Is it possible to display data from an external database, such as Airtable, on a Webflow page? I am looking for a solution where Webflow acts as the front-end only and retrieves and displays data from a separate database. Additionally, if I have a blog page that displays articles from the external database, is it possible to have unique URLs for each article, even though the data is not from Webflow CMS? Why or why not?

Yes, you can display data from an external database like Airtable in Webflow, using Webflow as a front-end only. However, because Webflow CMS does not natively support external dynamic routing, handling unique URLs for external content requires additional work or third-party tools.

1. Displaying External Data in Webflow

• Webflow does not natively support fetching and dynamically rendering external data directly in the Designer or CMS.
• To display Airtable data (or other database content), use client-side JavaScript that fetches the data from Airtable’s API and injects it into the Webflow page dynamically.
• Alternatively, use third-party automation tools like Zapier, Make (Integromat), or Wized to connect Airtable and Webflow.
• Wized, in particular, enables building fully dynamic frontends with Webflow using external data, allowing real-time display and filtering of Airtable content.

2. Creating Unique URLs for External Blog Articles

• Webflow cannot dynamically generate unique URLs (routes) for external content unless it's stored in the Webflow CMS.
• Each Webflow CMS item has a routeable slug (/blog/example-article), but external data does not automatically receive this treatment.
• To display unique blog post pages from Airtable:
• Option 1: Sync Airtable to Webflow CMS using tools like PowerImporter or Whalesync. You then benefit from Webflow's native CMS routing.
• Option 2: Use a custom routing solution like Wized or custom reverse proxies (e.g., using Cloudflare Workers, AWS, or a headless front-end) that maps URLs to Airtable data on request.
• Option 3: Set up static Webflow pages with slug parameters (e.g., blog-template?slug=slug-value), then use client-side code to fetch and display the Airtable article based on the query parameter. This does not create true SEO-friendly URLs and may hurt indexing.

3. Why Native Webflow CMS Is Needed for Dynamic URLs

• Webflow CMS routes (like /blog/article-title) are tied directly to CMS items in the Webflow database.
• Webflow doesn’t provide a way to hook dynamic routes to external data, since it has no middleware layer or server-side function to resolve dynamic slugs.
• Without using Webflow CMS or services like Wized, each unique article page would need to be a static Webflow page with dynamic content injected via JavaScript—not true CMS-style routing.

Summary

Webflow can display external data from services like Airtable using JavaScript or third-party tools such as Wized. However, Webflow cannot natively create dynamic route URLs (e.g., /blog/unique-title) for external database items. To enable SEO-friendly unique URLs for external articles, you must either sync the data into the Webflow CMS or use a low-code tool like Wized that provides dynamic routing capabilities outside of Webflow’s native system.