Dardo
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Framer website design and development for startups

Framer website development means designing and publishing a marketing site in Framer, where the design and the live site are one project. Dardo builds Framer sites for startups and launch teams that need motion and fast iteration, and sets up the components, CMS and languages so your team keeps publishing after we hand over.

By Dardo editorial team8 min read
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When is Framer the right platform?

Framer fits a marketing site that changes as often as the product's story, edited by a designer or marketer rather than a developer. The canvas is the site, so an approved change can go live the same day.

How Framer sites do for real visitors, next to Webflow, Wix and WordPress, is in our website platform speed report, by country and device.

  • Early-stage startups that rewrite their positioning every few months
  • Product launches where pacing and motion carry the story
  • Teams whose designer, not an engineer, will own the site after launch

Framer is the wrong choice when the website is also the product. A logged-in app needs code you host: see Next.js development or web app development. If you want the source code in your own repository, Astro development gives you that with a CMS your editors can still use. Our Webflow development page explains when the other visual builder fits better.

What does Framer cost to run?

Framer sells a plan per site, billed to you separately from Dardo's fee, and the add-ons often matter more than the base plan. As of October 2026, Framer's pricing page lists Basic at USD 10 a month and Pro at USD 30 a month with yearly billing. The free plan publishes only on a Framer domain, and Framer recommends it for non-commercial use.

Against WordPress, the same bilingual site costs a different amount on each over three years; our Framer vs WordPress comparison has the numbers.

What does Framer cost to run?
LimitBasicPro
Pages30150, then USD 20 per 100 more, up to 700
CMS collections210, then USD 40 per 10 more, up to 40
CMS items1,0002,500, then USD 20 per 10,000 more, up to 40,000
Monthly bandwidth50 GB100 GB, then USD 40 per 100 GB, up to 2 TB
Redirects, staging and branchingNot includedIncluded
Extra languagesUSD 20 per locale, up to 20USD 20 per locale, up to 20
Edit seatsUp to 10Up to 10

The workspace owner and viewers who only comment are free. Each additional editor costs USD 20 a month; a content editor, who can update the CMS, translations and on-page text but not the design, costs USD 10. A/B testing (the Convert add-on) and Advanced Hosting, for custom headers and rewrites under one domain, cost extra. Our proposal estimates your first year of Framer fees, so the platform bill isn't a surprise after launch.

What Dardo builds in a Framer project

A Framer project with Dardo covers structure, design, build and the setup your team needs to keep editing. The proposal lists what's in scope and how each item is accepted.

  • Page structure and messaging for launch: home, product, pricing, about, careers and blog
  • A component library with a variant for each state, built on shared text and color styles
  • CMS collections (posts, changelog, customers, jobs), each with its own page template
  • Scroll, appear and page-transition effects, each with a reduced-motion version
  • React code components where Framer's built-in tools stop: calculators, live data, custom embeds
  • Forms sent to email, Google Sheets, a webhook or HubSpot, with an analytics event on each

We design in Figma when the brand system already lives there, otherwise directly in Framer. Motion beyond Framer's effects, such as WebGL scenes, is creative development; our scroll-driven product story for Hyper shows the pacing we aim for.

What we check before a Framer site goes live

Framer automates hosting, the sitemap and robots.txt; our launch checklist covers what it leaves to you: custom code, metadata and language review.

Framer pre-renders each page on its servers. Custom code that reads browser objects such as window during that step fails, and a component taken out of optimization isn't visible to search engines. We write code components in React 18-compatible code, as Framer requires, keep browser-only logic out of the server render and clear every optimization warning before launch.

We write titles, descriptions and structured data for every page and CMS template. Redirects need the Pro plan, so a site replacing an older one starts on Pro, with every old URL mapped. With the localization add-on, Framer sets lang and hreflang tags automatically, and they can't be edited in its interface; its AI translation is a first draft, and a fluent person writes or reviews each language, as on every multilingual website we plan.

