I am almost done with the otherwise great Webflow University 21 day portfolio course and I was recently hit with two issues.
*Important to note: I was following the course and building the practice site as instructed, I was also creating a second practice site where I would try to recreate everything from memory to increase absorption. Both sites were only ever practice sites, no part of which would have ever been published.
I am taking this course to learn to use Webflow so that I can go on to purchase a Pro account, build my actual UX portfolio, buy a site plan, and publish that.
First: in the 14th video (Custom 404 page) we are instructed to use the “embed” element, however that element seems to be premium content that can only be unlocked via a site plan. I was able to bypass this when I discovered the beta tool “Background Filters”, but only after I had purchased a site plan for one of my practice sites from the prompt. Maybe it was paywalled after the beta release and not updated in the lesson?
Second: in the 15th video (3D parallax password page) we are instructed to to create a 6th page, which seems to be impossible without, you guessed it, a paid site plan.
What I cannot understand is, why would I pay for a site plan (that cannot be used for any other sites I might create (I know, I purchased it and it would not apply the changes to the other test site I was experimenting with) for a practice site that I am building as instructed by following along with the videos, with no intent or reason to ever publish? It defies all logic and reason.
I’m hoping that this is all just oversight due to recent updates, because if this is intentional then it is a prime example of deceptive and manipulative dark patterns, and I really hoped for better…
-Befuddled and frustrated