Why we think Craft CMS is the best Content Management System in 2019, and why you will too
If you have a business that has or needs a website, you’ve probably been doing some research about how to build the perfect website for your business.
And if you’ve been doing any research, you’ve likely come across the content management system (CMS) called WordPress.
After all, 30% of websites are powered by WordPress, making it the biggest CMS out there today.
But here’s the thing-- WordPress, while very popular, isn’t always the best fit for everyone’s website needs.
Yep, you heard that right!
You see, every business has specific and unique needs that their website must be able to accommodate.
And the real problem is that most business owners just don’t realize what a CMS is, why picking the right one is important, and lastly, how to pick the right one for your business to really be successful online.
So you’re probably feeling a bit overwhelmed, maybe even a little confused, and you probably have a lot of questions like:
- What CMS is best for my website?
- Should I use a template site like WordPress or something more customizable like Craft CMS?
- Should I hire someone to design and develop my website for me or should I try to do it myself?
And probably more…
But not to worry because that’s why we are here with this week’s post to help answer these questions. That way, you have a site that’s perfectly optimized for your specific needs, meaning your site will be user-friendly, more intuitive, and beautifully laid out resulting in more online visibility.
And trust us, you want more online visibility because that’s what allows your business to really take off.
Here at Rocket Park, our goal is to help you and your business thrive. So if you feel like you are needing a little extra support in learning about the best CMS for your site or the best way to build your website, feel free to contact us to book a free strategy call.
Or keep reading to find out more about why Craft CMS is our top pick for a content management system in today’s ever-evolving internet marketing world.
Do you have specific or unique business needs?
First and foremost, you want to determine if your business has unique and specific requirements that would benefit from more a customizable CMS like Craft CMS.
So if your business has:
- A specific target market
- Very specific and unique needs for your website
- Unique products or services
- Isn’t just a blog
Chances are that you will really benefit from a custom-built solution.
Why?
Well because template, out-of-the-box sites like WordPress can only be customized so much to meet your needs, and the customization usually comes at the cost of your site’s performance. And to be honest, in today’s online marketing sphere, you really can’t afford to miss the mark on your website’s responsiveness, speed, or security.
Your website is your brand. It’s usually the first thing people see when they are introduced to you and your business. In short, it's your name on the line, so making the right first impression is imperative.
So let's talk about why we love Craft CMS and why we think you will too.
Live preview
So other content management systems like WordPress are famous for making you update your changes and reload the page every time you want to preview a change. And as you can imagine, it's not only a pain but also slows down your workflow for changes that you or your team may not want to keep.
But with Craft CMS, you use the “view preview” which will bring up a split-screen that allows you to preview your changes before you publish them, making changing seamless, easy, and efficient.
You can even send URLs of these previews to your colleagues, increasing efficiency of workflow.
Hello more efficient changes and editing!
Security
So we know that with the right CMS, updates are a great way to keep your site secure. And Craft’s one-click update feature makes keeping your site up-to-date and safe a breeze.
Other sites can really make updates difficult and/or time-consuming.
And updates on some content management systems like WordPress are just quick fixes to target a particular cyber threat, meaning that the update won’t be released until after there has been a potential security issue.
But you don’t have to worry about that with Craft. They are on point with their security. They make sure to release updates before there are any issues, making that one-click update feature even more awesome.
Cost
While WordPress is initially free, sometimes people don't realize that if you want any kind of customization, support, or security you are going to have to pay a little extra.
So if you have needs beyond a very basic website, WordPress isn’t free.
Let’s take security as an example. WordPress will run you about $500 a month for the extra added security, which is necessary-- especially if you are handling customers data like credit card info, birthdays, addresses, etc…
Craft CMS provides you the freedom to customize, a central update system, and some of the best security features out there for a one time fee of $299.
A one-time fee of $299 for some awesome security?
Yeah, we think it's worth it!
Responsive control panel
Here at Rocket Park, we’ve used a lot of content management systems, and guess what…
We feel that Craft CMS has the absolute best control panel of any CMS we’ve tried-- and that’s saying a lot.
