WordPress vs Webflow: Which is Best for Your Business?

WordPress and Webflow are two full-featured website builders that may be used to create business sites, sales pages, blogs, and more. In this guide, we’ll cover the key differences between the platform so you can make the best choice for your business needs, budget, and tech stack.

Table of contents:

• Who is this guide for?
• WordPress overview
• Webflow overview
• Webflow vs. WordPress: Which is best for you?

Who is this guide for?

Whether you need a website for your business or are seeking to expand your web design skills to new platforms, WordPress and Webflow are both worth a look. Each of these platforms offers:

• Design customization with or without the use of code
• Support for e-commerce sales
• Secure hosting options
• Compatibility with search engine optimization (SEO) best practices and tools
• Support for multimedia content and interactive design

Let’s dive in and take a closer look at the first of these two website builders: WordPress.

WordPress overview

WordPress is a powerful content management system (CMS) that’s able to support large content libraries and e-commerce inventories. The platform powers over 36 million websites globally (that’s about 40% of the internet) and is available to anyone in two configurations: WordPress.com and WordPress.org.

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WordPress.com is a fully managed website solution that delivers an experience similar to that which you’d have using a service like Wix or Shopify. While you’re responsible for creating and uploading website content, WordPress takes care of arranging hosting and security updates. They also provide SSL certificates, which are important for website security.

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WordPress.org, on the other hand, is open-source, self-hosted software. While there’s no cost to use this version of WordPress, you’ll be responsible for finding a hosting provider, attaching a domain name, and making sure that you stay on top of regular security updates. Because it’s open source, though, you have a bit more control over your content and site customizations than you do when using WordPress.com.

There’s one more version of WordPress available for large companies: WordPress VIP. This solution is best for businesses that have complex security needs or a massive amount of traffic coming to their website every month. All price quotes are completely custom, so you’ll need to reach out to WordPress VIP for a quote.

How much does WordPress cost?

WordPress.org is free to use, though you’ll need to pay about $11 per month for WordPress hosting services and a domain name. (This is just a ballpark starting price and it can increase based on how much bandwidth you use and the security features you require.)

There are five WordPress.com plans to choose from.

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WordPress users can also save money on their plans by opting for annual billing. When you pay annually for a Premium plan, for example, the cost drops from $18 to $8 per month.

What is WordPress best suited for?

Both versions of WordPress are ideally suited for a variety of uses. Some of the best ways to use WordPress include:

• Launching and monetizing a blog: The WordPress CMS is a flexible blogging platform that makes it easy to manage and organize content publication at high volumes, with multiple authors
• Running an e-commerce shop: A WordPress site can be used as a complete e-commerce storefront or configured as a headless system that pushes products and content out to a variety of channels, including web and app storefronts
• Displaying portfolio pieces: WordPress can handle text, photography, audio, and video, making it ideal for creative and professional portfolios

And, if you build websites, WordPress is a great choice as its open-source version can be adapted to fit the needs of just about any client or industry.

WordPress editorial and design flexibility

WordPress is the choice of many content creators and web designers thanks to its incredible flexibility and ease of use. When using WordPress, you can:

• Use a pre-made drag-and-drop WordPress theme or opt for a completely custom build using Javascript. (You can also buy a custom theme from skilled WordPress designers in Project Catalog™.)
• Completely change the way you add and edit on your site by incorporating third-party page builder plug-ins like Divi or Elementor.
• Organize your blog content through the use of custom categories and tags.
• Allow blog authors and contributors varying levels of access to different areas of your site.

Related: How to Build the Best WordPress Website

Notable WordPress features

The most notable feature available to WordPress users is the inclusion of plug-ins. While available only to WordPress.org users and WordPress.com users on specific plan tiers, plug-ins are a great way to extend the functionality of business websites and blogs.

Over 60,000 WordPress plug-ins are available for the open-source version of the platform, including tools for:

• Sending e-commerce sales data from your WordPress website to your bookkeeping software
• Launching a newsletter
• Enabling two-factor authentication
• Improving the SEO value of your blog posts
• Drop-shipping products from your online store to customers

While some premium plug-ins do require an additional subscription fee, many free plug-in options that support a variety of functions and services are available.

