Makeswift
Love at first site
Visual-first website builder for marketers and developers. Design and publish modern frontends with a drag-and-drop editor or code, with real-time multiplayer editing. Includes version control, scheduled publishing, TypeScript APIs, and custom component support. Deploy to Vercel, Netlify, Docker.
Starter
Team
20
ready to use- Visual drag-and-drop builder
- Code editor support
- Multiplayer editing
- Real-time collaboration
- Custom layout controls
- Global styles
- Reusable sections
- Responsive design
- Mobile-first design
- Pixel-perfect control
- Version history
- Publish rollbacks
Makeswift at a glance
Overall Score
Makeswift, now owned by BigCommerce, is a headless visual page builder built specifically for React and Next.js codebases, designed to close the gap between engineering teams and marketers. Developers register real React components through a clean configuration API, and marketers then drag, drop, reorder, and style those exact components on a visual canvas, no code deploy required for routine changes.
What makes it structurally different: because it compiles directly into Next.js with server-side rendering and incremental static regeneration, sites keep strong Core Web Vitals and SEO performance, and developers keep full control over their own codebase, design tokens, and Git workflow the whole time.
Pros
- Plugs directly into an existing Next.js codebase with full support for TypeScript, App Router, SSR, and on-demand ISR
- Doesn't hijack the codebase, developers keep complete control over design tokens, component logic, and dependencies alongside their existing Git workflow
- Real-time multiplayer canvas lets multiple marketers, copywriters, and designers work on the same page simultaneously
- Produces clean, server-rendered HTML with genuinely strong Core Web Vitals, no proprietary runtime bloat weighing pages down
- Deep integration with BigCommerce Catalyst and headless storefront stacks for serious e-commerce merchandising needs
Cons
- Cannot be used out of the box by non-technical users, a developer has to configure the Next.js runtime and register components first
- Free and entry-level paid tiers cap monthly publishes, team seats, and locales
- Built exclusively for React and Next.js, no support for Vue, Nuxt, SvelteKit, or traditional PHP-based CMS setups
- Marketers can only adjust the layout properties and controls that engineers have explicitly exposed, real design freedom depends on developer setup
Makeswift solves a genuinely specific and common friction point: marketing teams stuck waiting on engineering just to update a landing page or test a variant. By letting developers register real React components once and then handing control to marketers through a visual canvas, it removes the deploy-for-every-change bottleneck without developers giving up ownership of their codebase, which is a real distinction from most no-code tools that take over the whole stack.
Best Templates from Makeswift
Explore stunning templates built with Makeswift.
