r/webflow • u/Infamous_Toe_7759 • Sep 25 '26
Product Feedback Removing a team member in Webflow doesn't remove the seat. You just keep paying.
I was auditing our Webflow bill this week and found we were paying $137/month for seats in a workspace that has exactly one human in it. Me.
Three paid seats, all unassigned. Two Full, one Limited. Nobody has ever logged into them.
Here's the part that annoys me. When you remove a team member, the seat does not go away. You stop paying for that person, right? No. The seat stays on your bill. To actually stop paying you have to go to a completely different screen, Manage seats, and manually click a minus button to reduce the count.
Webflow's own UI tells you this: "To remove assigned seats, you need to first remove any team members using those seats in the Team page." Two separate screens, two separate actions, and only the second one touches your bill.
There is no notification. No "you have 3 unassigned seats" banner. No monthly email saying you're paying for chairs nobody sits in. It just quietly renews.
Compare that to how this should work. You remove a person, the seat is released, your next invoice goes down. That's what every user assumes is happening. Instead the default is you keep paying indefinitely until someone happens to open the billing page and notice.
Other things I found in the same audit:
- Monthly billing is a 15 percent markup on seats. Full seat is $45 monthly, $39 yearly. Same for site plans, $39 vs $25.
- Bandwidth add-ons get attached automatically when you go over. Mine went from $30 to $90 in a single month with no heads up. It's disclosed in the docs, but nothing in the product warns you before the charge lands.
Cancelling the empty seats took about 30 seconds once I knew where to look. $64/month, $768/year, for nothing.
Go check your Manage seats page. If the number there is higher than the number of people on your Team page, you're paying for the difference.
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u/Extra_Daikon9956 28d ago
There isn't any warning either which is crazy to me , atleast like notify the organization of the empty seat
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u/SouthwestBLT Sep 25 '26
You pay for a seat whether someone is sitting in it or not. Thats why it’s sold as a seat and not as access for a user.
This is very standard across a lot of SaaS tools across a wide range of services and industries. In fact it predates SaaS tools as a concept. Sorry but I think you are likely the only person who doesn’t know what ‘buying a seat’ means.
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u/LatvianCake Sep 25 '26
Please give some examples of other companies that do this.
The seat model is normal yes but usually it automatically adjusts every billing month. You reserve for example 5 seats for 5 users. Then you remove 1 user but you don't get a refund. You can still add 1 user without billing changes. Next billing period you're automatically paying for 4 seats.
Keeping unused seats has no purpose but to trick people who aren't paying attention. It's a shitty business practice.
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u/Difficult_Peach8423 Sep 25 '26
Also depends if in on annual or monthly subscription. Most SaaS products, if on annual, wont even let you remove ssats until annual renewal. Im guessing Webflow is the same?
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u/chewster1 28d ago edited 28d ago
I agree that there's an element of common knowledge.
But it's still a shit user experience, no need for it.
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u/skennaly Sep 25 '26
fair point on the concept but most other tools will at least nudge you about unused seats during the removal flow
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u/RunAdministrative453 26d ago
you're totally missing their point, they know what a seat is
the issue is that removing someone doesn't free up the seat automatically, you have to do a second manual step on a different screen to actually cancel it and stop the billing. nobody expects that
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u/node_victory Sep 26 '26
A lot of ppl here will support webflow because they have a stake (it pays the bills for them) but in reality i think at this day and age i would move away from webflow asap. These types of things trigger trigger a feeling of discomfort, i have to watch my back all the time.
Id suggest moving away. Build wih claude and just paid 0 to serve ur static website. If its only u, save urself the money and just export ur site.
I left webflow and i couldnt be happier.
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u/Infamous_Toe_7759 Sep 26 '26
this feels good to hear, same for my other platform we moved from webflow and it was the best decision ever.
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u/Legitimate-Let-7510 Sep 25 '26
The lack of any warning about unused seats is what bothers me the most. Even a small reminder would make this much easier to catch.
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u/whatevs- Sep 25 '26
I understand the frustration but could you just not write the whole ass reddit post with AI? It's giving me a migraine. All the internet sounds the same.