Framer vs Appy Pie: Comprehensive comparison guide for 2024

Final verdict

Framer and Appy Pie offer unique strengths, making them suitable for different user needs. With very close final verdict scores, Framer at 7.1 and Appy Pie at 7.2, the decision between them hinges on specific requirements rather than a clear overall winner.

• 
  Framer (Overall Grade: 7.1/10)
  
  excels in design functionalities, offering a wide array of customizable templates and advanced design features. It’s particularly strong in hosting quality, website speed optimization, and security, making it a solid choice for users who prioritize design flexibility and website performance. Framer’s AI capabilities and comprehensive approach to user management also stand out, catering well to teams looking for collaborative design tools.
• 
  Appy Pie (Overall Grade: 7.2/10)
  
  shines with its ease of use, making it highly accessible for users without coding skills. It offers a practical solution for quick website deployment and is particularly strong in ecommerce, marketing features, and customer support. Appy Pie’s product testing options and its focus on providing a user-friendly experience make it ideal for individuals and businesses wanting to establish an online presence efficiently.

Best for ecommerce

Verdict

: Appy Pie leads with a stronger focus on integrated ecommerce features, making it more suitable for users looking to build and manage online stores efficiently.

• 
  Framer
  
  : While Framer offers a creative and flexible design environment, its ecommerce capabilities rely heavily on third-party integrations like Ecwid. This approach may suit users who prioritize design over direct ecommerce functionality but could be a drawback for those seeking an all-in-one solution.
• 
  Appy Pie
  
  : Appy Pie stands out for its native ecommerce features, including product and inventory management, multiple payment gateways, and analytics. Its user-friendly platform is designed to support online store creation with minimal technical knowledge, making it a better choice for users focused on ecommerce.

Best for informational & business websites

Verdict

: With nearly identical scores in this category, both Framer and Appy Pie offer compelling features for informational and business websites, but Framer slightly edges out with its design and customization capabilities.

• 
  Framer
  
  : Framer is ideal for users looking for a blend of AI-driven design capabilities and an intuitive interface. It offers extensive customization through a comprehensive component library and AI tools for content generation and localization, making it a strong candidate for businesses that need a more tailored web presence.
• 
  Appy Pie
  
  : Appy Pie shines for individuals and businesses seeking to establish an online presence quickly and with minimal technical know-how. Its focus on ease-of-use and quick deployment, coupled with a simple drag-and-drop interface, makes it a practical solution for creating professional-looking informational websites efficiently.

Detailed comparison

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Winner: Framer.

If you’re looking for a platform that offers more creative control, a wide array of design features, and extensive customization, Framer is the preferred choice.

Framer offers a diverse array of over 1,000 customizable website templates and designs, catering to various industries and project requirements. It stands out for its robust design and prototyping features, including responsive design capabilities, real-time collaboration, and extensive import options from other design tools.

Framer Themes

Compared to Framer, Appy Pie offers a wide array of website templates with over 10,000 options, catering to various needs and budgets. However, it lacks the design variations and does not support plugins or custom code integrations like Framer.

Appy Pie Themes

🏆 Winner: Appy Pie

. With a score of 8.3, Appy Pie is acclaimed for its simplicity and intuitive design, making it highly accessible for users without coding skills. Framer, scoring 7.1, offers a robust platform but with a steeper learning curve, especially for those new to web design. If ease of use is a priority, Appy Pie is the clear winner in this category.

Learning Resources

🏆 Winner: Framer

. While both platforms offer solid learning resources, Framer goes a step further with its wide array of detailed courses and lessons on Framer Academy, making it easier for users to learn and adapt.

When it comes to ecommerce, Appy Pie outperforms Framer with a score of 7.2 against Framer’s 5.9. Framer does not offer native ecommerce features directly within its platform, which could be a downside for users looking to integrate online selling functionalities directly into their website. To facilitate ecommerce, Framer can be paired with Ecwid’s free shopping cart extension, which allows for quick and easy addition of online store functionalities to a Framer website. However, implementing detailed customizations might require some CSS expertise.

Framer ecommerce features:

• Ecwid integration

On the other hand, Appy Pie provides ecommerce features for building and managing online stores within your app. It includes key functionalities such as product listings, inventory management, a secure shopping cart, diverse payment gateways, support for multiple currencies, promotions, order management, shipping options, tax calculation, and analytics.

