Craft CMS vs WordPress CMS. Which one should you use in 2022

May 12, 2022

Craft CMS vs WordPress. Are you trying to decide what CMS to use between Craft CMS and WordPress for building your next web application? Here is our comparison between the two prominent CMS of our time.

For many years, WordPress has been the prominent open source content management system that comprises over 40% of websites built on the internet and 60% of all the CMS built. WordPress has its own popularity from its inception. Both of these platforms excel in creating the websites but trying to figure out which one is right, is not so easy. 

Business owners don’t really care about what CMS their website has been integrated into but what they all know is about the results. 

Craft CMS vs WordPress CMS: Overview

We have to understand first that each platform has its own unique importance. Both the CMS have their own unique core identity which makes them differ greatly. 

Let’s have a look.

What is Craft CMS?

Craft CMS is a user-friendly and flexible CMS for creating digital experiences on the web. It has an intuitive, content management panel for content creation and administrative tasks. A robust framework for module and plugin development. There is also an active vibrant community.

Craft CMS is a self-hosted PHP application built on Yii 2 which can connect to MySQL and PostgreSQL for content storage. 

Craft CMS was initially founded by Tonic and Pixel in the year 2013. Unlike any other CMS, Craft is not a website builder. The user must write HTML code, which makes it hard for beginners. If you have a technical background, it makes it easy to write website applications. 

One of the areas is excelled is collaboration. With Craft PRO, it is easy to ensure that each team member has access without interfering with other team members. 

However, this comes at a price because Craft PRO is expensive to use in comparison to other CMS available in the market. 

Hire a Web Designer from Green Cube Solutions at a very affordable cost. 

What is WordPress CMS?

WordPress is a powerful open-source content management system. Although it was originally built for blog making, it widely gained popularity even for making professional website applications and e-commerce platforms. 

More than 40% of the world’s websites are made in the WordPress backend and thus we can say, WordPress has been dominating the industry so far. 

The Ultimate WordPress Review – Is it the best choice for your website?

Even the non-technical user can use the platform with ease and no coding knowledge is needed. Thanks to plugins and theme community available in WordPress, which can be used and installed on your website in one click. You can select the theme design you want and add the multiple features through the plugin. Use Premium plugins and themes to give more essence to your website’s look and feel. There is something for everyone. 

So What’s the Difference?

WordPress and Craft CMS, are content management systems. While WordPress is an open-source CMS, Craft CMS is a hosted CMS. WordPress is a more user-friendly CMS that results in more integration options and support for the users while Craft CMS requires some basic coding knowledge and that is why it is hard for beginners to use it.

Though, both can be used for building the same kind of websites.

Themes and Plugins

With Craft CMS, you do not get any ready pre-built themes while it is not the case with WordPress. You can even have self-made themes integrated into WordPress by hiring some freelance web developer. There is no limitation of features when it comes to WordPress. You can even make custom plugins to get more powerful features. 

WordPress is a “Winner” here.

Ease of Use

Many users rely on a platform that is easier to use and does not require any coding knowledge. Few businesses always try to code the website by themselves to save money. WordPress has been among the ones when it comes to building websites in a few hours. 

Craft CMS vs WordPress CMS: Accessibility

Craft CMS is an intuitive platform that was designed keeping in mind the web developers who can code. This platform is not for you if you are a total beginner and don’t know how to code in HTML.

But with Craft CMS, you can build the pages faster and get them to load faster. There are no unnecessary codes that make it easier to understand. 

There are no ready-made themes available within but if you know where to look and search, you can find multiple themes. 

Using Craft CMS, you have to build everything from scratch which can be a pain in itself. 

WordPress started as a blogging platform initially and eventually became the world’s most powerful content management system. With WordPress, you don’t have to sit back and manage the code. You can Install WordPress in one go. Search for a number of themes, and plugins, select according to your needs and click Install. Once this is done, you can start creating the content. 

Check out premium WordPress themes here.

Almost anyone can make a website in WordPress. 

