In this post, we compare the cutting-edge website builder Webflow with the premium WordPress add-on Elementor. Which of them should you choose to build your website? Read on for helpful information and tips.
For years, people have been using WordPress to create various kinds of websites: landing pages, blogs, e-stores, client portals, you name it. However, a lot of new, faster tools emerged in the last decade. One of those tools is Webflow – a modern website builder with an intuitive user interface, sleek design, and a lot of functionality out of the box.
Its main selling point though is a powerful visual editor that allows building beautiful, responsive user interfaces faster. If you are a visionary looking for sophisticated yet easy-to-use tools, it might be tempting to abandon the WordPress platform and start building with Webflow.
But before you do that, let’s take a closer look at Elementor, a premium design add-on that can change how you design WordPress pages.
One of the important updates that changed the way users interact with the WordPress platform is a powerful drag-and-drop builder Elementor. Elementor was released in 2016 and quickly became one of the most popular tools on the WordPress market.
The reason for it is simple – before Elementor, there was no quality visual editor in WordPress so if you wanted to style your page, you usually had to mess with HTML and CSS.
With Elementor, WordPress users got access to a modern frontend builder with a lot of advanced templates, themes, and elements. Elementor also supports one of the most used eCommerce plugins WooCommerce and features an active online community.
This means that anyone can master Elementor fairly quickly and find help online when they are stuck. Elementor designs and functionality made WordPress more modern and accessible to users who didn’t want to design all pages by themselves.
Webflow is a powerful website builder, well known for its unique drag-and-drop visual editor. This platform was launched in 2013, ten years after WordPress. While it means that Webflow is way newer, WordPress got quite a few core updates since then.
How easy is it to build a website with Webflow vs Elementor? At first, it might seem that the design process with Webflow and Elementor is almost the same. However, it’s not always the case. If you choose to use WordPress with Elementor, you’ll have to be more involved in the process.
This means installing and updating all the plugins, buying a domain, taking care of security, etc. Webflow, on the other hand, is trying to make the process of launching a website as painless as possible. You can sign up for a Webflow account literally in seconds and start building beautiful responsive pages right away.
The user experience will be also on point: before you start, Webflow will help you to pick the right template by asking you about your technical experience and the type of site you are building. In most cases, those advanced templates, powered by HTML5, CSS3, and JavaScript, have everything you need to start building.
Alternatively, you can pick a blank page to create a website from scratch. Some users might find their templates a bit limiting but overall, Webflow Designer is extremely easy to use.
With WordPress, you choose greater flexibility but also a more hands-on approach. Be ready to do your research, visit forums, and try a few templates before finding the right one. Elementor features all of the elements you would expect from a modern website builder.
However, after you get a taste of Webflow Designer, the Elementor interface might feel a bit clunky. To achieve the same results with Elementor, you’ll also have to install a few more plugins and software that need constant updates.
So while both websites would look kind of the same to your clients, the way you will build them will be quite different. With WordPress, you are more likely to have messy code behind the scenes and a bunch of dependencies that affect the performance.
While both drag-and-drop builders are fairly easy to use, setting up a WordPress website with Elementor will take a while. In this category, Webflow is definitely the winner!
Both platforms offer free and paid plans but in both cases, you’ll have to pay extra if you want to create a polished, professionally-looking website. You can always try any of these platforms for free but in both cases, there are some hidden costs you should be aware of.
With WordPress, you’ll have to pay for:
With Webflow, you’ll pay extra for:
A lot depends on your setup and a number of paid plugins you decide to use, but generally, a simple WordPress-based site will cost you a bit less than a Webflow website.
Both builders offer free plans but it will cost you anywhere from $100+ a year to build a professionally-looking site. With cheap hosting and free plugins, WordPress-based websites generally cost less.
WordPress is amazing when it comes to finding learning resources. As an open-source platform that has been around for almost 20 years, WordPress features a lot of helpful resources.
However, Webflow also has a strong online community and some great tutorials available. Whenever you are stuck, whether you are working with Webflow or Elementor, you can almost always find a solution to your problem online.
Both Webflow and Elementor feature strong online communities and helpful learning resources. All in all, both platforms are relatively easy to master.
As mentioned earlier, Webflow comes with a lot of ready-to-use templates and pre-built functionality. Most of the time, it’s a big advantage that can significantly speed up the design process.
At the same time, it can be also pretty limiting, especially if you are trying to build a complex layout or get the data from other, third-party resources.
When it comes to building complex web-based solutions, WordPress is definitely a winner. An abundance of free and paid plugins available makes it easy to significantly extend Elementor’s native functionality.
Webflow editor is a real powerhouse. So no wonder that in terms of speed and user experience, Webflow is way ahead of Elementor.
The reason behind it is simple – Webflow is a stand-alone, all-in-one solution, while Elementor is a plugin that works on top of another platform – WordPress. If you add all the plug-ins and extensions available for Elementor to the mix, you can get a pretty slow and messy editor as a result.
Webflow Designer, a powerful, all-in-one editor, is way faster and more performant than Elementor. Elementor was built on top of WordPress and sometimes, additional plugins and extensions can slow it down even further.
Webflow features 24/7 support so you can get all your questions answered fast. Elementor has its own support team too but still, when you work with WordPress and Elementor, you’ll have to figure out a lot on your own.
Their team is also slower so you’ll have to wait a bit more. And keep in mind that if you use any third-party extensions, you’ll need to contact them directly if you encounter any issues. As a rule, small WordPress plugins don’t have the best support teams behind them.
Both Webflow and WordPress with Elementror can help you build beautiful, responsive user interfaces with ease. However, there are some important differences in how these two visual editors function. Once you evaluate all the pros and cons of each platform, you should be ready to make the right decision.
| Webflow | Elementor | |
| Ease of use | + | – |
| Price | – | + |
| Learning resources | + | + |
| Complex layouts | – | + |
| Design Experience | + | – |
| Support | + | – |
Regardless of which tool you finally opt for, GetDevDone can help you make your web pages beautiful-looking, secure, and fast.
We provide a wide range of Webflow development services, including:
We also have the most comprehensive expertise in WordPress development. With 16+ years of industry experience and thousands of successfully completed WP projects, we know everything about the world’s most popular CMS.
Reach out to us for any WordPress development project, from creating a custom theme or modifying an existing one to developing plugins and optimizing Core Web Vitals.
In this post, we talk about one of our frontend development projects. You will learn about the challenges we faced, the solutions we offered, and the results we achieved.
Newsletters and RSS feeds are important tools for keeping up with the ever changing world of web design and development. With so much information out there, it’s easy to cram your inbox with junk. No worries! We’ve scoured the internet to find the most relevant and informative web dev newsletters. We think these fall into […]
Hiring a dedicated development team for your web development project is a much wiser move than engaging freelancers. Read this post to learn why.
