I have been hand coding sites for small business clients for 19 years and always thought that was best way. In those 19 years I have worked with pretty much every CMS on the planet.
In 2019 I want to be more profitable and make better websites for my clients in less time. After working with Webflow a few days I can already see how it can make building websites fun again. Not to mention the time saving that comes with Webflow.
I would love to hear other stories from freelancers like myself that made the move to Webflow. I feel you need HTML and CSS experience to use Webflow and it is not really for beginners as I once thought. It is far more of a pro tool.
Please share any success stories. Thank you Webflow for making such an awesome product. I am excited to see what we can do together on 2019.
I made the move nearly 5 years ago now. Stumbled on Webflow late at night when struggling with a responsive design. Hand coding it was an option but I wanted it to be very fine tuned and spend mostof the time designing, not coding and fixing cross browser bugs. At that time, there was another visual tool called Macaw. I had bought it a week earlier but I was reaching a point where I couldn’t handle the bugs anymore, my work of one week was crippled with dead ends and it was going down the drain. I was stressed, desperate, I was looking for a hand coding framework. Webflow had just launched their Interaction (1.0) feature and that night I read about it… followed the links, try to open an account just to realize I already had signed up before (happens all the time), so when I opened the tool I wasn’t very hopeful… just another I had ditched before. But then it happened.
In a mere couple of hours, I had redone everything I had done in a week with Macaw, only better, fully working with no bugs whatsoever, fine-tuned like I never had the chance to fine tune any other web page, full of things moving, hiding, revealing, with a code that I could understand, with a UI that was focussed on CSS, not magic… I knew I wanted to use this and only this, that night, and not go back to work on Drupal or Joomla or Wordpress. Before getting some sleep, I remember writing a love letter to Webflow because really I was stunned. That was a tool built for me, savvy in HTML and CSS but not in code, not so much in DOM, hosting and a lot of things Webflow handles for you.
This was April 2016 and the begining of a new life. I haven’t been participating in a Drupal project where lazy developers use things like SVN Blame to persuade themselves that you’re responsible for their own mistakes. I don’t miss that.
Awesome to hear you’re loving webflow! Ill start by saying that nothing has shifted my agencies workflow like Webflow has.
You can actually read about some success stories here.
There are some lesser known success stories with larger companies making the move to webflow - such as Lattice who use webflow for their design / dev and ongoing work, and we’re seeing more and more big business shift their workflow to webflow. It’s just so much better for ongoing work, with such control and flexability.
Personally, my agency has increased profitability significantly. We no longer require developers for every project, and as we’re a team of mainly designers, the process of building large client sites can be managed completely internally.
Some users could easily be earning upwards of $500 an hour, based purely on how quickly quality work can be turned around now. $5000 website in 10 hours for example.
So glad you’ve stumbled upon webflow mate, wishing you all the best with your 2019 goals. Go smash it.
I will share my story. I was doing a lot of WordPress sites and if I have to be honest I hate WordPress I do mainly design, but I was having some html/css understanding. When I learned about Webflow I was absolutely shocked. Maaaan I can do custom design and code visually? WOW! Moved away from WP and now I do all my client work with Webflow. The clients love the CMS and the way they can edit content. Now I can work on four sites simultaneously because of the time saving and make four times more $.
Thank you so much for the feedback everyone. I am super excited to start with Webflow. I know this is a game changer for myself and my business. Can’t wait to start building!
And that feeling you have that you aren’t going to be limited in what you’re doing with Webflow? Well that’s true. Webflow has some limitatons but it’s very rare not to find a design or custom code way to do what you want. of course, there are some dynamic projects that by essence aren’t good match (yet) for Webflow but that’s just normal.
Dynamic Websites that will have an intense usage of their database, with a lot of items (by the 10s of thousands) and a lot of sorting and filtering. Travel and schedule management etc. More likely custom crafted websites that are real applications. Also websites that need a user system. Webflow is well equiped for way more than just a blog, but can’t handle just any dynamic project. Take careful decisions when your structure is going to use the CMS to the edges of its limits. Try to design for the tool, carefuly deciding what your base CMS item will be.
I’m very persuaded that Webflow isn’t made to be limited. One day soon we’ll craft entire web apps with user systems and as much quesries as we need. Webflow is only 5 years old.
But don’t get distracted by that, my main point was: Webflow will, in the vast majority of the case, take your challenges.
I do mainly design, but I was having some html/css understanding. When I learned about Webflow I was absolutely shocked. Maaaan I can do custom design and code visually? WOW! Moved away from WP and now I do all my client work with Webflow. The clients love the CMS and the way they can edit content. Now I can work on four sites simultaneously because of the time saving and make four times more $.