Craft CMS vs. WordPress: A Comprehensive Guide to Choosing the Right CMS for Your Business Needs – Part 1

WordPress and Craft CMS are two super popular modern solutions for site building and content management. Since you’ve landed on this page, you must be looking for an answer to the question “Which of these two specific platforms suits my project better?” 

Well, this depends on multiple factors. Both are great tools, bringing their own strengths and unique features to the table. You can build almost any type of website with WordPress and Craft CMS. They just do it in different ways. Confused? 

To clear the fog away and help you make an informed decision that aligns with your exact project’s goals, we’ve compiled this comprehensive guide.

It’s in two parts. In Part 1, you’ll learn about the key differences between Craft CMS and WordPress across several aspects, such as their philosophies, target audiences, pricing models, and more. As a bonus, you’ll also have a sneak peek into two projects we’ve developed using both systems. 

Part 2 compares the platforms from a more technical perspective, including the differences in server requirements, installation process, and more.

Without further ado, let’s dive in! 

Craft CMS vs WordPress: What They Are and How They Originated 

Craft CMS

Craft CMS is an open-source content management system based on the Yii2 framework. It was first released by the company called Pixel & Tonic back in 2013. 

However strange it may sound (you’ll see why below), the founders were disappointed by the limitations of WordPress. So, they decided to create an alternative solution to give developers total freedom in their approach to modern website building 

In contrast to many CMSs available today, Craft CMS isn’t a rank-and-file website builder. It’s focused on developers. Thus, you need to know the staple web technologies (HTML, CSS, and PHP) to be able to develop websites the right way. That must be why the creators named their brainchild “Craft” (our guess). 

WordPress 

With PHP and MySQL under the hood, WordPress saw the light of day in 2003, that’s over two decades ago. Its founders Mike Little and Matt Mullenweg conceived it as a blogging platform. But as time went by, WordPress grew into something much bigger than just a handy content management tool for would-be web publishers. 

It now serves as the driving engine for millions of websites of all types and sizes, from portfolios and eLearning platforms to online stores (in pair with WooCommerce) and enterprise solutions. 

WordPress is free to download and install. That’s probably one of the main reasons why this platform has the largest market share among all present-day CMSs with over 43% of all sites on the Internet currently using it! 

WordPress is famously known for its vast collection of themes and plugins (community and commercial) you can use to address every task out there, from marketing and search engine optimization to AI integration and website maintenance. 

But while they share many characteristics, what actually makes Craft CMS and WordPress different? Let’s break it down aspect by aspect. 

Craft CMS vs. WordPress: The Main Distinctions 

Core Philosophy and Target Audience

Let’s begin by reviewing the core philosophy behind each platform, and their intended users. 

WordPress 

WordPress is one of the best platforms when it comes to user centered design and functionality. Virtually anyone, with or without a technical background, can quickly and easily get to grips with it. Bloggers, small business owners, eCommerce website administrators—all will find  WordPress’s interface straightforward to create and manage their content. 

That’s exactly this core philosophy of universal accessibility that has made WordPress so immensely popular among everyone who wants to get their online presence up and running without digging into the system’s bowels. 

Craft CMS

Craft CMS, in turn, was designed to cater to the needs of developers and creative professionals first and foremost. The system’s philosophy centers around equipping developers with all the capabilities to craft custom websites tailored to unique needs without limitations typical of most WordPress themes, either free or commercial. 

So, if you’re after a high degree of customization and flexibility and can expertly use principal web technologies, Craft CMS is definitely the way to go. It’s like putting a blank sheet of paper on the table in front of you and drawing away whatever you like, if you know how. 

Setup and Initial Learning Curve

The next aspect on our agenda is the specifics of setting up and learning to use the two contenders.

WordPress

The installation process for WordPress is amazingly simple and lightning fast. Just a few steps through the convenient setup wizard and voilà: your WordPress website is here waiting for you to shape it into something that matches your vision, add content, and deploy it to a live server. 