Where Framer stops, and when to leave it

A Framer site runs only on Framer: Framer offers no HTML or source-code export, because published sites depend on its backend services, such as pre-rendering and image optimization. Choosing Framer means choosing its hosting, and anything that needs your own server, such as user accounts, a database or payment logic, runs elsewhere.

We keep leaving possible: the domain at your registrar, content in CMS collections rather than typed into layouts, form submissions in your own inbox or CRM. A move pays off for structural reasons, not visual ones:

  • The product and the site need to share code, logins or data
  • The CMS is heading past Pro's ceiling of 40,000 items or 40 collections
  • You need more than 20 languages, or different content in each market
  • Add-ons and editor seats cost more each month than hosting a site you own

If one applies, our guide to moving from Framer to Astro explains what a rebuild involves, and website migration is how we run one.

How a Framer project runs and what we need from you

Design starts with the home page and one inner page; once approved, the build turns them into components, CMS templates and breakpoints on a staging link you check on your own phone, and your team edits real content before launch.

We build in a Framer workspace you own, so the plan, domain and billing are yours from day one; moving a project between workspaces cancels its active plan. Framer gives its Pro Experts free edit access to client projects. Dardo isn't one, so our seat is a paid editor seat while we work, removed at handover unless you keep us on.

From you we need draft or final copy (or a website copywriting scope), brand files, DNS access, the inbox or CRM that receives forms, and one person who approves each stage.

How much does a Framer website cost with Dardo?

Dardo's fee follows the work: unique page templates, custom motion and code, CMS collections to model and fill, languages, and any site to migrate. A single campaign page is quicker to scope as a landing page; a SaaS site with pricing, integration and comparison pages fits our SaaS website design scope, built in Framer if you choose it.

Our inquiry form offers budget ranges from under USD 5,000 to over USD 60,000, and our pricing page lists the starting prices we publish. Each proposal shows Dardo's fee and the Framer plan and add-ons you'll pay Framer as separate lines.

Questions before you choose

Is Dardo a Framer Expert or partner?

No. Dardo isn't in Framer's Experts program and has no partner status with Framer. We build in Framer as one of several platforms, alongside Webflow and Astro, and recommend it only when it fits. Judge us by our published work and the written scope.

How much does it cost to build a Framer website?

Dardo's fee depends on unique templates, custom motion and code, CMS collections, languages and any migration, so we quote after seeing the brief. Framer's plan is separate and paid by you: as of October 2026, Basic is USD 10 and Pro USD 30 a month with yearly billing, plus add-ons for languages, editors and higher limits.

Can our team edit the Framer site without a developer?

Yes; that's the main reason to choose Framer. Content editors update CMS items, translations and on-page text; full editors can also change layouts and publish. Pages are built from components and styles so routine edits don't break the design, and the handover includes a short editing guide.

Can I export my Framer site and host it elsewhere?

No. Framer doesn't offer HTML export for self-hosting, because published sites rely on its backend services. Keeping your domain, content and form data in your own accounts makes a later move cheaper, but leaving Framer means rebuilding the site.

Is Framer good for SEO?

It covers the technical basics: an automatic sitemap and robots.txt, pre-rendered pages, and a title and description for every page and CMS template, with redirects on Pro. Rankings still depend on what the pages say and who links to them; keyword research and content planning belong to our SEO service.

Can you take over or redesign an existing Framer site?

Yes. We first review the project: components and styles, CMS collections, custom code and optimization warnings, redirects, languages, who owns the workspace and domain, and which seats are paid. The review tells you whether the site needs cleanup, new pages or a rebuild before any redesign is quoted.

From the blog

Sources & further reading

Sources behind this page, with further detail from the original publishers.

From a Framer brief to a written proposal

Tell us your pages, collections, languages and who will edit the site. We reply with the scope, Dardo's fee and the Framer plan you would need.