Webflow vs HubSpot: which CMS helps you achieve your goals?

Visitors expect a smooth and effortless experience on your website, and the moment they encounter a negative one, 88.% of online users leave immediately. This striking statistic underscores just how critical it is to prioritize customer experience. Choosing the Content Management System (CMS) is at the heart of this effort — get it wrong, and the consequences for your brand can be costly.

With so many CMS options out there, finding the right one can feel overwhelming. However, when it comes to heavyweights in the industry, Webflow and HubSpot often steal the spotlight. Each has carved out a reputation for helping businesses create powerful websites, but they cater to different needs and priorities. To help you make the right decision, in this article, we’ll break down what sets these two platforms apart.

What are HubSpot and Webflow?

Once we’ve set the stage for why your CMS choice matters, let’s take a closer look at two standout options. HubSpot, launched in 2006 by MIT grads Dharmesh Shah and Brian Halligan, started as a tool to revolutionize inbound marketing — helping businesses attract organic leads instead of relying on cold calls and paid ads. Over the years, it’s grown into a platform covering everything from sales to e-commerce while staying true to its initial goals.

‍Webflow, founded in 2012, takes a different path. It empowers businesses to craft high-performing websites with a focus on visual design. Combining a top-tier website builder, advanced SEO tools, and cloud-based CMS features, this platform is a favorite for digital-first brands like Monday.com, Upwork, and The New York Times.

HubSpot helps you attract and nurture leads, while Webflow lets you build exceptional websites that convert — both designed to fuel growth in their own ways.

HubSpot vs. Webflow: a detailed comparison to your optimal decision 

By now, you’ve seen how HubSpot and Webflow each bring something unique to the table. But when it’s time to choose, the details matter. To make things simple, here’s a side-by-side comparison that can help you decide which platform fits your goals best.

Design capabilities and build speed 

When it comes to speed, Webflow takes the lead, thanks to its widely acclaimed no-code development framework. This feature allows you to visually create a website without studying the complexities of coding (though advanced tweaks might require some custom code). Plus, if efficiency without compromising quality is your goal, professional web development services can help you quickly build a polished site that stands out.

Webflow’s approach dramatically minimizes development overhead, resulting in faster turnaround times and lower costs.

On the design side, Webflow shines with its unmatched flexibility. Want to tweak the layout, spacing, colors, or typography? It’s all at your fingertips. Their template marketplace is another ace up the sleeve, offering professional designs you can customize to perfectly align with your brand’s identity and voice.

With HubSpot, you get limited functionality. There are only pre-built website templates that are easily adjustable through their drag-and-drop editor. Much like Webflow, you can personalize images, fonts, and colors to ensure your site reflects your brand. To make the most out of HubSpot’s tools, partnering with UI/UX design professionals can help you craft intuitive and visually appealing interfaces.

However, if your project requires complex functionality — like interactive dashboards or bespoke SaaS solutions — HubSpot is not the best fit. While it’s user-friendly, it generally takes more time to build a website compared to Webflow. For businesses focused on speed and adaptability, this could be a dealbreaker.

General functionality 

Webflow is a top-tier CMS system praised for its unique blend of design and development. Its CMS lets you create and manage multiple template types for diverse needs — be it blogs, job vacancies, or industry-specific pages — all with distinct layouts. These templates are essentially “cloneable,” enabling marketers to quickly produce an unlimited number of page types while maintaining consistency.

By comparison, HubSpot is primarily a CRM tool. Its standout feature is the Marketing Hub, which centralizes and streamlines your marketing efforts. Beyond that, it offers a suite of tools for social media management, lead generation, email marketing, and analytics within a single platform.

Adding to HubSpot’s appeal is its well-connected product ecosystem, providing seamless integration across various services and tools. However, while it excels in marketing functionality, its CMS offers limited customization and design flexibility, making it difficult to create visually distinctive websites. This convenience often comes at a cost, so budget considerations are critical before committing.

