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Is Webflow better than WordPress?
Webflow has become madly popular in recent years, and for good reason. The platform offers a clever way of designing and developing websites that don’t require users to write a single line of code.
But how does it fare with WordPress, the web design and CMS giant, that has been the preferred choice for decades? 43% of all websites globally use WordPress, but more and more users are making the switch to Webflow.
Join us as we explore the differences between both platforms and come to a verdict – is Webflow better than WordPress?
Altas Obscura's Wanderlist 2024
Everything you need to know about Webflow
No code design
No code is an approach to web design and development that allows users to create websites without having to write any code.
With Webflow, you can use a drag-and-drop interface to design your site, visualising changes in real-time as you make them. This visual editor is highly flexible so you can adjust every element on the page to fit your vision perfectly.
The drawback is that while Webflow’s no-code design capabilities are impressive, there’s an inevitable learning curve. The platform’s ingenious features and design flexibility mean that new users might find it overwhelming at first. And some advanced customisations do still require a basic understanding of HTML, CSS, and JavaScript.
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Drag and drop interface
Webflow’s drag-and-drop interface is a real revolution to the way websites are built. As you move elements around the page, you can instantly see how they will appear on the live site. We love that this gives the ability to iterate quicker and make spot-on adjustments as you build.
Ultimately, Webflow’s standout feature is its incredible design flexibility. Unlike other platforms with restrictive templates, Webflow either lets you start with a blank canvas or a pre-made template which you can customise down to every aspect. This gives real freedom for your website to be as creative as you want it to be.
You’ll be totally in control of:
- Font type, size, colour, alignment, line height, and letter spacing
- Heading styles (H1, H2, H3, etc.) with various typography options
- Link styling with different colours, hover effects, and text decorations
- Background colour, background image, and spacing
- And so much more.
And if you’re looking to push your designs even further, Webflow supports advanced modifications – you can create complex interactions and animations that enhance user experience and engagement.
Secure hosting and domain
Webflow offers a comprehensive solution for secure hosting and domain management, centralising these critical aspects of website maintenance into a single, streamlined platform.
You can purchase and manage your domain directly through Webflow. This means you don’t have to juggle multiple services or providers, making it easier to set up and maintain your website.
Your site will be hosted on fast, globally distributed servers, designed to handle traffic spikes, providing a consistent user experience even during peak periods.
Webflow also takes care of all security patches and updates, protecting your site from vulnerabilities without requiring any effort on your part. This means your site is always protected by the latest security measures, like:
- Free SSL certificates for all sites
- Built-in DDoS protection
- WAF to filter and monitor HTTP traffic
- Daily backups
- Two-factor authentication (2FA)
The trade-off though is that users have less control over specific security settings, as these are managed by Webflow. This means you are dependent on Webflow to handle all security updates and issues. For most users, this is a convenience, but for those who prefer granular control over their security settings, it might be a limitation.
SEO tools and capabilities
Webflow is excellent at SEO. It provides a variety of impressive features that not only make SEO easy to manage on the daily, but also optimise every aspect of your site from the get-go. And unlike most other platforms that rely on plugins for SEO, Webflow does it all in-platform.
First of all, Webflow automatically generates and updates your sitemap, helping search engines index your site. You can easily edit title tags and meta descriptions for each page and create SEO-friendly URLs. This improves rankings and makes your content clearer for users.
Webflow also offers several features to ensure your site loads fast:
- Global Content Delivery Network (CDN) to deliver your content quickly to users around the world
- Automatic image optimisation for faster loading
- Minified HTML, CSS, and JavaScript files which make files quicker to download
- Lazy loading for images and videos so that they only load when they’re about to be displayed in the viewport
Curious about Webflow’s SEO potential? Read our full guide to Webflow SEO!
Webflow templates
There’s a Webflow template out there for everything. Yes, everything. Browse the Webflow Template Marketplace to find fully responsive templates for a huge variety of different purposes, ranging from e-commerce to blogs.
Webflow templates are pretty special because:
- You can customise them down to every single minute detail
- They’re all fully responsive
- They’re all optimised for performance
- There’s no need for manual security updates as Webflow handles it all
Webflow plugins, extensions and integrations
A functional website takes a lot of tools, and you probably have your own workflow you’re keen to hang onto. Webflow has a sweeping selection of plugins you can choose to add to your site for more functionality and specialised uses.
