Framer

Framer is a web design platform that combines the fidelity of production-ready web development with the accessibility of a visual design tool. Used by designers and developers to create websites, prototypes, and interactive interfaces, Framer enables teams to ship real websites directly from the design tool without the traditional handoff process between design and engineering.

The Framer canvas is a visual design environment where layouts are built using a combination of familiar design tool interactions and real web technology. Elements on the canvas are real HTML and CSS, meaning that the output is not a simulation of a website but an actual web application. This alignment between the design tool and the output format eliminates the common discrepancy between design mockups and built implementations.

The layout system in Framer uses CSS Flexbox and Grid as its foundation, exposed through visual controls for direction, alignment, wrapping, and gap. Stack layers provide an easy way to arrange elements in rows and columns without manually configuring flex properties. Auto-layout features adapt components to different content sizes and screen widths automatically.

React component support is one of Framer's most powerful features for teams with development resources. Custom React components can be imported into Framer projects and used directly on the canvas alongside visually created elements. These components retain their interactive behavior, receive props from the canvas, and integrate with Framer's animation and interaction system. This capability enables using production component libraries like Radix UI, shadcn, and custom design systems in Framer designs.

Framer Motion, Framer's open source React animation library, powers the animation capabilities in Framer. Layout animations, spring physics, scroll-based animations, gesture-driven interactions, and page transitions are all configurable through the visual interactions panel without writing JavaScript.

The CMS in Framer provides structured content management for dynamic pages. Content collections define the schema for repeating content types such as blog posts, team members, and portfolio items. Collection pages template the layout for each content item, and the resulting pages are generated statically at publish time for optimal performance.

Framer's integrated hosting delivers sites through a global CDN with automatic SSL, custom domains, and optimized asset delivery.