Some of your clients will have an experience with Webflow and they will want the website directly 1
build inside it and they will be looking for Webflow designers specifically. But for others, they will 2
not, might not be even familiar with Webflow, so you will have to, sort of, convince them to use Webflow 3
as the platform. 4
These clients can be split in 2 types. 5
Those who don't have any requirement, where you're going to build the website. And second, those who have 6
some sort of preference towards particular platform. 7
Usually, that being WordPress. Selling Webflow to those who don't have a particular requirement or preference 8
where you're going to build it, really doesn't need that much convincing. 9
Most of my clients are like that and they usually just trust my expertise on where I'm going to build 10
the website. 11
The only thing that might need a bit of convincing is the hosting costs of Webflow. Because, so there 12
is the hosting of... Each website basically has a hosting. Right? And you have to pay for each website's 13
hosting, which is usually $15 per month for a regular static website and $20 per month 14
for the websites that have a CMS on it. But one thing is important to note is that hosting 15
costs money on other options as well. 16
Even if it's Wordpress. Wordpress itself is free, but the hosting is paid. 17
So, the website has to live somewhere. And this is something you will need to explain to some of the clients. 18
For example, I myself when I was running a business, I didn't know much about web design or development 19
and I thought our company website just magically lived in the cloud. So you might need to explain 20
a bit of it, how this is going to work. That the website has to be hosted somewhere and we have to 21
pay that company to host the website for us on their servers. 22
So, for example, let's take Bluehost as an example, which is one of the biggest and most popular hosting 23
providers. 24
Their prices start at $5 per month. 25
Their website will sometimes advertise 3 year in advance plans. And they will tell you even less than 26
$5 per month. 27
So I'm taking one year in advance. Right? 28
If you buy the entire one year package then it comes down, 29
I think the minimum is $5 per month. And if we use the same kind of approach on Webflow and 30
if we buy annual price, this is what I usually do, I just buy, you know, annual prices for each website. 31
And then the price comes down to $12 a month. So they give you a little discount on it. 32
So, as you can see that already shrinks the difference between Webflow's 12 a month. And then something 33
else and other alternatives, that could usually will be around at least $5 per month. 34
Now, where actually the pricing on private hosting really comes down and makes it really cheap 35
per website is when you're hosting multiple websites. Because regular private hosting providers, 36
they also give you, the price that I gave you right now it was only for one website hosting, but with 37
a very small kind of price increase, I think 2-3 dollars per month increase. 38
Now they give you a different plan which lets you host unlimited amount of websites. 39
Obviously, limited based on how much bandwidth and how much storage you're gonna get there, but they 40
don't usually limit you 41
how many websites you can host on your one single plan with them. 42
And so you can just build as many websites as you want and that's where the prices really come 43
down per website. 44
But the issue is that regular clients can't really use this benefit, because regular clients usually 45
have one business and they need one website. Right? 46
So they're not, never going to benefit out of hosting hundred different websites on one single plan, 47
because they don't need a 100 different websites. 48
They just have one website. Right? 49
And I mean website because of course, we can have even on Webflow, we can have one website, 50
we'll pay only one plan, but we can have, you know, it can have 1000 pages. 51
That's a different story. I'm talking about different websites on different web addresses and things 52
like that. 53
Right? 54
So, that's the big, kind of, money saver on private hosting. 55
Now, for example, if I was a WordPress developer what I could do, is have my own account. Right? On one hosting 56
plan and then every website that I build for all of my clients, I would host them there. 57
Right? 58
So, per website now, you know, the price would come down very very cheap. 59
Right? 60
Because I'm just, I just have 1 account, 1 hosting plan and then every website is going there. 61
And then what I can do is, I can charge to my clients annual hosting costs or management fees for each 62
website 63
and then I would pocket the difference. 64
And that's what obviously a lot of web developers do. 65
But that then ends up as a similar price to the client at the end of the day. 66
So for the client, they don't really have a lot of options. Because no web developer is going to pass 67
up on that very good opportunity to make extra money and offer a completely free hosting. Right? 68
Because they would still have to, you know, pay for it and all that stuff. 69
So, why would they offer it for free? Now for other important benefits. On webflow, 70
you get what's called a managed hosting. Managed hosting means that they do a lot in the background 71
for you. Things that you or your client never has to worry about like automated backups, security, malware 72
scanning and removal, server-side software updates, performance improvements and much more that I don't 73
understand and I don't care about as long as it's taken care of. Security maintenance is a big issue 74
with servers. 75
I once had a WordPress site, which I self-hosted on a cheap server. One day some malware got in and 76
turned my site upside down. 77
The site was going on and off constantly. 78
The malware was using all my server bandwidth. 79
I couldn't figure out how to remove the damn thing. 80
It was my personal site. 81
So, I just decided to take the whole thing down and cancel the hosting. 82
And if that's not enough for the difference then this is. A typical cheapest hosting plans usually give 83
you a server space in one single location. A computer called a server where your website lives. 84
