What Webflow Users Think About Getting Not Multilingual Support

Community resources General
1

Hey everyone, since Webflow announced on Wishlist, that they won’t support Multilingual option as native feature in soon, i decided to move an another SaaS web design tool. I live in Germany and when you can not offer a multilingual site to client or company/team that you work in, that means you have a big trouble to deal with.

Imagine you are in a meeting you are about to sign up a contract to a new project, they love your amazing design style that you created with webflow, and they are really want to make a contract with you. Then client says that they need English, Turkish, and 3 more of european languages. You say, “Oh yes, i can provide that feature, but we are using a 3rd party software for that, and you have to pay XX US Dollars every month.”

Currently i am a master student and I had a job interview in Duesseldorf lately. A company which earns their money with gastronomy, hotel and more. I made a presentation about why i am using Webflow for my webdesign projects and at the beginning they loved my style. They have about 15 restaurants in a city with full of tourists, also a hotel and companies like a real state agency for providing shops to other companies and more. That means, multilingual website is a must for them for every project. Anyway, then an assistant of b level manager asked me how will i handle with so many sites with language variations. I knew that question will come and hit me and i explained them to duplicating pages or using weglot. Assistent asked me to open Weglot’s pricing plans. Like i said i was making a presentation and i opened Weglot’s pricing plans on a big screen. Then he started to lead me to calculate Weglot’s bill to them, it was fun for first 3 sites. Then monthly billing was getting pricey and even more pricey. Some of the sites needed 7 languages. Imagine the final cost please for a onyl month please. So we discussed about duplicating pages, but that solution also has a problem called: “extra hours for a same website project”. Because your job is not only creating website, but also making corparate design, too. At the end, i am waiting a call for 3 months :slight_smile: i guess that means i couldn’t get the job right? Of course i dont blame Webflow for that. Only mistake i have, i can not offer to clients and companies multilingual solituons.

As a design student that must to work in a company soon, i think, having a multilingual feature as a designer shouldn’t be so expensive with Webflow. Because i dont know how to write code and webflow makes us that amazing designs possible for us. But why not “nativa multilingual features”?

I am sorry but i can’t offer one more time to a company or agency that “hey we should use 3rd party program that cost even more than weblfow!” I am sure there are a lot of people having same problem with me.

Weglot is only for “boutique” users.

So, any idea guys? What should a designer do, without code knowledge, create to make multilingual sites and offer to clients “cheaper” options?

I am asking very kindly to any Webflow team member; How should we manage this problem? I am still young, i cant stop thinking about this. What should my next step? You have the best design solution for people like dont know code. So you are marketing also that way, right? What is your suggestions except Weglot and duplicating pages?

5 Likes
2

Multilingual functions are very sophisticated.

I don’t think it will be available on Webflow any time soon. I even think Webflow should not put time on this now as there are a bunch of professional solutions out there.

FYI, even on WordPress, you will have to use a premium plugin if you demand slightly more than the very basics.

I think it is very okay to pay a reasonable price for a solution as it is never easy for amazing companies to make it happen and keep their business grow.

3

Do you realize how huge the impact would be with so many new customers using this feature?

5 Likes
4

You know that your argument sound like this, right;

“I dont think an iphone will be available with calling feature any time soon. I even think Apple should not put time on this as there are bunch of beatiful Samsungs or Huaweis…”

Prices on Webflow are already “reasonable”. Even for “big companies”. I am sorry but you dont have to pay nearly 3.000 US Dollars to only Weglot solution every month because you have 15 restaurants and websites with 7 languages. And they dont need even automatic translate. I mean, they have already the content. Why should pay they $199 x 15/month? Could you please explain it to me? Dont they think about paying to a Webflow designer nearly 3k Euros, and extra Webflow bills and extra Weglot bills? Do you really think that is a real solution? If it is, please explain it to me, and i will use your advices in my next job interview. If i can have another one in Eu with webflow ofc.

Do you know we are on a pandemic situation right now in Germany and all restaurants are closed except delivery system? Do you really think all of the gastronomy companies paying multilingual sites with big smiles on their faces? Hahah.

Please stop making fun of it. The style of your explanation is funny.

