In today’s world of making websites and digital designs, the tools we choose are really important. They help us work together, create, and share our ideas.
Out of many options, Framer and WordPress have become very popular, but they do different things.
Framer is great for making interactive designs and is mainly used by people who design how apps and websites look and feel (UI/UX designers). It’s suitable for working together in a lively way.
WordPress, on the other hand, is a big name for content management systems (CMS). It makes it easy and flexible for people to create and manage their websites.
Both Framer and WordPress are good at what they do, but are good in different ways.
This article will look at how they are different and how they are alike. We will help you understand these differences and similarities so you can know which one to use for your project.
This is useful for anyone making digital stuff, whether you’re already good at it, just starting, or just curious.
Knowing what makes Framer and WordPress special, how they are used, and who uses them will help you pick the right one for your online project.
See all our comparisons here:
Framer
Framer is a collaborative UI design tool that helps teams build better products.
It’s more than just UI design software; it allows for real-time collaboration between designers, copywriters, and developers on UI and UX designs.
Framer is known for its interactive design tool capabilities, enabling the creation of stunning websites and prototypes without code.
Framer is innovative and ships new features almost weekly, which you can read about on Framer’s blog.
Framer was founded in 2013 and has gone through various pivots to become the product we know today finally.
In the next section, we are going to investigate Framer’s key features.
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Key features
- Framer AI: Incorporates AI to allow users to create fully designed websites from a prompt. Though relatively new, it’s gaining traction. It is ideal for creating landing pages and acknowledging some current limitations.
- Publish right to the Internet: The free plan of Framer enables the online publishing of projects. However, attaching a custom domain is exclusive to the paid plans.
- Collaboration: Framer’s collaboration feature is particularly beneficial for teams, enabling real-time project collaboration, including live edit tracking, in-app chatting, and monitoring team members’ activity.
The list above is not a full-fledged list of all of Framer’s functionality but a concise list of features that stand out from WordPress.
WordPress
WordPress is a popular open-source content management system (CMS) that allows users to manage their site’s content without needing programming knowledge.
WordPress is versatile and suitable for websites like business sites, eCommerce stores, blogs, portfolios, and more.
It differentiates between WordPress.org (self-hosted, open-source software) and WordPress.com (a for-profit service using WordPress.org software).
WordPress’s extensive use is attributed to its flexibility, extensibility with themes and plugins, and a large community offering support and resources.
WordPress, on the other hand, is a lot older. It was founded in 2003.
Let us jump to key features WordPress has.
Key features
- Content Management: WordPress is a robust tool for managing posts, pages, and media.
- Themes: WordPress has a wide range of customizable design templates.
- Plugins: Plugins are one of WordPress’s biggest strengths. It has an extensive library of add-ons for added functionality.
- SEO Friendly: Optimized for search engines, enhancing visibility. With the use of plugins, WordPress can be equipped with beneficial SEO tools.
Now that we understand both Framer and WordPress, it is time to compare them.
Ease of Use
Ease of use is subjective, and the experience of the user plays a part in how easy these platforms are to use.
Framer is quite easy to set up. You create an account, select a theme, and start editing. And when you want to publish, it takes only a few clicks.
You don’t even have to set up a custom domain for starters. When you publish through Framer, you publish as a “.framer.app” domain, which means that the domain for selfdeployed would be “selfdeployed.framer.app”.
Note: a custom domain is only available on the basic plan, which means that you have to pay for this feature. You can still publish it to the web, but it would be under the Framers domain.
On the other hand, it is WordPress. Installing WordPress can be pretty straightforward, but you have plenty of options to deploy a WordPress site, which can also be rather complicated.
A brief introduction to how WordPress can be launched:
- Through WordPress.com: this is the easiest option, but you can be entirely locked down to WordPress.com limitations.
- Through a hosting service that provides WordPress hosting. There are many options here, and WordPress can be installed on any web host with PHP and Apache installed.
- Through cPanel. Installing WordPress is straightforward if you have a web host with cPanel.
