Website builder
Moving your website off Webflow
Webflow is the best-behaved platform on this page and we are going to say so plainly. It exports real code, with no attribution required, and Webflow states that you retain ownership of your content. If you are on Webflow and happy, you are in a much better position than most. The reasons to move are narrower — and they are usually about the CMS.
Where you actually stand
Credit where it is due. On paid Workspace plans, Webflow lets you export your site’s HTML, CSS, JavaScript and assets, host it anywhere, and does not require attribution. Interactions, navbars, sliders and tabs continue to work in the exported output because the necessary JavaScript comes with it. That is a genuinely good deal and it is rare.
The gap is everything dynamic. Webflow’s own documentation lists what the export leaves behind: CMS content and functionality, User Accounts, Ecommerce, page password protection, site search, localised content, code components, and — the one that catches people — form submission processing. Forms do not work on exported sites.
So if your Webflow site is a handful of static marketing pages, the export is close to complete and you may not need us. If your site has a CMS-driven blog, a services collection, a team directory, or a working contact form, the export gives you the shell and not the machinery. That is where a rebuild earns its keep.
Webflow is straight with you about ownership
Webflow’s terms state that you retain ownership of your website content, and their export documentation explicitly says the exported code can be hosted anywhere with no attribution required. This is the correct way to treat customers and we will not pretend it is anything else.
The reason to move off Webflow is therefore not an ownership grievance. It is practical: the export is not a working site if you use the CMS, and Webflow’s pricing scales in a way that eventually makes self-hosted Next.js the cheaper and more capable option.
“On paid Workspace plans, you can export your site’s HTML, CSS, JavaScript, and assets to back up your code, provide it to your client, or host it anywhere you like — no attribution required.”
“forms (including file upload and reCAPTCHA) will not work on exported sites in order to comply with GDPR”
What this costs you day to day
The export drops your CMS entirely
Collection items and Collection lists do not come across. If your blog, services or locations are CMS-driven — and on Webflow they usually are — the exported site has the templates and none of the content.
Exported forms do not work
Form submission processing stays with Webflow. Export your site and every form on it is inert until someone wires up a new backend.
Export needs a Workspace plan
Site plans do not include code export. If you are on a Site plan alone, you do not currently have the option at all.
Costs stack as you grow
Site plan, plus Workspace plan, plus CMS tier, plus Ecommerce if you need it. For a business site that is mostly content, that adds up against hosting a Next.js site on Vercel.
Cancel and the site unpublishes
Downgrading to the free Starter plan removes your custom domains and unpublishes the site. Your content stays editable, but the live site comes down.
How the rebuild works
Six steps, and your involvement is deliberately minimal. We handle the technical side, bring you recommendations, and come to you when a decision or an approval is genuinely needed. You review the finished site before it goes live.
- 1
We audit your current website
We review your existing site — pages, content, SEO, functionality and structure. We identify what should be improved, updated or dropped, rather than copying over things that were never working.
- 2
We rebuild the site in Next.js
Your branding and content carry over, but the site is rebuilt from the ground up in Next.js. That removes the database and plugin dependencies behind most performance, security and maintenance problems.
For Webflow specifically: If you have export access, send us the zip — it is a good starting reference for your design. But we pull the CMS content from your live site, because that is precisely what the export does not include, and we rebuild forms with a real backend so they actually deliver.
- 3
We improve it while we rebuild it
This is the part people underestimate. We are not handing you a newer version of the same website. We look for real gains in navigation, page layout, calls to action, mobile experience, content and SEO.
- 4
We preserve your SEO
Existing URLs, page titles, metadata and redirects are all accounted for in the transition. The goal is to move platforms without giving up the search visibility you have already built.
- 5
We test everything before it goes live
Desktop and mobile, every form, every piece of functionality, all content reviewed — checked and working before we touch anything in production.
- 6
We launch
Once you approve it, we move the new site into production. From your side the transition should be uneventful, and your visitors should never see an interruption.
What comes with you
- Your design, faithfully — Webflow sites are usually worth keeping
- All CMS collection content, which the export leaves behind
- Working forms with real submission handling
- Interactions and animations, rebuilt natively
- Existing URLs, preserved or redirected
- Your domain and your hosting, in your own accounts
You own what we build. In writing.
Every rebuild is delivered with a Certificate of Ownership and IP Assignment: a signed document assigning you the copyright in the site code and the content we produce for you, and recording the transfer of the repository, the domain and the hosting account into your name. You are not licensing your website from us. If you ever leave, you take the whole thing with you — the code, the content, the domain, the repository and the deployment history.
- Full copyright assignment in the site code and the content we write for you.
- The Git repository transferred to an account you control, with its full history.
- The domain in your name, at a registrar of your choosing.
- Hosting in your own Vercel account if you want it there — we can manage it, but ownership sits with you.
- No proprietary page builder, no template licence, and nothing that stops working if you stop paying us.
Questions people ask about leaving Webflow
- Webflow lets me export my code. Why would I need a rebuild?
- If your site is purely static pages, you may not. The export is genuinely good. But Webflow documents that it excludes CMS content and functionality, User Accounts, Ecommerce, password protection, site search and localisation — and that forms will not work on exported sites. For most business sites that is the majority of what makes the site useful.
- Is Webflow worse than the other platforms on this list?
- No, and it would be dishonest to imply it. Webflow is the most portable and the most transparent platform here. People move off it for capability and cost, not because they feel trapped.
- Will the new site look the same?
- Yes, if you want it to. Webflow sites are usually well designed and we are happy to rebuild the design faithfully. We will point out conversion or accessibility improvements as we go, but nothing changes without your say-so.
- What happens to my Webflow CMS collections?
- We pull every collection item from your live site and model it properly in the new build — as structured content with its own schema markup, not as a spreadsheet of orphaned rows. This is the part the export cannot do for you.
Sources
Every claim made about Webflow on this page comes from Webflow’s own published documentation. Read them yourself. We would rather you did.
Also worth reading
Duda
If an agency built your Duda site, the agency holds the account — and Duda will not hand it to you.
Read the Duda pageSquarespace
The export is a content dump, not a website. Squarespace publishes the list of what it leaves behind.
Read the Squarespace pageWordPress
You own it — but you also own the plugin update treadmill and the security surface that comes with it.
Read the WordPress page
Start by finding out where you actually are
The free scan tells you what your site is built on, what is slowing it down, what search engines and AI answer engines can currently read, and roughly what a rebuild would cost.
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