of plugins that make it very easy to do complicated things quickly and easily.
Result: When it comes to flexibility and plugins, Webflow holds its own but cannot compete with WordPress.
Webflow focuses on an all-in-one tool at the same price point, whereas WordPress plugins are expensive and add bloat to the CMS. This is often uncontrollable for beginners and even penalising for professionals. Webflow has the ability to do the same things if needed, more cleanly and more securely.
What types of sites are best suited to Webflow or WordPress?
Depending on your needs, the type of site you want to create will be better suited to Webflow or WordPress. As seen above, if you are not a backend developer, a complex site is much more achievable on WordPress. For a showcase site, if you want to showcase your services as effectively as possible, Webflow is the better choice, being highly specialised in the visual side.
The best CMS for an e-commerce site?
WordPress cannot create an e-commerce site natively. One of the best solutions is to install the WooCommerce plugin, which transforms your site into an e-commerce site. To summarise WooCommerce: poor user experience, chaos, and a whole host of unpleasant things. If you have already used it, I am sure you still have not understood what half the settings in the product editor are for. WooCommerce settings are anarchic and you constantly need to add CSS manually to customise anything to do with the cart, checkout page, etc. However, there are countless plugins available to add complex e-commerce functionality, from simple subscription payment integration to plugins for turning your e-commerce into a Dropshipping store.
As for Webflow, in one word I would say “incredible”. If you are used to WooCommerce, you will certainly experience it as a revolution — you can modify anything you want, and all the settings are logical and well-thought-out in terms of user experience. An absolute pleasure.
Everything is possible — there is no comparison:
Now, could you create complex events and build the next Amazon with Webflow? Certainly not. But if you just need to sell products that do not number in the thousands, with rules outside the standard norm of an “standard” e-commerce site — for me and BY FAR — it is the best solution for a great online shop.
For this round, both Webflow and WordPress win, as it depends on the type of e-commerce site needed. That said, for a complex e-commerce site you should turn to solutions like Magento or Prestashop.
The best CMS for a blog?
WordPress was originally created exclusively for creating online blogs — easy, open to everyone. We could almost say that the parent of blogging is WordPress itself, which means no CMS can beat it at that game.
As is typical of Webflow, it will be difficult to understand at first how its content management works and how to create articles. For that you will obviously get access to this:
Once you have understood how blog creation and article writing works — what they call “CMS & Dynamic Content” — you can then fully enjoy a relatively pleasant interface for focusing on content creation, unlike the classic page editor:
It is of course possible to create a defined and highly visual template for each article and then focus exclusively on this editor, which is particularly pleasant. It is also possible to import articles natively in .csv format with a single click:
In summary, Webflow is very good at blog creation with a little commitment.
In terms of native blogging features, Webflow has nothing to envy WordPress, except that it does not allow comments without a Webflow plugin. I should note that things like automatically publishing to social media when you publish a WordPress article is also possible on Webflow — it will just take slightly longer to set up. This kind of issue concerns a tiny number of people who will blog, but be aware that the vast majority of WordPress’s blogging capabilities are perfectly achievable on Webflow.
Result?
WordPress wins for blog creation, especially in terms of ease of use and also speed of setup — but only for the initial setup. Once Webflow is configured, the experience is relatively identical.
Case study: major companies migrate from WordPress to Webflow
Major companies are now making the switch to Webflow for several reasons, leaving WordPress behind. I will let you hear the words of Sarah Smith (MARKETING OPERATIONS MANAGER at RAKUTEN):
“Given that we were planning a website redesign and were experiencing security and downtime issues with the WordPress site, we took the opportunity to research and find a solution that was both easy to use and secure. Webflow was the leading solution.”
“We were very concerned that Webflow was a relatively new product and wasn’t ‘proven’ the way WordPress had been over the years. Going with the ‘outsider’ inherently carries risks, and we were very diligent in our research. In retrospect, we may have been a bit too zealous in our due diligence. It became one of the best decisions we ever made.”
“We’ve saved thousands of dollars over the past few months since switching from WordPress to Webflow. Now my team can make changes in 20 minutes that would have taken a costly programmer 4 to 5 hours.”
“I was able to make a lot of daily updates in WordPress, and I find it just as easy or easier in Webflow.”
“Since rebuilding and redesigning our site on Webflow, our engagement rate has increased significantly. Even with previous revamps, we never saw these results.”
So, Webflow or WordPress? Which one to choose?
Note that I had to significantly shorten many elements since this article is as long as the Burj Khalifa.
In the end, it is more of a front-end vs back-end battle, or visual vs behind-the-scenes. Of course other parameters come into play, but the main distinction lies here. If you need complex backend functionality and much more flexibility, go with WordPress (very much tied to plugins) — otherwise, go with Webflow.
After all, if it is a simple showcase site and you are using 1/10 of Webflow’s capabilities, is it really necessary to use it? Perhaps not, even if ultimately Webflow’s cost-to-peace-of-mind ratio is better. Beginner? Webflow has very good advantages that WordPress lacks, and vice versa.
In short, there is no better solution — it is simply a matter of choosing the CMS that suits you best. If SEO is your priority you are better off with WordPress, and if design is your priority you are better off with Webflow. Is it not better to have slightly less traffic but higher conversion (thanks to design)? If you know about SEO, this is actually the same principle as the long-tail technique.
In any case, this comparison is entirely legitimate and Webflow is a fully revolutionary CMS in its own right. It is also the only legitimate contest among CMS that I would dare put against WordPress.
Still unsure? Ask me on Twitter what you are trying to do!