So you're trying to choose between Webflow and Elementor?
We get it. It's not an easy decision because, on the surface, they seem quite similar. Both offer intuitive, code-free options to build and launch websites. They both give you a visual canvas with intuitive controls, so you're not bogged down in the nitty-gritty of HTML, CSS, and JavaScript.
However, as a web design agency that's used both extensively, we can tell you there are some major differences. While they share that core "no-code" philosophy, these platforms take vastly different approaches. There are several key nuances that can significantly change your website-building experience.
We wrote this guide to eliminate the guesswork and analysis paralysis and help you make an informed decision based on facts. By the end of this Webflow vs. Elementor comparison, you'll learn:
- The key strengths and weaknesses of each platform.
- A crystal clear understanding of when to use Webflow and when Elementor makes more sense.
- How they differ in terms of design principles, performance, security, pricing, hosting, and maintenance needs.
- Which one provides more design freedom and customization.
- Expert tips on choosing the right visual website builder for your website project.
Quick answer: Webflow vs. Elementor
Considering all the factors like security, design flexibility, scalability, price, and value for money, we recommend Webflow for business websites. Elementor is a good option if you plan on building personal sites using free plugins, but the costs add up when you consider hosting and plugin costs separately.
Elementor vs. Webflow: the core difference
It's important to understand the fundamental difference between the two before we get into the finer details. Elementor runs on WordPress, a platform that heavily relies on plugins to extend its functionality and perform various tasks. In contrast, Webflow is an all-inclusive platform designed to minimize the need for external plugins.
Elementor provides a seamless drag-and-drop experience within the WordPress ecosystem, while Webflow offers a more comprehensive web design solution that combines visual design with managed hosting. This difference in the design approach shapes how users interact with them.
User interface
Webflow
Webflow provides two user interfaces: the Webflow Designer and the Webflow Editor.
- Webflow Designer: The Designer provides a drag-and-drop interface with a ton of customization options. It's ideal for designers and developers familiar with HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. While no coding is required in the Webflow CMS, the interface can be intimidating for non-designers due to the sheer number of options and granular control you get.
- Webflow Editor: If you're a developer, this is the interface you hand over to your client, webmaster, or content manager. The Editor view allows you to make simple changes to content and media.
Elementor
Elementor, as a WordPress plugin, caters to users looking for a streamlined web design experience within the WordPress environment. It has an intuitive live visual editor that allows you to customize designs in real-time without coding. The designs and templates have limited personalization options compared to Webflow.
The verdict:
Personally, we prefer Webflow because it gives us the best of both worlds: extensive customization options (with Webflow Designer) and an intuitive interface for clients to update content (with Webflow Editor).
But we understand Webflow and Elementor cater to different types of users:
- Webflow is ideal for designers and developers who want to create custom websites for established businesses and still let their clients update their content themselves.
- Elementor is a great choice if you've already chosen WordPress and are building a personal website. The user-friendly templates will allow you to build responsive websites quickly and easily.
Value for money
Webflow
Webflow uses a straightforward pricing model. The monthly subscription includes all the tools you need to run a fully functional website. You get the animation pack, hosting, backups, image compression, Amazon CloudFront CDN, and SEO features without extra charges.
Elementor
While Elementor seems cheaper on the surface, it changes when you dig a little deeper.
It comes with multiple hidden costs that aren't apparent until you look at the bigger picture.
For a full-featured site, you'll have to pay for:
- WordPress hosting ($144 USD per year)
- Elementor Pro add-on ($99/year, including the pop-up and custom code)
- Image compression ($8.33 per month for 20,000 image credits)
That's $343 per year to run a website. You can get Webflow's mid-level site plan by paying $276 annually.
The verdict:
Unless you're setting up a basic, personal site with just the free version of Elementor and cheap shared hosting, the costs quickly add up in WordPress. When you consider the cost of add-ons on Elementor (Pro builder, hosting, and image compression), Webflow offers more features at a lower price.
Ease of Use
Webflow ease of use
Webflow has earned a reputation for making website design accessible to non-coders through its user-friendly interface. Here are some things that make it easy to use:
- Visual, drag-and-drop interface: Webflow Designer lets you drag and drop elements to build your website layout. This eliminates the need for coding, making it easier for non-technical users.
