A template from the Webflow or Framer marketplace looks like a bargain at first: pay once, get a finished design, go live within the hour. What’s easy to miss at checkout is that the template is tied to the platform. It runs in Webflow or in Framer, and the site needs its own plan there for as long as it is online. You buy the design once; you pay for the platform every month.
This article does the maths and shows the alternatives if you want a finished design but no subscription.
What you buy with a platform template
According to a market overview by Netguru, Webflow templates mostly cost between 49 and 149 US dollars. For that you get:
- a finished project inside the platform that you copy and adapt
- the right to use the design for one website, depending on the seller’s licence
- the animations and interactions the platform provides
What you don’t get is a design you can host wherever you like. Often missing, too, are the pages a European business website needs, such as an imprint, a privacy notice and, where required, an accessibility statement. With Framer there is another point: according to Framer’s help centre, templates go live as soon as they are submitted, without review and without a waiting period, and accessibility isn’t mentioned in the guidance for template creators. That doesn’t mean the templates are bad. It means checking them is your job.
The running costs
Platform plans according to the pricing pages, billed yearly and excluding tax:
| Platform and plan | per month | over three years |
|---|---|---|
| Webflow Basic | 15 US dollars | 540 US dollars |
| Webflow with CMS | 25 US dollars | 900 US dollars |
| Framer Basic | 10 US dollars | 360 US dollars |
| Framer Pro | 30 US dollars | 1,080 US dollars |
The template comes on top. The three-year figures are our own calculation from the monthly prices. Monthly billing costs more with both providers.
These aren’t large sums, and for many businesses they are money well spent. The point is to know them before you buy, because they keep running as long as the site is online.
Alternatives without a platform subscription
A WordPress theme
WordPress themes are the classic route. On ThemeForest a regular licence typically costs 39 to 69 US dollars, including six months of support from the developer. The theme runs on any host with PHP and a database, so you aren’t tied to one platform.
The price is upkeep. A premium theme often brings its own plugins and a page builder, all of which need updates. According to the annual report from Patchstack, which sells security services, a large share of serious WordPress vulnerabilities comes from premium components sold through marketplaces. What to do after buying a theme is covered in Bought a theme, what now?.
An HTML or Astro template
A design delivered as plain HTML or as an Astro project runs on any web host, even the smallest plan. There is no platform fee and there are no plugin updates. To change text you need either a content management system or someone who works in code, a developer or an AI agent. When a CMS makes sense is covered in Headless CMS for small websites, and the comparison with WordPress in Astro or WordPress.
A design with a one-time licence and export
Kiekkist sits between these routes. Each design is a whole website with every page, a phone layout, a check report on accessibility and load time, a handover pack and, for German-language designs, legal page templates. It exports to Astro, plain HTML or a WordPress block theme. The licence is one-time, covers unlimited websites of your own or for clients, and includes twelve months of updates. Current prices are on the pricing page, the terms in the licence.
What to check on any template
Platform, WordPress or HTML: before you buy, look at a few things that rarely sit at the top of a product description.
A licence for client work. May you use the design for several websites, including for clients? Many licences cover exactly one end product. For agencies and freelancers that quickly makes a difference.
Fonts and third-party services. Does the template load fonts, maps or videos from other companies’ servers? In Germany, the Munich Regional Court awarded a visitor 100 euros in damages in January 2022 because loading Google Fonts sent his IP address to Google (case 3 O 17493/20). A wave of warning letters followed, which was later itself ruled an abuse of rights. What is served locally is the safe option.
Every page, not just the home page. A template with a beautiful home page and three half-finished subpages isn’t a website design. Check that services, about, contact, legal pages and an error page are included.
Phone view. Open the preview on a phone and tap through it. Menus, tables and forms show how carefully it was built.
A check report. Is there information on accessibility and load time, and was it measured or merely claimed?
Side by side
| Webflow or Framer template | WordPress theme | HTML or Astro design | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ongoing platform fee | yes, site plan | no, hosting only | no, hosting only |
| Free choice of host | no | yes, with PHP | yes, any web host |
| Visual editor | yes | yes | with a CMS |
| Plugin updates | no | yes | no |
| Legal pages for EU sites included | rarely | rarely | depends on the seller |
| Reviewed before sale | not on Framer | depends on the marketplace | depends on the seller |
When Webflow or Framer is the right choice
The platforms are good at what they were built for. They fit when
- a marketing team wants to build and change pages visually without a developer,
- elaborate animation and interaction are central to the brand,
- hosting, editor, CMS and forms should come from one provider and the monthly fee is budgeted for.
They fit less well when the site will stay essentially the same for years, when you want to control hosting and data yourself, or when you run many client sites as an agency and don’t want to book a plan for each one.
Till Heidrich’s view: I clicked through hundreds, if not thousands, of website designs and WordPress themes until I couldn’t see the wood for the trees. Then I built my own tool. Kiekkist grew out of it.
How to decide
Ask three questions. Who changes the content, and how often? How long should the site run without a major rebuild? And who looks after hosting and updates? If a team wants to make frequent changes itself, a platform is convenient. If the site rarely changes and you want to stay independent, a design without a platform subscription is usually the cheaper and calmer option.
You’ll find finished designs without a subscription in the gallery, some of them free.