Webflow VS WordPress

Can’t decide which website creation tool you should choose? Wondering if you should go with a content management system (CMS), a website builder, or maybe a hybrid? Then you’re in the right place because you’ll find all the answers you need in this Webflow VS WordPress comparison.

Why these two? Because WordPress is one of the most popular CMS used to create websites while Webflow is actually a bit of both because it’s a website builder and a CMS. If you don’t know what I’m talking about, don’t worry, I’ll elaborate later.

Now, in order to make a thorough Webflow VS WordPress comparison, we’ll have to establish some rules. What kind of rules? A set of criteria to go through the most important points to consider while choosing a website creation tool.

If you don’t have much time and want to see a shorter version of the Webflow VS WordPress comparison, check it out here.

Webflow VS WordPress: The Criteria for Comparison

Note that the comparison points that are established below might not cover every possible comparison aspect. However, these are the main criteria that should always be considered while choosing a website creation tool.

Table: Some general information about Webflow and WordPress

These points include uptime & site speed, ease of use, feature variety, eCommerce functionality, templates, and pricing. Now, let’s take a more detailed look.

• Uptime & Site speed. These two are definitely important no matter if it’s a Webflow VS WordPress comparison or any other. Why? Because uptime determines the amount of time your website is accessible online while site speed determines how long it takes for your website to load. No matter how cool your website is, there’s no good from it if it’s barely on or takes ages to load.
• Ease of use. Simple usage is one of the key aspects of website builders because that’s usually the point of choosing a tool to build a website instead of hiring a specialist. However, since we’ll be talking about a CMS and a CMS/website builder hybrid, this one might be a bit debatable in this Webflow VS WordPress comparison. Not to spoil anything but both of these website creation tools are not the easiest to use.
• Feature variety. It goes without saying that feature variety is really important when choosing a website creation tool. It refers to two things – the number of features in general and the ability to create a multi-layered website. Multi-layered means that you might want to have a blog, an online shop, and a portfolio on one website. To achieve that, you need to find a site creation tool that offers you all these features.
• eCommerce functionality. This one actually falls under the category of feature variety. However, since it is one of the more extensive features, we should always consider it separately. Because most of the websites eventually end up selling something. So it’s important to know your possibilities. But really, even if you have a blog, you might come up with some kind of merch that’s you’ll probably want to sell on your site.
• Templates. The design of your website actually influences more than you might think. It’s not only about the aesthetic appeal (even though it is very important), it’s also about the general health of your website. Templates influence the way Google and other search engines see your website because it does have an impact on SEO. I’ll elaborate on that later in the Webflow VS WordPress comparison.
• Pricing. Well, there’s not much to say about this one. It’s obvious that pricing is an important aspect of comparison when it comes to anything that has a price. For some people, the price could even be a deal-breaker when choosing a website creation tool. For others, it might not be. One way or another, it’s important to know what you get for the price you pay and what kind of options you have.

Now, these are the main six points that are important to consider whether it’s a Webflow VS WordPress comparison or any other website creation tool comparison. So, let's move further.

Webflow VS WordPress: The Comparison

Before starting the comparison, I need to address one thing. There are two WordPress versions – WordPress.com and WordPress.org. WordPress.com is a self-hosting website creation tool. So it’s like a WordPress website builder (or the closest you can get to it). You have to pay for it though.

WordPress.org, on the other hand, is a completely free CMS builder. However, you’ll have to find your own hosting provider if you want to put your website online. Though I’ll elaborate more on that later because, in this Webflow VS WordPress comparison, I’ll focus on WordPress.org.

Now, I’ll begin the comparison with uptime & site speed and then I’ll go through the list in the order it is presented. So, buckle up and let the comparison begin.

Uptime & Site Speed

As you already know, uptime measures the time your website is online, and site speed measures how fast it loads up. However, site speed can also be measured in terms of Time Till First Byte (TTFB) which is about how fast your site receives the first byte of data from the server.

Now, it’s actually not possible to compare Webflow and WordPress in terms of speed and uptime. Why? Because WordPress doesn’t really have these stats on its own. You'll see why in just a bit, but firstly let’s take a look at Webflow.