- Pre-built layout and component libraries: Webflow offers a vast collection of pre-designed layouts, templates, and components that you can easily customize based on your project needs. This lets you focus on branding and content rather than starting from scratch.
- No switching views: With Webflow, you can edit your website directly on the canvas without having to switch between different views. This streamlined workflow makes it easier to visualize and iterate on your designs.
- Simple animation tools: Creating interactions and animations in Webflow is relatively straightforward. The platform gives you the tools and controls to make your website interactive without writing complex code.
- Clear separation of styling and content: Webflow (via Designer and Editor) allows you to separate styling from maintenance, making each aspect easier to manage. This separation simplifies the website design and maintenance process. Developers and designers can use the Designer view and hand over the Editor view to the clients for content updates.
Elementor ease of use
As a WordPress page builder, Elementor leverages the familiarity and simplicity of WordPress while providing an intuitive drag-and-drop interface. Here's what makes it easy to use:
- Live, front-end editing: Elementor allows you to edit your website's pages and content directly on the front end, providing a true "what you see is what you get" (WYSIWYG) experience. This visual approach makes it easier to visualize and make changes without having to switch between different views.
- Pre-designed templates and blocks: Like Webflow, Elementor comes with a library of pre-designed templates and blocks that you can use as a starting point for your website. This can save time and effort, especially for users who are not experienced in design.
- Simple point-and-click styling: You can change colors, fonts, and other design elements with the click of a button, making it accessible to users with little design experience.
- Familiarity for existing WordPress users: If you know your way around WordPress, Elementor will feel like a natural extension. This makes the learning curve less steep.
The verdict:
Both Webflow and Elementor with WordPress offer relatively user-friendly design experiences, especially compared to hand-coding.
The biggest challenge with Elementor is having to navigate the WordPress backend and the Elementor interface at the same time. This context-switching between WordPress and the page builder can be confusing for people who are new to WordPress. Besides, WordPress requires you to handle hosting, set up plugins, and optimize performance, which can be frustrating for non-technical users.
Pricing
Webflow pricing
Webflow has a pricing structure with two types of plans: site plans and workspaces. Site plans are further divided into general and ecommerce plans.
General plans start from $14 monthly, with the most expensive enterprise plan offering custom pricing.
Webflow Commerce
The ecommerce plans start from $29 per month for a standard plan and go up to $212 per month for the advanced plan.
Webflow workplace for in-house teams
Workspace plans cater to designers and developers, with options for in-house teams and freelancers/agencies.
Webflow workplace for freelancers
Webflow also offers a free plan allowing unlimited use of Webflow Designer and Editor for up to two non-hosted projects and hosting for one website on a Webflow subdomain with limited features.
At Trajectory, we choose the right plan for each client so they don't have to worry about billing complications. We also offer an Ongoing Partnership Package that includes search engine optimization (SEO), content updates, conversion rate optimization (CRO), graphics changes, layout modifications, tracking code implementation, and copy revisions. If you want to discuss your website project, you can contact us here.
Elementor pricing
Elementor also has different pricing plans to suit different customer requirements. You can start with a free plan that provides basic features for one website. The essential plan, priced at $59 annually, unlocks pro features for one website. For those managing multiple sites, the expert plan for $199 allows access to pro features for 25 websites. The agency plan, $399 a month, lets you build up to 1,000 sites.
You get 300 templates, 50 widgets, a theme builder, a pop-up builder, a WooCommerce builder, motion effects, custom fonts, custom CSS, dynamic content, a role manager, and 24/7 support as part of the Pro package.
Elementor WordPress hosting
Elementor also offers an all-in-one solution that includes WordPress hosting, ranging from $9.99 to $49.99.
Elementor static website hosting
Elementor now offers static site hosting. You can easily convert your WordPress website into a static site for high performance.
The verdict:
Both Webflow and Elementor do a great job with the pricing structure by offering different pricing structures for different types of users.
SEO
Search engine optimization (SEO) is crucial for increasing online visibility and driving organic traffic from search engines like Google. A well-optimized site with clean code, fast load times, and proper metadata can rank higher in search results, leading to more visitors and conversions.
