Helpful summary
Overview: We explore the differences between WordPress and Webflow, two prominent no-code website builders. WordPress, renowned for its ease of use and affordability, is ideal for small sites and blogs. Webflow, on the other hand, offers more design freedom and is increasingly favored by businesses for its no-code web app-building capabilities.
Why trust us: As a premium SEO content marketing agency, we at Embarque helped numerous startups scale their online presence. Our experience in effective digital marketing strategies ensures that our comparisons are insightful for businesses aiming to optimize their online impact.
Why it matters: Choosing the right platform is crucial for businesses to effectively launch and manage their online presence. WordPress is user-friendly and cost-effective for basic sites, while Webflow offers greater customization and is better suited for complex business needs.
Action points: We recommend assessing your business's website requirements and technical expertise. Opt for WordPress for simplicity and cost-effectiveness, or choose Webflow for greater design control and advanced eCommerce capabilities.
Further research: Delve deeper into the specific features of both platforms, considering your business's unique needs and future scalability.
Our comparison between WordPress and Webflow based on personal experience
Creating an interactive, functional website is an essential step in any digital marketing strategy. WordPress is the most widely used website builder and CMS among startups and mid-level enterprises - with the platform powering 43.2% of all websites on the internet
Since its creation in 2003, WordPress has garnered a reputation for ease of use and affordability - making it great for small sites and blogs.
However, larger sites can suffer from the platform’s limitations, performance issues, and security flaws. For those businesses looking to offer a complex user experience, create a SaaS web app or sell products online, should you opt for a more adaptable website engine?
Webflow is an increasingly popular choice for businesses and enterprises looking for a no-code website & web app builder. How does Webflow compare to WordPress? What are the key differences and benefits of each platform?
In this article, Embarque will answer which is better for building your next website? WordPress or Webflow?
Why listen to us?
When choosing between WordPress and Webflow for launching your online business, it's crucial to consider their differences and how they align with your business goals.
Embarque has extensive experience in helping tech startups like VEED, Mailjet, and Levels FYI navigate this choice, significantly scaling their growth. We understand that creating a stunning website is only part of the journey.
Effective marketing and SEO are key, and that's where our expertise comes into play. Our team crafts engaging, actionable content and employs strategic backlinking to propel your business to high Google rankings.
Our comprehensive SEO packages blend high-quality content creation with backlink strategies, ensuring a holistic approach to digital marketing for your business.
WordPress vs Webflow: Key Differences
WordPress and Webflow are both great no-code website builders. What are the key differences between them?
- With WordPress, you create your website by choosing a pre-made theme and adjusting the content on the page, rather than the design. Functionality and features can be added through plugins, and tech-savvy creators can edit the site's HTML and CSS to tweak for greater customization. WordPress does have a drag-and-drop editor, but it’s quite limited and inconsistent.
- Webflow gives you full design freedom with a fully-fledged drag-and-drop editor and plenty of in-built design tools and settings. If you need the freedom to design a unique user experience of your site, you should opt for Webflow.
- WordPress's brilliant content management system (CMS) is designed to make starting a blog as easy as possible.
- Webflow has a great built-in eCommerce engine that allows online businesses to start selling products immediately. You'll need to install a plugin to sell online with WordPress.
What is WordPress?
WordPress is a free, open-source website builder and content management system (CMS). It’s most commonly used to create landing pages and blogs, with its authoring and publishing tools making it easy to post blogs and run publications. Additionally, WordPress is highly flexible, making it a popular choice for custom web development projects.
Powering over 40% of the internet is no small feat. WordPress’s lasting popularity is driven by its ease of use and low cost. It’s free to start, with many web hosting providers offering one-click WordPress installs to get you up and running.
First released in 2003 by developers Matt Mullenweg and Mike Little, WordPress set out to be a “factory for websites”. Indeed, the ability to create dependable websites without any coding required attracted millions of creators and businesses to the platform.
WordPress.com vs WordPress.org: What’s the difference?
There exist two distinct versions of WordPress:
- WordPress.org: A free, open-source CMS that can be installed on your web host.
- WordPress.com: The official managed hosting provider of WordPress installs.
