LightCMS (discontinued) vs. Webflow

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
LightCMS (discontinued)
Score 6.1 out of 10
N/A
LightCMS, from NetSuite, was a cloud-based content management system for building websites and eCommerce storefronts. It is designed to be used by individuals, non-profits, and small to medium-sized businesses. The product has been discontinued.N/A
Webflow
Score 8.8 out of 10
N/A
Webflow is a Website Experience Platform for modern marketing teams, used to visually build, manage, and optimize websites that offer both the consumer experience teams expect and enterprise-grade performance and scale.
$18
per month
Pricing
LightCMS (discontinued)Webflow
Editions & Modules
No answers on this topic
Basic
$18
per month
CMS
$29
per month
Ecommerce - Standard
$42
per month
Business
$49
per month
Ecommerce - Plus
$84
per month
Ecommerce - Advanced
$235
per month
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
LightCMS (discontinued)Webflow
Free Trial
NoYes
Free/Freemium Version
NoYes
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoNo
Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
Additional DetailsUp to a 22% discount available for annual pricing.
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
LightCMS (discontinued)Webflow
Considered Both Products
LightCMS (discontinued)
Chose LightCMS (discontinued)
We have looked at hundrends of CMS's and LightCMS is a perfect entry-level system for most of our small to mid sized clients. LightCMS's feature set is less complex than almost every other system and the actual interface is miles ahead of most other CMS systems. It's simply …
Webflow
Chose Webflow
Framer is Webflow's closest competitor and has some advantages in the animation department, but Webflow has a bit more brand recognition among clients. WordPress is old-fashioned in its approach, and despite offering site-builder themes and plugins, still doesn't have native …
Chose Webflow
Webflow, in my opinion, is a better tool because it gives you more granular control over tools like Framer and Wix Studio.
Chose Webflow
Webflow is a great replacement for simple websites like WIX & Squarespace. Webflow, in its current incarnation, will never be able to overtake the ubiquity of WordPress pages, it lacks the automation & tooling of Supernova, the design capabilities of Figma, and the design -> …
Chose Webflow
Framer is for designers with no underlying knowledge of how a website works. It's more like designing a website in Figma. Webflow offers a better balance of design features and true website configurations.
Chose Webflow
Webflow is simply more powerful without getting bogged down like other platforms.
Chose Webflow
In my opinion, Webflow has the worst CMS I have used. All the other tools make it much easier to write, format, publish and organize content. There's a lot more flexibility and they have better UX. I would not choose Webflow if given the choice, I would only use it if the …
Chose Webflow
The UI and UX is definitely better. The flexibility on the design is also better. Webflow is more powerful than these tools.
Chose Webflow
It does not compare at all to WIX, in my opinion, it is an insult to them even comparing them side by side. No doubt WIX is 100 times better than Webflow. Wix has features that Webflow lacks and has extra help when needed. In my opinion, WIX customer service is astonishing …
Chose Webflow
We loved the feature set and extensibility. It's a little pricey but when we have the time to devote to a project it shows why Webflow is such a good fit. Of course there are lots of other things you can use it for, but it's been working for us for one-off marketing projects.
Chose Webflow
The code quality and speed can't even be compared to Elementor; Webflow is simply a much better tool. Instapage has a cool feature for dynamic landing pages, which changes according to Google Ads Keyword, which I miss; however, amazing webflow community members recreated that …
Chose Webflow
I would not say it has substitutes for all features of the other platforms, but overall it is better to use and implement. I would like to see Wix's user management, Shopify and WooCommerce's shop features, and WordPress' ability to host big enterprise blog management. The …
Chose Webflow
A lot more design control and easier to create a custom site, and then also to scale that site going forward. There's a lot about WordPress I miss, though, when it comes to managing a blog—user permissions, SEO control, edit HTML version of posts.
Chose Webflow
Compared to other closed platforms like Squarespace or Shopify, Webflow is much more developer friendly and customizable. The CMS is easier to use and much more flexible to design and develop in. Price points between the 3 are similar. Most of the 3rd party integrations for …
Chose Webflow
Webflow falls somewhere in between Wordpress as a most basic theme-based platform and HubSpot CMS Hub, which has nearly unlimited capabilities. The ease and pricing are a win for HubSpot but we still use and host sites using Wordpress as that is often a client's desire for …
Chose Webflow
Webflow is unmatched in its design customization and code output quality.
