WordPress has been the predominant content management system for well over a decade. It is used on tens of millions of websites and ecommerce stores. But software design always involves trade-offs, and WordPress may not be the perfect response to every web publishing challenge. 

There is a small but thriving market of alternative content management systems that make different trade-offs and design decisions. Craft CMS is one of the most successful of these WordPress alternatives. It is similar to WordPress in many ways, but like Ghost and Drupal, which we looked at in previous comparison posts, there are differences that make Craft CMS an attractive option in some scenarios. 

In this article, we explore what Craft CMS is, the key differences between Craft CMS and WordPress, and help you decide which is the best choice for your site. 

What Is WordPress?

If you’re in the web publishing world, WordPress needs no introduction. But it’s worth covering the basics for site owners who haven’t had much experience with WordPress and are looking for a Craft CMS alternative. 

WordPress is a PHP-based content management system that started life as a blogging engine. Over the years, its capabilities have evolved. Today, it can support almost any type of website, from blogs to business sites, and from ecommerce stores to learning management systems. 

WordPress’s primary mission is to make web publishing as easy as possible for creators. That is to say, it aims to provide a polished, intuitive interface for writing, editing, and publishing. 

What Is Craft CMS?

Craft CMS is a content management system developed by Pixel & Tonic. Like WordPress, it’s based on the PHP programming language and MySQL database, but it has a different approach to content management and a different target market.

Rather than starting as a blogging platform and then adding features, Craft was designed from the ground up as a flexible content modeling system that gives developers precise control over how content is structured and displayed on the front end.

Craft’s primary audience is web developers and agencies who create custom sites for clients. That’s not to say Craft CMS neglects writers and marketers, but a straightforward out-of-the-box user experience is not its main priority.

Craft CMS vs. WordPress: Key Differences Explained

These differences in development philosophy and target market affect the design and user experience of every aspect of WordPress and Craft CMS. Let’s look at five of the most impactful factors for businesses deciding which platform to choose for their site. 

Development Model and Community

WordPress is open source software that anyone can use, modify, and distribute freely. Combined with its popularity, the ability to see and edit the code has fostered a massive ecosystem of developers, agencies, and hosting providers who build on and support the platform.

In contrast, Craft CMS has a proprietary license. You can see the code, but you have to pay to use it for business sites. There is a free version, but it is not intended for professional use. A license includes one year of support and updates, so you will have to pay an annual fee for the life of your site to receive security and feature updates. 

All development happens in-house at Pixel & Tonic. That gives the company direct control over Craft’s development roadmap and funding, but it also means you’re dependent on a single vendor for updates and long-term support.

Modularity

WordPress’s plugin architecture is one of its defining features. Over 60,000 free plugins are available in the WordPress plugin directory, with thousands more available commercially. You can add almost any functionality without custom development. Need an ecommerce store? Install WooCommerce. Want email marketing integration? Add a Mailchimp plugin.

Craft CMS also supports plugins, but its ecosystem is considerably smaller. The Craft Plugin Store contains around 1,000 plugins, but some common features that WordPress handles through plugins require custom development in Craft, reflecting its philosophy of providing a framework rather than an all-in-one solution.

Site Design and Development

WordPress uses themes to control site design and content presentation. Users can choose from thousands of free and premium themes to launch professional-looking sites quickly. Developers can build custom themes or modify existing ones to match their design requirements.

Craft CMS doesn’t have a theme system. There’s no option to install a pre-made design and start publishing content immediately. Instead, developers build custom front ends using the Twig templating engine. This system gives site owners complete control over markup and presentation, but it means every Craft site requires custom development work. 

Search Engine Optimization

WordPress offers robust SEO capabilities through plugins like Yoast SEO and Rank Math. They provide user-friendly interfaces for managing meta descriptions, XML sitemaps, schema markup, and content optimization.

Craft CMS provides SEO functionality through commercial plugins like SEOmatic for $99 and a recurring annual fee, which includes SERP previews, meta tag management, sitemaps, and structured data.

Both platforms can achieve excellent search rankings. The key difference is cost: WordPress provides robust free SEO options, while Craft’s primary SEO solutions require paid licenses.

Performance

WordPress and Craft CMS deliver excellent performance when they are properly configured and hosted. The determining factors are code quality, hosting infrastructure, caching strategy, and content delivery methods rather than the CMS itself.

WordPress’s larger ecosystem means more optimization tools are available, from caching to image optimization. However, WordPress’s flexibility can lead to performance issues if sites accumulate poorly-coded plugins or themes.

Craft CMS tends to have a leaner core, but achieving optimal performance requires proper hosting and caching. With managed WordPress hosting like Pressable, which includes built-in caching, CDN, and auto-scaling, WordPress sites can handle high traffic loads reliably.

When to Choose WordPress

WordPress is the right choice for most business websites. It excels when you need to deploy a site quickly or when you need a CMS that non-technical team members can manage confidently. Its combination of flexibility, extensive plugin ecosystem, and large community makes it suitable for many types of sites, from a simple blog to a complex ecommerce store to an enterprise site.

When to Choose Craft CMS

Craft CMS is best suited for projects that require highly customized content structures and have dedicated development resources. It’s a good choice when you’re building a bespoke site with unique content modeling needs that don’t fit standard patterns, or when you need granular control over every aspect of the front-end architecture.

Host Your WordPress Site on Pressable

If you’re looking for a Craft CMS alternative, Pressable’s managed WordPress hosting is a secure, high-performance foundation for your site. Pressable is an Automattic company, and our hosting platform is built on the same ultra-reliable cloud infrastructure as WordPress.com and WP VIP. 

Every WordPress hosting plan includes automatic scaling, a global content delivery network, and our easy-to-use control panel. Discover our full range of WordPress hosting features or schedule a demo to learn more.