Webflow has secured $76m in funding, are we going to see any improvements in your dev team?

[liamemery (Liam E)]

@Noah-R

I think if anything it comes from a deep appreciation or optimistic foresight of how Webflow could continue and grow to be even greater with each passing year. Ironically I think that’s where the frustration comes into play. “Ugh, they gave us e-commerce, but why no user login for customers?”

Nailed it. This is exactly where it is coming from.

[liamemery (Liam E)]

@helenswork

Wow. Who ARE you? There’s around 150 human beings, male, female and non-binary defined humans working on a product, not “guys”.

Grow up.

@helenswork

You think they were sitting around scratching their asses until you came along to order them otherwise? Just because they’re not working on what you want?? I’ll make my own, possibly incorrect assumption you’re a spoilt only child who’s used to stamping his feet to get his own way.

This is not what I want, this is what thousands of PAYING CUSTOMERS want. If you’re unfamiliar with how their wishlist works, I’ll give you a quick rundown.

1. people request features
2. other people vote for these features
3. webflow decides whether or not to implement them

The items I have referenced in my OP all have hundreds/thousands of votes.

[liamemery (Liam E)]

@Fonsume

Every reasonable person knows he and the others are talking to Webflow, the company who we are paying for their services, and the direction it’s going in, not the individual programmers. The people at the top are making the decisions.

Come on. His tone could be better, but this parenting behaviour is kinda lame. His points are valid.

Exactly. Obviously not attacking any individuals. Simply making a blanket statement that the company moves slow (or fails to provide updates to their paying customers on new features).

[rps (Paul)]

I’d like to throw in… more support staff? I have a support thread open, and there hasn’t been a reply in over 2 weeks now… AND it was started 2 months ago. Still need concrete answers to two specific questions (one even with code examples with numbers clearly shown), not fluffy generalities about how things may or may not work.

I’m desperate now, and their Twitter doesn’t even acknowledge my problem after two tweets. These are critical issues that are preventing me from sending my portfolio site out for work… so that I can actually pay my bills! I was ready to go except for these 2 seemingly bugs to be fixed before the virus outbreak, and now what do I do?

Also, I agree with some of the above - the DAY TO DAY basics need to be improved. It often is the so called “small” stuff; the asset manager is worse then basic FTP access to a directory. I get the sense they do no user observation at all, and no user testing. Clearly, from this thread there’d be no shortage of volunteers.

IX 2.0 is done. Marketing is done (overdone? I’d say it oversells the product, which is likely bad). Get more developers and get more support staff who can user test. Webflow wants to tell its investors they have more income and growth? Then, you want me to tell my clients this is the best platform out there - for them and for me!

I’m not going to do that if I want to ram my fist through the screen when I have to manually one by one replace assets I can’t even find, or if existing features don’t work, or something else performs flawlessly in one browser, but crap in my clients browser. I want Webflow to succeed… otherwise, I can’t. Or, as human’s do, I’ll have to find another way.

[jasondark]

@rps

Marketing is done (overdone? I’d say it oversells the product, which is likely bad).

I hate to be that guy continuing to pile onto this, but I have to agree here. Webflow’s marketing team is amazing. Seriously, the content they produce is incredible. They should win awards.

But the content of the videos I’ve seen is a bit misleading. They sell a vision of a product that simply isn’t true. And the videos are so well produced that they get newcomers hook, line and sinker.

I’ve noticed this from a lot of recent new business inquiries. People are totally sold on Webflow, then I have to let them down by explaining that Webflow doesn’t actually support what they want to do… and that the only way to make it happen is by writing a huge amount of custom code. I find myself repeating the same spiel about what Webflow and can’t do out of the box.

[NEAL]

@witooZ

There are threads about problems with breakpoints from 2015. It’s absolutely cruicial to have a website display properly on any device. This is a non negotiable for any buyer.

Meanwhile we got Animations 2.0, Lottie integration and other flashy features. Why do we have three different ways to do animations, but no way to display our site properly on tablets?

This is not a problem of not working fast enough, this is about having the wrong priorities.

Totally totally totally agree with this. I was about to create a thread pointing out that mobile landscape styles are displaying on my iPad instead of tablet styles, with screenshots and the whole 9 yards, but I had no idea that was a common issue that had been going on for years. I assume I would not have gotten much feedback on that. Webflow DOES seem to have their priorities out of whack - animations are a total luxury, useless features if the software doesn’t sit on a solid foundation.

