Growth & Strategy
Personas
SaaS & Startup
Time to ROI
Short-term (< 3 months)
I just finished another client call where the CTO insisted on keeping WordPress while the marketing team desperately needed to ship landing pages daily. Sound familiar?
After 7 years building websites as a freelancer, I've sat through countless meetings like this. Engineering teams treating 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 faster than these teams could approve a button color change.
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. That's when I realized: your business website is a marketing asset, not a product asset.
Here's what you'll learn from my experience migrating dozens of startup websites:
Why the "technical debt" argument against no-code is actually backwards thinking
My decision framework for choosing between Webflow, Framer, and staying with WordPress
The migration playbook that prevents SEO disasters and team conflicts
When no-code platforms actually limit growth (and what to do about it)
Real metrics from client migrations - what actually improved and what didn't
This isn't another "no-code vs traditional development" debate. This is a practical guide based on real migrations, real results, and real mistakes I've made along the way. Check out more website strategy playbooks here.
Industry Reality
What every startup founder has been told about website platforms
Walk into any startup and mention "no-code website builder" and you'll hear the same objections from technical teams. I've heard them all, and honestly, some of them used to make sense.
"We need full control over our codebase" - This is the classic argument. CTOs worry about vendor lock-in, customization limits, and long-term scalability. The assumption is that WordPress or custom development gives you more control.
"No-code platforms are just glorified website builders" - There's this perception that Webflow and Framer are like Wix or Squarespace - simple drag-and-drop tools that can't handle serious business requirements.
"What happens when we outgrow the platform?" - Teams worry about hitting platform limitations down the road and having to rebuild everything from scratch.
"Our developers can build faster than any no-code tool" - Many technical teams believe they can ship websites faster using their existing development workflow.
"SEO will suffer on these platforms" - There's a lingering belief that no-code platforms can't match custom development for search optimization.
Here's the thing - these concerns aren't completely wrong. They're just focused on the wrong priorities. The real question isn't "Can we build a technically superior website?" It's "Can our marketing team ship fast enough to compete?"
Most startups treat their website like product infrastructure when it should be treated as a marketing laboratory. While you're debating technical architecture, your competitors are testing 10 different landing page variations. Read more about marketing velocity strategies.
The conventional wisdom assumes that website complexity should match product complexity. But here's what I learned after dozens of migrations: your website's job is to convert visitors, not impress developers.
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 selling project management software. They had a beautifully coded WordPress site that their engineering team was proud of. Custom post types, sophisticated caching, clean code architecture - everything a developer dreams of.
But here's what was actually happening: their marketing team needed 2 weeks to add a simple case study. They had to create a ticket, wait for the next sprint, get developer time allocated, go through code review, and deploy through their staging environment. Meanwhile, their main competitor was shipping 3-4 landing page tests per week.
The marketing director pulled me aside and said, "We're losing deals because we can't update our positioning fast enough. Our messaging is always 3 weeks behind our actual product."
That's when I realized the fundamental disconnect. The engineering team optimized for code quality and technical elegance. The marketing team needed to optimize for velocity and testing speed. These are completely different problems requiring different solutions.
I started tracking the real costs of their "technically superior" setup:
Average time to publish a landing page: 8-14 days
Developer hours per marketing request: 3-5 hours
Number of A/B tests run per month: 0-1
Marketing requests stuck in backlog: 12+
The "technical debt" they were avoiding was actually creating massive marketing debt. Every day they couldn't test new messaging was a day their competitors gained ground.
I proposed an experiment: migrate their marketing pages to Webflow while keeping their product documentation and customer portal on the existing WordPress setup. The pushback was immediate. "What about consistency? What about our design system? What about maintenance overhead?"
But the marketing team was desperate. They agreed to a 30-day trial. That trial changed everything.
Here's my playbook
What I ended up doing and the results.
Here's exactly how I approached the migration, step by step. This isn't theory - this is the actual process I used with multiple clients, refined through trial and error.
Phase 1: Audit and Planning (Week 1)
First, I mapped out their current website architecture. Not the technical architecture - the business architecture. Which pages were pure marketing? Which had dynamic functionality? Which were updated frequently vs. static?
The breakdown typically looks like this:
Marketing pages (70%): Homepage, product pages, pricing, about, case studies
Dynamic functionality (20%): Customer portal, documentation search, user dashboards
Hybrid pages (10%): Blog, help center, some landing pages
The key insight: only migrate what makes business sense. Don't try to replicate every technical feature in no-code. Focus on what marketing actually needs to control.
Phase 2: Platform Selection
Here's my decision framework after testing both extensively:
Choose Webflow when:
You need robust CMS capabilities for blogs, case studies, or resource libraries
Your site will grow beyond 20+ pages
You want more traditional web development workflows
Team members have some technical background
Choose Framer when:
Design differentiation is your primary competitive advantage
You need to go from concept to live in days, not weeks
Your team values animation and micro-interactions
You're primarily building landing pages vs. full websites
Phase 3: The Migration Process
I developed a staged migration approach that minimizes risk:
Stage 1: Start with one high-impact landing page. Usually the pricing page because it gets updated frequently and has clear conversion metrics.