The platform also has an intuitive, easy-to-navigate interface, which even beginners without previous CMS experience can master in no time. You will find tons of useful resources on WordPress management and installation on the web. 

The bottom line is that WordPress is a fantastic option for everyone who wants to get started almost immediately. You do need to host a WordPress website on a server, though. 

But, again, WordPress is so tremendously popular that finding a hosting provider takes just one Google search. Or, you can set up your site with a hosting provider right from the WordPress.org download page. 

Craft CMS 

Unlike WordPress, installing and configuring Craft CMS is not a walk in the park without some technical expertise and a thorough understanding of the platform. 

But when you’ve done it right, you get a very sweet reward for your efforts—the highest level of customization that few other tools, including WordPress, can beat. You can literally control every single facet of website creation: from the front end to the back end and everything in between. 

Design Flexibility and Customization

Both platforms excel at design flexibility and customization, but they take different paths to achieve them. Each targets its own types of users and kinds of projects. 

WordPress 

You might have heard about the vast collection of themes WordPress offers. If you visit their repository, you will find a huge number of themes to meet every need, both free to install and use and premium ones with more advanced features and top-notch support. 

This is, again, what attracts so many ordinary people without expertise in web development to WordPress. You can quickly set up a theme and modify it to embody your business personality. 

The best part? You don’t have to write a single line of code. Everything happens inside the handy visual editor. 

Craft CMS 

If you thought Craft CMS should have a rich collection of themes similar to WordPress, we have to disappoint you. It doesn’t. At least, not at the official level. 

Developers and designers themselves have crafted thousands of Craft CMS themes you can obtain for free or purchase on third-party websites. But since Craft CMS is a developer-focused system, you still have to modify those themes through coding. 

If you’re truly interested in creating a bespoke website design, the best route you can take is to forgo pre-existing themes and code a theme from scratch, leveraging the powerful Craft CMS editing capabilities. 

This way you will create a bespoke interface in full compliance with your specifications. The customization options are limitless provided you know how to use HTML and CSS to your best advantage. 

Plugin Ecosystem and Functionality

As for plugins and functionality, Craft CMS and WordPress continue playing their neck-to-neck game. They both provide excellent functionality capabilities, but as with most other aspects, do that in different ways. 

WordPress

Similar to themes, WordPress boasts a vast collection of plugins you can use to handle every task. And we mean every. For example, if you want to take advantage of the recent AI revolution to create content for your website in minutes instead of days, you can use one of the numerous ChatGPT plugins available in the WordPress repository.

Installing and activating a plugin is a straightforward button-clicking process, too. No coding is required. As a downside, you need to regularly check the plugins you’ve installed are not obsolete. Outdated plugins are a magnet for hackers who can exploit your site through them. 

Also make sure that the plugins don’t come into conflict with one another, causing slowdowns and crashes. So, if you ultimately decide to take the WordPress road, our advice is to frequently audit your plugins and update them. 

Craft CMS 

Quantity doesn’t always equal quality. Keeping this aphorism in mind, the developers of Craft CMS focused on creating a relatively small set of top-quality, well-vetted plugins that perform specific functions and integrate with websites without a hitch. This contributes to higher performance and hassle-free maintenance. 

There’s more. If you have questions on using a certain plugin or experience issues with it, you can connect with the plugin’s developer directly, bypassing the support team. This gives you confidence regarding the security and uninterrupted operation of your Craft CMS website. 

In addition to the official plugins, you can find community-made plugins on various resources. In contrast to what the vendor offers, though, you should approach these solutions with caution. 

Developers differ in their skills and experience. So, some “DIY” plugins can be poorly coded, leading to performance issues or even more serious problems. 

Security and Maintenance

This one is not a tie. But still very close. Both systems are good as far as security and maintenance go. But there are certain challenges you need to be aware of. 

WordPress

WordPress’s global popularity is its curse at the same time. Since so many individuals and organizations adopt it for their needs, hackers have more opportunities for frequent malicious attacks. 

