My switch from Wordpress to Webflow to create websites

Today, an article that is a bit out of the ordinary. I'm going to explain my switch from Wordpress to Webflow to create websites.

To introduce myself quickly, my name is Thibaut and I am 22 years old. I'm currently working on the SEO part of Digidop and help clients in their content strategy to get their websites referenced. I have a good knowledge of the web and like to learn how to use new tools.

In this article, I quickly present you how I learned to build my first websites and why I chose the Webflow solution today.

Chapter 1: Creating your first website: how to do it?

During my university career, I had the opportunity to create a few websites. The first website I created was a website made only with code(HTML + CSS) and was intended to present the 2018 World Cup. I was 17 years old at the time. At the beginning, I didn't know anything about code, so the process was long and required a lot of work to get the result. It was a real headache 🤯

I learned to code through YouTube videos, articles, online resources and forums. Little by little, the site started to come to life. Just being able to browse it was magical for me. Wow, one of my creations was potentially visible all over the world, maybe it was the beginning of the glory 😎

I worked on it for a month and finally achieved what I wanted to do. The task was not so simple, the work tedious and the result not extraordinary (compared to what can be done nowadays), but my satisfaction was full. Indeed, it was the first time that I created a site on the web.

Some time later, I had the opportunity to recreate sites, but this time I didn't want to code everything. I needed a solution to develop sites without having to waste too much time learning coding languages. That's when I discovered Wordpress among the different CMS that exist.

Chapter 2: My discovery of Wordpress

Wordpress, a "magic" solution when you want to create a website quickly, easily and "free". That's the first thing I said to myself when I discovered this platform. The field of possibilities seemed infinite. I thought I would be able to create a multitude of sites and large-scale sites. However, the task was more complicated than expected.

First of all, like many people, I was tricked into creating a site on wordpress.com and not wordpress.org. The former is a hosting platform and the latter is a "self-hosted" solution: a free (open-source) version. The problem with wordpress.com is that the free offer is very limited, there is not even the possibility to install extensions, the paid offers are also very limited. On the other hand, wordpress.org is a totally free solution with all the possible features (some of which are paid), you just have to install it from your web hosting solution. Being tricked in this way left me with a bitter taste afterwards.

After making this mistake, I was able to start learning how to build a site with this CMS. Fortunately, there are endless resources online: videos, YouTube tutorials, blog post, etc. to learn how to build your site from scratch on Wordpress (On Webflow too 😉 ).

That's when I started to build a website and a blog about sports news in my region. The result was nothing like what I had achieved by coding 😅. We had a functional site, but very limited in its functionality. The design was satisfactory, but not extraordinary (with a current look). Many little things needed to be improved, but overall, I was able to make a big step forward. At last a decent site, at which point I was determined to build more sites.

Some time later, I joined an entrepreneurial project to work on the management of the site and theSEO part. Still on Wordpress, our team worked on a site redesign, content optimization and publishing more content with a focus on SEO. My experience with the CMS has grown by learning more and more from blogs and YouTube channels. Thanks to the different plugins, the use of tools (Google Search Console, Google Analytics, Mailchimp, etc.), we have improved our online visibility. After so much effort, I could really see a site growing. I could see my first positions on Google. Another step forward, we were no longer content with having a site, but generating natural traffic thanks to positions acquired on search engines. My satisfaction was even greater 🤩

From my experience with Wordpress, I can give you my feedback on using the open-source CMS in the next chapters.

Chapter 3: The advantages of Wordpress

As I mentioned before, Wordpress is the easy tool to create your own website, personal website, blog, etc. With a little motivation and some web knowledge, learning Wordpress is easy, the learning curve is always increasing (even exponential depending on your basic level).

In addition, you can manage all aspects of your site from theinterface. To do this, nothing could be easier, you can install plugins. Plugins allow you to add functionality to your project and manage for example SEO, statistics, newsletters, etc. There are plugins for almost everything. Of course, some extensions have to be paid for.

