🤔 Frequently Asked Questions

In this article, we aim to answer questions we get most often. If there's anything we haven't covered that you'd like answered, don't hesitate to start a conversation in the communityopen in new window.

Frontend

Can WeWeb build my backend?

No. WeWeb only handles your frontend, which consists of HTML, CSS & Javascript as a hosted platform. You can link your WeWeb frontend to the backend of your choice, including but not limited to Airtable, Xano, Supabase, and any service that connects through REST or GraphQL APIs.

Does WeWeb work with other no-code backend tools?

Absolutely. We built WeWeb with the idea that it would seamlessly integrate with other popular and up and coming no-code tools. We regularly add new native integrations with other tools.

Don't hesitate to upvote or suggest new integrationsopen in new window.

Scaling & Performance

What are WeWeb's limits?

WeWeb allows you to design pixel-perfect UIs and add complex frontend logic. You can program visually while we write clean standard code under the hood. Therefore, anything you can do in a regular programming language (PHP, Javascript, etc.) you can do in WeWeb.

While we provide many features out of the box to help you build faster, you can also add custom code and import your own Vue.js components.

Can I scale my frontend with WeWeb?

Yes. With WeWeb you don’t need a DevOps because we handle all the complexity for you. When you publish your project, we automatically:

build a standard Vue.js app using CodeBuild,
pre-render static pages, and
send the app to AWS cloudfront CDN.

For every project, we provide a stable, scalable environment on top of AWS (S3 and CloudFront).

What if I need more capacity outside my plan?

We've structured our Scale plan to be optimized for the products we see most often. However, should you need more capacity outside of this plan, whether it be file storage, projects, team seats or custom development, you can contact salesopen in new window.

Data ownership, code export, and self-hosting

Who owns my data?

You own your data. This also include any data that your users might upload unless your agreement with them specifies otherwise.

Can I export my app and host it on-premise?

Yes! You can export and self-host the code of projects on a yearly subscription plan.

Can I see the code that my WeWeb frontend is being hosted on?

Yes, you can see the code generated in your console and export the code of projects on a yearly subscription plan. However, you won’t be able to access the code of your project in your editor and live edit it.

How and where is WeWeb hosted?

All our infrastructure runs on AWS, in Northern Virginia. Every project built with WeWeb is deployed on AWS Cloudfront (CDN).

Can I import my HTML & CSS to WeWeb?

You can add custom code at project, page, and element level in WeWeb. You can also import custom Vue.js components in your projects, directly from your Github account. However, you will not be able to import a full web-app into WeWeb from code or other no-code tools.

Can I migrate my frontend from another FaaS (Frontend as a Service) provider?

We currently do not have a way to import or migrate a frontend from another provider. This is largely because the infrastructure and format can drastically differ.

API

Can I make an external API request in WeWeb?

Yes. You can access and process an external API endpoint with WeWeb. You'll need to add the REST API plugin and either create a data collection (to get data) or a workflow (to interact with that data).

How do I schedule a recurring API request?

It is not possible to schedule recurring API requests in WeWeb. Background Tasks are typically tasks you would run in your backend, not in your frontend.

Marketplace

Will the Marketplace have templates that I can use to start my frontend with?

Yes, we are very excited to begin releasing templates for our users to use for their projects. We have many useful and exciting templates on our roadmap. We are also planning to open the Marketplace to our users so that they can build their own templates and offer them to other users.

Can I develop an extension or template and sell it on the WeWeb Marketplace?

Very soon! A handful of users are alpha testing the Marketplace and have started developing and selling extensions and templates to other users.

Pricing

How much will WeWeb cost and how do I upgrade?

Pricing depends on which plan you choose. For detailed information on the cost of each plan and what is included, please visit https://weweb.io/pricingopen in new window. In order to upgrade, please visit the Billing page in your WeWeb dashboard and select "Upgrade"

What is the Basic & Advanced Roles & Permissions?

The Basic Roles & Permissions means that every authenticated user will have access to the same pages and app functionalities. The Advanced Roles & Permissions means that you can have different user groups with different permissions, so you could have an Admin role separate from Premium roles for example.

Account

Can I put a hold on or pause my account?

