ONCORD vs WebFlow CMS

ONCORD vs WebFlow CMS

When it comes to website design & development in Auckland, businesses have many CMS options. Two platforms that we specialise in are Webflow and ONCORD - and both are excellent in their own right. Webflow is well-known for its powerful visual design tools and easy to use CMS, but we’ve found that ONCORD offers unique benefits that better serve the needs of small to medium businesses across NZ and AU. Both are amazing CMS platforms, but ONCORD's all-in-one approach provides several key advantages from our clients’ perspective. Below, we highlight some of the major benefits of using ONCORD over Webflow for your business website.

Key Benefits of ONCORD for Your Business

1. All-in-One Platform (Website + CRM + Marketing + eCommerce)

ONCORD isn’t just a website builder – it’s a complete online business platform. It brings together your website, contact database, email marketing, events, sales and more in one place, so you don’t need to juggle multiple systems. Every lead or customer interaction on your site (via web forms, shop orders, event sign-ups, etc.) feeds into a central CRM automatically. This integrated contact database means you can see a complete history of how people interact with your business online – from the pages they visited to the emails they opened or the products they purchased. For you, the benefit is streamlined management and richer customer insights: no more exporting data between separate tools. It’s intuitive and easy to use, allowing you to update content or publish blog posts with a drag-and-drop editor while the system quietly builds your contact list in the background.

2. Built-in Marketing Automation & Customer Journeys

Because ONCORD includes optional built-in email and SMS marketing, you can engage your audience without needing external services (for example, Mailchimp, ActiveCampaign, Klaviyo, Constant Contact, HubSpot etc). The platform lets you compose branded email campaigns with a visual editor and schedule or automate them as needed. You can target specific customer segments based on any data in the CRM – for example, send a tailored email to users who filled out a quote form or who purchased a certain product. Our clients love this because it enables personalised customer journeys: one business owner told us they were able to dump Mailchimp and finally send relevant, targeted messages. In short, ONCORD helps you stay connected with your customers through automated workflows, newsletters, event invites and even social media posting – all from one dashboard. This not only saves time but also improves marketing effectiveness by ensuring consistent messaging across channels.

3. E-Commerce Ready with CRM Integration

If you run an online store, ONCORD offers a full suite of e-commerce features out-of-the-box. You can sell unlimited products, set up recurring memberships or subscriptions, manage a secure shopping cart with abandoned cart recovery, and even take donations or event payments. The standout benefit is how your store integrates seamlessly with the CRM and marketing tools. For example, you can automatically send a follow-up email or SMS to customers who bought a specific product, or trigger a follow-up workflow for customers based on purchase behaviour. All sales data is connected to contact profiles, giving you better insight into purchasing behaviour and enabling precise re-marketing campaigns. ONCORD also syncs with popular accounting software like Xero and MYOB – no manual data transfers. In contrast, with a platform like Webflow, adding such CRM or email integrations for your shop would require third-party plugins or custom code. ONCORD's all-in-one approach means everything works together seamlessly, making it faster and easier to nurture leads and boost sales directly from your website.

4. Fast Performance and PageSpeed (80%+ Guarantee)

Website speed isn’t just a tech metric – it has real impact on user experience and SEO rankings. One major advantage of ONCORD is its lean, optimised codebase and high-performance hosting. Unlike some platforms that rely on dozens of plugins (which will slow sites down), ONCORD runs a tight ship with built-in features, resulting in very fast load times. In fact, FUEL is so confident in ONCORD's performance that we offer a Google PageSpeed Insights guarantee of 80%+ for every new site we build on ONCORD. That means your website is virtually assured to score well in Google’s performance tests, an important factor now that Google uses Core Web Vitals as a powerful ranking signal. For your business, a faster site means visitors are less likely to bounce and more likely to convert into customers. It also means you’re meeting Google’s strict criteria for speed, which helps improve your search visibility. With ONCORD, we routinely deliver sites that “load fast and outrank the competition” thanks to clean code, optimised images, caching and solid infrastructure.

