Webflow vs Wordpress: which is the best CMS?

When you set out to build a new website, or redesign one, one of the first questions you'll face is which technology to use — and more specifically, which CMS. A CMS is a Content Management System, a tool that helps you create and edit your website.

This question is critical: while there are plenty of CMSs on the market today, they don't all offer the same features. Depending on your needs and your resources (developers, partners, budget), picking one over the other is a strategic choice.

The main CMS on the market is WordPress. It powers nearly one out of every two sites on the web. But at Scroll, we have a preference for a newcomer, Webflow, built on no-code technology. To help you see clearly and make your choice, here is our Webflow vs WordPress comparison. We compared them on several criteria to tell you which one is more interesting on each aspect.

Webflow overview

Let's start by introducing the two contenders in this Webflow vs WordPress match.

Webflow is one of the most popular recent CMSs, and for good reason: thanks to no-code technology, non-developers can use this tool to create pages and websites without writing a single line of code.

Webflow is based on the "Drag and drop" and "WYSIWYG" concepts — What You See Is What You Get. The principle is simple: rather than coding blocks and divs, you add them manually onto a dedicated canvas on your screen. Webflow then converts them into code for you.

It's therefore easier and faster to build performant and polished websites with Webflow. A word of caution: behind its simplicity, Webflow is a robust and advanced tool that does require a learning curve. If you've never used the solution, a Webflow agency could help you deliver your projects.

‍

WordPress overview

WordPress is an older but much more popular CMS. Its main strength comes from its flexibility, its relatively easy onboarding, and its community. You'll find tutorials and help for all your questions on this CMS. Most developers know it and master at least its basics, most hosting providers offer a one-click WordPress install... in short: it's a must, and you can see why.

‍

Webflow vs WordPress: which CMS should you choose?

Let's get to the point: who to pick between WordPress and Webflow? Even though Scroll favors Webflow, we have to acknowledge that WordPress has its arguments and remains a preferable choice in certain situations. To help you make the right call, we've listed several criteria to focus on, telling you on each point whether Webflow or WordPress comes out better. Depending on your needs and goals, you decide which CMS fits you best.

Installation

First question: installation. Which CMS is simpler to install for your site?

Webflow offers an all-in-one solution that removes the pain of hosting, domain name reservation and installation. By creating your account on Webflow, you gain access to several tools that centralize everything about developing and hosting your site. No installation is required since everything happens on the Webflow platform.

If you pick a third-party host, like O2Switch or OVH, the installation will be more complex. You'll need to build your site's design in the Webflow editor, then import and install it on your site via your host. It's sometimes technical and time-consuming. Some third-party hosts offer automatic integrations with Webflow, but not all.

For WordPress, you'll find partner integrations at nearly every host on the market. WordPress doesn't offer hosting directly, but installation is still very simple.

‍

On O2Switch, for example, you can install the WordPress CMS for your site with a single click from the Cpanel. As you can see in the screenshot above, integration with Webflow isn't (yet) possible there.

Verdict: tie. It depends on your goal. Thanks to its tool suite, Webflow offers a centralized, very simple installation. If you want to use a third-party host, it will be a bit more complex. WordPress also installs easily, but requires a host and a domain name.

Onboarding

Which CMS is the easiest for a complete beginner to pick up? Here again, the Webflow/WordPress match is very tight: both are designed to be accessible to the largest number in their core features, but both still have a long learning curve.

For Webflow, simplicity and speed are at the heart of the tool — this is the whole no-code philosophy. Drag-and-drop means that, in theory, anyone can build pages or sites without coding a single line. In practice, if you don't know how to code, you'll still need to learn and understand the logic and terms of the Webflow environment. Onboarding is therefore necessary, and you'll need to go through at minimum the various tutorials and the "Webflow University" section to build real quality sites.

WordPress has a considerable advantage over Webflow: it's open-source software, meaning anyone can contribute via plugin development. So you'll find plugins, free or paid, that can do what you can't on your own — a useful advantage when it comes to onboarding.

However, WordPress has a not-so-intuitive interface and unique ways of working. Like Webflow, you'll need to learn to use this CMS and watch many online tutorials to really master it. What's WordPress's strength (its many plugins) is also its weakness: each new plugin requires you to learn how it works. And since they're maintained by different developers, the logic, terms and behaviors can differ.

Verdict: advantage Webflow. Webflow is easier and faster to pick up than WordPress, and it holds in the long run. Careful though: that doesn't mean you'll be operational on the no-code CMS right away. You'll need to learn it and push it to unlock its full power.

Use & speed

When you use one or the other on a daily basis, which one offers the greatest comfort of use? In terms of both ease of use and speed to develop pages, both CMSs have strong arguments.

On the Webflow side, everything is designed to help you ship design-driven pages quickly. No-code, whether for a website or other digital tools, is built to go faster and cut costs. Day to day, Webflow is very easy to use once you master the tool.

The solution, already fast, is also accelerating significantly. In late 2021, Webflow announced its tool would be up to 15× faster while using 60× less bandwidth. A comfort of use that will therefore be greatly improved.

On the WordPress side, daily use is very practical once mastered. However, the frequent updates and the need for plugins require continuous monitoring.

Verdict: advantage Webflow. Once again, the no-code CMS wins thanks to its overall philosophy. Webflow is designed to be simple and comfortable to use, letting you quickly develop new pages for your site.

Features and customization

Which CMS lets you customize your sites the most? Which offers more features to make the editor a true playground?

