Craft CMS vs. WordPress: Which Is the Better CMS For Your Business

Currently, in the world, there are about 1.1 billion websites that are currently being maintained by different companies. All of these websites are run on a CMS, that is Content Management System. Webmasters are able to make changes to the content that is live on the website with the help of a reliable CMS. But the same can get complicated with a poor performing CMS. This is why your website developer should be considerate with the choice of the CMS approach.

Craft CMS and WordPress are two of the most popular CMS platforms that are easily integrated into websites. While both of them can achieve the same results, there can be a debate on which one is better. All thanks to our expertise, we crafted this blog to provide you with valuable information on Craft CMS and WordPress. If you are confused between their usage, hang tight and read this blog.

What Is Craft CMS?

Developed by Pixel & Tonic in 2013, Craft CMS is a contemporary way of achieving excellent CMS for any website. It is not an automated website builder whereby the developer will not use templates and have all the website components generated for him/her but instead, he/she has to write the HTML code on his/her own. Craft CMS provides an opportunity to collaborate with no time delay, which will suit well for projects that involve many experts.

Here are the major features of Craft CMS:

1. Website security

Craft CMS enables two-factor authentication for added security of the website. It also keeps the CMS safe by using end-to-end encryption and ensuring other safety protocols.

2. Headless CMS

Craft CMS can function as a headless CMS with built-in GraphQL API for easy data retrieval.

3. Multi-site management

Craft CMS makes it possible for developers to create multiple websites from a single code base.

What Is WordPress?

WordPress started out as a blogging platform in 2003 and was later expanded into an open-source CMS platform. It has a vast plugin ecosystem which makes writing code a simple task. WordPress also offers countless templates to choose from. This feature makes it a popular choice in the market.

We have compiled the top features of WordPress:

1. SEO friendliness

Search Engine Optimization plays a key role in enhancing the website's online performance. WordPress creates CMS platforms that comply with the SEO guidelines. Websites created using WordPress are ranked high on the search engine page results because of the SEO-compatible code and meta data.

2. Free and affordable

WordPress is an open-source platform, which is free. Developers don't have to pay any subscription fees or usage charges for using this platform.

3. Timely security updates

The WordPress core software receives frequent updates that address security vulnerabilities, introduce new features, and improve overall performance. This ongoing development ensures your website remains secure and up-to-date.

Basic Features Of An Ideal CMS Platform

You must be wondering what an ideal CMS platform looks like. Numerous features and characteristics can be added to a CMS-powered website based on your business. Let us explore the aspects that form an ideal CMS platform:

✔️ Content Organization

A suitable CMS platform helps in properly organizing content on your website. You can effortlessly modify and add new pages, blogs, and other related content crucial for your website and brand image.

✔️ Content Management

Managing the content posted on your website becomes easy and less challenging with an ideal CMS. Your team can create categories, tags, and other website features that make it look well-organized.

✔️ Media Storage

Media files should be optimized to appear well on different screens. A CMS ensures the right file sizes are uploaded, and it helps in storing and adding different types of media like audio, video, graphics, etc. to the website.

✔️ Content Scheduling

The CMS allows you to schedule the content at different times and dates, making it possible for your team to share updated content with the audience. The scheduling aspect becomes more important when a certain content needs to be published on a specific date. In such cases, the team can schedule the publishing in CMS, and it will be displayed on the front-end on selected date.

✔️ Content Creation

A CMS also enables your team to manage how the website appears to the audience. It assists in creating user-centric content.

Benefits Of Using Craft CMS

Craft CMS is widely used by developers for making attractive and unique CMS-driven websites. The platform is beneficial in many ways, which include solid performance and easy-to-update interface. Here is a sneak peek into the additional advantages offered by Craft CMS:

#1. Multi-purpose CMS

Craft CMS is flexible enough to create websites for different purposes. Whether you want to develop an eCommerce website or require a user-friendly blog CMS, the platform offers easy and simple ways of doing that.

#2. API Integration

Craft CMS is popular for yet another thing. It makes API integration as easy as pie. This becomes possible due to the modular architecture of Craft CMS that allows seamless integration of third-party services like CRM, social media, etc.

#3. Fast Loading Pages

Webpage loading speed greatly impacts the online traffic of the website. Developers prefer Craft CMS as it helps in creating CMS-powered websites that load at a faster rate. The optimum architecture of Craft CMS establishes a suitable environment for developing large websites that quickly respond to the user command.

Benefits Of WordPress

WordPress powers over 835 million websites in the world. The popularity of this platform is due to many reasons, some of which are listed below:

Step#1 Usability

WordPress has gained its popularity mostly because of usage simplicity. The easy to navigate user interface enables the ordinary user to grab a hold of it and create, edit, and manage contents from the site regardless of their technical proficiency. From creating new pages to changing the overall look of a site, web management is made easy with the platform.

Step#2 Affordable

WordPress platform is 100% free and it also offers the option to upgrade to a paid plan for additional features. Also, the enviably low web hosting and website maintenance costs are relatively cheaper as compared to other platforms; and thus, WordPress is perfectly suitable for small businesses and start-ups.

Step#3 Intuitive Designs

WordPress comes with modern and mobile friendly themes that cater for specific niches. With these themes, which come with pleasant graphics and a variety of options, a business can develop a website to fit accurately with its theme. As seen, using responsive design will guarantee the best user experience on both the large and small device interface.

