Framer
Design is one of the essential disciplines for successful website and application development. Front-end engineers will tell you that to structure a site, you need to master CSS, HTML, and JavaScript.
Although the back-end is extremely important, it's the interface that attracts the most interest from users. Framer, a no-code tool, is a game-changer, offering multiple possibilities for designers to bring their creations to life. This tool has a number of qualities and is often used to generate site prototypes.
What is Framer? What are its advantages and disadvantages? What kind of digital projects can you create with it? Is it true that you can generate a site with AI in a matter of seconds? We answer all these questions and more in this dedicated Framer review.
Framer history
Below, you'll discover how Framer came into being and why it's one of the most popular no-code tools, even among web development purists.
Who created Framer?
Founded by Koen Bork, Framer came into being in 2015. But long before its creation, Koen Bork was first and foremost a seasoned designer who began his career in 2006. Drawing on his experience and passion for design, his first company was Sofa, a studio specializing in software creation and design tools.
One of their popular creations was Kaleidoscope, an app that turns your phone into a generator of beautiful kaleidoscopic images using your live camera.
In 2011, Facebook bought the company, where he worked as a product designer for two years. He then embarked on a new challenge, that of Framer, whose vision is to create a tool that can adapt and perfect the evolution of design.
The company grew from strength to strength, and he soon succeeded. Indeed, Framer has collaborated with major companies such as Apple, Google, Facebook, Airbnb, and Uber, creating tools for their designers.
As Koen Bork points out, Framer is still in its infancy and promises to evolve into innovative solutions that will further impact the world of design.
What's Framer?
Framer is a no-code tool specially designed to enhance the design of your applications or websites. It lets you create attractive sites from scratch. With Framer, you can design mock-ups on which users can navigate.
Then you can develop an interactive prototype, and user interface design adding features, components, and animations to bring the site to life. This allows you to test and improve the project before it goes live.
What's it for?
When you're looking for a tool that delivers in terms of quality, speed, flexibility, and autonomy, Framer can be a reference. As a solution renowned for its strength in design, you don't have to spend money to hire a front-end developer. Even if you're not a design genius, Framer makes it much easier for you to build a high-performance website with basic design skills.
You can create websites such as landing pages, or develop a portfolio to present yourself and sell your skills. The results are just remarkable, and the possibilities are limitless with this tool. As Framer is scalable and complete, for even more customization, you have the option of adding your code.
With all these advantages, you're sure to guarantee a better user experience when your target lands on your page.
AI and Framer the perfect match
Framer is one step ahead of the game, with its technology revolutionizing the way sites are created to deliver a better user experience than ever before. Indeed, Framer's AI has similarities with ChatGPT, whose concept is to write a prompt (request) to generate a response.
In Framer's case, the response generated here is that of a complete site mock-up, just by typing a text. You can imagine how powerful this is: you can make a design for websites from A to Z with nothing more than intention. A site that can be created in the blink of an eye, if not in seconds. This acceleration of the process saves you precious time.
Once again, Framer is proof that no-code tools do eliminate the complexity of programming languages and the need for advanced technical knowledge.
The concept behind Framer with AI is clear and simple: AI-generated, human-organized. If you want to explore the full power of this upgrade, you need to be as descriptive as possible when writing your text. And, if you're not happy with the result of your website, you can always remove or enhance each element to achieve a better rendering.
Framer pricing
Framer offers several affordable packages for its users. The first is free of charge. Other offers include Mini, Basic, pro, team editor, and other customized services for businesses.
The free option
Framer's free mode lets you design captivating banners to promote your products or services and arouse your customers' interest. Then you have access to its editor, where you can customize typography, colors, and animations.
The mini option
To benefit from the mini option, you need to invest $5 per month per design for websites. Ideal for those who wish to have destination pages (a capture page), you benefit from a home page plus 404, a personalized domain name to improve your company's SEO. What's more, this monthly subscription lets you reach a large audience estimated at 1,000 visitors per month.
The basic option
15 is all you need to create a complete Framer site with an unlimited number of pages. As for security, you have the privilege of a password to better protect the accessibility of your site. To help you better manage your content, Framer offers a collection of CMS (Custom Management Systems). And that's not all: in terms of traffic, you can reach up to 10,000 visitors per month.
