The Hidden Cost of Website Builder Lock-in

The Promise

Every website builder makes the same pitch: "Build your website in minutes, no coding required."

And they deliver. You can absolutely build a beautiful website with Webflow, Framer, Wix, or Squarespace in a fraction of the time it takes to hand-code one.

But there's a cost they don't advertise on the pricing page.

The Real Cost of Lock-in

1. You Don't Own Your Code

When you build with Webflow, your site exists as a Webflow project. You can "export" it, but what you get is a static HTML dump — not the structured, maintainable code a developer would write.

With Framer, you can't export at all. Your site lives on Framer's servers, rendered by Framer's engine, hosted on Framer's infrastructure.

This means:

• You can't add custom functionality without hacking around the platform's limitations
• You can't integrate with your existing codebase
• You can't hire a developer to extend it using standard tools
• If the platform changes its pricing, features, or terms — you're stuck

2. Migration Is Expensive

"We'll just migrate later" is one of the most expensive phrases in software.

Migrating a website from Webflow to a custom Next.js codebase typically costs:

That's the hidden cost. The "free" or "$20/month" website builder actually costs five figures when you need to leave.

3. Performance Penalties

Platform-rendered websites carry overhead. Every Webflow page loads the Webflow runtime. Every Framer page loads the Framer engine. Every Wix page loads... well, a lot.

Compare this to a static Next.js site:

These aren't theoretical numbers — they're the real-world impact of running your site through someone else's rendering engine.

4. SEO Limitations

Some builders handle SEO well. Others make it surprisingly difficult to:

• Add custom schema markup
• Control canonical URLs precisely
• Implement advanced redirect strategies
• Add server-side rendering for dynamic content
• Optimize Core Web Vitals

When your site's code is yours, SEO is just another feature you implement. When it's locked in a platform, it's a feature request you submit.

5. The Team Scaling Problem

When your company grows, your website needs grow too. You hire developers. Those developers know React, TypeScript, and TailwindCSS — not Webflow Designer or Framer's visual editor.

Now you have a choice:

1. Train developers on a proprietary visual tool (they won't like this)
2. Maintain a parallel codebase alongside the builder (expensive and fragile)
3. Migrate off the platform (see Cost #2)

The Alternative: Build Fast AND Own Your Code

This isn't a new dilemma. It's just that until recently, the only solutions were at the extremes:

• Full control, slow: Hand-code everything from scratch
• Fast, no control: Use a locked-in builder

The middle ground — visual speed with code ownership — is exactly what we built Unshift to provide.

Build with AI and visual tools. Get the speed of a website builder. Export clean Next.js code you fully own. Deploy anywhere. Modify everything.

No lock-in. No migration costs. No performance penalties. No scaling problems.

Just your code, built faster.

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Tired of lock-in? Try Unshift free — build your first site, export the code, and see the difference.