Webflow Review: Pricing, Features & Best Alternatives (2020)
By: Ronald Davis
Tags: Zyro, Website Design, WordPress, Webflow, Website

What is Webflow? Review of Webflow

Webflow is a visual website builder that allows you to use an intuitive drag-and-drop editor to design a website without the need to code. Like most website builders, Webflow offers its tools and services in the form of a subscription plan.

However, Webflow is slightly different from other builders. It lets you fiddle with HTML, CSS, and JavaScript elements without touching any code. Because of this, Webflow is a platform that gives you full customization capability without the nitty-gritty of coding.

What I like the most from Webflow is that you can create animations and interactions straight from the visual editor. This way it’s possible to have a great UI design without having to know any code.

That said, new users may need more time to get familiar with the editor. This is because, in Webflow, you are editing the HTML, CSS, and JavaScript elements. This means that you need to understand how to design HTML structure, such as headers and navigation bars, as well as CSS customization.

Webflow also offers a Content Management System API that supports blogging capability. What’s great about Webflow’s CMS is that you can modify the page structure and easily customize the design of the content pages.

Webflow Pricing

To start building websites with Webflow, you’ll need to subscribe to a Webflow account plan. There’s a free account plan available, but if you want to export code, you need to get one of the Webflow account plans that cost $16 and $35 per month billed annually.

Afterward, you have to pick one of the four site plans or three eCommerce options.

The Basic plan costs $12/month but it does not include the CMS. To get access to it, you need to subscribe to the CMS plan that costs $16/month. For a larger website with high traffic, the Business plan will suit your needs for the price of $36/month.

As for the eCommerce plan, the cheapest you can get is the Standard plan at $29/month. The higher Plus plan at $74/month gets rid of the transaction fee, while the most expensive $212/month Advanced plan will give you allocation slots for 3,000 items.

All the paid plans include Webflow’s hosting service. The only thing you need to purchase separately is the custom domain name which can cost anywhere from $10 to $15 a year.

There is an additional cost if you use Webflow’s templates. The price for each template ranges from $24 to $149.

Webflow vs website builder alternatives

There are several other alternatives to create a website.

In the visual builder market, you can find some other builders such as Zyro that are more straightforward than Webflow but still powerful enough to build an amazing website.

If eCommerce is your goal, there are specific website builders that only cater to online businesses. That said, just like Webflow, it’s possible to create an eCommerce using a more simple builder like Zyro.

Pros

Great level of customization — the visual editor allows you to customize elements of the website without coding. On top of that, you can create your animations and interaction designs.

— the visual editor allows you to customize elements of the website without coding. On top of that, you can create your animations and interaction designs. Comes with Webflow hosting — Webflow plans already include Amazon-powered hosting, so you don’t have to purchase hosting anywhere else.

Cons

The visual editor is not the most beginner-friendly — the interface shows many options to edit the elements, which new users may find intimidating.

— the interface shows many options to edit the elements, which new users may find intimidating. No immediate customer support — the chat service only available at certain times and it usually takes hours to reply to your message personally. There is no phone support either.

Easy-to-use visual website builders — Zyro

Now let’s take a look at an easy-to-use visual builder as the alternative for Webflow. These builders are similar to Webflow, except that they offer simpler customization and more beginner-friendly editors.

Zyro is my choice among these builders.

Zyro aims to make website building easier by providing professionally-designed templates. These templates are equipped with relevant elements and layouts to suit many different needs such as portfolio, business, or eCommerce.

The editor employs a grid system to help you customize the layout tidily. It has predetermined positions and slots so every element aligns nicely with each other.

To further ease the website building process, Zyro offers a selection of AI-powered tools:

AI Slogan Generator — generates your business slogan based on given keywords.

— generates your business slogan based on given keywords. AI Content Generator — produces SEO-friendly content automatically from a given selection of keywords.

— produces SEO-friendly content automatically from a given selection of keywords. AI Blog Title Generator — presents some blog title ideas for the chosen category.

— presents some blog title ideas for the chosen category. AI Heatmap — shows which elements of the website which will get the most attention, so you can optimize your web design.

— shows which elements of the website which will get the most attention, so you can optimize your web design. AI Business Name Generator — uses the keywords to create several business names that you can choose from.

As for CMS, Zyro has blogging tools to support a steady stream of content. Zyro and most other builders also offer eCommerce features to build online stores as well.