Webflow Releases vs Framer branching: staging a whole site
Framer lists branching and a staging environment as Pro features today. Webflow's whole-site Releases is a beta later this year, and its existing page branching sits on a plan at 2,500 dollars a month.
If you need to stage a large change to a live site today, Framer can do it and Webflow mostly cannot. Framer lists Branching with previews and a Staging environment as Pro features. Webflow announced Releases on 1 September 2026, which branches an entire site including CMS content and locales, and it is a beta later this year.
| Question | Webflow | Framer |
|---|---|---|
| Available today | Page branching and single-page publishing, on the Team plan | Branching with previews and a staging environment, on Pro |
| Whole-site branching | Releases: pages, CMS, components, assets and locales. Beta later this year | Framer describes branching as exploring changes and sharing previews, and does not state on its pricing page whether CMS content is included |
| Who can merge | Roles and permissions apply to agents and people alike | Roles and permissions on Pro |
| Plan cost to get it | Team is $2,500 a month, annual | Pro, priced by region |
The gap is price as much as feature. On Webflow the branching that exists today sits on a plan at $2,500 a month on an annual contract, which we covered in Webflow's May 2026 plan changes. On Framer it sits on Pro, which is the plan a serious marketing site is on anyway, for reasons set out in what Framer gates behind which plan.
What to do until Releases ships
- Duplicate the site for a big redesign and build there, then move the finished work across. It is clumsy and it is what most Webflow teams do.
- Keep CMS changes and design changes in separate passes. The painful part of a merge without branching is content edited in two places.
- Plan the redirect table before the switch, not after. A staged launch still breaks old URLs if the table is wrong, which we covered in how Webflow 301 redirects behave.
