Webflow vs WordPress vs Core dna (Best CMS For Agencies)

As a growing digital agency, you’re probably accustomed to platforms like Webflow and WordPress to efficiently deliver and manage client projects. 

But now as you set your sights on enterprise accounts, the decision becomes less about ease of use and more aboutfinding a CMS that can handle complex requirements without slowing your team down.

WordPress has long been the default, but dealing with the plugin sprawl and security overhead are major liabilities when pitching to enterprise clients who expect rock-solid stability. Webflow has grown into a popular alternative, but for enterprises, its hosting and customization limits can quickly hit a ceiling. 

Agencies want the freedom to quickly launch websites that are built around each client’s vision and the confidence to know that those sites can scale to handle the traffic, complexity and compliance requirements of the enterprise. 

While Webflow and WordPress remain popular they can make it hard for agencies to compete for enterprise contracts and build long-term, retainer-based revenue streams. 

In this blog, we’ll compare Webflow and WordPress and also explain what makes our solutionCore dna the best CMS for agenciescompared to the alternatives. 

TL,DR

• Webflow is best if you’re a design-first agency and your clients want beautifully branded marketing websites but it can be tough to handle the scalability requirements for enterprises. 
• WordPress is best for agencies serving budget-conscious clients that want access to a large ecosystem of plugins and extensions, but it can be difficult to contend with repeated security issues.

• Core dna is best for agencies ready to take on complex, high-value projects, thanks to its ability to scale, modern features including AI agents, and enterprise-grade functionality.

Quick Snapshot Comparison Table

Platform Overviews

Webflow

Webflow is a visual website builder created in 2013 that makes it easy to design, build, manage, and host production-ready websites in a single workspace. It offers visual editing capabilities to the web publishing experience in its CMS, but doesn’t offer a complete commerce experience. 

WordPress

WordPress is an open-source CMS launched in 2003 that powers over 40% of the web. WordPress’s publishing origins mean that it is widely used for blogs and marketing sites, but not quite optimized for complex commerce operations.

Core dna

Core dna is a digital experience platform (DXP) and orchestration platform that powers the entire digital experience, including content and commerce, from a single, unified backend. Businesses can streamline operations and scale fast with Core dna, offering integrated workflows, APIs, and content delivery in one place.

Key Decision Factors

Here is how each platform compares across the key areas that are most relevant for agencies:

Speed to Market

Webflow

Webflow is a cloud-based SaaS application hosted on AWS and Cloudflare, and its visual development workflow lets teams build and iterate quickly. That means fast launch times for new websites, marketing campaigns, or general updates while Webflow handles all hosting needs. 

With the help of its AI Assistant, Webflow makes it easy for agency teams, including non-developers, to go to market quickly, even in as little as 2 days. 

WordPress

WordPress is self-hosted, but managed hosting options like WP Engine or Kinsta are available. It often requires DevOps resources to manage hosting, updates, and security, but lacks the full SaaS convenience of platforms like Core dna and Webflow. 

Simple WordPress sites can be set up quickly using themes, but more complex implementations often require developer hours, plugin configuration, and testing. 

Core dna

Core dna is a fully managed SaaS platform. We handle everything from hosting to updates, scalability, and security, freeing your team to focus on creating and optimizing digital experiences, not managing infrastructure.

Time to launch varies by project complexity. Simple content-driven websites using existing templates can go live in as little as 1 week, while more complex implementations involving custom structures, workflows, and integrations typically take up to 12 weeks.

Verdict: Webflow

Scalability, Multi-site Management & Localization

Webflow

Webflow sites can scale to up to 10,000 CMS items (blogs, pages, etc.) or more with some paid add-ons, and it also offers enterprise packages. Webflow also allows agencies to manage multiple sites within a single workspace, but each one requires its own Site plan. Webflow also provides localization and translation features to cater to global audiences. 

WordPress

WordPress can scale, but requires significant customization and developer oversight. Agencies can count on multi-site support, but it’s not well-suited for complex governance, brand segmentation, or multi-region needs. WordPress requires third-party plugins like WPML or Polylang to handle localization, but these solutions introduce performance issues or workflow limitations, especially for global teams.

Core dna

Core dna supports enterprise scalability with real-world proof. For instance, one franchise client runs 60+ locations under one platform, while another client scaled from one to seven branded sites, managing over 10,000 SKUs with complex catalog structures. 

Core dna also powers the YMCA’s network of microsites, each with localized content and governance. The platform is built to scale across industries and technical architectures, multi-site, multi-brand, and multi-region, with native multilingual support, translation workflows, and fallback logic.

Verdict: Core dna

Enterprise Commerce Functionality

Webflow

Webflow allows users to build and design online stores out of the box with customizable product pages, checkout experiences, and payment integrations. It provides a visual interface for designing and managing online stores, including features for product management and order management.

The Standard plan has a limit of 500 products, but higher tiers can handle up to 15,000 SKUs. However, it doesn’t include support for multi-store catalogs and charges a 2% platform fee. Webflow supports different payment gateways, including Stripe and PayPal, and offers basic logistics and discounts, but not multi-currency support. 

