Framer
Framer (The design-first, AI-powered no-code website builder: design, CMS, and publish without writing code) is a no-code website builder that lets you design and publish professional websites from a single, Figma-style canvas, without writing code.
It pairs a free-form visual editor with a built-in CMS, best-in-class animations, hosting, analytics, A/B testing, and a growing set of AI features, and it has become one of the fastest-rising challengers to Webflow, Wix Studio, and Squarespace, especially among designers.
Built by Amsterdam-based founders Koen Bok and Jorn van Dijk, Framer started life as a design and prototyping tool before pivoting into a website builder, a move that carried it to a reported $2 billion valuation. It offers a genuine free plan, with paid plans starting at $10 per month per site, and it is highly rated on review sites. This page covers what Framer is, how its per-site pricing really works, whether it is free, how it compares to Webflow, and how to reach support.
Overview
What Framer is
Framer is a no-code platform for designing and launching websites. Instead of choosing a template and filling in boxes, you work on an open design canvas that feels a lot like Figma: you place, style, and arrange elements freely, add interactions and animations, connect content through a built-in CMS, and then publish the whole thing to fast hosting with a click. The result is that designers can build and ship a polished, custom website themselves, without handing designs to a developer to rebuild in code.
That designer-first approach is Framer's whole identity. It is aimed at marketing sites, landing pages, portfolios, and startup and product sites where visual quality, speed, and animation matter, and it is used by design teams at many well-known companies. It is less oriented toward huge, blog-heavy content operations or complex ecommerce, which is where a tool like Webflow tends to pull ahead, a trade-off we cover below.
Design-first: how Framer works
The core of Framer is the canvas. You design visually, and Framer generates the clean, responsive code behind the scenes, so what you draw is what ships. On top of that canvas sit the pieces that turn a design into a real website:
- A built-in CMS, so you can create collections such as blog posts, case studies, or team members and bind them to your design, rather than hand-building every page.
- Animations and interactions, widely considered the best in the no-code category, including scroll effects, page transitions, and micro-interactions without code.
- AI features, including AI-assisted site generation and editing, so you can start from a prompt and refine visually.
- Code components, letting a developer drop in custom React components when the no-code tools are not enough, so Framer scales past the usual no-code ceiling.
- Hosting, analytics, A/B testing, SEO controls, and localization, built in, so you launch, measure, and optimise from one place.
- Real-time collaboration, so a team can work in the same project together, again like Figma.
Features at a glance
In short, Framer combines the design freedom of a canvas tool with the practical parts of a website platform: a visual editor, CMS, animations, AI, hosting, analytics, A/B testing, and collaboration. The standouts that keep coming up in reviews are the Figma-like editing experience and the quality of the animations, both of which are hard to match on rival builders.
Framer pricing: plans and the per-site model
Framer has four plans, and the most important thing to understand is that the paid plans are priced per published site, not per account. So a paid plan covers one website; publishing several paid sites means several plans.
- Free ($0): a genuine free plan on a framer.website subdomain with a small Framer badge, generous enough to build and test a real site, including CMS and a monthly allowance of AI credits.
- Basic ($10 per month, per site): adds a custom domain and higher page and bandwidth limits. The usual starting point for a live, small website.
- Pro ($30 per month, per site): removes the Framer badge and lifts limits substantially, up to hundreds of pages and terabytes of bandwidth, aimed at professional and higher-traffic sites.
- Enterprise (custom): adds SSO, advanced security, and volume terms for larger organisations.
On top of the per-site plan, collaborators are priced per seat: the workspace owner is included, extra designers or editors are around $20 per month each, content editors around $10 per month, and viewers are free. Annual billing is cheaper than monthly and includes a complimentary domain. As always, check the current figures on framer.com/pricing before you commit, since plans and limits change.
Is Framer free?
Yes, Framer has a real free plan, not just a trial. You can design and publish a full website for free on a framer.website subdomain, with the CMS included and a monthly allowance of AI credits. The two things the free plan does not give you are a custom domain and a badge-free site: to connect your own domain you need Basic, and to remove the small Framer badge you need Pro. For learning Framer, building a personal project, or testing an idea, the free plan is genuinely usable. For a professional site on your own domain, you will move to a paid per-site plan.