5. Strong Security & Reliable Hosting (Peace of Mind)

ONCORD takes care of the technical heavy-lifting behind the scenes. Secure hosting, SSL certificates, backups, and software updates are all handled for you as part of the platform. This gives business owners peace of mind – you don’t need to worry about server maintenance or patching plugins to fix security holes (a common concern with some other CMS platforms). All ONCORD sites come with SSL encryption by default and are hosted on a robust infrastructure, so your data and your customers’ data stay safe. Moreover, the platform updates itself regularly with new features and security enhancements, without you having to lift a finger. Webflow similarly provides secure hosting as a SaaS service, but ONCORD's philosophy of “no plugins required” further reduces potential vulnerabilities (since third-party plugins can often be a security risk). The bottom line is you can sleep easier knowing your ONCORD website’s hosting and security are fully managed – and as an agency, we sleep easier too, because it means no emergencies for us and more uptime for you.

6. SEO-Friendly Features Built In

A beautiful website is only valuable if your customers can find it. ONCORD was built with search engine optimisation as a feature. It provides easy-to-use SEO settings for every page (e.g. meta titles, descriptions, URL handles) and automatically generates sitemaps for Google and Bing. The platform even includes an AI assistant to help generate SEO-friendly meta tags and keyword suggestions in seconds – a handy tool if you’re not sure how to craft descriptions. ONCORD's code output is clean and follows modern best practices, which helps your site rank well. Importantly, by avoiding bloated code and plugins, ONCORD keeps site performance high, and search engines love fast sites. As noted earlier, that performance boost gives you a strong SEO edge. Many of our clients also appreciate that blogging is integrated into ONCORD, making it simple to publish fresh content (which is great for SEO) and then leverage the email marketing module to notify their audience of new posts. All these little advantages add up to a platform that helps your site “rank well in search” by design, without needing a dozen extra SEO plugins or services.

7. Greater Flexibility & Future-Proofing

While Webflow offers an excellent visual designer, it has limitations when you need highly custom functionality or deeper integration with business systems. ONCORD, on the other hand, supports developer access to the source code (server-side), so our team can dive under the hood and build custom features or integrations tailored to your business. This means your site isn’t confined to “what the builder can do” – we can extend it as needed. For example, as an Elite ONCORD Partner, we’ve developed complex web applications within ONCORD such as loyalty/rewards systems, inventory management tools, custom customer portals and much more. The ability to write backend code (in PHP) and use ONCORD's Developer Resources allows us to create more than just a basic website. If you have a unique requirement - say, integrating your website with a specific CRM, booking system or any external software - chances are we can build it directly into your ONCORD site. This level of extensibility gives you future-proof confidence: as your business grows or changes, your website can adapt without needing to start over on a new platform. In short, ONCORD offers the best of both worlds – a user-friendly editor plus the freedom to custom-develop, something our developers love and our clients benefit from in the long run.

8. Improved Customer Insights & User Experience

With ONCORD's unified approach, you gain a deeper understanding of your audience which helps you craft a better user experience. All the data from your site - traffic analytics, form submissions, purchase history, email engagement - is tied together. You can easily see the customer’s complete journey from a website visit to a conversion in one dashboard. These insights allow you (and us as your agency) to continuously improve your website and marketing strategy. We can identify what content users find most engaging, where they drop off in the funnel, or which campaigns drive the best traffic. Ultimately, this leads to a smoother website experience for your customers - content tailored to their interests, timely follow-ups, and more relevant offers. From a client perspective, it's a more powerful analytics experience than standard Google Analytics, because the analytics are directly linked to real people in your CRM database, not just anonymous hits, but actual people, decisions and actions. By leveraging these insights, we help ensure your website’s user experience and customer journeys are continually optimised for better results.

9. Built-in AI Tools: Smarter Website Management

One of the most exciting new additions to ONCORD is its integrated AI assistant, designed to make content creation, SEO, and website management faster and easier.

