What are the limitations of Webflow's CMS, including the maximum number of references, items per collection, and collection items per project? How can these limitations be bypassed with a higher hosting plan?
TL;DR
- Webflow CMS allows up to 10,000 items, 50 collections, and 5 reference fields per collection.
- Limits can be expanded with Enterprise Hosting or bypassed using external tools, APIs, or linking methods.
Webflow’s CMS has specific limitations on collection structure and content volume. These include caps on reference fields, total items, and per-collection limits. Some limits can be increased with higher-tier hosting.
1. Collection Item Limits
- 10,000 total CMS items per project on CMS Hosting.
- This includes all collection types (e.g., blog posts, authors, categories).
- 60 items per page limit when using pagination in Collection Lists.
2. Reference Field Limits
- 5 Reference or Multi-Reference fields per collection.
- This includes a maximum of 5 total reference fields combined regardless of type.
- Exceeding this prevents you from saving the collection schema.
3. Collection & Field Limits
- 50 Collections per project.
- 30 fields per collection maximum (includes name, slug, and any custom fields).
- Multi-reference fields can reference up to 100 items per CMS item.
4. Overrides with Hosting Upgrades
- Upgrading to Business Hosting increases the CMS item limit to 10,000.
- Enterprise Hosting offers custom CMS limits, including:
- Collections above the 50 limit.
- CMS items beyond 10K.
- More flexible field and reference caps (on request).
- Contact Webflow Sales for Enterprise features—these are not self-service.
5. Bypassing Limitations via Workarounds
- External databases or services: Use tools like Airtable, Google Sheets, or Xano, and connect via Make (Integromat) or Zapier.
- Webflow API: Store content externally and dynamically inject content using JavaScript and Webflow’s CMS API (e.g., fetch data client-side).
- Link instead of reference: Use URL fields to simulate relationships instead of using References.
- Multiple projects: Split CMS content across projects and cross-link between them externally.
Summary
Webflow CMS limits include 10K items per project, 5 reference fields per collection, and 50 total collections. These can be increased by upgrading to Enterprise Hosting, or bypassed using external content sources and integration tools.