Framer

We needed a flexible CMS to create websites, and the offerings and flexibility that Framer offers is far above and beyond its competitors. It's made for designers and allows integration for seamless staging in Figma.

1. Framer's integration and plugin system makes it really easy to prototype and go live with designs made on other platforms; 2. You can build a site even if you don't have a dev background. Thw way you prototype will be exactly the way the site will go live; 3. It's practical to maintain all the design cohesive with components.

There is a lot to like about Framer when designing websites: As a designer, the experience of building websites is almost identical to my regular design tool, thus making it super quick to work with. Framer is built in React and uses Framer motion for animations which means it's easy to create rather advanced animations out of the box. However, what I like most about Framer is the community and their releases: They seem to listen to its customer base and regularly ships useful features.

Not everyone is capable of using this tool with ease. I would say it's a tool for designers.

1. Framer isn't the most user-friendly product out there, and you may have complications on your first few times using it; 2. The pricing is a bit out of reach if you're a solo designer and not a company; 3. It doesn't export CMS nor clean code, as well as it doesn't have good support for more advanced features.

It's hard to put a finger on, but what I think could be improved is the ability to create even more advanced interactions (like gesture based animations where objects will transform based on mouse position, for example). Another thing is their pricing plan. They are free to start making projects and their project price plans are fair. However, if you want to add-on their CMS solutions (useful for hosting case studies for personal portfolios, for example), prices quickly add up. Finally, with Framers pivoting to being website-focused, I lost the ability to build prototypes for product design purposes (you can still do it, there's just more effective tools out there for this purpose).