Table: The speed stats of Webflow and WordPress

Talking about the uptime of Webflow, I’d say that it’s really good. Webflow manages to keep its uptime at 99,9% most of the time, which is great. Webflow keeps its statistics accessible to everyone so you can always check how it’s going now and how it was going in the past.

For example, as you can see below, over the past 90 days (Dec 2021 – March 2023), the uptime of Webflow was estimated to be 99,97%. Only two outages appeared in that period of time. That’s actually pretty good.

In terms of the site speed of Webflow, you can see in the table above that its TTFB is evaluated to be very fast (note it's measured only in the US region). So, it’s obviously great news in terms of speed! However, always keep in mind that site speed depends on various other factors like the number of features, the design, and so on.

Now, let’s get back to the fact that we can’t actually compare Webflow and WordPress in terms of site speed and uptime.

For you to fully understand why it’s like that, let’s go back a few steps and talk about CMS. What exactly is it? To put it simply, it’s something like a website builder but it’s a lot more complex and offers way more management options. It is LIKE a website builder but it’s NOT a website builder.

CMS can’t have site speed and uptime statistics because, unlike website builders, they don’t offer web hosting. Without web hosting, your website will not be online. If it’s not online, there is no uptime or speed to be measured.

Thus, after you create your website with WordPress, you have to find a web hosting provider which will put your website online. Choose wisely because your uptime and site speed will depend on that (not ONLY on that though). Check out our list of the best web hosting providers on the market.

So, is Webflow better than WordPress because it has its own hosting? I’d say yes. You do save a lot of time and money when you have everything in one place. However, with WordPress, you can choose yourself what kind of uptime and site speed you'll have by choosing a hosting provider based on these stats.

Ease of Use

As I mentioned before, in this WordPress VS Webflow comparison ease of use probably won’t be the deciding factor. I mean, there is definitely a difference between these two but both Webflow and WordPress are known to be quite difficult to use. Let’s elaborate on that.

Why is WordPress difficult to use? Well, for starters, as you already know, it is a CMS. In order to work efficiently with CMS, you usually have to have at least some amount of web development and programming knowledge. Of course, it has a huge variety of plugins that will give you various features but these are not usually that easy to use either.

Besides, even though WordPress has been in the web development market for a pretty long time, its developers didn’t really upgrade the WP interface much and it is a bit outdated by now. It takes time to really get used to it and find what you need.

Now, what about Webflow? Well, as I mentioned in the beginning, Webflow is a website builder and CMS hybrid. So if we are comparing Webflow VS WordPress, it is definitely easier to use. However, if we compared Webflow with other popular website builders, it’s pretty difficult to use if you’re a beginner in website creation.

Though if you like challenges and you’re eager to learn, Webflow offers an e-learning platform called Webflow University where you’ll find various courses on web design and creation. The best part about it is that the courses are for free! It would be a shame not to take it.

In addition, what’s really convenient is that Webflow has the famous drag-and-drop feature that really makes the process of website creation so much easier. If by any chance you don’t know what the feature is about, it’s literally what the name states. You take an object, drag it wherever you want, and drop it. As easy as that.

However, note that WordPress doesn’t have the drag-and-drop feature itself unless you install a plugin that allows you to have this feature (Elementor).

So, the verdict about the ease of use aspect in this Webflow VS WordPress comparison would be that if you like challenges and you’re eager to learn, you can go with either Webflow or WordPress. However, Webflow would still be an easier-to-use option.

Feature Variety

Talking about feature variety, it actually depends on the type of website builder. There are two main types – topic-specific website builders and general-purpose website builders. Topic-specific builders are focused on some specific sphere (e.g. Shopify is a topic-specific builder focused on eCommerce). General-purpose website builders are not focused on specific topics (obviously).

The thing with topic-specific builders is that, since they focus on some specific topic, they offer excellent features for that topic. However, other features might be less advanced. So, if you aim to create a multi-layered website, it’s better to go with general-purpose builders.

