What happens when you want to downgrade a Webflow project, e.g. from an ECommerce plan to a CMS plan?
There are three common situation in which you might want to do this to;
- To reduce costs on a feature you're not using, e.g. you don't use the CMS so you just want a Basic site plan.
- To switch off SSL, for a reverse proxy setup. Some features like ECom and User Accounts require SSL, so enabling those locks it on.
- To remove ECom so that you can use other features that is is not compatible with;
- Webflow Localization
- Webflow Analyze
- Webflow Optimize
Features v. Site Plans
Webflow's features and site plans are fundamentally separate things with separate impacts, so I refer to them differently.
Consider an ECom-enabled site, and an ECom site-plan.
When you enable a site for ECom, it becomes an ECom-enabled site, and certain changes are made to the project that are irreversible. This might include;
- Adding the special Products collection
- Adding the special Categories collection
- Some new elements in the elements panel
- SSL is locked "on" to protect CC data transmissions
When you are ready to bring that site live, you add a Site Plan. If you are using ECom, meaning, e.g.;
- You have products in the products collection
- You have categories in the categories collection
You will likely be required to establish an ECom-tier Site Plan. If you are not using ECom, meaning those collections are empty, you will be able to establish a CMS or Basic Site Plan.
Minimum Site Plans
In general, enabling a feature in Webflow does not permanently tie you to a minimum site plan or add-on plan. Using a feature does.
For example;
- Do you have content in the ECom Products or Categories collections? You'll be required to have an ECom plan.
- Do you have any CMS collections? You'll be required to have at least a CMS plan.
- Do you have locales defined in localization? You'll be required to have the localization add-on.
Feature-Plan Conflicts
Certain features are incompatible with certain other features or specific plans.
This is likely not a complete list, but;
- Optimize is incompatible with ECom Plans. If you downgrade your plan, you should be able to access Optimize.
- Analyze is incompatible with the ECom Feature. If you add ECom, you cannot remove it and therefore Analyze does not appear to become available.
- Localization is incompatible with ECom Plans. If you downgrade your plan, localization should become available.
As observed 23-Oct-2024 - Thanks to David Proler for testing this!
This will likely change as Webflow continues to develop, if you have an update, please drop it in comments.
Site Plan Downgrading
Webflow offers a clear path to downgrading your siteplan, which usually involves removing content from your site, and then downgrading the plan.
To downgrade...
- Localization - remove the added locales in the designer's Localization config, and then downgrade the Localization add-on.
- ECom - remove all products and categories, and then downgrade your ECom plan.
- CMS - unbind all collection lists, empty all collection pages, remove all CMS items and collections, and then downgrade your CMS plan.
This will reduce your site plan hosting costs, however the feature itself is not "uninstalled", and a number of feature-specific site changes are permanent.
Permanent Feature Impacts
These are the ones I know of;
ECommerce
Enabling ECommerce will permanently;
- Force your site to SSL
- Add special Products and Categories collections to your site, and that part of the page nav UX in the designer
- Add special ECom-related elements to the elements panel
User Accounts
Enabling User Accounts will permanently;
- Force your site to SSL
- Add special User Accounts-related elements to the elements panel
- Create a series of special pages like
/log-in,/user-account, and more.
Localization
Most visible traces can be permanently removed.
It may be that the public-facing IP addresses will still be in place when your site is localized.
What if I need to remove those features?
Unfortunately even Webflow support cannot remove a feature like ECom once you've enabled it.
Your only option is to;
- Create a new, blank site
- Copy everything over, which is a major project
- Transfer your site plan and domain names