If you need to put a hold on things by canceling your subscription and wish to come back later, WeWeb can preserve your data for up to 90 days from the end of your subscription. You must contact support to do so. After you cancel, you will not be able to access your workspace. When you are ready to come back, you must contact support again and re-initiate payment on your subscription to access your workspace. After the 90 day grace period your data and workspace could be lost and you may have to start over from scratch.

Can I get a refund on my paid plan?

WeWeb does not allow refunds of any kind on its monthly paid plans. You can choose to cancel your subscription at any time from the Billing page.

Compliance

Yes. WeWeb and its underlying infrastructure provider (AWS) provide the necessary tools and safeguards to support GDPR compliance.

However, it is crucial to recognize that a significant portion of the responsibility lies with the application itself. By adhering to the key GDPR requirementsopen in new window and fulfilling their respective obligations, application builders can create robust and privacy-conscious solutions using a tool like WeWeb.

Can I satisfy HIPAA Compliance while using WeWeb as my frontend?

Yes. If you use a HIPAA-compliant backend and call it through our REST API plugin, in dynamic mode, your data will not transit through our product, making the whole project HIPAA compliant.

Will my data transit through your infrastructure?

It depends on the Data Source and Collection Mode you choose.

When using data source plugins in dynamic mode, the data never goes through our servers, except if you explicitly choose to make a server-side request or in the case of the Airtable plugin. This is because of the way Airtable handles API keys and manages authorizations.

If you use data source plugins in static mode, then we will pre-render static pages with your data and deploy them on AWS cloudfront CDN. In that configuration your data will be hosted on our infrastructure.

SEO

How does WeWeb compare to other tools for SEO?

It depends on the tool! Historically, pre-rendered content consistently ranked higher than pages without pre-rendering as search engines crawlers that were built to look at static content dismissed what appeared to be blank pages at first glance.

With that in mind, static website builders like Wordpress and Webflow have an edge compared to tools like WeWeb, Bubble, and others that mostly generate dynamic content in JS (WeWeb does offer the option to pre-render static pages but it's not its main purpose).

However, in the past few years, search engines have largely evolved to better handle JavaScript content as more and more websites are built with JS frameworks like React or Vue.

Pre-rendered content may still beat pages without pre-rendering in the sense that a page could rank faster (on first bot visit), but best-in-class search engine bots now know to come back quickly (in a matter of days) for a second visit to parse the JS content that was not rendered on the initial visit.

Here are Google’s thoughts on the topicopen in new window:

Google on dynamic content

When should I choose another tool instead of WeWeb?

WeWeb pre-renders the static content of your web-apps, i.e. the content that is hard-coded in your app or bound to a static collection. This helps with SEO but tools that are specialized in SEO may still outperform WeWeb.

If SEO is a primary concern, we recommend you use a specialized tool like Webflow or Vuepress. This is what we do for our own SEO-focused projects like our marketing website or user docs.

WeWeb really shines when user interactivity and applicative features are your primary concern. That’s why we built our academy, marketplace, public roadmap, and many internal tools in WeWeb.

We know users would love to have only one tool to build all of their frontends but we’re not quite there yet. We’re working on it though!

Does that mean WeWeb is not suited for large marketplaces?

No, on the contrary!

If you are looking to build a marketplace with millions of dynamic records that need to rank well on search engines, WeWeb could still be the right solution for you because:

most SEO-focused tools can't handle that many records very well,
whereas in WeWeb, you can integrate seemlessly with the data sources of your choice, and
build a great user experience with dynamic data.

And as we mentioned above, best-in-class search engines like Google have systems in place to reference dynamic content properly.

What can I do to help my WeWeb pages rank well in search engines?

There are many things you can do on your WeWeb apps that will improve its Lighthouse scores and, most importantly, the user’s experience (both of which influence SEO rankings).

Follow SEO best practices when building:

add titles & metadata to all your pages
add alt text on all your images
use headings for titles
use elements with the correct HTML tags (e.g. buttons, select, etc.)

Don’t load too much data on the page:

compress images
keep your pages short and simple
avoid superfluous nested containers
add backend filters on big sets of data
fetch collections only when you need them
use multi-page sections to avoid reloading data the user has already loaded