Appy Pie ecommerce features:

• Product and Inventory Management
• Shopping Cart
• Multiple Currencies
• Promotions and Discounts
• Order Management
• Shipping Options
• Analytics
• Tax management

Ecommerce themes & templates

Framer offers 97 website templates specifically designed for eCommerce, providing a wide range of options for various business needs. These templates are highly customizable, allowing for easy adjustments to colors, fonts, layouts, and integration with essential eCommerce tools. Appy Pie, on the other hand, offers a small selection of ecommerce website templates. These templates are designed to help users create online stores quickly and efficiently, without the need for coding skills.

Product page customization

Framer primarily focuses on expanding design possibilities for eCommerce. However, it lacks inherent eCommerce functionalities and instead heavily depends on integrating with platforms such as Shopify and Ecwid. Appy Pie’s Website Builder provides users with extensive customization options for product pages, enabling the creation of unique online stores or product showcases without requiring advanced coding skills.

Payment processing

Framer supports Stripe for payment processing, enabling a wide range of payment options including one-time payments, subscriptions, and more, without requiring coding. Appy Pie offers a user-friendly platform for integrating payment processing and POS capabilities into mobile apps and online stores, supporting multiple payment gateways like PayPal, Stripe, and Square for secure and versatile customer transactions.

🏆

Winner: Appy Pie

. Appy Pie, with a score of 7.7, is a user-friendly, cloud-based platform that allows individuals, professionals, and small businesses to create mobile-friendly websites without needing to code. It offers a drag-and-drop interface, customizable templates, and various features like social media integration, ecommerce capabilities, and SEO tools. This makes it an ideal solution for quickly creating a wide range of websites, from landing pages to online stores, tailored to users’ specific needs and brand identities.

Framer’s website builder editor, scoring 7.6, is designed for high-fidelity prototyping and complex animations, catering to both designers and developers. It offers a robust set of tools for creating interactive and responsive designs, including a wide array of pre-built components, real-time collaboration features, and the ability to integrate with other design tools and workflows. Users can leverage Framer’s editor to craft detailed animations, fine-tune interactions, and test their designs across various screen sizes and devices. Additionally, its code export feature allows for seamless transition from design to development, making it a versatile choice for teams aiming to create polished, user-centric websites.

Mobile editor/app

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Winner: Appy Pie

. Both Framer and Appy Pie do not have a dedicated mobile app for editing websites. However, they allow modifications through a mobile browser. Framer’s mobile browser editing experience is noted to be inconvenient, which may affect its usability for users who prefer to make changes on the go. On the other hand, Appy Pie’s mobile browser editing experience is not described in detail, but it is implied to be more user-friendly than Framer’s.

Therefore, Appy Pie wins this round due to its higher mobile editor score and the lack of negative feedback about its mobile browser editing experience.

Overall Result

:

Appy Pie Wins

. Appy Pie scores 8.9, significantly higher than Framer’s 6.2. Appy Pie offers a 30-day free trial with access to all premium features, providing a comprehensive testing experience. Framer, on the other hand, offers a free version with limited premium feature testing and no trial version.

Framer and Appy Pie both offer a range of pricing plans to suit different needs and budgets.

Framer’s plans start with a free option, while Appy Pie’s plans start at $18 per month. Both builders offer discounts for annual subscriptions, with Framer offering between 30% and 50% off depending on the plan, and Appy Pie offering around 16% off. For larger businesses, both builders offer enterprise plans with custom pricing.

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Winner: Framer

Framer offers cloud hosting with a 99.9% uptime and a 99.99% uptime guarantee for enterprise plans. It has 4 data centers globally, ensuring reliable and fast service. Appy Pie, on the other hand, offers proprietary hosting with a 99% uptime and the same uptime guarantee. It relies on Amazon Web Services for its data centers. Although both offer solid hosting services, Framer’s higher uptime and global data centers give it the edge.

🏆 Winner: Framer

Both Framer and Appy Pie are website builders that focus on providing an intuitive user interface and ease of use. However, when it comes to website speed optimization, Framer takes the lead with a score of 7.4 compared to Appy Pie’s score of 5.0.

Framer, an AI-driven website builder, focuses on code minification, pre-rendering, caching, and image optimization to enhance website speed. It also emphasizes improvements in Core Web Vitals, including Largest Contentful Paint (LCP), First Input Delay (FID), and Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS). However, the load times and PageSpeed scores vary depending on the optimization and website complexity.

On the other hand, Appy Pie, a no-code development platform, does not disclose any specific strategies for speed optimization. The load times and PageSpeed scores vary widely, depending on the optimization and user’s location. Furthermore, Appy Pie does not disclose any information on their Core Web Vitals improvements.