We should say that WordPress itself is very secure thanks to regular security updates and patches to keep cyber criminals at bay. It’s users themselves who are often the main culprit behind security vulnerabilities. 

Why so? We’ve already discussed how obsolete plugins could invite trouble. When there are lots of them installed on a website and no action is taken to keep them updated, the site is slowly turning into an atomic bomb ready to explode at any moment. 

So, again. If you choose WordPress, don’t get carried away by the sheer number of plugins up for grabs. Take a proactive approach by auditing the installed plugins and updating them on a regular basis, or removing those that no longer receive support from their developers. 

Craft CMS 

Fewer plugins mean tighter control over them, smooth integration with the core system, and, ultimately, top-notch security with no vulnerabilities. That’s exactly what Craft CMS provides. 

Additionally, the vendor frequently updates the platform itself to thwart any security threats immediately. They also enforce sophisticated security protocols, such as PDO to add a defensive shield against SQL injection attacks. 

All that definitely puts Craft CMS above many of its competitors when security is your primary focus. 

Performance and Speed Optimization

Performance and speed optimization is another aspect where Craft CMS and WordPress differ in their approaches and have their strengths and challenges. 

WordPress 

While WordPress offers a vast ecosystem of plugins, too many of them installed on a single website can adversely impact its loading speed and performance. 

That said, you can effectively prevent those issues if you manage your plugins properly. For example, you may ensure that you don’t have several plugins addressing the same task, such as making backups of your content and data. Pick one best solution for each function and remove the rest. 

To improve the performance and responsiveness of your WordPress website even further, you can use specialized plugins and various tools for image optimization, database management, and caching. 

Craft CMS 

Craft CMS takes a different approach. Instead of relying on plugins, like WordPress does, it offers a lightweight architecture and a default speed optimization mechanism. 

This allows the platform to successfully handle the most complex, enterprise-grade projects and projects where performance is a major concern. 

We should especially commend Craft CMS’s image handling prowess. It perfectly optimizes any media you “feed” it without affecting the quality in any way.  

And the cherry on top: real-time content preview. This amazing feature enables content editors and developers to see any updates they make instantly displayed on the screen. 

SEO and Content Management

This is another close one. Both Craft CMS and WordPress provide excellent options to improve your website’s search engine visibility. 

WordPress 

This platform is universally known for its inherent SEO friendliness. That, once again, thanks to numerous SEO plugins in the WordPress repository.

Probably the best known of those is Yoast SEO. This easy-to-use plugin greatly facilitates the process of improving search rankings, guiding you in the right direction whenever you add or update content on your website. 

As far as content management is concerned, WordPress stands out among other CMSs. With its extensive range of themes and fantastic customization options, the platform allows you to enjoy a truly seamless experience publishing and modifying content. 

Craft CMS 

However unusual it may sound when we talk about Craft CMS, it leverages the power of a SEO plugin to win search engines’ attention and favor, too. This plugin is called SEOmatic, and it seamlessly blends into Craft. This way, you get all the SEO control over your content. 

So, if you’re an SEO expert who wants to fine-tune a Craft CMS website for the best search engine visibility, consider SEOmatic as a command center with all the right buttons at your fingertips. 

Regarding content management, Craft offers a convenient, streamlined structure. It allows you to create the most complex types of content like property listings with detailed property pages, maps, and search filters. And this in addition to the real-time content preview we’ve discussed in the previous section.

eCommerce Options

You can build robust and engaging online stores with both platforms. And this time, Craft CMS and WordPress take a similar approach to handling the task. 

WordPress 

To create eCommerce websites, WordPress offers a flexible and convenient WooCommerce plugin. Install and activate it, and you’ll transform your ordinary WordPress website into a fast and feature-rich online store that’s easy to launch and run. 

This is a great way to set up an eCommerce site quickly and easily, especially if you have no previous web development experience. What’s more, you can choose from a variety of WooCommerce themes and plugins available in the WordPress repository to customize your store as you see fit. 

