Craft CMS: What is it and what are the benefits?

To become experts in Craft CMS like us, you need to work with the system for a long time. We’ve been involved in it since its inception, even contributing to the base code. And we’ve spent hours upon hours developing with it, which is how we achieved Craft Verified Partner status and Craft Commerce verification. 

This means we’ve seen firsthand how it solves real-world challenges for businesses and developers alike. Here are a few things you should know about the benefits of using Craft CMS.   

What is Craft CMS? 

Craft CMS is a user-friendly content management system (CMS) that can be used to build bespoke websites and other digital experiences. Unlike systems such as Wix or Squarespace, it’s open source. This means its codebase is publicly accessible and continuously improved by a dedicated community. 

This openness means more flexibility and security. With Craft CMS you don’t get templates and you will always need a developer, but what you do get is the freedom to create anything you need and a site that’s completely unique. In fact at webdna we have a saying: With Craft CMS you never have to say no to a client!

Exploring the Benefits of Craft CMS

Craft CMS is built for developers 

Developers love Craft CMS as it allows them to build exactly what’s needed from scratch, which means they have full control over the front end without having a theme structure forced on them. And, because it uses matrix fields, content structures are flexible. You can add custom fields throughout and you can define different content by types, e.g. pages or blogs, using sections and entry types. Essentially, the CMS adapts to your needs rather than you having to work within the constraints of the CMS. 

All of which leads us nicely on to the fantastic user interface, which is only set to improve with the upcoming Craft CMS 6. The control panel in Craft CMS is clearly laid out and so easy to navigate. The recent Craft 5.8 update even introduced collapsible source headings, making it straightforward to navigate swiftly through your content, especially useful if you have a large site.   

Craft CMS is very much a platform that can scale as you grow, and not just because of its flexible content architecture. Its multi-site support means that you can run multiple websites for different brands in different regions and languages. It’s also easy to make the move from a brochure site to a commerce site thanks to Craft Commerce. 

Craft CMS has a thriving plugin ecosystem. Sure, it has excellent functionality as it is, but it also allows developers to easily build custom modules and plugins to further extend functionality. And the community is proactive; there’s literally a plugin for everything. If you can’t find what you’re looking for, our team can probably build it for you.  

Craft CMS is great for marketing teams

Because of its excellent content authoring experience, Craft CMS is great for busy marketing teams. Being able to add entries into the rich text editor means articles can be built in no time at all, and thanks to the live preview, you can see what your content will look like on your website as you edit it. And features such as draft and scheduling are only set to get better with the introduction of Craft 6, which will bring improved approval workflows and scheduling functionality. 

But it’s not all about the authoring experience. Thanks to the full control it gives developers, Craft CMS has an SEO-friendly structure. The lean code base means less bloat, so it reduces SEO issues and meta tags, descriptions and images can easily be managed through the plugin SEOmatic. 

This incredibly popular Craft CMS plugin ensures best practices and allows our clients to keep their sites performing as well as they did the day they were launched. It also allows users to easily manage integrations with analytics tools like Google Tag Manager, Facebook Pixel, and pretty much any other integration you could possibly need.

Why businesses trust Craft CMS

Aside from the flexibility and scalability, Craft CMS gives businesses peace of mind because of its security and performance. Again, the lack of bloat means Craft sites are generally leaner and more secure, while regular updates and a strong focus on secure coding practices help protect Craft sites from common web vulnerabilities.

Pixel & Tonic, the team behind Craft, has a clear business model which includes support, bug fixes and a defined road map. Our hosting and maintenance service is built around this to ensure that all the necessary security updates and routine upgrades are carried out consistently. webdna hosting and maintenance clients also benefit from green hosting and our 99.9% uptime guarantee!   

When to choose Craft CMS 

Craft CMS is a great choice for organisations that want to stand out and gain a competitive edge. Supported by a specialist Craft CMS development team you can create a custom website which supports your business and integrates with any other systems you need it to.  

While Craft CMS developers benefit from full control over design and structure, the site should be built in a way that gives you and your team full control over the content and authoring experience. For us, this is a given, but we appreciate that this is not always the case. Do talk to your prospective providers to be sure they carry out a full discovery process to understand your needs and goals.   

Finally, Craft CMS has capabilities that off-the-shelf systems simply can’t handle. It’s ideal if you want to invest in your website so that it can easily evolve and rescale without the pain of replatforming.