Framer’s CMS is clean, fast, and surprisingly flexible — especially for a visual builder.
But once you try building something beyond a simple blog, it can get… tricky.
If you’re new to it, you might hit a few confusing walls — not because the system’s broken, but because some features aren’t fully there yet.
Let’s unpack 4 of the biggest CMS pain points — and what you can do to fix (or at least finesse) them.
1. Filtering / dynamic filtering
Pain:
There is no native dynamic filtering for CMS collections. (yet)
No multi-tag. No client-side filtering. No magic. Just pain.
You want users to filter projects by category and tag?
Users says: “Sure! Just build 24 separate listing pages and manually update them every time something changes.”
Reddit says it best:
“CMS filtering is a proper pain… only solution is making hundreds of listing pages.”
Solution:
Use CMS references to create tag/category systems.
Then filter collection lists based on those references.
It’s not the cleanest solution, but it works.
2. Layout isolation per CMS item
Pain:
In Framer, every CMS item is shackled to the same layout.
Change the font size on one blog post and it’s changed on every post and project.
You can’t have unique layouts for specific CMS entries without hacking things apart.
Reddit chimes in again:
“Changing style in one CMS item affects all templated items.”
Solution:
You can cheat the system:
Build multiple layout on the same page, and use visibility toggles triggered by CMS properties (like a tag or type).
That lets you selectively show one layout for a blog, another for a product, and a third for your moody “About Me” rant.
It’s a smart workaround and won’t destroy your other CMS items in the process.
3. Role based access
Pain:
CMS permissions don’t exist.
Clients get the keys to the kingdom and, within five minutes, move the hero section 40px to the left and change your lovingly-chosen font to Comic Sans.
Reddit feels the pain:
“Clients can break layout”
“There are no editor permission levels.”
Solution:
Invite clients to the Framer dashboard (yes, reluctantly)
Lock every layout layer they shouldn’t touch
Give them a quick CMS-only tutorial
Pray
The idea is to train your client on the CMS so they don't have a need to snoop around.
Also — record simple Loom tutorials they can rewatch whenever they forget how to edit things. Once they get the hang of it, managing content becomes surprisingly intuitive.
The other solution is to charge your client an extra fee to mange the website for them.
This can include managing their CMS and keeping the website updated.
That's a great way to keep control and make extra $$$ in the process. Check this guide out on other creative ways to monetize your Framer skills.
4. No code export or portability
Pain:
Framer is a beautiful walled garden.
And once your CMS data is in there… good luck getting it out.
Thinking of migrating to another platform? Ha. Cute.
Reddit says it plainly:
“Lock-in—no export; limits flexibility.”
Solution:
There’s a CMS Export Plugin that lets you pull your collections out.
Built by Framer themselves, it works exactly as intended.
It cleanly pulls out your collection data and makes migration possible without jumping through hoops.
One of the few frictionless tools in the ecosystem — and one that deserves more love.
So... Should You Burn It All Down?
Not at all.
Framer CMS has massive potential and is on it's way there!
Whether it’s filtering, layout isolation, or basic access control… you’re often forced to duct-tape things together with a smile and a backup file.
That’s why we started All About Framer — to help you work smarter within Framer’s limits, while waiting for the platform to catch up.
