I’m looking at creating a site similar to theknot.com, but I’m not quite sure how the setup works.
Ideally, I will have a site that people can design their own site from one of my templates.
My question is, how does that work? Say my site is sample.com and a user wants to create a site on my page using one of my templates. Their domain would be sample.com/bobby.
How many /bobby can I have in webflow?
And would this be a static, CMS or dynamic page? Static right?
@mycreativepixel I really don’t see Webflow as a fit for your requirements. To pull off what you need would require back end application code which is not supported. Good luck with your venture.
I was afraid of that. Thanks for replying.
Do you want the users to be able to change the design themselves or should they just be able to create their own site (sample.com/unknown) with their own information and images but with the design that you created in the template?
If you dont want them to be able to change the design, here’s a solution for that:
Quick answer:
You connect your Webflow CMS to Google Forms via Zapier
Long Answer:
Now share the form-link on your website so the users can create and edit their own page.
I want my users to be able to:
• Go to my site
• Choose a theme (will have several themes to choose from)
• Edit text & images
• Be able to share by copying the link provided somehow or share on social media platforms
Ideally, I’m looking to have themes on my site that people can purchase access to, upload images/text for a small monthly fee.
Probably a one-pager website to start off with and then it will have multiple theme pages in the future that they can purchase.
If I go in the direction you mentioned above, is there a limit of pages that I can have on my site in webflow? So if I have 1,000 customers with their one-pager within my site, will there be a limit to pages?
Hi Sally,
A lot of things have changed in 4 years, but the core design and capabilities are still similar. As @webdev said, Webflow’s not the best fit for this.
It’s fairly straightforward to add a memberships feature with e.g. Memberstack, even 1000 users.
You’d have to build your page designer from scratch.
You can use the CMS for the “site” delivery, however it is very template driven. That means by design, everyone would get the same layout, and they could potentially change a few images, colors and text in that layout- but not the layout itself. Trying to force the CMS to store and deliver custom page layouts quickly gets very hacky and is generally unfriendly to SEO.
All of your URLs would be in the form https://www.yoursite.com/site/bob-and-mary
Webflow’s center of strength is in page design, but you’re really not making use of those features here since you want to pass that responsibility on to your site building users.
The right approach here is to use Webflow to build your main marketing site, which contains only the information, videos, and pricing for your service. The as a completely separate project, you’d have e.g. https://dashboard.mysite.com which is a separate system built on a different tech stack, designed to build, admin and deliver mini-sites.
Hi Michael,
I’m fairly new to webflow, but what you said about the CMS makes sense to me. I can see how that can cause issues.
I didn’t even know what Memberstack was so I googled it. Thanks for that information as I may be able to use it on other projects.
Is there software or a company out there that offers such a service that doesn’t require coding?
It sounds like you want a SaaS solution, which means “software as a service”.
Someone has probably built a microsites solution of some kind, most probably a specific one like “create your wedding page”, or “share your gift registry”.
You’d have to search, but they’ll be fully pre-built which means you will be limited in how you can customize it.
Other than that at this point, you could learn a platform like Bubble .io which is designed specifically for building apps, but does NOT have Webflows sleek, responsive design superpowers.
Another option might be Webflow + Wized + Xano which is technically mostly nocode, but that’s a huge stack to learn, especially for what you’re trying to build.
Saas is interesting as I’ve never heard of that either.
Bubble.io sounds like it might work so I’ll check it out. Would love to have Webflow as the main site and within it have a SaaS solution or some kind of app to accomplish what I need.
It sounds like you are guiding me in the right direction and I really appreciate it. I’m flying blind here so any guidance helps greatly. Thank you!
This is basically what I’m trying to accomplish…
https://www.theknot.com/gs/wedding-websites
They have websites that you can choose a template, enter your info and photos, purchase a custom domain if you want to, etc.
There is a lot of engineering in what you’re describing.
Much of it is reasonably basic;
The complex parts are;
Depending on how far you go with giving the user the ability to adjust their page creation. That piece is essentially like rebuilding a simplified page builder like Wix, Squarespace, or Shopify. Your other option is to pre-design complete pages, and only allow the user to defined specific pieces of content. Shopify has a “drop a section, add the photos and text” approach like this. Neither way is simple or cheap, they spend quite a bit developing these.
If you wanted to go very simple, you could pre-define the entire page layout and give them zero options except a few color, font, image, and text choices. Then you’d need to build a sidebar content editor and a previewer. That’s pretty limiting, but it’s a far cheaper build. That’s actually possible in Webflow, but with a fair bit of engineering on the template storage and schema definition for your template-specific data.
The domain registration and DNS configuration are a completely separate thing, so custom domains really aren’t an option here without building out your own hosting environment.
I’d look hard at your end goal and work backwards. Chances are you’d be better suited offering “wedding sites” as a designer. They use your site to choose a design, and email you their photos and content, and then you build a standalone Basic Plan site in Webflow.
In that cost you include the domain registration for 1 year, and you set that up. You then give them editor access so they can make content adjustments. That’s it.
You could make the process efficient enough to charge a few hundred per site, and they’d be paying about $25/mo hosting.
You nailed it! Thanks for the advice and help on this. I may have to start off simple and build/invest from there on the engineering side of things.
I was hoping that there was a company that has something along these lines prebuilt that I could embed into my site.
That’s exactly what you need to research.
You might start by googling things like “site builder saas”, “wedding site builder saas”.
But I’d also post in reddit forums devoted to saas solution builders.
Thank you so much for the help.
Before I go down the rabbit hole, would something like this work for what I’m trying to do?
It takes quite a bit of research and testing to match up platforms to project requirements.
If you need some help investigating a specific platform, I do that type of work.
I’ll message you with my info if you should need it.
I explored this idea myself when I first started with Webflow and quickly realized there were some significant limitations for building a multi-tenant platform directly within it. After spending countless hours researching alternatives-including Brizy-I ultimately chose WordPress Multisite for its flexibility and open-source nature. As a developer, I appreciated having full control over custom features, billing integrations, and hosting infrastructure.
That said, the landscape is evolving rapidly, especially with the rise of AI-powered website builders. It’s important to consider what unique value you can offer that sets you apart from the growing number of automated solutions. Think about how you’ll reach your audience and what resources you’ll need to stand out.
If you decide to move forward and would like to discuss the possibilities or need guidance from someone who’s navigated these waters, feel free to DM me. I’m always open to connecting and sharing insights!
Gotcha. I’m not a developer by any means so this is all new language for me. Thank you Jeff. I may be reaching out directly.