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Webflow: A New Web Development Platform for Developers in the Future

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Ben Classified

In today's ever-changing and competitive market many DIY website building platforms try to convince users as the universal solution for any type of design challenge and ease of building a website without any sort of code challenges. But many of them fail to live up to the promises made by them and only a few fits into the scenario. In this article, we will try to explore a future-ready tool named Webflow, which facilitates users to design-build and launch their websites with ease without seeking the help of any website development services from agencies. 

 Before exploring Webflow, let us try and understand the challenges which web development companies in Kenya normally face while creating websites.

  • Visual designers handover the blueprint of design to developers to work upon which is done through coding and becomes a back-and-forth process as developers are supposed to go through extra iteration of coding.
  • Graphic designers can produce splendid effects through high-level prototypes but it becomes difficult for developers to reproduce the same through coding.
  • Responsiveness of the design is another mandate which needs to be followed which becomes difficult at times due to coding snags etc.

 Webflow is a simple drag and drop tool used to create responsive websites without the knowledge of coding and designing. It is a real competitor to DIY software like Wix, Shopify, and Squarespace along with traditional Content Management Systems like WordPress and Joomla.

 The Webflow designer interface is moreover similar to Photoshop one. The interface allows drag and drops HTML elements on to the canvas and styling CSS properties. The versatility and features of Webflow are such that you cannot resist using it. To highlight a few of them are:

  • Whatever we create in the visual editor of Webflow, they are enriched with HTML, CSS, and JavaScript.
  • There is an option to reuse the CSS classes once defined anywhere in the code where the styling remains the same.
  • Webflow is bundled with hosting plans also other than the DIY platform.

Webflow Content Management System

Launching a blog using Webflow is a bit complex when compared to the other blogging platform like WordPress but it is worth an effort as WordPress has failed in ease of customization and user-friendliness. In WordPress users are tied with the default template theme and denied making any changes to the elements without the help of any third-party plugins. The other option is to rewrite cumbersome theme template files as per the requirement of your customization. These challenges in WordPress have been addressed in Webflow. Webflow has become one of the first Visual Content Management systems as the same allows designers to define the structure and style of their responsive and dynamic website without fiddling with databases and PHP modules etc. The best part is that these can be imported from CSV files or uploaded through the Webflow Content Management System Application Programming Interface. 

Creating Animations in Webflow

Interactions 2.0 is another valuable feature that has made making animations easier without writing JavaScript animations scripts. But the only pain which the user needs to face while using this tool is that he should know JavaScript coding. But the pain is worth taking as you can create wonderful animations using this tool.

Deployment and Hosting of Website

As already mentioned earlier in this article this in-browser tool named Webflow comes with hosting facility too which is provided by Amazon Web Services. The benefit of availing the hosting service from Webflow is the lightning-fast loading of pages and hassle-free maintenance without worrying about frequent PHP updates. All the hosting plans from Webflow comes with free SSL certificates and all the security compliances. The only drawback is the charges levied for hosting by Webflow.

Webflow Ecommerce

The Webflow Ecommerce is currently in the beta version mode. This targets to customize overall visual components of a typical online store by keeping it different from competitive platforms like Shopify and WooCommerce. It also offers a way for managing complex administrative functions like defining shipping regions, managing inventory, tax calculation, and fulfillment, etc.

Conclusion

Webflow no doubt is a useful and innovative tool in comparison to the prevailing DIY software. There might be some hiccups in the animation interface area but Webflow provides an influential outcome that is suitable to most professional web designers and their development needs. 

 

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