Webflow SEO features
Webflow websites load faster by default, thanks to its lightweight, optimized code. It automatically generates clean, semantic HTML and follows best practices for on-page optimization. Webflow has robust SEO capabilities built right into its platform. Some key SEO features in Webflow include:
- Automatic XML sitemaps and robot.txt files
- Easy customization of meta titles, descriptions, and alt text
- Built-in basic schema markup for rich snippets
- Automatic optimization for mobile responsiveness
- Fast page load speeds with optimized code
Webflow's recent releases support some SEO plugins that extend and automate the native SEO functionality.
Elementor SEO features
Elementor, being a WordPress plugin, inherits many of WordPress's positive— and negative—features. The positive is that it works seamlessly with popular SEO plugins like Yoast SEO and Rank Math. These SEO plugins can automate a lot of the SEO work for you. Some SEO features these plugins can handle are:
- XML sitemaps
- Advanced schema
- Customizable meta titles/descriptions
- Open Graph integration for social sharing
- Breadcrumb navigation
- Automatic image optimization
The negative is that Elementor relies on WordPress which requires significantly more adjustments and plugins to achieve optimal loading times. When you add Elementor's bloated, heavy code to that mix, you're going to see a noticeable performance drop.
The verdict:
Both Webflow and Elementor with WordPress offer strong SEO tools and capabilities, but Webflow has the edge with its seamless, built-in SEO optimization, clean code, and fast loading times. Elementor sites can be slow, affecting user experience and indirectly affecting conversions and SEO.
Available tools
Webflow tools
Webflow prides itself on being an all-in-one website building and hosting solution packed with powerful tools and features. Here are some of the tools that are available in the Webflow website builder:
- Drag-and-drop visual editor for design freedom
- Advanced interactions and animation toolset
- Built-in CMS for managing content
- Form builder and database integration
- Collaboration and client feedback tools
- Automatic SSL, CDN, and site backups
All of Webflow's core tools are included in its paid pricing plans free of charge. Webflow also has a growing library of free and paid templates and UI kits to kick-start projects.
Elementor tools
The free version of Elementor provides basic page-building capabilities like drag-and-drop editing, responsive design controls, and pre-designed block templates. However, most advanced features require the paid Elementor Pro add-on.
Here's a quick summary of the available tools:
Free Version
- Basic drag-and-drop page builder
- Limited widget library
- Limited customization options
Elementor Pro
The pro version, available with an extra subscription, unlocks:
- Advanced theme building
- Motion effects and scrolling animations
- Pop-up Builder
- WooCommerce builder
- Form Builder
- Marketing integrations
- Professional templates library
- More design assets and template kits
The verdict:
Webflow comes with a comprehensive set of design tools, whereas the free version of Elementor is fairly basic. You need the pro version to unlock its full potential. Even with Elementor Pro, you'll still be missing some features, and you'll have to buy add-ons separately. All these add-ons can quickly add up, driving up your monthly bill.
Learning curve
You won't need to worry about the learning curve if you hire a design agency to build your site, but if you're doing it yourself, you must factor it in.
Webflow learning curve
While Webflow is generally intuitive, it does have a moderate learning curve, especially for those new to web design. Its comprehensive toolset and unique visual canvas workflow require an adjustment period. However, Webflow provides extensive resources to help you manage this:
- Webflow University
- Active community forums
- An extensive documentation library
- Hundreds of independent blogs, YouTube videos, and courses
For experienced designers, the transition to Webflow should be relatively straightforward because it uses familiar design concepts.
Elementor learning curve
Elementor is very beginner-friendly with its straightforward drag-and-drop interface. It benefits from WordPress's simplicity and popularity.
Learning resources include:
- Elementor Academy
- Guides and video tutorials
- Comprehensive knowledge base
- Community forums and Facebook groups
- Third-party courses and videos
The main learning curve is understanding how Elementor integrates with WordPress themes and plugins.
The verdict
While both Webflow and Elementor have ample learning resources, Elementor has the advantage for DIY site builders or those already familiar with WordPress.
Webflow's unique design approach requires more upfront learning, though experienced designers may adapt more easily. Elementor's integration with the world's most popular CMS makes it very approachable.
