I used to have major gripes about the pricing, but after weighing up all the incredible features, hosting, security, backups, content delivery, etc… I realised it’s MILES beyond anything else out there.
I also realised how easily I could show the value of it to my clients on just the Editor alone!
If you’re coming from only taking small jobs, then sure, this will be a hard sell for you and your clients.
But perhaps you could look at it as an opportunity to grow and make more money.
I am very much a fan of the latest Webflow interface and think it has some outstanding potential. One thing i have come across which is partly my bad for not taking the time to read more was how “unclear” really the hosting is.
eCommerce for any top end company outputs a staggering amount of pages and it seems Webflows Achilles heal is the hosting.
The requirements of categories and products and the extent to how many pages are being created would put you far beyond the $45pm package which is a staggering amount to pay for an eCommerce CMS hosting service compared to today’s marketplace offerings.
$432 a year annually for ONE client site i find far too expensive, regardless of your hosting service there are far more practical and cost effective services for eCommerce and CMS platforms. I charge £20 a month for an unlimited hosting service on a dedicated server with daily back-ups, security and far more web-space than is being used by the sites i see built on Webflow, including my own.
The fact you also cannot export CMS data and host on your own server is also something I have come across and I find extremely frustrating as Webflows intuitive and beautiful design interface I have really embraced over the past couple of weeks and personally think this is an amazing solution for designers who wish to create from a graphical perspective, something most CMS has failed at in our industry for years.
Personally i think the BIGGEST pitfall and downfall to Webflow is the Hosting costs and restrictions, you have broken down a service and put far too much thought into making money on hosting which i genuinely believe is why so many designers are not converting to Webflow.
For me it has just unfortunately ended my relationship with Webflow for now and genuinely put a HUGE wall in the way of me continuing my Pro subscription unless i can find a solution to exporting the entire site to my own server. I do not require clients to edit websites, my clients run companies, they employ me to undertake the web-design services, that’s my job.
Fantastic job on the interface, but the business model sucks!
It is shocking to me that Webflow seems disinterested in establishing any medium between making zero, as freelancers with multiple clients are forced to look elsewhere for hosting, and charging $240+/yr/site for hosting that has all of the features that freelancer doesn’t need, and is missing several features they DO need.
It would be as simple as charging $20/month for a hosting account setup (includes one hosted site) and an additional $5/month for sites beyond that. That would make it a whole lot more palatable for someone like me to keep multiple sites with webflow, and run my own server for email and file hosting.
I’m already paying more on a monthly basis for webflow than I am for the entire Adobe CC suite.
I agree, i also pay less for an entire Adobe CC suite of tools and my own hosting service is far better than their own and I pay less to host thousands of websites than i would to host TEN through Webflow.
I can see how they are making money, but i think it’s in the wrong place. If they charged per build and hosted each account as part of the single “per account” payment it would be far better.
No I’m not. Because I haven’t had to. I sold clients on a true once-and-done payment model, in order to get smaller businesses to accept a large outlay for a design with the promise that they would never have to worry about hosting costs for their site/traffic/email/etc. I pay $140/yr for my server and don’t have to worry about it. I host all my sites there and since I have several clients with ridiculously low server needs, it’s no problem at all.
Which means I am now faced with a decision: pay a ridiculous price for Webflow hosting on top of needing to keep my own server for email and file hosting, OR pay for another service for form hosting which means higher costs AND more work. And in that case… why am I paying so much for Webflow? The only reason I’m on the plan that I’m on is so I can keep those projects open and form submissions processing. But if I’m going elsewhere for the forms, I can just downgrade my account and delete projects after they’re finished.
But, oh wait, there’s no re-import function for bringing sites back to make changes, so making changes in the future is going to be a pain.
The end result is that webflow refusing to address its payment model AND instituting draconian measures that negatively impact everyone due to the regulations of an area they are not even doing business in is putting freelancers like me in a very difficult situation. I can either pay thousands of dollars per year (can’t do that), or I can put in a LOT more work while still spending a couple hundred more on another service. In either case, a more attractive option is to just look for webflow alternatives.
