WordPress and Webflow take very different approaches to building websites. Here's how they compare on real-world PageSpeed scores and what affects performance on each.
WordPress and Webflow are two of the most popular ways to build websites without writing everything from scratch. They have completely different architectures, and that architecture directly affects how fast your site can be.
Webflow is faster by default. A new Webflow site with no customization will almost always outperform a default WordPress installation. But a heavily optimized WordPress site can match or beat Webflow.
The catch: optimization on WordPress requires more work and technical knowledge.
WordPress is a self-hosted PHP CMS. You install it on a server, add a theme, and install plugins. The speed of your site depends heavily on:
A fresh WordPress install is reasonably fast. The problem is that every plugin and theme adds JavaScript, CSS, and database queries. By the time a typical business WordPress site has a page builder, contact form, SEO plugin, analytics, and a slider, it's loading hundreds of kilobytes of CSS and JS that may or may not be needed on a given page.
Webflow is a hosted website builder where you design visually and Webflow outputs clean HTML/CSS/JavaScript. Webflow handles hosting on their global CDN automatically.
The output is typically leaner than a WordPress site because you're not layering plugins on top of plugins. Webflow also doesn't run server-side PHP for each request -- pages are static HTML served from a CDN.
Typical scores across both platforms:
| Setup | Mobile Score | Desktop Score | |---|---|---| | WordPress (default, no optimization) | 40-60 | 60-80 | | WordPress (optimized, good hosting, caching) | 75-95 | 85-100 | | WordPress (page builder like Elementor) | 30-55 | 50-75 | | Webflow (default) | 65-85 | 80-95 | | Webflow (optimized, minimal custom code) | 80-95 | 90-100 |
Webflow starts ahead. WordPress can get ahead, but needs work to get there.
Page builders. Elementor, Divi, WPBakery, and similar tools load large amounts of CSS and JavaScript regardless of what's on the page. Elementor alone can add 300-400KB of CSS. If you're using a page builder, your baseline score will be lower.
Plugin accumulation. Each plugin can add scripts and styles. A site with 30 plugins is almost always slower than a site with 10.
Shared hosting. Cheap shared hosting has slow TTFB because the server is under load. A fast host (WP Engine, Kinsta, Cloudways) makes a huge difference.
No caching. WordPress generates pages dynamically with PHP and MySQL. Without a caching plugin (WP Rocket, W3 Total Cache), every request hits the server fresh.
Custom code. Webflow is fast by default, but if you add a lot of custom JavaScript or embed heavy third-party tools, the advantage narrows.
Animations and interactions. Complex Webflow interactions load a larger JS bundle. Heavy animation-driven designs pay a performance cost.
Large images. Webflow will optimize images to some extent, but oversized hero images still hurt LCP.
No server-side rendering for dynamic content. Dynamic Webflow CMS pages are generated at publish time. This is fast, but complex queries or large CMS collections can affect build times and page complexity.
If you're on WordPress and want to compete with Webflow's scores:
Choose Webflow if:
Choose WordPress if:
Both platforms can produce fast sites. Webflow gets there more easily. WordPress gets there with more control over the final result.
Test your site to see your current PageSpeed score regardless of which platform you're on.
How fast is your site?
Get your PageSpeed score in seconds — free, no sign-up needed.
Test Your Site →