The Webflow Experts Program no longer exists under that name. On 14 August 2024 Webflow renamed it the Certified Partner Program and replaced its old "Professional" and "Enterprise" tiers with "Certified" and "Premium", ranked on a points system that resets every year (Webflow blog, 2024).
This guide explains what each badge means in October 2026, how a partner earns it, and where it stops being useful to a buyer. The sources are Webflow's own programme pages, rubric and University, plus our count of the partner directory. We hold no Webflow partner badge ourselves, and we say why near the end.
From Experts to Certified Partners: what changed in 2024
Webflow launched the Experts Program in 2017, and the label stuck. Marketplaces and agency sites still use it, which is why the search term outlived the programme.
The August 2024 announcement made three changes that still define what a badge means.
The name. Webflow said partners do more than Webflow work, so "Experts" undersold them.
The tiers. "Professional" and "Enterprise" were tiers based on the kind of Site plan a partner's clients bought. Webflow replaced them with Certified and Premium, which it said recognise "the overall business you contribute to the Webflow ecosystem". In plain terms, Premium rewards volume.
Points. Partners advance by earning points, mostly from the Site plans their clients buy. Points reset every year, and a status earned in one year applies through the next calendar year. A Premium badge therefore describes the last year or two of sales, not a permanent rank.
The same post added "distinctions" on top of a tier, starting with Enterprise, and introduced Global Alliances, naming PwC, Slalom and BBDO as members.
The three tiers today, and how a partner gets each
Webflow's current Partner Program page lists three tiers. Anyone building client sites can join the first one in minutes. The second needs a review. The third is earned by volume.
| Tier | How a partner gets it | Commission on Site plans and add-ons | Enterprise plan commission | Directory listing |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Foundations | Sign up; no review | 10% for 12 months | 10% of first-year contract value | No |
| Certified | Paid Workspace plan, assessment, three new client sites, portfolio review | 20% for 12 months | 10% of first-year contract value | Yes |
| Premium | Advance from Certified by delivering client projects (points) | 20% for 12 months | 10% of first-year contract value | Yes, with preferential placement and matching |
Source: Webflow, Become a Webflow Certified Partner, read 2026-10-28; Webflow blog, Introducing Webflow's Certified Partner Program, 2024-08-14
Foundations is the entry tier. It gives commission and community access but no directory profile, so a buyer browsing Webflow's site never sees it.
Certified is the first tier a client can see. Webflow lists four requirements: an active Freelancer or Agency Workspace plan, a passed pre-qualification assessment, three new client sites built in Webflow after joining Foundations, and a portfolio of three client sites built from scratch that meets the site grading rubric. Webflow says most rejections come from an inactive Workspace plan or sites that miss its quality standards.
Premium adds a dedicated partner manager and sales engineering support. Webflow does not publish the points threshold. Its page says only that Certified partners "advance by delivering client projects in Webflow".
Badges on top of tiers: Enterprise and Global Alliances
The Enterprise distinction. This is the badge most often confused with the old Enterprise tier. Webflow's distinction document says any partner at the Certified tier is eligible, and must complete Enterprise training sessions and "successfully refer and close a minimum of 2 Webflow enterprise clients". It also says these are minimums and that more may apply. The directory filter describes Enterprise partners as those "who specialize in complex builds for large customers".
The evidence behind it is commercial. It shows a partner has been through Webflow's Enterprise sales process and procurement. It is not a technical audit of how they handle localisation, SSO or a very large CMS.
Global Alliances. This is a separate, invite-only programme for consultancies that serve the largest brands, with a strategic partner manager, a solutions engineer and co-selling. There is no self-serve route in.
Webflow certification is a different thing
"Webflow expert certification" is the second phrase buyers search for, and it refers to something else. Webflow University runs individual certification exams. They are taken by a person, not an agency, and Webflow is explicit that they "do not automatically lead to becoming a Certified Partner or Premium Partner".
| Exam | Aimed at | Format | Price | Valid for | Largest topic weighting |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Webflow Practitioner | Beginners and in-house site managers | 50 multiple-choice questions, 90 minutes, AI-proctored | $100 | Two years | Build and design, 33% |
| Webflow Visual Developer | Experienced builders who ship production sites | 50 multiple-choice questions, 90 minutes, AI-proctored | $100 | Two years | Build and design, 38% |
Source: Webflow University, certification pages for each exam, read 2026-10-28
Retakes are allowed after 24 hours, but each attempt costs the full fee.
