Body by Ciara is an online personal trainer who built a thriving fitness subscription business through Instagram workouts during the pandemic. I designed and developed a new subscription platform, CRM workflow, and full data integration with a brand new mobile app, replacing her ageing WordPress setup with a scalable Webflow build.
The WordPress to Webflow migration involved moving more than 17,000 users across to the new platform, re-creating subscriptions with new payment gateways via GoCardless and PayPal, and automating the data transfer into the new CRM so member records, billing, and engagement history stayed intact end-to-end.
The Webflow build supports member content, subscription tier management, and ongoing campaign pages, with the Webflow CMS giving the Body by Ciara team a way to add new content directly. The platform's launch coincided with the brand's move from Instagram-first delivery to a fully app-supported subscription experience.
Body by Ciara had built a substantial fitness community through Instagram during the pandemic, but her business was outgrowing its WordPress foundations. The existing site could not handle the complexity of subscription management, member content delivery, or the data workflows that a proper subscription business needs. With over 17,000 users and a growing team, the operational overhead of keeping WordPress patched, secure, and functional was eating into time that should have been spent on content and community.
The bigger strategic issue was the planned mobile app launch. The website needed to integrate cleanly with a brand new app, a new CRM, and new payment gateways, all while preserving member records, billing history, and engagement data through the migration. WordPress was never designed to be the subscription backbone for a multi-platform fitness business, and the cracks were showing.
There was also a content management problem. Ciara and her team needed to publish new workouts, programme updates, and campaign pages regularly, but WordPress made every content change feel like a project. A fitness subscription business lives or dies on fresh content, and the platform was actively slowing down the one thing that drove member retention.
I rebuilt the entire platform in Webflow, migrating more than 17,000 users across from WordPress to a new subscription infrastructure powered by GoCardless and PayPal. The Webflow build supports member content delivery across subscription tiers, with the CMS giving the Body by Ciara team direct control over adding new workouts, programme content, and campaign pages.
I set up the CRM integration to automate data transfer end to end, so member records, billing status, and engagement history stayed intact without manual reconciliation. Every data handoff was tested and verified before the switchover, because losing even a fraction of those 17,000 members during migration was not an option. The payment gateway integration handles recurring billing through GoCardless for UK members and PayPal for international subscribers, with the Webflow site serving as the checkout and account management layer.
The platform was designed to launch alongside the new mobile app, with the website acting as the subscription backbone that the app connects into. I built the CMS architecture to support multiple content types across subscription tiers, so free members see preview content while paid members get full access, all managed from the same Webflow interface.
Body by Ciara launched on a platform that actually supports the scale of her business. The team can manage content, subscriptions, and member communications directly through Webflow without waiting on developer support for routine updates. That operational independence has changed how the business runs day to day.
The migration preserved every member record and billing relationship, and the new payment infrastructure through GoCardless and PayPal reduced the operational complexity that had been building up on the old WordPress setup. The business moved from Instagram-first delivery to a proper app-supported subscription experience, with the Webflow site serving as the hub that ties everything together.
For Ciara personally, the biggest win was getting her time back. Content publishing, member management, and campaign updates are now things she and her team can handle directly, which means more energy goes into the fitness content that actually drives the business rather than fighting with the platform that delivers it.
