Craft vs WordPress: choosing the right CMS for your project

When it comes to selecting a content management system (CMS) for your website, the decision you make can significantly impact your site’s functionality, user experience and long-term maintenance.

Let’s compare Craft and WordPress, for example. Both platforms have their unique strengths and weaknesses, making it crucial to understand the key factors before making your choice. Our team at Flow Communications has some thoughts on both …

Craft CMS is renowned for its exceptional flexibility and customisation capabilities. Its modular architecture allows developers to tailor the CMS to meet the specific requirements of a project, making it an excellent choice for complex or unique websites.

Craft’s back end is highly intuitive, making it easy for content managers and editors to use without extensive training.

WordPress is the world’s most popular CMS, powering more websites than any other: according to a report by W3Techs, a leading web technology survey company, as of 2023 WordPress is used by 43.2% of all websites.

It is celebrated for its ease of use, extensive plugin ecosystem and active community support. However, its widespread popularity also brings certain drawbacks, such as design templates that aren’t unique, security vulnerabilities and potential plugin conflicts.

If you are a small company or an individual, WordPress is a suitable choice due to its ease of use, extensive plugin ecosystem, active community support, cost-effectiveness, and quick setup. Additionally, WordPress is ideal for those who do not require extensive customisations or scaling, as it provides a robust and scalable platform for building basic websites.

     1. Performance issues

WordPress sites can suffer from slow loading times, especially when using numerous plugins or shared hosting services.

     2. Security vulnerabilities

A frequent target for hackers, WordPress requires regular updates to secure sites from emerging threats. It was a WordPress plugin vulnerability that led to the Panama Papers leak, for example.

     3. Plugin overdependence

An overdependence on plugins can lead to conflicts and security issues, as not all plugins are consistently updated or well coded. Additionally, relying heavily on plugins for essential functionalities, such as custom fields, often results in significant costs, with some Flow Communications clients spending over $1 000 a year on these add-ons, for example.

This not only increases expenses but also complicates site maintenance and security, as these plugins have to be updated constantly.

     4. Frequent updates

The WordPress core, themes and plugins require frequent updates, which can disrupt site functionality if not properly managed.

     5. Limited design flexibility

Customising a WordPress theme without in-depth technical expertise can be restrictive compared to the design freedom offered by Craft CMS.

     6. SEO challenges

While WordPress is SEO-friendly, achieving optimal results often necessitates additional plugins and tweaks.

     7. Complexity for large sites

WordPress can become unwieldy for large-scale websites with complex data structures or heavy traffic. That is why one of Flow’s clients, the Western Cape Tourism, Trade and Investment Promotion Agency (Wesgro), for example, uses Craft CMS instead for a multi-site platform, with different sites for different audiences. We are able to implement different features on each site within the multi-site architecture – for example, providing different themes, booking platforms and so on.

     8. Generic back end

The WordPress back end is not customisable without significant coding, which can be inefficient for content managers needing tailored administrative interfaces.

     9. Ownership and licensing issues

WordPress plugins and themes may come with proprietary licences, limiting control and potentially leading to unforeseen costs in the future.

     10. Community support variability

While the WordPress community is vast, the quality of support can vary, and finding solutions for specific issues can be time-consuming.

Let’s draw an analogy: WordPress is like a mobile phone, and Craft CMS a laptop.

Craft CMS like a laptop – with its bigger screen and possibly more powerful processor, you can make it do whatever you want. You can write novels, you can create music or edit movies, and you can even create video games on it, offering unparalleled customisation and creative freedom.

WordPress like a mobile phone: simple but efficient. You can do pretty much the same work as on your laptop, but some things are simply not suited to the smaller screen.

For example, you can quickly follow up on emails or quickly review and respond to work requests. However, if that request requires changing a logo, making post-production video edits or software changes, then it’s not so great.

WordPress is a quick and easy way to get started with a site, and that’s its advantage, But you’ll run into limitations when you want to customise the plugins it provides, or because of the way your security and customer data is held, for example.

With all of the above considerations, it is no wonder that more than 90% of Flow Communications clients that use a CMS choose Craft CMS over WordPress.