Webflow's site export feature is limited in that it exports static page HTML and CSS only.
It does not export;
- CMS template pages
- CMS collection lists
Both of these are simply absent from the exported HTML.
In addition, when you export HTML, you lose all of the hosted advantages;
- Forms capture and email notifications
- Subsystems like Localization & ECommerce
- Ongoing one-click publishing
- CMS item-level publishing states
Best Practices
In most cases, it's best to either host your site on Webflow, or to redesign your site so that it does not use the CMS. These are generally the most cost-effective and manageable approaches.
However if your site;
- Requires your existing CMS content
- Never changes, and will never need to be edited, and
- Doesn't use forms ( or you have a 3rd party solution )
... then there is an approach you can use.
Udesly
There is a tool called Udesly which offers a one-way export to free hosting on Netlify, including CMS pages and content.
You want the JAMstack migration.
https://udesly.nexus/pages/webflow-to-jamstack
How it Works
Under the hood, it extracts and gathers all of your CMS structures and page elements using a Chrome extensions, and creates an export package.
With that, you can then process the Zip through Udesly's online service to prepare it for Netlify, and upload it.
Future HTML changes can progress through this, but future CMS changes can not. Upon that first export, your external "Netlify CMS" becomes the source of truth and will not be overwritten.
Important Notes
- You can use Udesly for free but your site will have a Udesly logo on it. If you don't want that you can do a one time payment, which is reasonable, somewhere around $40.
- You won't really have a CMS after you export. Technically you're using the Netlify CMS and 11ty, but it's so ridiculously simplistic, it's not usable like a normal CMS for content administration. It's best to think of your site as static, and that CMS content as unchangeable.
- There's some learning curve to using the tool. It does the job, but it's not elegant. You're often better off spending the time to convert your Webflow CMS pages to static pages.
- If you're using forms, you'll need to find a 3rd party forms handler, which costs. Netlify has one you can pay for as well.
- You can update the Webflow site, but not the CMS content. I.e. you can't update your Udesly/Netlify CMS from Webflow's CMS after the initial publish.
Recommendation
If you only have one site, it's usually cheaper to just use a Webflow plan.
This makes it easier to update, and costs about the same as a workspace plan which would be needed to export and update your off-hosted HTML anyway.