Ease of use 

As we’ve highlighted earlier, HubSpot’s drag-and-drop feature, coupled with its user-friendly interface, makes it easy to use for creating basic websites. Even if you lack web development experience, you can quickly create and manage simple sites. But, the platform’s functionality is limited, and its design tools lack depth, which can restrict your ability to create unique or highly customized websites. The onboarding process, while straightforward, may not compensate for these limitations when building advanced sites.

Webflow, by contrast, provides flexibility and design capabilities, making it ideal for crafting standout websites. While it may demand some web development knowledge to unlock its full potential, the extensive resources — including in-depth tutorials, a comprehensive knowledge base, and an active community forum — ensure that users can quickly overcome the learning curve. Once mastered, Webflow empowers users to develop websites that are visually distinctive and highly functional, far exceeding the possibilities offered by basic drag-and-drop tools.

CMS 

When speaking of content management, Webflow’s CMS provides easy navigation and user-friendly visual editing. Additionally, its advanced customization features, dynamic content capabilities, and smooth CRM integrations with platforms like Mailchimp and Salesforce make it a powerful and versatile platform. On top of that, the comparatively lower hosting costs and no-code development tools make this platform an affordable and flexible option for businesses of all sizes.

HubSpot, in turn, offers a more straightforward CMS. It comes with pre-built templates, drag-and-drop ease, and ready-to-use features like SEO tools, content calendars, and smart content functionality, which streamline content creation and marketing workflows. And if you’re already leveraging HubSpot’s CRM or planning to do so, the seamless integration across its ecosystem makes it a natural fit.

SEO features 

Moving to SEO features, HubSpot offers built-in tools that make it easy to optimize a website (even for those with minimal technical expertise). Among the options are automatic sitemap updates, 301 redirects, integration with Google Search Console, and analytics. It can analyze your site and give actionable suggestions, like improving header structures or fixing missing meta tags.

HubSpot has a set of specialized features. But it’s important to note that all of them require higher-tier subscriptions, which might not be feasible for smaller businesses.

Meanwhile, Webflow emphasizes clean, search engine-friendly code that aligns with best practices for crawling and indexing. Through the user-friendly interface, you can easily edit meta tags, page titles, and descriptions directly within the editor. Developers can also add custom code for structured data, which is excellent if you want more advanced SEO features.

On the downside, Webflow offers minimal automation or guidance compared to HubSpot, so you’ll need to be familiar with SEO practices.

<div class="post__style-link">For deeper insights, check out our blog about Webflow’s SEO potential — it’s packed with expert advice to help you make the most of your CMS choice.</div>

Optimizing your website for search engines is essential to boosting organic traffic and improving visibility. That being said, SEO is complex and requires expertise to achieve meaningful results. For this reason, regardless of the CMS system, professional SEO services are highly recommended to save time and money and get actual results. 

Pricing plans 

As far as budget is concerned, it’s important to understand what cost each platform offers. HubSpot, in this case, is known to be on the pricier side. If you’re looking to utilize its Content Hub, including the CMS, expect to pay thousands of dollars per month for subscriptions. While the platform has a free beginner tier, its features are limited. At the time of writing, the pricing plans for HubSpot are as follows.

• Free. 0$ per month;
• Starter Customer Platform. $12 per month (one seat included);
• Content Hub Starter. $20 per month (one seat included);
• Content Hub Professional. $500 per month (three seats included); ‍
• Content Hub Enterprise. $1500 per month (five seats included).

For those seeking a more budget-friendly solution, Webflow is a strong contender. With tier-based subscriptions, it provides significant affordability while still delivering powerful tools for website development and management. This platform also allows seamless integration with third-party marketing tools, including HubSpot (and we’ll talk about this in detail later). Here are Webflow’s pricing tiers.

