Webflow or WordPress for a Quebec small business?
For a small business that wants a polished, fast brochure site that’s easy to edit, Webflow is often the best choice: no plugins to maintain, hosting included, custom design. WordPress remains preferable for very specific needs, like a complex store or features that only exist as plugins. Your project decides.
First, a disclosure
I build my websites with Webflow. So I’ll try to be fair to WordPress, which runs about 40% of websites worldwide (W3Techs). It isn’t a bad tool. It simply meets different needs.
The comparison
| Criterion | Webflow | WordPress |
|---|---|---|
| Maintenance | No plugins to update, hosting included | Core, theme and plugin updates to keep up with |
| Security | Handled by Webflow | Depends mainly on the plugins installed and how up to date they are |
| Design | Custom, with no imposed theme | Often based on a theme, custom possible |
| Editing content | Right on the page, layout protected | From the admin panel, more or less simple depending on the theme |
| Advanced features | CMS, forms, localization; the rest through integrations | A huge choice of plugins |
| Recurring costs | Per-site subscription, in US dollars | Hosting, paid plugins, maintenance |
Maintenance and security
This is the biggest difference. A WordPress site relies on a theme and plugins, which need regular updates. In 2025, 11,334 new vulnerabilities were found in the WordPress ecosystem, 91% of them in plugins and 9% in themes (Patchstack).
On Webflow, there are no plugins to maintain: hosting, updates and security are handled by the platform. For a small business without a technical team, that makes a big difference day to day.
Editing your site yourself
With the Webflow editor, you click on a text or an image and edit it right on the page. You can also publish an article or add a project in the CMS. The layout stays protected: there’s no risk of breaking the design.
On WordPress, it all depends on the theme and how the site was built. Some are very easy to edit, others need a developer for the smallest change.
Comparing costs
The Webflow subscription is billed per site, in US dollars, depending on the plan (Webflow pricing). It’s often more expensive than basic WordPress hosting. But on the WordPress side, you have to add paid plugins and maintenance time, whether you do it yourself or someone else does.
The right calculation is the total cost over three years: creation, hosting, licences and maintenance. My article on website pricing details these recurring fees.
When WordPress is still the right choice
- an online store with a very large catalogue or complex sales rules;
- a specific feature that only exists as a WordPress plugin;
- an in-house technical team that already knows WordPress well;
- a very large site, with thousands of pieces of content and several editors with different roles.
In those cases, I’d rather tell you on the first call. For a brochure site, a services site or a company blog, Webflow is often simpler to live with day to day.