Simply put, WordPress.org is the engine that you install wherever you’re hosting your website. If you don’t want the hassle of hosting your own website, WordPress.com can do it for you.
Small blogs and personal websites can stick to WordPress.com, but businesses should really be hosting their own WordPress.org installs.
WordPress Key Features
What does WordPress have to offer? Here are some of the most notable features and benefits of the platform.
The Software is Free and Open-Source
This is arguably the key driver of WordPress's steady growth. No other free website builder offers the functionality and freedom of WordPress.
WordPress.org is completely free to use. Moreover, the code behind the platform is open-source - so developers can adapt the code, write plugins and fully understand how their data is being used on the platform.
Even the managed hosting provider WordPress.com is free to get started with. It offers a compelling free ad-supported tier. We’ll cover WordPress’s pricing in more detail further on.
Wide Library of Third-Party Plugins
A default install of WordPress does, however, lack many features and functionality that some website admins needs, especially for SaaS and eCommerce businesses.
That’s where plugins come in. WordPress has a rich community of third-party developers that regularly create and maintain plugins to add new functionality to the platform.
There are over 59,000 available plugins in the WordPress plugin library - and thousands more are hosted on third-party websites.
Popular plugins include:
- WooCommerce: A beloved eCommerce plugin that allows WordPress admins to start selling products online.
- Yoast SEO: A free SEO plugin that allows you to add SEO tags, optimize content and configure metadata to improve your visibility in search engines.
Many of these plugins are provided by their developers for free - with some even being open source. However, many of the meatier plugins are paid subscriptions.
A Blog is Built-in and Ready to Go
WordPress was born to host blogs - and it does it so well. There’s a reason why many large publications like The New Yorkers and Tech Crunch still use WordPress.
The platform’s authoring tools and blog post creator are really simple to use. It’s easy to start a blog and write articles that look great online.
To get started, simply head to the WordPress dashboard and hit Create Post. It’s that straightforward!
WordPress’s blog editor works like a word processor - and even retains formatting, hyperlinks and images if you copy & paste from Google Docs or MS Word.
Pricing
As mentioned before, WordPress is a free and open-source website engine. If you’re planning on installing and hosting your website yourself (through a web host), WordPress is completely free to use.
We highly recommend that businesses and larger sites do this. Small blogs and hobbyists who are looking to start a blog quickly can, however, use WordPress.com.
It’s free to get started with WordPress.com - but this free tier doesn’t support custom domains and inserts ads on your website.
The standard plans can range between $7-$15 a month - but the enterprise plans can reach up to $45. When compared to web hosting options, WordPress.com a great deal for small websites, but not businesses.
You can browse WordPress.com’s pricing here.
Should you use WordPress? Pros and Cons
Pros
- WordPress is free and open-source: It’s often the most cost-effective way to build a website by yourself.
- It’s easy to create an acceptable website quickly: You don’t need any web development or coding skills to make a WordPress site. Just load a template and start tweaking! However, the distinction between a web application and a website is important to understand. A website is a collection of static web pages, while a web application is a dynamic, interactive software program that runs in a web browser.
- WordPress is perfect for small blogs: The platform was originally designed as a blogging tool, and it excels at this.
Cons
- Themes and experiences are so hard to customize: If you’re not happy with a certain theme or you want to build an innovative user experience, you’re tough out of luck. Heavy websites create their own themes, but this requires so many resources and lots of expertise.
- Lack of functionality means you’ll bloat your website with plugins: The extensive plugin library is a great resource for new features, but should you really need to turn to third-party software to add basic functionality like image carousels or eCommerce? Too many plugins create an inefficient, slow website.
- WordPress websites often have bad security flaws: If website admins have to rely on often outdated plugins, it’s no surprise WordPress sites suffer from security risks.
What is the best no-code alternative to WordPress?
WordPress is great for small blogs, personal sites and landing pages.
But, what if you need to customize your website intensively? What if you need complete control over your user experience? What if you’re building a SaaS web app for your customers?
WordPress simply won’t cut it. What is the best no-code alternative to WordPress? Let’s take a look at Webflow!
