User Interface and Experience
Ease of Use
As well as the majority of solutions of this kind, Webflow has an intuitive drag-and-drop UI interface, which is quite simple to use. As a result, it allows users to design apps faster, even if they have never worked with such platforms before.
As a result, it can increase the productivity of your team and help you reduce the time that is traditionally needed for app design tasks.
The platform is positioned as a no-code tool that is suitable even for beginners with no relevant experience. Nevertheless, if you need to include any advanced features in your app, manual coding will be required.
Bubble is known as a powerful visual programming no-code platform. It provides users with various building blocks that they may need to create high-performing AI-powered apps even if they have no coding skills at all.
Its visual interface was designed to be a good choice for beginners. It is rather easy to understand and at the same time, it is visually appealing.
Nevertheless, if you have never worked with any app development platforms before, it may be rather challenging for you to learn how to interact with Bubble.
Customization
Webflow ensures particular freedom in the questions of customization. It lets users include custom code. Thanks to this, it is possible to expand the standard set of functionality.
To introduce custom code, developers can write their code manually in HTML, CSS, or JavaScript.
Nevertheless, this platform is still not the best choice for highly specialized coding tasks.
Apart from this, Webflow has some limits when it comes to backend development or features that presuppose extensive server-side scripting or database interactions.
Though Bubble provides a lot of out-of-the-box possibilities for businesses, the platform’s users can still leverage great customization across the drag-and-drop editor and workflow system within Bubble.
If you want to extend your app’s capabilities, you can add traditional lines of code. For some basic interface customization, you can rely on HTML and CSS.
When it is required to implement some complex functionality, it can be done with the help of traditional code written in JavaScript.
It also allows users to connect websites and apps to custom data sources as it supports the majority of commonly used SQL databases, such as MS SQL, MySQL, and PostgreSQL.
Templates and Components
Webflow offers a rich collection of prebuilt templates designed for different business needs. Today this collection includes more than 6,000 options that can help users save their time.
The templates are grouped into different categories like real estate, arts and entertainment, environment, HR and hiring, home services, technology, travel, transportation, and many others.
Moreover, the platform provides access to free and paid libraries with Webflow components and layouts. You can opt for the library with the most appropriate style to create a unique solution tailored to the needs of your business.
To facilitate and speed up the process of creating apps, Bubble offers its users UI components that can be simply copied and pasted to their projects.
Apart from this, there is a huge choice of templates that can be added not only by the platform’s developers but also by its continuously growing community.
There are free and paid options from different categories. To find the most appropriate variant, you can use a filter-based search system.
There are such categories as dashboards, blogs, project management, finance, professional services, portfolios, and many others.
Short Recap
Ease of use: Webflow is a user-friendly solution that is suitable even for non-tech users.
Customization: The platform provides some freedom for customization. However, users may face serious limitations when it comes to complex logic or sophisticated features.
Templates and components: A rich collection of component libraries and templates significantly facilitates and streamlines the process of building your own websites and apps.
Main strength: Webflow is easy to use. Thanks to a wide choice of templates, you can build your own solution in just a couple of hours.
Main weakness: The customization possibilities are limited, which restricts the range of solutions that you can build on this platform.
Ease of use: The platform is considered to be fully beginner-friendly as the majority of basic features are intuitive.
Customization: Bubble lets users tailor their apps to fit specific needs. If you want to go beyond the standard features, you can include custom JavaScript to add extra functionality.
Templates and components: The platform provides a big amount of components and templates that keep expanding. Building apps for different purposes becomes easier.
Main strength: Thanks to the available components and customization capabilities, businesses can create versatile and visually appealing web and mobile apps.
Main weakness: The learning curve is rather steep, especially for those who have no experience in building their own websites and applications.
Features and Functionality
Core Features
Webflow is positioned as a comprehensive cloud-based website builder and content management system (CMS).
It provides all the basic drag-and-drop design features of a traditional no-code platform. But at the same time, it also offers the possibility to integrate custom code.
Webflow was initially created as a front-end tool. Given this, it can’t demonstrate great efficiency in supporting advanced server-side logic, complex integrations, or custom APIs.
