# What Is Framer? The Website Builder Explained > Framer is a visual website builder with hosting, a CMS and animation built in, used by designers and startups to publish without code. Strengths and limits. Source: https://pentaclay.com/glossary/framer Glossary # What is Framer? Framer is a visual website builder that lets teams design, animate and publish responsive websites on a canvas similar to design tools, with hosting, a CMS and localization built in. ## How it works Framer began as a prototyping tool for designers and is now focused on building and hosting websites. You work on a canvas much like Figma: frames, stacks, components and breakpoints for desktop, tablet and phone. Pages publish to Framer’s hosting with a click, on a framer.website subdomain or your own domain. It includes a CMS for blog posts, case studies and other repeated content, built-in animations and scroll effects, localization, forms and basic SEO settings. Developers can add custom React code components when something is not built in. ## Why it matters for B2B websites Framer lets a marketing or design team change the site without waiting on developers, and its sites tend to look polished out of the box. That makes it popular with startups and AI companies that need to launch quickly and update messaging often. The trade-offs: you rely on Framer’s hosting, the code cannot be exported and run elsewhere, and very large CMS setups or complex integrations are easier on other platforms. ## Good fit and poor fit - Good fit: marketing sites, product launches, startup and AI company websites, frequent design changes - Good fit: teams where designers own the site - Poor fit: large content libraries with complex relations between items - Poor fit: sites that need logged-in areas, custom back-end logic or self-hosting ## Example An AI startup redesigns its homepage before a funding announcement. In Framer, the designer builds the new sections, previews them on phone sizes, and publishes the same day, with no developer handoff. ## How we handle it We are a Framer Pro Expert and build Framer sites with a clean component system, CMS collections for case studies and posts, and SEO settings filled in on every page, then hand the site over with a recorded walkthrough. See our [Framer development](https://pentaclay.com/services/framer-development) service, or compare platforms in [Framer vs Webflow](https://pentaclay.com/comparison/framer-vs-webflow). Read next - [Framer development](https://pentaclay.com/services/framer-development) - [Framer vs Webflow](https://pentaclay.com/comparison/framer-vs-webflow) Last updated 15 November 2026 Related terms ## Terms that go with Framer - [Webflow Webflow is a visual website builder that lets teams design pages with the same structure as hand-written HTML and CSS, manage content in a built-in CMS, and host the site on Webflow’s servers.](https://pentaclay.com/glossary/webflow) - [CMS collections A CMS collection is a group of content items of the same type, such as blog posts, case studies or team members, that share a set of fields and are displayed through a shared page template.](https://pentaclay.com/glossary/cms-collections) - [Design system A design system is a shared set of rules, reusable components and design values, such as colors, type sizes and spacing, that a team uses to build a website or product consistently.](https://pentaclay.com/glossary/design-system) - [Next.js Next.js is an open-source framework, built on React and maintained by Vercel, for building websites and web applications that can render pages on the server, at build time or in the browser.](https://pentaclay.com/glossary/nextjs) [All glossary terms](https://pentaclay.com/glossary) ## Questions about Framer ### Can’t find your answer? Book a call and let’s talk. [Book a call](https://cal.com/pentaclay/discovery-call) Or email us at [contact@pentaclay.com](mailto:contact@pentaclay.com) Is Framer good for SEO? Yes, for most marketing sites. Framer serves pages as HTML, creates a sitemap, and lets you set titles, descriptions, canonical URLs and redirects. Results still depend on content, structure and links. Can I export code from Framer? Not as a working site you can host elsewhere. Framer sites run on Framer’s hosting. If you later need full code ownership, the site has to be rebuilt in a framework such as Next.js. Is Framer or Webflow better? Framer is usually faster for design-led sites and animation; Webflow is stronger for large CMS setups and fine-grained control. Our Framer vs Webflow comparison covers the details. Do I need a developer to use Framer? Not for most work. Designers and marketers can build and edit pages. A developer helps with custom code components, integrations and complex setups. ## Your business grew up. Your website should too If customers need a demo just to understand what you sell, your website isn’t doing its job. - We sign an NDA on request. - You own the site, the code and every account once it’s paid. - Your first call is with Erfan, the founder. **Kazi Mohammed Erfan** Founder Don’t want to fill in the form? [Book a call directly](https://cal.com/pentaclay/discovery-call) ## Not sure? Ask AI about Pentaclay ### Pentaclay, in short Updated 17 Oct 2026 Pentaclay is a B2B website design agency for AI companies that sell to enterprises. We write, design and build marketing websites in Framer, Webflow and Next.js, and stay to help after launch. Pentaclay LLC is registered in New Mexico, USA; our team works from Dhaka, Bangladesh, with calls until 12:30pm US Eastern. Founded in 2023 by Kazi Mohammed Erfan, who brings 12 years of design experience.