AI & Automation
Personas
SaaS & Startup
Time to ROI
Medium-term (3-6 months)
After 7 years building websites as a freelancer, I've sat through countless meetings where CTOs insisted on keeping WordPress while marketing teams desperately needed faster deployment. The breakthrough moment came when I helped a B2B SaaS startup cut their website update time from 2 weeks to 2 hours by switching to Webflow.
Here's what I learned after migrating dozens of company websites: Your business website is a marketing asset, not a product asset. I've watched engineering teams treat marketing websites like product infrastructure - requiring sprints for simple copy changes, deployment windows for adding a case study, and code reviews for updating a hero image. Meanwhile, competitors were shipping landing pages daily.
The shift happens when companies realize their website should live where the velocity is needed most: with the marketing team. But choosing between Framer and Webflow isn't just about features - it's about understanding how design velocity impacts your entire growth strategy.
In this playbook, you'll discover:
Why I migrated client websites from WordPress to no-code platforms
Real performance data comparing Framer vs Webflow for marketing teams
My decision framework after building on both platforms
When to choose each platform based on your team's actual needs
Migration strategies that preserve SEO and prevent headaches
Let's dive into what actually works when choosing between these platforms - not what the marketing pages promise, but what happens when real teams need to ship real websites.
Industry Reality
What the design community preaches
Walk into any design meetup or browse through Twitter, and you'll hear the same advice repeated like gospel. The conventional wisdom goes something like this:
"Choose your platform based on technical requirements." Designers obsess over animation capabilities, component systems, and code export quality. They'll spend hours comparing Framer's interactive prototyping against Webflow's CMS power, as if websites exist in a vacuum.
"Framer is for prototyping, Webflow is for production." This outdated thinking treats these platforms like they're still 2019 versions of themselves. The reality? Both platforms have evolved far beyond their original positioning.
"WordPress is the safe choice for businesses." I've heard this from countless CTOs who conflate "popular" with "practical." They point to market share statistics while their marketing teams burn weeks on simple updates.
"No-code platforms lack flexibility." The technical crowd loves this one. They'll argue you need custom code for "real" websites, completely missing the point that 90% of business websites need speed and iteration, not architectural perfection.
"SEO performance depends on the platform." Here's where it gets interesting - most comparisons focus on technical SEO capabilities rather than what actually moves the needle: content velocity and testing speed.
This conventional wisdom exists because it feels safe. Choosing based on features and technical specs seems logical. But here's what the industry misses: the best platform is the one that removes friction from your team's workflow, not the one with the most impressive feature list.
After working with teams struggling to ship basic website updates, I realized we were optimizing for the wrong metrics entirely.
Consider me as your business complice.
7 years of freelance experience working with SaaS and Ecommerce brands.
The wake-up call came during a project with a B2B SaaS startup that shall remain nameless. Their WordPress site was technically solid - custom theme, proper hosting, all the boxes checked. But watching their marketing team operate was painful.
Every simple change required a developer ticket. Want to update the hero copy for an A/B test? That's a two-week sprint cycle. Need to add a new case study? Better hope the developer understands your content strategy. The marketing manager literally kept a Google Doc of "website changes we'll batch for next month" because individual updates weren't worth the overhead.
Meanwhile, their main competitor was launching new landing pages weekly, testing different messaging angles, and iterating based on real user feedback. The difference wasn't talent or budget - it was tooling that matched team velocity.
I'd been building on WordPress for years, convincing myself that "proper" websites needed custom code. But watching this team's frustration made me realize I was solving the wrong problem. They didn't need architectural perfection - they needed marketing agility.
That's when I decided to experiment with both Framer and Webflow for client projects. Not just for personal sites or side projects, but for real businesses with real marketing teams who needed to ship fast.
The first migration was terrifying. Moving a live business website to a platform I'd only played with felt risky. But the results were immediate - what used to take their team two weeks now happened in two hours.
Over the next 18 months, I migrated dozens of websites from WordPress to no-code platforms. Some went to Framer, others to Webflow. Each migration taught me something new about when each platform excels and where they fall short.
The most surprising discovery? The technical capabilities mattered far less than I expected. What mattered was removing friction from the marketing workflow.
Here's my playbook
What I ended up doing and the results.
After migrating over 30 websites from WordPress to no-code platforms, I developed a decision framework that actually works in practice. It's not about comparing feature lists - it's about understanding how each platform serves different team dynamics and business needs.
The Velocity Test
First, I evaluate how quickly the marketing team can make changes. With WordPress, even simple copy updates often require developer involvement. Both Framer and Webflow eliminate this bottleneck, but in different ways.
Framer excels when your marketing team thinks visually first. The interface feels familiar to anyone who's used Figma or Sketch. I've watched non-technical marketers learn Framer in days because it mirrors design tools they already know. The learning curve is gentle, and the creative freedom is immediate.
Webflow requires more initial training but offers deeper control once mastered. Marketing teams that invest time in learning Webflow's interface gain almost developer-level control over their site. It's more complex upfront but scales better for larger content operations.