With Bubble’s drag-and-drop interface, both developers and non-technical users can create visually appealing UI/UX, workflows, and databases. To fulfill all these tasks, they do not need to write any code.
Bubble’s components and layouts can adapt to different devices with almost any screen size.
However, if they want to go beyond the standard templates and building blocks, the platform also ensures some space for customization.
Advanced Features
Though even those who have no design experience can rely on Webflow to build visually attractive and intuitionally clear websites, the platform can also offer extended opportunities for more advanced users.
For example, it is possible to expand functional boundaries with custom coding, diversify user experience with third-party API integration, and include custom animations, as well as significantly modify the available templates.
Moreover, Webflow has its AI assistant (as of January 2025, currently in beta). It can help to create new sections for your website’s pages based on your existing design system. It can also power your projects with optimization, automated translation, and design suggestions.
To make the process of designing apps even faster, the platform offers its AI page builder. It can create a frontend based on users’ prompts formulated in a natural language.
The platform enables its users to easily connect their apps to popular AI tools like ChatGPT and DALL-E.
It’s also worth mentioning that more advanced users can import designs to Bubble from other tools.
Though this option can provide great freedom in creating apps, it can cause some technical issues, which may lead to the necessity to rewrite some imported parts fully from scratch.
Automation and Workflow
Webflow provides its users with the possibility of automating their workflows and connecting their websites to third-party services and apps.
The automation across core Workflow capabilities, including its CMS, forms, and emails, can be a fully no-code process.
Workflows are created in just 3 steps. To begin with, users need to define a trigger for a flow. Then it is required to set conditions, and finally, to choose the expected actions.
For more complex logic, it is allowed to apply custom code. Users can create custom triggers and actions, as well as connect their flows with third-party services via HTTP blocks and webhooks.
The Bubble platform is powered by a workflow-centric programming model.
This approach presupposes that workflows define how your app will respond to user interactions.
Each workflow should include a triggering event that will indicate the time when a particular workflow will be initiated and a subsequent sequence of actions (a reaction to a particular trigger).
Every step in a series of actions in workflows can be customized. It means that users have full freedom in building their processes.
Short Recap
Core features: The platform provides all the basic features of a traditional website builder with a drag-and-drop interface.
Advanced features: The platform is currently testing its native AI assistant which is expected to greatly facilitate and steamline a lot of processes for users.
Automation and workflows: The automation across core Workflow functionality can be set up just in 3 steps.
Main strength: A lot of tasks can be performed without manual coding.
Main weakness: For creating custom functionality and workflows, at least basic coding skills are a must.
Core features: Bubble’s drag-and-drop interface enables both developers and non-technical to create visually appealing web and mobile apps.
Advanced features: Apart from the AI app builder that works on natural language prompts, the platform allows users to connect their apps to popular AI tools like ChatGPT.
Automation and workflows: The platform ensures full customization in building workflows based on users’ specific business requirements.
Main strength: Bubble offers a lot of fully no-code possibilities.
Main weakness: The integration of design created on external platforms can be rather challenging and cause technical issues.
Integrations
Third-party Integrations
There is a range of various third-party apps and services that Weblow can be easily connected to. Here are a couple of examples.
- Calendars and scheduling: AddEvent, Calendly, Timekit, CozyCal
- CRM: Hubspot via Vimkit, HubSpot
- Maps: Stay22, Google Maps, Open Street Map
- Email marketing: Get Response, SendPulse, AWeber
- Forms and surveys: Arengu, Getform, MightyForms
- Search: Google Search, Swiftype, Findberry
- Payments: Stripe, PayPal
If you want to get more detailed information about available integrations for a more comprehensive Bubble io vs Webflow comparison, you can follow this link.
Apps built on Bubble can be seamlessly integrated with third-party services and tools through APIs.
- AI: OpenAI Assistant, Anthropic Claude AI, Leap AI, Synthflow AI
- Location: Google Maps, OpenWeatherMap, Mapbox Maps, IP Geolocation
- Payments: PayPal, Stripe, MercadoPago
- News: Typewriter Text, RSS Feed, DeepAI Text Summarization, New API
- Chat: Twilio, Chat and Messaging Lite, Drift Live Chat
- Image: Clearbit Logo Search, 360 Image Viewer, Algorithmia Color Tool
A full list of available plugins can be viewed on the official Bubble’s website.
