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Why Enterprise-Size Companies Are Switching to Webflow

Even though it has been around since 2012, Webflow still hasn’t had “the big breakthrough”, and the reality is, not so many people still know about it. 

But…

SurferSEO, Bonsai, Upwork, Lattice… These are just a few enterprise-size companies that called the shot and switched to Webflow.

The next logical question one might have is “why” – what did these industry giants see in Webflow that made them make this hot-take decision?

We’ve been working with Webflow for over 2 years and talked with hundreds of clients, so in this post, we’re going to cover the main reasons why enterprise-size companies are switching to Webflow.

Reduced Maintenance Costs

Maintenance costs are often overseen by small businesses and usually don’t play a significant role in making a decision to make a transition to another platform. The reason for that is simple – they are usually so small that they’re neglectable, and switching to an entirely new system doesn’t do much for them.

However, in the case of enterprise businesses, maintenance costs can easily go up to $5000 per month, which means $60,000 per year.

Maintenance costs usually include:

  • Domain name costs
  • SSL Certificate costs
  • Hosting costs
  • Tech support costs
  • Plugin costs
  • CMS costs
  • Email hosting cost
  • SEO & Marketing costs

Since a majority of these services are dispersed to various providers, they can cost much more

In the case of Webflow, their all-in-one solution provides a much more centralized system which affects not only the cost of maintenance but also the improved operational side of things which we’ll discuss a bit later.

All this makes perfect sense if we’re talking about switching from WordPress to Webflow, but if we think about other platforms that combine these services as well, what would make Webflow actually stand out among others?

The thing with Webflow is that it offers incredible flexibility and customization and in that field, no one really comes even close.

This has nothing to do with maintenance costs, but it’s definitely a key factor for enterprise companies that most certainly prefer custom design over template-based design.

From that aspect, reduced maintenance costs combined with unlimited flexibility and customization definitely make Webflow a smart choice to consider.

Production Costs Lowered by Lean Operations

By production, we mean all campaigns that serve the purpose of further development and evolution of the company’s website.

This is actually where Webflow shines brightest because they managed to merge development and design into one – Webflow designers can cover the development part, and that’s the key to lowering production costs.

Let’s say that a company needs to develop a new blog section on its website.

The process for this campaign looks almost identical both for Webflow users and non-Webflow users:

  1. Develop design
  2. Get approval from upper management
  3. Implement the design

However, the difference is huge as in the traditional way of doing things multiple blockers can potentially occur:

  • The design and development teams both need to make changes so the other side can fulfill their job
  • If there’s no web developer, hiring one even as a freelancer costs money
  • SEO optimization back and forth between SEO specialists and developers
  • Future updates pull the same ineffective process

All these things cost a ton of time while someone is clocking their hourly fee. 

Webflow’s bridge between design and development is the key factor here, as Webflow designers can develop and implement the design on their own, shortening the project's lifespan, and time spent on back-and-forth communication and therefore lowering the production cost.

Also, it’s important to mention that Webflow will assist the designer with creating SEO-friendly code, and help them with best SEO practices by following Google Search Central’s guidelines.

This allows so much space not only for further development but also for marketing teams, as with proper education, they will be able to fulfill their needs without involving developers, which again, cuts back the project timeline significantly.

Enterprise companies are aware that a lot of money can be saved by optimizing and utilizing existing processes, and since production processes cost a significant amount of money, it makes perfect sense for them to reconsider switching to another platform such as Webflow that offers long-term benefits.

Flexibility But Without Coding

We already mentioned how Webflow is flexible and customizable, but frankly, flexibility is such a big part of Webflow’s identity that we had to cover it in detail.

The most customizable and flexible option is definitely coding from scratch without any CMS but since that costs too much time and money, we look for website builders or content management systems to help with the process.

There are many platforms out there that offer amazing flexibility such as Drupal and WordPress, but the problem with them is that they require vast technical knowledge.

One does not simply master Drupal or WordPress (to create any product of their imagination).

Funny meme about how much technical knowledge is required for using Drupal and Wordpress compared to Webflow.

Again, it’s only a matter of how many resources you put in – whatever you want to create with Webflow, you can create it in WordPress, Drupal, or Magento, but at what cost? How many people do you need for that campaign?

Saying that, big companies require extended flexibility and space for customization but if they see that they can keep those perks at a lower cost of hiring and faster execution time, then the decision is a no-brainer.

As time passes by, all platforms will evolve, and one might say that some of them will simply reach the end of their lifespan as technologies are changing. However, we’re quite certain that Webflow will not be one of those companies, as they are on the right track to the almost certain no-code future…

Which brings us to the next part…

Keeping Up With No-Code Trend

Let’s face it – the time will come when web development will be owned by systems that don’t require the developer to write the code manually.

Sooner or later, humans will stop writing the code manually, and for every bit of code needed to create something, they will use software/platforms/tools.

That time started with the first development of no-code CMS platforms, and in today's world, Webflow is definitely on the top.

Enterprise businesses know that in order to keep growing they have to keep up with the trends, and in the web development world, no-code is definitely one of the biggest trends.

Search trend for the term no-code development platform over time.

This also pulls the argument that other platforms that still need developers to achieve complex designs can evolve into no-code platforms, so in that case why Webflow?

Well, because Webflow is currently one of the leaders in that part of the industry, and since their mission was no-code web development from the start, it’s safe to assume that they intend to stay on top.

Many enterprise companies recognize this which makes it also a part of their decision-making process to make the transition.

Conclusion

According to W3 Techs, Webflow still holds a pretty small percentage of the market share, but if you take a closer look you will notice that besides Shopify, Wix, and Squarespace, it’s the only growing CMS.

Market share yearly trends for content management systems.

This means that in the next few years, Webflow will most certainly reach its deserved spot among the top 5 most used CMS platforms, and considering the factors we covered above, it’s safe to say that many enterprise-size companies will make the transition.

Reduced maintenance and production costs, the opportunity for leaner operations management, endless possibilities with design customization all along with no-code trend… In reality, those are just a few of the many benefits Webflow offers, so if you’re considering making the switch, we’d love to help you out!

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