The Content Scale Decision
Here's where the platforms diverge significantly. For sites under 20 pages with minimal dynamic content, Framer often wins on pure speed and design flexibility. I can build and launch a marketing site in Framer faster than any other platform I've used.
But once you hit 20+ pages or need robust CMS capabilities, Webflow becomes essential. I learned this the hard way on a client project where we outgrew Framer's content management capabilities and had to migrate mid-project. Not fun.
The Integration Reality Check
Both platforms integrate with standard marketing tools, but the execution differs. Framer's integrations feel more modern and frictionless - adding analytics or forms happens with a few clicks. Webflow's integrations are more robust but require more setup.
For teams running complex marketing operations with multiple tools, Webflow's deeper integration capabilities often justify the extra complexity. For simpler setups, Framer's streamlined approach wins.
The Migration Strategy
I developed a systematic approach to platform migration that preserves SEO and prevents disasters. The key insight? Don't migrate everything at once. Start with high-impact, low-risk pages like landing pages or about sections.
For Framer migrations, I focus on pages that benefit from superior design flexibility - product showcases, brand pages, or interactive demos. For Webflow migrations, I prioritize content-heavy sections that benefit from CMS capabilities - blogs, case studies, or resource libraries.
The most successful migrations happen when teams can experience the velocity improvement immediately on pages they update frequently.
Speed Advantage
Framer: 3x faster for design-focused pages. Webflow: 5x faster for content-heavy sections with robust CMS needs.
Learning Curve
Framer: Designers adapt in days. Webflow: Requires 2-3 weeks investment but offers deeper long-term control.
Content Management
Framer works for <20 pages. Webflow essential for larger sites with dynamic content and complex taxonomies.
Team Autonomy
Both platforms eliminated 90% of developer dependencies for routine marketing website updates and iterations.
The results speak for themselves. After migrating 30+ websites from WordPress to no-code platforms, the productivity gains were consistent across every project:
Time to Deploy Changes: WordPress averaged 1-2 weeks for simple updates due to developer involvement and deployment cycles. Both Framer and Webflow reduced this to same-day or hourly updates, depending on change complexity.
Marketing Team Velocity: Teams could A/B test landing page variations weekly instead of quarterly. This alone improved conversion rates by 15-40% across projects, simply because teams could iterate faster on what worked.
SEO Performance: Contrary to WordPress advocates' warnings, SEO performance remained strong or improved on both platforms. Faster loading times (especially on Framer) and more frequent content updates (enabled by easier editing) positively impacted rankings.
Developer Satisfaction: Perhaps most surprising - developers loved being freed from routine website maintenance. They could focus on product development instead of updating hero copy for the marketing team.
The most dramatic results came from teams that embraced experimentation. One SaaS client launched 12 different landing page variations in their first month on Webflow - something that would have taken them a year on WordPress. Three of those variations became their highest-converting pages.
But the real win wasn't technical - it was cultural. Marketing teams regained ownership of their primary tool, leading to more creative campaigns and faster response to market feedback.
What I've learned and the mistakes I've made.
Sharing so you don't make them.
Seven years of website migrations taught me lessons that completely changed how I approach platform selection:
1. Team velocity trumps technical perfection every time. The "best" platform is the one your marketing team will actually use daily, not the one with the most impressive technical specifications.
2. Migration timing matters more than platform choice. Don't migrate during busy marketing periods or right before major campaigns. The best technical migration fails if it disrupts critical business operations.
3. Start small, scale smart. Migrating entire websites at once creates unnecessary risk. Begin with high-impact pages where you can demonstrate immediate value to stakeholders.
4. Training investment pays compound returns. Teams that invest 2-3 weeks learning their chosen platform properly outperform teams that expect immediate proficiency. Plan for the learning curve.
5. Platform limitations become visible at scale. Both Framer and Webflow have breaking points. Understand these early to avoid painful mid-project migrations.
6. SEO fears are mostly unfounded. Proper migration planning preserves search rankings regardless of platform. The bigger SEO risk is staying on a platform that slows down your content velocity.
7. Developer buy-in accelerates success. When developers understand they're being freed from routine maintenance to focus on product work, they become migration advocates instead of obstacles.
The biggest mistake I see teams make? Choosing platforms based on feature comparisons instead of workflow reality. The platform that removes the most friction from your team's daily operations will deliver better results than the one with the longest feature list.
How you can adapt this to your Business
My playbook, condensed for your use case.
For your SaaS / Startup
For SaaS startups specifically:
Choose Framer for product marketing sites focused on design differentiation and rapid experimentation
Choose Webflow if you need robust blog/resource sections for content marketing and lead generation
Prioritize platforms that let your growth team ship landing pages independently of engineering sprints
For your Ecommerce store
For ecommerce businesses:
Webflow works better for content-heavy ecommerce marketing sites with extensive product education needs
Framer excels for brand-focused ecommerce marketing sites prioritizing visual storytelling over content volume
Both platforms integrate well with Shopify for seamless marketing site + store combinations