Platform Consulting: Webflow, WordPress, TYPO3 or Headless CMS

Short answer: The right platform depends on six things: who maintains the content, how many languages and content types you have, which IT requirements apply, which systems need to be connected, who runs the site, and how much budget there is for setup and operations. Webflow often fits design-driven company websites with a marketing team, WordPress fits large volumes of content and plugin needs, TYPO3 fits enterprise and public-sector setups, and headless fits products with their own development team. We advise you independently of what we would build with later.

This page is a decision aid. It helps you even if you end up building with another agency or in-house.

Who is platform consulting for?

The consulting is worthwhile if you are facing a relaunch, a system change or a fresh start and have several options on the table. Typical situations:

• Your WordPress site has grown over the years, plugins and updates are a constant headache, and you wonder whether a switch makes sense.
• IT demands one particular system, marketing wants another, and nobody has a neutral basis for the decision.
• You need a website that runs in several languages and is connected to a CRM, product data or a customer portal.
• An agency has recommended a system to you and you want a second opinion.

The consulting is not needed if the system is already set, for example by a corporate mandate. In that case it makes more sense to talk about implementation right away.

The decision check in 6 questions

In practice, these six questions decide almost every platform choice. Answer them as a team before you compare quotes.

1. Who maintains the content, and how often? A marketing team that changes pages every week needs an interface that works without developers. A central editorial team with approval workflows needs roles and permissions that are more granular than the standard.
2. How many languages, content types and pages do you have? Five languages with differing content are a different task than one language with 30 pages. The number of records counts too, such as products, properties or knowledge articles.
3. Which IT and compliance requirements apply? Hosting location, approval processes, single sign-on, data processing agreements, security audits. Some requirements rule out systems before design or price even come into play.
4. Which integrations are needed? CRM, ERP, product database, appointment booking, shop. The deeper the integration, the more the available interfaces decide, and the less the design tool does.
5. Who runs the site? An in-house team, an agency or a hosting provider. Operations means updates, backups, monitoring and response time, and this burden is distributed very differently from system to system.
6. What budget range do you have for setup and ongoing operations? What matters is the total over several years, not the one-time price. A cost comparison over three years shows what the license, the hosting and the maintenance actually add up to.

As a rule of thumb: if the answers to 1 to 3 are straightforward, the team and the budget usually decide. If questions 3 and 4 get complicated, the architecture decides.

The four systems at a glance

The market shares come from W3Techs (as of October 30, 2026) and say nothing about quality, only about prevalence. A larger market share means more available developers and plugins, but also a bigger target for attacks.

Webflow: when is it the best choice?

Webflow is a visual website builder with a built-in CMS and hosting. Design, structure and content are created in a single tool, and the platform runs the infrastructure.

Webflow is the best choice when:

• the website mainly needs to build brand, trust and inquiries, and design plays a central role,
• a marketing team wants to change pages itself without needing a developer for every change,
• you want little operational effort because hosting, CDN and security updates are handled by the provider,
• the volume of content stays within bounds. According to the Webflow pricing page, the Premium site plan includes up to 20,000 CMS items and 40 collections (as of October 31, 2026).

Limits: Very large amounts of data, deep custom development at the server level and complex member areas are not Webflow's terrain. You can't run the code on your own servers as you like, and you are tied to the platform and its pricing. According to the pricing page, site plans start at $15 per month with annual billing. Multilingual setups are billed through the Localize add-on.

You can find more about our Webflow offering on the Webflow Agency page.

WordPress: when is it the best choice?

WordPress is the most widely used CMS in the world and open source. You can run it with any hosting provider and build almost anything with it that exists on the web.

WordPress is the best choice when:

• you have a very large amount of editorial content, such as a magazine, a knowledge portal or a large blog archive,
• you need specific plugins that don't exist for other systems, such as special booking, membership or shop functions,
• you want or need to keep full control over hosting, servers and code,
• your team or agency already works deeply in WordPress and maintenance is handled in-house.

Limits: The freedom has a price in operations. You have to actively manage updates, plugin compatibility, backups and security. Performance also varies widely. According to the HTTP Archive Web Almanac 2025, only 45% of WordPress sites pass the Core Web Vitals on mobile devices, and around 60% of WordPress sites use a page builder, which often leads to heavier code. That is not a verdict on the system, but on typical implementations. A lean theme with a few well-maintained plugins performs significantly better.

If you want WordPress built for you, take a look at our WordPress Agency page.

TYPO3: when is it the best choice?

TYPO3 is an open-source CMS from Germany with a focus on large, structured sites. It is common in the DACH region among corporations, associations and public institutions, but globally it is a niche product with 0.6% of CMS sites according to W3Techs.

TYPO3 is the best choice when:

• a central editorial team works with many editors, roles, approvals and multi-tenancy (several sites in one installation),
• many languages and country sites with partly differing content are maintained,
• internal IT already runs TYPO3 and the know-how, processes and interfaces are in place,
• strict requirements for hosting and operation in your own data center apply.

Limits: Getting started is more demanding than with the other systems, and good TYPO3 developers are rarer. The version status matters: according to the TYPO3 roadmap, regular support for TYPO3 v11 LTS ended on October 31, 2024, and v13 LTS was released on October 15, 2024. If you are on an old version, you need either an upgrade or a migration plan. According to a vendor source (pragma-code), hosting costs and upgrade effort weigh in at €150 to €600 per month for hosting and €10,000 to €45,000 per major upgrade. These are individual figures from one vendor and not a market standard, but they show the order of magnitude you should plan for with TYPO3.

