Pick the terms for a free plan and stick to it!

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Hello,

I have been using Webflow for a number of months now. I have seen the free plan change on almost a weekly basis. It is getting ridiculous to try to plan any type of page design when the css export keeps coming and going and the number of sites keeps changing. I have been on the fence about purchasing a plan but this kind of inconsistency makes me question Webflow’s business practices. What’s to say the paid plan won’t change once I sign up? It doesn’t exactly inspire confidence. I am even in the process of getting a client on board for the largest plan available, the large organization at $280 a month. I am just not even sure if I feel comfortable steering them in that direction if the service is going to be changing like the wind.

When my trial ended, I got an email saying I had 10 exports a month on the free plan. In the account settings, for the free plan, it says no exports. On the webflow main page it says 5 exports with no time increment at all. And in the webflow app, it says I have 4 exports left. WHICH IS IT?

I think a 10 exports a month as described in the email is fair and should be honored if it is any different. Other users don’t you agree?

I am sorry if this makes me come off as an a$$ but all I want is some level of consistency.

Thank you to whoever reads this.

1 Like
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I’m too not very happy with the changes there were made to plans. My friends really like Webflow as a app for their school projects, but it’s getting riddiculously hard to work with it with limits changing and narrowing your possibilities. They are concerned now if Webflow will deny access to some widgets for free plan users…

At the very beginning there was a good thing. Free plan - 1 website, 1 page, unlimited exports, full access to everything. Now it’s getting harder to work with this.

I’m using Personal Plan since August 2013 and I’m happy with this plan. Yet I think that prices are a little big too high. A lot of people earn a lot of money on their projects. For me another $20/month is a big deal. In Poland webdevelopers are not treated well that’s why I look for clients outside of my country. I’ve been working on some sites for a month for less than €180… And that’s a lot for people in Poland. Why? Because they don’t appreciate webdevelopers that much. And also because we’re not a wealthy country.

I think there should be some changes to plans discussed with webflow (top?) users. That way we - as a community - can build this amazing tool with you. When plans are discussed and set there should be no change of them without consultation with us. That’s just my opinion.

You’ve created great tool. You’ve given us something we dreamed off as webdevs. But don’t make it hard to get because - at one point - you can make it hard to appreciate. And if people don’t like something they won’t use it.

Best regards,
Bartosz

2 Likes
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Well said, Bartosz

I can agree that the original free plan was great, but definitely an almost too good to be true scenario. I was not surprised when it changed. I personally think the email we all got at the end of our trials was a fair compromise… You now only have access to 1 site, 2 pages, and 10 exports a month. This is fair and exercises limits to encourage people to upgrade, while allowing designers just getting started an option to get a project under their belt before upgrading.

I am glad someone else shares my frustration and I hope that the team at Webflow will take notice and try to work with us as a community to find a fair compromise for free users.

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I personally feel that the solo plan is a little expensive, compared to the competition. Squarespace charges $8/month for their basic plan and $16/month for the full service plan. Virb charges $10/month for their service without tiers, which I think is a pretty fair price. I preface this statement by saying that, if I can do everything that I want to do in Webflow ( which includes adding javascript to increase usability and functionality) and the company continues to evolve their service at a rapid pace, then it’s probably worth up to $20/month for the one-site service.

I crave a CMS though, which will be difficult, but not impossible, especially if Webflow develop a CMS builder to go along with their site builder, so that when a developer creates custom widgets and interactions that require a customized CMS they can build that CMS for their clients as well.

With all that being said, as I am new to designing and developing sites and my interestes are purely self serving (building my own musical artist website) I cannot comment in good faith on the price and feature set of any of the other plans that Webflow offers.

I am currently using the free plan to build my site, and once I am satisfied with what I have been able to create, I will gladly pay for the solo plan at $16/month, or $14/month billed annually. I would like it better at $10/month or $100/year, but I am realistic as to how much effort and energy goes into building a platform like this.

Honestly, I would love to invest in the platform if I could have a say in how it develops, but I believe that Webflow is flush with investment at the moment. With that being said, I will continue to exert my will and opinions on the forum in hopes of influencing the direction of the platform, albeit in a limited capacity.