• Starter. Free;
• Basic. $14 per month (billed yearly); 
• CMS. $23 per month (billed yearly);
• Business. $39 per month (billed yearly); 
• Enterprise. You can contact the team for a scalable custom solution. 

Integration capabilities 

If you’ve ever dealt with multiple platforms, you probably know how challenging it can be to keep everything in sync. That’s where integration comes in to save the day. HubSpot allows you to connect its CMS to native tools like Marketing Hub, Sales Hub, and HubSpot CRM. This means you’ll have a centralized platform for managing your customer data, sales pipelines, and marketing campaigns. All in all, this platform is able to integrate with over 1,000 external platforms. 

Webflow, in contrast, focuses on flexibility for design-centric businesses. By leveraging tools like Zapier, this platform enables connections to thousands of third-party apps,  including HubSpot, facilitating automated workflows and enhanced functionality. Its CMS API allows developers to create custom connections, adding further versatility to its integration potential.

Regardless of the platform you choose, setting up integrations correctly is essential to avoid workflow disruptions and data silos. To get the best results possible, collaborating with experienced software integration service providers can help maximize your system’s potential without extra headaches.

Security 

Considering that security is a top priority for any business, both platforms come equipped with robust features. HubSpot ensures compliance with industry standards, offering SSL protection to safeguard sensitive information and prevent unauthorized access. The platform stays proactive by routinely updating its security protocols, addressing vulnerabilities, and mitigating future threats.

Its reliable hosting also provides high uptime and automatic backups, reducing the risk of data loss and keeping your website secure and running smoothly. 

Just like HubSpot, Webflow automatically offers SSL certificates to websites. What sets it apart is the ability for users to implement advanced, customized security features through code-level control. The platform incorporates built-in security measures that comply with industry standards, such as CIS Security Controls. 

Webflow is also SOC2 compliant and offers a range of security enhancements, including two-factor authentication, role-based permissions, encrypted data storage, and routine third-party penetration testing.

Collaboration and workflow 

Efficient collaboration and seamless workflows are vital for teams handling content and website development. Webflow stands out by offering real-time collaboration features, allowing team members to work together effortlessly. Its dual modes — Designer for structural and functional changes and Editor for content updates — enable developers and marketers to focus on their respective tasks without overlapping or interference.

For larger teams or businesses with complex needs, Webflow Enterprise takes it up a notch with advanced features like page branching and simultaneous multi-user editing.  These capabilities make it a perfect choice if you’re looking for a CMS to manage intricate projects and maintain productivity.

HubSpot, while strong in marketing integration, has limited collaboration tools within its environment. Teams frequently rely on external tools like Google Docs for extensive teamwork, although HubSpot does offer basic workflows and role-based permissions. This makes it a suitable option for marketing-heavy teams but less ideal for those seeking Webflow’s depth and real-time functionality.

Customer support 

If we touch upon the aspect of customer support, HubSpot provides 24/7 chat, phone, and email assistance. Moreover, its HubSpot Academy has a variety of learning resources, including documentation, certifications, and tutorials. You’ll also benefit from the large and active community of people who share best practices and troubleshooting tips. 

With Webflow, a more self-service approach is needed. It offers in-depth documentation and tutorials via Webflow University. Still, if you need more direct communication, you’ll rely on emails with priority given to enterprise clients. The platform’s forums and community groups are also excellent resources for finding solutions.

When making a choice, challenges like complex integrations, scalability issues, or advanced customizations can arise. Optimizing your CMS from the start often requires partnering with professional application support and maintenance services. Experts can provide you with tailored solutions and long-term reliability, helping your website run smoothly and evolve to meet your needs. 

Suitability for developers and marketers 

It’s no secret that developers and marketers often have their own priorities, and these differences can greatly influence the choice of CMS. For developers, Webflow is the preferred option thanks to its code access, robust customization tools, and scalable CMS. 

All of the described features empower experts to create tailored, high-performance websites with unique functionalities and optimized designs.

