First, we'd like to thank Webflow for what they are doing in the no-code space. It's a wonderful tool, and their editor is an inspiration for us all. But if you're here, searching for Webflow alternatives, we bet it's because you hit a ceiling with this tool.
Like we said, we love Webflow. It is truly a pioneer in how it allowed non-technical people to design pixel-perfect websites. When we started building WeWeb, our goal was to reach the same customization freedom for the visual interfaces of web-apps. While some animation presets are still missing from WeWeb, we feel that we have largely achieved that goal.
Like Webflow, WeWeb's design canvas tries to be as close as possible to web design best practices and to HTML/CSS, meaning you can design gorgeous user interfaces in WeWeb.
Many users coming from Webflow tell us they will feel at home with the HTML tree of each page on the left and CSS properties on the right.
Because WeWeb and Webflow are tools that follow web development best practices, the skills you learn in one can be transferred to another. When you arrive from Webflow to WeWeb, you can focus on learning the two significant differences: 1/ working with a real backend that can scale and 2/ working with native no-code workflows that you might otherwise be building in Make (ex-Integromat)
Webflow was created and perfected for static websites. Where it shines is designing gorgeous marketing sites or blogs. But while some plugins exist to sprinkle some web app capabilities to it, it’s not Webflow strong suit.
WeWeb, on the other hand, was made especially to create the frontend of dynamic web applications. Thanks to its no-code workflows, any WeWeb app can react to user interactions in real-time. And in contrary to Webflow, this feature is native. So, for example, if you need to add dynamic filters to a collection list in Webflow, you would need a third-party tool like Fin'sweet or Jetboost. In WeWeb, those types of filters can be added dynamically.
So while Webflow is perfect for marketing sites and blogs, WeWeb is better for creating SaaS, CRMs or marketplaces.
When handling repeated data, Webflow relies on its own CMS. This CMS is geared towards marketers and content editors, as it focuses mostly on text content and can only store up to several thousands items.
If you need to build a digital tool that handles millions of records from multiple data sources, Webflow won't be able to handle it natively. While third-party tools can help you push the boundaries of Webflow further, they can be limited because they are built on top of a platform that wasn't designed with dynamic web-apps in mind from the start.
On the other side of the spectrum, WeWeb was designed first and foremost to handle the case of dynamic web-apps that can scale with large data sets coming from multiple sources. As a result, WeWeb plays well with any REST API or GraphQL backend.
This enables using any type of data inside WeWeb, not only text data. Also, because you can use powerful backends, WeWeb can easily handle millions of records (like users or data inside the app).
Besides, this data can be used securely thanks to native integrations with best-in-class authentication systems like OpenID, Auth0, Xano Auth, token-based auth, and more. As data can be tied to a specific user or role and won’t display if the user doesn't have access to it. You can push the limits of Webflow to add authentication with third-party tools, but it might not be as secure if the data is not displayed visually, but still visible to an experienced coder. Learn more about secure data filters & control access checks.
Webflow is basically HTML and CSS made no-code. WeWeb is the same, but with JavaScript added. Both tools rely on web standards, as it’s the best way (according to us), to let anyone create complex and beautiful web products.
Both tools follow a similar approach to no-code in the sense that, instead of inventing a visual programming language of their own, they built a layer of abstraction that is close to the code, meaning it can be understood and challenged (and thus improved) by traditional developers. Webflow opened the door with a no-code abstraction of HTML and CSS. WeWeb took it one step further with a no-code abstraction of JavaScript.
While Webflow allows you to export the HTML and CSS of your static websites, WeWeb allows you to export and self-host the standard Vue.js app you build with our no-code editor.
If you ever feel limited by the native features of WeWeb, you can develop and import your own Vue.js components or use our NPM plugin to work with your preferred JS libraries inside the WeWeb editor.
Webflow is made for static websites, WeWeb is for dynamic web applications.
In our view, Webflow and WeWeb are not competitors, but two tools that complement each other well because they each serve a specific use case very well.
For example, at WeWeb, we built our commercial website using Webflow because the marketing team wanted a CMS and static pages, but all our internal and customer-facing tools are built using WeWeb because we want these tools to scale with best-in-class backends that can handle millions of records and our priority was to create a wonderful user experience while displaying large sets of dynamic data (as opposed to static CMS data).
Don’t take our word for it, try WeWeb for free right now!
Sign up now, pay when you're ready to publish.
