Webflow Hybrid App

Webflow needs to pick up where Macaw Scarlet left off. A hybrid approach to the Webflow app would be huge. While hosting is important, it is becoming almost trivial to put a static site on S3 or other clouds.

Rapid visual development is Webflow's value proposition.

I would like to see the Webflow CMS broken off as a headless API service and the Webflow designer developed as a cross-platform hybrid app (static site generator). Embrace the serverless mantra. In a few years, this may be the only sustainable model. I feel that if Webflow doesn't offer this kind of workflow, they are perpetually going to be in the position of users outgrowing the system.

Allowing designers to build websites is great and all, but, for next-level adoption, Webflow has to be able to be inserted into the toolchain.

Basically, Webflow Designer should be a product and Webflow CMS should be a service. Pay $200 for Designer and crank out all the static sites you want. Push the sites out to Webflow hosting or save them locally. And if you need more, click a button in Designer and start paying monthly to use the CMS service. 

Look at Sketch App and Adobe for parallels (kinda). Sketch App is sucking users away from Adobe and their monthly fees. Incidentally, Webflow Sketch plugin would be cool.

  • Rodney Green
  • Apr 19 2017