Why use Craft CMS?
Discover why Craft CMS offers modern architecture while maintaining comprehensive functionality, powering websites for Netflix, Ray-Ban, and the Associated Press.
Craft is a CMS that runs sites for Netflix, Ray-Ban, and the Associated Press. Compared with WordPress it has a more modern architecture, fewer of the plugin-soup problems, and a smaller attack surface.
Author experience
Craft is built around the people who use it every day. The control panel can be customised per project, and the Matrix field lets editors assemble pages from whatever content blocks the build needs — Lego-brick style. Terminology can be tailored to the client's own language, and you can build specialised content views where they help. It's closer to a content management framework than a fixed system.
Flexibility
Custom fields are in the core, so you don't lean on a stack of plugins to model content. That means less to maintain and less surface area for things to go wrong. Craft also runs beyond traditional websites — Alexa skills, interactive displays, mobile apps — via its JSON and GraphQL APIs.
Cost of ownership
The Pro licence is $300. Productivity gains tend to pay that back inside the first week of a build. Ongoing maintenance is lower because there are fewer plugins to juggle. Support plans from Pixel & Tonic start at $900/year — a long way below WordPress VIP pricing ($60,000–$300,000/year).
Forward momentum
Craft ships faster than Drupal or WordPress. Recent additions: Headless mode and a native GraphQL API. Craft Cloud is due in 2020 for managed hosting.
Bottom line
Nothing we've used balances editor experience and developer experience the way Craft does.
Andrew is Technical Director at Mutual, a Craft CMS Partner agency. He has been building with Craft CMS since its public beta in 2012 — working through every major version from Craft 1 to Craft 5 — and has delivered over 100 sites for clients including Apple, Transparency International, and Arts University Bournemouth.
He writes about Craft CMS on the Mutual blog and has contributed to net Magazine. At Mutual, he leads development of Mutual One, a marketing platform built on Craft CMS as its foundation.
He has spoken about Craft CMS to undergraduate students at the University of Brighton and Canterbury Christ Church University, and appeared on the Devmode.fm podcast. He has also trained development teams at other agencies in working with the platform.