Webflow is a general-purpose website builder and it really offers plenty of amazing features. Great blogging, eCommerce, and SEO tools. As well as extensive web designing options, CMS integration, comfortable website management tools, integration with other platforms, hosting… Really, it has it all. It is a hybrid platform after all.

Talking about SEO, Webflow offers truly great tools. For those of you who don’t know what SEO is about, it basically puts your website in the search result list. In order to rank higher, you must have great SEO tools and, of course, knowledge of how to use them.

The tools that Webflow offers include alt tags for images, auto-generated XML sitemaps, and meta titles and descriptions. These may not be all the possible tools there are but they’re surely the most important.

What’s really cool about Webflow is that it focuses a lot on the design part. You can even create various 3D animations and complex interactions (without writing code I might add). So you’ll definitely create a very cool-looking website with Webflow.

Table: The variety of features available with Webflow and WordPress

Now talking about WordPress, it could definitely be considered as the most feature-heavy website creation tool in the industry. You can definitely find anything you could possibly need in its community-made plugin list. If I tried to list out the features it offers, I doubt there would be an end to that list.

Though I will say that WordPress is known to have excellent tools for blogging. It’s actually one of the top options in our best blogging platform list. You can effortlessly create posts and pages, format them however you want, add media, and put your content live with just a single click.

Besides, if by any chance you want to create a phone application for your website, you can do that too. WordPress offers an application framework with a lot of useful features including user management, translations, databases, and so much more. Of course, app creation will definitely require a certain amount of programming knowledge.

However, the eCommerce part of WordPress is rated averagely but I’ll talk more about that in the next chapter.

So, is Webflow better than WordPress in terms of features? I’d say that if we looked at the number of possible features, then no, WordPress is a winner in this department. However, Webflow is a very close second.

eCommerce Functionality

Which is better to use for online store creation – Webflow or WordPress? Let’s see.

For starters, eCommerce functionality is very important for any website creation tool. Why? Because the majority of websites sooner or later start to sell something. Thus, even if you don’t intend on selling anything now, you might change your mind eventually. Then eCommerce feature integration will come in handy.

The good news is that both Webflow and WordPress have eCommerce integration, so you won’t have to worry about that. But note that neither Webflow nor WordPress are focused on eCommerce, so clearly they don’t offer the best eCommerce tools on the market.

However, even though the eCommerce integration that Webflow offers might not the best on the market, it's definitely great. You can sell various types of products, offer custom delivery options, have various shipping and payment options, automated taxes, integration with other platforms, and so much more… It does have anything you need.

Besides, Webflow offers a lot of customization in terms of design. You’ll be able to customize various things (like carts, checkout windows, and even emails) no matter how far your artistic imagination goes.

Table: The pros and cons of Webflow and WordPress

Talking about WordPress, I mentioned before that its eCommerce integration is rated as average. Well, yes, in comparison to other web creation tools. However, you can still create a fully functional eCommerce website with WordPress. Since it has plugins for anything there is, eCommerce is no different.

If you decided to use WordPress to create an online shop, I suggest you look into its main eCommerce plugin called WooCommerce. This one is the way to go with eCommerce in WordPress.

So, is Webflow better than WordPress in terms of eCommerce functionality? I’d say yes, it is. It’s also much easier with Webflow. However, WordPress is not so bad either.

Templates

As I mentioned before, templates are important not only for the visual appeal of your website but also for its general health. How? A proper template will determine not only the way that visitors see your website but also the way that search engines see it. Let me elaborate on that.

I don’t know about you but I know for sure that, when I enter a website, that has an outdated and old-school design, I simply don’t trust it. It just seems that there’s something sketchy about these outdated websites. Modern design, sleek images, smooth transitions – that’s what is an appealing way to go with website design.

When it comes to search engines, a good template will be one of the factors that make your website appear and feel legitimate. Besides, templates have a significant impact on SEO because some of them are simply not SEO-friendly. An improper template will drag your website down in the search results, regardless of how amazing your SEO skills might be.

So, we have a WordPress VS Webflow template battle. Who is the winner?

Table: The design elements of Webflow and WordPress

A variety of modern and dazzling templates is definitely one of the strongest features of Webflow. Besides, once you pick a template, you have an extremely extensive customization interface if you want to change it. There are definitely no limitations with design customization in Webflow. You can use various controls or coding to fulfill your artistic desires.

