Updates to our pricing and plans

Why does Vlad not response? Show yourself!

Because they have $100m of annual revenues and there are only 41 posts in this thread, including the OP.

The knew we’d be angry. We’re not their target audience. Their investors are.

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The grace period is really nice… but just delays the inevitable uncomfortable conversation. Think about it like this. Many of your customers worked hard to sell your platform to current Wordpress users… at a price increase.

Recently we had to turn around and tell them that we needed to change their billing methods… then just few months later… FYI 44% increase in pricing incoming… makes us look really bad.

Agreed, this is a terrible look for us.

This is also why people have been yelling and screaming that basing your whole business model off of a single platform is a terrible idea (Webflow, Wordpress, Facebook, etc.). You are at the mercy of their changes, quality of their product, and their customer service.

I think we all felt that this was going to be different, but we were wrong. That’s why having a developer or team of developers working with you to build custom sites will always be a better business solution than relying on platforms like Webflow, Squarespace, etc.

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Pretty much… it cost more up front to have a good front end developer on the job. But most clients will pay more up front for something that won’t slowly bleed them by shifting their business practices and their prices every year. WF needs to lock in hosting and CMS plans at the price of entry for 2-3 years. Charge whatever you want for new sites, but let clients that have plans in place have a 2-3 years of stability before you make us change things around on them… again. Is the situation at WF so desperate that you have to make your own users look like assholes?

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Yes, that’s it.

Freelancer & Agency are for service providers building clients sites whether transferring the sites to the client or passing on the site hosting fees.

Core and Growth are for in-house teams building internal or marketing sites for their company.

Of course, not everyone fits cleanly into those personas, but you’ll likely resonate stronger with one than the other. Doesn’t that clarify it for you?

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We recognize those conversations will need to happen and that’s why the grace periods are designed to ease the transition and each situation is unique. If you’re a freelancer or agency already working with clients who aren’t covered by these grace periods, please reach out to our team and we’d be happy to help.

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Thank you for this feedback. Pricing and packaging changes are critical to Webflow as our product and business evolves. That said, we understand these changes can be challenging for our users. Our goal is to minimize the frequency of these changes and to provide users with sufficient heads up to plan for these types of changes.

The pricing increase was based on years of building the on our product as well as investments to come. These new prices include a range of new features covered in our blog.

So here is a scenario.

I have a new client with a website build in process on my account. They have a signed contract with me for a 6-page Webflow CMS website that will have a monthly cost of 20/mo when the site is published.

Now, upon completion next month I am going to turn around and tell them that sorry your cost is not $20/mo its $29/mo to publish your website.

Or

I can purchase the plan for them on my account at legacy prices for a year but must use a third-party billing system (e.g. Bonsai) which will still result in increased cost (I have transferred all my clients to their own accounts due to the end of client billing so I wouldn’t have to pass on the fees using Bonsai or other provider. This would also force me to use Bonsai for a single client for legacy pricing)

Imagine being in this customers shoes - how would you feel getting told that at the end of the project. I would feel totally scammed.

While the grace periods are welcome for customers with existing plans (including my own) this really puts designers of all levels in a really bad situation. We gave clients one price but because you decided NOT to provide any warning, they get another price just weeks or months later.

Raising prices with zero warning shortly after removing client billing is just insult to injury.

The Webflow Brand is being shaped by these decisions and it’s not a good look. I can’t believe how badly I feel about Webflow today.

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Hey Todd,

I hear where you’re coming from – and while we wanted to be as mindful as possible with our existing customers we recognize how many of you are actively working with new clients. Because of this, our support team is on standby ready to help anyone who is actively working with a client who is not covered by these grace periods.

Please reach out to our team here and we’ll be happy to work with you to make sure your active agreements are not impacted.

Man, from $20 to $29 monthly on the CMS? That’s an embarrassment, I’m sure even the Webflow team sleeps worse at night because of this. Really makes me feel screwed over. Webflow: “In the end it’s all about our own profit and our clients who support us - we bleed them dry as long as we can”.