  • Generate SEO meta descriptions and keywords automatically. Optimise pages instantly - perfect if you’re not an SEO specialist.
  • AI assistant panel inside the dashboard. Write content, CTAs, or summaries without switching between apps or tools.
  • Consistent, polished content. Maintain your brand tone even when multiple people update the site.
  • Time-saving automation. AI can write alt-text, shorten copy, or suggest improvements for better clarity and conversion.
  • Support for non-technical users. Business owners or staff who aren’t confident writers can still produce high-quality, SEO-ready content right inside the CMS.

While Webflow focuses heavily on its design engine, ONCORD is now pairing that design flexibility with intelligent automation - helping business owners manage content and marketing more efficiently from one place. For SMEs, this means less time on admin and more time growing the business.

10. Empowering Clients with Easy Editing and Reliable Support

ONCORD provides an exceptionally user-friendly website management experience, which is a game-changer for Fuel Design’s SME and e-commerce clients (both B2C & B2B). The platform offers an intuitive drag-and-drop editor that makes updating site content simple for non-technical users. In practical terms, this means business owners and their teams can quickly learn to add new pages, edit text, or upload images on their own, without needing to call a developer for every minor change. Training is smoother and faster because the interface is straightforward – clients can get comfortable managing their website after a short personalised training session, gaining confidence and control over their online content.

Another major plus is ONCORD's strong, responsive support, which ultimately benefits the client. Because ONCORD was built with agencies and small businesses in mind, FUEL receives prompt, personal assistance from the ONCORD team whenever there’s a question or issue. For the client, this translates into fewer technical hiccups and quick issue resolution - if something needs fixing, FUEL (backed by ONCORD) can address it right away, often in local NZ/AU business hours. The result is less downtime and frustration for the client. In short, by using ONCORD, FUEL can launch sites that not only go live with minimal hassle but also remain easy for clients to maintain day-to-day, with help always at hand when needed. This empowers small business owners to keep their websites fresh and problem-free, focusing on their business rather than wrestling with complex tech.

Conclusion: Fueling Your Success with the Right Platform

Choosing the right CMS can make a world of difference for your online business. Webflow and ONCORD are both strong platforms, but for many New Zealand and Australian SMEs – especially those who need integrated marketing and future scalability - ONCORD delivers exceptional value. Its all-in-one nature means you get a secure, fast website that ranks well in search and is backed by robust marketing tools, all under one roof.

At FUEL, we prefer ONCORD because we’ve seen how these benefits translate into real growth for our clients: easier site management, more effective digital marketing, and websites that truly fuel business success.

If you’re investing in website design in Auckland or anywhere in NZ/AU, it’s worth considering how an ONCORD-based solution could accelerate your results. From CRM-driven customer journeys to top-notch site performance, the advantages are clear. In the end, the best platform is the one that empowers you to connect with your customers and grow your business.

For many of our clients, ONCORD has been that platform - an “amazing CMS” that goes beyond just building pages to actually building relationships and revenue.

Choosing the right CMS can make all the difference to how your website performs and how easily you can manage it day to day.

With ONCORD, you will get:

  • A fully integrated platform combining CRM, website, and marketing tools
  • Built-in automations and customer journeys to nurture leads
  • Ecommerce and CRM working together seamlessly
  • Fast performance with Fuel’s 80%+ PageSpeed guarantee
  • Secure, reliable hosting with zero plugin maintenance
  • SEO-friendly architecture and clean, efficient code
  • Custom development flexibility for future growth
  • AI tools for effortless content and SEO optimisation
  • Unified customer insights to improve user experience
  • Simple editing and local support that keeps you in control

Together, these advantages make ONCORD a powerful, future-proof choice for SMEs and ecommerce businesses across NZ and Australia.

Ready to find the perfect platform for your business?

At FUEL, we’re not just here to build beautiful websites - we’re here to help you choose the right technology to power your growth. Whether it’s ONCORD or another CMS, we’ll guide you through what’s best for your business goals.

Talk to us today to discover how the right platform can transform your website into a smarter, faster, and more effective part of your business.

Let’s chat about your next website