By combining WordPress’s exceptional content management flexibility with WooCommerce’s powerful eCommerce capabilities, you get an effective tool to attract customers, enhance search engine visibility, and ultimately improve your sales numbers. 

Craft CMS 

If you want to develop an online store based on Craft CMS, you need to use a plugin as well. Called Craft Commerce, it provides a fine-grained control over every aspect of your eCommerce solution. 

With Craft Commerce, the sky’s the limit as far as customization goes. Integrate with multiple payment gateways, create a fully custom checkout process, manage complex product catalogs, or do anything else to suit your specific business needs. 

This flexibility and tight control over the technical aspects of an online store make Craft CMS a preferred tool for brands looking to build a unique, easily scalable eCommerce platform they can customize in every way they want. 

Pricing and Licensing

Features and customization capabilities are all well and good, but every business needs a cost-effective solution to achieve the highest ROI. How do Craft CMS and WordPress compare in this respect? Here are the details. 

WordPress 

WordPress is an open-source CMS, meaning that it’s free to download and install. That being said, various costs may add up before and after you put your website online. 

For example, you need to register a domain name for your website, which is like its digital address, and renew the registration, typically every year. Expect to pay from around $10 to $20 annually for this. 

Then there’s the cost of hosting your website, or the space where your website is located on a server. Various hosting providers like GoDaddy or HostGator have different prices for these services, sometimes widely different. You might start at just around $4 and go up all the way to $100 and more, depending on your requirements. 

Besides, you may want to purchase a premium theme or plugins for your WordPress site. That increases the total sum of the bill. Commercial themes typically cost between $25 and $250, while plugins range from $15 to $200. 

There are other factors influencing the price of a WordPress website, too. Explore our post “How Much Does It Cost to Build a WordPress Website in 2024? Data-Driven Truth” for a comprehensive review of what the cost of building a WordPress website involves. 

Craft CMS 

Craft offers four plans:

• Solo: free 
• Team: $279 per project
• Pro: $399 per project
• Enterprise: On an individual basis

These differ in their features and support. For example, with the Solo plan, you get only one administrator account. At the same time, the Team plan gives you access to five accounts, while the other two premium plans don’t limit you in this respect. 

Or, the Solo and Team plans come without the Custom Roles and Permissions, Branded control panel, and Branded communication features. Therefore, to make the most of Craft CMS, you certainly need to purchase a premium license, at least Team. 

There’s an upside to this upfront spending, though—predictability and flexibility. You know that you can only pay for what really matters to your business instead of bulk-buying features you don’t need at all. 

At the end of the day, if pricing is your key selection point, Craft CMS comes with a well-structured pricing model, where quality and fine control are in the spotlight. On the other hand, WordPress is flexible as far as financial investment is concerned, but has hidden costs that you may incur down the road. 

Community and Support

Collaborative, empathetic community and professional support are super important for any software, including CMSs. They allow you to resolve any issues that crop up quickly, learn about best industry practices, and connect with other users to share experiences. 

Let’s look at what Craft CMS and WordPress offer their users regarding this aspect. 

WordPress 

WordPress was first released back in 2003. Since then, it has gathered a community that’s bigger than any other CMS by a considerable margin. Whatever problem you’ve run into, you will find tons of valuable information on thousands of forums, online tutorials, and knowledge bases to help you resolve it efficiently. 

Craft CMS 

Of course, it’s hard to compare the WordPress and Craft CMS communities in terms of size. The latter is much smaller. But it’s very engaged and highly professional, since it includes many web development experts. 

You can also count on solid support across multiple top-quality channels. Those include special forums where users and developers share insights and advice on resolving issues. Stay confident that no one will brush you aside. You will get all the support you need promptly. 