Templates and components
Templates give you access to pre-built pages and sections made by professional designers. They provide a convenient starting point for those looking to quickly set up a website.
Webflow template library
Webflow has an extensive collection of both free and paid pre-built templates. The marketplace has over 2,000 templates, including full site designs, UI kits, one-pagers, and more. While they are a good starting point, the level of customization is pretty limited if you don't have a deep knowledge of Webflow Designer.
Elementor template library
Elementor offers 30 Plus website kits (including Home, Services, About Us, 404, and Contact pages), and 100+ responsive section templates. You can import these templates in one click and tailor them by changing the colors, fonts etc. If you don't want to use a WordPress theme, Elementor has its own lightweight theme.
The verdict:
Webflow outshines Elementor with its extensive collection of over 2,000 templates, ranging from full site designs to UI kits. These templates are more customizable than those available in Elementor.
While templates are great for personal sites or affiliate sites, we strongly discourage companies from using them. For a professional website, you need a custom design that reflects your brand identity and values. This involves more than importing a template and changing a few colors and adding your logo.
Ecosystem
Webflow and Elementor each have their own ecosystems. Elementor, as a WordPress plugin, benefits from the extensive WordPress ecosystem but has a more limited ecosystem of its own. Webflow offers home-built tools and integrations to web designers and no-code developers.
Webflow ecosystem
Webflow has cultivated a thriving ecosystem around its platform, offering a wealth of resources and third-party integrations:
- Curated template and UI kit marketplace
- Extensive integration library (e.g., Zapier, Mailchimp, Stripe)
- Freelancer and agency directory
- Active community forums and meetup groups
- Webflow University training program
Elementor ecosystem
With Elementor, you gain access to WordPress's extensive theme, plugin, and resource ecosystem.
- WordPress plugins
- Some third-party add-ons and widget libraries
- Community forums and Facebook groups
- Elementor academy
- Possibly the largest collection of independent learning resources
The verdict:
Webflow's minimal reliance on third-party plugins reduces security risk and maintenance, which is a big plus in our books. For people looking to leverage WordPress's vast ecosystem, Elementor is a good option.
Hosting comparison
Webflow hosting
Webflow offers fast, reliable, and secure managed hosting as part of their subscription. It includes Amazon hosting servers and Fastly, a global CDN that delivers your content globally without latency. Webflow has a strong focus on performance and uptime with a 99.99% uptime guarantee. It also supports premium security features like firewalls and compliance with the best security standards.
Elementor hosting
Elementor doesn't include hosting with its Pro plugin builder; you have to buy it separately. They offer a variety of plans to suit different website requirements. Here's a breakdown of the key features and prices:
- Lite Plan: Ideal for starters, it includes hosting for one website, 10K monthly visits, 5 GB storage, free website builder, and 24/7 support for $36 today, renewing at $144 per year.
- Basic Plan: This plan includes hosting for one website, 25K monthly visits, 10 GB storage, and more for $180 yearly. With Pro Builder and Free AI, this is suitable for those who need more features than the Lite plan offers.
- Business Plan: For those looking for advanced features, this plan offers hosting for one website, 50K monthly visits, 20 GB storage, Free AI, Free Image Optimizer, and 24/7 premium support for $300 per year.
- Grow & Scale Plans: Tailored for scaling businesses, they offer hosting for 3 to 10 websites with varying monthly visits, storage, advanced features, and priority support.
The verdict:Webflow's first-party, optimized hosting provides a seamless, high-performance experience without any performance optimization. If you're going with Elementor hosting, the cost adds up quickly. And independent WordPress hosting requires careful research and configuration to find a fast, secure, and scalable host, especially for larger sites. For professional sites prioritizing speed, reliability and security, Webflow's integrated premium managed hosting is a major advantage over self-hosted WordPress sites.
Security
The different approaches taken by Elementor Website Builder and Webflow have a major impact on security.
Elementor security
Elementor Website Builder, being built on WordPress, inherits both the strengths and vulnerabilities of this popular CMS. While WordPress core software is regularly updated to address security issues, outdated plugins, and themes pose the biggest risk. If you have additional Elementor add ons, it introduces another layer of potential vulnerabilities, risk of plugin conflicts and incompatibility. Securing a WordPress site with Elementor involves consistent updates, hardening measures, and reliance on third-party security plugins like Wordfence.