Ease of Connection
If you need to connect your website built on Webflow with any of the supported third-party services and apps, it can be done just with a couple of clicks.
But if you can’t find the necessary service among the provided options, you can create your own custom integration.
Bubble seamlessly integrates with any external services that provide an API, such as payment processors, data sources, and authentication providers.
You can take your app further by using JavaScript plugins. With them, you can connect to services that aren’t built into Bubble, add unique JavaScript features, or even handle more advanced tasks by writing server-side code.
Short Recap
Third-party integrations: Webflow offers various integrations to extend its functionality and streamline workflows.
Ease of connection: It offers straightforward integration options for many tools. For advanced needs, custom code embedding and API capabilities allow further customization.
Main strength: The range of supported integrations includes a lot of popular tools to address various business needs.
Main weakness: Custom integrations can be tricky for users without specific skills.
Third-party integrations: The platform supports a wide range of external services and tools that can be connected to your apps.
Ease of connection: The integration of supported services is a straightforward task that even non-tech users can cope with.
Main strength: Bubble’s plugin marketplace is continuously expanding. Today it already includes the majority of the most highly demanded services.
Main weakness: Though the creation of custom plugins is allowed, it can be a rather complicated process.
Performance and Scalability
Speed and Efficiency
Webflow excels in speed and efficiency for front-end-focused projects. It demonstrates a high page speed and ensures great image responsiveness. As a result, websites look great on different devices without extra effort.
The platform supports real-time updates. It means that changes are live immediately. This streamlines workflows and eliminates lengthy deployment processes.
Apps built on Bubble are designed with a focus on speed and efficiency. The platform leverages optimized infrastructure and scalable architecture to ensure that your applications perform well.
Nevertheless, if you want to build larger, more complex apps, you should be ready to invest in higher-tier plans. They will ensure added server capacity. Otherwise, you may face performance issues.
Scalability
Webflow is designed with scalability in mind. It is able to scale together with your business and support its growth.
The platform’s CMS allows for dynamic content and structured databases, enabling scalability for blogs, portfolios, or content-heavy sites.
Nevertheless, there are some limitations in scalability. The platform lacks advanced backend capabilities for complex server-side logic. That’s why Webflow is less suitable for enterprise-level applications or highly integrated systems.
Bubble can ensure scalability for its users. Bubble apps scale automatically, and as they grow, they can transition to a Dedicated Cluster, offering complete isolation from the main user base and ample capacity to handle increased traffic.
For instance, some no-code apps built on Bubble manage over 500,000 daily page views with this setup. At the same time, apps on the main cluster can achieve over 30 million monthly page views.
Short Recap
Speed and efficiency: The platform can ensure responsive design and real-time updates, which ensures the smooth running of websites on different devices.
Scalability: Webflow can efficiently support your business growth. It is able to scale well for design-focused, content-driven websites.
Main strength: The platform stands out for its fast load times and flexible CMS.
Main weakness: Webflow may encounter limitations with extremely large projects or complex backend requirements.
Speed and efficiency: Apps built on Bubble prioritize speed and efficiency with optimized infrastructure and scalable architecture.
Scalability: Apps can automatically scale to ensure smooth performance, while the number of page views is growing.
Main strength: The platform provides efficient performance of apps of different types.
Main weakness: For larger, complex apps, upgrading to higher-tier plans is essential for added server capacity.
Security and Compliance
Data Security
Webflow’s customers are not allowed to run their own penetration tests or vulnerability scans. This decision has been made in order to eliminate a disproportionate load on the platform’s servers. However, it doesn’t mean that the platform ignores the security-related questions. Every year, the Webflow Security team runs penetration tests with external security firms. The reports are made available to customers.
Webflow ensures robust security with SSL encryption, DDoS protection, Single Sign-On (SSO) login, regular backups, two-factor authentication, and strong password policies.
Bubble prioritizes security to make sure that your applications and user data are protected. Bubble implements advanced DDoS protection and AES-256 encryption.
To provide a high level of security, Bubble enables user authentication via external services. It means that users can log in with the help of their credentials from platforms like Facebook or Google.