Webflow making a marketing strategy built on “no code” motto.

And you are telling there are “bunch of professional solutions” oh thanks for that. Lets use them for the no code life with more and more payments.

1 Like
5

um… I said that because Webflow has a big list of features and limitations waiting for them to put on top of their dev list as there are no low-code or 3rd parties could solve.

For smaller Webflow websites, symbols, duplicate pages and CMS will help you to build a very nice and easy-to-manage multilingual website.

If that’s not enough, here is a much cheaper alt of Weglot. Not the best, but still do that job well.
Pricing - Website Translation - Bablic

Hope it helps.

6

Take a look at sitejet.io as an alternative. The are hosted in Germany and support multi-language sites. Pricing is reasonable with lots of features.

7

Thank you for your advice @webdev . I will take a look. Would you like to answer one more question, if it’s not too much?

There is a software called “Bondlayer”, it seems good but the company like a ghost. I am not sure if it is safe to go with it or not. Any idea?

1 Like
9

For me, it sounds more like: “Let’s not add a headphone jack on the iPhone, if the user wants to listen to music, they can just rent a headphone adapter for $50 / month”.

I do agree that a miltilingual feature would be incredibly important. As you said, it feels wrong to have to tell clients that they have to pay extra for something Wordpress offers for free. Especially when Weglot (which Webflow keeps promoting for some reason) has such high prices.

I think some of us coding nerds should come together and build a cheaper solution and only charge for the server fees or something similar. This would require so much time put into it though, so I’m not sure if it’s viable.

4 Likes
10

@Naheed , Honestly i found your answer a little bit weird. I am sure you did not read even a sentence of my message.

Please stop answering topics according only the titles… It’s a bad way for experiencing anykind of a forum.

You can try weglot and pay more than webflow. My ex potencial Company did not want it. Please stop advertising Weglot. Its getting weird and weird.

11

@ozgurbakrac - Not familiar with the company. I can only look at the website About (bondlayer.com). As always due diligence when picking partners / tools is a required step.

There are plenty of great CMS’s that support multi-language requirements as well as Jamstack solutions that do it as well. It’s really not that hard to design on one system and then extract the code and move it to another. Webflow animations are a bit of a pain however. This should move to a new topic if it needs expanding.

1 Like
12

Three languages are spoken in Switzerland. Without multilingualism, selling Webflow is bumpy.
It is a pity that Webflow has been announcing support for a long time, but does not implement it.
So promises to the customer that in the future you can extend a Webflow page for languages come to nothing.

1 Like
13

To be honest, I’ve stopped complaining about this but I fully agree. We simply cannot excuse Webflow keeping to ignore one of the oldest and top voted user requests.

There is no excuse for this as there is no reason why they chose to work on other things that entered the roadmap (way) later like e-commerce, other than they think it will make them more money.

When they updated the wishlist item to say it is not a priority — after they previously have said it is in development (or in planning, whatever), is nothing else than a slap in the face of its international customers.

I am now also using other platforms for building websites, as I feel I can no longer rely on Webflow as a partner to build on.

2 Likes
14

I would second having a look at BondLayer. It looks super promising. Certainly less polished and glitzy than Webflow at this point but that’s just on the surface and it will probably evolve anyway. They’re a young, tiny company but they seem to have the talent and foresight. The features and philosophy of the app are surprisingly good. They’re the only thing I’ve found that could be a real competitor to Webflow, something we desperately need.

16

It seems ridiculous to me that it is 2023 and there is no in-house solution for multi-languages.

Probably it’s because they want to make money with the Plugin they propose (Weglot), I am very sure this can’t be a technological challenge (I’m Software Eng.) unless the code/infrastructure they have is a disaster. It would be to support translates to the Widgets/Text Components and the CMS, it can’t be complex. In addition, adding Custom Code is super limited in WebFlow.

WebFlow is fine for a static landing page of a Startup, but it doesn’t scale well at all, and it’s expensive.

1 Like
17

2024 Update!

WebFlow decide to add in-house multi-language support! But as we predicted, is pay! Is there an explanation for it? I don’t think so, it shouldn’t be an extra cost for them to support multilanguage statically, they simply want to charge for this service.

Thanks for nothing!