So, there you have it. We’ve compared and contrasted Craft CMS and WordPress across the most crucial aspects that can have a profound impact on the success of your project. Here’s a brief summary of the key facts we’ve overviewed: 

Craft CMS vs. WordPress: Key Facts 

Aspect	WordPress	Craft CMS
Core Philosophy and Target Audience	Universal accessibility, with or without a technical background. Bloggers, business owners, eCommerce website owners, and almost anyone else.	Equipping developers with the capabilities to craft custom websites tailored to unique needs. Developers proficient in using the principal web technologies (HTML, CSS, PHP).
Setup and Initial Learning Curve	Easy to install and use. Tons of educational resources to get to grips with the CMS quickly.	Installation and configuration requires specialized expertise and a thorough understanding of the platform.
Design Flexibility and Customization	Lots of themes available in the repository. Themes are easy to set up. No coding is required.	No official themes. You can find themes built by developers on various resources. High degree of customization through coding.
Plugin Ecosystem and Functionality	A vast collection of plugins to meet every need. Easy to install and activate. You need to update plugins regularly to avoid issues.	A relatively small set of high-quality plugins that seamlessly integrate with the core system. Direct connection with plugin developers for quick issue resolutions.
Security and Maintenance	Security issues frequently occur because of users’ actions  or negligence, like failing to update plugins regularly.	Fewer plugins mean better control over security. The vendor regularly rolls out security updates and patches.
Performance and Speed Optimization	Too many plugins installed on a single website can negatively impact website performance. WordPress offers various performance optimization plugins and tools for image compression, database management, and caching.	Lightweight architecture and a default speed optimization mechanism allow the system to handle complex, enterprise-level projects easily. Excellent image handling capabilities. Real-time content preview.
SEO and Content Management	SEO-friendly. Offers a vast array of SEO plugins, with Yoast SEO  being the most popular choice. Exceptional content management options.	The powerful SEOmatic plugin blends perfectly with the core, providing a fine-grained SEO control over content.
eCommerce Options	The WooCommerce plugin is the easiest way to create powerful online stores, taking advantage of WordPress’s native content management convenience.	The Craft Commerce plugin provides precise control over every aspect of your online store, allowing you to build a unique, scalable, and highly customizable eCommerce platform.
Pricing and Licensing	An open-source solution. Free to download and install, but expenses may add up (domain name registration and renewal, hosting, premium themes and plugins, etc.)	Offers four plans with varying options:  Solo: free  Team: $279 per project Pro: $399 per project Enterprise: On an individual basis
Community and Support	Boasts the largest community among all CMSs. You can easily solve any problem through online tutorials, forums, and knowledge bases.	A smaller, but highly professional and empathetic community. Includes many expert web developers.

Choosing the Right Platform: Our Recommendations

So, which platform should you choose for your mission-critical project? Here are some practical recommendations from our experts. 

Budget and Time 

If you’re somewhat restricted in your financial resources, but need to launch a website as quickly as possible, WordPress is probably a better choice. 

It’s open-source, free to download and install, and offers a great number of themes and plugins to get you started at a relatively low cost. This platform is ideal for projects with a small scope and a modest budget. 

Scope and  Customization Level 

If you want a truly unique, deeply customized solution with a large scope and complex content types, we recommend choosing Craft CMS. Thanks to its flexible, well-structured architecture, developers can craft tailored solutions without the limitations that many generic tools impose. 

Technical Background 

Your web development expertise and experience matter, too. If you’re just starting out, pick WordPress. With its intuitive interface and a world of resources available online, this platform is a go-to solution for beginning users. 

On the other hand, if you’re already proficient with principal web development technologies, Craft CMS is definitely the number one option for you to consider.

In general, choose WordPress if you need a quick, pre-built solution for a small business website, blog, or portfolio with minimal development effort. 

Take the Craft CMS route if you want a highly customizable, professional-level website where performance, scalability, and uniqueness are top priorities. It’s perfect for projects with a dedicated developer or agency. 

Let’s hear what our leading CMS developer Serhii Chyzhykov has to say about this tough choice: 

As an expert developer with vast experience in building both WordPress and Craft CMS websites, I can say that each of these platforms brings unique benefits to different types of clients.