Chose Webflow
So, Webflow gave me the freedom that other platforms didn't in terms of not needing to code (in comparison to WordPress), and the site looks like a professional page rather than a generic average one, and then in terms of having more than just writing key findings (in …
Chose Webflow
Webflow is more comprehensive, so it is also a little bit harder to use. I selected Webflow because its component-based approach allows me to change content once, and it updates across multiple pages, which has saved me a significant amount of time. Sometimes, it can be …
Features
LightCMS (discontinued)Webflow
Security
Comparison of Security features of Product A and Product B
LightCMS (discontinued)
8.0
Ratings
1% below category average
Webflow
7.1
Ratings
13% below category average
Role-based user permissions8.00 Ratings7.10 Ratings
Web Content Creation
Comparison of Web Content Creation features of Product A and Product B
LightCMS (discontinued)
9.1
Ratings
16% above category average
Webflow
9.3
Ratings
19% above category average
WYSIWYG editor10.00 Ratings10.00 Ratings
Code quality / cleanliness9.00 Ratings10.00 Ratings
Admin section9.00 Ratings10.00 Ratings
Page templates10.00 Ratings10.00 Ratings
Library of website themes10.00 Ratings10.00 Ratings
Mobile optimization / responsive design10.00 Ratings10.00 Ratings
Publishing workflow8.00 Ratings9.00 Ratings
Form generator7.00 Ratings5.00 Ratings
Web Content Management
Comparison of Web Content Management features of Product A and Product B
LightCMS (discontinued)
7.3
Ratings
1% below category average
Webflow
7.9
Ratings
7% above category average
Content taxonomy4.00 Ratings8.60 Ratings
SEO support7.00 Ratings9.80 Ratings
Bulk management8.00 Ratings7.10 Ratings
Community / comment management10.00 Ratings6.00 Ratings
Availability / breadth of extensions00 Ratings8.00 Ratings
Platform & Infrastructure
Comparison of Platform & Infrastructure features of Product A and Product B
LightCMS (discontinued)
-
Ratings
Webflow
7.0
Ratings
8% below category average
API00 Ratings7.00 Ratings
Internationalization / multi-language00 Ratings7.00 Ratings
Best Alternatives
LightCMS (discontinued)Webflow
Small Businesses
ManageWP
ManageWP
Score 10.0 out of 10
ManageWP
ManageWP
Score 10.0 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies
RWS Tridion Sites
RWS Tridion Sites
Score 9.0 out of 10
RWS Tridion Sites
RWS Tridion Sites
Score 9.0 out of 10
Enterprises
RWS Tridion Sites
RWS Tridion Sites
Score 9.0 out of 10
RWS Tridion Sites
RWS Tridion Sites
Score 9.0 out of 10
All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
User Ratings
LightCMS (discontinued)Webflow
Likelihood to Recommend
10.0
(0 ratings)
8.8
(0 ratings)
Usability
-
(0 ratings)
9.0
(0 ratings)
Availability
-
(0 ratings)
1.0
(0 ratings)
Performance
-
(0 ratings)
1.0
(0 ratings)
Support Rating
-
(0 ratings)
6.5
(0 ratings)
Product Scalability
-
(0 ratings)
1.0
(0 ratings)
User Testimonials
LightCMS (discontinued)Webflow
Likelihood to Recommend
LightCMS is perfect for 90% of websites out there. It has all the basic modules like calendars, photo galleries, news/blog, or forms building built in. Small businesses to mid-sized businesses are perfect for LightCMS. We use other solutions when the requierments for the website include a lot of third party integrations or custom modules. As a hosted CMS it has the same limitations as others with server-side development.
Read full review
The good outweighs the bad. I love how my webpage works, and it fulfills everything that I was trying to accomplish. The ability to tag and distribute content across the site saves a lot of time and energy. I just wish that custom elements were easier to reuse across pages and that it weren't so hard to figure out. This tool is better suited for someone who knows what they are doing, rather than a beginner.
Read full review
Pros
  • LightCMS provides all the major functionality 90% of sites need. It keeps out of its own way by making these solutions intuitive and simple and not trying to solve every problem for everyone which would over-complicate the tool-set.
  • This is the easiest to use CMS we have ever seen. I tell my client's that if they can make a Facebook post, they can manage their website, and it's true. Their UI is so easy and keeps getting easier to use. Untrained users get it in minutes and are able to manage their sites without our help.
  • LightCMS's code is simple and light-weight. Sites are fast and the CMS doesnt get in the way of performance.
