A Webflow alternative that ships a complete system
Webflow gives you a visual editor and a hosted website. Production Starter gives you a complete website kit — front end and back office — that you own, host anywhere, and pay for once.
The real cost of Webflow
Webflow Pro starts at $39/month — $468/year. Over three years, a mid-tier Webflow setup costs more than $1,500 in subscription fees, for a website you still don't fully own. Production Starter is $299 once. The back office is included. Updates are included. Forever.
You own the code — and the back office
Webflow's visual editor is the source of truth — the platform is the source of truth. Production Starter ships a standard Astro codebase with a custom back office. Both live in your repository. Both deploy with a single command. Neither requires Webflow's servers.
Deploy to FTP — not just Webflow hosting
Webflow sites live on Webflow hosting. If a client has existing shared hosting on cPanel, migrating to Webflow means convincing them to change their infrastructure. Production Starter output is static files — it deploys via FTP to any shared host.
No CMS item limits
Webflow's CMS plan limits the number of items per collection. Production Starter's back office has no item limits — content lives in your codebase, not in a cloud database with a billing ceiling.
A developer workflow that actually works
Custom code in Webflow lives in embed blocks disconnected from the editor. Production Starter is a standard Astro codebase — Git, pull requests, local development, and automated deployments work like any other frontend project.
When Production Starter makes more sense than Webflow
- You or your client wants to own the website outright
- Your client has existing FTP hosting they don't want to leave
- You're building a long-term site, not a one-month campaign
- You want a back office that doesn't require a Webflow account to stay active