WordPress is a perfect fit for small and medium-sized businesses, bloggers, online stores, and companies that need to have their website up and running quickly, using a wide range of ready-made solutions.

Its flexibility and extensive collection of plugins allow users to address a great number of issues even without significant technical resources at their disposal.

Craft CMS, on the other hand, is a staunch favorite among clients who come from creative industries, as well as agencies and companies in need of solutions fully tailored to their specific needs.

This platform provides complete control over the website layout, design, and performance, which makes it ideal for projects where uniqueness and a high degree of customization are key.

In my experience, the choice of a CMS always hinges upon business specifics and project goals. We serve clients from various industries, helping them achieve the best results by selecting a platform that meets their unique needs.

Craft CMS vs. WordPress: Typical Use Cases

	WordPress	Craft CMS
Small budget, but need an online presence ASAP	+
Large-sized project with complex content types, requires deep customization		+
Beginning user, with no technical background	+
Proficient in key web technologies		+

Example Projects 

To wrap it up, we want to share two projects we’ve done for our clients using each platform. Perhaps, one of these websites looks similar to what you have in mind, which can be a decisive argument in the Craft CMS vs. WordPress dilemma you’re currently trying to solve. 

Craft CMS: Hallingcast 

This is a project we did for Hallingcast, a forward-thinking Norwegian digital agency, using Craft CMS. 

We expertly converted the Figma designs the client provided into fully functional web pages: a comprehensive blog overview, detailed article pages, a captivating homepage, and others.

We also added a number of custom features, including seamless video integration in the hero section and some exciting dynamic effects, like changing characters in the main page heading. 

Efficiently using Craft CMS and its plugins for email marketing, social media integration, and SEO, our experts created a powerful and flexible platform geared towards meeting Hallingcast’s specific needs. 

To dive deeper into the project details and learn how we achieved these results, read the full case study “Leveraging Craft CMS to Create Hallingcast’s Corporate Website.” 

WordPress: BizDeva 

And here’s the BizDeva project, which saw us designing and developing a custom WordPress website for a brand led by the dynamic sales expert, Maryna Nikitchuk. Our mission was to enhance her personal brand and online presence with a site that truly reflects her expertise and vision.

We began with a creative design process, crafting a mood board that resonated with Maryna’s brand identity. This laid the foundation for a stunning website design, incorporating hand-written elements and a unique color palette.

Our front-end team then transformed these designs into a pixel-perfect web experience, while our WordPress experts built a custom theme enriched with engaging features.

One standout element is the Testimonials Carousel we developed using the Swiper slider for a sleek, interactive display. We also implemented animations on scroll using the Motion One library, and a custom cursor that adapts its appearance based on user interactions. 

To broaden Maryna’s reach, we integrated multilingual support with the Polylang plugin, ensuring content is accessible in English and Ukrainian, with potential for expansion.

The outcome was a visually captivating and functionally robust website that aligned perfectly with Maryna’s vision. The project significantly bolstered BizDeva’s online presence, enabling the client to showcase her sales expertise and connect with a wider audience. 

Explore the full case study “Designing and Developing a Custom WordPress Website to Promote the BizDeva Brand” to see how we brought this project to life and contributed to BizDeva’s digital success using the power of WordPress and its vast ecosystem of plugins. 

Craft CMS vs. WordPress? No, Craft CMS AND WordPress! Top-Notch Development Services by GetDevDone 

Here’s the good news. Whichever system you ultimately choose, Craft CMS or WordPress, GetDevDone has expert developers on board to create a stunningly beautiful website aligned with your unique needs. 

Whether you’re looking to build a completely custom solution, want to customize a pre-existing theme, or require a bespoke plugin to perform a function specific to your business, we’ve got you covered. 

Our overarching goal is to help your brand or agency grow and succeed! Contact us today and let’s turn your vision into reality.