Framer vs WordPress: which is right for your business website?

At a glance

• Cost: Framer is a monthly plan per site with hosting included. WordPress software is free, but you pay for hosting, any premium themes or plugins, and someone to keep it updated.

• Editing: Framer lets editors change text, images and CMS content on the live page, with a publisher approving changes. WordPress has a dashboard and block editor that many people have used before.

• Design freedom: Framer is a visual design tool, so custom layouts and animation are built directly on the canvas. WordPress design depends on the theme or page builder you choose.

• SEO: Both cover the basics: sitemaps, page titles, meta descriptions and redirects. WordPress has more SEO plugins; Framer has fewer moving parts.

• Ecommerce: WordPress has WooCommerce. Framer's plans don't include a shop or checkout, so stores usually connect Shopify through a plugin.

• Plugins: WordPress.org lists over 76,000 free plugins. Framer has a smaller marketplace of plugins and components.

• Ownership: WordPress is open source and can be hosted anywhere. Framer sites run only on Framer's hosting.

• Upkeep: Framer looks after hosting, SSL and the platform. WordPress needs regular plugin and theme updates and backups.

Cost

As of October 2026, Framer's pricing page lists a free plan, Basic at $10 a month and Pro at $30 a month. Prices are in US dollars, with sales tax added at checkout, and are billed on the cycle you pick at checkout. Basic allows 30 pages and 1,000 CMS items; Pro allows 150 pages and 2,500 CMS items, with paid add-ons to go higher.

Extras on Framer include localisation at $20 per locale, extra editors at $20 a month each and content-only editors at $10 a month. A/B testing is part of an add-on called Convert, listed at $50 per 500,000 events.

WordPress itself costs nothing. It is open source software licensed under the GPL, so your costs are hosting, a domain, any premium theme or plugins, and time or budget for updates. If you'd rather not manage a server, WordPress.com lists managed plans including Business at $25 a month and Commerce at $45 a month, billed yearly, in US dollars and excluding taxes (as of October 2026).

On either platform the bigger numbers are the build and the upkeep. Our guide to how much a website costs in the UK covers the full picture.

Ease of editing for your team

Framer's on-page editing lets content editors change text, rich text, images, component settings and CMS content directly on the live site, and add new CMS pages. Their changes stay hidden until someone with publishing permission reviews and publishes them, which suits teams that want a sign-off step.

WordPress has a long-established admin area and block editor, and plenty of people have used it before, which makes hiring and handover easier. The catch is that a heavily customised theme or page builder can make simple edits slower than they should be, so how easy WordPress feels depends on how it was built.

Design freedom

Framer started as a design tool. Layouts, animation and interactions are built visually, so the design you approve is close to what gets built, and there's no separate theme layer to work around. That's why it suits brand-led marketing sites.

WordPress can look like anything, but the route matters: a ready-made theme, a page builder, or a custom theme written by a developer. A custom theme gives full control at a higher development cost. A theme or builder is cheaper to start with but can limit what you can change later.

SEO and performance

According to Framer's SEO guide, every site gets an automatic sitemap.xml and robots.txt, custom titles and descriptions for pages and CMS items, automatic image optimisation and built-in analytics. Structured data can be added as JSON-LD. Framer generates SSL certificates automatically for custom domains, and its pricing page lists a global content delivery network.

WordPress has had a built-in XML sitemap since version 5.5, and SEO plugins add more control over titles and structured data. Speed depends heavily on your host, theme and plugins, so two WordPress sites can perform very differently.

Neither platform will rank a site on its own. Content, page structure, internal links and speed matter more. Our guide to Core Web Vitals explains what to watch, and our technical SEO work covers both platforms.

Ecommerce

Framer's plans don't list a shop or checkout. Stores built in Framer usually connect Shopify, for example with the Framer Commerce plugin on the Framer Marketplace, which syncs Shopify products into Framer and sends customers to Shopify's checkout. That works well for a design-led store, but you're running two platforms.

