Which is the right Content Management System (CMS)? In this article, we will tell you why we do not work with Wordpress but with Webflow.
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Anyone who has ever dealt with us knows that we do not work with Wordpress. For upcoming web design projects, we are happy to present our preferred system Webflow.
More about Webflow on the company's website.
As a rule, the project managers of our customers are not familiar with this system. "Web who?" As usual with unfamiliar solutions, such novelty raises certain question marks.
In this article we will address these questions and make it clear, why we prefer Webflow over Wordpress. And if you have any further questions, please feel free to contact us at any time.
To understand what makes Webflow so effective, it helps to look at the problems of Wordpress.
Wordpress is one of the leading web design systems today. It originated in the blogger scene. It was a construction kit for people without programming knowledge who wanted to build their own blog site. Blogs are essentially diary-like pages published on the Internet on which a person (or several authors together) regularly publish articles on certain topics. For that, Wordpress worked well. So well that Wordpress was able to build up a large community that constantly programmed new features for it. This in turn has led to Wordpress being used today for programming entire websites that go far beyond the blog function.
In this history lies a main problem of Wordpress. The system was not originally built to program entire websites. Many functions of modern web design can only be realized on Wordpress by using external plug-ins. These plug-ins are small software programs that are built by third parties and then integrated into Wordpress. Wordpress websites are very much based on such external scripts and therefore heavily depend on them. As a result, the architecture of these websites is often very heavy and complicated, because for any functions or integration with surrounding systems an additional plug-in is needed. This has essentially three consequences:
This multitude of plug-ins must be additionally loaded and processed when the website is called up. This has a negative effect on the loading speed of the website. This in turn is something that neither users nor Google like. And even worse: The search engine penalizes websites that have poor loading performance due to external scripts. Wordpress therefore has a clear problem and a disadvantage in the area of SEO.
But the external plug-ins also create a security problem. The numerous interfaces open gaps in protection against hacker attacks. It is also often unclear to what extent the plug-in-developers* remain on top of their own security tasks. Unsurprisingly, Wordpress is therefore a frequent target for hackers.
With every Wordpress update, the plug-in-programmers* are required to take action as well. They may need to make adjustments to their software so that it continues to work with the latest Wordpress version. As the owner* of a Wordpress website, you can only hope that every time you update, all integrated plug-ins will be updated accordingly. There is no guarantee that all of them will do so or that all of their features will continue to work seamlessly.
We took a decision in 2018: We no longer take care of websites that are programmed on Wordpress. We have made bad experiences with this. Not because we can't handle Wordpress websites. But regularly the architecture of these websites is so complicated that we waste a lot of resources on the simplest tasks. It is our experience that reprogramming a Wordpress website is often cheaper than updating an existing, complicated structure.
As mentioned at the beginning, we prefer Webflow for the technical development and content management of websites. Basically this can be explained by the following four reasons:
Webflow is not a template-based modular system. All Wordpress websites are based on (customizable) templates. Sure, you can of course have your own template programmed in Wordpress - but this is often financially uninteresting and does not bring any flexibility for future adjustments to the design. The template-based design of Wordpress is one of the reasons why many online presences look the same today. With Webflow we can simply start on white paper and build a website that fits the identity and needs of a company. Companies no longer have to hide behind standardized templates. In this way, firms have the opportunity to make more out of their webseites and generate more closeness to their target groups.
With Webflow all functionalities can be implemented without plug-ins. The system offers all the possibilities of modern web design and it is constantly being further developed by the company Webflow. This leads to a clear (code) structure, which in turn simplifies the programming and further development of the website. Incidentally, this is positively evaluated by Google (SEO) - the search engine loves simple and clearly structured code!
The security and speed problems associated with Wordpress (see above) are eliminated with Webflow. The loading speed of the website is additionally increased by the fast hosting of Webflow. Webflow pages are hosted on the servers of Amazon Web Services (AWS; Amazon Cloud Front), in combination with Fastly, the world's leading CDN (=content delivery network), on which companies such as Airbnb, Pinterest and Twitter rely. This guarantees extremely high reliability and the best possible standard of performance (speed).
Further information about hosting Webflow can be found here: https://webflow.com/hosting.
The Webflow Content Management System (CMS) is intuitive and simple. Administration of corporate website becomes super easy. It is not only us, who think that. Especially our customers and the participants in demos believe so too.
For more details on the benefits of Webflow and our web design and development services, click here.
You want to test the Webflow CMS as well? Then simply get in touch with us using this form!
The owners* of webflow pages can edit the content on the website themselves easily and freely. No matter if static pages or dynamic pages, the content will be administered by you. It does not matter whether it is texts, pictures, videos or documents. We as an agency are only needed for alterations to the structure or design of the website. As a consequence, the maintenance becomes cheaper and what is even more important: The website remains a dynamic tool in daily use and effectively functions as a digital marketing channel.
The "Ease of Use" of Webflow's CMS is probably the biggest, noticeable advantage for our customers* compared to Wordpress and other systems.
Further information, including an illustrative video, is available here: https://webflow.com/editor.
Once we have presented the advantages mentioned above, the following dialogue typically arises:
You have to know: The fact that Webflow in this country has not yet reached the popularity of Wordpress does not mean that we are dealing with a small startup company. A few facts about Webflow:
Further information on Webflow is available directly from the company.
For those who are still afraid of betting on the wrong horse: Webflow is the safest choice. This is for the simple reason that moving from Webflow to Wordpress (or any other tool) is always possible at the push of a button. Webflow offers a function to export the entire website code. It is therefore possible to export the code at any time and to insert it into another system. This also means that Wordpress templates are increasingly created in Webflow and then exported to Wordpress.
So should you at any point in time no longer be satisfied with Webflow, the move to another CMS is relatively easily. The other way round is unfortunately not possible due to the lack of export possibilities with Wordpress and Co. So you don't lose anything if you rely on Webflow.
But we don't think you'll ever need this feature. You'll be happy with Webflow. Wanna bet? ;)
Finally we refer to a comparison of the two systems by Webflow. This can be downloaded here: https://webflow.com/vs/wordpress.
We'll be happy to show you the system so you can judge it with your own eyes. Contact us for a free demo. We'll take half an hour of your time. You can find more details about the advantages and functions of Webflow on our topic page.
Good to know: In addition or in combination with Webflow, we also use Craft CMS – a headless CMS that is particularly suitable for demanding publication systems and complex business websites. In our development workflow we combine the advantages of Webflow and Craft CMS. We evaluate together with you which CMS offers the ideal conditions for your website.
HeadStarterz - We are at home in Basel and look forward to your visit in our well located office directly at the Rhine in the heart of the city in the tri-state area!