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I’m disappointed with this. I’m a freelancer and live in Italy, so we have the Euro that, at this historical moment, is very weak as someone already noticed in this forum.
In addition to that, I work with small and medium businesses, and I have already had to convince them to the Webflow site subscription which for them is extremely expensive. Then put in here the inflation, the really bad economic situation, bills, etc… Now with this further price increase, the solution is only one: I change the platform, or I will lose clients. And I’m sad because I like Webflow, and for me, the price could be ok, but clients don’t matter how I build the site, they just want the area at the best price.

Oh, and don’t answer me with “grace period”, because it works only for a year, and is not argumentation.

I’m going to learn PHP.
Sadly, goodbye.

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I’ve always loved Webflow. It offers a lean building experience, complete control and is beautifully designed — it far surpasses anything else on the market in my opinion. I’m happy to pay more as a freelancer, but its unfathomable to me to have to increase the pricing for my clients by over 40%. The majority of the benefits of Webflow exist for the builder. How am I supposed to justify this sort of pricing for clients in comparison to Wordpress if (from their perspective) they are getting the same service (hosting) year-round after the site launches.

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Why not increase the Workspace plans instead of Site plans? Because, remember, the problem is for our clients, not for us.

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It was already a hard sell to convince small businesses and artists to move from WP to Webflow considering the significant price increase between the two but this 40% price hike doesn’t make Webflow attractive anymore.

I’ll look like a fool explaining this situation to my clients and I’ll completely understand if they’ll want to move back or choose a different option.

You’re literally alienating all of the small players. Well I’ll be off to search for an alternative or switch back to Wordpress. This cost doesn’t feel justified for your product anymore.

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I have to say the free guest access in the client workspaces is theoretically a great idea ( unless we end up paying way more for it… which I’m beginning to suspect will be the case)

But i genuinely would love to know what you guys have been smoking to think that your CMS plan was underpriced. It was already almost prohibitively expensive.

I for one, will be looking for alternatives.

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Webflow has never ever been underpriced. Even if some features are cool, you just have to see what concurrence do to realize how expensive Webflow is…

Now with a +44% price hike and with dollar/euro parity I just don’t see how Webflow could be profitable to any european compagny.

I used to love webflow, the software, its community and accept to pay it far more than alternatives has to offer because i understand that you have to pay for a quality product. But honestly I can’t decently put my busness in danger so for me webflow is over

Good luck guys…

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2021/22 - Client pays directly on Client Billing - exchange rate at the time translates to approx €178p/a

2022 - After losing Client Billing we have to introduce a 10% fee to cover admin time, exchange rate variations + STRIPE fees - €195 p/a (Note* We’re an Irish company, so we have to bill in Euros and charge VAT. This figure is ex.VAT)

2022 - Euro loses value against Dollar + (add the 10% Admin/STRIPE fee) - €218 p/a

2023 - new proposed fees ($276p/a) = €285 + 10% = €314 p/a

That’s a 76% increase in costs for our clients over the space of two years. Oh, but if your client can’t afford these price increases, then they shouldn’t be in business… :roll_eyes:

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I have a client whom I’ve just billed via STRIPE for their upcoming CMS renewal next month. Last week their renewal was $192 p/a and now it reads $276 p/a. Can someone please explain this to me? Where is the yearly grace period and why does it read this new price already?

That exact same thing happened to me about a 1h ago. I decided to upgrade to the “Freelancer” yearly plan and I was supposed to pay $192+taxes ($16/m) but instead, I got billed $255. I’ve opened a ticket and now I’m waiting for a response.

Maybe it’s a mistake from their end, but advertising $16/m and being charged $24/m it’s such a false advertisement.

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Something has clearly gone wrong as these grace periods lasted the weekend and all prices have gone up??

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