Parallax scrolling elevates a website from a collection of pages to an engaging, multidimensional space. With the background moving at a pace different from the rest of the page, every scroll allows visitors to view content from a fresh perspective. This effect also makes elements more visually appealing and guides attention to where you want it most, like bold headings and calls to action (CTAs).

Read on to discover 11 websites that incorporate this effect to engage viewers while still highlighting important information.

What’s a parallax effect?

The parallax effect is a visual design technique where a website’s foreground images move at a different speed or direction than the background. Scrolling creates a sense of depth and motion, similar to a 3D effect.

While parallax scrolling can make websites feel more immersive and dynamic, excessive movements within parallax effects might affect people with vestibular disorders. The illusion of movement and depth can cause dizziness or disorientation.

Before adding parallax effects to your site, follow these accessibility guidelines to ensure every visitor has an enjoyable browsing experience:

• Keep parallax effects to a minimum — Effects shouldn’t distract people from important information or cause disorientation.
• Restrict movement to small areas of the screen — Use parallax effects sparingly and place them throughout little pockets on the site for design variation.
• Include an option to toggle parallax effects — Add a slider or button so visitors can turn parallax effects on and off.

By following these best practices, you can thoughtfully integrate parallax effects to improve your website’s aesthetics without compromising accessibility.

11 examples of parallax websites

Now that you know how to implement this effect in a user-conscious way, here are 11 examples that balance parallax and presentation to inspire your next design project.

1. Recap After Use

One of Louie Sellers’ many talents as a forward-thinking user experience (UX) designer is an eye for interactions. In Louie’s website portfolio, Recap After Use, the site starts with a pen that uncaps and comes back together as you go from the top to the bottom of the page. This creative play on words takes an innovative approach to opening and closing a website.

The parallax starts with the pen and cap staying consistent on the screen’s sides. As you scroll, subtle parallax effects show up on each featured project. Hovering over a project fills out the outline with details and shifts the image, giving it a sense of three-dimensionality.

Foreground images moving against a solid background color makes them more prominent than when left static. The parallax effect brings attention to the surface-level elements and encourages you to click to learn more.

2. Jordan Gilroy

Jordan Gilroy’s personal portfolio website has a large, stylized “G” in the center of the page that highlights Jordan’s surname initial to boost brand recognition and awareness. A sticky menu in the top left provides navigation options throughout the browsing experience, while the other corners give you a glance at Jordan’s work to immediately showcase his expertise.

Scrolling splits the page open, revealing the first parallax effects as portraits of Jordan and his family overlap the background text. Jordan’s picture occupies the middle of the screen, providing a personal touch as he virtually introduces himself. 

Below this picture, the section showcases Jordan’s work with thumbnails separated from blurred backdrops — another example of scroll-triggered parallax animations, as the blurred imagery brings foreground elements into focus. Toward the bottom of the site, the giant “G” returns in the background, creating a final parallax effect before a prominent “Connect” message encourages you to contact Jordan for work.

3. The Goonies

This website pays homage to the ’80s movie “The Goonies.” Designed by Joseph Berry, it opens up with a stunning parallax that makes you feel like you’re peeping out from the bushes and zooming into the Oregon coastline where the film took place.

The parallax effect here doesn’t involve much complexity, either. White text modestly appears over the dark background, with the colors coming from images and cutouts to provide variation. By applying different speeds to the foreground and background images and enlarging them as you scroll, the site creates an attention-grabbing 3D effect while telling the story of “The Goonies.”

4. Okalpha

Published by Okalpha’s founder Grant Campbell, the creative design agency’s website makes a bold statement by pairing extra-large typography with loud color choices that are accentuated by the parallax effect: the elongated 3D square at the top of the website zooms in and out as you scroll, separating itself from the text covering it. Meanwhile, a 2D circle at the bottom of the page reveals contact details for prospective clients who want to hire Okalpha to create similarly vibrant designs for their brands.

The square and circle sandwich the rest of the content between the interactive design elements, like videos, services, and team members’ pictures. These shapes evoke specific emotions while adding a vibrant visual appeal to Okalpha's website.

5. Jomor Design

Jonathan Morin revamped the old Jomor Design website to create a new, minimalist design portfolio that follows modern design trends. But Jonathan retained the best part of the old site — parallax scrolling effects.

