Splitleaf vs Webflow: five-year cost, AI pricing and ownership

Pricing

Splitleaf

$129 once, per person

Unlimited sites on one license
First collaborator on each site is free, then $6/mo
Hosting is paid to your own host
AI at your provider's price, no markup

Webflow

$25 /mo per CMS site, billed yearly

Site without a CMS: $15/mo
Extra full seat: $39/mo. Limited seat: $15/mo
Workspace plan: $0 to $49/mo
AI credits: 200 to 400 a month included, then $20/mo per 2,000

Webflow's price includes hosting and a mature platform. The trade is that every site and every seat is a monthly line for as long as the site exists.

Prices checked on September 20, 2026, on each vendor's own pricing page. Yearly billing, USD, before tax.

What AI costs

AI in Splitleaf

$0 to Splitleaf

Connect your own key: Anthropic, OpenAI or OpenRouter
You pay the provider's price. We add no markup
No credits and no monthly allowance to run out
The agent panel shows the usage of each chat

AI in Webflow

Credits per workspace, per month

200 credits on the free workspace, 300 on Core, 400 on Growth
More credits: $20/mo for 2,000, billed yearly
We found no published figure for what one task costs in credits

A credit is a meter that the platform sets. Your own key is a price that the model provider publishes. See how AI is charged in each tool.

What it costs over five years

These are list prices with yearly billing, in USD, before tax. Webflow's price includes hosting. Splitleaf never hosts your site, so hosting is a separate line that you pay to your own host.

Scenario	Webflow	Splitleaf
One person, five sites with a CMS	$7,500	$129 + your hosting
Two people, one site with a CMS	$3,840	$618 + your hosting
Agency: five people, twenty sites with a CMS	$39,360	$2,085 + your hosting

How we counted:

One person, five sites. Webflow: five Premium site plans at $25 a month on the free Starter workspace. Splitleaf: one license. The first collaborator on each site is free.
Two people, one site. Webflow: one Premium site plan at $25 plus one extra full seat at $39 a month. Splitleaf: two licenses plus one team seat at $72 a year. If the second person only works on that one site, add them as the site's free collaborator and the total is $258.
Agency. Webflow: twenty Premium site plans at $25 and four extra full seats at $39 a month. We left out a paid workspace plan, which many agencies also need. Splitleaf: five licenses, plus four team seats at $72 a year each.

Your host sets the hosting price. Many static hosts have a free tier, and a paid plan is often about $20 a month. At $20 a month, five years of hosting is $1,200.

The Splitleaf license includes 12 months of updates. The app you bought keeps working and publishing after that. A future major version is an optional paid upgrade.

Change the numbers in the cost calculator.

Which one fits you

Choose Webflow if

You want one vendor to host, run and update everything in the browser
Your team already knows Webflow and depends on its ecosystem
You need platform features that assume Webflow hosting and runtime
A monthly price per site and per seat fits how you bill clients

Choose Splitleaf if

You want the site as files on your own disk, with Git history
You want to keep working when the connection does not
You want to host where you already have contracts and regions
You want to pay once, and use AI with your own key

The real difference is where the tool runs

Webflow is a mature hosted designer and CMS. It runs in a browser tab, on Webflow's servers, and your site lives in its platform. Splitleaf is an on-device CMS. It runs on your Mac or Windows PC, and your site is a folder of HTML, CSS and Markdown files with Git history.

That one difference explains the rest of this page: the price, the hosting, the exit and the way AI is charged.

Webflow's own users have asked for the other option for a long time. A desktop or offline app is the most requested feature on Webflow's public wishlist, with 5,412 votes since December 2016. Webflow's reply explains why it cannot happen there: the product "is essentially a browser within a browser". A request for European hosting has 3,553 votes and has been open since October 2020.

Ownership and exit

With a hosted builder, leaving usually means rebuilding. With Splitleaf the exit is boring on purpose.

Pages, styles, components and content are files in a folder on your disk
Every publish is a commit to your own GitHub repository
The published site is plain static HTML and CSS on a host you choose
Handing a site to a client is a change of owner, not a migration project

Moving from Webflow

Splitleaf imports a Webflow export. Pages, classes and components come in as files, and a CMS collection comes in from its CSV export. The steps are in Create a site or import a site.

Feature comparison

Capability	Splitleaf	Webflow
Where it runs	On your Mac or Windows PC	In a browser tab, on Webflow's servers
Where the site lives	Files in your folder and your repository	Webflow's platform
Version history	Real Git commits on every publish	Platform backups
Hosting	Any static host you choose	Webflow hosting
Works offline	Yes, with a 90-day license grace period	No
AI	Your own key, provider price, staged changes you review	Platform AI, sold as credits
Price model	$129 once per person	Per site, per seat, per month
Leaving	Take the folder	Rebuild the site

Our honest opinion

Webflow proved that visual building can ship real production sites. If your team already standardizes on Webflow and wants a bundled hosted platform, it is a solid choice.

We think the next ten years look different. AI writes files, and the site has to be managed for years after the first build. For that work, a folder you own on a device you own is a better home than a platform you rent. That is why we built Splitleaf the other way round.

Questions

Can I move my Webflow site to Splitleaf?

Yes. Splitleaf imports a Webflow export, and a CMS collection comes in from its CSV export. After the import, the site is a folder of files on your Mac or Windows PC.

Is Splitleaf cheaper than Webflow?

Over several years, yes, by a wide margin for most sites. But the price is a result, not the point. Splitleaf runs on your device. Our cost does not grow with your sites or your seats, so we do not charge you for them every month.

Does Webflow have a desktop or offline app?

No. It is the most requested feature on Webflow's public wishlist and has been open since December 2016. Webflow's reply is that the product is essentially a browser within a browser.

Who should stay on Webflow?

Teams that want one vendor to host and run everything in the browser. Webflow suits them if they know the platform well and are happy to pay monthly. Webflow is a good product for that.

Sources

Webflow pricing: site plans, workspace plans, seats and the AI credits add-on
Webflow wishlist: desktop or offline application
Webflow wishlist: European hosting
Splitleaf pricing

Prices are list prices in USD with yearly billing, read on the vendor's own page on the date above. Taxes are excluded. If a price here is out of date, tell us at contact@splitleaf.eu and we will correct it.