Webflow's March 2026 blog post pitches the Visual Developer exam at people who "design the system others work inside". A multiple-choice exam can test whether someone knows how. It cannot test whether they do it on a deadline.
Contra's Webflow Expert badge. Contra still uses the old name. Its badge is added after Webflow reviews the profile through the Certified Partner Program, so it points to the same check as the directory.
What the portfolio review actually checks
The most informative badge is Certified, because it is the only one that involves a human looking at real client work. Webflow publishes the rubric it grades against, which lets a buyer see the bar.
To pass, an applicant must score "Good" in Webflow client experience, design quality and layout and structure, and "Satisfactory" in site optimisation and accessibility. Some of the line items are concrete:
- Live client sites that are not built on templates.
- Logical class names such as "container-large" rather than "Div Block 3", with combo classes no more than two levels deep.
- Fully responsive layouts with no bugs at any screen size, ideally built with fluid units or rem.
- One H1 per page, page settings filled in, the webflow.io subdomain kept out of the index, and minified CSS and JavaScript.
- Readable contrast, useful alt text and meaningful button and link names.
That is a sensible floor, set once, on three sites the applicant chose. Nobody re-grades the fortieth site. The rubric's "Satisfactory" level for accessibility and performance asks for no glaring issues, which is well below what a B2B marketing team should accept on launch day.
What the badges do not tell you
Who will build your site. A badge belongs to the agency, and the developer on your project may have joined last month. Ask who is doing the work.
Whether the partner has room. In our count of the directory on 20 October 2026, 59% of profiles showed an "Accepting new projects" badge. The rest either had it switched off or showed nothing. The full numbers are in our Webflow agency statistics for 2026.
Where a partner sits in the list. The directory sorts Premium partners first. In the same count, the first 463 profiles were all Premium, so a Certified partner does not appear until roughly page 47 unless the buyer filters. Placement reflects tier, and tier reflects Site plan sales.
Whose incentive the plan serves. Every partner tier earns commission on the Site plans its clients buy, 10% or 20% for the first year. Webflow discloses this openly, and it is normal. It does mean your contract should say whose Workspace holds and bills the plan. Our guide to Webflow white-label agency agreements covers the clause.
Price. The directory shows a self-declared "starting at" figure. Our count put the median at $5,000 across all profiles and $10,000 for partners with the Enterprise distinction. For what full builds cost, see how Webflow agencies price builds.
Why we hold no badge, and why it is not the deciding factor
We are a Webflow and Next.js agency, and we are not in Webflow's partner directory. Most of our Webflow work is white-label: we have built more than 20 Webflow sites in twelve months as the development partner behind Web Tonic, at two to three weeks per site, including a CMS of over 1,200 items. Those sites sit in our client's Workspace and are sold under our client's name. The Site plans, and the points they would earn, are not ours.
A tier built on Site plan sales rewards the agency that owns the client relationship, which in white-label work is our client. The Certified review would also ask us to submit three client sites as our own portfolio, and white-label agreements usually limit what we can show publicly.
We are biased here, so take this with that in mind. A badge is a fair first filter when you have no other information. It is not evidence about the next project. The better evidence is the same for badged and unbadged partners: a named client you can call, a CMS document and QA record from a past build, and a written scope with a change-request rate. Our guide to briefing a Webflow agency shows what to send so the answers are comparable.
What this means for choosing a Webflow partner
Use the badges for what they measure. Certified means a person at Webflow once checked three of the partner's sites against a published rubric. Premium means the partner sold a lot of Site plans recently. Enterprise means at least two closed Webflow Enterprise deals and a training course. An individual certification means one person passed a 50-question exam in the last two years.
For a marketing site, a Certified partner with relevant work and free capacity is a sound shortlist. For an Enterprise contract, the Enterprise distinction saves you from teaching a partner Webflow's procurement process. For white-label or overflow work, the badge matters least, because the partner's work will carry your name and your QA. Judge it on a paid first project instead.
If you are an agency weighing a build partner without a badge, our white-label service page explains how we scope it.