🏆 Winner: Framer.

Framer scores 7.6 in plugins and integrations, offering a variety of plugins that cater to different needs and powerful integrations that can significantly enhance the functionality of websites. Appy Pie, scoring 6.4, also provides a range of plugins and extensions for website enhancement and a vast array of integrations across various categories. However, the availability of plugins differs across plans and the number of free plugins depends on the plan tier.

Appy Pie Applications

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Overall Winner: Appy Pie

. Appy Pie edges out Framer with a slightly higher score, offering a more comprehensive suite of marketing tools, including ad and promotion features, which Framer lacks.

🏆 Winner: Appy Pie

. With a customer support score of 8.2, Appy Pie outperforms Framer, which has a score of 5.6. Appy Pie offers 24/7 customer support through various channels including live chat, email, and phone. They also provide extensive documentation and tutorials on their website to help users troubleshoot common problems on their own.

On the other hand, Framer primarily offers self-help options through their community forum and knowledge base. Users can also email Framer’s customer support for assistance, but details about their working hours and availability are not provided.

When it comes to enterprise support, Appy Pie offers enhanced support options for enterprise-level customers, including priority email and chat support, and the benefit of a dedicated account manager. Framer also offers dedicated support for enterprise customers, but there is no detailed information about it.

🏆

Winner: Framer

. Framer takes a comprehensive approach to security, utilizing Amazon Web Services (AWS) for hosting and ensuring data is encrypted at rest. They classify data into categories and manage secrets and encryption keys through AWS Parameter Store and Key Management Service (KMS). Access to secrets and keys is restricted based on the principle of least privilege, and environments are fully separated and isolated for additional security. Framer also emphasizes product security through secure development practices, external security testing, and a bug bounty program.

Appy Pie also offers secure private data storage and protection for its users, with advanced encryption and strict access controls. They ensure website security through various measures such as SSL encryption, regular security audits, and secure hosting. They also provide two-factor authentication and password protection for user accounts. However, compared to Framer, Appy Pie’s security measures are less detailed and comprehensive.

🏆 Winner: Framer

. Despite not having AI ecommerce features, Framer, with a score of 7.6, offers a comprehensive suite of AI tools for content generation and localization, making website design and management accessible and efficient. Its AI Style and AI Photo Generating and Editing tools significantly enhance the versatility and impact of website design.

Appy Pie, scoring 7.2, is a strong contender with its AI-driven design and content generation capabilities. It also offers AI ecommerce features and additional AI tools like chatbots and virtual assistants. However, it falls slightly short in comparison to Framer’s extensive AI capabilities.

🏆 Winner: Framer

. Both Framer and Appy Pie offer different plans with varying numbers of editors. However, Framer provides a more detailed breakdown of user roles and their access levels.

• Framer supports team collaboration with different plans allowing a varying number of editors; the Team Basic plan allows up to 5 editors, while the Team Pro plan supports up to 10 editors. These plans come with additional features like live collaboration, comments, file storage, and extended version history.
• The Appy Pie website builder offers different user access levels based on the plan chosen. For the Free Plan, one user has full editing privileges. Paid plans include the Starter Plan (3 users), Hobby Plan (5 users), Professional Plan (10 users), and Enterprise Plan (unlimited users). Each plan designates an Admin with full access and additional Editors with varying editing rights.

Framer User Roles and Access Levels:

Appy Pie does not provide a detailed breakdown of user roles and their access levels.

Additional Features

User Feedback

Framer is highly rated for its user-friendly, no-code approach to web and prototype design. It offers extensive tutorials, templates, and drag-and-drop functionalities that expedite the design process. Users appreciate its integration with tools like Figma, AI-generated responsive designs, and real-time collaboration features. However, some users have pointed out a steep learning curve for newcomers and limitations in customer support and features without premium access. Despite these drawbacks, Framer is lauded as a powerful design tool that enhances creativity and efficiency in web development.

Appy Pie, on the other hand, receives positive feedback for its user-friendly interface and excellent customer support. It offers low-code solutions for app and website building without requiring coding experience. Users appreciate its ease of use, extensive features, and ability to create apps and websites quickly. While some users would like more customization options and templates, overall, Appy Pie is seen as a valuable tool for businesses and individuals seeking to create apps and websites efficiently, solving the problem of complex coding requirements and providing a platform for easy communication and engagement with users.

FAQ