Framer review 2026: polished design, simple plans, no way out

What Framer is and who it’s for

Framer is a design-led website builder with AI tools built in. It is popular for fast, polished marketing sites for startups and software companies, and for portfolios. The company, Framer B.V., was founded in 2014 and is based in Amsterdam.

You design on a free-form canvas, much like a design app, and publish with one click. Framer then hosts the site on its own infrastructure. That includes pre-rendering pages, optimizing images, trimming font files and serving everything from a global CDN (a network of servers that delivers your pages from a location near each visitor).

That managed hosting is part of the appeal: sites tend to look sharp and you have little to maintain. It is also the catch. Hosting on Framer is required, and there is no official way to take the site somewhere else.

Our verdict: Framer is a strong choice for designers and small teams who want a beautiful marketing or portfolio site quickly and are happy to stay on Framer. It is a weak choice for online stores, very large content sites, or anyone who wants to own the code.

Plans and what they really cost

The prices below are yearly-billed prices from the Framer pricing page, paid upfront for the year. The free custom domain on Basic and Pro only comes with yearly billing. Monthly-billed prices were not shown in the pricing-page view we read, so check the billing toggle before you pay.

Basic gives you a custom domain, password protection, analytics and 1 editor. Pro adds a staging environment, branching with previews and site redirects. Enterprise adds unlimited editors, SSO and an uptime guarantee.

The Free plan is for trying Framer. It publishes only on a Framer subdomain, and a third-party guide says free sites carry a “Made in Framer” banner.

Which paid plan fits? Most small business sites fit on Basic: 30 pages covers a home page, service pages, an about page, a contact page and a small blog. Move up to Pro when you need more than 30 pages or 2 CMS collections, a staging environment to test changes before they go live, or site redirects because you are moving an existing site with old URLs.

Seats and add-ons

The plan price is not the whole bill. According to Framer’s pricing page and help center:

• Extra editors cost $20 per editor per month, and content editors (people who only update text and CMS content) cost $10 per editor per month. Viewers are free.
• Editor seats are billed monthly, even if your plan is billed yearly.
• Translation locales are $20 per locale, up to 20.
• Convert A/B testing is $50 per 500,000 events.
• Advanced hosting is listed at $200. The pricing page shows it as an add-on for Basic and also lists it under Pro, so it is unclear whether Pro includes it.
• AI credits are shared across your workspace, and you can buy more.

Three billing rules are worth knowing. You can go over your bandwidth for one month before Framer asks you to upgrade. Refunds are only available within 7 days of purchase (14 days in the EU and Turkey). And if you downgrade, the difference becomes account credit, not a refund.

The Framer 3.0 price change

Framer recently simplified its plans in an update it calls Framer 3.0. The Scale plan was retired, leaving Free, Basic, Pro and Enterprise. Editor seats dropped from $40 to $20, a new $10 content editor seat was added, and every plan now gets AI credits. Basic went from 1 CMS collection to 2 and from 10 GB to 50 GB of bandwidth. Framer says existing paid plans stay the same unless you switch. Framer’s post does not show the month it took effect.

A 3-year cost example

Here are two small US sites, both billed yearly. Each uses a .com bought at an outside domain registrar and one Google Workspace email inbox. Framer does offer a free domain for the first year on yearly plans, but its renewal price is not published on the pricing page, so we priced a domain you control yourself.

Basic is an inexpensive way to put a well-designed site on your own domain. The Pro column shows how seats change the math: one extra editor adds $720 over 3 years, which is two-thirds of the Pro plan cost itself. Translation locales and A/B testing would add more.

What you can build

Design

Design is Framer’s home ground. You get free-form layout and a marketplace of templates to start from. Framer’s developer docs also support custom code and React code components, so a developer can add things the canvas cannot do. Which plans allow custom code is not spelled out on the pricing page.

CMS and blog

Framer has a built-in CMS for blogs, case studies and similar content. The limits are tight for big sites: 2 collections and 1,000 items on Basic, and 10 collections and 2,500 items on Pro. Basic also stops at 30 pages and Pro at 150. A company blog or portfolio fits easily; a large resource library or directory may not.

Online store

The pricing page does not list native ecommerce. If selling is central to your business, pick a platform with a built-in store.

SEO

Pro includes site redirects, and the help center says redirects can be imported and exported in bulk, which helps when you move an existing site onto Framer. We did not review Framer’s other SEO settings in detail for this update, so check page titles, descriptions and sitemap options against your needs.

AI features

Every plan includes AI credits: 500 on Free, 1,000 a month on Basic and 3,000 a month on Pro. Framer’s 3.0 post names AI tools for designing, writing, organizing, analyzing and localizing (translating your site with AI). The pricing FAQ says credits also power Agents. Credits are shared by everyone in the workspace, so a busy team can use them up faster than a solo designer.

What happens when you leave

The key line comes from the Framer help article on HTML export: “Framer does not offer HTML export for self-hosting.” The reason given is that sites depend on Framer-managed services such as pre-rendering, image optimization and the CDN.

Here is what you can and cannot take with you:

• CMS content: yes, as CSV or JSON files, using plugins described in Framer’s “Porting your data” help article.
• Design: no official way to take it off Framer.
• Code: no official export. Marketplace plugins such as Full Site Export, React Export and Framer to Code claim to export sites, but they are third-party tools, not Framer features.
• Domain: yes. Framer connects domains registered elsewhere. Transfer terms for a domain from Framer’s free-domain offer were not published where we looked.
• Redirects: yes, they can be exported in bulk, which helps you map old URLs on your next platform.

In practice, leaving Framer means a rebuild. You bring your CMS content and your redirect list, then recreate the design on the new platform. Our glossary explains website migration, and our guide to leaving your website builder has the full checklist.

Gotchas

• No official code export. You are tied to Framer hosting (Framer help center).
• Seats are a monthly add-on. Editors at $20 and content editors at $10 are billed monthly on top of the plan, even on yearly billing (pricing page; help center).
• Page caps. Basic allows 30 pages and Pro 150 (pricing page).
• The free domain needs yearly billing. It is only included on Basic and Pro when you pay for the year (pricing page).
• Short refund window. Refunds only within 7 days (14 in the EU and Turkey), and downgrade credit is non-refundable (help center).
• No native store. The pricing page does not list ecommerce.

Who should pick Framer, and who should not

Pick Framer if:

• You are a designer who wants pixel-level control and fast publishing.
• You need a marketing site for a startup or software product, or a portfolio.
• You are a small team that wants AI help with design and translation.

Look elsewhere if:

• You want to sell products online.
• You need to self-host or own the code, now or later.
• You plan a large content site; Pro stops at 150 pages and 2,500 CMS items.

Alternatives worth a look

• Webflow vs Framer: Webflow has a bigger CMS and an official static code export on paid Workspace plans.
• Framer vs Squarespace: an easier all-round builder with a built-in store.
• Framer vs Lovable: an AI app builder whose sites are real code you can take with you.
• Best website builders for portfolios: our shortlist for designers and creatives.

Some links on this page are affiliate links: if you buy, we may earn a commission at no cost to you. It never changes our verdicts or rankings. Affiliate disclosure.