Case Study
View Case StudyTray.ai
Migrating hundreds of thousands of pages, re-platforming and extending for the leading composable AI integration platform

From Craft CMS to Webflow
Key pain points
The elephant in the room is PHP. Craft requires a traditional LAMP-style hosting setup with PHP 8.2+ and MySQL or Postgres, which immediately rules out the serverless and edge-first hosting that modern JavaScript frameworks thrive on. You're managing servers, configuring OPcache, tuning database connections, and dealing with all the operational overhead that comes with self-hosted PHP applications. For teams already working in the JavaScript ecosystem, this is a hard sell.
Major version upgrades are genuinely painful. Craft doesn't support skipping major versions, so migrating from Craft 2 to 5 means stepping through every version in between. Each jump brings breaking changes to Twig templates, PHP requirements, and plugin compatibility. We've seen agencies spend weeks on upgrades that should have been straightforward. The Team tier starts at $279 per project and the Pro tier costs $399, plus $99 annual renewals for both. A free Solo tier exists for single-user projects, but costs still add up for agencies, especially when you factor in plugins and the recent trend toward stricter licence enforcement in the control panel.
The community, while passionate, is relatively small compared to WordPress or even newer headless CMS platforms. When you hit an edge case or need help with a niche plugin, you may find yourself digging through GitHub issues rather than finding a ready answer. And while Craft Cloud exists as a managed hosting option, it's still maturing and doesn't yet match the deployment experience you'd get with platforms like Vercel or Netlify.

PHP hosting requirements
You need a traditional server with PHP 8.2+, MySQL or Postgres, and proper configuration. No serverless, no edge deployment, no modern hosting shortcuts.

Painful major version upgrades
You can't skip major versions, so upgrades mean stepping through each release with breaking Twig, PHP, and plugin changes along the way.

Smaller community and ecosystem
The community is dedicated but small. Finding answers to niche problems often means digging through GitHub issues or waiting on forum responses.

Licence costs add up
The Team tier is $279 per project and Pro is $399, both with $99 annual renewals, plus paid plugins on top. A free Solo tier exists for single-user projects, but costs add up quickly for agencies managing multiple client sites.

Learning curve for non-developers
Craft assumes your team includes developers. Content editors coming from WordPress or simpler tools will need time to adjust to the more structured interface.

Twig templating limitations
Twig is clean but limited compared to modern component frameworks. Complex UI logic gets awkward, and you're locked into whatever Twig version Craft supports.
Key advantages
We're really trying to think of a good reason to love Webflow, and if you’re building a simple marketing site, a portfolio, or a 10-page brochure site, it works. Designers get pixel-perfect layouts without touching code, the HTML it spits out is clean, hosting is included, and nobody has to panic over plugin updates or random server outages. In that world, Webflow is for you.
One of the Reddit users who likes Webflow states that it has global CDN, SSL handling, and 99.99% uptime without touching a server or updating a single plugin. But to be real, Webflow isn't a platform to build on top of, it's a "one and done" kind of thing. Honestly just go to fiverr and find somebody who's designs don't suck.
But if you are dead set on it, connect with us, and we will try to develop the best solution for you.

Visual design without coding
Designers can build the site they see in their heads without waiting on a dev or translating Figma to HTML. You just drag, drop, animate, and publish. If you can design it, Webflow will render it.

Global CDN infrastructure
Your site gets served fast everywhere, without you configuring servers or worrying about uptime charts. Webflow handles delivery at scale, and pages load like they’ve had three shots of espresso.

Automatic SSL management
You don't need any certificates, renewals, or late-night expiration scares. SSL is handled out of the box, so security stops being a chore and starts being standard.

Clean semantic HTML output
Unlike many no-code builders, Webflow doesn’t produce spaghetti markup. The code it generates is tidy, semantic, and Google-friendly, which is why performance is generally strong.

Built-in SEO optimization
Webflow gives you proper SEO controls with meta titles, descriptions, alt text, structured data, and Open Graph. You don't need plugins or setup. It has native tools that keep your site search-friendly.

Plugin-free architecture
Webflow ships with most essentials built in, so you’re not babysitting 12 plugins just to keep the lights on. Fewer moving parts means fewer things blowing up.
Book a meeting with us to discuss how we can help or fill out a form to get in touch
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