  • You can do almost anything you want (except server-side programming) with LightCMS. So, we can create any design we want and it works great with Light CMS's tokens and editable regions concept (which is also simple to implement.)
  • Constantly upgraded and fixed, the product is 1000x better after 10 years of working with it, but is still simple and not bloated.
Read full review
  • Easy to use and customize CMS.
  • Develop engaging CSS interactions and JavaScript animations visually.
  • Several competitively priced hosting tiers are available and all use AWS servers and Fastly CDN.
  • Code can be exported to be used with other CMS platforms such as WordPress, or E-Commerce platforms such as Shopify.
Read full review
Cons
  • While keeping it simple is LightCMS's thing, some of the elements/modules could use deeper options or control for advanced users.
  • Some content, such as calendars, cannot have data exported/imported easily.
  • Support was amazing 10 years ago. We openly talked about how awesome they were... it isn't as good as it once was, but is still way above almost every support of other CMS systems we have used.
Read full review
  • The Content Management System needs improvement. In my experience, it's very difficult to organise all our content at big volumes. We want to create a resources section where we can categorize our content but there isn't an easy or intuitive way to do it
  • In my opinion, it's incredibly difficult to create tables in an article
  • You have to do custom coding for anchor links within an article and it's time consuming and, in my opinion, super annoying
  • Website designs are not responsive we need to keep designing a separate mobile version
  • In my opinion, Formatting content in articles is annoying compared to other CMSs like Wordpress, Shopify, Wix, Blogger, etc. Worst experience I've had.
  • Changes to the nav bar on the homepage do not reflect universally, we needed to do the same changes all over again for our blog and mobile
  • Content editors need to keep logging in every time they add content
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Likelihood to Renew
No answers on this topic
It's the perfect balance of GUI and code control
Read full review
Usability
No answers on this topic
With a little education, I find Webflow incredibly easy to use. As previously mentioned, the Webflow University video library is amazing so anything you need help with is already available. That said, I do feel like it is a relatively steep learning curve and would be even steeper for someone who is completely new to Web Development, which is why I gave it the score I did.
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Reliability and Availability
No answers on this topic
In my experience, their customer service is an absolute joke, I tried reaching out to them they took forever. I had to keep following up with them as if they never received it in the first place. It’s a new platform, so guidance is needed. Tried the university they offer, in my opinion, it is completely useless, I would just completely move on from this website.
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Performance
No answers on this topic
In my opinion, it is horrible, the rendering takes forever. I have the newest MacBook and the platform will still lag and slow down on me. I’m not a developer, I am a designer which makes it worst because I am using the features they are providing not extra coding features. In my opinion, it is a horrible platform really, stay away.
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Support Rating
No answers on this topic
I haven't had to engage them from a support perspective; however, there is a considerable user community for tips/ideas/troubleshooting and the like. I believe the Pro plan supports additional resources but we didn't find that the cost justified the outcome. Overall the need for support has been relatively minor.
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Alternatives Considered
We have looked at hundrends of CMS's and LightCMS is a perfect entry-level system for most of our small to mid sized clients. LightCMS's feature set is less complex than almost every other system and the actual interface is miles ahead of most other CMS systems. It's simply thought out better. It lacks sensibility and an API as well as other advanced features many more expensive or more DIY systems have, but the simplicity makes up for it.
Read full review
So, Webflow gave me the freedom that other platforms didn't in terms of not needing to code (in comparison to WordPress), and the site looks like a professional page rather than a generic average one, and then in terms of having more than just writing key findings (in comparison to medium) like a site that feels unique and sophisticated. Finally, all in all, Webflow is harder at start but the results are eye pleasing and its totally worth the time.
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Scalability
No answers on this topic
I feel it doesn’t perform the way it’s supposed to and it doesn’t have any beneficial factors to it. In my opinion, there is no reason to use a platform like this when Wix and Shopify, and WordPress exist. I believe Webflow is a platform that shouldn’t exist and it’s only popular because of the hype it received. I tried it and hate it completely.
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Return on Investment
  • While I always think the price could be cheaper, LightCMS is incredibly inexpensive if you consider the costs of hosting, support, and upgrading is all included.
  • As part of their partner program, we are able to control client accounts from our master account, making moving between clients easier and supporting them faster which ultimately makes our labor costs better.
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  • Work quality output has improved as Webflow helps bridge the gap between design and development.
  • Lower overall development costs mean more client budget can be allocated to strategy and creative.
  • Faster turnarounds result in shorter billing cycles, which improve agency cashflow.
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ScreenShots