Webflow, without being a designer
Webflow is what a designer reaches for when they want control of everything. Clay is what an owner reaches for when they want a good site by lunchtime.
A real Clay site, built from a Google listing
There is nothing wrong with Webflow. It is a serious tool with a serious learning curve, and the businesses that end up on it usually got there by hiring somebody.
If nobody is being hired, the curve is the whole problem. Clay makes the decisions a designer would make, which photograph opens the page, how much space a band gets, what the type does at 390 pixels wide, and hands you the result with your own content already in it.
Clay vs Webflow
The decisions are already made, well
Every band on a Clay site is composed by rules that were argued out once and then applied everywhere: one heading per band, the line length capped in characters, spacing off a single scale, the photograph cropped the way that theme crops.
That is what you are buying instead of a canvas, not fewer options, but the options already answered by somebody who does this all day.
Your photographs, already sorted
Clay reads the pictures on your Google listing, grades them, crops them for the shape each band needs and puts the best one at the top. Nothing to upload, nothing to resize.
What it looks like when it is live
Drawn rather than described, the page, the address, and what it can switch on.
What you get
- No design system to learn and no breakpoints to set
- Your Google photographs, hours, reviews and map, already placed
- Change theme, colour and type without touching layout
- Free to start, on your own address
How it works
Search your business
Type your name, Clay pulls your photos, hours, reviews and contact details straight from your Google listing.
Pick a style
Choose a look and Clay builds a full site around your content. Change anything with a tap, no code, no templates to wrestle.
You're online
Publish to your own name.clay.site in minutes. Add a custom domain and connect your own tools whenever you're ready.
Real sites, made with Clay
Open one. It is the live site in a frame, not a screenshot, so what you see is what it looks like right now.
Questions
Can I get pixel control?
No. You get themes, colour, typeface, corner radius, photo treatment and the order of the bands. If you need to move an element three pixels, Webflow is the right tool and this is not.
Is my site as fast?
Yes, Clay pages are server-rendered HTML with the images processed on our side. There is no framework to download before the page appears.
Can a designer work on it with me?
They can edit anything you can, on the live page. What they cannot do is write custom CSS.
Does Clay have a CMS?
Not in Webflow's sense. There are no collections and no dynamic page templates, your site's structured content is its menu, its products, its services and its opening hours, which the editor handles directly.
What if I outgrow it?
Your domain is yours and your content is a page you can copy. Moving to Webflow later costs you a rebuild of the design, which is what you would have paid at the start anyway.
Can I export the code?
No, and that is a real difference, Webflow lets you take the markup with you. What you can take from Clay is your content and your domain.
Who keeps it running?
We do. There is no hosting plan of yours, no version to bump and no build to fail at midnight; the page is server-rendered HTML on our side.
Try it with your business
Search your business and see your site in seconds, free, no signup.