Why we use Webflow

Inga Kot
24.02.2021

At Heliotrope Digital, we design landing pages, apps and websites. We often build websites and landing pages without frontend developers. Our designers do it themselves and in this article we will tell you why.

What is Webflow?

Webflow is an online platform, first released in 2013,which allows people to design their websites without the need for code. 
The process of creating websites on Webflow is similar to other site constructors. You import or create your design elements, give them classes containing uniform design elements and create adaptive versions for mobile and other screen resolutions.

Tools in Webflow

CMS platform. Webflow has the option to connect a website to a CMS (Content Management System), making it a lot easier to update content, which is vital, especially for bigger, dynamic websites. We offer this option to our clients so they can hire us once and easily keep up with their content, without having to pay us again to constantly update it. 

Templates. Webflow has an extensive library of ready templates, divided into different categories. All templates are fully customisable. Some are free and some are not. This feature can come in handy if you are working on a budget and to a deadline, though we always create unique sites for our clients.

Webflow University and Webflow Forum. If you run into any issues while using webflow you can go to their forum and ask a question, which is answered by other people in the forum, who answer relatively quickly. You can also go to the Webflow University site and search for a solution there. There’s usually a text tutorial and a video tutorial explaining how to solve your problem.

Import and export code. Webflow has an option to import code, but it also has an option to export code. Once the website is built, you can export code and give it to developers to customise is further on their own or to put it on a different hosting platform so it doesn’t have to be tied to Webflow

Pros of Webflow

Flexibility of the platform. Webflow is not limited to templates. 95% of the time the designer can implement their ideas in Webflow. Everything is highly customisable, from animations to scrolls. Not many other platforms can do this. You can also easily add custom code for anything that can’t be done through Webflow’s designer.

Advanced animations. If you can't customise animations as you want in Webflow, there’s a plug-in for After Effects, which lets you customise your animations and import them back into Webflow.

Work with classes.  You can assign a class to every element in Webflow, just like you would if you were coding it. A class contains whatever design properties you want. From color and size to text alignment, it shortens the work time and makes the process simpler. You don’t have to customise every separate element, you can just assign them the same class. No other online constructor has this option.

Adaptive design. A designer designs for multiple screen resolutions from the start. Every screen is highly customisable and there’s an option to hide objects in different versions. No other online constructor works this well for adaptive design. There are options to design for 3 different desktop resolutions, tablet resolution, horizontal rotation phone resolution and regular phone resolution.

Integrations with other platforms. Webflow supports a huge amount of integrations with other platforms, such as Shopify, Hubspot and others. It allows even more customisation and increases your site’s usability.

Saves money. One of the biggest pros of Webflow is that it saves money on development, since the designers can do all the work and developers don’t need to be involved.

CMS platform. Having a CMS is very useful for our clients who want to constantly update or change their content.

Cons of webflow

Adapting to the platform. Webflow is a little harder to use than other platforms, because it’s not just a draw, drag and drop platform. It takes a bit of time to learn how to use it and explore the design possibilities. But if the designer has experience in HTML and CSS coding it becomes easier to learn, since many principles are the same.

Subscription cost. The subscription to Webflow is a bit more expensive than other constructor platforms, but at the same time it’s worth it. There are various subscription levels, but if you want to be able to make updates to the site, you have to purchase hosting through Webflow, which is more expensive. Prices vary on the type of website a client needs, these include basic, ecommerce and CMS.

Webflow vs developing

Webflow is pretty much like coding without actually coding. You tell the platform what element goes where, assign its properties and the platform converts it to code.

Designer has full control. Often, when designers work with developers, miscommunications can occur and the end result doesn’t look exactly like the initial design. When working with Webflow the final result is exactly what the designer wanted.

Final thoughts

We use Webflow because we want high quality, custom, fast results. We recommend using webflow if you’re in need of fast customisable solutions and if you want to publish a site, blog or landing page without having to involve developers.
If you have decided you want to create a project in Webflow, get in touch and we’ll be happy to talk it over.

Heliotrope Digital designs websites, landing pages, apps, web products and helps companies with digital transformation. Read more about us here.

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