---
title: Building client websites with Framer
canonical: "https://elliotli.dev/blog/build-client-websites-with-framer/"
pubDate: "2026-10-16T00:00:00.000Z"
author: Elliot Li
description: "How freelancers and studios run client work on Framer in 2026: workspaces and seats, client handoff, the Expert program, pricing, and the limits to plan for."
tags: [framer, business, platform]
---

**Framer is built for client work, not just personal sites.** Workspaces take collaborators, projects transfer to clients, and the Expert program pays for migrations and handoffs. Here is how freelancers and studios actually run it.

**Disclosure:** I build and sell Framer templates, so yes — the starting-point advice below includes them. It is also genuinely how I would build a client site today.

## The model: who owns what

Framer bills **per site**, not per account. That single fact shapes everything:

- You build in a workspace. Sites live there until you hand them over.
- Each published site carries its own plan — Free, Basic ($10/month), or Pro ($30/month), billed yearly.
- At launch, you transfer the project. The client owns the site and its billing from then on.

That is a clean split: your workspace holds the work, the client holds the asset. The professional norm is that the client pays for their own site — and Framer's model makes that easy to do.

## Seats and collaborators

Framer's collaboration pricing is per person:

- **Viewers** — free. Clients can review and comment without costing anything.
- **Content editors** — $10/month. The right seat for a client's marketing person: they edit copy and CMS content, not layout.
- **Editors** — $20/month. Full design access.
- **Pro seats** — up to 10. Enterprise is unlimited.

One detail worth knowing: **Framer Experts get free editor access on client projects.** If you build client sites regularly, that alone is worth applying for the program.

## The client workflow

A repeatable process, end to end:

1. **Design and build in your workspace.** Use a template or components as the starting point — [customizing a Framer template](/blog/customize-framer-template/) is the fastest honest path to a polished site.
2. **Bring the client in as viewers** for review rounds. Free, and comments stay in context.
3. **Add a content editor seat** for whoever maintains the site after launch.
4. **Use staging on Pro** to test changes before they hit the live domain.
5. **Plan redirects** if the client already had a site — the manual redirect list is Pro-only, and it is the make-or-break feature of a migration.
6. **Transfer the project at launch.** The client takes over billing; you keep the relationship.

## The Expert program and Switch

Framer runs two programs aimed squarely at people who build for clients:

- **The Expert program** — free editor access on client projects, and up to 50% revenue from handoffs for approved Experts.
- **Switch** — up to 50K AI credits per approved site for migrating an existing company or client site onto Framer. Credits come with an expiry, so use them in the migration window.

If client work is your business, both programs change the economics in your favor. The [worth-it analysis](/blog/is-framer-worth-it/) does the math.

## The economics, briefly

Platform costs per client site:

- **Basic** — $10/month. Fine for a brochure site with light CMS needs.
- **Pro** — $30/month. The realistic floor for professional work: redirects, staging, 10 CMS collections.
- **Seats** — $10–$20/month when collaborators need access.

Against a project budget, this is a line item. Against Webflow's site plans plus workspace seats, Framer is usually cheaper per site. The bigger economics are elsewhere: launch speed, and the fact that Framer sites need no maintenance retainer.

## When Framer does not fit client work

Say no — or quote differently — when the client needs:

- **A store.** No native checkout. Shopify or Webflow.
- **Member areas or app logic.** Not what Framer is for.
- **Self-hosting or code ownership.** There is no export. Some procurement teams will care.
- **Heavy plugin workflows.** A WordPress shop with 40 plugins is not migrating for your convenience.

The full list is in [Framer limitations](/blog/framer-limitations/). Knowing it makes you credible, not less sellable.

## The bottom line

Framer's client-work story is complete in 2026: per-site billing, collaborator seats, clean handoffs, and programs that pay you to migrate and hand off. The workflow above is the one to standardize. The limits are real but narrow — and knowing them is what lets you say yes with confidence, and no without drama.