All in all, the free plan as it stands now is very fair, in my opinion, and I think that Sergie, Bryant and the their team have been exploring how to encourage upgrades, and ultimately, how to make a profitable and sustainable business, which I am ok with. The terms of the free service certainly do need to be nailed down and the Webflow team need to make an announcement as to their decision process regarding this issue so that everybody exploring the site and it’s usability will have a clear understanding.

As for the state of web design and compensation in other countries, I think what Bartek is doing by looking for work in other countries is probably the right way to go. Since the world is now completely connected a good designer/developer can showcase his/her work for the world to see and contract with the highest bidder(s), especially if quality is the only concern. If the polish economy is under-appreciating the work of it’s talented creators, then those creators have the right to look elsewhere for better compensation, and should do so. A company I work for has recently outsourced their web development to a dev team in Romania, based purely on the quality of their work. That kind of opportunity would not have existed for people in Romania ten years ago, but it does now.

ok, op-ed over, thanks for reading :slight_smile:

RN

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Hey guys, I just wanted to chime in as I’ve been with webflow since the very beginning and I’ve seen a lot of growth and changes as well but I want to keep things moving in a positive direction and see if we, as customers, can help influence webflow in the right direction that meets all our needs…and what i mean by that is also webflow being profitable because it does us no good if this magnificent thing folds and goes away forever.

I recently reviewed the plans and updated myself on the changes and I do agree that there needs to be a few things hashed out.

  1. We need clarity on the Free plan. DFink is correct, the https://webflow.com/pricing currently shows 5 exports allowed (with no further explanation about specifics) and the Design Responsive Websites - Webflow shows no HTML and CSS exporting which could even lead some to believe that maybe the images are allowed? It also says 5 form entries vs 10.

  2. What suggestions do you have about pricing and other alternative options.

I think this is the perfect forum to open up for any suggestions on how webflow can meet your needs as deisgner/developers while also sustaining the needed revenue to operate.

A few ideas I have:

  • A partner/reseller option (which the pro plan kind of does), but rather than transfer clients to a micro plan, I’d like an option of having the clients billed a base rate and then add your own margins so we all can be profitable, this could be a % that both webflow and the reseller shares in, webflow makes more $ based on what the reseller can push.

  • I’d like to see packages that can be added/removed from a plan, i.e. 10 projects w/ unlimited exports = $x per mo., add another 10 for $5 or similar. Maybe make each feature a modular price rather than a chosen fixed mix as it is now

  • I’ve been wanting also to share some kind of affiliate link so I can earn credits, we sort of had this option a while back but now its gone away

  • Like the affiliate links, what about a reward system in the forums or with documentation or blog writings, etc. My VPS host pays $50 per approved tutorial article on how to setup server environments, etc. and many users apply that to their own VPS hosting plans, so a lot of the payouts cashless

  • Ooh, what about contests? webflow could do a monthly design content to pick the next 3 templates they will offer to attract more users?

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These are awesome ideas! I like the reseller option since some of my clients will sign up for their own paid account for me to design in. I think either a % back or credit toward your account would be awesome. I loved that there were referrals early on and I think that should come back in some way in terms of unlocking aspects of a free or personal plan.
I think the export option should be changed to at the very least 1 export a month. That way at least if you rarely update the site, you can still make a quick change without losing free functionality forever once you hit 5 exports.
I hope the Webflow team is listening cuz I think we are into some good ideas for the comminity and for the growth of the platform.

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Yep, I can say right now that 90% of my work comes from SEO firms and every one of them asks for the site to be built on wordpress because they believe google loves wordpress and nothing I say ever seems to change their thinking on that.

So for now I can’t do everything with my clients as I’d like to. I’d really love the idea of moving my clients over like I would do with any other web host as a reseller, I pay a base price for each account or defined space, upsell my clients and split the monthly profits with the provider. I also write custom web apps and wordpress gives me the freedom to do this. If webflow provided the hosting and freedom to use the front-end developer as an API to say maybe a wordpress plugin, I’d be in heaven…and so would they with my clients following suit =)

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