I just want to chime in here to let it be known I am on the opposing end of this. I think Weblow’s pricing is very fair. I am a freelancer who makes websites for clients (mainly small businesses) - and have never had an issue. I think the crux of the complaints here are:
1.) Not charging clients for their hosting. If you charge clients for their own hosting costs, then all the complaints are moot. Just because YOUR personal business model is different doesn’t mean that everyone else’s is. Clients should be paying their own hosting costs. If they are balking at $20/month for CMS hosting - then maybe they are not an ideal client. If your business model was to pay client’s hosting costs - that is supposed to dictate Webflow’s entire direction as a company?
2.) If you want to simply export the site and host it yourself, why do you need CMS export at all? CMS gives the clients the ability to edit their site - but if you are self hosting Webflow’s CMS will not work anyways.
I just want to say I love @webflow , and in its current form - have absolutely zero qualms with their pricing structure. $42/month is what I pay out of pocket to create & design UNLIMITED client sites. When it comes time to host - I simply use client billing and the client pays their own hosting (as it should be in my opinion). Personally, I’ve never had a client complain about $20/month. I mean, Wordpress.com’s business hosting is $25/month and I’ve had numerous clients come from this - so in their eyes they are actually saving money with Webflow!
I’ve also had clients who want to self-host. When this happens I hand off a full code export - and explain that this is where the project ends should they choose this route. All hosting, security, forms, CMS, content-editing, etc is now their responsibility.
I’m personally very happy with Webflow’s direction.
I plan to start with Pro Plan probably next month. Like the majority here, I’m also worried about the high price of hosting. But, everything has its price.
I work for small clients and I’m doing mostly landing pages and sometimes sites with 5-6 pages. At this point, I do not need a CMS and forms. I just want to speed up the process and avoid paying someone to code the site. With Webflow, I can do it by my self.
For now I need only to export clean code and host a site somewhere for a lot less money, until I find a client with a higher budget.
I read in Plans - Note: Dynamic content and pages cannot be exported and forms will stop working.
Does this mean that I can only export one page even if other are not dynamic with Pro Plan? This part is not very clear to me.
If you are not using CMS or forms, then exporting should be relatively simple - the guide for that is here: Code export | Webflow University
As I understand it (i’m not staff) the ‘dynamic content and pages cannot be exported’ means you can’t export any CMS data, or the template pages that the CMS automatically creates for a collection.
However if all your pages are static, you should be able to export them all as per the guide above. If you have specific queries about plans - best to check them out with support@webflow.com
After about 8 months of hosting a growing pool of clients on my own server, I have to say that managing hosting in any form is a huge time-sink with all of the administrative responsibilities that go on behind the scene. Not to mention bulk hosting is hugely competitive with a very tiny profit margin once you automate everything with a proper help desk (usually from Ukraine).
Moving forward, I think I might move all of my clients over to Webflow hosting and then spend my time savings on developing SaaS, rather than fighting over bread crumbs.
This is something I wish will coming. A view months ago I created already a wishlist item, that will plan to include one site hosting in a designer account. As webdesigner you need a own page to get customers and with that and designer plan you pay around 40$ alone to get started using webflow for your business.
You could build the static pages in Webflow then export to a code editor and add a CMS of your choice (I’m no expert btw) I would imagine that is what most people do that either cant host with Webflow or choose not too.
If you don’t charge your client a monthly fee then that has nothing to do with Webflow, that’s down to your own business model.
Why should any provider of a service reduce their fees to fit with your business model? Any other business sets up to make profit, taking into consideration their suppliers costs.
The ease of setting up a website, FREE and easy to set up SSL (saved me so much time), the Webflow University. Copy & Paste (saved me even more time) Clean code, powerful CMS, don’t forget all the help that’s offered in the forums, and so much more.
Personally, I feel it’s excellent value for money. You get what you pay for. Everyone has a choice in the end.
Someone said Wix is $7 a month. Which is actually overpriced by $7 a month.
This is my own opinion. I do not work for Webflow.
I’m a fan of Webflow, but let’s be realistic, here. You just listed off things that are not included in hosting, but are paid for by the monthly subscription cost. The only things you mentioned that are hosting are the SSL and CMS. And a basic hosted site doesn’t use the CMS, that costs extra.
You can be angry that people think it’s ridiculous to charge $15/month for hosting that doesn’t include a large number of features, but there’s a reason threads like this get tons of responses and views. In my (subjective, as is yours) opinion, it is a huge mistake for Webflow to not offer a hosting tier that CLEARLY many people are looking for.