It so easy, intuitive, and fun to use, making it super easy to manage and edit content, unlike other control panels that leave you wanting to pull your hair out.
And did we mention that the responsiveness is amazing? When we say amazing, we mean that you can literally edit your website on your phone or other mobile devices.
So if you have a site where multiple people contribute, this is perfect for you because that means everyone contributing content can add and edit content from anywhere, whether that’s a train, hotel room or in another country.
Multilingual and multi-currency
One of Craft's most notable features and probably one of its biggest selling points is that it makes it so easy to run a website that needs to handle multiple languages and currencies.
Craft also allows you to put all your sites using different domains all under one installation, meaning that if your brand requires sub-brands or trade sections, then you will be able to create a site that can smoothly and seamlessly handle all of that.
So if you have an international customer base, this feature is a must for you.
The Matrix
It might not be as exciting as the movie, but it’s still pretty cool if we do say so ourselves. (Yeah we know, development and design geeks over here.)
But if your business requires you to configure custom fields on your website or if you want to be able to customize your pages whatever way you want , whenever you want with no need to call the developer...
Then the Matrix inside Craft CMS is going to be a game-changer for you.
When you configure a field, you can define the blocks that contain custom fields, meaning when you create an entry, you can add as many blocks as you want in whatever order you want, making it ultra-customizable and much easier to work with if you require a little extra bit of flexibility.
Location settings
If you are running a site that requires multiple languages, this will be a really beneficial feature for you.
You can easily translate your page's content into your target market’s language by simply setting up and enabling different locals.
So if you have something written in English, but have a French audience, you can easily set up your site to translate your content into French.
And even better? This setting is built into Crafts core design so no need for heavy plugins that compromise your site’s performance.
Pretty cool, huh?
Plugins (or lack thereof)
Like we mentioned above, a lot of things that would require plugins on an out-of-the-box site like WordPress, don’t require plugins on Crafts.
While Craft CMS does offer some plugins, you rarely have to use them, meaning that your site runs smoother, has a faster response time, and offers a better user experience
And not to mention, outdated plugins can also be a problem on other content management systems if you install an update that is no longer compatible with an old plugin causing that update to break plugins and wreak havoc on your site.
And honestly, it can be a nightmare to fix.
Our professional opinion?
A CMS like Craft that requires fewer plugins is the better option.
Twig coding
If you aren’t a developer, this probably won’t resonate with you as much…
But if you’re a developer, then you probably know that Twig coding makes crafting the perfect website for your client’s individual needs super easy.. With Twig you are in control of the coding instead of working with automatically generated code. It’s clean, simple, and easy to work with.
And even better?
If you have a mistake in your code, you will get an error message telling you exactly where the error is making the processing of coding much more efficient, and in our opinion, fun.
Expert Developers
Because Craft is set up to be a totally customizable CMS, your developer really has to know what they’re doing. There’s no downloading themes and plugins and getting by with little to no coding.
And while that might work for some, a lot of businesses require a site that is developed and designed for their unique needs. And for this, you need an expert developer that can code you the website you’ve been dreaming of.
Need an expert developer?
As you can probably tell, we absolutely adore Craft for our CMS needs. We realize that if your business needs a custom-built solution, then Craft is probably the best way to go.
So if you could benefit from an expert developer who can create the website you need on the CMS that best works for you and your business, then we have you covered.
Picking the right developer to work on your specific website needs is probably one of the most important aspects of building a great online presence. And making sure you are working with the right developer and the right CMS will ensure that your site is customized to your target market and is set up to grow with your evolving and growing business’s needs.
At Rocket Park, our certified team of website developers and designers are dedicated to your success, and we love helping businesses just like yours thrive.
So if you're looking for a tailored-just-for-you solution that’s not only stunning, but also intuitive, fast, and secure all while receiving the best customer service around, we would love to hear more about your project and goals.
We know that getting your online presence exactly where you want it can be challenging, so contact us today for a free strategy call and let us help you ignite your online visibility today.