DevLink for large-scale SaaS. Is It scalable or a headache?

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1

Hey everyone.

Let’s get straight to it: I’m testing tools that help bridge the gap between design and development, and using DevLink is one of them, as the front-end pillar for a complex, large-scale SaaS.

The promise of speed is tempting, but the reality of a large, day-to-day project raises some serious questions for me.

I want to initiate a sincere discussion with those of you already in the trenches. My main concerns are:

  • Complex Components: How does DevLink handle components that go beyond the basics? Think virtualized tables, logic-heavy dashboards, or dynamic forms. Does the bridge to React hold up, or does it become a hard-to-maintain mess of props and slots?

  • State Management: Is the integration with state libraries (Redux, Zustand, etc.) clean? Or does the DevLink layer create awkward coupling, making your business logic more verbose than necessary?

  • Performance: In an app with dozens of DevLink components on a single screen, have you noticed a performance hit? Does the final bundle get bloated?

The idea of empowering the design team and speeding up development is fantastic, but not at the cost of a fragile and hard-to-scale architecture.

I want to hear from you:

  1. What are DevLink’s limits? Where would you draw the line and say, “from this point on, it’s better to just code it by hand”?

  2. What was the biggest real-world “win” you got from using it on a serious project?

  3. And what was the most significant “gotcha” or unexpected problem you ran into?

Is it worth betting the farm on DevLink for a long-term SaaS project?

2

At the core, Devlink is a system for exporting and syncing Webflow HTML and style systems into a React project. That’s it. It simplifies the UX build and styling management, and for React devs it’s a huge step forward compared with the prior system.

Everything related to performance will be tied to your code and your server, not the HTML.

If you’re hosting your React app on Webflow Cloud, then it’s using Cloudflare’s architecture and I believe it’s largely served from the edge for highest performance.

I like it- but in terms of whether Webflow + Devlink +/- Cloud is the right path for your project your best bet is to MVP a few components and pages.

One thing I really like seeing- Webflow is investing hard in expanding ways to support React devs, and to expand Webflow-hosted sites through it’s React support. Some exciting things ahead.

3

It still lags the stability, I have tried it for multiple products and it gives so multiple import issues and sometimes the solution requires to change the full components.