When you have no knowledge of how to build and manage a website, Wordpress helps you get started. Anyone can start a website and share their passion or develop their business easily.

Chapter 4: The limitations of Wordpress

Unfortunately, like every platform, Wordpress has its limitations. The main points that bothered me, slowed me down or even annoyed me are the following:

• Too many plugins: the marketplace of plugins is a very good idea, but for any reason, you have to install a plugin (even SEO, referencing your site without a plugin is almost mission impossible in Wordpress). The accumulation of plugins overloads the interface and you can't find your way around. You don't even know which plugin is used for what.
• Frequent bugs: this point is related to the previous one, but not only. It has often happened on Wordpress that the administrator interface crashes or that the accumulation of plugins slows down the use of the tool.
• Security problems : even with secure access, our site sometimes had security errors with spam and the like.
• Limited design: creating a fully customised site in Wordpress is not easy. You either have to install themes (sort of templates), which are difficult to customise, or use paid solutions (in addition) such as Divi, Elementor, etc.

Chapter 5: Webflow, the miracle solution?

When I discovered Digidop, I discovered Webflow. I confess, except Shopify, I was not so interested in other CMS than Wordpress to build sites. Even if the famous Webflow ads to "control the web by thinking" were very well done, I had not taken the time to get interested in this no-code tool.

I first started testing Webflow on my own. Wow, it was at the same time crazy because I could place everything in the exact place I wanted, but at the same time incomprehensible because I had no basis. In fact, when I saw the basic interface, I was confused about Wordpress. I tried to watch tutorials on YouTube, but at the time, there wasn't much, at least in French (now, we have a great specialized channel on Webflow that offers plenty of content in French 👀). So I stopped using the tool for a while before seeing what could be done on it.

At Digidop, we find Webflow to be the most optimal web development platform at the moment. Indeed, when comparing with Wordpress, Webflow brings so many solutions. Already everything is included natively in Webflow. You can manage your forms, your SEO, your e-commerce directly from the Designer. If a functionality is not yet present, theintegration with other applications is done without too much trouble. The design is customizable to the pixel. In short, all the limitations that I found on Wordpress are no longer present on Webflow. A new world opened in front of me, I was almost like a child in front of a gift 😯

Of course the learning curve is long and it takes a lot of rigour to build on Webflow, but the result is so much more incredible. Now, I learn new things every day on the platform. I'm learning little by little, but I'm starting to understand the machine better. Also, the new features in 2022 will make the platform even more magical.

After saying so much good about Webflow, here are my little remarks from my "little experience":

• The interface is not really intuitive (at least at the beginning)
• The tool is more difficult to learn than Wordpress (especially for novices)
• There is no tracking of statistics natively (You have to track on Google Analytics and Google Search Console)
• To avoid having a website that is buggy and not performing well, the structure & architecture of your site must be rigorously built

Conclusion: From Wordpress to Webflow

Here is my sharing of my conversion from Wordpress to Webflow. To summarize, I found Webflow to be a powerful CMS to create a website even if its use is less obvious than Wordpress. To make a comparison, it's like going from Android to IOS, at the beginning you are lost, but then you realize how powerful the new system is.

It all started with the code, which had limitations for me. Then, Wordpress came as the resolution of the limitations of the code (for me) before noticing new ones as I learned. Finally, Webflow despite its complexity appeared to me as the nocode tool to achieve what I could not achieve with code or Wordpress. Maybe (surely) one day, a new solution will come to me and I will migrate from Webflow to this tool.

However, at the moment, I think that the Webflow tool has a good future ahead of it. Moreover, we are looking forward to the new features. But, one should not stay stuck in one's good habits and change is sometimes the best solution to propose more and more quality.

As far as Webflow is concerned, determination and a thirst for creating powerful and customised sites will help you to get to grips with the Webflow machine. Nothing is impossible and I strongly encourage you to test the platform to get an idea about it and who knows, maybe you will want a Webflow site next.

In any case, if you need help with your Webflow project, Digidop will be happy to help you build it.