AI & Automation
Personas
SaaS & Startup
Time to ROI
Short-term (< 3 months)
Three months into a major website migration project, I made a discovery that almost gave me a heart attack. My client's Webflow CMS contained over 2,000 blog posts, case studies, and product pages—seven years worth of content—and we were about to migrate to a new platform.
Here's the kicker: I realized I had no reliable way to export all this content without losing crucial formatting, relationships, and metadata. The built-in CSV export was laughably basic, and third-party tools either cost a fortune or missed half the data.
Sound familiar? You're probably here because you're facing the same challenge. Maybe you're migrating platforms, creating backups, or just trying to get your content out of Webflow's walled garden.
After working with dozens of clients over 7 years and handling multiple platform migrations, I've developed a systematic approach to Webflow CMS exports that actually works. Here's what you'll learn:
Why Webflow's native export falls short and what data you're actually losing
My 3-step export process that captures everything, including rich text and relationships
The backup strategy I now implement for every client from day one
Tools and workflows that automate the entire process
Migration checklist to ensure zero data loss during platform switches
This isn't theoretical advice—it's the exact process I use for client website projects and the backup system that's saved me from multiple near-disasters.
Industry Reality
What Webflow tells you vs. what actually happens
If you've ever looked into exporting content from Webflow, you've probably seen the official guidance. Webflow's documentation makes it sound straightforward: "Use the CSV export feature in your CMS settings." Most tutorials echo this advice, suggesting the native export covers everything you need.
Here's what the industry typically recommends:
Use Webflow's built-in CSV export for all your content needs
Manual copy-paste for rich text fields that don't export properly
Third-party migration services that promise "one-click" transfers
API-based solutions for developers comfortable with coding
Screenshot documentation as a backup for complex layouts
This conventional wisdom exists because most people discover export needs only when they're already committed to leaving Webflow. At that point, any solution feels better than starting from scratch.
The problem? Webflow's CSV export is designed for simple data migration, not comprehensive content preservation. It captures basic text fields but completely misses rich text formatting, image relationships, collection references, and custom field structures.
What you get is the skeleton of your content without the soul. All your carefully crafted formatting, internal links, embedded media, and relational data disappears. For complex sites with years of content, this approach can lose 40-60% of your actual data value.
After watching clients lose thousands of hours of work, I realized the industry advice treats symptoms, not the root problem. We needed a completely different approach.
Consider me as your business complice.
7 years of freelance experience working with SaaS and Ecommerce brands.
The wake-up call came during a website migration for a B2B SaaS client I'd been working with for over a year. They had built an impressive content library in Webflow—detailed case studies, product documentation, integration guides, and a blog with hundreds of technical articles.
The client wanted to migrate to a headless CMS solution for better performance and developer control. Sounds simple enough, right? I'd handled plenty of platform migrations before.
My first attempt was textbook conventional wisdom. I used Webflow's CSV export, figuring we'd clean up any formatting issues afterward. The export completed in minutes—red flag number one. When I opened the file, my heart sank.
Every rich text field showed up as plain text. No formatting, no links, no embedded images. The carefully structured case studies that took months to create were now walls of text. Multi-reference fields that connected articles to product categories? Gone. Custom fields for SEO metadata? Missing.
I tried the manual copy-paste approach next. After spending six hours on just ten articles, I realized this would take weeks and still miss crucial data relationships. The client was paying for efficiency, not data recovery archaeology.
Third-party migration tools promised salvation but delivered disappointment. Most were designed for WordPress or other platforms, not Webflow's unique CMS structure. The few Webflow-specific services either cost more than the entire migration budget or required technical skills my client didn't have.
That's when I realized I needed to build my own solution. Not because I wanted to reinvent the wheel, but because the wheel everyone was using was fundamentally broken for real-world scenarios.
Here's my playbook
What I ended up doing and the results.
After that near-disaster, I developed what I call the "Complete Webflow Export System"—a 3-layer approach that captures everything, not just the basics.
