Why we use Craft CMS

Light Creative Jun 14, 2017

We get a lot of questions from clients about why we choose Craft CMS as our preferred CMS.

Craft CMS has only come onto the scene recently but it’s already challenging the other big CMS players who previously held a monopoly on managing your content. In this article, we’ll explain why we use Craft CMS and why you should too.

What is a CMS anyway?

A CMS (content management system) is a user-friendly admin area that allows you to change the content on your site without any fancy coding skills.

A CMS is essentially a bridge, taking the raw code that forms your website and making it easy to manipulate and change. So, after you build your website and want to make a few tweaks:

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Instead of seeing this:

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You see this:

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There are lots of good reasons to use a CMS but for big websites, CMS systems can get complicated. The pros and cons of using a CMS include...

Pros of a CMS:

  • As a client, you can easily edit content at any time without a developer looking over your shoulder;
  • Not relying on your developer for updates leaves clients with a more complete product meaning, ideally, no expensive rebuilds in future even if you want to add features;
  • Your developer has access to pre-made add-ons built into the CMS (things like log-in systems) which saves development time;
  • Security and bug testing rests on the shoulders of the people that built the CMS, who are very competitive and;
  • Clearer and more concise communication between client and developer.

Cons of a CMS:

  • It takes longer to build a site with an integrated CMS;
  • Once you lock yourself into a CMS, you’re locking yourself in for a while and if you want to expand functionality, you’ll need to find a dev who works with that particular platform;
  • While it’s great for clients to have autonomy, that same autonomy can lead to mistakes that will require a developer to fix.
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So why should I use Craft CMS?

Craft CMS is a relatively new CMS built and used by a smaller community of developers (much smaller than other popular CMSs like Drupal and Wordpress). It was built to do one thing exceptionally well, that is to manage content. It’s been designed to be flexible enough to handle any kind of content. That flexibility is Craft’s greatest point of difference.

What sets Craft CMS apart from other content management systems?

Craft CMS requires an actual developer to build a site compared to its competition. Other CMSs were built for the lowest common denominator so that anyone can build a website. And while that’s a good thing for some people, it means most websites are built off templates and can’t be customised that much. That’s why Craft is good. They haven’t lowered their standards to accommodate everyone and with that comes the flexibility to customise your website for your aims.

From the horse’s mouth: “Craft is for folk who like to take their time and do things right, building out their HTML, CSS, and JS by hand.” When your CMS provider has a sentence like this in their introduction, you know that you're in good hands and your developer is among a great community.

Why is Craft CMS better for you?

You end up with a bespoke website or web application that has been handcrafted for your needs compared to a template and it doesn’t cost more.

Your developer won’t dread doing updates to your site because they have built it from scratch and know the ins and outs of their code.

Craft doesn't lock you into cookie cutter layouts. Your web designer won’t be limited to basic layouts and can really get creative when designing which is what you pay them for.

Why is Craft CMS better for your developer?

Web developers will have more time to finesse and make the project scalable as they will spend less time fighting with software that wasn’t built with developers’ sanity in mind. Craft was built for developers, not for non-techy clients.

Developers like solving things that are complicated in simple/skillful ways. Craft allows devs more time to think of sophisticated solutions to problems.

Developers love being able to say yes to clients, content managers, and designers when they want to add things on, our developers seem to be doing this a lot more since moving to Craft.

There you have it.