The Pro offer
Framer's pro package includes a host of advanced features and costs $25 a month. Among other things, you benefit from analysis tools to evaluate your site in terms of interaction and user experience and optimize if necessary. You also have access to the stating option, which lets you visualize and test your site before publication.
Framer's Pro package has many other advantages. Firstly, you have 10 CMS (Custom Management System) collections at your disposal to help you build a better content management system. Then, to encourage interaction on the site, you can create up to 25 pages. What's more, the site can generate up to 100,000 visits per month.
Collaboration: Team Editor
The Framer collaboration option provides a common workspace for teams, enabling team members to work together on projects. An added benefit of this offer is that it provides a 7-day version history of the project.
The cost of this subscription is $20. It also helps you get your creations seen by others without restriction.
Framer's advantage/disadvantage
Framer's advantage
Framer offers a number of advantages:
Content management: the CMS
Framer's CMS offers many benefits for content management. It offers a user-friendly interface for creating, editing, and publishing. It's perfectly suited to making content dynamic on blogs, sales pages, and more.
It features a range of functions to simplify the management process. We refer to :
- create customized collections,
- easy addition and modification of content,
- canvas integration,
- automatic page creation.
What's more, its CMS lets you establish links between elements. It offers advanced filtering features to present content in a personalized way. This enhances the user experience and makes it easy to find the latest updates to your publications.
Easy to use
The learning curve to master Figma is less intense than with Bubble or Webflow. As you explore the Resources section to get a better grasp of the tool's various features, Framer presents clear, explanatory guides. To make it easier to understand, they've provided users with several tutorial videos describing how to use Framer step by step.
Advanced customization
On Framer, every detail is important and you can play with it to make your site as dynamic as possible. You can start by adding new colors, or arranging elements as you drag and drop. It's all this that helps to bring the design to life, making it lively and pleasing to the eye.
What's more, with the various options for creating a responsive layout, you can adapt your design to different screen types (tablet, mobile, computer) to make it responsive. The only limit on Framer is your imagination.
Working together
Framer lets you share your creative spirit with other designers. Its collaboration option lets you work with several people simultaneously on the same project. It also saves your project as you go, so you can access earlier versions as needed. What's more, you can communicate, leave comments and monitor project progress.
Disadvantage Framer
Here are some of the drawbacks of using Framer.
Back-end
Framer is not suitable for optimally operating the back end of websites. It's more of a no-code tool for creating mock-ups and presenting prototypes. However, if you still want to integrate the back end, you need to use other solutions to facilitate implementation. And make sure you link all the elements together to ensure a logical workflow.
No official publication
Framer allows you to design and make your site attractive. However, it cannot be published in its current state for users to interact with. A final step is required to bring the project to life. This involves calling in a developer to transform the prototype into a real, usable application or site. We refer to workflows and other actions.
Conclusion
Framer is a comprehensive tool that simplifies the web design process, delivering an exceptional user experience. For a no-code tool, it ticks all the boxes in terms of customization and comes as a huge boost for creative website designers.
The integration of its AI makes it one of the most powerful no-code tools, even competing with Figma when it comes to these features. Although Framer has many advantages, it's worth noting that it doesn't handle the backend of websites optimally. However, it doesn't mind building the backend elsewhere and exporting the CSS code to apply to the site.
In conclusion, Framer is a first-rate choice for designers wishing to create attractive, interactive websites.
Frequently asked questions
Does Framer integrate other tools?
Framer interacts with other tools such as Sketch and Figma. This is achieved through the use of plugins. If you want to integrate Figma, for example, simply use the Framer Figma plugin.
Is Framer free?
Yes, you can use Framer in its Free mode. However, if you want to access other functions, you'll need to pay for the mini, basic or pro packages.
What types of components are available on Framer?
The components available on Framer to make an interface dynamic are: buttons, dropdowns, tabs, text, accordion, etc.
Can I export Framer's code?
Unfortunately, Framer does not let you generate and export the code.
Does Framer store data?
Yes, Framer keeps your data permanently and automatically. However, when you delete your Framer account, registration is cancelled.
What kind of design can I do with Framer?
Framer is an ideal tool for designing a wide range of digital solutions, including capture pages, portfolios, websites, social networking applications, and more.