@jasondark

However, let’s not get ahead of ourselves. Webflow can’t even fix what they already have . The designer is frequently so slow and laggy that it’s unusable.

I am also experiencing an unstable designer, and just strange bug-like activity when designing. Inconsistent “undo” feature, I never know if my next change will be able to be undone or not. Elements inheriting “invisible” styles that have already been changed or updated, and have to recreate classes. Freezing, etc. Preview mode functions as designed, but real-life publishing is way off in certain instances. Generally speaking, I just don’t feel secure when I’m in the designer.

@jasondark

I hate to be that guy continuing to pile onto this, but I have to agree here. Webflow’s marketing team is amazing . Seriously, the content they produce is incredible. They should win awards.

But the content of the videos I’ve seen is a bit misleading. They sell a vision of a product that simply isn’t true. And the videos are so well produced that they get newcomers hook, line and sinker.

I’ve noticed this from a lot of recent new business inquiries. People are totally sold on Webflow, then I have to let them down by explaining that Webflow doesn’t actually support what they want to do… and that the only way to make it happen is by writing a huge amount of custom code.

Another interesting point. I came to webflow as a designer - I have no previous coding or development experience. I’ve designed maybe 7-8 websites here. The marketing brought me here - it was speaking right to me as a designer. I did notice the functional limitations immediately, and had to assess which type of projects I would be able to take with this tool. The thing that keeps me here is that the design capabilities are great. That can only go so far, especially when the things mentioned previously are not 100%. All marketing is misleading to some extent, but there seems to be a lack of vision for what this thing is and who it’s for. My other feeling is that it’s pretty expensive for the lack of functionality, stability and support. Like someone else said previously, webflow is more like an investment right now than a tool. Because of the potential, I’m investing in a few projects- for now. I just hope to see more clarity of priorities.

[Koen]

Dear Webflow, tell us what you do!! its impossible that your only working on 2 products…
That can not be the case…

[Fonsume]

@jasondark

and that the only way to make it happen is by writing a huge amount of custom code

Hell, I don’t even mind having to write a bunch of code. Webflow has been amazing for me since I’m not that great of a designer. It’s when I meet a stone wall of Webflow’s own making it gets frustrating.

[Fonsume]

Dude, take this in another thread. This thread is not for laying out specific needs or feature requests. Object-fit is already implemented too.

[Siton_Systems (Ezra Siton)]

@Fonsume

This thread is not for laying out specific needs or feature requests

Object fit is an example (I know object-fit is available since 2019) and this is not feature req.

I only saying - The problem her related to mega features (Like Multilingual site) & micro-features (Like object-fit). What is more important? There really is no answer (depending on need).

[Pasint]

One thing we can all tell from this thread is that everyone loves Webflow. There’s so much passion being expressed here it’s amazing

But I have to join the crow expressing the frustration of hitting some product limits way too fast.

Personally I can not really disagree with anyone here, most of the points expressed are somehow valid (I didn’t everything so can’t say “all”) :

• There is a lot of dev work and releases being done on Webflow and we love them
• However some essential features updates are not being addressed (Designer reliability, or even mobile breakpoints for example)
• Small features that are basic with other CMS can’t be done without custom code or done at all (CMS live filter for example)
• The frequency of major releases is too slow (3 years since the last one if I’m not mistaken)

Finally, the lack of transparency regarding the Dev pipeline is adding A LOT to that frustration. Only 2 elements from the Wishlist being marked as “in dev” is a joke…
It’s great to have regular updates from Vlad and @PixelGeek is doing a decent job communicating but the reality is we don’t know what’s happening when and can’t tell our customers about it, which has a business impact as well. @vincent did a nice timeline showing the passed releases but Webflow should really put one together showing what’s to come and when.

[Noah-R (Noah Raskin)]

I get it… I do, but please remember it takes a LOT of research & development to push new features! More than you actually may think. The platform is so massive with a ton of complications that so many areas need to be extremely well thought out for new features and updates to be reliable and function properly when it gets to your hands. 3 years does seem long but again the company is so young.

Not only are they constantly developing new features but they have to maintain ones that already exist! Also, the funding just happened some months ago. So, things just take some time. Plus, imagine the hiring process after you just raised that new funding. That’s a whole process itself, finding new great developers. Onboarding them and all that goes with it. All these mini steps take weeks, months, years. A lot of great things are coming so be a little more patient & also try to understand the complexity from a realistic pov

[vincent (Vincent Bidaux)]

@liamemery

How much better is just that 1 simple thing? Taking 2 seconds to update the community, instead of leaving things backlogged for years with no update.

