Webflow's 2026 updates: the good, the meh, and the missing

Webflow's had a busy 12 months. They've shipped updates to the CMS, added AI features, launched native localization, and redesigned the editor experience. Some of this stuff is game-changing for how we build client sites. Some of it is... not quite there yet.

We've been building on Webflow since 2023. Here's our take.

The CMS overhaul

This is the biggest deal, and it doesn't get enough attention because it's not flashy.

Multi-reference fields now work properly. You can link a blog post to multiple authors, multiple categories, multiple related posts — without the workarounds we've been hacking together for years. Before this, we were creating junction collections and writing custom embed code to fake many-to-many relationships. That's gone now.

Conditional visibility got smarter too. You can now show or hide elements based on CMS field values with much more granular control. We used to need custom code for "if this field is empty, hide this section." Now it's a toggle in the designer.

The practical impact: sites that used to need 15-20 hours of CMS architecture work now take 8-10. That's real money saved on every project.

AI features: useful but overhyped

Webflow added an AI assistant that can generate page layouts, write content, and suggest design adjustments. Here's where we're at with it.

Layout generation is decent for getting started. You describe a section and it produces a reasonable first draft. The structure is usually fine. The styling needs work. It's like having an intern who understands HTML but hasn't developed design taste yet.

Content generation is where you need to be careful. The AI writes clean, grammatically correct copy that sounds like every other website on the internet. It'll use words like "innovative" and "cutting-edge" without flinching. If you use it, treat the output as placeholder text that needs a complete rewrite.

Design suggestions are hit or miss. Sometimes it'll suggest a color change or spacing adjustment that genuinely improves the page. Other times it'll suggest things that break visual hierarchy or clash with the brand. You need to know what good design looks like to evaluate its suggestions.

Our workflow: use AI for rough scaffolding, then design everything ourselves. It saves maybe 20 minutes per page on structure. That adds up across a full site build.

Native localization — finally

This one's big. A lot of businesses need multi-language sites, and until now that meant either Weglot (third-party translation layer, $150+/month) or building separate CMS collections per language (a maintenance nightmare).

Webflow's native localization lets you manage translations directly in the CMS and designer. One page, multiple language versions, all in one place. The URL structure handles itself — /en/about, /de/about, /bg/about — with proper hreflang tags for SEO.

It's not perfect. Right-to-left language support is still basic, and the translation management interface could use some work for sites with 500+ CMS items. But for the typical 10-30 page marketing site that needs 2-3 languages? It works great.

Multi-language setups that used to add $500-$1,000 to a project quote are now part of the standard build time. That makes projects more accessible for smaller businesses.

The new editor experience

Webflow redesigned the editor that clients use to update their sites. The old editor was... fine. A bit clunky. Required some hand-holding during handoff. The new one is noticeably better.

Content editing is more intuitive now. The sidebar shows a cleaner content model, inline editing feels more natural, and the preview is more accurate. The kind of "how do I change this text?" questions that filled support inboxes should drop significantly with the new editor.

But — and this matters for developers — the new editor gives clients more power. They can now reorder sections, toggle visibility, and make structural changes that the old editor blocked. This is great for capable clients. It's risky for clients who tend to break things.

Our approach now: we set up editor permissions more carefully during handoff. Lock down structural elements, allow content editing, and document what each section does. It adds 30 minutes to the handoff process but saves hours of "something looks wrong" emails later.

What's still missing

A few things Webflow still hasn't sorted out:

• Component versioning — when you update a component, every instance updates immediately. There's no way to roll back one page without rolling back all of them. For large sites, this is nerve-wracking.
• Build performance — sites with 1,000+ CMS items are still slow to publish. A full rebuild on a large site can take 10-15 minutes. That's painful when you're iterating on changes.
• Branching and staging — the staging environment exists but it's basic. No branch-based workflow, no way to have multiple people working on different versions simultaneously. For team-based projects, this is the biggest bottleneck.
• E-commerce — Webflow E-commerce is still behind Shopify by a significant margin. Product variant handling, checkout customization, and inventory management all need work. We continue recommending Shopify for any serious e-commerce project.

Should you migrate to Webflow in 2026?

If you're currently on WordPress and your site is primarily a marketing site with a blog and some landing pages — yes. Webflow is genuinely better for this use case now. The CMS improvements and native localization close most of the gaps that used to keep people on WordPress.

If you're on Squarespace or Wix and need more control — yes, but budget for the learning curve. Webflow is more powerful but also more complex. You'll probably want a developer for the initial build.

If you're on Shopify — stay on Shopify for your store. Use Webflow for your marketing site if needed. Don't try to force Webflow into an e-commerce role it's not ready for.

If you're on custom code (Next.js, etc.) — it depends on your team. If you have developers, custom code gives you more flexibility. If you don't, Webflow with its new features might cover 80% of what you need at a fraction of the maintenance cost.

The platform's moving in the right direction. The 2026 updates are practical improvements, not flashy features. That's exactly what we want from a tool we build businesses on.