Webflow terms, explained simply

A plain-English A-to-Z glossary of Webflow terminology — every term you might encounter as a Webflow site owner.

New to Webflow — or just confused by some terminology? This glossary explains every common Webflow term in plain language.

Quick summary

This is a reference glossary. Look up any term that's confused you. Terms are in alphabetical order.

Asset

A file uploaded to your Webflow site: images, documents such as PDFs, audio files, and Lottie or Rive animation files. Assets are stored in the Assets panel.

Asset Manager

The old name for the Assets panel, where all the files uploaded to your site are stored. You'll find it in the left toolbar when you open your site in Webflow.

Webflow saves your changes automatically, but saving doesn't make them live. Changes go live when someone publishes. One exception is scheduling: a CMS item that has never been published can be scheduled to go live at a set date and time (not on the Starter or Basic Site plans).

Backup

A saved restore point for your site. Webflow creates backups automatically as you work, and you can also save one yourself. If something goes wrong, a site manager can restore an earlier backup. See Backups & version history.

Badge

In Webflow, this usually means the "Made in Webflow" badge, which appears by default in the bottom right corner of published sites. You can hide it with a paid Site plan, or with a Growth, Agency, or Enterprise Workspace plan. (This documentation site also uses small badges of its own.)

Bandwidth

The total amount of data transferred when visitors load your site. Each Webflow Site plan has its own bandwidth limit.

Canvas

The largest area of the Webflow screen, where you see the page you're working on and can select and edit what's on it.

CDN (Content Delivery Network)

A network of servers around the world that delivers your site content from a server close to each visitor, which helps pages load faster. Webflow sites are delivered through Cloudflare's CDN.

Class

A reusable set of styles in the Designer. When Chykalophia applies a class to an element, all elements with that class share the same styles. This is how design consistency is maintained across a site.

CMS (Content Management System)

Webflow's built-in system for managing dynamic content like blog posts, team members, and portfolio items. See The Webflow CMS, explained.

CMS Collection

A content type in the CMS (e.g., "Blog Posts" or "Team Members"). Each Collection has a defined set of fields. See CMS collections explained.

CMS item

One entry within a Collection. For example, a single blog post is a CMS item in the Blog Posts Collection.

Collaborator

An older word for someone invited to edit a site's content in Webflow's legacy Editor, which was retired on August 4, 2026. Clients now edit inside Webflow using a seat: a client seat (in freelancer and agency Workspaces) or a limited seat. Legacy Editor users that Webflow moved to one of these seats were given the Content editor role.

Collection

See CMS Collection.

Collection list

A design element that displays multiple CMS items on a page (e.g., a list of blog post cards or team member thumbnails).

Collection page

The template page that displays one CMS item at a time. Every blog post uses the same Collection page template.

Custom domain

Your branded domain name (e.g., yourbusiness.com), as opposed to the default Webflow subdomain.

Dashboard

The main Webflow screen you see when you log in at webflow.com. It shows the sites in your Workspace. If you belong to more than one Workspace, each one has its own Dashboard.

Designer

Webflow's professional visual tool for building and styling sites, used by designers and developers. Webflow's help articles now often just say "Webflow" or "design mode", but many still call it the Designer. See The Webflow Designer, explained.

DNS (Domain Name System)

The system that translates your domain name into the server address where your site is hosted. See What is DNS?.

Draft

A status for CMS items or pages that aren't ready to go live. A draft page or item isn't published when you publish the site. If you edit a CMS item that's already live, your edits are saved as a draft, and the live version stays as it was until you publish them.

Dynamic

Content that changes based on CMS data. For example, a blog post page that automatically shows the correct title, date, and body for each post is dynamic.

Editor

Webflow's old content editing tool for clients, now called the legacy Editor. Webflow retired it on August 4, 2026. Clients now edit inside Webflow with the Content editor role, which Webflow calls edit mode. That lets you change text, images, and CMS items, but not the design. See Edit mode vs design mode.

Ecommerce

Webflow's built-in online store functionality. Available on Ecommerce site plans. See Webflow Ecommerce (overview).

Element

Any individual building block in Webflow: a heading, paragraph, image, button, section, etc.

Field

One piece of data within a CMS Collection. For example, "Title," "Body," and "Featured Image" are fields in a Blog Posts Collection.

