Webflow has an excellent designer, is it good for building apps?
Every day I see people wanting to build applications on Webflow, which is not an app design framework. They don't understand the difference between a site designer and an app designer.
Let's fix that.
What's the difference?
Site builders like Webflow give you the tooling for great page design. They generate the HTML, CSS, animations, and navigation needed to deliver an attractive experience.
App builders have a very different focus. Functionality.
Apps are characterized by complex, interactive interfaces, data integration, and business logic, that work together to to achieve a goal. Google Docs, Facebook, Amazon, Spotify, Netflix, and Airtable are examples.
So is the Webflow designer itself.
The capabilities needed to build an app often includes;
- User-specific data, tied to a user account. Some of that data is secured and only accessible to the user and the business. Other data ( auction listing, classifieds, profile info ) needs to be publicly available on the site.
- User-specific UX, consoles and lists
- Complex logic and business rules as to how the system should behave
- Back-end processes like email notifications and external system integrations
- Typically, security concerns
Where are Webflow's limits?
To understand the challenges of building an app on Webflow, here's a breakdown of some key capabilities that are needed to support app development.
What this means
If you look at these limitations, you'll quickly understand why it's difficult to build applications like;
- Auction sites
- Classified listing sites
- Apartment listing services
- Education ( LMS ) systems with courses and student profiles
- "Credit"-based payment systems, e.g. pay $10/mo, get "credits" for 20 video downloads.
... and many more.
Webflow is not designed to support these types of applications.
But if you're determined enough, you can make it work.
Bridging the Gaps
So now you know Webflow's limits, and you want to forage ahead anyway, what are your options?
Webflow + Wized + Xano ( WWX )
Probably the best Webflow-centric framework for app development is Wized + Xano, which offers a programming environment that works on top of a Webflow site.
It provides for secure user authentication, external data access, business logic, dynamic interfaces, basically everything I listed above that Webflow lacks for app dev.
It's targeted at nocode developers, and adds a lot of conveniences, for a price.
Memberstack + Make + CMS / Airtable
For skilled Javascript developers, another good solution is Memberstack ( for memberships and user identification ), Make ( for data transport and server-side logic ) and optional Airtable ( for data storage and to simplify admin data management ).
The CMS can be used here as well, particularly for data that is not user-specific.
