| Product | Framer |
| Website | framer.com |
| Category | Web Design / Website Builder |
| Pricing | Free (framer.com subdomain), Mini $5/mo, Basic $15/mo, Pro $30/mo |
What Is Framer?
Framer is a visual website builder that lets designers create and publish websites directly from a design canvas. Unlike traditional website builders (Squarespace, Wix) that feel like form-filling, Framer gives you a freeform canvas where you position elements like you would in Figma, but the output is a real website. Design it, hit publish, it’s live.
Framer occupies the space between design tools and website builders. A Figma design is a picture of a website; a Framer design is the website. Animations, responsive breakpoints, CMS content, forms, and SEO settings are all part of the design process, not an afterthought.
Key Features
Visual Canvas to Live Site
Design on a canvas with the same tools you’d use in Figma: auto-layout, frames, text, images, shapes. The difference is that when you publish, the canvas becomes a real website. No export, no handoff, no rebuilding in HTML.
Animations and Interactions
Scroll-triggered animations, hover effects, page transitions, and entrance effects are all visual. Point, click, and set the animation curve. The result is production-quality motion design without writing CSS or JavaScript.
Built-in CMS
Create collections (blog posts, team members, projects) and design templates that pull from them. The CMS is native to Framer — no external headless CMS integration needed. For most marketing sites and portfolios, the built-in CMS is sufficient.
Performance
Framer generates optimized static HTML and deploys to a global CDN. Sites are fast by default: automatic image optimization, lazy loading, and preloading. Lighthouse scores are typically high without manual optimization.
Who Is This For?
- Designers who want to ship websites, not mockups
- Marketing teams that need beautiful landing pages fast
- Freelancers building client sites
- Startups that need a professional web presence without a developer
Pros
- Design canvas that publishes as a real website
- Excellent animation and interaction tools
- Fast sites (static HTML, global CDN)
- Built-in CMS for content
- Responsive design tools
- Free tier for simple sites
Cons
- Not suitable for complex web applications
- CMS is basic compared to headless CMS options
- Learning curve for the canvas approach
- Custom code support is limited
- Vendor lock-in (can’t export raw HTML easily)
Verdict
Framer bridges the gap between design and development for marketing sites, landing pages, and portfolios. The canvas-to-live-site workflow means designers ship websites without waiting for a developer, and the animation tools produce motion design that would take days to code by hand.
The limitation is clear: Framer builds websites, not web applications. If you need authentication, a database, or complex logic, you need a development framework. But for the sites Framer targets — marketing pages, portfolios, landing pages, simple blogs — it’s the best tool available.