What to build your company website on when tools change every month

What changes and what stays

AI tools now assemble a website from a description in minutes. Platforms are adding assistants that write copy and lay out sections. That speeds up the start, but it doesn't change what happens to the website after launch. Someone has to update it, someone pays for it every month, and one day someone will move it or rebuild it.

A website lives for years. The platform you choose decides what those years look like.

1. Who on your team will change the content?

If content is changed by someone in marketing or a salesperson who doesn't code, they need an editor where they see the result immediately. A new post, an updated service page or a new product photo should take a few minutes, without calling your provider.

Platforms handle this differently:

• In Webflow, you edit text directly on the page by clicking on it.
• In WordPress, you work in an admin panel, and how comfortable editing is depends on the theme and plugins someone chose earlier.
• With websites built in code (e.g. Astro), content is edited in forms in a separate system, and live preview needs extra setup.

Each of these works. What matters is which one fits the people who will use it every day.

2. What does a website cost over three years?

Comparing prices on launch day tells you little. The cost of a website is spread over time: a subscription or server, licences, updates and your provider's hours for every change.

WordPress is free, but it needs a server, often paid plugins and regular updates. Every plugin is one more thing to look after and one more place where something can stop working. The Webflow subscription includes the server, the security certificate and backups, so you don't have to outsource that part of the work.

The simplest way is to work it out on paper: subscription or server times 36 months, plus licences, plus estimated maintenance hours. Only that total shows what is cheaper.

3. What happens when you want to change your provider?

It's worth asking before you start, when the answer costs nothing.

Every platform ties you in to some degree. In WordPress you have full access to the files and it's easy to find another provider, but a website built on many plugins can be hard to take over. Webflow is a closed platform: you can export the website's code, and database content (e.g. blog posts) to a spreadsheet, but the editor itself stays in Webflow. In return, any provider who knows Webflow can open the project and immediately know where everything is.

Whatever the platform, make sure of one thing: the account, the domain and platform access must be registered to your company. It's one conversation at the start of a project that saves a lot of stress at the end.

What we build on

We build most websites in Webflow, because for our clients it answers these three questions best. The client's team edits content without our help, the server and security are in the subscription, and the website is made of ready blocks you use to put together new pages. Alongside Webflow we work in Figma (design), GSAP (animation), and Google Analytics and Hotjar, to know what visitors do on the website.

Where Webflow isn't enough, we write code or connect it with other tools. For Poddie, a maker of acoustic booths, Webflow is the product database, the configurator loads visualisations from an external server, and payments go through Shopify. Each tool does what it does best.

When we recommend something else

• A large publication with hundreds of articles and developers on your side. Then a website built in code (e.g. Astro) with a separate content system (e.g. Sanity) works better. It gives more freedom and pays off at large scale, at the cost of editing comfort.
• A shop with a large catalogue. Here the foundation should be an e-commerce platform such as Shopify.
• A working WordPress site your team knows. If the website is fast and stable and nobody waits weeks for changes, it isn't worth moving just because something new has come along.

A platform is the foundation your website will stand on for years. Choose it for the people who will use it, not for whatever everyone happens to be talking about.

Facing this choice? Describe your situation, and we'll tell you straight what we would choose in your place.