WordPress

WordPress doesn’t include native catalog management and is reliant on plugins like WooCommerce to add product functionality. Out of the box, it handles posts and pages, not SKUs, variants, bundles, or multidimensional catalogs. 

WordPress has no checkout at all, and also comes without native promotions, discount engines, payment gateway support, shipping and logistics support, or multi-currency setups, with all of these features needing to be added via plugins. 

Core dna

Core dna is made for commerce and excels at catalog management by blending content and commerce, empowering SEO-rich, content-driven product discovery. It also handles complex catalogs with custom fields, bundles, variants, and advanced filtering logic. 

Core dna supports a number of e-commerce features out-of-the-box, including advanced promotions and discount engine with stackable rules, coupons, and personalized offers, support for Stripe, PayPal, and custom payment gateways, as well as integrations with 3PLs, ShipStation, and custom logistics. It also includes multi-currency support out of the box. 

Verdict: Core dna

Security & Compliance

Webflow

Webflow includes free SSL certificates for encryption, DDoS protection, managed hosting with automatic updates, role-based access control, and secure backups with versioning.

WordPress

WordPress includes basic user roles but lacks fine-grained access control. More complex permissions require third-party plugins. WordPress doesn’t include audit logging or support SSO, 2FA, or MFA natively. These features can be added using third-party plugins while security testing is the responsibility of the site owner or host. 

Core dna

Core dna includes a number of built-in security features, including granular role-based permissions across modules, content, and workflows, and detailed audit logs for content, and user actions. Core dna also supports SSO via SAML, OAuth, and 2FA/MFA for user access and provides penetration testing for enterprise-grade security.

Verdict: Core dna

Total Cost of Ownership & Revenue Potential

Webflow

Webflow offers subscription-based pricing that varies depending on plan and usage. However, there is a 2% transaction fee, and depending on the number of sites an agency is juggling, costs will increase substantially, and ROI can be reduced. 

WordPress

Although WordPress core is free and open-source, real-world usage requires paid hosting, premium themes, plugins, and maintenance services, and costs can become unpredictable over time. WordPress also has many hidden costs, including plugin licenses, security add-ons, optimization tools, and developer time. The initial low-cost appearance gives way to a high total cost of ownership as complexity, traffic, and customization needs grow with time. 

Core dna

Core dna offers subscription-based pricing based on modules and usage tiers with no hidden and a transparent billing structure that scales predictably with usage and site complexity. It offers a high value-to-cost ratio due to built-in capabilities compared to add-ons, with many customers seeing ROI within 3–6 months based on reduced stack complexity.

Verdict: Core dna

AI-Readiness 

Webflow

Webflow offers an AI Assistant and AI Site Builder that streamline website creation and content management. Teams can use these tools to generate website layouts, suggest design elements, and create initial content drafts. Additionally, Webflow offers AI-powered features for content localization, design customization, and A/B testing. 

WordPress

WordPress does not include AI-powered automation in its core. While plugins exist for limited use cases like SEO recommendations or content suggestions, they are disconnected from broader workflows.

Core dna

Core dna’s orchestration system allows businesses to build and deploy custom AI agents tailored to their specific workflows and needs. Alongside a pre-built AI agent library, including automated SEO metadata, on-the-fly translation, and AI personalization, users can design unique AI-powered apps within the platform. These agents integrate seamlessly into workflows, enabling truly intelligent automation that evolves with your business.

Verdict: Core dna

How Core dna Supports Agencies

Core dna’s Partner Ecosystem is the perfect solution for agencies on the hunt for a new CMS. Core dna enables agencies to build content-rich websites, bespoke applications, and eCommerce solutions that are perfectly designed around each client’s vision and also generate recurring revenue.

As a lean, all-in-one solution, partners don’t have to worry about adding new plugins just to find critical functionality. They also don’t have to worry about limits being imposed on them,as they target enterprise customers. 

What’s more, Core dna gets hands-on with agency partners, working with them to help secure clients and generate revenue instead of forcing them to fend for themselves like other platforms do. 

With Core dna agencies can:

• Grow by launching unlimited client sites from a single platform
• Gain access to a dedicated training squad and extensive documentation to start mastering the platform
• Earn recurring revenue, including an exclusive Fast‑Start Bonus on the first 10 deals
• Leverage future-proof tech that continues to innovate so that clients never feel like they’re being left behind. 

“Core dna gave us the springboard to transform Digital Assassin from an SEO‑only shop into a full‑service digital powerhouse. We built and launched 30 client sites in less than a year which gave us new revenue streams.” - Rob Lawson – Founder, Digital Assassin.

Wrapping Up

WordPress and Webflow both offer agencies solutions to get started relatively quickly while building client websites. However, their limitations around scalability and enterprise-grade functionality could negatively impact ambitious agencies that want to move up market.

On the other hand, Core dna’s modular platform allows agencies to build anything clients desire from bespoke websites to eCommerce stores using one single solution. With built-in automation, orchestration and AI-driven features, agencies can continue innovating as they scale to meet enterprise demands.