If I'm in Australia and the server is in the US, then a website content needs to travel through cables 85
all the way from US to Australia. 86
This makes a site load like a snail. But Webflow's hosting comes with what's called CDM content delivery 87
network. With Webflow your site loads from the nearest server to the user. 88
So if a user is in Japan, the website will load from a nearby server in Tokyo, not from California. 89
Of course, Webflow isn't the only hosting to offer that. But moment you add CDN feature on regular 90
servers, 91
pricing starts to rise and come quite close to a Webflow pricing. 92
If that's not enough, Webflow hosting has one more trick up their sleeve. 93
This is a benefit the regular managed servers don't have. 94
You see, regular servers need to be ready for anything, users may install Wordpress, Joomla, Drupal or even 95
all 3 of these systems and run them all at once. 96
This poses no problems for the server, but it does mean that it cannot be fully optimized to run just 97
one particular system really well. But Webflow servers need to run only one system - Webflow. So it's highly 98
fine tuned to run only Webflow. 99
Now, of course, there are comparable hosting providers that match all Webflow benefits, that specialize 100
in single platform, are managed and include CDM features, but they end up more expensive than Webflow. 101
For example, WP engine, a popular provider of specialized WordPress hosting that has all the same, 102
similar features that Webflow offers, starts at $35 dollars per month. 103
So there you have it, when compared to 1 website versus 1 website hosting, the prices come very 104
similar or sometimes even more expensive 105
on the other site, if you are using the very same features that kind of Webflow offers. And at the end 106
of the day, if a website cannot bring more value to your client then $20 per month, then what's 107
the point of that website anyways? 108
Second type of clients will have preferences to specific platform usually WordPress. 109
Now, because before you make the case and try to convince them to use Webflow, you have to understand 110
what is the reasoning behind them. How do they, 111
how did they came to the conclusion, that they need to use WordPress as a platform? 112
Because sometimes there is a specific feature or a requirement that they have, 113
your clients might have, that Webflow is not able to meet. 114
For example, if the team has been using some WordPress plugin for their past website, probably because 115
they had, you know, website on the WordPress and they were using some specific plugin. Let's say you are working 116
with a dental clinic and they are using a specific WordPress plugin for their appointments, like booking 117
appointments, you know like, calendars. And then, you know, users go on that website 118
there's a calendar and then they put an appointment, something like that. Right? And they'll be using this 119
particular plugin. And maybe they really want that plugin, because maybe the staff is used to it, 120
or maybe it's plugged in somehow in their kind of business process, or some integrating with other applications 121
that they are using themselves. 122
Maybe some other CRM or something like that. 123
In that case, right? They really need to, you know, 100% keep with that plug in, 124
you are not able to. Because if that plugin is WordPress specific then there is nothing 125
you can do about it. 126
Now, obviously there are a lot of alternatives, and appointment booking applications, and third-party applications 127
that are not platform-specific. And most of the really good ones and most of the great third party applications 128
are like that. 129
They're not platform-specific. They are kind of codes that you can install on any website and you could 130
find alternative, but if they really want to stick to exactly that plugin, because for some 131
reason, then there is nothing you can do about it. And their only option is to go with Wordpress platform. 132
And that's it. 133
So, you have to find out if there is some requirement, that needs to be met, that they need to meet, 134
and if you cannot fulfil it with Webflow, then you have to pass on that client. 135
And if you didn't find any requirement, that Webflow can't meet, then tell them that you have a better 136
solution for them than Wordpress and give them three big Webflow benefits. 137
First, the painless and high-performance Webflow hosting, all those points I mentioned earlier. The CDM, 138
better security, faster, less hassle, cheaper. 139
Second, how quickly you can build, iterate and deliver their website. 140
The Webflow Designer, duh! Coding a website from scratch takes way more time. And third benefit, Webflow 141
editor. 142
That's a big one for clients, Wordpress and other CMS are confusing for most people. 143
They're ugly, they're clunky and slow. They're not very enjoyable to use. 144
You have to go into the back office and edit content from there. But Webflow's editor is right on the 145
live site. 146
Clients can just go on the live website and start editing content right there and then. And that's 147
how we actually make the case for Webflow with your clients. 148
Not much to actually "sell". 149
It's quite simple and straightforward. 150
I myself, actually rarely need to make a case for this. Because most of my clients, they trust my 151
expertise. 152
They're not very concerned where I'm going to build, because they're businessmen and entrepreneurs. 153
And often even, I work with teams, that are kind of techy development teams and even they are not very 154
concerned where I build it, as long as it's efficient for me. And I produce it and I can iterate really 155
well. Because I am the one, in reality, who is building a website. And I'm the one who is gonna be editing 156
that website and all that stuff. 157
So, it has to be fast and efficient for them. That I can, you know, make it really easy. And they ask me 158
you know, how much does it gonna cost. 159
I tell them the price and they say," OK, good". 160
But in those cases where definitely Webflow seems like the best option for them and there is no limitation. 161
And you, 162
but for some reason, maybe you still face resistance from your clients. 163
Maybe about the price or something else. 164
Then all these benefits that I described, are enough to seal the deal.