Blog

What's Craft? #

We think of Craft CMS as a direct competitor to WordPress. The people who make Craft, Pixel & Tonic, don't think quite this way. But we find that our clients do.

Craft is a LAMP stack CMS in just the same way that WordPress is. The difference is that Craft is crafted. It's built by craftspeople, a small team of expert developers with the skills and dedication to create and maintain a web development tool of excellence. WordPress usually feels like something that was thrown together quickly and never refactored. WordPress is hugely popular because it's hugely popular, not because it's excellent.

The people behind Craft focus on the content author and editor experience. The companies and organizations that choose it primarily do so because it makes their daily lives bearable, maybe enjoyable, perhaps even joyful sometimes. If you're managing complex content models on a daily basis, Craft always supports you and stays out of your way.

Bosses choose WordPress for their content teams because 'no one ever got fired for hiring IBM.' Bosses who care choose Craft because they know that a successful and happy content team makes them look good.

What's In Craft 4? #

The Craft team always focuses on making the content management experience a delight. They know their customer and their customer is the content author and editor who must handle intricate and complex content models. We're talking about fields within fields and tables within tables, complex relationships, complex categorizations, etc.

Craft 4 goes deeper into this content management expertise. It doubles down on delighting the author. Usually, the content authors on a marketing team do not get a vote. But when they do, they vote for tools that are powerful, easy to use, and stay out of the way. That was Craft 2. It was Craft 3. And now it's definitely Craft 4.

Should You Upgrade? #

If you're already on Craft 2 or 3, you should definitely upgrade. If you are on Craft 2 or 3 and you hate it, you're probably doing it wrong.

We sometimes talk to prospective clients who are grudgingly on Craft. Maybe their design firm chose it for them but implemented it badly. Across the board, we have found that when an editorial team dislikes Craft it's not Craft's fault. It's the fault of the team who built out the data model in Craft.

You should upgrade and you should take the opportunity to revisit your content architecture and control panel experience. Craft is highly customizable and optimizable in this way. If this part of Craft has not been crafted for you by a pro, then give it a chance.

Should You Switch? #

Are you reading this because you have a WordPress or Drupal site and you're hating life?

We often convert sites for clients where we move them onto Craft. We keep the front end largely as-is to save money and reduce anxiety. But we tear out the backend and put Craft in its place.

Remember, if your content team is happy, efficient, and enjoying their work, you as the website owner win. Craft CMS will bring you to this new level. So switch as soon as possible.

Who Should I Call? #

Solspace has deep expertise in all manner of Craft CMS websites. Whether they are highly involved lead gen websites for medium to large service businesses like Genpact or IDEO, or perhaps complex e-commerce B2B / B2C websites such as Fireclay Tile, we can get you where you need to be and keep you there.