WordPress has WooCommerce, an open source ecommerce platform powered by WordPress that says it has no monthly platform fees, though extensions can cost extra. If selling online is the main job of the site, read Shopify vs WooCommerce too.

Plugins and integrations

This is where WordPress is hard to beat. The official directory lists over 76,000 free plugins, from booking systems to membership areas. If you need an unusual integration, there's a good chance it already exists. WordPress's own security guidance advises deleting plugins you don't use, because every plugin is more code to keep updated.

Framer has a marketplace of plugins and components, and custom code can be added where needed. It's smaller, so check any must-have integration before you commit.

Ownership, hosting and security

WordPress wins on ownership. You can host it anywhere, change hosts and export your content as a WXR file. Hosting is your responsibility, though: WordPress recommends PHP 8.3 or greater, MySQL 8.0 or greater (or MariaDB 10.11 or greater) and HTTPS support. Minor core releases update automatically, but plugins and themes only update automatically in special cases, so someone needs to update them and take backups.

Framer is the opposite trade. You don't manage servers, certificates or platform updates, but Framer doesn't offer HTML export for self-hosting, so leaving Framer later means a rebuild. You can still own the project: Framer lets a project be transferred to another account, and the site stays online during the transfer.

Moving from one to the other

Whichever way you move, the job is the same: list every URL on the old site, decide where each one should go, and set up redirects before launch. Pages with traffic or backlinks come first.

Framer's redirects live in Site Settings and support wildcards, but only for paths on your current domain, so a change of domain also needs redirecting at the old host. On WordPress, redirects are often handled with a plugin such as Redirection, which manages 301 redirects and tracks 404 errors.

WordPress's export tool produces an XML file with posts, pages, custom post types, categories, tags and more, which helps when moving content. The design doesn't come with it, so a move in either direction means rebuilding the design. Our website redesign checklist covers how to protect your traffic.

Which should you choose?

Choose Framer if

• Your site is mainly a marketing or lead generation site where design and brand matter.

• Your team wants to edit content without worrying about updates, hosting or plugins.

• You plan to test landing pages and want A/B testing built into the platform.

• Your content fits within Framer's page and CMS limits.

Choose WordPress if

• You need to own the code and choose your own hosting.

• You rely on specific plugins, such as memberships, complex forms or a particular booking system.

• You have a very large content library or a team that already knows WordPress.

• You want WooCommerce, or you have a developer or maintenance plan in place to look after updates.

How we can help

We build on both, so we don't need to push you one way. Most of our sites are built in Framer, and we also build and look after WordPress sites. Websites start from £7,500, with a fixed quote after discovery, and at handover we transfer the site to your own account. We set up GA4 and Microsoft Clarity tracking so you can see what's working.

See our Framer web design and WordPress web design services, or if you're moving an existing site, our website redesign service. When you're ready, tell us about your project.

Frequently asked questions

Is Framer better than WordPress for SEO?

Not automatically. Framer handles sitemaps, meta tags, image optimisation and SSL out of the box, while WordPress needs more setup but offers more SEO plugins. Rankings depend far more on content, structure and links than on the platform.

Is Framer cheaper than WordPress?

WordPress software is free, but you pay for hosting, plugins and updates. Framer's plans include hosting, starting at $10 a month for Basic as of October 2026, so the real comparison is total running cost, including maintenance time.

Can I move my WordPress site to Framer?

Yes, but it's a rebuild rather than an import of the design. Content can be exported from WordPress and brought across, and every old URL should be mapped to a new one with redirects set up in Framer before launch.

Can you sell products on a Framer website?

Framer's plans don't include a checkout. Stores built in Framer usually connect Shopify through a marketplace plugin, while WordPress sites can use WooCommerce.

Can I host a Framer site myself?

No. Framer says it doesn't offer HTML export for self-hosting, so Framer sites run on Framer's hosting. If owning the code and choosing your host matters, WordPress is the better fit.

Do WordPress sites need more maintenance than Framer sites?

Usually, yes. WordPress core minor releases update automatically, but plugins and themes generally need updating by hand, plus backups. Framer manages hosting, SSL certificates and platform updates for you.