Stage 2: Migrate the homepage and main product pages. This is where you'll see the biggest velocity improvements.
Stage 3: Move blog and resource sections. Set up the CMS properly here - this determines long-term success.
Stage 4: Handle redirects and SEO migration. I use a specific checklist here because this is where most migrations fail.
The Technical Bridge:
Here's the part most no-code advocates skip: you still need technical integration. I set up:
Subdomain architecture (marketing.company.com vs. app.company.com)
Shared CSS variables for design consistency
Analytics and tracking unification
Form submission routing to existing CRM
Phase 4: Team Training and Handoff
The migration is only successful if the marketing team actually uses their new powers. I spend a full day training on:
Page building fundamentals
CMS management
SEO best practices within the platform
A/B testing setup
When to involve developers vs. when to ship independently
The goal isn't to make marketers into developers. It's to give them the right level of control for their specific needs. Learn more about AI-powered content workflows here.
Migration Timeline
Complete migration in 2-3 weeks vs. 2-3 months for custom builds
SEO Preservation
301 redirects and meta data transfer maintained 95%+ ranking positions
Team Velocity
Marketing requests went from 2-week sprints to same-day deployment
Cost Analysis
Reduced monthly development overhead by $3-5K while improving output quality
The results spoke for themselves, but not always in ways I expected.
Velocity Improvements (The Big Win):
Landing page creation: 14 days → 4 hours
A/B tests per month: 0-1 → 8-12
Copy changes: 2-3 days → 15 minutes
New case study publication: 1 week → 30 minutes
SEO Performance (The Surprise):
I was worried about SEO impact, but in most cases, it actually improved. Why? Because the marketing team could finally update content regularly. Fresh content beats perfect technical setup.
Average page load speed: 2.3s → 1.8s (Webflow's hosting is fast)
Core Web Vitals scores: Improved across all metrics
Content update frequency: 2x per month → 3x per week
Team Dynamics (The Real Victory):
The biggest change wasn't technical - it was cultural. Marketing stopped feeling like they were "bothering" the engineering team. Engineering could focus on product features instead of website maintenance. Win-win.
One marketing director told me: "For the first time in two years, I can test an idea the same day I have it. That's changed how we think about growth."
Unexpected Challenges:
Not everything was smooth. The learning curve for Webflow is steeper than expected. Two team members struggled with the visual CSS approach. And yes, we hit some platform limitations around complex forms that required custom development bridges.
But here's the key insight: perfect technical flexibility matters less than practical marketing velocity. The small limitations were vastly outweighed by the speed gains.
What I've learned and the mistakes I've made.
Sharing so you don't make them.
After dozens of these migrations, here are the lessons that matter most:
1. Start with business problems, not technical solutions
Don't migrate because no-code is trendy. Migrate because your marketing team can't ship fast enough to compete. The technology choice should solve a specific business problem.
2. Design systems still matter, they just work differently
You can maintain design consistency across platforms. It requires different tools and processes, but it's absolutely doable. Shared style guides and regular design reviews become more important.
3. The 80/20 rule is your friend
You don't need to migrate everything. Focus on the 80% of pages that marketing actually needs to control. Leave complex functionality where it works best.
4. Team training is make-or-break
The best migration in the world fails if the team doesn't adopt the new tools. Plan for proper training and ongoing support. This isn't optional.
5. Platform limitations are features, not bugs
Constraints force better decisions. When you can't build something complex, you're forced to ask: "Do we actually need this, or are we building it because we can?"
6. SEO concerns are mostly overblown
Modern no-code platforms handle SEO fundamentals well. The ability to update content frequently often outweighs any technical SEO limitations.
7. Monitor the right metrics
Don't just track page load speeds and uptime. Track marketing velocity: tests per month, time to publish, conversion rate improvements from faster iteration.
When This Approach Doesn't Work:
If your website IS your product (like a web app or SaaS platform)
If you have complex, custom functionality that can't be replicated
If your team is happy with current velocity and sees no business need for change
If you're in a highly regulated industry with specific hosting requirements
The bottom line: your website should enable your marketing strategy, not constrain it. If your current setup is slowing down growth, it's time to rethink your approach.
How you can adapt this to your Business
My playbook, condensed for your use case.
For your SaaS / Startup
For SaaS startups specifically:
Start with landing pages and pricing page migration first
Keep product documentation and user portals on existing platform
Use subdomain architecture for clean separation
Focus on A/B testing velocity for conversion optimization
Integrate with existing analytics and CRM systems
For your Ecommerce store
For e-commerce businesses:
Migrate marketing pages but keep product catalog on e-commerce platform
Use no-code for seasonal landing pages and campaign microsites
Implement consistent branding across platform boundaries
Optimize for mobile-first design and fast loading
Set up proper tracking for marketing attribution