Webflow is a frontend tool for developing websites. Similar tools such as WordPress, Shopify, and Squarespace have become more popular lately for digital marketing workflow. Marketers and designers use these programs to design and develop a website and launch it without having to write any code at all.
Although CSS, Javascript, and HTML are still valid when designing a website from scratch, some smaller projects and given scenarios make Webflow a better alternative.
This intuitive program has a browser-based design interface, making it simple to learn and use. Many web designers have experience working with out-of-the-box WordPress themes, customizing them. However, a tool like Webflow, which offers plenty of creative freedom without the constraints of a readymade template, is quite different.
Let’s take a look at the top 5 reasons web developers choose Webflow for their projects:
#1: Interface
This is the number one reason developers choose to use Webflow. You will find everything you will need in the left and right side panels, organized neatly. You can collapse or open different windows depending on which tools you will use. WordPress, in comparison, doesn’t work the same way. It can take a long time to find things in template-specific places, and sometimes, you have to open a new window to view adjustments or a style.
The interface includes everything best web design companies should need, including tools for layout, typography, alignment, and custom styling, all handily found in the right-hand control panel. Although Webflow has a similar feel to Sketch or Illustrator, it is more comprehensive in features than Sketch.
With Webflow, you can add margin and padding to elements and save your changes as a new style rather than have to apply this change to every other part. It’s possible to add parallax scrolling, z-index, and transitions while being able to view your change in real-time to ensure you’re happy with it.
Instead of waiting to view the finished site and only then discovering something isn’t working how you wanted, you can get everything done without finding and changing code files to implement fundamental changes in design. Nothing seems to be ‘off’ when using Webflow. Everything from the float options to positioning works as you would hope.
In addition to everything being pretty easy to use, the navigator will organize your content from top to bottom so you can immediately find content blocks and rename or adjust them whenever needed. It could be a pain to keep things organized neatly with other programs. Using a tool that does this for you is time-saving. Save classes you can apply whenever you want to and change them easily. Something else which helps the whole design process quick, pixel-perfect and smooth is the ability to add multiple classes to your elements.
The only potential negative about this interface is that it’s browser-based, so you can’t work offline on the desktop. These programs are browser-based for the built-in CMS and how simple it is to publish any updates from the dashboard instead of having to export lines of code. So although it is clear why this tool works in a browser, it might still be nice to have the option of working offline.
#2: Webflow’s Function as a CMS
The program functions as a CMS and offers everything a business owner might want to do with it, including the ability to post content, add or change navigation links, manage portfolio work, create listings, and add new categories.
However, Webflow isn’t necessarily the best for every business. For example, a company selling products might find Shopify more suited to their needs because it’s designed specifically for sales. With Shopify, you can deal with ease and package, manage and print labels directly from the dashboard, making it a good option for online retailers. It’s believed that Webflow will enhance its e-commerce functions at some point in the future.
With WordPress, you get some standard CMS tools, although since it’s been around for a while, there are plenty of add-ons and plugins to choose from covering pretty much anything you would need to do. In addition, WordPress only allows access to various materials with different permissions, which businesses might find helpful.
For example, if the company wants access for a writer to write blog posts but not be able to publish them or edit other parts of the blog, that is easy to do with WordPress. Somebody higher up could then edit and approve the blog post before publishing. Being able to allocate various access levels in this way means someone who isn’t necessarily tech-savvy isn’t going to break something accidentally. With the different access levels, they wouldn’t even be able to do that, so it’s a good safeguard to have in place.
The dashboard you get with Webflow might not offer many tools for large-scale projects and businesses, but it could be ideal for a minor team.
#3: Design Flexibility
You will be able to do whatever you like and exercise your creative freedom to the max if you’re using Webflow. You can choose to put whole containers full of content on your z-index then apply perfect positioning for a precision design that would be hard to manage if you had to describe it to a designer or use other tools to get the same result.
Webflow has the blocks arranged vertically down the page, and each block holds various elements. You can keep the blocks holding content and features in sections and separate the content within each cell with containers.
Also, you can have div boxes in the containers to help with design-specific instances. It’s easy to figure out what is where. Photoshop and Sketch have more possibilities, but Webflow will help you create and manage your content quickly and easily and is not hard to learn.
#4: Publish and Design to Code
Things don’t get much easier than being able to publish your project from within the Webflow tool. It is possible to post either within your domain or with any URL without working with any code files or updating any servers. So let’s say you want to swap an image. With Webflow, you simply change the picture, the press publishes, and that’s all. There is no extra work you have to do.
It might surprise you that the coding is very clean and organized into HTML, JavaScript, and CSS files. It follows a popular convention of clean code writing. If you compare a developer’s code with the Webflow code, you would see the difference. Still, they are both equal in terms of functionality and reliability, so if it suits your business better to export code and change it live yourself, that will work.
#5: Easy to Learn
Webflow has plenty in common with Sketch or any Adobe products, so you will find many things familiar if you have used those. After about twenty minutes of looking around the interface, you should be ready to start. Everything seems pretty much self-explanatory. In addition, there is a ‘101 Crash Course’ available from Webflow, which will give you all the tips and tricks necessary to use this software to its fullest.
There are videos for pretty much anything you would want to know, and they are only a few minutes each, so you won’t be stuck watching hours of video before being able to try out the program. If you are stuck on something, you can find and watch a short video to get you back on track.
Ready to switch to Webflow?
Webflow seems to provide an easy, user-friendly interface and is enjoyable to use. Web designers, as well as developers, can use this problem to quickly and easily make websites. Webflow lets you develop and design without having a steep learning curve to learn the software or put in a lot of effort.
Anyone can work with Webflow regardless of whether or not they know code. All you need to do is export the site’s CSS and HTML tags, and then you can change them to suit your requirements or those of your clients.