Not sure what has brought me to typing the message in the forums, but here goes. Webflow has become an integral component to my website design and development process. A process that I have been keen to implement for years. I have tested other front end developer apps but none have really ever been able to do what I needed it to do. Webflow has been the perfect fit for responsive prototyping and even generating production ready code.
It seems there is an influx of front end designer apps coming onto the market, my advise is:
Please do not get distracted with gimmicks
Please always remember that simple is best. Leave it up to the community to adapt and evolve and be creative!
I have never understood the point of view to turn webflow into a CMS… No need!
The same for e-commmerce. No need. Plenty of other tools to handle this from exported code.
I am sure there are many other points. But there you go. My five cents worth!
I agree with you for the most part and I respect your opinion.
Like you, I enjoy Webflow for what it is currently, however, I have to disagree on the point on CMS.
The main reason why CMS is highly requested is due to the fact that some of our clients do want to have a site where they can manage assets by themselves.
Now imagine you are servicing 25 clients, and on each typical day they want to change 2 images, update their blog, change their landing page copy, etc., see how much work that can be?
By having a CMS, this ‘off-loads’ the tasks to our clients and at the same time, empowering them with their own content management. I hope you would understand this point of view. There would be more use-cases but this is one I believe would resonate with most.
Webflow does NOT need to be turned into a CMS, but it is good have an option.
Just because you don’t like broccoli, that doesn’t mean everyone else can’t have broccoli.
Fair point. I perhaps should have mentioned we mainly use Webflow for prototyping and front end dev, then export the code from there. Eg. Integrate with Wordpress, drupal etc. Then the site takes on a life of it’s own.
I can understand that people would use webflow as a complete solution, therefore continual client updates could become laborious for both the dev and client.
Exactly. Webflow’s limits are boundless. And I can see your point on not including CMS now.
I use Webflow for production and it has served me well.
I am with you on your other points as I’ve seen competing products introducing loads of trend worthy ‘features’, resulting in nothing but a clunky interface and poor performance.
I use Webflow in a similar but slightly different manner.
I use Webflow as a proto-typing tool. I export the code and rip it apart
and add php or cold fusion for programmatic control and database connectivity.
I don’t need a full fledge CMS. I just need the ability to add basic controlled loops (while do), basic decision control (if then else statements), and basic sql commands (select update delete)… Oh, and variable tracking along with session control.
For me - Webflow is not an end-all tool. In fact… The hard part of my job starts when I export the code. The fun part happens before the export.
We are all different in our needs and how we using Webflow. But I would love having a product that I could design a site and hand over the code for someone or my self do some custom stuff with, but also design a site and a custom cms and publish right inside Webflow. As we are different so are our clients. So different solutions fits differents needs.
Webflow has also stated this in the blog post:
Everything you know and love about Webflow will stay the same
So if you trust that you have nothing to worry about