This is delusional, this doesn’t take 2 minutes at all. A decision needs to be taken to say things like “Unfortunately we are working on some other features at the moment, and this request will be backlogged for at least 18-24 months” and keeping that promise is hardly doable. What are the users going to say after a promise isn’t kept? What tone are you going to employ then if you’re already communicating like this? Developing features and especially those who overlap everything, like localization, is hard, planning is hard. But it’s easy to understand that it’s hard.

Again, show us a comparable company that is disclosing their roadmap with dates, and keep them.

The whishlist is a great tool to retrieve infos from users, it’s not a vote-for-the-next-feature thing, it’s never been. I am the first one to regularly ask about those essential requests, and to document as much as I can the ideas in the wishlists or the posts in the forum. I’m okay with that. But being so adamant that you deserve it, that you’re entitled to it, and using that tone… That’s why I react like this. I can’t let that pass sorry.

[NewInBoston]

While I don’t agree with the OP’s writing style, the bewilderment conveyed of seeing cumulative years of delay pile up on popular wishlist items is understandable

If the wishlist is just a placebo for Webflow dev progress then that’s new to me. If that is the case then I can see it causing some confusion and I’d wager this thread may not exist if not for the wishlist giving the impression of progress milestones / production queue.

Though, now that we know the wishlist is useless, and a roadmap might mean broken promises, then perhaps a monthly dev updates where Webflow keeps it real with pro users by keeping it tentative might help?

[Pablo_Cortes]

I don’t understand why the OP is asking for improvements on Webflow’s development team based on the wishlist. The wishlist is not a coming soon feature, plus there are current workarounds for a lot of the items on that list. Not everything has to be webflow native, and if it does, maybe webflow is not for you.

[Fonsume]

@vincent

The whishlist is a great tool to retrieve infos from users, it’s not a vote-for-the-next-feature thing, it’s never been.

Sure, and I don’t think anyone actually thinks there’s an automatic threshold where a feature will be made. But paying customers are being directed to the wishlist to make people vote for requested features. That’s literally what Webflow uses the wishlist for. And it’s really, really weird to have a wishlist with voting if they’re not going to actually fulfill the most sought after wishes, or if they aren’t even going to update features they’re actually working on there when it’s made for them to do just that.

It’s not surprising that people are finally taking issue with this when comparatively non-important features are being rolled out before 3+ year old requests from literally thousands of users are ignored or put in the backlog. There are so many examples of this now, and people are questioning it.

So can you please stop this “users don’t deserve anything” and “other’s don’t do it, so Webflow doesn’t have to either” spiel? If you don’t have an issue with it, cool, but I think Webflow is perfectly capable of answering things themselves. We want Webflow to communicate more, and this is obviously an issue people have with Webflow.

[Fonsume]

@Pablo_Cortes

I don’t understand why the OP is asking for improvements on Webflow’s development team based on the wishlist. The wishlist is not a coming soon feature, plus there are current workarounds for a lot of the items on that list. Not everything has to be webflow native, and if it does, maybe webflow is not for you.

Alright, but maybe Webflow should come out of hiding and actually state the meaning of the wishlist then. Or at least say anything. People are obviously taking an issue with the slow updates on feature requests?

[vincent (Vincent Bidaux)]

@Fonsume

So can you please stop this “users don’t deserve anything” and “other’s don’t do it, so Webflow doesn’t have to either” spiel?

No, never. It’s not a game, they are arguments, and I never say anyone deserves nothing. The others don’t do it part should make you realize that there’s a reason for it.

[Pablo_Cortes]

Hello @uzzer.

@uzzer

If that is the case, why are Webflow spending time and cash on organizing “No code” conferences and speaking about “No code movement”?

Because for a big number of people, I will say most of its users, it is a NO code tool.

@uzzer

And then who is Webflow for? Programmers? They laugh at Webflow and feel only constrained and slowed down by it.

If people laugh at webflow then don’t use it. There are countless examples of people using Webflow perfectly well with all its capabilities and all of its limitations. Webflow is not for everybody.

[Pablo_Cortes]

Hello @Fonsume,

@Fonsume

Alright, but maybe Webflow should come out of hiding and actually state the meaning of the wishlist then. Or at least say anything . People are obviously taking an issue with the slow updates on feature requests?

I see your frustration but think about this, if webflow states the time line for a wishlist entry to be developed, then it becomes a feature request . They don’t want to have a feature request. The wishlists allows other people to come up with alternative solutions, look at Weglot or MemberStack.