Has anybody built a listings directory with Webflow CMS? Like a City Guide, or Real Estate for sale?

I’d love to see if it’s possible. I really don’t want to use Wordpress.

Before you start on a CMS website, do consider the limitiations.

What–nobody? No reply, except a warning about Webflow’s CMS limitations? It looks like I’ll be better off with Wordpress. There are at least 50 WP directory themes, and literally 1000’s of WP-powered listings directories.

The Webflow CMS is still very young, features down the road should be able to accommodate what you are looking for (data imports or external data sources)

It would be possible. It just depends on how many listings would be in the directory.
3rd party widgets like swyft type would probably be used.

“Would” be possible; “should” be possible…but, basically right now, “Impossible”. I’m very disappointed. I really love Webflow’s ease of use, and I have waited for the “CMS” (?) to progress. Swiftype search – do you know how much it would cost to develop a custom Swiftype site search, one that doesn’t just give you a global dump of unfiltered results? That kind of faceted search is a simple plug-in in Wordpress.
I have real-world commercial pressure to produce a working directory site, one where serious advertising money is involved, not a vanity portfolio. Last Monday, I finally gave up and called a WP developer. Today, four days later, he’s shown me the first drafts, already populated with the content (565 business listings), and filter searchable. He’s using the third party “Divi” drag-and-drop theme for WP. , It’s nowhere near as flexible as Webflow, but I will have an acceptable site by tomorrow, and an attractive, stylish, and above all FUNCTIONING content site being indexed by Google by next Wednesday. I don’t like Wordpress, but I can’t afford to wait any longer. So goodbye and best wishes to Webflow. You are on the right path, I think.

@Jim_Dandy

  1. Can CMS support a site with a lot of dynamic content?

Yes. Our whole Help Center runs on our CMS. (http://help.webflow.com)

  1. Do you need to pay a lot of money for a custom Swiftype embed?

No. All you need to do is take the Swiftype embed code and place it into your site. This is what we have done for our Help Center

For more information on this, please refer to this article: Custom code in head and body tags | Webflow University

Hope this helps :smile:

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Hey @pixelgeek.
I was venting. For six months, I’ve been hoping that Webflow armed with a “CMS” would be a super-Weebly on steroids; or better still a replacement for Wordpress, with Webflow’s fantastic page designer/ database GUI. It already is 90% of both of these applications combined, and it will be 100% soon.

I did reach out to Swiftype two months ago, They were very responsive, and offered to refer devlopers to create custom searches with Swiftype. But they said that the “complex” search I wanted was not possible “out of the box”.

I loved your tutorials and site reconstructions on Youtube.

Hi @Jim_Dandy

Totally understand the stress when a deadline is fast approaching. So I didn’t take any of your words personally.

I just wanted to help try and calm you down and assure you that, when what I see so far in your previous posts, that your site would be doable in Webflow.

I bet that if you asked community members for help or searched this forum for relevant topics, you’ll find the answers :wink:

Also, thanks for the feedback on our tutorials and site reconstructions :smiley:
I wish you the best of luck on your project.

:heart:

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@Jim_Dandy
What do you want to know about a City Guide.

I too am very interested in seeing if the CMS can be implemented as a real estate listings engine. I’m not on a time crunch as of yet, but mostly likely within 3-6 months I will be in need of a solution for real estate. I also hate Wordpress. I hope to see some progress on this topic or a working example in time. Either way, Webflow is amazing.

You can start now if you want. It is possible to create a real estate type site.

Just start playing around with the dynamic collections and start adding in your home listings. :slight_smile:

I think I may fiddle with it as a side project in my free time. Will be a good learning experience, and who knows; possibly the answer.

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Yes! Learning is always rewarding. :slight_smile: