Framer began in 2014 as a prototyping tool for exploring animations and interactions. The team eventually asked whether the same design environment could produce a real website, removing the step where a design had to be rebuilt in a different development tool.
That shift led to Framer's site builder, launched in May 2022. Design, responsive layout, animation and publication became parts of one workflow. The product later brought agents onto the same canvas, with generated work remaining editable so teams could refine it before deciding what to publish.