Layer 1: API-First Data Extraction
Instead of relying on Webflow's limited CSV export, I built a system using Webflow's API to pull raw data directly. This captures every field, including rich text with full HTML formatting, image URLs, and all relational data.
The key insight? Webflow's API contains everything the CSV export leaves behind. Rich text fields come through with complete HTML markup. Multi-reference relationships include full connection data. Even unpublished drafts and archived content are accessible.
I created a custom script that authenticates with the API, maps all collections, and systematically extracts every piece of content. Unlike manual exports, this process takes minutes regardless of content volume.
Layer 2: Relationship Mapping and Asset Collection
Raw data is only half the story. The real challenge is preserving the relationships between content pieces and ensuring all assets are properly collected.
My system creates a comprehensive map of how content connects. Which blog posts reference which case studies? What images are used across multiple pages? How do collection items relate to each other?
For assets, I don't just grab URLs—I download every image, document, and file to create a complete local backup. This prevents the "broken image" disasters that happen when Webflow links change or content gets deleted.
Layer 3: Format-Agnostic Output Generation
The final layer converts the extracted data into multiple formats. CSV for basic data manipulation, JSON for developers, HTML for visual verification, and even WordPress XML for direct CMS imports.
Each format preserves maximum data integrity while being optimized for different use cases. Need to quickly review content in spreadsheet form? Use the enhanced CSV. Planning a custom migration? The JSON includes every data point. Want to verify formatting? The HTML output shows exactly how content will look.
This multi-format approach means you're never locked into a single migration path or forced to choose between data completeness and usability.
API Setup
Authentication and collection mapping process
Relationship Preservation
How to maintain content connections and references
Asset Management
Complete media file backup and organization system
Migration Flexibility
Multiple output formats for any destination platform
The results speak for themselves. What used to be a weeks-long manual process now takes hours. More importantly, data integrity went from 40-60% preservation to 99.8% completeness.
For that original SaaS client, we successfully migrated 2,000+ content pieces without losing a single formatting element or relationship. The entire export and migration process took 3 days instead of the projected 3 weeks.
Since implementing this system, I've used it for 15+ client migrations with zero data loss incidents. The automated backup component has also prevented several potential disasters when clients accidentally deleted content or made bulk changes they needed to reverse.
The time savings alone justify the initial setup investment. Manual exports that previously took 40+ hours now complete in under 2 hours. But the real value is in the confidence—knowing that your content is completely preserved, relationships intact, and ready for any future platform decisions.
Clients report feeling "liberated" from vendor lock-in concerns. When you know you can extract your complete content investment at any time, platform decisions become strategic rather than fear-based.
What I've learned and the mistakes I've made.
Sharing so you don't make them.
Building this export system taught me lessons that go far beyond Webflow migrations:
API access trumps UI features every time. Never rely on export tools built for casual users when you need enterprise-grade data preservation.
Relationships are more valuable than content. Raw text can be recreated, but the connections between content pieces represent years of editorial strategy.
Asset management is non-negotiable. URLs change, services go down, files get deleted. Local backups are the only reliable protection.
Multiple output formats provide options. Today's migration destination might not be tomorrow's platform choice. Flexible exports future-proof your content.
Automation pays for itself immediately. The time to build proper export systems is before you need them, not during a crisis migration.
Client peace of mind has value. Knowing their content is safe and portable eliminates a major vendor lock-in anxiety.
Documentation matters as much as data. Export processes without clear instructions become technical debt for the next person.
The biggest lesson? Treat your CMS content like source code. You wouldn't build software without version control and backups. Content deserves the same protection and portability.
How you can adapt this to your Business
My playbook, condensed for your use case.
For your SaaS / Startup
Set up API access from day one, not during migration crises
Implement automated monthly backups for all CMS content
Document content relationships and dependencies
Plan migration strategies before committing to platforms
For your Ecommerce store
Export product data with all variant and pricing information
Preserve SEO metadata and URL structures during migrations
Backup customer reviews and ratings with proper attribution
Maintain category hierarchies and filtering relationships