WordPress and SEO

WordPress is also well-loved because it integrates so nicely with SEO tools like Google Analytics, Clearscope, and Yoast. By incorporating these tools, as well as other plug-ins, you can add the following to your site and its dashboard:

• Analytics reporting
• On-page user tracking
• Content SEO scores
• Keyword density reports
• Custom e-commerce meta descriptions
• Content ranking predictions

While this doesn’t fully eliminate the need for external SEO tools (or the help of an SEO expert), it makes staying on top of your website’s optimization a lot easier!

WooCommerce: e-commerce for WordPress

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WordPress is also a standout in the e-commerce world thanks to WooCommerce, an open-source e-commerce platform made specifically for WordPress. (WooCommerce and WordPress are made by the same company, so they’re guaranteed to be compatible—though not all WordPress.com plans allow for e-commerce sales.)

You can add a WooCommerce storefront to a WordPress site through the use of a plug-in. At its base level, WooCommerce provides:

• Customizable storefront themes
• Shopping carts on your domain
• Modular product pages for physical and digital items

You can then further extend WooCommerce functionality by using additional plug-ins for:

• Collecting payments and calculating sales tax
• Offering product add-ons like engraving or gift wrapping
• Selling products on a subscription basis
• Booking appointments and selling tickets
• Creating product variations
• Importing large inventory lists via comma-separated value ( CSV) files
• Pulling shipping rates for carriers like USPS and UPS

While installing WooCommerce is free, some of its additional plug-ins do require an annual subscription.

WordPress usability

WordPress.com users get access to a support team that can help them with questions about using the platform. The company has also put together a nice “Learn WordPress” guide that can help users become more familiar with the hosted platform.

WordPress.org, however, has no official customer support. As a result, many WordPress users have created tutorials and contributed to forum discussions about the best ways to use the platform and avoid common WordPress mistakes.

If you’re willing to do a little research and experimentation, a vast library of WordPress content is available online to help guide you. You can also book a WordPress consultation with an expert to ask questions and gain insights!

Webflow overview

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Webflow is another popular choice among web designers and creatives, thanks to its no-code, hyper-customizable approach to building web pages. It’s a software as a service (SaaS) tool. You’ll access and maintain your sites by logging into Webflow.io.

The Webflow interface is based on a visual editor. Users drag, drop, and adjust different elements in this editor, which generates the HTML and CSS necessary to build a custom website.

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How much does Webflow cost?

Webflow offers its users two types of plans: general and e-commerce. Each plan type is further broken down into multiple pricing tiers.

Webflow general site plans

You can build a general Webflow website by selecting the plan that most closely meets your needs:

• Free: This plan requires the use of a Webflow.io subdomain and limits your site to 50 CMS items and 1 GB of bandwidth.
• Basic: For $18 per month, you can launch a small site on a custom domain. This plan doesn’t support any CMS use, so it’s best for simple landing pages with up to 50 GB of bandwidth every month.
• CMS: For $29 per month, you can build a blog with up to 2,000 CMS items, 200 GB of bandwidth, and three collaborators.
• Business: For $49 per month, you can build a large site that has up to 10,000 CMS items, 400 GB of bandwidth, and 10 collaborators.

General plan subscribers who opt for annual billing can save up to 22% versus paying the monthly prices listed above.

Webflow e-commerce site plans

If you need to sell products on your Webflow site, you’ll want to select one of the three available commerce account plans:

• Standard: For $42 a month, you can build a site with up to 500 inventory items and 2,000 CMS items. You can process up to $50,000 in sales every year with a 2% transaction fee. This tier also includes everything in the general CMS plan.
• Plus: For $84 per month, you can build a storefront with up to 5,000 inventory items and 10,000 CMS items. You can process up to $200,000 in sales every year with a 0% transaction fee. This tier also includes everything in the general business plan.
• Advanced: For $235 per month, you can build a large e-commerce site with 15,000 inventory items and 10,000 CMS items. There’s no transaction fees or limits on annual sales, and you also get everything included in the general business plan.

E-commerce plan subscribers can also save money—up to 30%—by opting for annual instead of monthly billing.

Webflow for enterprise

Webflow also offers an enterprise version of their general plan. Enterprise services are custom quoted based on your needs, including:

• Number of form submissions
• Expected bandwidth needs
• Required user seats

Enterprise plans provide support for Webflow CMS publishing as well.

