Webstudio, the future direct competitor to Webflow?

In the booming visual development ecosystem, Webflow is one of the undisputed market leaders. However, a new platform is emerging, ready to take up the challenge and become a serious competitor to Webflow. This promising platform is called Webstudio.

In this article, we'll look at the distinctive features of Webstudio that position it as a potential competitor to Webflow. So, does Webstudio have what it takes to compete with the established visual development giant? Let's explore the key differences between the two tools.

Webstudio vs. Webflow: The match of visual development tools

A community-oriented approach with Webstudio and Webflow

Webstudio takes a community-based approach to the development of its platform. By encouraging feedback and discussion within their community, they seek to actively involve users in the development process.

Like Webflow, this new entrant will seek to engage the community while offering robust documentation and technical support for its users.

Free collaboration in Webstudio

Webstudio focuses on free collaboration, enabling all users, whether they have a free or paid account, to create and collaborate in real time with other developers.

For its part, Webflow also offers real-time collaboration functionalities, but these are only available in its paid plans for editor mode and its enterprise plan for simultaneous development on the same project.

Native extensions for your development needs

Webstudio will stand out for its concept of"native extensions". Each member of the community can add functionality to the platform using components and plugins. Components enable the integration of third-party libraries such as Tailwind, Material UI, Shopify or WordPress, while plugins provide a user interface for integrating more complex third-party systems. This will enable users to customize and enrich their projects "effortlessly".

Webflow offers apps that can be directly connected to your project. Alternatively, experienced developers in the community also create solutions, chrome extensions for Webflow, etc. to add functionality to the Designer or your website.

Versatility of Webstudio backend vs. comfort of Webflow CMS

Unlike other platforms that build their own content management systems (CMS) or databases, Webstudio takes a"backend-less" approach. They offer integrations with various CMS and databases, allowing users to use these systems as if they were built directly into the platform. This approach offers greater flexibility and a wider range of choices for designers and developers.

Webflow, on the other hand, offers an integrated CMS solution, providing a more centralized experience for content management. A useful all-in-one offering for managing your content and your site in one place.

Design Tokens vs. Classes in web design

Webstudio offersDesign Tokens for efficient style management. Design tokens are reusable styles that can be combined, synchronized with design programs and easily managed. Unlike traditional class-based approaches, Webstudio offers full access to CSS pseudo-classes and custom attribute selectors, enabling designers to style each element with precision.

Webstudio's "Design Tokens" offer a more modular and reusable approach, while Webflow's classes allow more precise control over the styles applied to elements.

Website performance

Webstudio focuses on the creation of high-performance sites. The platform integrates advanced open source technologies such as optimized images in WebP format, a worker-based cloud and efficient rendering thanks to the Remix framework. These features are designed to guarantee high performance for sites built on Webstudio.

For its part, Webflow also offers multiple solutions to deliver the best web performance to its users, and this is one of the points for which it is renowned.

Ownership and confidentiality

Respecting users' property and privacy is a priority for Webstudio. The platform offers RGPD (General Data Protection Regulation) compliant hosting and guarantees that user data is treated with care and respect.

Unlike Webflow, Webstudio does not offer tracking by default via Google Analytics. In fact, the platform doesn't track any activity unless users choose to include tracking scripts in their sites. This approach allows users to retain full control over their data and avoid being locked into the platform. In addition, Webstudio stands out for its commitment to open source, which means that the platform's source code is available online. This ensures greater transparency and gives users greater freedom to explore and customize their development experience.

By emphasizing data ownership and offering an open source environment, Webstudio is positioned as an attractive alternative for users concerned about their privacy and freedom in visual development.

Webflow also offers a high level of control, but some features, such as tracking via Google Analytics, are included by default, and hosting is mandatory on AWS servers.

Pricing model between the two software packages

Webstudio's flexible pricing allows users to choose the plan that best suits their needs, whether for non-commercial sites, advanced teams or large teams with specific requirements.

For non-commercial sites, the"Hobby" plan is available free of charge. This plan includes 5 custom domains, 10,000 page views per month, 2 GB of asset storage, unlimited sites, pages and contributors, plus community support.

For teams and advanced users, the "Pro" plan is offered at $20 per account per month, with annual billing. This plan offers additional benefits such as unlimited custom domains, 500,000 page views per month, 20 GB asset storage, 10 version history, custom integrations, advanced sharing and priority issue tracking.

Larger teams with specific needs can opt for the customized "Enterprise" plan. This plan offers unlimited functionality, self-hosting, single sign-on (SSO), granular permissions and a customer success manager. For more information on this plan, users can contact the Webstudio team.

In addition to the Cloud plans, Webstudio also offers a free, open source option called"Open Source Builder". This plan is aimed at those who wish to self-host or integrate Webstudio into their projects. It offers basic features such as permissions management, link sharing and the ability to deploy Docker containers. However, Webstudio's cloud-specific features are not included in this plan.

Webflow offers different plans, a little more expensive, but with more features. Understand Webflow pricing.

Webstudio presents itself as a serious competitor to Webflow in the field of visual development. With its community approach, free collaboration, native extensibility, backend versatility, style management using "Design Tokens", optimized performance, focus on data ownership and unique pricing model, Webstudio seeks to stand out and attract web designers.

While Webflow remains a mainstay for the time being, it will be interesting to see how Webstudio evolves and establishes itself in this ever-changing ecosystem.