A lot is happening here. The large text blends into the changing images as you scroll, with backgrounds shifting from light to dark mode to full-screen photos. You can even toggle the colors with the button in the bottom-left corner.

Despite the many elements, the parallax effect brings everything together, making the site visually stunning without being overwhelming. Bold statements like “We’ll help you stand out & make all your dreams come true” pair with smaller-sized text like “As long as your dreams revolve around something like being the proud owner of a spectacular website,” subtly showing Jonathan’s fun side.

6. Parallax template

This parallax template by Jerome Bergamaschi includes a brightly colored scene: green fields, magenta cliff sides, and orange and pink clouds slowly moving across the screen. Upon scrolling, the dark grass at the bottom appears to move up, changing the website’s background to dark shades of purple and revealing Jerome’s portfolio.

It’s an excellent example of fluid parallax scrolling done well. The attractive visuals grab attention and encourage you to scroll before transitioning to the designer’s details and testimonials for those considering hiring Jerome.

7. Cerámica Colibrí

Cerámica Colibrí’s website, created by Sergio Martos, uses parallax scroll effects to highlight and market their products. “Colibri” translates to “hummingbird,” and scrolling down reveals a fluttering hummingbird that attaches itself to the text to complete the logo and highlight the company’s brand front and center. 

Continued scrolling showcases a string of parallax effects, with text disappearing behind product images that move, creating an immersive, three-dimensional experience. Each product, from vases to vessels, has a title and description. While the descriptions are static, the products overlay the text to produce a parallax effect — and a more engaging browsing experience. You can also interact and change each product’s color.

A sticky timeline on the left side tells you where you are on the page and allows you to jump to any section quickly. Overall, the parallax effects, interactive colors, and practical navigation make Cerámica Colibrí a well-crafted business site.

8. Avenir Creative

As soon as you start scrolling through Avenir Creative’s homepage, the text in the centered top menu shifts to a 45-degree angle and spreads apart to make room for the Avenir logo. The floating menu sits at the top of the page as you proceed further down to provide navigation options whenever needed.

What’s especially impressive is how this parallax effect translates to mobile devices. Rather than crowd the smaller screen with the large logo among the menu items, the text in the menu slants but doesn’t spread out to accommodate the Avenir logo. Instead, the logo disappears while the menu remains sticky at the top of the page — a technique worth considering for mobile-first parallax designs.

9. Plink Webflow Rebuild

Plink’s official website caught the eye of developer and designer Bjorn Encuțescu, who decided to recreate its parallax effects in Webflow. Bjorn rebuilt the site for educational purposes and made the project cloneable for anyone who wants to experiment with it.

In addition to the parallax, you’ll see 3D illustrations and animation effects with text vibrantly popping into view. The parallax scrolling makes it feel like the site has two layers, each sliding over the other and appearing in turns as you browse.

10. Bake 003

Kai Jolly from the Finsweet team created Bake 003 as part of a collection of web design elements. This template showcases parallax scrolling using shapes and a three-color white, dark gray, and green combo.

With a diverse array of shapes and space for your content, this design is an excellent one to clone for free and play around with. You can also change the colors and customize it for your own designs.

11. Hard West II

The banner on the Hard West II website, designed by Psychoactive Studios, depicts four silhouetted characters charging toward a demon-like figure with skull-shaped smoke surfacing from its head. 

As you move your cursor, the characters on the screen shift accordingly. These elements immediately tell you what kind of game Hard West II is — dark, combat-heavy, and action-packed — while making you feel part of the action. The demon-like figure is the banner's background element and moves independently from the foreground. Scrolling brings the demon closer as if it's charging toward you, the viewer. 

Below, background screenshots and videos of in-game action provide a sneak peek of the gameplay while maintaining the engaging parallax effect. Meanwhile, a horizontal scrolling section protrudes from the shadowy background, allowing you to learn more about each playable character.

Getting started with your own parallax scrolling designs

Don’t settle for static sites. Instead, explore Webflow’s visual development platform to create fun and engaging websites — with or without writing code.

You can start designing immediately by choosing from thousands of cloneable templates from Made in Webflow. Plus, our blog offers guides for learning web design with modern UI/UX design examples so you’ll never run out of inspiration.