You can even choose the plugins for SEO and security. Thus, WordPress gives you a perfect website package.

WordPress is a “Winner” here.

Hire WordPress Website Developer for your business website.

Craft CMS vs WordPress CMS: Design

Using Craft CMS, you can build any website you want because it is code-based. You do not have the facility of using themes, unlike WordPress. 

Like WordPress, there are still free themes available on the Internet but you would have to search a lot. If you are a skilled developer, you could easily make your own coded theme and use it. For non-technical users, it is no less than a pain to manage apart from their startup business. 

There are also a few premium plugins available in the market which help you achieve the layout you want. 

Though Craft CMS has some beginner-level disadvantages, the platform is good for creating and designing beautiful content websites. 

WordPress, on the other hand, gives you full liberty of using free themes, and plugins. You can install famous page builders like Elementor, and Site Origin to build your design-specific websites from the scratch. The website builders give you in-built elements like header, footer, body, etc which you can it individually to build your website as you like. 

There are even premium themes available in the community which gives users a few click install. You are just left with the real content to update. You can even change the colors and style of the theme as per the given options by theme developers. 

When it comes to creating content, the Gutenberg editor is superb. It is a block-based editor that allows you to create posts or pages any way you want. It’s also simple to use. 

Clearly, WordPress is a “winner”.

Craft CMS vs WordPress CMS: eCommerce

Craft CMS comes with three plans when it comes to eCommerce integration. You can integrate Craft Commerce where you have to select between the two plans. Check the pricing. 

The Lite plan offers single item transaction features for the website where users just want to donate or do one-off sales. This plan costs you $199 per project. You will be even charged $39/year for the updates after the first year. 

The PRO plan offers full-fledged eCommerce features where you can customize the store all the way you want. This plan cost you $999 per project and will be charged $199/year for the updates after the first year.

If you can afford the price, Craft Commerce is great for you. 

WordPress has built one of the best eCommerce plugins to date “WooCommerce”. They offer this plugin free of cost. WooCommerce is a customizable, open-source eCommerce platform built on WordPress. You can simply install the WooCommerce plugin to any WordPress website and set up a new online store in a few minutes. Get secure payments, configurable shipping options, and more, out of the box – for free. 

You can customize and extend your store from subscriptions to gym classes to luxury cars. Add features you want in your store and extend the functionalities you want with the WooCommerce official plugin. Run your store from anywhere in the world flawlessly. 

WooCommerce is developer-friendly, scalable, and can integrate virtually with any service. It currently powers over 5 million stores.

Again, WordPress is a “winner” here because when it comes to eCommerce it is best for small and medium-scaled business websites.

Craft CMS vs WordPress CMS: Pricing

Craft CMS comes with three plans. Free, $299/project and an Enterprise level plan.

With the FREE plan, you can definitely build your website but only with a single admin account. There are many instances where you require multiple users. 

The PRO plan does give you this option but it comes at a cost of $299 per project (a one-time fee). You also have to pay $59/year for the updates from the second year. 

If you have more custom requirements, you can opt-in for the Enterprise plan which gives you a custom pricing model. It may vary as per the needs of the client. 

If you see, the plugin community of Craft CMS is very small and so you end pay higher for your features. You will be able to build a beautiful website but you have to bear some upfront costs. 

When you build your website with WordPress, you only pay for the website hosting. There is no upfront cost because WordPress is an open-source content management system. You even don’t have to worry much nowadays about website hosting costs, because there are a lot many cheap websites hosting options available that are built keeping in mind WordPress. 

So you get a lot many options to choose from. 

Apart from website hosting costs, the only other cost is premium plugins and themes if you purchase them. But their cost also ranges from $20 to $50 overall. This cost is totally optional and depends on what plugins or themes you use. 

Craft CMS vs WordPress CMS: Final Results

WordPress is a clear winner if you look overall comparing pricing, ease of use, scalability, flexibility, eCommerce, and design. The platform gives you more options and is the cheapest in the market. This is the reason it is dominating the web industry over the years. 

Read: Benefits of using WordPress to power your website