Menu
What are the differences between Craft CMS and WordPress?
-
-
WordPress is the most popular CMS in the world and powers the majority of all websites. For standard projects or simple business websites, it works just fine. But once we start talking about more complex digital platforms, think international e-commerce sites or extensive B2B portals, the playing field changes. It’s no longer just about speed and convenience, but also about scalability, flexibility, and future readiness.
In this blog, we’ll compare WordPress and Craft CMS. The goal: an honest evaluation of what each system offers organizations that want to move forward digitally. We’ll discuss customization and strategic possibilities. Not ready‑made “click‑and‑go” solutions, but complex digital projects that place high demands on technology, management, and user experience.
What is WordPress?
WordPress started as a simple platform for bloggers. Today, it has grown into the most widely used content management system in the world. Its success is largely due to its vast library of themes and plugins. This makes it easy for almost anyone, even without deep technical knowledge, to quickly set up a website. For simple business sites or personal projects, this often works well. However, this same dependence on third‑party plugins introduces challenges when it comes to scalability, security, and customization.
What is Craft CMS?
Craft CMS is a relatively young player in the CMS world. It has been built from the ground up with customization and flexibility in mind. Instead of relying on pre‑defined themes, developers have the freedom to build digital platforms that fully align with an organization’s needs. Craft combines an intuitive, user‑friendly interface with strong security and a modern technical foundation, making it particularly well‑suited for scalable, professional projects.
What’s the Difference Between WordPress and Craft CMS?
WordPress was originally designed as a blogging system, which means it comes with a built‑in structure. When you want to build something completely custom, you often have to work around this existing setup. That quickly becomes complex and less efficient.
Craft CMS, on the other hand, doesn’t impose a rigid structure. It provides a flexible framework that lets you build your own CMS architecture. As a result, every website built with Craft CMS is inherently custom and unique. Moreover, future expansions and iterations continue to work seamlessly, making Craft CMS much better suited for long‑term, maintainable custom solutions.
Advantages of WordPress
- Ease of use: Its intuitive interface allows both beginners and experienced users to manage content easily.
- Extensive functionality: With thousands of available plugins and themes, it’s easy to add features and adjust the appearance of your website.
- Large community: The worldwide community ensures a constant flow of updates, support, and new extensions.
Disadvantages of WordPress
- Security risks: Its popularity and open nature make WordPress an attractive target for hackers. Regular maintenance and updates are essential to keep it secure.
- Fixed structure: Because WordPress was originally developed as a blog platform with a predetermined structure, developers often have to work around its limitations, costing extra time and effort.
- Customization limits: Although WordPress offers many options, truly bespoke solutions are often more difficult to achieve. Companies looking for a unique website often run into restrictions caused by templates and plugins.
Advantages of Craft CMS
- Flexibility and customization: Developers have full control over design and functionality, enabling a unique website that perfectly fits specific needs and requirements.
- Robust security: With its curated plugin marketplace and focus on quality, Craft CMS is less prone to security issues.
- User‑friendly content management: Its interface is designed with content editors in mind, making managing content easy and efficient. The CMS is also mobile‑friendly and digitally accessible.
Disadvantages of Craft CMS
- Cost: Because a website built with Craft CMS is always fully customized, the initial investment can be higher. On top of that, Craft CMS is not free, there are licensing costs involved.
- Technical expertise required: Setting up a Craft CMS website requires more technical know‑how. Since the system is built for custom development, setups can quickly become more complex.
- Smaller community: Although growing steadily, Craft CMS’s community is smaller than WordPress’s, meaning fewer ready‑made solutions are available.
Which CMS does what?
At first glance, WordPress and Craft CMS might seem similar, but under the hood, they’re built very differently. The comparison below gives a clear overview of which features are available out of the box, and where you’ll need plugins or workarounds to achieve the same results.
