CMS Flexibility vs. Marketing Speed
Short answer: choose Craft CMS when developers need a fully bespoke content model and own the templates; choose Framer when marketing should design, edit and publish pages without a release. Both can run a serious company site; the difference is who owns change.
TL;DR: our take:
Dominik Hofer
Engineering Lead at Trueform
Framer
Framer combines a visual design canvas, structured CMS, managed hosting, and publishing workflow in one platform. Teams can shape responsive pages, manage content, refine metadata, and publish changes without waiting on a separate development release.
Curious what it costs? Our published prices start at $25K for a full Framer marketing website.
Architecture
Visual builder, CMS, and managed hosting together
Design workflow
Design, content, and publishing in one canvas
Publishing speed
Page and content updates ship without a front-end release
Maintenance
Managed hosting, optimization, and platform updates
Best for
Design-led marketing sites that need to evolve quickly
What does Framer do differently from Craft CMS?
Craft gives developers deep control, while Framer gives teams a faster launch.
Is Framer more than a CMS?
Framer helps teams visually publish at marketing speed.
Design and publish from one canvas
Build reusable page sections, content collections, and campaign pages without separating the visual system from the publishing workflow.
Keep technical foundations straightforward
Metadata, redirects, responsive design, and managed delivery are integrated rather than assembled across a custom stack.
Give marketing meaningful ownership
The team shaping the message can keep pages current, test ideas, and improve content without waiting for a release cycle.
When to use which
Use Craft CMS when:
You need a fully bespoke content model and custom technical architecture.
A development team owns your templates, integrations, and release process.
Your website is one part of a larger custom application ecosystem.
You value back-end flexibility more than visual publishing autonomy.
Use Framer when:
Designers and marketers need to launch and refine pages independently.
Campaign velocity, conversion work, and editorial iteration are priorities.
Your site is a design-led marketing experience, not a custom web application.
You want hosting, performance, and publishing in a simpler managed workflow.
Coming from a different stack?
Compare Framer to:
Astro
Short answer: Astro is an open-source framework developers use to build fast, content-driven sites in code; Framer is a visual platform where marketers design, edit and publish the site themselves. Choose Astro if engineers own the website, Framer if marketing should.
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Sanity
Short answer: Sanity is the better fit when one content source has to feed several apps, sites and channels through APIs; Framer is the better fit when the website is the main channel and marketing should ship pages without a front-end release.
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OpenAI Codex
Short answer: OpenAI Codex helps developers write and change code; Framer is where a design and marketing team builds, edits and publishes the website itself. Use Codex for custom software, Framer for a marketing site the whole team keeps improving.
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Claude Code
Short answer: Claude Code helps developers explore, write and change code from the terminal; Framer is where designers and marketers build, edit and publish the website themselves. Use Claude Code for custom software, Framer for a marketing site your team keeps improving.
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Replit
Short answer: Replit is a browser-based workspace for building and deploying software; Framer is a visual platform for designing and publishing marketing websites. Pick Replit for an app or internal tool, Framer for a polished site your marketing team runs.
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Lovable
Short answer: Lovable turns prompts into app prototypes; Framer is built to design, publish and keep refining a company marketing website. Use Lovable to test a product idea, Framer for the site that sells it.
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Squarespace
Short answer: Squarespace is the quicker choice for a simple, template-based site with built-in commerce or bookings; Framer is the better choice for a distinctive B2B or SaaS marketing site that grows with CMS content, localization and testing.
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Wix
Short answer: Wix makes it easy to get a site online with templates and built-in business tools; Framer is the better choice for a distinctive B2B or SaaS marketing site your team keeps shaping, testing and localizing.
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Contentful
Short answer: Contentful is a headless CMS for composable, multi-channel content and needs a separate front end; Framer combines visual design, CMS and hosting for fast, search-ready marketing sites. Miro is moving its marketing site from a complex headless setup to Framer with us.
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WordPress
Short answer: WordPress is free, open-source software you host, update and extend with plugins; Framer is a visual platform with hosting, CDN and CMS built in. Choose WordPress for full server control or a plugin-heavy setup, Framer for a fast marketing site your team edits without maintenance.
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Webflow
Short answer: both are visual builders with a CMS and hosting. Framer works like a design tool, with localization, A/B testing and analytics built in; Webflow works like a visual developer environment with CSS-level control. Gather moved from Webflow to Framer with us in two months.
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