Framer: what we check before we recommend it
- Framer suits marketing sites that a designer owns end to end, not app dashboards.
- The plan you need depends on custom domains, CMS collections, and how many editors you invite.
- We re-check pricing on the vendor's page on publication day; numbers move.
Framer is a site builder with a design canvas and a hosting layer behind it. For a small team that already ships a product, the interesting question is not whether the canvas is pleasant, but where the boundary is between “a marketing site we can hand to a designer” and “a second application we have to maintain”.
This is the checklist we run before we put a link on the page. It is not a scored review yet; the notes below are the parts we can verify from the vendor’s own documentation.
Where Framer fits
Framer is a good fit when the site is mostly pages: landing pages, pricing, a blog, a changelog, and a few localised variants. It is a poor fit when the site needs login, per-user data, or a table that has to page through thousands of rows. Those belong in the product, not in the marketing site.
The practical test we use: if the site could be exported as static HTML tomorrow and still work, Framer is a reasonable host for it.
What the plan actually gates
Published sites need a paid plan. Before choosing one, we write down four things, because they decide the tier more often than page count does:
- Custom domain. Whether the plan allows the domain you want, and whether it includes the redirects you need.
- CMS collections. How many collections and items the plan includes if the blog lives in Framer.
- Seats. Who can edit without an extra seat, and whether a client reviewer counts.
- Traffic and form submissions. The limits that quietly turn into an upgrade.
We do not quote prices here, because they change and a stale number is worse than no number. The link below goes to the vendor’s pricing page.
What we watch out for
- Search ads are off limits for affiliate links. The program terms forbid bidding on the brand and running paid search to an affiliate link. We do not run ads, but the rule also shapes how we write titles: no brand-plus-coupon phrasing.
- Self-purchase is forbidden. We do not buy a plan through our own link to test the payout.
- The payout is slow by design. The program pays after a hold period and only above a minimum balance, so the link has to be worth keeping for a year, not a week.
- Export is not the same as portability. A static export gives you HTML, not the editing experience. If the team leaves Framer later, the redesign is real work.
How we will score it
When we publish the scored version, it will use the same structure as the other reviews on this site: what we set up, what broke, what was billed on top of the plan, and who it is not for. Until then, treat this page as the checklist rather than a verdict.
If a limit or a term on this page is wrong, tell us and we will re-check it against the vendor’s documentation.
- Design-to-publish loop is short once the component library exists
- CMS collections cover a small blog or changelog without a second tool
- Publishing and rollback are one click
- Not a fit for authenticated apps or data-heavy tables
- Seat and bandwidth limits decide the plan more than page count does