Webflow security
On the other hand, Webflow offers an inherently secure architecture with built-in security measures. Webflow automatically updates web applications, providing a more secure environment. The isolated building environment with limited plugin usage also minimizes potential security loopholes.
Moreover, Webflow has global DDoS & WAF protection, firewalls, SSL/TLS encryption, HTTP/2 and HTTP/3 standards, and HSTS enabled by default. It also comes with automated form filtering, vulnerability scanning, and compliance with industry standards such as SOC 2 Type II, CCPA, and GDPR, enhancing overall security and data protection measures.
The verdict:
WordPress needs a lot more manual effort and proper maintenance to have reasonable security. You'll have to rely on third-party plugins to secure your website. In contrast to this, Webflow's closed architecture avoids many common website vulnerabilities by design. Its automatic updates, client-side coding, and built-in protections make Webflow a more secure, lower-maintenance solution—-especially useful for websites handling customer data.
E-commerce features
While we recommend dedicated ecommerce platforms like Shopify for online stores, Webflow or WordPress are also fine if you're insistent on using one of these platforms.
Webflow Commerce
Webflow Commerce offers customizable product pages, personalized transactional emails, tailored and checkout flows. It offers a range of pre-designed templates and customizable elements that gives you complete design control with a drag-and-drop editor.
It offers seamless integration with various payment gateways like Stripe, Apple Pay, Google Pay, and PayPal. You can manage orders, shipping, and taxes efficiently while connecting with third-party apps for extra functionality. The platform integrates with external platforms like MailChimp and Google Analytics for a comprehensive ecommerce experience. WebFlow has built-in SEO-friendly features.
While it works for most basic online stores, it won't be a good fit if you need advanced features like multi-location inventory management, backorder management, and pre-order management.
The Webflow ecommerce plans offer different features tailored to the needs of online retailers. Here's a summary of the key points for each plan:
Standard Plan:
- Ideal for new businesses.
- Allows for up to 500 ecommerce items.
- Includes 2,000 CMS items.
- 2% transaction fee.
- All CMS plan features are included.
Plus Plan:
- Best for higher volume businesses.
- Supports up to 5,000 ecommerce items.
- Includes 10,000 CMS items.
- 0% transaction fee.
- $200K annual sales volume.
- All Business plan features are included.
Advanced Plan:
- Advanced Plan is suited for businesses with a large inventory
- Designed to scale online businesses.
- Supports up to 15,000 ecommerce items.
- Includes 10,000 CMS items.
- 0% transaction fee.
- All Business plan features are included.
Each plan has its pricing options for monthly and yearly billing, with discounts available for annual subscriptions.
WooCommerce
As Elementor doesn't have ecommerce functionalities, it depends on WordPress to do this. So it's more like WordPress vs Webflow in this case. WooCommerce is a plugin that allows you to create an online store on WordPress. It's like the Swiss Army knife for online stores with everything from inventory management to analytics.
WooCommerce allows you to tailor almost every aspect of the online store, including layout, design, and functionality. However, setting it up is more technically demanding than other eCommerce platforms since it requires WordPress installation and configuration.
Woopayments, the payment plugin, offers competitive transaction rates with no setup charge or monthly fees, making it easy and cost-effective to process payments. WooCommerce teams up with WordPress plugins for advanced SEO and marketing tools. For people who don't mind the learning curve, it has a large community of developers and experts ready to offer support and guidance.
You might need a few plugins to build a fully functional online store on WordPress. The cost of running a store depends on the extensions that you use. Here's a detailed guide explaining the costs associated with running a WooCommerce store.
The verdict:
WebFlow stands out for its design customization, user-friendliness, and advanced features like customizable product fields, checkout experience, personalized transaction emails, client-friendly order management dashboard, and automatic tax calculations. You can extend the functionality even further with powerful integrations like Zapier, MailChimp, Printful, and QuickBooks, to name a few.
Collaboration features
Collaboration in Webflow
Webflow has built-in collaboration tools designed to streamline collaboration between designers, developers, and stakeholders throughout the web design process. The platform facilitates efficient collaboration with features like role-based team access controls. Workspace owners can define permissions for admins, designers, and publishers.
