I am just looking to get some feedback as far as how you all price the Webflow Hosting for clients? Do you mark it up and sell direct? Do you just bill them with no markup?
For the past year or more I have been billing client hosting with a slight markup. It has been working fine but I am wondering what everyone else is doing? Do you bundle and additional services and markup? Do you sell at cost? Just looking for some advice.
Thanks.
So I have a client I am quoting now with 8 websites. I normally would quote about $300 for the CMS Plan Hosting but it seems high when I am looking at a 8 site project.
For a one off project, the $300 seems fair, but I also worry about clients looking at the Webflow website and seeing that the plan costs just $192/yr. That is why I am wondering what you all do?
Any advise on pricing hosting for clients is greatly appreciated.
Hi @bgarrant,
I understand the challenge. In my opinion, I wouldn’t charge them for the hosting because it’s too easy to fact check and see the price difference. Just show them the benefits of not managing a server themselves.
On my portfolio I have an article talking specifically about this here:
Click on 02 Platforms
You can view how I lay out the differences between the two in the simplest of terms. Explain where the cost is actually going. Webflow is a fantastic deal when you look at; upgrading script languages from 4.0 to 4.2, backups, access, permissions, FTP, email, metrics, security, etc. The list goes on and on.
I would charge for the development side. Make money on the work that’ll actually be done by you. This a much better sell than up-charging for something you’re not even going to manage.
I my opinion, this can look shady if the client does even a little bit of research. They will find out.
Hope this helps ya out. See ya 
Thanks so much Gary. I operate my own LAMP stack cPanel hosting server as well as use Webflow Hosting. I have been in this business for years, so my cPanel server has a lot of Craft, Statamic and ExpressionEngine CMS websites mostly. 90% of my Webflow sites I host with Webflow for the security, speed and convenience. I feel like I should mark it up some to make money…but to be honest even at say $300 it is nothing compared to making like $4k in design time. I agree. Make money on the design. I may go with a flat $240/yr and include one hour or updates/maintenance in case they need it.
The Business Plan is when it gets a bit tricky at $432/yr. I may go with $500 and include an hour or updates again. At least this way if they do see the WF hosting plans, I can justify the additional cost.
Even better. Say the additional amount includes 24/7 email support, 1 hour updates and uptime monitor. That sounds like a great value for $60/mo. Almost no one would utilize these anyway in most cases. Maybe even make it even $250 CMS and $500 Business hosting plans.
My fav part of webflow hosting is the one click publish and auto backups. Priceless.
All great points. It looks like you have a grasp as to what you’re trying to do. I think you’re on the right track. I’ve been researching for 2 web builders, one for easy hosting development, the other for more advanced clients that need full control.
Without a doubt, Webflow is the best on the market for category 1. Plus the CMS and Interaction feature is second to none for a hosted solution. No one even comes close after researching.
The second option, I’m still searching. Pinegrow may be the next option to consider if you need external control, etc. So I’m with you on making sure you have multiple options!
I like your approach, I don’t think you’ll get much push-back using this format. I don’t code, so Dreamweaver was a tough choice. I think your clients will fit in the same category; wanting functionality without a massive learning curve. If I were you, I’d definitely create a document sharing all these features; CMS, animation, no server management, editor, ecommerce and no memberstack for membership. All of this will justify your pricing!
Good Luck.
I have Pinegrow and it is not even close to WF. I recommend you try Tailwind and Statamic CMS for the sites that need more. Statamic is flat file and blazing fast. Tailwind is a utility framework and you can build very advanced responsive layouts in plain HTML. Even without CSS Stylesheets!! Check out
Both are really awesome and you self host. To DB to fiddle with. All Git. Really nice.
I am finding less and less reason to use anything but Webflow. The CMS is very good and they keep adding features that make my life easier. With Zapier, Memberstack and some SaaS there is not much you can’t do now.
Hi there,
I came across your discussion because I’m about to build a Catalogue Raisonné for an artist foundation with over 3000 objects (or respectively CMS items). I don’t think that it would be reasonable to charge them with the E-commerce hosting plan…
I would agree with Gary Michael about not charging the hosting directly, but maybe additional to development work charge a little more on ‘maintenance costs’. Would be totally normal for CMSs that need more maintenance than Webflow, so I think that anyone can relate.
Now I also have a little request, as I saw you mention Statamic: I came across Statamic only a few weeks/months ago and since then think Webflow and Statamic seem like a perfect marriage. Unfortunately I’m a designer with only basic coding skills (yet), and I’m having a hard time getting these two together. I managed a very basic local setup in MAMP with exported html/css and Statamic, but I find the learning curve to be rather steep. Any suggestions here for me?
Or, if you or someone else here could imagine to give me an understandable introduction or even wants to work with me on my project, please write me a private message and a quote.