Craft CMS vs WordPress

WordPress History & Pros

WordPress powers a huge percentage of internet websites. Estimates say as much as 32% of the internet has WordPress under the hood and their biggest reason is that it is free and open-source. These aspects saw WordPress gain adaption quickly. Because of its open-source nature, a large plugin and theme market emerged making it easy to spin up a site.

Wordpress Cons

Wordpress has come a long way over the years, but it really isn't a true content management system - it is still a blogging platform. No matter what plugins you use, you'll always be battling this core aspect of the system. If you are managing a site with several different content types,  page architectures or relationships, you are going to be fighting WordPress's restrictions.

The open-source nature of the software has become its biggest downside. Unfortunately, Wordpress is regularly targeted by hackers since the codebase is an open book. Errors and backdoors in programming are easily and frequently exploited. This factor and their large user base mean that WordPress is targeted more than any other content management system on the market. The core of WordPress is bloated and sloppy which can lead to performance issues. On top of this, adding multiple plugins can lead to a plethora of other performance and security issues.

Craft CMS allows for custom website design

To understand Craft, you must trace its origins. Craft CMS was born out of the ExpressionEngine community as an alternative commercial content management system to provide customers with design flexibility, extensible development, and standards of security.

Craft CMS Pros

Craft CMS was built by web developers for web designers and developers, with flexibility and design in mind. From day one, the user experience of the Craft dashboard and content management experience has been a consideration for the Pixel and Tonic team - makers of Craft CMS. It is a system that separates your content from design, allowing you to manage content the best way for your client or project.

Craft is extremely lightweight. The MCV (Model-View-Controller) coding standards of Craft means that every aspect of the product follows a specific path to meet its objective. This MCV approach to the product makes it perform at its best, only loading the tools required at a given moment for the content requested.

Craft is not open source. As a commercial product, each line of code is labored over by Pixel and Tonic. Being the creators of the software, they know the ins and outs of the codebase and have taken extra care to build a content management system that is lightweight, powerful and secure. That said, they have built extensibility into Craft allowing developers to extend the system's functionality and provide plugins for various functionals and features.

Finally, the user experience of managing content inside the Craft admin is a breeze compared to WordPress. If you've worked on a WordPress site at all, you know how frustrating it can be to administrate or edit content. Not so with Craft. They've placed a high value on user experience and it shows. Natively, Craft comes with multiple entry types (single pages, channels, and structured (nested) content), flexible content blocks, fluid fields, drag and drop uploads, live preview and more.

Craft CMS Cons

Craft is a commercial product, it is not open source. Each website you build on Craft CMS requires a license that costs $299. However, when you consider the time required to customize a WordPress installation, remove unwanted features and attempt to secure the system, the Craft CMS license fee is a minimal price to pay. 

Craft also leverages PHP and Twig to make the magic happen. Not every programmer is an expert in these languages but there are numerous resources available online to get up to speed.

Craft is the best content management system

When it comes time to create your custom website design, Craft CMS may be the best choice for your content management system. Craft allows you to design and build your site the way you want it. It is highly secure and built by a dedicated team of expert developers who care about each line of code.

Are you ready to redesign your current site? Maybe you've experienced some of the WordPress woes. We can help. Antistatic has been designing custom websites built on Craft CMS since it emerged on the market. Let's schedule a time to talk about your website and how we can help.