We tell you about Framer, a new website and prototype builder that combines the best features of competitors and uses AI.
Framer is a popular service for creating websites and prototypes. The product was launched in 2015 and was completely grounded in interactive prototyping, but has grown out of the given framework. As of May 2022, Framer has evolved into a full-fledged website builder.
In the summer of 2023, Framer received $25 million in funding and began to grow aggressively. Today, Framer is Weblfow’s closest competitor in no-code development in the English-speaking space.
Framer combines the best features of Webflow, Axure, Tilda and Figma: you can “draw” interfaces with components, styles and even themes on the workspace, and then publish them on the web, without passing the design to the developer and working with code.
The main advantages of Framer are simple site management, built-in translation into 500 languages, libraries of spectacular animations and fonts, and the ability to make your own CMS (content administration system) for it.
On the Framer website you can find hundreds of paid and free templates, tutorial guides and a marketplace with dozens of experts speaking different languages. Framer integrates with many external services including Mailchimp, HubSpot, Typeform, Calendly, Google Optimize, and more.
In the summer of 2023, Framer launched the Framer AI project – the neural network is able to create simple landing pages or translate an already completed website into other languages.
Features of Framer editor
In terms of technology “under the hood” Framer is most similar to Webflow, for which you need to know the basics of frontend development. This is not required to run a site on Framer.
Working with content
Framer has a large library of native pages and blocks, which is sewn into the Pages section. It works similarly to Tilda: you can click on the plus icon in the top left corner and a set of pages, blocks, navigation elements, menus, forms, interactive elements and so on will open.
CMS
The CMS (Content Management System) is available right from the editor screen in the Pages tab. As in Webflow, one type of dynamic content in Framer is called a collection. It can be, for example, a collection of news pages or product cards. In basic plans, you can create only one collection.
Depending on the type of content in the collection, you can add or remove fields to be filled in. For example, you can build a collection of speaker cards or product cards. There will be similar fields, but the latter will have a price variable added. You can also mark mandatory and optional fields in the collection for editors or content managers to fill in.
Code Blocks
Separate CMS features are Code Blocks and Inline Code. They allow you to insert pieces of code into your site that other developers can copy without losing code quality.
Localization via Framer AI
In the fall of 2023, Framer released a big localization update based on its AI. It can be used to automatically translate the entire website interface into another language, including SEO settings, dates, fields, CMS collections and more. In the free version you can create only one locale (one additional language), but access to translation with AI is already available there.
Translation is available both in the general localization table (globe icon in the top right panel) and on the workspace, i.e. in the design itself. In the general table, content can be translated piece by piece or by the whole section at once.
If you want to leave some elements untouched, you can ignore them using a special function. However, this does not apply to individual words – they will probably need to be edited manually.