Webflow is a visual front-end builder plus hosted CMS — you design in a browser, the tool writes the HTML/CSS, and Webflow hosts the result for roughly £15 to £35 a month depending on traffic and CMS items. It is far closer to real code than Squarespace or Wix and far further from it than a Next.js build. 1 Week Sites is the other end of that line: £1,000 once for a bespoke site, hand-coded, live in seven days, running on your own Vercel account from your own GitHub. Over five years a £15-per-month Webflow CMS plan costs £900 in hosting, plus the Webflow designer's build fee (£500–£5,000 typical). A 1 Week Sites build costs £1,000 plus roughly £60 a year. Pick Webflow when the client needs a visual editor and Webflow's CMS fits the shape. Pick 1 Week Sites when you want full control.
Upfront vs five-year
Webflow CMS at £15/mo × 60 months = £900, hosting only. Webflow designer's build fee excluded for parity.
When Webflow is the right call
- You need the client to edit pages visually, and Webflow's CMS collections fit the shape of their content.
- The design is complex, image-heavy, and leans on CMS-driven templates across many similar pages.
- You already have a Webflow designer on the team and the maintenance model is working.
- You're happy to keep paying Webflow hosting forever in exchange for the visual editor.
When a 1 Week Sites build is the better buy
- You want to own the code outright — not locked to Webflow's hosting, pricing, or platform decisions.
- Performance matters enough that the last 10–15 Lighthouse points are worth hand-coding for.
- You have a developer on the team and the visual-editor trade-off isn't earning its keep.
- You need custom logic or integrations that sit awkwardly inside Webflow's CMS limits.
Webflow vs WordPress vs bespoke — where each one lives
Webflow and WordPress sit on opposite sides of the same question: who maintains the site after launch? Webflow answers 'a designer, visually, on Webflow's platform'. WordPress answers 'anyone, but someone has to keep it secure'. A bespoke Next.js build answers 'a developer, in code, on hosting you control'. All three are valid — pick by who's going to edit the site in year two.
| Webflow | 1 Week Sites | Winner | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hosting cost | £15–£35/mo on Webflow | £0–£20/mo on your Vercel | Depends |
| Ownership | Design on Webflow | Code in your repo | 1 Week Sites |
| CMS editor | Built-in, polished | Add-on (Markdown / Sanity) | Webflow |
| Custom logic | Limited by Webflow | Anything Next.js supports | 1 Week Sites |
Side-by-side
| Webflow | 1 Week Sites | |
|---|---|---|
| Upfront cost | Free build, £15–35/mo hosting | £1,000 once |
| Ongoing cost | £180–420 per year hosting, forever | £60 per year (domain + email) |
| Timeline to live | 3–8 weeks with a Webflow designer | 7 days |
| Ownership | Site lives on Webflow, export is partial | Code on your GitHub, hosting on your Vercel |
| Performance | Mobile Lighthouse typically 75–90 | Mobile Lighthouse 95+ target |
| Design freedom | Wide, but within Webflow's rendering rules | Bespoke — anything reasonable |
| Editing after launch | Visual editor, non-devs can update | Markdown or CMS — I can bolt one on |
| Exit cost | HTML/CSS export, rebuild needed for CMS | Everything is yours already |
| Accessibility | Possible with care, easy to break | WCAG 2.2 AA baseline built in |
| Revisions | Same designer or new Webflow partner | One round included same week |
Five-year total cost
Webflow's hosting is the predictable cost; the surprise is usually the designer. Most Webflow small-business sites are built by a Webflow partner charging £500 to £5,000 on top of hosting. Hosting alone over five years on the CMS plan is £900. A flat-fee bespoke build is £1,000 once.
| Option | Five-year total | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Webflow CMS (£15/mo × 60 months) | £900 | hosting only — plus £500–5,000 typical Webflow designer fee |
| 1 Week Sites + 5 years of hosting | ~£1,300 | £1,000 build + £60/yr domain & email |
Common questions
Can I move a Webflow site to Next.js?
Yes — and I do this reasonably often. Webflow exports HTML/CSS for the design, which gives me a clean visual reference. The CMS collections don't export cleanly, so I rebuild them as a small typed data layer or a lightweight CMS. Content migrates inside the seven-day sprint.
Is £1,000 really all-in?
£1,000 is all-in for a five-to-seven-page bespoke marketing site: brief, design, build, one revision round, launch. No monthly fee, no retainer, no kill fee. You pay for your own domain (≈£12/year) and email hosting (≈£4/month on a provider of your choice). Nothing goes through me.
Will I lose the visual editor when I move off Webflow?
If you need the client to edit pages visually, yes — a bespoke site doesn't ship with a Webflow-style canvas. I can add a light CMS (Sanity, Keystatic, Markdown in a repo) so non-dev edits are still possible; pick the right one at the brief stage. If the client never edits pages, you won't miss it.
Why is a bespoke site faster than Webflow?
Webflow ships its runtime plus every page's interactions as CSS and JS baked from your designer's canvas. A Next.js build ships only what the page needs, server-rendered. The difference is usually 10–15 Lighthouse points on mobile — enough to matter for paid ads and enough to help organic rankings.
When is Webflow the right answer instead?
Webflow wins when your client is going to edit the site themselves, they're comfortable on Webflow's editor, and the design fits neatly into CMS collections. That's a real sweet spot — I'm not anti-Webflow. If that's you, use it.
Do you do Webflow work too?
No. I build in Next.js, full stop. If Webflow is genuinely the right answer for you, I'll say so and point you to a Webflow partner I trust. I'd rather lose the project than take on a build I'd execute worse than someone else.
Bespoke, live in seven days.
£1,000 flat. Paid upfront. Full refund if I miss day seven. Code, hosting, and domain all in your name.