Webflow Editor vs Designer Mode Explained

There are two key areas you'll come across when managing your Webflow website: The Webflow Designer and the Webflow Editor.

Both functions are essential for building, maintaining, and managing your Webflow site, with the Webflow Designer geared more towards web designers and developers, and the Webflow Editor geared more toward content editors and website managers who need to make simple changes periodically.

In this post, I break down the differences between the two!

Webflow Designer

The Designer is a powerful tool used for creating and customizing the design and layout of your Webflow website. It allows for detailed control over the visual and structural aspects of your site.

Key features:

• Visual Design: You can create any kind of website layout, add new pages, and manipulate elements using a visual interface with drag-and-drop functionality.
• Style Panel: You can only access the Style Panel in the Designer to make visual changes.
• Responsive Design: You can adjust layouts and styles for different screen sizes and breakpoints.
• Interactions and Animations: Add complex animations and interactions to elements.
• CMS and Collections: Design dynamic content structures and templates for CMS collections.
• Code: While it's a visual tool, you can also add custom code if needed.

From my experience, the Designer is best suited for designers and developers as they work to design your website, from building new pages, features, layouts and more. As a Webflow designer, this is where I spend my time on site builds and maintenance.

Webflow Editor

On the other hand, the Editor is a more user-friendly interface and geared towards managing the content of your site. It's designed for those who need to update or add website content without altering the design or structure of the site. This can include marketing teams, or content editors who need to add information such as blog posts, news items, and more, without affecting the layout or styling of the website.

Key features:

• Content Editing: You can modify text, images, and other content directly on the live site.
• CMS Management: Add or edit items in CMS collections, such as blog posts, product listings, and team member pages.
• Simplified Interface: Provides a more streamlined, simplified interface compared to the Designer.
• Permissions: Allows clients or team members to make content changes while restricting access to design or structural changes.

From my experience, the Editor is a great for clients that want to keep up with smaller site changes, such as editing the text and replacing images, and more. Due to this, this is the key area I focus on when training clients for website maintenance and upkeep.

Webflow Designer vs Editor Use Cases

Ultimately, the Webflow Designer is primarily used for website design and styling, whereas the Editor is used for content management and minor updates after design is finalized.

Both the Webflow Designer and Editor allows designers and content managers to collaborate and work on the website and are essential in the management of your website.

If you need a hand with your Webflow website design or maintenance, contact me about your project. I'm a Webflow designer crafting strategic websites!