Why is my Webflow site so slow?

[@spiderone_]

Honestly even though your tips are great, I think this is something WF should address natively instead of letting the users hack their way around. The amount of hidden knowledge you have to put into this "no-code" tool is slowly starting to defeat the product's claim of simplicity that was WF's unique selling proposition.

[@zephon22]

Yeah I have to agree here. While this is a great video and I love the autofit trick for grids and everything else about it, the amount of times I have to go out of my way to custom code something so Webflow actually works, is - nowadays - almost 60-70 percent of a sites workflow. From breakpoint control, fluid responsiveness, to alternatives for out of date native functionality like Sliders, Galleries, Lightboxes or Tabs. Even background videos basically don't really work. Everything needs a custom, external solution to be up to the task of a modern website. And thats not a great feeling, paying premium prices to basically just getting 30% capability of a product. There's still a lot to love about Webflow, but anything complex is out of the question when building natively, which shouldn't be the case for a no code tool.

[@kjwessa]

@@zephon22 100%. I've gotten to the point that I'm moving to Next JS for client sites. They're frustrated they're paying so much for so many limitations in Webflow.

[@DANNYFIGDESIGNS]

I agree as well. Right now we’re still in the growing phases of both the internet and Webflow. Following Timothy’s tutorials have helped me learn the code needed for building websites and I couldn’t be happier. He’s keeping up with the best practices, while waiting for these restrictions to be lifted. Knowing the code I feel is essential to having a unique site, but like you said Webflow starts to become a code tool. I know Webflow is going to fix this to stay ahead and I’m super excited to see what they unveil this October! They better deliver! 🙏🏼

[@vincegravedubs]

Yeah while I love webflow and will keep on using it, it's essentially just a good interface for developing at this point because most of what we do as professionals is find ways to counter Webflow's limitations. It's really annoying having to pay a higher fee each year when most of us have to find external solutions for more than half of our development workflows.

[@AdetolaFashina]

Exactly how I feel since i started on webflow.

[@sachinRao15]

We've ditched Webflow interactions, and it's the best decision we've made. Now, all our hover interactions are based on CSS, and more advanced, scroll-based interactions use GSAP. Surprisingly, site performance and scalability are 2x better than when using Webflow's interaction panel.

[@timothyricks]

That’s so great to hear! It really makes a big impact

[@wibletonha]

I've never clicked so fast on a thumbnail before 👌

[@austinandriese]

This was one of the most valuable videos you’ve made Tim. I love your approach to minimizing the code and being accessible. No one teaches these things. 👏

[@timothyricks]

Thanks so much, Austin!

[@austinandriese]

@@timothyricks Curious to know if you tend to use GSAP due to the on-scroll animation capabilities. I'm finding a lot of unique sections requiring custom animations and will either have a general fade-in for the entire container or I'll have to create an animation that covers most of my section designs.

[@cloudcanalweb]

We're big proponents of CSS animations over Webflow Interactions for the reasons you mentioned in this video. I never thought to have reusable classes to apply animations across various elements though. Good stuff!

[@austinandriese]

I just found this too! No longer needing to set any standard hero loading animations again 🙌

[@AmantiDesigns]

Def trying this on my current project

[@tscolasolutions]

Hey I requested this vid! Thanks 😅🙏. I just got my 3rd client and im only able to because your vids helped me develop my skills. Thanks Timothy 🙌🙌🙌

[@timothyricks]

Thank you for the great suggestion, and congrats on getting your 3rd client also! This is great to hear!

[@ryannelson1666]

You rule tim! Great content as always

[@Gladwebs]

Let's go! Thanks Tim!

[@kjwessa]

Tim, amazing vid. Webflow once felt fast (moving from Wordpress), but less and less over time. I find myself preferring the more difficult Next JS sale to clients than Webflow because of all the inherent workarounds required for my team. Your responsive typography tool for Lumos was clutch. I wonder if a similar tool for animations would be helpful to your community? Thinking like the Refokus GSAP Text Animator, but for Lumos.

[@timothyricks]

Thank you! Webflow has its quirks but to me, there’s still so much to love about it. Great suggestion on the GSAP Tool! I don’t plans to make anything like that currently, but it would be cool to see.

[@iamruletik]

You should make also video about pagespeed scores itself, there is some not exactly obvious things about LCP, TCP, TBT, Speed Index

[@timothyricks]

Thank you! Great idea

[@moodcatching]

Once again a banger video mate :) Thank you and once again another reason for me to get into Lumos, properties and utility classes. I'm building my portfolio currently after finishing recent client pages and was wondwering if you could ggive me some info on how to design in figma with Lumos in mind?' I've found so many gems and video snippets that explain parts of the design process in figma, but not one major video where I see the full process. Is that something you will do in the future, or should I just wing it? :D

[@timothyricks]

Thanks so much for the kind words, and congrats on starting your portfolio! A video on the design process in Figma is a great suggestion. The closest thing I have currently is this full design video using the Lumos Figma File. kzbin.infoxvs3diSfVPg?si=smMhTAgPoJyDiWV8

[@MrTheraseus]

any tips regarding performance and using Spline scenes into our webflow projects? i am already looking into GSAP, never tried CSS interactions, but I assume it must besimpler than GSAP

[@DANNYFIGDESIGNS]

Oh my God I have a lot of work to do! Recreating my interactions now. 😳

[@matthewspach]

With this level of hacking, what's the benefit of using WebFlow? I feel like Webflow convinced a lot of people to start using it based on the high level of interactions that were possible with just a few clicks. Obviously its great to use CSS animations if that's faster. I'm just trying to figure out what the main benefits of Webflow would be if you are basically writing most of the code yourself.

[@timothyricks]

Even with its quirks, I still love the Webflow Designer for building and styling. It’s often faster to build with than traditional development. And for clients, the CMS is very helpful and the upcoming Page Building Mode will be also. Hopefully some of these drawbacks get addressed eventually, but many of these solutions in the meantime aren’t hacks but are best practices regardless of the platform we use. Using Webflow helped me as a designer learn coding principles and take on bigger projects, and I’d still recommend it to any designer looking to build websites themselves.

[@taunado]

@@timothyricks Yea, the CMS alone is worth it - routing manually using REST/GraphQL to a headlessCMS is a lot of extra work.