Coming back and forth to try Webflow for the last 6 years? I keep dropping it. Unlike any other platform I can never figure out why the staging environment is so limited on an account (free account since no client has purchased a plan).
(Let me clarify that when I say limited I mean being unable to use custom code. For me this counts as being unable to design a website since bespoke work needs coding and without coding there’s no bespoke templating and therefore there’s no staging ability.)
Isn’t the purpose of a staging environment to test it and create a website before you pass it to a client? Having a gallery of pre-made assets or a list of your own templates that is ready to be edited and sold?
Help me out on this because I really fail to understand the payment and limitation logic on a staging environment unless I do something wrong.
Do all of you just pre-pay a plan before you even start a project?
Do you start from scratch or even use the default Webflow community templates only when a client pays a plan? Isn’t that killing unnecessary time of your project’s timeline?
How do you test scripts and custom code? Are you all waiting for a plan to be paid and hope your script gallery will work or you code on the go?
The only reason I keep coming back to check if anything has changed from the “pay before you start logic” is because my clients keep asking me about Webflow, but in the end I keep using other platforms that give me a free staging ability and the same website result.
A staging website can never be used as a final product, so people will always buy the hosting and the plan, so what do you really gain from this limitation?
Once again, in case I am doing something wrong here, by all means please guide me to get things started properly or understand that this service is simply not for me and people like-minded.
If you’re building one site only, then at the point you need capabilities like custom code, you can add a site plan.
If you’re building multiple sites, as a freelancer for example, you get a workspace plan which gives you full access to the developer tooling you need ( for all sites ).
From my perspective, this is fair. Adobe doesn’t give away photoshop and then say “hey pay us only if you actually complete any of your images, and then use them for anything commercial…”
So I guess the restrictions I found are indeed in place even after all these years, and it’s not me missing some information. That’s very unfortunate to see.
I appreciate that this may seem fair somehow for some, but I don’t think your comparison with Adobe is accurate.
The moment you use Photoshop to edit an image you have a complete end product ready, this is why it’s not free.
A website created in Webflow is for Webflow use only unless I am mistaken?
Assets and libraries created in Webflow are made to be used with this product.
A staging website is not an end product that you can take and leave.
A hosting plan is needed to publish the staging website to a custom url.
So if you see where I am going with this, I can’t think of a reason using the product and not end up paying for it. My argument is that I cannot use the product before I end up paying for it which in my case is not useful at all since I always custom code my templates.
Even purchasing the plans, it is quite expensive to pay for one website, that still won’t give me the ability to build different templates, with coded assets in each or the libraries that I need.
Webflow has already no reason to keep a restriction because no matter what they restrict on a staging environment it will never be an end product ready to use elsewhere.
I still think you have it backwards. Most Adobe products you have to pay for even if you never use them - Webflow gives you an opportunity to try nearly every feature without paying a cent. Pretty decent of them.
Even more, when you build a website on Webflow, that’s costing Webflow server space, network fees, system upkeep…
I think you’re here to rant, which is fine, but may be appreciate that Webflow seems more generous with its free plans than many companies. If that doesn’t work for you, there are lots of other platforms that might fit you better.
Let me correct you on one thing, I am not here to rant as this never gets anyone anywhere so let’s not add a label to anyone having a different opinion here.
The fact that I am making the effort to post on the forum, means that I am interested in understanding the product and what it offers. For years I turn down Webflow because the workflow it suggests doesn’t seem to meet my standards and my usual procedure that I have while working with my clients. Which hasn’t changed for years apparently and on my end, from my point of view, Webflow feels anything but generous comparing to anything else I tried.
From your answer I can understand that even on the staging environment and unpublished websites, it still costs Webflow money which is why they have the staging environment so limited to force “plan purchasing” for every website creation.
This is fine, but as a web designer, the fact that I cannot have my library and setup with coded sites before a signed contract and purchase of a client’s hosting, doesn’t improve my workflow and time schedule. As I said before I do bespoke work which requires time so it seems this is not the right tool for me and a lot of others that have the same workflow as me.
I hope the new competitors will make the product marketing department to reconsider the client on-boarding and start including new target groups, before they lose more customers. When that happens and there is a plan for a proper staging environment I ll consider happily to retry this.
I think you’ve got it a bit mixed up. You’re able to add custom code to any site you make if you have signed up for the freelancer plan, you don’t have to add a plan to each site you create before you add custom code to it. Your main webflow account plan and the hosting plans for each site are separate things.
As @memetican mentioned, it is much like paying for adobe software. Once you’ve paid for a freelancer plan, you’re free to do whatever you like on Webflow, there are no real limitations. The only thing you’d need to do when pushing a site live for a client, is getting them to pay for their hosting, which you would only need to do at the point it goes live. There is no need to pay for it before the project is completed on the staging site.
You’re even able to export your site on the freelancer plan, so if you’d rather not pay for hosting through Webflow once the site is complete, you’re able to do that too
I was indeed confused between the pricing plans of the hosting and the plans of the actual product use. I also didn’t realise that you can export the websites you create with the ability to host them elsewhere. This kinda explains more the limitations I was struggling with even though I still think they could provide the coding options on the free plan as well.
How do you normally transfer a staging site to a client’s paid plan? Does this require a lot of work afterwards with SEO settings and the general handover preparation, or most of this is done on the staging side?
You’ll be able to do basically everything pre handover! All you do is duplicate the site you have built (it’ll give you the option to keep SEO settings so it’s a perfect duplicate) and then you can transfer it to your client.
What I normally do is wait until the project is ready to go live, then have the client set up a webflow account. I’ll then transfer the duplicated site to them and then show them how to add hosting to it. They can invite you as a workspace collaborator after that point, so you can set up the required DNS settings and push the site live for them.
They also don’t need to pay for hosting while you’re working on it, they can sit on a free webflow account and only pay for the actual hosting of the site when it is transferred to them.
Thank you David, this really helped me understand the process.
I guess the next time I feel adventurous with a client, I ll make the investment to get a plan and test the capabilities of the full version this time. Let’s see if Webflow manages to get in my web design platform list after all these years.