Teammates can switch between design and edit modes, syncing live updates. Design control can be seamlessly handed off in real time for a smooth workflow. The canvas displays avatars to indicate that other team members are editing, making collaboration easy.
Another standout capability is Webflow's live in-canvas commenting and annotation feature, which lets team members provide feedback and suggestions directly on the design canvas. This contextual approach to feedback facilitates clear communication and eliminates ambiguity compared to disjointed comment threads.
Collaboration in Elementor
Elementor doesn't have built-in collaboration tools. Instead, it relies on the broader WordPress ecosystem and third-party integrations to enable team collaboration. However, WordPress lacks the visual feedback and approval workflows found in Webflow. The user roles feature can be used as a workaround to control access levels, but the experience pales in comparison with Webflow's integrated approach. Client feedback and collaboration often require external communication channels, which can feel disjointed.
The verdict:
While WordPress provides basic multi-user collaboration, Webflow has more integrated, purpose-built tools for efficient teamwork between designers, developers, and stakeholders. Features like live in-canvas commenting and client approvals make Webflow better suited for streamlined collaboration— especially for agencies and remote teams.
CMS
Webflow CMS
Webflow includes a built-in content management system (CMS) that allows users to create and manage dynamic content on their websites. While powerful, Webflow's CMS does have some notable limitations:
- The basic plan limits the CMS database to 10,000 items, which can limit large content libraries or e-commerce catalogs.
- There is a maximum of 100 static pages allowed per site on the basic plan.
- Only one nested collection list (e.g., categories within blog posts) is permitted per page.
- While there are workarounds and techniques to extend Webflow's CMS capabilities, these limitations can pose challenges for websites requiring hundreds of blog posts, multiple authors, job board listings, or extensive nested content structures.
Webflow's higher-tier plans offer increased CMS database limits and static page allowances, mitigating some of these restrictions for larger projects or content-heavy sites. We've covered the pros and cons of Webflow in a standalone article.
WordPress CMS
WordPress, on the other hand, has a highly robust CMS with virtually unlimited content creation potential.
It has:
- No hard limits on the number of posts, pages, or custom post types.
- It fully supports nested taxonomies and content relationships.
- Easily accommodates multiple authors and contributor roles.
- Extensive plugin ecosystem for added CMS functionality.
While WordPress's core CMS is powerful, it can require additional plugins and customization to achieve advanced content modeling and front-end presentation desired by many professional web designers.
The verdict:
For smaller websites or those with modest content requirements, Webflow's CMS may suffice, especially considering its seamless integration with the designer. However, WordPress's virtually unlimited CMS capabilities give it a significant advantage for larger, content-heavy websites, blogs with multiple authors, or projects requiring extensive nested content structures. It's important to carefully evaluate your long-term content strategy and scalability needs.
Customer support
The customer support is fairly good for both platforms, so let's call it a tie.
FAQs
Is Elementor Pro better than Webflow?
No, while Elementor Pro unlocks more features, Webflow remains the more comprehensive all-in-one solution for professional web design.
Is Webflow better for SEO than WordPress?
Yes, Webflow has built-in SEO features and generates cleaner code, which results in faster-loading websites that are better optimized for SEO than typical unoptimized WordPress sites.
Is Webflow faster than Elementor?
Yes, Webflow's lightweight code and optimized architecture typically lead to faster load times than Elementor-built WordPress sites.
Is Webflow harder than Elementor?
Yes, Webflow requires a steeper learning curve, and the Webflow Designer interface can feel complex if you're not a designer. But if you're hiring a developer, you can use the Webflow Editor interface, which is easier than Elementor.
Which One is Better For Small Business Websites?
Webflow is an excellent choice for small businesses looking for a professional, high-performance website with streamlined design tools. Elementor can work well for basic small business websites, especially if cost is a major factor, though advanced features require paid add-ons.
What Is Webflow?
Webflow is an all-in-one tool for professional web design, CMS, hosting, and e-commerce - without coding.
What Is Elementor?
Elementor is a popular WordPress page builder plugin with drag-and-drop design capabilities.