Form

A built-in Webflow element that collects visitor data (name, email, message, etc.). By default, a new form stores each submission in Webflow and sends an email notification. A form can also send submissions to other places, such as a connected app.

Form submission

One completed form entry from a visitor. If the form sends submissions to Webflow, you'll find them in Site settings > Forms.

Global color

Not a current Webflow term. Named colors that are reused across a site are now color variables (older sites called them swatches). Changing a color variable updates it everywhere it's used. Managed by Chykalophia in the Designer.

Global font

Not a current Webflow term. Fonts that are reused across a site can be stored as font variables. See Variable.

Hosting

The service that keeps your website accessible on the internet. Webflow provides hosting as part of its site plans. See Webflow hosting explained.

HTTPS

The secure version of the HTTP web protocol, shown by the padlock icon in your browser. Webflow hosting includes SSL, which makes HTTPS work, and SSL is switched on by default for sites created after November 14, 2018.

Interaction

An animation or behavior triggered by user action (scroll, hover, click). Built in Webflow's Interactions panel, where the current version is called Interactions with GSAP. See Animations & interactions (overview).

Localization

Adapting a site for other languages or regions. Webflow's feature for this is Webflow Localize, a paid add-on. See Multi-language sites (overview).

Meta description

A short description of a page's content, which typically appears below the title in search results. Set per-page in SEO settings. See SEO settings in Webflow.

Multi-reference field

A CMS field that links one item to multiple other CMS items.

Navigator

A panel in the Designer showing the hierarchical structure of all elements on the current page. Useful for finding and selecting nested elements.

Open Graph

Metadata that controls how your page appears when shared on social media (Facebook, LinkedIn, etc.). Includes a title, description, and preview image.

Page

A single URL destination on your site. Pages can be static (fixed design) or dynamic (CMS Collection pages).

Page settings

Configuration for a specific page: SEO title, meta description, Open Graph settings, and URL slug.

Plan

The subscription tier that controls what features and limits you get in Webflow. There are two kinds: Site plans (for each site) and Workspace plans (for your Workspace). See Webflow plans & billing explained.

Project

The old Webflow word for a site. Webflow now says "site" and "Site settings" (instead of "project" and "Project Settings").

Publish

The action of pushing your saved changes live to the website. See How publishing works in Webflow.

Reference field

A CMS field that links one item to another single CMS item (e.g., a blog post referencing its author).

Rich text

A content field that supports formatted text (bold, italic, headings, links, lists). Used for long-form content like blog post bodies.

Section

A full-width horizontal block in Webflow's page layout. Pages are built by stacking sections vertically.

Site plan

The subscription that enables hosting for a specific Webflow site. Required for a site to be accessible on a custom domain.

Slug

The URL-friendly part of a page or CMS item address. Example: for a blog post at /blog/my-post-title, the slug is my-post-title.

SSL certificate

A security certificate that enables HTTPS. Webflow hosting includes SSL certificates and renews them automatically, as long as your domain keeps pointing to Webflow.

Staging

The .webflow.io subdomain environment for testing changes before they go live on your custom domain. See Staging vs the live site.

Symbol

An older name you may still see for a reusable design element. Webflow now calls these components. To change every copy of a component at once, you edit the main component.

Template

A pre-built starting point for a site design. Webflow offers ready-made templates through its Marketplace. Chykalophia builds custom designs rather than using templates.

Two-factor authentication (2FA)

A security feature that requires a second confirmation step when logging in. Available in Webflow account settings.

URL slug

See Slug.

Variable

A stored style value, such as a color, size, or font, that can be reused across the site design. Changing a variable updates it everywhere it's used.

Version history

Webflow calls this backups: restore points that Webflow creates automatically as you work, plus any you save yourself. Use them to restore an earlier version of your site. See Backups & version history.

Webflow.io subdomain

The free staging URL every Webflow site gets (e.g., yoursite.webflow.io). Used for testing and previewing.

Not the word Webflow uses for its own building blocks. Reusable blocks in Webflow are called components. You may see "widget" used for third-party add-ons, such as social media widgets embedded on a page.

Workspace

The top-level account container in Webflow. Every Webflow site lives inside a Workspace, and a Workspace can contain multiple sites. Chykalophia has its own Workspace; your site may be hosted within ours or within your own.

Need a hand?

If you're stuck, email support@chykalophia.com and we'll help. Include your website address and a screenshot if you can.

Webflow terms, explained simply

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