Move the table from left to right
| Feature | Description | WordPress | Craft CMS |
|---|---|---|---|
| Multi-language | Manage content in multiple languages without plugins. | Only via plugins (e.g. WPML, Polylang, Weglot) | Built-in multilingual support |
| Multi-domain | Manage multiple sites/domains from a single CMS. | Possible via Multisite (complex and limited) | Fully supported out of the box |
| Automatic Image Transforms | Device-based image optimization and resizing. | Only via plugins | Built-in image transforms |
| Image Replacement | Replace an image and update it site-wide. | Native functionality | Native functionality |
| Page Versioning | Track and revert changes to content pages. | Built-in | Built-in |
| Page Scheduling | Schedule content to go live or offline. | Built-in | Built-in |
| User Permissions | Set granular permissions by user, role, language, or content type. | Basic built-in, advanced via plugin | Extremely detailed by default |
| User Impersonation | Log in as another user for support/testing. | Only via plugins | Built-in |
| Image Focal Point | Set focus point for cropping/resizing images. | Only via plugins | Built-in |
| Plugin Store | Central marketplace for extensions. | Extensive ecosystem (quality varies) | Curated official plugin store (smaller but more controlled) |
| Two-Factor Authentication (2FA) | Secure account logins. | Only via plugins | Built-in |
| SEO Capabilities | Search engine optimization tools. | Via template of plugins
| Via template of plugins |
| E-Commerce | Set up a webshop. | Via WooCommerce/plugins | Craft Commerce (premium module) |
| Community & Support | Size and availability of community resources. | Massive global community, extensive documentation | Smaller niche community, official support by Pixel & Tonic |
| Performance | Scalability and speed. | Depends heavily on plugins and hosting | ightweight core, designed for scale |
| Security | Built-in protection against vulnerabilities. | Often vulnerable due to plugin diversity | Strong security focus with a smaller attack surface |
| Content Editing | Custom content blocks and flexible editorial workflows. | Requires plugins for full flexibility | Rich built-in matrix fields for tailored content |
| Forms | Create and manage forms and submissions. | Only via plugins | Only via plugins |
| Live Previews | Preview content edits before publishing (no login). | Only via plugins | Built-in |
How Craft CMS Proves Its Strength in Practice
Craft CMS excels in flexibility, scalability, and usability. These qualities make it ideal for complex and diverse digital solutions. Below are examples of how Craft CMS helps organizations work more efficiently without compromising on design, control, or usability.
Blocks within blocks within blocks within blocks within…
A great example of Craft CMS’s scalability is the flexible CTA (call‑to‑action) component we implemented for a large learning platform. This project required the ability to add CTA's on any page and inside any content block (for example, under a card, between text, or on top of a hero image). Each CTA also needed to be available in different styles, buttons in multiple colors or links with icons.
The power of Craft CMS lies in its ability to nest blocks within blocks. In this project, we created a CTA entry that functions as an independent block but can also be embedded within other content blocks. As a result, content editors can place multiple CTA's inside a text block, hero section, or card component, each with its own text and link. The content of these CTA's can vary per page or block, while the technical structure and styling are managed centrally. A change to color, style, or functionality can then be applied across the entire site in one go.
This “block‑within‑block” principle makes the system not only scalable but incredibly flexible. For content editors, it feels like working with Lego bricks: they can add, rearrange, and combine elements freely without breaking anything, while visual consistency is maintained. The result is a dynamic platform where content can easily be expanded or adapted, the very essence of Craft CMS’s power.
Regional Access Management in Craft CMS
For an international organization, we developed a Craft CMS environment where country‑ and region‑specific content can be managed effortlessly. Within this platform, each country has its own subsites, such as Dutch and French versions for the Belgium site. Thanks to the flexible permissions and roles system, local content editors can manage their own content independently, without accessing other countries’ sites.
In practice, this means a Country Content Manager for Belgium sees and controls only the relevant languages and content. The CMS remains clean and user‑friendly for each user, while access to other regions is automatically restricted. This allows teams to collaborate efficiently within one system, without the risk of overwriting or editing each other’s work.
We also created broader roles, such as Regional Content Managers, who have rights across multiple sites and content types. Craft CMS allows these permissions to be fine‑tuned to any level of responsibility. The best part? All this functionality is built into Craft CMS with no extra plugins or workarounds required.
Which one should you choose?
Whether you choose WordPress or Craft CMS, both systems can produce strong or weak websites. The main difference lies in the degree of customization and scalability. While WordPress tends to run into limitations for complex projects due to its predefined structure, Craft CMS offers the flexibility to create a digital platform fully tailored to an organization’s specific needs and processes. It combines maximum freedom for developers with an intuitive, secure environment for content managers.
Ultimately, the choice isn’t just about the CMS itself, but also the people who implement it. An experienced agency knows how to get the most out of any system, WordPress or Craft, and that can make the difference between a website that stays limited in scope and a platform that grows along with your organization.
These companies preceded you
Interested in a CMS that grows with you?
Contact us
Find out how we can help you to smoothly upgrade to Craft CMS!
Mattijs de Nooijer
Founder & Business analyst