Craft CMS

What is the Craft CMS?

Craft CMS is a flexible, user-centric content management system that excels in providing a tailored content creation experience. Developed by Pixel & Tonic, it is widely regarded as a high standard for bespoke web projects where the editor's experience is as important as the end user's.

Strengths

The "Total Control" Admin: Unlike other CMS platforms that force you into a specific layout, Craft allows us to build a control panel that matches your specific content model exactly.
Unified Data Model (New in 2025): With the maturity of Craft 5, the system now uses a streamlined "Entries-everywhere" architecture. This makes it easier to reuse content blocks across different parts of your site, improving consistency and speed.
Twig Templating: Utilizes the Twig templating engine, allowing for extremely clean, fast-loading, and secure front-end code.
Live Preview: Craft offers one of the best "Live Preview" experiences in the industry, allowing editors to see exactly how their content will look on mobile and desktop as they type.

Weaknesses

Licensing Costs: Unlike Silverstripe or WordPress, Craft is a commercial product. As of 2025, a Craft CMS Pro license costs around $299 USD upfront, plus an annual update fee of $59 USD.
Developer Dependency: Craft is a "content-first" CMS, meaning it comes with no front-end templates out of the box. You cannot simply "install a theme"; it requires professional development to function.
Custom Code Complexity: While the CMS is highly configurable, writing deep custom logic at the database level is more complex and time-consuming than in frameworks like Silverstripe, which can increase the cost of highly bespoke features.

Use cases

We recommend Craft CMS for projects that require a high degree of "content design." Its powerful templating and the ability to build out a complex data schema directly in the CMS makes it incredibly fast for us to prototype and build high-end, visual websites.