These integrations can allow you to:
- Embed custom HTML, CSS, and JavaScript
- Add advanced forms, sliders, and galleries
- Incorporate interactive elements like animations and hover effects
- Connect your site with payment gateways like Stripe and PayPal
- Use advanced analytics and conversion tracking tools
Check out the Webflow plugins and integrations library to see all that’s available.
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Everything you need to know about WordPress
Open-source software
WordPress is open-source software – it’s publicly accessible, meaning anyone can view, modify, and distribute the source code. Developers can change the code to tailor the platform to specific needs, and it’s also free to use. You’ll just need to pay for domain registration, hosting services, and possibly premium themes or plugins if you choose to use them.
Unlike managed platforms though, the responsibility for maintaining and updating a WordPress site falls on the user. This includes applying updates to the core software, themes, and plugins to protect against vulnerabilities.
Another issue is that custom code and plugins can lead to conflicts. Poorly coded extensions can degrade your site’s performance or introduce security risks.
WordPress Themes
WordPress offers thousands of themes catering to different website needs in the WordPress Theme Directory and from third-party developers. Not all themes are compatible with every plugin though, which can lead to potential site errors.
There are lots of free themes available but they do often come with limited customisation options. Free themes can be a good starting point but might not offer the flexibility needed for more complex sites.
Some themes are also bloated with unnecessary features, which will slow down your site. And you’ll face vulnerabilities in the theme’s code if you don’t update it often.
WordPress CMS
WordPress is one of the most widely used platforms globally for creating content. It supports a variety of content types, including posts, pages, media, and custom content types. The platform allows you to assign multiple user roles with different permissions like admin, editor, and author.
This precise control is great for managing large teams and ensuring that each user has access only to the features they need. But these complex permission settings can be confusing and, if not managed correctly, can introduce security risks.
The WordPress CMS is also known for becoming slow when handling large amounts of content and media. You’ll need regular optimisation and maintenance to keep the site running smoothly.
SEO capabilities
On its own, WordPress offers basic SEO settings like:
- Customising permalink structures to make URLs more SEO-friendly
- Generating proper HTML markup for posts and pages
- Adding alt-text to images
The thing is though, you won’t be able to achieve decent SEO with WordPress if you don’t leverage any plugins or integrations – as a standalone platform, WordPress is weak in terms of SEO.
Of course, you can use tools like Yoast to optimise meta tags, titles, and descriptions. Other tools like All in One SEO can generate XML sitemaps for you, but this will all be using third-party plugins.
But using too many plugins can lead to conflicts and performance issues, potentially harming SEO. And WordPress itself doesn’t guarantee optimal speed so you’ll have to optimise themes, plugins, and hosting.
Security
The main security concern with WordPress is the potential risks posed by poorly coded or outdated plugins and themes.
Because WordPress is an open-source platform, it supports a vast ecosystem of third-party plugins and themes. But not all of these extensions are created equal. Poorly coded plugins can introduce vulnerabilities that hackers can exploit, and outdated plugins are sometimes not compatible with the latest security patches, leaving your site exposed.
WordPress plugins, extensions and integrations
WordPress is a plugin frenzy with 50,000+ plugins available, from SEO to e-commerce, security and forms. This huge plugin ecosystem can be an asset as you can extend your site’s functionality as much as you want, but there are quite a few drawbacks:
- Poorly coded or outdated plugins can introduce security vulnerabilities
- Some plugins can contain malicious code
- Plugins can conflict with each other or the WordPress core, causing site errors and functionality issues that are hard to resolve
- Not all plugins are compatible with every theme
- Using too many plugins or poorly optimised ones can slow down your website
- Relying heavily on plugins means you are dependent on third-party developers to maintain and update their products
- Some free plugins have limited functionality and require purchasing add-ons or extensions to unlock full capabilities
What’s a Rich Text element?
The rich text element allows you to create and format headings, paragraphs, blockquotes, images, and video all in one place instead of having to add and format them individually. Just double-click and easily create content.
Static and dynamic content editing
A rich text element can be used with static or dynamic content. For static content, just drop it into any page and begin editing. For dynamic content, add a rich text field to any collection and then connect a rich text element to that field in the settings panel. Voila!
How to customize formatting for each rich text
Headings, paragraphs, blockquotes, figures, images, and figure captions can all be styled after a class is added to the rich text element using the "When inside of" nested selector system.
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