It also supports single sign-on (SSO) integrations, such as users’ internal enterprise login system. Such functionality can be implemented via plugins.
Compliance
Webflow is SOC 2 Type II certified. This certification demonstrates that the platform meets rigorous standards for data security, availability, and confidentiality. Moreover, it proves Webflow’s commitment to protecting user data.
Webflow itself is a GDPR compliant platform and it provides its users with all the required tools to make their websites compliant with this regulatory framework.
That’s why it can become a reliable choice for businesses prioritizing compliance and trust.
The platform adheres to the SOC 2 Type II standard for security. This proves Bubble’s commitment to safeguarding users’ data and maintaining the highest levels of protection.
Bubble has implemented measures to align with GDPR and other applicable data privacy laws. However, building your app on Bubble does not automatically make it compliant with these regulations.
Users must configure each app and its associated documentation correctly to ensure compliance with GDPR.
Short Recap
Data security: Webflow offers robust security features suitable for most small-to-medium businesses and design-focused projects.
Compliance: The SOC 2 Type II certification demonstrates the platform’s adherence to high standards for data security, availability, and confidentiality.
Main strength: The platform provides all the most highly demanded tools to ensure sufficient data protection and security.
Main weakness: Businesses with highly specific security or regulatory requirements may need additional solutions to ensure compliance.
Data security: Webflow offers robust security features suitable for most small-to-medium businesses and design-focused projects.
Compliance: The SOC 2 Type II certification demonstrates the platform’s adherence to high standards for data security, availability, and confidentiality.
Main strength: The platform provides all the most highly demanded tools to ensure sufficient data protection and security.
Main weakness: Businesses with highly specific security or regulatory requirements may need additional solutions to ensure compliance.
Pricing
Plans Overview
Free Plan
- Cost: Free
- What it includes: This plan includes access to the Webflow.io domain, 2 published pages, 50 form submits, and 1 GB bandwidth.
- Suitable for: Users who are just starting their work with Webflows.
Basic Plan
- Cost: $14 per month (billed yearly) or $18 per month (billed monthly)
- What it includes: Users of this plan can apply their custom domains, publish up to 150 pages, and leverage unlimited form submits and 10 GB bandwidth.
- Suitable for: Simple static websites.
CMS Plan
- Cost: $23 per month (billed yearly) or $29 per month (billed monthly)
- What it includes: Apart from everything available to users of the basic plan, those who choose this plan also get access to 20 CMS collections and 2,000 CMS items. The monthly amount of bandwidth included is 50 GB.
- Suitable for: Content-driven websites and blogs.
Business Plan
- Cost: $39 per month (billed yearly) or $49 per month (billed monthly)
- What it includes: Built websites can include up to 300 pages. Users can leverage up to 40 CMS collections, 10,000 CMS items, and flexible bandwidth.
- Suitable for: For larger projects that require flexibility.
Enterprise Plan
- Cost: Custom pricing
- What it includes: It is the most comprehensive plan with enterprise-level features.
- Excellent for: Projects that look for scalability.
There are also options based not on sites but on workspaces. There are dedicated plans for freelancers with a few clients and agencies with many clients.
Free Plan
- Cost: Free
- What it includes: The free plan opens access to only the most basic features, including a component library, API connector, and 1 app editor. It offers 50k workload units per month and 6 hours of server logs.
- Suitable for: Users who are learning how to use the platform.
Starter Plan
- Cost: $29 per month (billed yearly) or $32 per month (billed monthly)
- What it includes: Apart from everything available in the free plan, this option includes extra features like custom domains, recurring workflows, and basic version control. It also offers basic security checks and an AI prediction tool.
- Suitable for: MVPs and simple apps.
Growth Plan
- Cost: $119 per month (billed yearly) or $134 per month (billed monthly)
- What it includes: It provides 2 app editors, premium version control, two-factor authentication, 10 custom branches, unlimited security tests, and other advanced features.
- Suitable for: Growing projects with complex functionality.
Team Plan
- Cost: $349 per month (billed yearly) or $399 per month (billed monthly)
- What it includes: This plan includes 5 app editors, sub apps, 25 custom branches, scheduled security checks, automated security tests, security alerting, among other additional features and tools.
- Suitable for: Scaling projects with growing usage.
