Why We Use Webflow as a Web Design Company

What is Webflow

Perhaps the best place to begin is ‘what is Webflow?’ To answer as simply as possible, Webflow is a software for website building and hosting. Their rapidly expanding platform allows users to design, construct, and launch responsive websites and is Paddle Creative's go-to tool. With a plethora of built-in, simple-to-use technologies such as HTML, CSS, configurable CMS (content management system), and JavaScript, the design and functionality options are virtually unlimited.

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Other Options Out There

Now, just because we’re about to throw a parade for Webflow doesn’t mean it is the only option out there. You’ve probably heard of a few of the other popular web design services like WordPress, Wix and Squarespace, right? These platforms have been around a little longer than Webflow (2013) and so you can be confident that we’ve tried them all (and we still think Webflow wins by a country mile)!

The key thing we at Paddle Creative have found is that Webflow shines as a platform for those creating completely custom websites, bespoke website design crafted by a professional website developer and designer.  We can only provide our perspective as a website design company, but here's what we've learnt along the road. This is not a full blow by blow overview of website platforms, but our summary.

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Webflow vs Wix

If you need a high-quality small company website, Wix and Webflow are both viable options. Webflow is a superior alternative for professional web designers working on the building of large and feature-rich commercial websites, whilst Wix is preferable for more basic projects built by beginners, and is a more of a do-it-yourself platform.

Webflow vs WordPress

The main differences  between Webflow and WordPress are that Webflow has total design flexibility with no plug-ins which gives complete design freedom, whereas WordPress is limited by themes or otherwise must be coded from scratch, but still with limitations. In addition, Webflow features clear and high-quality code, whereas WordPress code can grow crowded as a result of the significant use of plugins, which isn’t something you want. Like with anything really, a cluttered space makes it harder to achieve things and you can lose your way a little, it is the same for code. Cluttered code equals cluttered website equals a big thumbs down! In addition, the WordPress plugin setup is the biggest issue for us, as professional web developers. Plugins create security vulnerabilities and ongoing maintenance headaches. This alone means we do not work with WordPress. Webflow on the other hand has no reliance on plugins and removes that security headache.

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Webflow vs Squarespace

When it comes to Squarespace, it's important to keep in mind that it doesn't necessarily target the same markets as Webflow. Webflow caters to agencies and professionals, whereas Squarespace provides a platform for less experienced small to medium enterprises and individuals. Squarespace is another platform that offers templates and if you can’t find one that is perfect for you and your business, you can’t design it from scratch. However, coding your vision from scratch is something you can do on Webflow and so you get that extra freedom to design and build your perfect website, fully suited to your business.

Of course, like everything, what platform you should use depends on your needs. If you are an agency or professional web designer like Paddle Creative, Webflow has a plethora of features available and possibilities for customisation. However, it is complex and so if you want to dig into more advanced features, you will need some coding knowledge and experience. However, as a web design company, these extra tools and additional functionality it provides are a reason we favour Webflow over other popular web development tools.

With some of the other platforms we mentioned above, the extra splash of professionalism isn’t there. You get restricted by templates, plug-ins, maintenance - you get the idea. This isn't to argue that Wix or Squarespace aren't perfectly viable options for your company; we're simply stating why Webflow is the best option for us to provide solutions for businesses, as an award-winning website design company.

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Why We Think Webflow is the Best Website Builder there is

To expand on what we touched on, there are a heap of website building software out there, but these are some of the main reasons why we think Webflow is the best one.

Website Hosting on Webflow Hosting

Perhaps one of the best things about Webflow is that you can easily publish your site to Webflow’s built-in, global hosting network and say goodbye to ongoing updates, plugin fixes, security patches, and developer maintenance. It saves time and stress and this can only benefit your company, as you’ll know.

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No Website Plugins

We’re sure that security is just as important to you as it is to us which is why Webflow’s no plugins feature keeps us calm and collected. No plugins means there is a much lower risk of your site being taken down and so you get that extra security without the worry and with no maintenance or security updates it just gets better.

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Hack-proof Websites

How do websites get hacked? Well this is another topic in itself, but safe to say plugins and cheap hosting are the primary cause. Remember how we said Webflow is also a hosting platform? You might be surprised to learn that  Webflow website hosting is provided by AWS (Amazon Web Servers) - the greatest website hosting money can buy! With this embedded into the platform, it becomes nearly hack-proof, which is exactly what we all want, right? It is possible to host a Webflow website on a different hosting platform, however for all Paddle Creative custom websites, we insist they are hosted on the integral AWS hosting platform for this reason. We only accept the best!