What is Webflow best suited for?

Webflow is ideally suited for simple landing pages and sales funnels that focus on collecting visitors’ contact details. You can easily put together a site like this using Webflow’s $18-per-month plan.

If you’re interested in using Webflow for a larger blog or e-commerce site, it’s important to have a good idea of exactly how many products you plan to sell or blogs you’ll publish. If you go over Webflow’s plan limits, you may incur additional costs or have to upgrade to a higher tier.

Webflow’s biggest selling point to many users is the way in which pages are designed. If Webflow’s editorial and design flexibility appeals to you, then it’s worth exploring.

Webflow editorial and design flexibility

Webflow uses a unique no-code editor that offers more granular customization than standard drag-and-drop interfaces. Users can completely control the placement, shape, size, and action of every web page element.

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The platform’s various tool panels—which may feel familiar to designers who’ve worked with programs like Adobe Illustrator—allow for the creation of containers, class styles, and interactive elements, all without writing any custom code.

If you aren’t a designer, though, that’s okay. There are over 1,500 Webflow templates you can install on your site.

Notable Webflow features

Webflow uses front-end editing by default. That means that when you add content to a new Webflow page, you’ll type it in a version of the live site page. This enables you to see exactly what your visitors will—no need to toggle back and forth between a text editor and a preview page.

You can also quickly import large volumes of content to Webflow using a spreadsheet—and export it, if you’d like to remove your content from the platform and use it somewhere else.

Webflow SEO settings

The Webflow platform is meant to be SEO-friendly. It includes a number of built-in SEO tools and controls, all accessible from your site’s dashboard:

• A schema markup editor
• Meta title and meta description fields
• Auto-generated sitemaps
• Custom sitemap upload
• Alt tag editing tools

Webflow also uses Amazon Web Services (AWS) to host websites across more than 100 worldwide data centers, which boosts speed and in turn helps with SEO. Every hosted Webflow site also includes an SSL certificate for security.

To get the most out of your Webflow site’s SEO, though, you’ll probably want to opt for a CMS or Business plan, as this will allow you to create blog posts.

Webflow for e-commerce

Webflow’s e-commerce solution allows you to build fully custom product pages and checkout experiences without code. You can sell physical or digital goods, including virtual classes and products with multiple delivery options (such as pickup, shipping, or local courier).

Webflow handles e-commerce payment processing through Stripe, and also supports Google Pay, Apple Pay, and PayPal checkout.

Webflow usability

While Webflow design doesn’t require the ability to write code, its interface can have a long learning curve—especially if you’re not already familiar with other graphic and visual design tools.

Luckily, there’s a robust Webflow community and lots of resources available to new users—the Webflow tutorial, Webflow University, and Webflow Forum are all great places to start.

Webflow vs. WordPress: Which is best for you?

There are plenty of great reasons to use either Webflow or WordPress—the right choice for you ultimately comes down to your budget, needs, and design preferences.

If you’re on a tight budget and need to launch an e-commerce store or a blog, WordPress is a good choice. There’s no limit on how many blog posts you can create on WordPress plans, and if you opt for the open-source version, you can set up a WooCommerce store for free as well.

If you want to create some simple landing pages without code or are a graphic designer interested in learning website design, Webflow is worth a closer look. The Webflow interface will feel familiar to many designers, and if you don’t need to publish blog content, the free or entry-level paid plans will work well for your needs.

Still unsure which platform is right for you? Work your way through our flowchart and try out the end result!

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Get help from web experts

Whether you’re interested in landing a new Webflow design job or need help building a WordPress site for your business, you can find the work and experts you want on Upwork.

Looking for someone to help you get a website off the ground? Hire a WordPress or Webflow developer through Talent Marketplace^TM. (Just create or log into your account to post a job and get started.)

Ready to offer your services to clients as a web developer or web designer? Create an Upwork account to begin responding to client requests or list your custom designs for sale in Project Catalog.

Upwork is not affiliated with and does not sponsor or endorse any of the tools or services discussed in this article. These tools and services are provided only as potential options, and each reader and company should take the time needed to adequately analyze and determine the tools or services that would best fit their specific needs and situation.

Prices are current at the time of writing and may change over time based on each service’s offerings.