Step#4 Plugin and Template Library

A significant advantage of using WordPress is a wide choice of plugins and templates available. Plugins help users extend functionalities such as SEO, contact, and forms, and even e-commerce solutions without coding. Templates offer vast possibilities of design to choose from and make it more efficient to construct good looking websites in the quickest time possible.

Craft CMS vs. WordPress: Key Facts

Target Audience

● WordPress websites can be designed by anyone who has limited knowledge on website development.

● Craft CMS websites can only be created by experienced and trained developers.

Ease-Of-Use

● WordPress CMS is easily installed and does not necessarily require professional help.

● Craft CMS installation is done by expert developers who have a thorough understanding of the platform.

Plugin Availability

● You can find multiple plugins and resources for WordPress since it has a vast plugin ecosystem.

● Craft CMS offers a small but good plugin ecosystem.

Website Performance

● WordPress CMS websites can be optimized for performance using performance optimization plugins. But only a limited number of plugins should be used to ensure consistent performance.

● Craft CMS offers exceptional image handling capabilities and the default performance optimization system ensures impressive website performance.

Pricing Structure

● WordPress is an open-source platform with minimum costs. However, additional charges may incur for domain name, plugin themes, hosting, etc.

● Craft CMS operates on four subscription fees models based on your requirements.

Which Is More Secure - Craft CMS or WordPress?

Craft CMS and WordPress both come with their specific security protocols and characteristics that make them safe to use. The websites created using these pioneers perform greatly and stay secure on the internet.

However, CMS websites made with Craft CMS tend to remain more safe than WordPress websites. This is because WordPress operates in an open-source ecosystem, which makes it less secure than Craft CMS. But that does not mean that WordPress websites are not protected. They deliver a fairly secure performance but not as good as Craft CMS.

Which One Is Better For E-commerce Businesses?

The websites of E-commerce businesses need to be very fast, responsive, and highly functional. E-commerce is all about offering and showcasing your products to the audience with style. This is where WordPress outlasts Craft CMS by creating SEO-friendly and interactive CMS websites.

1️⃣ Customization Options

WordPress provides customization settings, which means that building an online store that will conform to your brand’s identity and appeal to your targeted customers is more than possible. With just a few changes based on your business requirements, you can also modify the look of your site and features added to it.

2️⃣ External Agency Integration

Third party resources like API, social media, payment gateways, and other related tools are easily integrated with WordPress CMS. Businesses can effortlessly provide services to customers, allowing them to make payments through their preferred mode of transaction. Plugin integration is another benefit of using WordPress for eCommerce websites.

3️⃣ Higher Search Engine Rankings

WordPress is more SEO-friendly compared to Craft CMS. It ensures that search engines rank your website high up on the result pages. Additional help from an experienced service provider will help you in ranking your website for better exposure on the internet and drive more traffic.

4️⃣ Easy Undo Options

Sometimes your team might upload the wrong product description or mistakenly make changes to the CMS. Instead of running to your tech team, WordPress CMS offers a quick undo option to reverse this change. The undone control System can easily revert the changes you have made on a certain website. It gives confidence and prevents the high chances of making permanent mistakes.

Which CMS Platform Is Suitable For Blog Posts?

WordPress for Blogging

Blogging has been highly dependent on WordPress as the principal platform for blogging services. This is easy to use and has a plethora of free themes and plugins that make it ideal for new as well as pro bloggers and writers.

Different types of editors are integrated into a WordPress CMS platform and do not pose any problem when it comes to formatting and sharing the content. Some of its useful features include:

● Scheduling
● Post categories
● Post tagging

These tasks make creating content very easy. As mentioned earlier, WordPress has SEO plugins to ensure the blog posts are visible to the users.

Another feature that can interest users who want to earn money on their blogs – WordPress has a rich set of plugins that allow you to place ads, affiliate links, and e-commerce elements on your blog.

Craft CMS for Blogging

Craft CMS is designed for developers who want stability and who do not like to waste their time on re-working the code generated through plugins. It enables creating new content fields which can be of great importance for a running blog that may require fields that are not normally provided by the CMS platform.

Craft CMS is suitable to use by bloggers as they seek to deliver exceptional and deeply personalized content to their audience. However, it does not have some of the blogging design thinking that WordPress is inherently built with, and basic functionalities often need configuration or coding help.

Finalize the Right Platform: Our Recommendations

Budget and Timeline

WordPress should be the ideal choice for urgent projects where developers have a short deadline. Being an open-source platform, it outshines Craft CMS on the budget part as well.

Development Expertise

If you are an experienced and professional developer looking for a smooth architecture, then Craft CMS is the perfect platform. But WordPress is recommended for people with minimum or no development knowledge.

Customization Level

Craft CMS is the ultimate choice when you want a unique and extraordinary CMS website for your business. While WordPress templates are widely used, Craft CMS brings originality to the table.

Power Of Using Craft CMS and WordPress Both: Exclusive Solutions By PSDtoHTMLNinja

When you carefully look at it, websites are extremely personal to businesses. They play an unavoidable role in creating brand value, and that is why they should reflect your business. A well-created website with suitable CMS integration smoothens the content management work for your team. This is why selecting the adequate CMS platform is important.

Craft CMS and WordPress offer specific benefits and have their own setbacks. WordPress has, however, gained more popularity by offering themes, templates, and coding assistance at relatively lower prices compared to Craft CMS.

Ultimately, it comes down to what your business requires. You still can’t make up your mind? Don’t worry! PSDtoHTMLNinja is here to help you with the process. We understand making the right choice is difficult but our experts are always available to render their help. Feel free to contact our Ninjas.