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Custom Web Design

Feeding back to something we mentioned earlier, Webflow offers complete Custom Web Design. This means that there are no templates or themes, giving each site its individuality and guaranteed to be 100% bespoke to what the business needs. Furthermore, what you can do with Webflow far surpasses anything else out there in terms of interactions, animations and design, so you can really let loose and achieve exactly what you want. If you can dream it, we can build it in Webflow.

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Webflow CMS

Webflow also has world-class CMS (Content Management System) and Editor making it easy for you to manage your website post-launch. We really do think the Webflow CMS is the best you can get. A content management system (CMS) is a piece of software that allows users to create, edit, collaborate on, publish, and save digital information. A content management system (CMS) provides a graphical user interface with tools for creating, editing, and publishing online content without the need to write code from scratch.

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SEO Packages

As you may know, here at Paddle Creative, we are very passionate about SEO and it’s because it is such a vital aspect to any business! We build Webflow sites utilising the world-class Webflow SEO features meaning your business will rank better on Google than if it was built in other platforms. You may be asking what is SEO and is it important to your business? SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) is such an important ingredient when it comes to online marketing and business; SEO comes in to get your site to appear higher up in the Google search results for relevant searches than competitors’ websites and in the process getting more visitors to your website. Think of it like this, SEO is like the flour to a cake recipe, forget to put it in and while yes you will still have a cake, your cake won’t rise without it!

Drag-and-Drop

In contrast to some of the web design platforms we mentioned earlier, unlike Wix and Squarespace, Webflow is not a drag-and-drop platform. Although billed as ‘No-code’ in reality we add custom code to every Webflow project to give it that extra special spark of uniqueness and get the site exactly how our client wants. Now, although Webflow is a visual website builder, it is CSS driven, meaning the code it outputs is clean semantic code. Why is this important you ask… user experience. We all live in a digital world when we anticipate a response almost as soon as a question pops into our head. If your page takes too long to load your potential consumer is more likely to abandon it. Clean, fast code also boosts your company's Google rankings, which is crucial since. Google has declared that websites that take longer than expected to load would be penalised. Clean code enhances page speed, which boosts your website's SEO performance, so it’s important to get it right. Paddle Creative offer a range of affordable SEO packages to help your business get found on Google.

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We are Official Webflow Experts

To step it up one more, Paddle Creative are official Webflow experts! What this means is that Webflow handpicked us because we know Webflow inside out, and can assist you and your business with whatever Webflow project you have in mind. It is our mission as a Webflow developer, to assist businesses in succeeding and growing through attractive design and lead generation with Webflow.

Take a look at some of our previous projects to see why Webflow picked us as one of the few companies in the UK to become certified Webflow Experts.

By using a Webflow developer, such as Paddle Creative, you will have a fully-functional website designed and developed in one of the fastest-growing platforms. This entails creating a clean, content-focused website that keeps all information organised, structured, and simple to use. The website will be responsive, meaning it will work on mobile and desktop devices, allowing your customers to interact with your business at any time and from any place and you’ll be able to add to it easily using the easy-to-use Webflow CMS.

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Is Webflow a good fit for my business?

Like everything in life, there is no one product that is perfect for everyone's needs, and Webflow is no exception; it is not right for every business. But as certified Webflow Experts, we are well positioned to advise you and determine if Webflow is a good fit for your business. In most circumstances, the answer is yes, but get in touch and we can give you a clear picture of if Webflow is a suitable fit for you.

To return to a previous point, if you're a large organisation in need of a comprehensive, bespoke website and other capabilities, as well as fast hosting on AWS servers, Webflow is an excellent option. Webflow is the popular new kid on the block that is here to stay and probably take over the website space. It's a design-focused website builder that's easy for small and large organisations to get started with right away. We feel it is the finest overall solution for clever, tech-savvy business owners. It's a visual website builder, a content management system, and, now in beta, an ecommerce platform.

With over 230,000 websites utilising Webflow and more switching on a daily basis, it's safe to say that Webflow is a powerful platform that can have a significant influence on your business. So if you ever find yourself tapping ‘web designers near me’ into Google, know that Webflow and Webflow experts, Paddle Creative are just a few clicks away....

Did you know, Paddle Creative has been selected among the Top 15 Digital Agencies in the United Kingdom on DesignRush.

Contact us today and we will give you an honest appraisal to see if Webflow is a good fit for your business.