The 2024 guide to WordPress vs Webflow

Looking to build a website but need help deciding between WordPress vs Webflow? You're not alone. These two giants are the go-to for many, each with its own perks. 

WordPress is like an old friend to bloggers and site builders, while Webflow is making waves with its performance and speed. Think of this as choosing between a Toyota or Tesla - both are great, depending on what you need. 

Let's break down the essentials and help you pick the best tool. We aimed at creating a very grounded and no-nonsense guide. Enjoy!

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Ease of setup and use

Webflow offers a designer-friendly interface with drag-and-drop features, though it can be quite overwhelming for beginners.

WordPress requires separate hosting and a bit of setup. Its interface is intuitive for newcomers but can be described as cluttered.

Both platforms have learning curves: WordPress is generally easier for beginners, while Webflow suits those with design experience. 

Each has a unique approach to website building, so your choice might depend on your familiarity with web design and personal preferences​​.

Pixel perfect design

In comparing WordPress vs Webflow for design and customization, WordPress offers a vast array of pre-designed templates, but Webflow's themes shine with superior customizability and a lesser need for coding, granting users more creative control. 

While Webflow excels in design freedom, many WordPress reviews say it is more accessible for beginners due to pre-design options​​.

Tip:

While debating WordPress vs Webflow, focus on how each platform will impact your site's design and user experience. If you're looking for expert guidance or bespoke solutions, Merge's Webflow development services provide comprehensive support, helping you leverage the best of Webflow to meet your unique needs.

Pricing 

When comparing the pricing structures of WordPress and Webflow, WordPress stands out for its affordability. It's free and open-source, with costs mainly arising from domain, hosting, and additional plugins or themes. 

In contrast, Webflow offers a basic free account, but essential features and CMS use come with a fee. For comprehensive projects, Webflow's pricing can be intricate, with different plans for freelancers, teams, or agencies. 

Out of all Webflow alternatives, WordPress could be considered a more economical choice​​. However, WordPress development takes more time because you'll need to polish everything to achieve pixel-perfect implementation, which would mean more money spent on development.

Don’t forget to check out our other article comparing WordPress and Next.js. We touch on the pricing there, too.

Is your website still on WordPress?

That's so last century. Let's bring it to Webflow finally.

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Templates and themes

In comparing WordPress and Webflow's templates and themes, WordPress is the veteran with a vast collection, offering over 11,000 free themes and thousands of premium options, making it a strong choice for variety and customization. Many WordPress website examples show how varied the options are.

Webflow, catering more to designers seeking a no-code, customizable platform, provides around 2,000 templates. While fewer in number, Webflow's templates allow for extensive visual customization without coding, targeting users who value design control and simplicity​​​​.

Responsiveness and customization

WordPress vs Webflow for mobile responsiveness - first of all, Webflow has modern design techniques like flexbox and grid, allowing easy customization for various screen sizes and devices. It offers a visual editor for precise mobile experience control.

While versatile with many responsive themes and plugins, WordPress may require manual adjustments or additional plugins for optimal mobile-friendliness. The mobile performance is also far from great, which you can see from the example we included in this article.

As Webflow experts, we know from experience that Webflow provides a more intuitive and designer-friendly approach to responsive design, offering better control over the mobile user experience​​.

Blogging and SEO

When it comes to WordPress and Webflow for blogging and content management, Webflow excels in design customization, code cleanliness, and animations, while WordPress offers superior third-party integrations and is more beginner-friendly. 

Webflow can sometimes replace WordPress, depending on your specific needs, but each has its distinct advantages. 

When comparing the SEO capabilities of WordPress and Webflow, Webflow's SEO tools are fundamental yet powerful, providing clean, semantic code, customizable URL slugs, and automatic sitemap generation. However, for advanced SEO features, users need technical skills to utilize its custom code editor. 

On the other hand, WordPress is often touted as superior in SEO, with extensive plugin options like All in One SEO (AIOSEO) for user-friendly optimization, customizable permalink structures, and hosting features that can significantly boost site speed. 

While Webflow covers the essentials, WordPress is more versatile and accessible for a broader range of SEO needs​​.

E-commerce

For e-commerce, WordPress has a popular WooCommerce plugin that is widely used worldwide, providing numerous add-ons, payment gateways, and themes. There's flexibility in selling various products, from digital subscriptions to software downloads. 

Webflow, on the other hand, has more limited e-commerce functionality. It restricts the number of products based on your plan and primarily uses Stripe for payments, adding transaction fees. However, both these platforms are lacking if you need them for e-commerce.

If you need e-commerce functionality, Merge recommends using Shopify. It offers a wide range of apps for marketing, SEO, sales, inventory management, customer service, and analytics. The tool's enterprise solution is designed to handle high traffic and complex order processes, making it suitable for businesses looking to expand.

Overall, Shopify is particularly well-suited for small to medium-sized businesses, especially those new to e-commerce. Its ease of use, scalability, comprehensive features, and integration capabilities make it a top choice for various online retail needs.

Is your website still on WordPress?

That's so last century. Let's bring it to Webflow finally.

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Community and support

In terms of community support and learning resources, WordPress vs Webflow both have their strengths and areas for improvement.

WordPress does offer extensive official documentation, video tutorials, eBooks, and online courses catering to all skill levels. It also has a 24/7 chatbot for specific paid plans.

Webflow offers quality official tutorials, an email helpline, a helpful knowledge base at Webflow University, and various learning materials.

Overall, speaking from experience, WordPress, due to being open-source, doesn't have the proper support that Webflow has.

Hosting

As a popular open-source CMS, WordPress requires you to manage your own hosting, giving you full control but also requiring more setup work. You'll need a domain registrar and a hosting platform. You’ll have a highly customizable site but increased responsibility for performance and security​​.

As an all-in-one SaaS platform, Webflow offers something a bit different - integrated hosting. This convenience means quick setup and less technical hassle, with all built-in features, including SEO and security.

Webflow is also GDPR, which means users have services in different locations for different hosting compliance, alleviating some of your headache.

Security

The downside of being open-source is that WordPress sites are vulnerable and require you to actively manage security through plugins and other measures. While this can lead to strong protection, it demands ongoing vigilance due to its popularity with hackers​​. However, for WordPress, 2 factor authentication is also a given, so it’s a plus.

Hosted on AWS, Webflow provides robust built-in security features. It emphasizes strong encryption and comprehensive measures to safeguard websites. The trade-off is less control over the specific security tools used but with the benefit of simplicity and strong out-of-the-box protection​​.

Is your website still on WordPress?

That's so last century. Let's bring it to Webflow finally.

Learn more

Summary

To sum it all up, Webflow is sleek and modern, giving you all the design control you could wish for. It's great if you're into design and want your site to look top-notch on all devices.

On the other hand, WordPress isn’t the flashiest, but it gets the job done with plenty of resources. It's perfect for beginners or those who need a robust blog, for example. It is budget-friendly, but development can cost you quite a lot in the end, and the design will definitely be lacking a bit.

Your decision should boil down to what's more important for you. If you want something simpler and cheaper (not really), go for WordPress. 

If you're looking for stellar design and are okay with a steeper learning curve, Webflow might be your match. 

Think about what you need from your website, and pick the tool that aligns with those needs the best.