Should I buy a Webflow template or get a custom website?
Deciding between a Webflow template and custom design? This post breaks down the pros, cons, and a smart middle-ground option that balances speed, cost, flexibility, and professional polish.
[Updated: August 2025] A clear cost breakdown of what you’ll actually spend to build, host and launch a Webflow website in 2025, whether you DIY or hire a professional designer to build your website.
If you Google “how much does a Webflow website cost in 2025,” the AI answer is something like:
“Anywhere from $1,000 to $100,000+, depending on complexity.”
Thanks for nothing, AI.
To be fair, it’s not technically wrong. Just not useful if you’re trying to make an actual decision. Because “website” can mean anything from a simple landing page to a full-blown enterprise platform with a team behind it.
This post is for the rest of us: solo founders, small businesses, freelancers, and startups who just need a clean, professional website to launch a product or service with 3 to 10 pages, a CMS blog or portfolio, and a clean design.
I’ll break down the actual Webflow costs, what’s optional, and what you’ll pay if you hire someone vs. going the DIY route. If your needs are more complex, I’ll link to Webflow’s pricing at the end.
Note: If you're building an online e-commerce store with checkout functionality, there are different costs and considerations. I’ll cover those in a separate post soon.
When you’re budgeting for a Webflow website, it helps to break things down into three main cost buckets:
This includes your Webflow Site Plan which covers building, hosting, and publishing your site on your own custom domain. Don’t worry about what a Site Plan is or how much it costs just yet. We’ll break that down in the next section. For now, just know this is the only thing you’ll pay Webflow for directly.
This depends on whether you’re building it yourself or hiring a designer. Either way, this is a separate cost from Webflow. Webflow is just the platform. You’re responsible for getting your content, layout, and design in place, whether through your own time or a paid expert.
To make your website accessible at something like youragency.com, you’ll need to register a domain. You might also want a branded email like hello@youragency.com. These are essential costs when launching a site, but again, they’re not paid to Webflow. You’ll usually get them from domain registrars or email providers.
In short: Webflow covers the platform side. Everything else: your domain, email, and how the site gets built, lives outside of that.
When it comes to Webflow itself, there’s really just one main cost you need to think about: the Site Plan.
The Site Plan is what allows you to host your website, connect a custom domain (like yourbusiness.com), design and build your website on Webflow, and make your site live for the world to see.
This post focuses on the plans that fit our base case: a solo founder, small business, or startup creating a marketing website, blog, or portfolio. So here are the only three plans you really need to know about:
Think of this as a “test plan.” When you sign up for Webflow, you’re automatically on the Free Plan. It lets you design and build your entire site without paying a cent. But there are limits:
I wouldn’t recommend this plan for a professional website, but many individuals use it for personal portfolios.
This is the most affordable paid plan and the first step toward launching a proper Webflow website.
If all your content is static, like a homepage, about page, services, and contact, this plan will work for you perfectly.
This is Webflow’s most popular plan, and I use this one too!
If you’re planning to publish content regularly or scale your site over time, this is the plan to go for. It’s also the one I personally recommend for most startups, service providers, and creators.
So what will you pay Webflow to host, build, and launch your general (non-ecommerce) website? For our base case, it’ll be either $14/month (Basic Plan) or $23/month (CMS Plan), billed yearly.
Note: If you're building an online store with checkout functionality, Webflow has separate e-commerce plans. I’ll cover those in a dedicated post soon.
There are 3 common ways you can go about designing and building your Webflow website:
If you’re confident in your design skills (or up for a learning curve), you can design and build your entire site from scratch in Webflow. This option costs $0, but it does require a good chunk of your time. If you're unsure about whether DIY is the right choice for you, you can check out my detailed post on how to decide whether to DIY your website or hire a professional, including the pros and cons of each approach.
This is a very popular route for people who want to save time and still get a professional-looking site. Webflow templates range in price based on what they offer:
It’s a one-time cost, and once you buy the template, you can customize everything: colors, images, text, layout to make it yours. It still requires a bit of a learning curve, especially if you are completely new to Webflow, but a far easier feat than if you were building from scratch!
The largest official repository of Webflow templates is, of course, the Webflow Marketplace, with over 7,000 paid templates and some free ones as well, to choose from.
I am an official Webflow template creator and you can check out my Webflow templates right here. Having been through Webflow's rigorous template creator approval process and then getting approval for each template published, I know first-hand how Webflow ensures the highest quality for its templates so, rest assured, you're in good hands!
If you’re confused about how to choose the perfect Webflow template for you, read this post to ask yourself the 6 questions before choosing a website template.
If you want a completely original design and someone to handle everything from layout to build, hiring a Webflow designer/developer is the way to go. Of course, this sounds like a dream but it comes at a cost. For the kind of site we’re talking about (3–10 pages, CMS, marketing-focused), expect to pay anywhere from $1,000 to $5,000, depending on complexity and who you hire.
If you want a professional-looking Webflow website but don’t have the time (or desire) to build it yourself, there’s a smart workaround: buy a suitable template and hire the creator (or any Webflow expert) to customize it for you.
Now, you might ask “Why should I buy a template and hire someone? Seems redundant.”
Here’s why this is actually a very efficient approach: When you hire the template creator (or someone who knows Webflow inside out) to customize it for you, you’re skipping all the heavy lifting. The structure, layout, design, and mobile responsiveness are already done. You’re not starting from zero. That means:
In most cases, this approach lands between $500 to $1,000, depending on how much customization you need. It hits a sweet spot between the hassle of DIY and the high cost of a custom build, making it, in my opinion, the best value for money if you want a professional site without overextending your time or budget.
It’s exactly what Aspira Talent did. They bought a $49 template and reached out to me to help customize it. The result? A professional site at about 65% less than the cost of a fully custom build, with the same design quality. If you're curious how that worked and looked, I shared the full breakdown in this article.
These aren’t Webflow costs, but you’ll need both to launch a proper website, and they’re usually pretty straightforward. Let me start with what I use:
GoDaddy is the most popular domain name provider out there right now, and I’ve always bought my domains from them. They’ve been super reliable, and their customer support is great, especially if you’re not a very technical, backend-setup kind of person (I’m definitely not!).
I also get my professional email with my domain using one of GoDaddy’s bundled plans, which usually works out cheaper than buying the two separately.
Important to note: Pricing depends on the domain name itself. Very short or high-demand names can be expensive but, usually, you’re able to find a suitable domain name for as low as $15 to $30/year.
Their email bundles typically start at around $12–$60/year. If you're not very technical either, I highly recommend getting both your domain and email from the same provider. It makes setup much easier, and the pricing is usually better too.
If GoDaddy isn’t your thing, here are three other well-known options:
No matter which one you choose, your domain and professional email will be small but essential pieces of your website setup.
If you're building a small business or startup website on Webflow, here’s a rough estimate of what you’ll spend in your first year, based on the averages we’ve discussed above.
Pick the design and development option you want to go for, and add the total base cost to it to find out what your Webflow website will tentatively cost you in 2025!
Over 150 businesses have used my templates to launch their websites faster and look more professional online. Go live in half the time and at a fraction of the cost of custom development, with one of my professionally designed and fully customizable website templates.