makerhandle vs Framer

What Framer does well

Framer is one of the best tools for designing and publishing a custom website without writing code. You get a full canvas, animations, a CMS and templates from a large community. Designers love it, and the results can look stunning.

Framer is priced per site. A free site lives on a Framer subdomain; using your own domain needs a paid site plan. Framer's pricing page lists the Basic plan, which includes a custom domain, at $10 a month. Check framer.com for current pricing.

Designing vs filling in

With Framer you make every layout decision: grids, breakpoints, type, spacing. That freedom is the product, and it also takes time, both to build and to keep current.

makerhandle has seven templates built for showing projects: Stack, Showcase, Bento, Minimal, Spotlight, Terminal and Studio. You fill in a bio and projects, and the layout works on every screen. Most pages are done in about two minutes, and updating a project is a single form.

Maker features built in

makerhandle includes things a Framer site would need integrations for:

• verified revenue from Stripe or Shopify, with a check mark and history charts
• project status: Active, Building, Acquired, On hold, Discontinued
• cookie-free analytics with sources, UTM campaigns, devices and project clicks
• an email subscribe box with double opt-in
• a public leaderboard

Which should you pick?

Pick Framer if you are a designer and the site itself is part of your portfolio, or you need many pages and custom interactions.

Pick makerhandle if you want a page that shows your products well with almost no upkeep. Pro is $20 a year with a custom domain included. Designers who use Framer for client sites often use makerhandle as their bio link. See makerhandle for designers.