Framer vs Webflow
This is the comparison most people want, because Framer and Webflow are the two leading design-led no-code builders, and they suit different jobs. Framer wins on design speed and animation: its editor feels like Figma, its animations are the best in class, the learning curve is gentler for designers, and its entry price ($10 per month) is lower than Webflow's. It is ideal for marketing sites, landing pages, and portfolios where you want something beautiful, fast. Webflow wins on depth: a more powerful CMS for blog-heavy and large content sites, native ecommerce, deeper SEO tooling, more granular control, and a wider integration ecosystem, at the cost of a steeper learning curve. The honest rule of thumb: choose Framer for a fast, animation-rich marketing site, and Webflow for a scalable content platform or store. The table below breaks it down.
What Framer reviews say
Framer is well reviewed, holding around 4.5 out of 5 on G2 and 4.4 on Capterra. Reviewers consistently praise the design experience, the animations, the speed of going from idea to live site, and how approachable it is for designers who do not want to touch code. The common criticisms are the flip side of its focus: the CMS and SEO tooling, while good, are not as deep as Webflow's for large content sites; the per-site pricing can add up if you run many websites; and some advanced or highly technical requirements still need code components or workarounds. The fair summary is that Framer is one of the best tools in the world for building beautiful marketing sites quickly, as long as your needs match its strengths.
Framer contact and support
Framer is a software company rather than a phone-support business, so support runs through email and its help resources rather than a call centre. The official channels are:
- Official website: framer.com.
- Support and billing email: support@framer.com.
- Contact page: framer.com/contact, and the help centre at framer.com/help.
- Community: framer.community, an active forum for questions and answers.
- Company: Framer is based in Amsterdam, Netherlands, with team members across San Francisco, New York, and Barcelona. There is no public phone support line.
History
Framer was founded in 2014 in Amsterdam, Netherlands by Koen Bok (Co-founder & CEO) and Jorn van Dijk (Co-founder).
Framer features
Framer offers the following capabilities:
- Figma-style design canvas. Design freely on an open visual canvas that feels like Figma, and Framer generates the clean, responsive code behind the scenes. The reason designers love it.
- Best-in-class animations. Scroll effects, page transitions, and micro-interactions without code, widely rated the best animation tooling in the no-code category.
- Built-in CMS. Create collections for blogs, case studies, portfolios, or team pages and bind them to your design, so dynamic content updates itself.
- AI website generation. Start a site or a section from a prompt with Framer's AI, then refine it visually on the canvas.
- Code components when you need them. Drop in custom React code components for anything the no-code tools cannot do, so Framer scales past the usual no-code ceiling.
- Fast hosting, one-click publish. Publish to fast global hosting with a click, with clean output that scores well on performance.
- Analytics, A/B testing, SEO, localization. Built-in analytics, A/B tests, SEO controls, and multi-language localization, so you launch and optimise in one place.
- Real-time collaboration. Multiple designers and editors can work in the same project together, with per-seat pricing for collaborators.
Use cases of Framer
- Marketing and landing pages (Marketing teams). Ship a beautiful, animation-rich marketing site or campaign landing page fast, without waiting on developers.
- Startup and product sites (Founders). Launch a polished product or startup website that looks custom-built, and update it yourself as you iterate.
- Portfolios (Designers and creatives). Build a striking portfolio on an open canvas, with the animations and design control that generic builders lack.
- Client websites (Design agencies). Deliver client sites quickly, hand editing to content editors on cheaper seats, and manage everything in one workspace.
- Design-to-live without a rebuild (Design teams). Skip the design-to-code handoff entirely by designing and publishing the real website from the same canvas.
Framer pricing
Framer uses a freemium pricing model, starting at Free (paid from $10/mo per site). The product offers a free version.
| Plan | Price | What's included |
|---|---|---|
| Free | $0 /forever | A real free plan on a framer.website subdomain with a small Framer badge. Includes the CMS and a monthly allowance of AI credits. Enough to build and test a full site.
|
| Basic | $10 /month / site | Adds a custom domain and higher page and bandwidth limits. The usual starting point for a small live website. Priced per published site.
|
| Pro | $30 /month / site | Removes the Framer badge and lifts limits substantially, up to hundreds of pages and terabytes of bandwidth. Aimed at professional and higher-traffic sites.
|
| Enterprise | Custom /quote | For larger organisations: SSO, advanced security and permissions, higher limits, and volume terms.
|
Framer vs Webflow
The table below contrasts Framer with Webflow (webflow.com) on a few key dimensions.
| Dimension | Framer | Webflow |
|---|---|---|
| Best for | Fast, animation-rich marketing sites, landing pages, portfolios | Scalable content platforms, blog-heavy sites, ecommerce |
| Editing experience | Figma-style canvas, gentle learning curve for designers | Powerful but steeper learning curve |
| Animations | Best in class, no code | Strong, but more manual |
| CMS and SEO | Good, best for small-to-mid content | Deeper CMS and SEO tooling for large sites |
| Ecommerce | Basic | Native, more capable |
| Entry price | $10/mo per site (plus a real free plan) | From about $15/mo, plus free |
Platforms & tech
- Supported platforms: Web (browser), macOS app, Windows app.
