I'd put Wix, squarespace, etc. in a different category. They are classic sandboxed site builders, you can only do as much as they allow you to.
Webflow is like a modern version of Frontpage/Dreamweaver that actually spits out modern, semantic HTML and sane CSS. You start from scratch and can build anything with it. It's actually hard to use if you don't understand how HTML/CSS works, because the UI is basically just a faster way to do front-end code.
Webflow is different. It doesn't limit to set of templates and their styling, which most other site builders do. It's a GUI layer above raw CSS and HTML, which gives you the ability to build virtually anything. It's an order of magnitude more powerful than its competitors. Webflow's own website[1] is a great example of what you can make with it.
Considering how many marketing departments I have seen struggling to pull someone from the dev team to fix a tiny, tiny change, this is a massive opportunity.
Webflow is one of the best website builder tool available on the internet. It uses simple drag and drop tools for creating custom, responsive and professional looking websites. If you are not a web designer and you don't want to write thousand lines of code then WEBFLOW is the perfect tool for you.
Webflow provides complete set of tool for creating stunning looking websites. It allows you to create all the necessary elements such as <div>, social widgets, video embedding, maps, buttons, section, container, columns, images, menubar etc. It provides a very clean and beautiful environment which makes it easy to find the desired element you want to add in your webpage. You don't need any skills for building a website using Webflow, but you need some basic understanding of HTML and CSS concepts. Once you will start using Webflow, you will automatically learn all the concepts.
Almost none of the complaints are true of Webflow, FWIW. It's by no means perfect, but there are many use cases where it is a much smarter decision than contracting or hiring a site engineer.
Sprinkle in some custom widgets as needed and you can get pretty far (albeit not with optimal page speed performance).
Totally agree with ebahnx. I've got rudimentary HTML/CSS knowledge that I picked up in high school, but it was enough to know my way around Webflow. Built a responsive site (which I don't have anywhere close to the skills to do myself) in about 4 hours.
I’m curious what options you are considering here that are comparable and don’t take 10x more technical skill and time? Sites like Squarespace or Wix? Or Webflow?
Depends on what kind of complexity a website requires. Predominantly static portfolio or a website with basic ecommerce functions? Sure. Custom internal workflow and lots of externally interactive stuff with an API? Yeah, you're not going to be served well by Wix or Squarespace. Different tools for different tasks. It's silly to compare a website for the local salon with a platform/utility/tool/whatever.
Wix, Wordpress and Drupal all have layout builders. But they're mostly geared toward designers or admins, and thus separated from the code.
And then once upon a time, there was Dreamweaver, which nobody mentions. There is also Adobe Edge. I've watched a designer put together a nice looking website very quickly in Edge. I've also seen what they could do with the WP theme builders.
But then you still need someone to tweak the css, and add JS for custom stuff separate from the builder.
Ah yeah I forgot Dreamweaver does give you access to the code, in that regard it's similar. But, speaking as a user of Primo (and echoing what I've heard from a lot of other users), I haven't found anything that rides the line between no-code and code quite like this (especially open-source).
Yes Primo offers visual content editing and page building, because that's the only way to make a page flexibly editable by a non-technical user. Abstraction is only a negative thing when it stands in the way of what you want to do. Page building abstracts copy-pasting code. Visual content editing abstracts writing editorial content in HTML. Styling & building is the one thing that's left up to code because it has so many more possibilities than laying out blocks or writing content. So in the sense of building, Primo is the opposite to visual site builders like Webflow, Squarespace, Wix, etc.
I think that's why a new site builder pops up every other day - because they're all attacking the problem from different ends of the spectrum. Some give you more control, but are more complex/professional (like Webflow), while others are easier to use but offer less control (like Squarespace), and others are tailored to particular industries.
Just use Wix or Squarespace. I think learning to make a normal website now days is mostly worthless knowledge. No real company is going to pay you to make a website, that job vanished about 5 years ago.
I've been dabbling on and off with web-dev for the past 2 decades but truthfully always struggled to grasp core web concepts and so always felt some barriers to building cool/fun stuff.
Now, I'd heard about Webflow a number of years ago and how it makes building sites very approachable, and while I did try my hand at it, I have to admit, it still felt overwhelming to put something respectable together. This year, I decided to change that and threw myself at Webflow. I wanted to build something I could be proud of.
After many false starts, I managed to put this silly landing page together (inspired by the Potato Landing Page https://dribbble.com/shots/2042501-Potato-landing-page). I wanted to learn Webflow while also seeing how far I could take it AND make sure to not get overwhelmed again. So I spent a few hours a week for a couple of weeks, first learning some basic Webflow skills, and then following along some tutorials. All in all, I'd say I put around 25 hours into this.
In retrospect, the biggest barrier to my seeing this project through was my own head. It looks super daunting when you're on the lower end of a steep learning curve, then you get on and realize the curve isn't scary steep, and then you're on the other side and thinking "gee, why didn't I push myself sooner?"
Anyway, hope you like it! It's still a little janky in parts and I'm not a big fan of scroll jacking (again, just testing and learning the limits), and it totally crumbles on mobile (for now), but I'm happy to get it out there so I can move onto other things now. Thanks!
I have NO problem with a basic page builder, let me get that out there and if I made it seem like I did, apologies.
My problem is specifically with Wix and the garbage they produce.
I've done hundreds of Squarespace, Webflow, etc etc sites and they are perfectly fine. I see no reason a band needs to pay someone or have an agency build a site for them.
My problem is a company marketing themselves as the next best thing, when really it's probably one of the worst products I've ever used (even spinning up a WordPress instance, installing a random page builder plugin is better then the results you get from Wix).
I mean, if you actually know how to make and upkeep a website, then, yeah, Wix and SS are bad options. But they’re great for my mom who runs a business but doesn’t have time to learn how to make a website
One of the significant drawbacks to every proprietary drag-and-drop website builder is that you cannot easily export your website. Any time you spend building your site with their tool just further locks you into their hosting platform.
I've seen some very nice personal webpages built on Squarespace, Weebly, Wix, etc. by non-technical and non-design users, but I would never recommend it to a business client.
Webflow is like a modern version of Frontpage/Dreamweaver that actually spits out modern, semantic HTML and sane CSS. You start from scratch and can build anything with it. It's actually hard to use if you don't understand how HTML/CSS works, because the UI is basically just a faster way to do front-end code.
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