Show HN: Open-sourced Webflow for your o...

At a glance

The post expresses interest in seeing if the Webstudio developers would respond to a discussion. A community member who started building Webstudio and released a prototype in March 2022 responds, sharing their experience. They initially aimed to create a Webflow-like tool for product teams, but found it challenging to monetize as an open-source project without offering hosting. The community member shifted their focus to providing value to customers who would pay for hosting.

The community member also discusses the technical challenges they faced, such as developing Webstudio Components that can generate human-readable code, and supporting the entire CSS specification, not just the most popular properties. They emphasize the difficulty of building such a tool while also improving the user experience as more features are added.

Another community member expresses appreciation for the community member's work and willingness to put in the effort to maintain high standards, which adds to their trust in the project's viability. They also mention posting a 5-star review on Trustpilot.

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ppaulrudy

I'd be interested to see if the Webstudio devs want to respond to this. I don't have enough knowledge to parse the differences, but I think Webstudio definitely deserves a mention in the discussion

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40904862

4 comments

OOleg Isonen

I don't know if it deserves a comment from my side, but definitely feel free to comment with your experience etc.

When I started building webstudio and released a prototype in march 2022. I made this prototype in 3 month.

https://www.producthunt.com/products/webstudio#webstudio

I started off with the same idea: webflow but for product teams.

They will find out soon enough that they will see no good way to monetize it with teams as an open source project, because to monetize they need to offer hosting.

But hosting is something teams already have, they won't need your hosting.

In order to make this a reality I had to shift my focus on providing value to someone who will actually want to pay for hosting.

Then additionally they will find a lot of very challenging technical requirements that teams will ask for. We are still getting close to fulfil those requirements.

For example things like Webstudio Components (nocode components) that can generate human readable code components which then can be imported by developers. https://github.com/webstudio-is/webstudio/issues/2529

Then they will find it challenging to support the ENTIRE CSS not just a few most popular properties. We just got to this point after all this time working on various aspects of the builder.

I think its easy to underestimate how hard it is to build this and also keep improving UX, not degrading it. Because with more features UX becomes more challenging.

Feel free to use this post in your answer to them, I hate to be on yc roaster.

ppaulrudy

Thanks for this, @Oleg Isonen . It's very illuminating, and cool to hear what your process has been over the years. Super happy you've been willing to put in the arduous work to not make compromises on UX, include all of CSS, and also make it marketable. All of that adds to my trust in the project and its viability in the future.

I also prefer to be mostly be a spectator on HN, so I think I'll refrain from replying to the post as well. 🙌

ppaulrudy

I did post a 5 star review on trustpilot, however!

RRichard

I posted this comment when I seen the thread the other day

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