I’m Kayla. I build small sites for real people—bakeries, teachers, one scrappy SaaS, and my cousin’s hair salon. I care about how a site feels. The little fades, slides, and scroll moves. You know what? Those tiny moves tell a story. They can make a cheap site feel rich. Or make a fancy brand look clunky. I break down exactly how transition polish (or lack of it) shifts a brand’s perceived value in this extended case study.
So I spent the last few months building the same kind of pages across a few builders. I tried Webflow, Framer, Squarespace, Wix (Wix Studio too), WordPress with Elementor (plus a tiny bit of code), and Shopify. I’ll share the real bumps and wins. With real examples I built myself. If you're mainly interested in straight-up drag-and-drop workflows, check out my honest take after building real client sites in the most popular WYSIWYG website builders.
And if you need the short of it: Webflow gave me the most control. Framer felt the smoothest out of the box. Squarespace looked clean with little work. Wix was fun but heavy. WordPress let me hack things. Shopify kept it safe.
Let me explain. If you want to see how these builders stack up across dozens of other criteria, the detailed comparisons at WebsiteBuilderAwards.net are a great companion read.
My Simple Rules For “Good” Transitions
I judged by five things:
- Smooth motion (no jitter, no weird jumps)
- Load speed on a basic phone (I test on my old Moto G)
- Easy control (can I set easing, delay, stagger?)
- Time to build (because clients have rent to pay)
- Price that makes sense
I also check for “prefers-reduced-motion.” If someone wants less motion, the site should chill.
My Top Pick: Webflow (Best Control, Great Look)
I built a portfolio for a local wedding photographer. She wanted soft fades, gentle image reveals, and a tiny page wipe between pages.
What I used:
- Webflow Interactions (the little lightning bolt tab)
- Page load fade-in on the hero (300ms, ease-in-out)
- Scroll reveal on gallery rows (staggered by 100ms)
- A Lottie file for a heart outline that drew itself while scrolling
Real talk: the first draft lagged on my Moto G. The blur filter on big images was the problem. I cut the blur, resized images, and switched some easing to “ease-out.” Boom—smooth.
What I liked:
- Control over timing and easing for each element
- True page-to-page transitions with a basic preloader
- “Reduce motion” toggle with one style switch
What bugged me:
- Takes time to learn. I made my preloader loop by mistake once and wanted to cry at 1 a.m.
- If you stack effects, it can get heavy fast
Verdict: If motion is part of your brand, this is the one.
If you want to dig deeper, Webflow offers an official Interactions & Animations course that walks through these techniques step-by-step.
Runner-Up: Framer (Fastest Page Transitions, Very Clean)
I thought Framer would win. It didn’t. Well, not for me. But it’s close.
I used Framer for a SaaS landing. I set page transitions to a simple fade/slide combo. It felt like butter. No hiccups. Framer’s CDN made it snappy, even on mobile data.
What I used:
- Built-in page transitions (fade, slide)
- Smart layout so things animate between pages
- A few micro-moves on buttons (hover scale 1.03)
What I liked:
- Looks pro from the start
- Page swaps feel native, not hacky
- Quick to ship—client saw a draft the same day
What bugged me:
- Less fine control than Webflow for complex scroll stories
- You can add custom code, but it’s not the main thing
Verdict: If you want slick page transitions without stress, pick Framer.
Squarespace (Clean Fades With Almost No Work)
I built a site for Mia, a piano teacher. She wanted calm and simple. I used Squarespace 7.1 with their section animations set to subtle fade-ins. No true page swap tricks here without code, but the site still felt smooth.
What I used:
- Section fade and up motion
- Gentle hover on buttons
- Careful spacing so the page breathes
What I liked:
- Hard to mess up
- Very fast build time
- Nice on slower phones
What bugged me:
- No rich page transitions built in
- Can’t fine-tune easing the way I want
Verdict: Great for simple motion and a calm feel. If you need fancy transitions, not the one.
Wix + Wix Studio (Fun Effects, Can Get Heavy)
I made my cousin’s salon site in Wix. Parallax on the hero. Images sliding in from the sides. It looked fun. But I had to rein it in.
What I used:
- Built-in page transition (basic fade)
- Scroll effects on cards (slide and reveal)
- Studio gave me a bit more layout control
What I liked:
- Easy to make it pop
- Clients love seeing things move as you scroll
What bugged me:
- Can feel busy fast
- Some effects stutter on lower-end phones
- You need to compress images like your life depends on it
Verdict: Good for lively sites. Keep it light. Use fewer effects than you think.
WordPress + Elementor (+ Swup) For Tinkerers
This one’s for folks who like to tinker. I built a small art print shop with Elementor. Motion Effects handled the scroll reveals. For page transitions, I used Swup (a page transition library). I dropped it in with a tiny script and set a soft fade between pages.
What I used:
- Elementor Motion Effects (fade, float, and stagger)
- Swup for page swaps (200ms fade)
- A “prefers-reduced-motion” media query
What I liked:
- Total freedom if you know a bit of code
- You can use GSAP too if you want pro-level motion
What bugged me:
- More moving parts (plugins, updates, caching)
- Easy to break things if you change themes
Verdict: Best if you like control and don’t mind getting your hands dirty. I also kicked the tires on an offline option, WYSIWYG Web Builder 12 Portable, and wrote about building two live sites with it in this field report.
Shopify (Safe, Subtle Motion For Stores)
I set up a small merch store with the Dawn theme. The cart felt crisp. I added gentle fades on modals and hover states with simple CSS. I tried a page loader once, but I pulled it. It slowed checkout, and that’s a no.
What I used:
- Theme animations (modals and drawers)
- CSS transitions for hover states
What I liked:
- Checkout stays fast
- Motion supports sales, not the other way around
What bugged me:
- Page transitions are tricky without code and can hurt speed
- Apps can pile on scripts
Verdict: Keep it simple. Motion should never block a sale.
Bonus Mentions I Actually Used
- Readymag: Bright, artsy, fun motion. I built a one-page zine site and it felt like a poster that moves.
- Semplice (WordPress): Portfolio-grade page transitions. Looks great for artists. More setup time.
- Octane: If you’re curious how a pure speed-focused builder handles motion, I built three full sites and captured every pro and con in this Octane report.
- Voog: A week-long role-play as a small studio inside Voog taught me a lot about its strengths and quirks—the full diary is here.
While we’re on niche use-cases, I recently helped an independent content creator in the adult space. She wanted transitions as smooth as silk but also needed a trustworthy search portal to send traffic that wouldn't tank load times. I integrated a simple outbound button to the FuckLocal Adult Search so her audience could browse verified local adult listings quickly and safely, all without leaving the fast, polished experience of the site.
For creators who specifically cater to audiences in Northern Kentucky, I pointed the same client to the Erlanger page on SkipTheGames—Skip the Games Erlanger—because a quick browse there shows how a geo-focused directory can keep thumbnails, contact buttons, and disclaimers in a lean, mobile-first layout that still loads almost instantly, offering great inspiration for anyone building high-traffic listing interfaces.
A Quick Story About Testing
I built a small coffee roaster site in Webflow with a