In addition, the templates in Webflow are categorized, which is really convenient. These are some of the categories:

• Agency
• Blog
• Designer
• One Page
• Photography
• Portfolio

And you know what? Webflow’s templates are available for free, so you won’t have to make additional purchases!

Though if we compared WordPress VS Webflow in terms of the number of templates, we can notice that, even though Webflow has a pretty large amount of templates, WordPress has about three times more.

Besides, WordPress also offers a lot of freedom of template customization. Of course, here you’ll definitely have to use some coding but this is how the freedom with template customization mostly comes.

Even though WordPress offers some free templates, there are also plenty of paid ones. The prices usually range up to $200 per template. Besides, I’d say that not every WordPress template is dazzling. I know from my own experience that free templates usually are a bit basic. So, eventually, if you'll want a cool and modern template, you'll have to buy it or code it yourself.

So, Webflow or WordPress in terms of templates? I’d definitely choose Webflow. Why? Because of how modern and cool-looking its templates are. There’s not much more to argue about in this case.

Pricing

WordPress VS Webflow in the battle of pricing, who wins? Some might say WordPress because it is 100% free to use. However, there’s more to it than that.

Talking about Webflow, in comparison to other website builders, it's considerably expensive. However, you can also use Webflow completely for free. There is no catch, no credit card information, or trial. Though, obviously, it’s really limited.

Note that Webflow offers three types of plan options – Site, Workplace, and eCommerce. The Site option allows you to build or import your own website. The Workplace option allows you to manage multiple websites and collaborate with your colleagues. And it's obvious what eCommerce plans are about.

Note! Always check the official website because the prices may change over time.

The options of Site plans:

• Starter - free
• Basic - $12/month billed annually
• CMS - $16/month billed annually
• Business - $36/month billed annually

The options of Workplace plans:

• Starter - free
• Core - $19/month billed annually
• Growth - $49/month billed annually

The options of eCommerce plans:

• Standart - $29/month billed annually
• Plus - $74/month billed annually
• Advances - $212/month billed annually

Besides, Webflow offers plans for enterprises (contact Webflow for the pricing).

*Phew*, there are definitely plenty of plan options available.

Webflow Deal Active Right Now:

Now, as I mentioned before, WordPress is, indeed, 100% free. You’ll install the software to run WordPress and you’ll be able to start creating a website just like that. However, there are a few catches.

The first and most important one is that it’s all you’ll be able to do with WordPress alone. Create a website. To put it online for people to see, you’ll have to find a web hosting provider that will host your website online. I did mention this before though.

Besides that, not every plugin or template is free on WordPress. Usually, you can download most of the plugins for free but if you want to use them more extensively, you have to upgrade them to premium. So, you see, WordPress is free but there are still plenty of additional purchases if you want to put your website online. So, if we summed it up, I doubt that at the end of the day it would be a less expensive option.

So, Webflow or WordPress in terms of pricing? I’d say if you want to make your life easier and have everything in one place, you should go with Webflow because you won’t have to search for things yourself. If you don’t like all-inclusive things, and want to choose everything yourself, then you can definitely try WordPress. It won’t cost you anything to try it.

Webflow VS WordPress: Conclusions

The Webflow VS WordPress comparison is over. So, who is the winner? Is Webflow better than WordPress? Or is it the other way around?

If you can’t decide whether you want a website builder or a CMS – Webflow is great for you because it’s both! It is all-inclusive, has modern and dazzling templates, and has plenty of space for customization. Besides, even though it’s not the easiest website builder to use, it’s still easier than WordPress.

Table: General information about the companies behind Webflow and WordPress

However, if you’re already proficient with web development and programming, or you simply like challenges, WordPress is also a great option for website creation. The customization it offers is truly limitless.

Though if after reading this Webflow VS WordPress comparison you decided that neither is a good fit for you, check out our list of the overall best website builders on the market. I’m sure you’ll find the one there.

That’s all from me this time. Enjoy your journey in the website creation world! Signing off.