I enjoy building blogs on Webflow. However there are three main limitations that people don't expect when migrating a large blog to Webflow. It's important to know these to ensure Webflow fits your needs.
Design Limitations
CMS Limitations for Blogs
Webflow's CMS is designed for consistency so each blog article will need to have roughly the same page layout.
You can't vary the page layouts arbitrarily between articles, and it takes a bit of creativity to even have a well-defined set of layouts- e.g. a photo gallery-centric layout, an article-centric layout, a video-centric layout.
Rich Text Block Limitations for Blogs
At the heart of an article is Webflow's rich text block. It's quite capable, but it has limitations as well.
Limited Styling Support
Suppose you want to be able to arbitrarily yellow-highlight a word, or make a specific word red, or use strikethrough- these aren't natively supported styles in Webflow's RTB.
Instead, you need to repurpose another, supported style like superscript, or use HTML embeds or script workarounds- which there are plenty of.
No Table Support
Webflow's RTB now supports formatted source code blocks and nested lists, but it does not yet support tables. You'll need a workaround, typically using an HTML embed block to paste your table HTML into.
We discuss a wide range of options here.
No Embedded Component Support
There are similar challenges around embedding special components like CTA's, call-outs, ads, or "Did you know?" blogs within the actual blog text.
The best workaround here is tools like Finsweet's Powerful Rich Text lib.
CMS Path Limitations for Blogs
Another core limitation is your article paths.
In blog-centric platforms like WP, most are familiar with URLs like /blog/2024/article-name, or root-bound paths like https://mysite.com/article-name but Webflow does not support either.
Webflow requires a /(collection-slug)/(item-slug) structure for all CMS pages, which can be placed inside of a static folder path.
The only workaround is a reverse-proxy based solution like Sygnal's Fluid Paths.
Admin Limitations
For those who are familiar with large-scale publishing systems, you might also be familiar with editorial controls such as publishing workflows and roles.
Webflow only offers this type of capability at the Enterprise tier.
Notes
More notes here;
- https://www.sygnal.com/lessons/rich-text-bugs-limitations
