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11 Comments

Ask IH: What do you think of WebFlow vs Wordpress?

I am newbie here.
Planning to start a niche content site.

Wordpress is the ultimate platform that everyone uses to build sites.
But I have heard good things about Webflow as well.

Does anyone here use Webflow? What about SEO, is it better or worse than WP?

And what about display ads? Do they perform better or worse on Webflow vs WP?

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    Having tried both I moved back to Wordpress. I found that Webflow was not intuitive or smooth for me as a page builder and the type of sites I wanted to create. The free tier is a joke as you cannot build a site, only 2 pages and cannot display blog posts to even check what they look like as a format.
    In terms of building even remotely complex sites, Weblow costs grow rapidly as you need monthly subscriptions to external services such as Zapier etc. I was initially tempted by the added native security of the platform but the experience and lack of available functionality at a decent price turned me away. I also found multiple cases of support topics referencing an older version of the software and that several options had been removed and I could not achieve certain effects I needed.
    Moving back to Wordpress I felt a lot more comfortable. I usually build child themes and code pages with HTML, CSS and some limited PHP but recently I found a page builder that does everything I need for a really good price.
    Peoples thoughts on Wordpress's shortcomings are usually due to a lack of information.
    The quote above regarding speed is a common one. Native Wordpress is as fast as you need, its performance degrades when you add multiple plugins, all making calls on the database simultaneously. The fact that most people want to skimp on their hosting and use shared servers etc compounds the effect. Hosting on Cloudways or another cloud service solves multiple issues. Couple that with a caching service like cloudflare and your site speed can be maintained at a high level.
    Security is a known issue, once again usually due to plugin security failures. There are plenty of security plugins out there, BUT they are not all great. The best option is to undertake manual actions and safeguard files and folders manually. Plugins are there for convenience, all you need to know is freely avilable on the web, you just need to actually take a bit of time to implement. There are a couple of really good security services out there and cloud hosting usually has its own security implementations.
    Going back to page builders, the common problem is that DIVI, ELEMENTOR etc are built to modify themes and as such they overwrite database calls from the theme etc and slow operations. Even their own themes are not the fastest. A quick look through a marketplace reveals tons of addons for them, plus all the additional plugins needed for extensible functionality. NOT GOOD.
    Enter Thrive Themes. I discovered this builder towards the end of last year. It is a self contained theme with built in extensibles such as its own course builder, page editor and a lot more. Primarily aimed at marketing site builders, it is just as good at building standard pages and sites as any other. Its great advantage is its speed. A site built with TT benchmarked on page load times virtually equalled that of Wordpress's native Gutenburg. Way faster than any other builder. The other builders can improve their speed but it takes plugins to do it which is counter productive.
    Another thing when benchmarking pages is that people never try it under user load conditions. Other page builders get up to around 10 seconds to load a page with around 10 users accessing the page at the same time. TT has much less latency.
    By ustilising WP-Fusion, ( a Zapier for Wordpress but massively cheaper ) it is possible to make incredible sites with massive functionality with no speed loss as it runs externally.
    I used to hate Wordpress but it was the best option for multiple application websites. I now realise that it is more of a case to educate yourself as to how to use the platform properly and how to optimise its components and and addons to get the best out of it. Once you know how to manually do the security etc, it does not take a lot of effort or time. Use the right tools and apps and you can make a far better website than you may think possible.

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      Way faster than any other builder? You clearly havent explored or dived in into the subject Thrive Builder is a turtle compared to Oxygen Builder the fastest theme builder there ..

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      I have been using Wordpress for 13 years now. I love the fact that I can do pretty much anything with it by adding plugins. What you say about plugins making the website slow is true but I have always heard that Wp-Rocket solved it pretty much.

      I am a Divi user but I'll check Thrive Theme out and also Wp-fusion. I learned a lot through your comment so thanks.

    3. 1

      Wow!
      Thanks Eric for the detailed review.
      Will definitely checkout Thrive Themes

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    Just to add a something a bit more specific to the above question. In terms of SEO, wordpress is simpler for onsite. Rankmath plugin is great and very efficient. For those not conversant with SEO, it is a time consuming and sometimes complicated topic and process if you want to exploit its full potential. It is not simply ensuring your titles and your subtitles etc are correct, the titles and content itself must be written in such a way that optimises the article etc in terms of relevancy and now that Google has implemented its latest round of core updates, also in terms of reader experience. Gone are the days of keyword loading, in fact that can now have a detrimental effect. Now content must serve the reader, answer the question posed and provide a good experience. Some of Googles key metrics regard bounce rate and time on page.
    The big thing in SEO still remains external links from relevant sites of high domain authority, so bear this in mind as this part is not easy. Not so much because of the process, but simply because you need to convince the owner of another website to link back to you.
    Personally I cannot speak for the efficiency or capability of Webflow's SEO options but I would think with the amount of developers using the platform it would up to par.
    In terms of what you want to do, a niche website which is basically a blog then it is a no brainer. Wordpress all the way - for multiple reasons.
    Firstly, that is what Wordpress is designed for. It IS a blogging platform that is hacked about to make other types of websites.
    The customisation features for your actual blog layout are far greater. Using Thrive Themes as I mentioned previously, you can create custom templates for your blog posts ( along with anything else you wish to do ) and even export those templates to another site. Even using the native Gutenburg blocks, you can create good looking, very indexable posts. Along with the ease at which you can create and organise categories etc, blogging at its best.
    Ezoic encounters problems with Weblfow. there are several posts on forums regarding problems when trying to incorporate Ezoic ads into Webflow. The reasons for which I am not sure but it does seem to crash sites. Other display ad companies such as Mediavine etc I cannot comment as I dont know anyone blogging on Webflow as a business.
    Another relevant point is that when it comes to blogging sites, should you wish to sell the site at some point then the value of two identical sites, one on Wordpress and the other on Webflow, the Wordpress site will hold higher value and you may even struggle to sell the Webflow site as it is not industry standard so to speak.
    Hope this helps.
    Just as a note - I have been involved in digital marketing, blogging, online course creation and websites for quite a while. I have a distinct interest in no code as I have several projects I wish to attempt but unfortunately at this time my workload prevents me from doing so.

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      Thanks again for your detailed comments!

  3. 2

    I switched from Wordpress to Webflow and couldn't be happier. I found the learning curve to be much lower. In my case, I didn't want to spend too much time setting up and maintaininig my site. I also need to continuously iterate my content. I found Webflow much more suitable for those needs.

  4. 2

    Hey Ayush, I've used both but not the intense type of users.

    I switched my personal site to Webflow about 3 months ago. Partly because I didn't want to spend more time on coding myself that doesn't move the needle. And partly because I want to try out what Webflow is all about (the buzz).

    I fell in love. Because it is very simple (for someone with web dev background).

    My impression is that Webflow is slick, it is perfect if you want a simple site like mine. BUT it can be super powerful if you want to go deep. WP on the other hand, feels more and more clunky to me, maybe there is too much going on, loading feels slow, or maybe it is just "not as cool".

    SEO wise I think they both offer a lot. WP has Yoast so you get a lot of analytics, Webflow has OpenGraph settings, and I'm using Google Analytics.

    I think Webflow will get more and more powerful, so I don't mind investing my time learning :)

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      The Webflow free tier can’t be used, right? You need to pay to bind the first-level domain name, right? Is it also good for SEO?

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        That's right, free tier you cannot publish your site.

        Yeah it is good for SEO, my site is on Webflow and I'm seeing results now (with a lot of SEO effort)

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      Cool, thanks for the insights Kevon.
      Much appreciated

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