Onlook

Onlook is a visual editor that works on a real web codebase. Designers and product managers drag, drop, and adjust elements directly, work with reusable components, and get AI assistance in the same surface — and the changes land in code rather than in a picture of code. It aims at the gap where a design is approved but somebody still has to translate it by hand.

We track it for that translation problem, which costs more time on most projects than anyone admits. We list it as the option for teams where a designer needs to make real front-end changes without a handoff ticket for every spacing tweak. We don't use it day to day; our loop already runs through code, so the round trip it removes isn't one we make.

Builder.io is the closest comparison for visual editing over an existing codebase, and Plasmic covers similar ground for React. Webflow is the better answer if you're happy to take its runtime and hosting too, and Framer likewise for marketing sites. v0 fits better when you want generated components rather than edits to existing ones. Onlook makes sense when your stack matches what it supports and non-engineers need to change real components. It is the wrong call for an unusual stack, or a small team already comfortable editing code directly — check framework support first.