- On an Apache or NGINX server with a custom setup (quite complex). If you are a developer, this might make the most sense, albeit being the most challenging way to set up a WordPress instance. This gives you the most flexibility, and you have total control of everything (and, therefore, responsibility to keep it safe).
Since WordPress can be installed in many ways, I think Framer is the easiest to deploy and use.
Scalability
Scalability differs between Framer and WordPress.
Framer is primarily a design and prototyping tool focused on UI/UX design, with limited scalability in terms of handling large-scale web development projects. It excels in design and prototyping but isn’t designed for managing large, content-heavy websites.
In contrast, WordPress is highly scalable. It can handle everything from small blogs to large, complex websites due to its robust content management system, extensive plugin ecosystem, and themes. WordPress can scale to meet high-traffic demands and complex website functionalities, making it a preferred choice for large-scale web development.
If scalability is the most important factor, WordPress is the way to go.
Integrations
Integrations with different services are important for most businesses. The platform often limits web app creators in terms of what they can integrate with.
Framer can integrate with Formspark, Hubspot, Intercom, Logo, Lottie, Mailchimp, Typeform, and YouTube. These services can be integrated with a Framer project by searching in the platform canvas (some of these services might need an account).
But if you have some React knowledge (which is a javascript framework), you can connect to any services that provide an API, but it requires some coding experience. It can be done through Code Overrides, which lets you code in React.
On the other hand, we have WordPress. WordPress is based on an open-source platform with an enormous community that creates plugins that extend its functionality.
You will most likely find a plugin with the features you need if you use WordPress, but there is a catch – it will most likely cost you money. Almost every WordPress plugin has a basic version and a paid version, whereas the basic version only has a portion of the paid version’s features.
When it comes to integrations, WordPress is the best choice.
Community and Support
In the category of community, both Framer and WordPress have a big community.
Framer has its own Framer Community, Reddit subreddit, discord groups, active X account, and so forth. The community is active and helpful.
WordPress also has a big community with subreddits, discord groups, and forums, to name a few.
When it comes to community, both Framer and WordPress have a thriving community. And since Framer has paid plans, you also get their developers’ support.
Pricing
When it comes to pricing, Framer with five different pricing plans is easy to understand:
- Free $0 per month per site
- Mini $5 per month per site
- Basic $15 per month per site
- Pro $30 per month per site
- Enterprise with the price on request
Want to know what the different pricing plans for Framer get you? Read our in-depth guide on the Framer pricing plans here.
WordPress is, unfortunately, hard to say exact pricing on. It can vary from a few dollars to thousands of dollars per month, depending on hosting, plugins, and paid themes.
Most web hosts have a cheap WordPress plan that one can start with that will get you up and running for up to $10.
Use Cases
Let us take Framer first.
Framer is beneficial for:
- UI/UX Designers: For creating interactive design prototypes.
- Product Teams: Collaborating on design projects in real-time.
- Developers: Integrating design with code for advanced prototypes
And on the other side, WordPress is beneficial for:
- Bloggers: Easy-to-use platform for blogging or anyone needing a CMS for regular content updates.
- eCommerce Sites: Using plugins for online stores.
- Developers: Easy entry-level for website creation if you’re a developer.
Conclusion on WordPress vs Framer
If you have made it this far, you might have noticed that Framer and WordPress are quite different from each other.
Framer is a tool like Webflow to design, edit, and publish your website as fast and easily as possible. It has an easy-to-understand pricing.
Choose Framer for portfolios, web design agencies, landing pages (and small blogs).
WordPress is a full-fledged CMS built for bloggers and e-commerce sites. It can be hosted in almost infinite ways, and the pricing can vary from a few dollars to thousands of dollars.
Choose WordPress if you are a bit technical and want an e-commerce site (with Woocommerce) or a CMS for a blog or news site that requires frequent updates.
I encourage you to try both alternatives and see what fits your needs best. They’re both free to test.