The original post was on What I Learnt Using Webflow - Reading Time: 3 Mins and cover image by Photo by Antonio Francisco on Unsplash
Introduction
Is low code or no code a new way for software development? The divide falls into two camps of developers.
The first camp of developers believes that low code or no code is a toy and avoid it at all cost. The other camp views low code/no code as an extension that we can integrate as part of the software or service we build for our customers/users. That forms a package like a bladesmith incorporating tools to forge a better blade.
If your reading this, I believe that you fall under the camp that views low code/no code as part of your software development toolkit to deliver value for your customers/users. I hope this article sheds some light about Webflow a low code platform that I used to teach people with disabilities (PWD) to get jobs or gigs for Project DUST.
The Pricing in Webflow is Confusing
To understand the pricing of webflow. It took me literally around 30 mins and watching afew videos to understanding their subscription plans. Webflow might surprise you when their purpose was to make it easy for creators to create. Webflow has a very confusing price plan that will turn anyone off. If you do not know the rationale on why do they structure their pricing this way. Webflow comes with two plans that are account and site plan:
- Account - This plan contains a list of features that caters to you to create websites using webflow as either an individual or a team.
If you are a freelancer and you would like to specialise in using webflow. Just go for the Pro plan as it unlocks alot of features that you need to create websites for your clients.
- Site - The plan is only for a
singlewebsite. Webflow gives you an option to subscribe to this plan. If you want to use your domain name instead of the one provided by webflow or specific you are looking for features like CRM to store more data or e-commerce.
The Layout of Your Website is Important
Webflow makes creating a website easy in less than 15 mins. But the drawback is that you need to understand web design principles and the use of various elements in Webflow.
I would watch the video called How To Structure Websites Efficiently With Webflow to make your website mobile responsive without being stuck in fixing the layout differences for desktop or the mobile view.
I had spent tons of time to fix the layout for a project to be mobile responsive, so I hope you won't make the same mistakes as me.
Cleanup & Handoff to Client
One of the beauties of Webflow is the ease of handoff of your website to your clients. Webflow provides you with three different ways for you to hand off your website to your client. These require you to have an individual or team webflow subscription to do the following:
Exporting of the website as HTML, JavaScript & CSS. Your customer can search for hosting providers to host the website. This option might be cheaper than webflow provided they do not use any CRM or E-commerce features.
Customer Billing - Allows you to create a separate client billing, so that your customer could pay you on top of the support & maintenance fee with the webflow subscription.
Website Transfer - This option is my prefered choice. That allows you to transfer the website you had build in your webflow account to another webflow account for customers who want to manage the website themselves.
Conclusion
It is my belief as a developer you must focus on delivering value to your user/customer. Therefore I do not have a strong opinion about technology. I believe tools like webflow can allow you to leverage yourself to focus on a higher value work that matters.
I hope with this article, the confidence to use a low-code or no-code tool like Webflow while avoiding the costly mistakes that hamper you to deliver value at a breakneck speed.
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Top comments (2)
+1 on the web design principles.
I was having nightmares when I was creating a school website on Webflow. In my dream, the site was breaking when I published it which caused panic that led to frantically waking up and checking the site on my phone and computer... which was not broken. 😂
Yeah I just told my students to focus on using pre-built templates and modify it to fit their needs.
As I don't really expect them to be great with design. Even I'm bad with design but I'm just good at picking beautiful websites or template.