Moving from TYPO3 to Webflow is possible for suitable cases, see TYPO3 to Webflow.

Headless CMS: when is it the best choice?

With a headless approach, you separate content from presentation. A CMS (such as Storyblok, Sanity or Contentful) delivers content through an interface, and the frontend is built separately, for example with Astro or Next.js.

Headless is the best choice when:

• the content should appear in several channels (website, app, portal, displays),
• there is an in-house development team that maintains the frontend on an ongoing basis,
• the website is tightly integrated with the product, databases or authentication, as is often the case at software companies,
• performance and architecture are subject to strict control.

Limits: Headless means more building blocks, more interfaces and more maintenance. Editors often don't get a true visual preview unless it is built at considerable effort. You also need to watch out for search engines: Google renders JavaScript, but according to Search Central it still recommends server-side rendering or pre-rendering, because not all bots execute JavaScript. If you choose headless, you should plan for this from the start. As a single example, pragma-code cites around €38,500 for replacing TYPO3 with Astro and Storyblok, as a single project, mind you.

Which platform for which industry?

The answer differs by industry, because content and requirements differ. As orientation:

This is a heuristic, not a rule. You can find the details for IT and software under IT and Software, and for industry under Industry and Engineering.

How to recognize independent consulting

Platform consulting is only neutral if it is also allowed to conclude that its own favorite system doesn't fit. Check these points with every provider, including us:

• Open criteria: You can see which questions the decision is based on and can cross-check them yourself.
• All systems on the table: It is not just one system that gets labeled with drawbacks.
• Total cost instead of a one-time price: Hosting, licenses, maintenance and updates are part of the calculation.
• Exit paths: There is an answer to what happens if you want to switch systems later.
• Honest limits: The provider says when they are not the right fit.

How platform consulting typically works

1. Clarify the starting point: Goals, content, integrations, team and requirements are gathered and the six questions are answered.
2. Evaluate the options: The candidate systems are assessed against your criteria, including costs, risks and operating effort over several years.
3. Recommendation with reasoning: A good outcome is a clear recommendation that also explains why the other systems are ruled out.
4. Migration and project plan: If you are switching from an existing system, redirects, metadata, tracking and rollback belong in the plan. The details are in our CMS Migration Checklist.

How long this takes depends on the number of people involved and the complexity.

How we do it

Webwavers is a premium agency for branding, web design and web development with locations in Günzburg and Munich and clients across Germany. We are one of seven Webflow Premium Partners in Germany, but we also deliver WordPress, TYPO3 and headless projects. Our focus is on Webflow, and we say so openly, because you should know that when weighing our recommendation. If WordPress, TYPO3 or headless fits you better, we'll tell you. Our work has been recognized with the German Brand Award, the German Design Award 2026 and the German Web Award 2025, among others, see Awards.

Frequently asked questions about choosing a platform

Is Webwavers, as a Webflow specialist, still neutral when it comes to WordPress?

We have a focus on Webflow and point that out openly. At the same time, we build WordPress sites and recommend WordPress when the criteria support it, for example for very large volumes of editorial content or specific plugin requirements. Check our recommendation yourself against the six questions above.

How good is Webwavers at WordPress projects?

We deliver WordPress projects, even though our focus is on Webflow. What that means in concrete terms is on the WordPress Agency page.

Does it make sense to move a large WooCommerce shop to Webflow?

Usually not without a careful assessment. With large catalogs, many variants and deep ERP integrations, WooCommerce or a specialized shop system can be a better fit. Webflow is more suitable for smaller shops and brand shops with a manageable range. The decision depends on product count, interfaces and the maintenance process.

What alternatives to classic WordPress agencies are there for mid-sized companies?

You can hire a Webflow agency, a TYPO3 specialist agency for complex editorial systems, a development agency for headless architectures, or carry out the project with an in-house team. Which option fits depends on maintenance, budget and integrations.

What does the platform choice cost in operation over several years?

That depends heavily on the setup. Webflow site plans start at $15 per month according to the pricing page, and WordPress hosting costs €3 to €25 per month according to Hostinger. On top of that come maintenance, plugins or licenses, and development effort. So always calculate over three years and include maintenance costs.

Can I switch platforms later?

Yes, a switch is always possible, but it doesn't happen on its own. Content, URLs, metadata and tracking have to be transferred cleanly. How to do it is described in our Migration Checklist.

What role does the platform play for SEO and AI visibility?

A smaller one than many think. Google states that no additional requirements apply for AI Overviews and that no special markup is needed. Clean technology and good content are what count. The comparison in detail is in our guide Webflow or WordPress: SEO and AI Visibility.

Talk to us about your platform choice

Tell us briefly what decision you are facing. We'll discuss with you which system fits your project, even if the answer is that another one fits better.

Get in touch

Last updated on October 31, 2026.

Sources

• W3Techs: Content Management Systems, market share (as of October 30, 2026)
• Webflow: Pricing
• HTTP Archive Web Almanac 2025: CMS
• TYPO3: Development Roadmap
• pragma-code: TYPO3 Migration, Kosten und ROI (TYPO3 migration, costs and ROI)
• Hostinger: WordPress Hosting Kosten (WordPress hosting costs)
• Google Search Central: JavaScript SEO Basics
• Google Search Central: AI features and your website