<div class="post__style-link">To find more in-depth information on this topic, check out our Why Should You Choose Webflow For Website Development? article.</div>

On the flip side, HubSpot emphasizes CRM and marketing alignment, making it the ideal choice if you want to build with a focus on marketing. For marketers, this platform is a cut above the rest with its seamless integration with marketing tools, making it perfect for managing campaigns, tracking performance, and optimizing content. 

However, HubSpot doesn’t match Webflow’s ability to offer more advanced customization options, such as creating unique layouts and complex interactions, which can elevate the user experience and better align with specific brand aesthetics.

Decision points: which one to choose 

Even after all the information we’ve covered, you might still find yourself wondering, “Which one is the best?” Our recommendation is to examine your specific goals — doing so will lead you to the right answer. To help you make that final decision, we’ve pinpointed key aspects where each platform excels. And as you go through the next sections, in some scenarios, you might even think, “Yep, that’s exactly me!”

Webflow shines as the right choice in situations such as these:

• You’re budget-conscious. Webflow offers a diverse range of subscription plans, targeting both beginners and enterprises, making it possible to create professional-grade websites without extensive development resources. 
• Custom branding and animations are your focus. If unique branding or interactive elements are important, Webflow’s advanced design tools offer unmatched creative freedom. 
• You’re an agency or a developer. Thanks to its robust CMS, customizable workflows, and code-level access, the platform makes complex and high-performance websites attainable. 
• You’re a design-driven team. To achieve visually stunning websites, Webflow is the undisputed champion. Leveraging its visual editor and code-free environment, you can create pixel-perfect designs.
• Teams need tools, not barriers. Webflow allows multiple editors to work on the same project, a feature lacking in HubSpot, making it ideal for team-based workflows.

HubSpot works best for the following use cases:

• Design isn’t your priority. If you’re not too concerned about customization or creating visually stunning websites, HubSpot’s limited template options will get the job done.
• You have a big budget to spend. HubSpot isn’t cheap, but if you’re ready to invest heavily in an all-in-one platform, it can simplify your workflow.
• You’re already in the HubSpot ecosystem. If you’re already using the platform’s Marketing Hub or CRM, adopting the CMS ensures a unified and streamlined workflow. However, you can still achieve seamless integration and smooth operations by using Webflow as your CMS — many businesses successfully pair the two.
• Marketing matters more than design. HubSpot’s focus on SEO, inbound marketing, and email campaigns makes it perfect for teams prioritizing lead generation over creative freedom.

Integrate Webflow CMS with HubSpot CRM for optimal results 

If you thought the capabilities of Webflow and HubSpot ended with what we’ve already covered, think again. The true magic happens when you combine the strengths of both platforms. By integrating Webflow CMS with HubSpot CRM, you can experience seamless workflow while boosting marketing, sales, and website performance.

Webflow CMS allows the creation of eye-catching and highly customizable websites with a feature-rich CMS system. Meanwhile, you can take advantage of HubSpot’s CRM, offering a robust set of tools to automate your marketing, track customer interactions, and manage leads.

Setting up this integration is simpler than you might think. Tools like Zapier or native integrations from Webflow’s App Store make it easy to sync these systems. For step-by-step guidance, you can explore this comprehensive resource on how to integrate the HubSpot app. 

Last but not least

Looking back, this article has taken us on an exciting exploration! We’ve covered so much ground, and now we’ve finally arrived at the end. Of course, there’s always more to explore when it comes to Webflow and HubSpot, but we’ve tackled the key aspects you need to know to make an informed decision. All in all, these two platforms have entirely different purposes. 

The bottom line is this: if you’re seeking a scalable and high-performing website, opt for Webflow. After that, integrate HubSpot products for powerful inbound marketing tools. And once you need a helping hand, our Webflow development experts are here to make it happen. Drop us a few lines, and we’ll do our best to create a pixel-perfect website tailored to your business needs.