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What is Silex

Silex is a free and open-source visual website builder. You design websites visually in the editor, Silex outputs clean HTML and CSS, and your sites can be published anywhere.

Silex is built for designers and makers who want real, transferable web skills — not vendor lock-in. Silex is a visual layer on top of HTML/CSS code and static sites (JAMStack). You use real web design concepts; if you leave Silex tomorrow, what you've learned will be useful outside of Silex.

Three things make Silex different from commercial builders like Webflow or Wix:

Open-source and free

Silex is entirely free to use. The code is open-source on GitHub, licensed under the GNU Affero General Public License. You can fork it, modify it, self-host it, or redistribute it. There's no paywall, no premium tier, no "pro features locked behind a subscription." If you want to learn how the editor works or extend it with custom plugins, you can. The community owns it.

Real CSS and HTML — no lock-in

Webflow and Wix keep you in their ecosystem. If you want to move your site elsewhere, you're stuck exporting to some format and rebuilding from scratch. Silex is different. Every website you design in Silex outputs valid, semantic HTML and CSS. You can take that code, move it to any hosting platform, and keep maintaining it with standard web tools. Your designer friends, a freelance developer, or your own code editor — anyone can read and modify the HTML. You're not learning "Webflow"; you're learning CSS, the same standard that powers every website on the web.

Professional-grade tools

Silex includes CSS features that rival commercial builders:

How it works

Design phase: You use the visual editor to arrange elements, style them with CSS, and connect them to data sources. You preview your work in real time on the canvas.

Publish phase: When you're ready, you click Publish. Silex transforms your design into a static website (using the build awesome (powered by Eleventy) static site generator) and uploads it to your hosting — usually GitLab Pages, but any host works. Your site is then live on the web.

Live data: If you've connected a CMS like WordPress, your pages can pull content dynamically. The same page layout can display different blog posts, products, or testimonials depending on what's in your database.

Where to use Silex

Silex works best for:

  • Marketing websites — portfolios, agency sites, landing pages, brochures
  • Blogs and publishing sites — content-driven sites with WordPress or another CMS
  • Small ecommerce sites — product showcases (ecommerce transactions are not yet supported)
  • Documentation sites — with CMS data or hand-coded content
  • Fast prototypes — ship a real website in minutes, no backend needed

Silex can also run on your desktop with the Silex Desktop application (currently in development — a Tauri-based app for Windows, macOS, and Linux).

Silex vs Webflow

Feature Silex Webflow
Price Free (open-source) $14–$155/month
Lock-in None — export HTML/CSS Locked to Webflow hosting
Code ownership You own the code Webflow owns it
Self-hosting Yes, via Docker/Node Only on Enterprise plan
CSS Grid Not yet Yes
CMS flexibility Any GraphQL API Webflow CMS only
Community plugins Growing, open-source Paid partner ecosystem

Silex vs Wix

Feature Silex Wix
Price Free $17–$500/month
Code export Full HTML/CSS Limited, proprietary format
Learning curve Assumes CSS familiarity Designed for non-technical users
Customization Unlimited — it's HTML Template-bound
Target audience Makers, developers, designers Small business owners, beginners

Good to know

  • Templates are available as community-created starting points at silex.me/templates. Vote for built-in template support on the roadmap to browse and use them directly from the dashboard.
  • Domain names are not included. Buy one from any registrar and connect it — see Custom domain.
  • Privacy: Silex does not collect or sell user data. Your websites belong to you, under any license you choose.
  • E-commerce: You can integrate services like Snipcart, PayPal buttons (via custom code), or connect to WooCommerce or Shopify product data via the CMS feature.

What you'll learn

This documentation teaches you to use Silex as a designer. By the end:

  • You'll understand the editor interface and how each tool works
  • You'll design responsive pages with Flexbox and breakpoints
  • You'll use CSS Variables to build consistent design systems
  • You'll connect real data from WordPress or other APIs
  • You'll publish your site and connect a custom domain

You'll also learn real CSS and HTML skills along the way — skills that transfer to any project.

Join the community

Silex is built by volunteers. Whether you're a designer, developer, or just someone who cares about open-source tools — you're welcome.

  • Community chat — ask questions, share your work, get help
  • Forum — longer discussions and how-tos
  • Contribute — ways to help, from testing to creating templates
  • Roadmap — vote on the features you want most
  • Events — meetups and workshops

Next steps

Ready to build? Start with the Quick Start — create your first page and publish it in 5 minutes.

Quiz

Q1: What happens to your code when you leave Silex?

  • A) It's locked into Silex and can't be moved
  • B) It exports as clean HTML and CSS that you can use anywhere
  • C) You have to rebuild it on another platform
Answer

B) It exports as clean HTML and CSS that you can use anywhere — Silex generates standard web code, not proprietary markup.

Q2: How is Silex licensed?

  • A) MIT (permissive, commercial-friendly)
  • B) GNU Affero General Public License (open-source, free)
  • C) Proprietary (closed-source, commercial)
Answer

B) GNU Affero General Public License — Silex is entirely open-source and free.

Q3: Which CSS layout method does Silex support?

  • A) CSS Grid only
  • B) Flexbox and CSS Grid
  • C) Flexbox (CSS Grid is on the roadmap)
Answer

C) Flexbox — CSS Grid support is a planned feature. Flexbox handles the majority of layout needs.

Q4: You want to use your WordPress blog as a data source in Silex. Is this possible?

  • A) No, Silex only supports custom databases
  • B) Yes, via GraphQL through WPGraphQL plugin
  • C) Yes, but you have to manually import content
Answer

B) Yes, via GraphQL through WPGraphQL plugin — Silex connects to any GraphQL API, and WordPress can expose its data via WPGraphQL.

Q5: What's the main advantage of Silex's open-source model?

  • A) It's cheaper than commercial builders
  • B) You own your code and aren't locked into a platform
  • C) It has more features than Webflow
Answer

B) You own your code and aren't locked into a platform — Open-source means transparency, control, and portability.

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