Framer

What is Framer?

Framer is a design tool that turns designs into real, publishable websites, blending visual design with web publishing and interactions, suited to designers wanting to design and ship live sites. Evolved from a prototyping tool into a design to web platform, it lets designers visually design websites with a familiar canvas, components, responsive layouts and rich interactions and animations, then publish them as real, live, hosted websites (no separate development), with a CMS, SEO and templates. Popular with designers and teams who want to design and launch marketing sites, landing pages and portfolios without handing off to developers, Framer bridges design and live web. For design to live website, Framer is a leading choice.

Framer's distinction is turning visual design directly into real, publishable websites. Unlike design tools that produce mockups or prototypes to hand off, Framer publishes your design as a live, hosted site with real interactions, a CMS and SEO, so designers ship websites themselves without a separate build, which pure design and prototyping tools do not offer. That design to live web capability sets it apart.

Who Framer is best for

Framer is best for designers and teams who want to visually design and publish real websites, marketing sites, landing pages and portfolios, with rich interactions, without handing off to developers. It suits design to live website. It is a weaker fit for app and product UI design and prototyping for handoff, where Figma fits, Mac native design, where Sketch fits, the Adobe ecosystem, where Adobe XD fits, or the most advanced app prototypes, where Axure RP fits.

Key features

The core strengths are visual website design with a familiar canvas, components and responsive layouts, rich interactions and animations, direct publishing to real, hosted websites, a CMS, SEO and templates, and AI features. Framer offers design that becomes a live site. Its design to live web publishing, interactions and CMS are its defining advantages.

Framer pricing

Framer has a free plan (with a Framer subdomain), with paid plans from around 10 US dollars a month (per site, for custom domains, more pages and features), plus higher tiers for traffic, CMS and team features. So you can start free and pay to publish full sites. Costs scale with sites, traffic and features. Confirm details on the Framer pricing page.

Integrations and ecosystem

Framer offers a CMS, templates, plugins, and integrations for analytics, forms and more, plus custom code components for developers. Its templates, CMS and plugin ecosystem, which help designers build and launch complete sites, support its design to web positioning.

Framer and design to web

Turning visual design directly into real, publishable websites is the signature strength: Framer publishes your design as a live, hosted site with real interactions, a CMS and SEO, so designers ship websites themselves without a separate build, which pure design and prototyping tools do not offer. For designers wanting to design and launch live sites, this is the main reason to choose Framer.

Ease of use and support

Framer is well rated for its design to web capability, interactions, templates and ease of publishing, popular with designers shipping sites, with good support, though for app and product UI prototyping and handoff Figma is more standard. Its reviews praise design to live web and interactions, with its web (not app) focus the main consideration.

Is Framer worth it?

For designers and teams who want to visually design and publish real websites with rich interactions without developers, Framer is an excellent choice. The main caution is that it is focused on websites rather than app and product UI handoff, so app and product design suits Figma, Mac design Sketch, Adobe users Adobe XD, and advanced app prototypes Axure RP, but for design to live website Framer leads.