Enterprise Plan
- Cost: Custom pricing
- What it includes: This plan provides great flexibility and a row of premium opportunities, like priority support.
- Excellent for: Internal tools and customer-facing apps with maximum security and scalability.
Short Recap
Pricing: Webflow offers a range of pricing plans tailored to individuals, businesses, and enterprises. Plans are divided into Site Plans and Workspace Plans. Pricing varies based on the features and scale needed.
Suitable for: The platform is mainly suitable for small and mid-sized businesses. For large enterprises that require flexible and scalable web platforms, the use of Webflow can become pretty expensive.
Pricing: Bubble offers a flexible pricing structure, starting with a free plan for basic use and scaling up to more robust options for growing businesses and enterprises. The higher-tier plans provide greater customization and advanced support.
Suitable for: Both Webflow and Bubble have plans for businesses of different types and sizes. Nevertheless, the use of Bubble requires bigger investments, especially from companies with more sophisticated requirements.
Use Cases
Type of Work
Webflow is a versatile platform suitable for various industries and project types. Below you can find the most common types of solutions built with Webflow.
- Portfolio website. The platform offers a wide choice of templates that are ideal for designers, photographers, and creative professionals.
- eCommerce stores. Websites built with Webflow are great for selling products or services online. They can be equipped with product management features, Stripe and PayPal integrations, and customizable checkout pages.
- Content websites and blogs. The platform is suitable for bloggers and publishers. It provides such features as dynamic CMS for managing articles, categories, tags, and SEO tools.
- Educational or Nonprofit websites. Webflow is often chosen for creating sites for schools, organizations, and nonprofits. It ensures an easy-to-update CMS for sharing updates, event calendars, and donation tools.
If you are interested in learning more, you can find case studies on the platform’s website.
Bubble’s flexibility and no-code capabilities make it suitable for a wide range of applications across industries. Here are some examples of solutions that can be built with Bubble.
- Marketplace platforms. With Bubble, you can build multi-sided platforms connecting buyers and sellers for different domains.
- Internal tools and dashboards. You can successfully automate business processes and provide employees with efficient tools. For example, it is possible to build apps for inventory management and performance tracking, as well as employee portals.
- eLearning platforms. With Bubble, you can design platforms for online education and training, such as online course platforms, certification systems, and learning management systems.
- Real estate platforms. The platform provides all the required tools to create apps for buying, selling, or renting properties, including real estate listing websites and rental management platforms.
You can read more about possible Bubble use cases on its website.
Short Recap
Webflow can become an excellent choice for individuals, businesses, and agencies across various industries, especially those focused on visual design and user experience.
With Bubble, users can create dynamic, fully functional apps even if they do not have coding knowledge.
The platform can meet the needs of companies of different types and sizes.
Reviews
User Feedback
G2:
On the G2 platform, Webflow has received 680 reviews, which indicated that it has 4.4 out of 5 stars.
According to users, Webflow has an excellent GUI web development interface. The platform produces clean code and can export code for further modification and hosting elsewhere.
Some users wrote that the platform’s features can be tricky for beginners, especially when their projects have special requirements.
G2:
Bubble has 4.4 out of 5 stars on the G2 platform based on 159 opinions.
The majority of people who interacted with Bubble mentioned the platform’s easiness of use and its simple setup.
Nevertheless, there are those who found the learning curve quite steep. Moreover, some users faced issues with scaling.
Conclusion
Webflow and Bubble are often compared. However, determining a clear winner is challenging since they are designed to serve fundamentally different purposes.
In comparison with Bubble, Webflow offers fewer possibilities when it comes to building different types of apps. But as a good website builder, Webflow is an excellent choice for creating websites, mainly with rather simple logic and functionality.
Bubble provides its users with more comprehensive control over everything that your apps and websites can do at every level. With Bubble, it becomes easier to introduce situation-specific logic or custom actions.
That’s why when you need to make a Webflow vs Bubble choice, you should clearly identify your goals and expectations. Based on this, you will be able to understand which platform will be the most feasible variant for you.
And if you need any professional advice or help with development, we are here to help. Our specialists have outstanding experience in no-code/low-code development and a deep understanding of a lot of business domains. Contact us to learn more about our services.