Since its launch, Webflow has kept releasing new features. 2022 is no exception, with the announcement of Webflow Logic, letting you build automation scenarios within your site. Other products are also available such as Webflow E-commerce, to turn your site into a real shop.

The editor is also very complete and lets you shape the design of your pages in depth. You have control over every element: size, color, placement, across mobile and desktop, and much more. That's one of Webflow's big arguments: the ability to customize every page as you wish.

You can also add third-party tools to Webflow to extend it: Bubble applications, Make (formerly Integromat), Airtable... This allows you to truly customize your site.

However, there is one limitation to all this: you depend on the Webflow company. The software isn't open source and the only ones who can add features are those who maintain the product. So even if the possibilities are numerous, there is a theoretical limit to what you can do with this solution.

On WordPress, this problem doesn't exist. Open source, WordPress lets anyone add plugins or themes to make sure every site has all the features it needs. Want to build no-code like on Webflow? Try Elementor. Want to turn your blog into e-commerce? Discover Woocommerce. Page speed issues? WP-Rocket will help.

Many plugins are paid and this has a cost: but in practice, the customization options and features are infinite on WordPress.

Verdict: advantage WordPress. By its very design, the WordPress CMS offers and will always offer more features than Webflow. That doesn't mean the latter is lagging: Webflow keeps improving and shipping more features. The limit exists, but good luck reaching it.

SEO

Want to drive traffic to your site through organic search? Which platform offers the most for your SEO?

On Webflow, everything is native: on every page, you choose the URL, the HTML tags (title, meta tags, H1, H2, etc.) you want to integrate, and of course you have full control over your content. Webflow also offers powerful features to improve page load time: you can, in one click, minify CSS and JavaScript, keeping Google's crawlers happy. On the SEO question, Webflow is therefore a very complete and practical tool. You can also edit your robots.txt and your sitemaps directly from the provided editor.

The results in terms of web performance are very satisfying:

‍

On the WordPress side, once again you'll need to go through plugins. The most famous is probably Yoast SEO, which lets you control your titles and meta tags, but you can also mention WP-Rocket for page speed concerns.

Verdict: advantage Webflow. Both solutions offer everything needed to have full control over your SEO. Careful though: on WordPress, you'll need to carefully choose the themes you use and the plugins you install. On Webflow, everything is there by default, and no action is required other than doing your optimizations properly.

Design

Which CMS lets you build the prettiest sites? How can you work on design more easily and faster for your site?

At Webflow, design is central. The drag-and-drop editor lets you preview every change before publishing. By manually adding elements to your page, you immediately see what impact this has on the design. The result: it's much faster and easier to create design-driven pages and sites than with code-based CMSs.

On WordPress, you can also use drag-and-drop plugins like Elementor. But not every page builder (plugins used to build your page's design) allows it, and some don't give access to very advanced features. Again, to get excellent results, you'll need solid knowledge of the WordPress environment and know which tools to install.

Verdict: advantage Webflow. On this point, Webflow wins comfortably over WordPress. Design is at the heart of building your pages. On WordPress you can of course work on the aesthetics of your sites, but the possibilities are often fewer and require more work.

Pricing

Which solution is the most affordable between Webflow and WordPress?

Webflow offers a bundled solution: hosting, CMS, domain name, in a subscription format. The entry price is USD 12 per month (but goes up if you want to add other products, like Webflow E-commerce).

WordPress, on the other hand, is free. You'll still have to pay for a third-party host and buy a domain name. And you'll likely spend some money to buy a theme you like and install certain quality plugins.

Verdict: advantage WordPress. Over the long run, WordPress is probably the cheapest solution. On paper, you can even build powerful and personalized sites without spending a euro on the CMS: there are plenty of free plugins and themes. Careful though: depending on the extra tools you want to buy, the WordPress price can also climb very high, while Webflow's stays stable.

Security & updates

Between Webflow and WordPress, which solution offers the most security?

Webflow provides a fully secured environment. The solution, built by a single company, is very reliable and doesn't have major security flaws. On Webflow, no update is required of you: they're all performed automatically without you noticing. So no compatibility issues to worry about.

That isn't the case on WordPress, which is known for its weak security and constant updates. This is inherent to how WordPress works: plugins developed by outside people or companies mean vulnerabilities are numerous and often exploited.

On WordPress, it's very important to apply regular updates to avoid any security issue that could be exploited.

Verdict: advantage Webflow. WordPress is unfortunately known for its weak security. Watch your data: monitor your site carefully and update all the themes and plugins you use. The Webflow subscription cost includes maintenance and site security. In the end, the money spent on the Webflow subscription isn't spent in human time.

Conclusion: Webflow or WordPress?

So, Webflow vs WordPress: who wins the match?

You get the picture: our hearts are with Webflow. The CMS lets us build robust, functional, design-driven sites for our clients, all in record time. And development costs on Webflow are generally lower than on WordPress, thanks to the time saved.

That said, WordPress remains a very viable solution, especially if you have very specific goals or needs for which Webflow doesn't offer a satisfying answer. But if your goal is to build a blog, a showcase site, an e-commerce site or a web application, Webflow will likely fit your needs better.

In the end, even though our preference goes to Webflow, the answer is: it all depends on your project. In some cases, Webflow will be preferable. In others, WordPress will be the better fit.

Scroll Agency: your Webflow agency

At Scroll, we specialize in Webflow. That doesn't mean we don't master other CMSs: WordPress, Drupal, Shopify... We build sites on all platforms for our clients.

Unsure which technology to use? Still hesitating between Webflow and WordPress? Don't worry: don't hesitate to reach out to our teams, who will be happy to answer and guide you towards the best solution for your project.

‍