LightCMS (discontinued) vs. Webflow

LightCMS is perfect for 90% of websites out there. It has all the basic modules like calendars, photo galleries, news/blog, or forms building built in. Small businesses to mid-sized businesses are perfect for LightCMS. We use other solutions when the requierments for the website include a lot of third party integrations or custom modules. As a hosted CMS it has the same limitations as others with server-side development.

The good outweighs the bad. I love how my webpage works, and it fulfills everything that I was trying to accomplish. The ability to tag and distribute content across the site saves a lot of time and energy. I just wish that custom elements were easier to reuse across pages and that it weren't so hard to figure out. This tool is better suited for someone who knows what they are doing, rather than a beginner.

Incentivized

• LightCMS provides all the major functionality 90% of sites need. It keeps out of its own way by making these solutions intuitive and simple and not trying to solve every problem for everyone which would over-complicate the tool-set.
• This is the easiest to use CMS we have ever seen. I tell my client's that if they can make a Facebook post, they can manage their website, and it's true. Their UI is so easy and keeps getting easier to use. Untrained users get it in minutes and are able to manage their sites without our help.
• LightCMS's code is simple and light-weight. Sites are fast and the CMS doesnt get in the way of performance.
• You can do almost anything you want (except server-side programming) with LightCMS. So, we can create any design we want and it works great with Light CMS's tokens and editable regions concept (which is also simple to implement.)
• Constantly upgraded and fixed, the product is 1000x better after 10 years of working with it, but is still simple and not bloated.

• Easy to use and customize CMS.
• Develop engaging CSS interactions and JavaScript animations visually.
• Several competitively priced hosting tiers are available and all use AWS servers and Fastly CDN.
• Code can be exported to be used with other CMS platforms such as WordPress, or E-Commerce platforms such as Shopify.

Incentivized

• While keeping it simple is LightCMS's thing, some of the elements/modules could use deeper options or control for advanced users.
• Some content, such as calendars, cannot have data exported/imported easily.
• Support was amazing 10 years ago. We openly talked about how awesome they were... it isn't as good as it once was, but is still way above almost every support of other CMS systems we have used.

• The Content Management System needs improvement. In my experience, it's very difficult to organise all our content at big volumes. We want to create a resources section where we can categorize our content but there isn't an easy or intuitive way to do it
• In my opinion, it's incredibly difficult to create tables in an article
• You have to do custom coding for anchor links within an article and it's time consuming and, in my opinion, super annoying
• Website designs are not responsive we need to keep designing a separate mobile version
• In my opinion, Formatting content in articles is annoying compared to other CMSs like Wordpress, Shopify, Wix, Blogger, etc. Worst experience I've had.
• Changes to the nav bar on the homepage do not reflect universally, we needed to do the same changes all over again for our blog and mobile
• Content editors need to keep logging in every time they add content

Incentivized

It's the perfect balance of GUI and code control

Incentivized

With a little education, I find Webflow incredibly easy to use. As previously mentioned, the Webflow University video library is amazing so anything you need help with is already available. That said, I do feel like it is a relatively steep learning curve and would be even steeper for someone who is completely new to Web Development, which is why I gave it the score I did.

Incentivized

In my experience, their customer service is an absolute joke, I tried reaching out to them they took forever. I had to keep following up with them as if they never received it in the first place. It’s a new platform, so guidance is needed. Tried the university they offer, in my opinion, it is completely useless, I would just completely move on from this website.

In my opinion, it is horrible, the rendering takes forever. I have the newest MacBook and the platform will still lag and slow down on me. I’m not a developer, I am a designer which makes it worst because I am using the features they are providing not extra coding features. In my opinion, it is a horrible platform really, stay away.

I haven't had to engage them from a support perspective; however, there is a considerable user community for tips/ideas/troubleshooting and the like. I believe the Pro plan supports additional resources but we didn't find that the cost justified the outcome. Overall the need for support has been relatively minor.

Incentivized

We have looked at hundrends of CMS's and LightCMS is a perfect entry-level system for most of our small to mid sized clients. LightCMS's feature set is less complex than almost every other system and the actual interface is miles ahead of most other CMS systems. It's simply thought out better. It lacks sensibility and an API as well as other advanced features many more expensive or more DIY systems have, but the simplicity makes up for it.

So, Webflow gave me the freedom that other platforms didn't in terms of not needing to code (in comparison to WordPress), and the site looks like a professional page rather than a generic average one, and then in terms of having more than just writing key findings (in comparison to medium) like a site that feels unique and sophisticated. Finally, all in all, Webflow is harder at start but the results are eye pleasing and its totally worth the time.

Incentivized

I feel it doesn’t perform the way it’s supposed to and it doesn’t have any beneficial factors to it. In my opinion, there is no reason to use a platform like this when Wix and Shopify, and WordPress exist. I believe Webflow is a platform that shouldn’t exist and it’s only popular because of the hype it received. I tried it and hate it completely.

• While I always think the price could be cheaper, LightCMS is incredibly inexpensive if you consider the costs of hosting, support, and upgrading is all included.
• As part of their partner program, we are able to control client accounts from our master account, making moving between clients easier and supporting them faster which ultimately makes our labor costs better.

• Work quality output has improved as Webflow helps bridge the gap between design and development.
• Lower overall development costs mean more client budget can be allocated to strategy and creative.
• Faster turnarounds result in shorter billing cycles, which improve agency cashflow.

Incentivized