Webflow is a powerful platform for simplifying the creation of websites, with many professionals harnessing its flexibility to build websites from scratch with stellar User Experience (UX).
While people often associate it with marketing websites, you can also build complex sites and streamline the development process. Let's dive deeper into that!
What is a Web App?
Simply put, a Web App is like a mobile app you can access from a browser. Web Apps represent features or functionalities that developers can use to build complex digital products, so you can think of a Web App as an individual feature within a website.
For example, eCommerce stores use multiple Web Apps (features) that allow users to make online purchases, like a shopping cart, a product search bar with filtering options, user profiles, etc. Every single one of these functionalities can be considered a Web App.
In Webflow, developers can create their own Web Apps or access the different built-in Web Apps available in the marketplace section. Further, there are two main categories of Web Apps within Webflow that you should know about!
Types of Webflow Apps
Designer Extensions are Static Single-Page Applications (SPAs) that allow developers to build apps that interact with the website's canvas directly by using Designers APIs.
"Imagine Designer APIs as Lego bricks, and Designer Extensions as the blocks built by using those bricks." – Roberto Ibarra, Front-End Developer @Capicua.
Conversely, Data Clients (REST APIs) run outside of the website and interact with your data, such as the Content Management System (CMS).
On top of that, you can also build a "hybrid" Web App, a Designer Extension that uses Data clients to access datasets and query data from them.
An example of that would be a User Interface (UI) that displays items with ratings and like buttons (Designer Extension) that can provide real-time feedback and update user profiles (Data Client).
How Does Webflow App Development Work?
The process of Webflow App Development starts with the “Apps and Integrations” section. Webflow recommends using a unique space for the apps you want to build so you can keep things organized. Next, you'll have to go to the App Development section and fill in the spaces with your App’s info.
In this part, you must choose between Data Client or Designer Extensions, or both. Enabling Data Client capabilities requires you to add a Uniform Resource Identifier (URI), the type of asset, who can interact with it, and if it'll have access to the CMS.
All that’s left is to install and integrate your app to your website. You can do that by going to the integrations section on the settings page.
Popular Webflow Web Apps
1. Memberstack
With Memberstack, you can easily turn your website into a professional membership site with core features like user authentication. That includes free and paid plans for users.
2. Formly
By Using Formly, you can quickly build stunning, modern, and dynamic forms in Webflow websites. This Web App gives you features like multi-step surveys, file uploads, and form analytics. Plus, you can also use conditional logic without having to write a line of code.
3. Jetboost
You can think of Jetboost as a tool to take your Webflow CMS to the next level. It gives you features like pagination, dynamic filtering, search, and like buttons. That's perfect for showcasing popular items and getting feedback from users.
4. PromoteKit
PromoteKit is a powerful tool to build an affiliate platform or program. The best thing is that it was built on top of Stripe. Plus, it has advanced commission structures that allow you to reward exceptional affiliates.
On the other hand, you can also pay your affiliates with PayPal Mass Payments or Wise Batch Payments.
Some other popular built-in Web Apps Webflow gives you out of the box include Figma, Zapier, Unsplash, and Finsweet Table.
Why are Webflow Apps Important?
Thanks to Webflow apps, developers can build advanced products with relative ease. Recently, we've seen Webflow Development capabilities improve with tools like DevLink, which lets users build UI components for React.js.
With Webflow Web Apps, developers can build more products, promoting optimal development, providing an enhanced online presence, and improving customer loyalty while maintaining design flexibility.
You can incorporate BackEnd Development to work with complex data sets and develop more powerful products! By combining Webflow with Xano and Wized, two popular no-code tools, you can build products that offer seamless integrations.
Wized allows advanced JavaScript logic, and developers can use it to connect Webflow with Xano, which works as a BackEnd platform supporting CRUD (Create, Read, Update, Delete) operations.
Conclusion
Built-in Apps in Webflow are an incredible addition to the platform. As a UX-Driven Product Development Agency, we chose Webflow to build our website because of its great performance and design flexibility!