What is Webflow?
Webflow is the rising star of no-code website builders. It’s tailor-made for businesses to create stunning experiences for their visitors.
Who is Webflow for? It’s best utilized by tech professionals or startup founders who already have some background knowledge in web development.
This tool doesn’t require any code to get started, but to get the most out of Webflow, you’ll need to understand how CSS works, how to configure a CMS and know your way around events, interactions and animations.
But, if you crack this learning curve, you can create truly unique web experiences.
A well-designed Webflow app, complete with CSS formatting and intricate animated elements, showcases the range of what’s possible with HTML5.
For example, Amsterdam restaurant Sous launched one of the most beautiful online menus we’ve ever seen. In particular, the site's designer used Webflow's animation tool to create a stunning floating header.
Webflow Key Features
Full control and customizability over user experience
Webflow uses a drag-and-drop editor to let website creators design their pages. Whereas WordPress formatting and design are limited by the theme you use, Webflow gives you a full canvas to design the perfect website.
The powerful visual editor allows web designers to craft and tweak the website in real-time. You’re no longer at the mercy of a restrictive theme or unstable design plugins.
Webflow aims to bring the entire web design and development workflow together onto one platform. Developers can easily integrate their code into the WYSIWYG editor - allowing you to build interactive experiences for your visitors.
For instance, Fintech SaaS Memberstack used Webflow to create a unique landing page - complete with interactive sliders on the feature list.
Webflow writes clean and efficient code
Webflow’s code generation is clean and efficient. Most drag-and-drop site builders bloat your site’s code with inline classes and lines of unnecessary fluff. WordPress suffers from this problem a lot - meaning large sites are stuffed with long code, hurting performance.
The lightweight W3C-compliant, semantic code that Webflow writes for you is easily understandable. Developers can tweak and adjust code as they see fit.
You can even export your site as HTML, CSS, and images in a ZIP file for backups or migration!
Built-in eCommerce Integration
Webflow has eCommerce features built-in to its website builder that make it easy to create an intuitive online shopping experience. Unlike WordPress, you won’t need a third-party plugin to sell products online.
Adding products to your website is simple. From the Webflow dashboard, all you’ll need to do is find the eCommerce panel and start adding your merchandise.
From there, you can create a checkout flow that’s tailored to your business, its touchpoints and your product types.
Webflow even provides a handy guide on how to build your online store from scratch. How useful!
Pricing
Webflow isn’t free - but with the platform it gives you to grow your business, it might be a great investment.
There are two main ways that Webflow approaches its pricing:
- Site plans
- Account plans
You can pay for each website you build and host using a site plan. This is the option you should pick if you’re creating a website for your own business.
Account plans - or Workspaces - are for those who design multiple websites, especially for other people/businesses. If you’re a freelance web designer or freelancer, choose workspaces.
Should you use Webflow? Pros and Cons
Pros
- Webflow gives you more control over your website and its interactivity: It allows you to craft unique user experiences, free from the limitations of themes and plugins.
- Intuitive and simple eCommerce tools: With an eCommerce plan, you can set up an online store in minutes. It’s a more robust and secure system than WooCommerce on WordPress.
- Powerful drag-and-drop editor that unites design and dev teams: Webflow, when used collaboratively, breaks down silos between designers and developers. UI/UX designers can add elements and shape the site themselves, while devs can make it all work!
Cons
- Steep learning curve: Webflow isn’t particularly easy-to-use, especially when compared to WordPress. It still is a no-code editor, but it will just take more time to get used to.
- It’s not free: Advanced plans can get a tad expensive. That’s why recommend Webflow for startups and businesses looking to generate revenue. Individuals and hobbyists may not be able to absorb the monthly subscription.
WordPress vs Webflow: Feature Comparison
Elevate your online brand with Embarque’s SEO content that converts
Building a stunning website is only half of the hard work of scaling an online business. No website can succeed without marketing and SEO - and that’s exactly where Embarque can help!
Embarque is a premium productized SEO content marketing agency that’s helped high-growth tech startups, such as VEED, Mailjet and Levels FYI, scale fast.
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