- Deployment: cloud.
Integrations
Framer integrates with 8 third-party tools:
Awards & recognition
- Highly rated: 4.5 on G2, 4.4 on Capterra — Well reviewed across G2 and Capterra, and reported to have reached a $2 billion valuation after a $100M Series D, making it one of the fastest-rising website builders.
See also
- Webflow — The main rival: a more powerful no-code builder with a deeper CMS, ecommerce, and SEO tooling, at a steeper learning curve.
- Wix Studio — Wix's pro-grade builder for agencies and designers, with a large feature set and app market.
- Squarespace — Template-driven and beginner-friendly, best when you want a good-looking site fast without a design canvas.
References
- "Framer official website". framer.com.
- "Framer plans and pricing". framer.com.
- "Framer reviews on G2". G2.
- "Framer challenges Figma and Webflow". Forbes.
External links
Frequently asked questions
- What is Framer?
- Framer is a no-code website builder that lets you design and publish professional websites from a Figma-style visual canvas, without writing code. It combines a free-form design editor with a built-in CMS, best-in-class animations, hosting, analytics, A/B testing, and AI features. Built by Amsterdam founders Koen Bok and Jorn van Dijk, it is aimed especially at designers building marketing sites, landing pages, and portfolios, and competes with Webflow, Wix Studio, and Squarespace.
- How much does Framer cost?
- Framer has four plans, priced per published site for the paid tiers: Free at $0, Basic at $10 per month, Pro at $30 per month, and custom Enterprise pricing. The key nuance is that a paid plan covers one website, so several live paid sites means several plans. Collaborators are billed per seat on top, roughly $20 per month for extra designers or editors and $10 for content editors, while viewers are free. Annual billing is cheaper than monthly. Check framer.com/pricing for current figures.
- Is Framer free?
- Yes, Framer has a genuine free plan, not just a trial. You can design and publish a full website for free on a framer.website subdomain, with the CMS included and a monthly allowance of AI credits. The limits are that the free plan does not include a custom domain, which needs the Basic plan, or a badge-free site, which needs Pro. For learning, personal projects, or testing, the free plan is genuinely usable; for a professional site on your own domain you move to a paid per-site plan.
- Framer vs Webflow: which is better?
- It depends on the job. Framer wins on design speed and animation, with a Figma-like editor, the best animations in the category, a gentler learning curve for designers, and a lower $10 entry price, which makes it ideal for marketing sites, landing pages, and portfolios. Webflow wins on depth, with a more powerful CMS for large content sites, native ecommerce, deeper SEO tooling, and more control, at a steeper learning curve. Choose Framer for a fast, beautiful marketing site and Webflow for a scalable content platform or store.
- Does Framer have a CMS, and is it good for SEO and blogs?
- Yes, Framer has a built-in CMS where you create collections such as blog posts or case studies and bind them to your design, plus SEO controls and localization. It is good for small to mid-sized content sites and handles a normal marketing blog well. For very large, blog-heavy content operations or the deepest SEO tooling, Webflow's CMS is more powerful, so heavy publishers sometimes prefer it. For most marketing sites and portfolios, Framer's CMS and SEO are more than enough.
- Who created Framer?
- Framer was founded in 2014 in Amsterdam by Koen Bok and Jorn van Dijk. The pair had previously built Sofa, a design studio acquired by Facebook in 2011, and worked at Facebook before leaving to build Framer. It began as a design and prototyping tool and later pivoted into a website builder, a move that carried it to a reported $2 billion valuation after a $100 million Series D. Koen Bok is the CEO.
- Can I use custom code in Framer?
- Yes. While Framer is a no-code builder, it supports custom React code components, so a developer can drop in bespoke functionality when the visual tools are not enough. This is a big reason Framer scales past the usual no-code ceiling: designers build the bulk of the site visually, and code components cover the advanced or one-off needs.
- How do I contact Framer support?
- Framer support runs by email and help resources rather than a phone line. You can email support@framer.com for account and billing issues, use the contact page at framer.com/contact, browse the help centre at framer.com/help, or ask in the active community at framer.community. Framer is based in Amsterdam with team members in San Francisco, New York, and Barcelona, and does not offer a public phone support number.