Why Developers Are Switching from WordPress to Craft CMS

This shift isn't happening because WordPress is bad; it's happening because project requirements have changed. Clients want faster sites, better security, and custom features that work exactly how they need them to. They're also tired of dealing with plugin conflicts and security updates every few weeks. Let's explore why Craft CMS has become the preferred choice for many development teams.

Understanding Craft CMS: What Makes It Different

Craft CMS takes a different approach to content management. Instead of starting with a blog platform and adding features through plugins (like WordPress does), Craft starts as a flexible content platform that you shape to fit your needs.

Think of it this way: WordPress gives you a house with rooms you can renovate. Craft gives you quality building materials and lets you design the house from scratch. This means you're not working around existing structures or dealing with features you don't need.

The platform provides tools for creating custom content types, building relationships between different pieces of content, and managing complex editorial workflows. Everything feels intentional because you only build what you actually need. There's no bloat from unused features or legacy code.

Comparing WordPress and Craft CMS: The Key Differences

The differences between these platforms become clear when you look at real projects. Our experience shows that clients who switch from WordPress to Craft often cite three main pain points: security concerns, performance issues, and difficulty customizing beyond basic blog functionality.

Security and Maintenance

WordPress sites require constant attention. Plugin updates come frequently, and each update risks breaking something else on the site. The plugin ecosystem, while vast, creates vulnerabilities. Since most WordPress hacks happen through outdated or poorly coded plugins, maintaining security means constant vigilance.

Craft takes a different approach. The core system includes most features you need, reducing reliance on third-party code. Updates are predictable and rarely cause conflicts. The smaller, curated plugin marketplace means higher quality code with better support.

Performance and Speed

A fresh WordPress installation runs quickly, but performance degrades as you add plugins. Each plugin loads its own scripts and styles, even on pages that don't use them. Popular page builders add even more overhead, sometimes loading megabytes of unnecessary code.

Craft only loads what each page needs. The templating system gives you precise control over assets and queries. Built-in caching and image transformation happen at the system level, not through plugins. The result? Faster page loads and better Core Web Vitals scores.

Developer Control and Flexibility

WordPress started as a blogging platform, and that heritage still shows. Creating custom content types requires plugins like Advanced Custom Fields or Custom Post Type UI. The new Gutenberg editor mixes React components with PHP templates, creating a complex development environment.

Craft provides native tools for content modeling. You define sections, fields, and relationships through the control panel or configuration files. The Twig templating language keeps logic separate from presentation, making code cleaner and more maintainable.

Real-World Use Cases and Applications

Different projects benefit from each platform's strengths. Understanding these use cases helps you choose the right tool for each job.

When WordPress Makes Sense:

• Simple marketing sites that need quick deployment
• Blogs or news sites with standard layouts
• Projects with tiny budgets where free matters most
• Sites where non-technical users need to install features themselves

When Craft CMS Excels:

• Custom web applications with unique content requirements
• Multi-site deployments sharing content and users
• Projects requiring headless CMS capabilities
• Sites handling sensitive data or requiring compliance
• Long-term projects where maintenance costs matter

Consider a recent example: A financial services company needed a site with custom calculators, secure document handling, and complex approval workflows. Building this in WordPress would have required dozens of plugins and custom code to work around platform limitations. In Craft, we built exactly what they needed without unnecessary complexity.

Making the Decision: A Practical Framework for CMS Selection

Working with teams has taught us that the choice between WordPress and Craft often comes down to answering these questions:

1. What's your timeline?
If you need a site live in two weeks with standard features, WordPress's themes and plugins provide a faster path. If you have time to build something tailored to specific needs, Craft's flexibility pays off.

2. Who will maintain it?
WordPress works well when non-technical users need to manage everything themselves. Craft shines when you have developers involved or when you want to limit what editors can change.

3. What's your total budget (not just initial build)?
WordPress seems cheaper initially (free core, cheap hosting), but factor in maintenance time, security monitoring, and plugin licenses. Craft's upfront license cost ($299/year) often results in lower total ownership costs.

4. How complex are your content needs?
Standard pages and posts? WordPress handles this fine. Complex relationships between products, locations, team members, and resources? Craft's content modeling makes this manageable.

5. What are your performance requirements?
If every millisecond counts for SEO or user experience, Craft's lean architecture provides more control over performance.

Professional Recommendations and Best Practices

After helping dozens of companies evaluate both platforms, we've found that successful platform selection depends on honest assessment of your specific situation.

For Companies Considering the Switch:

Start with a content audit. List every content type, every integration, and every workflow your current site supports. This reveals the true complexity of migration and helps identify what you actually need versus what you've accumulated over time.

Run a security and performance audit on your current WordPress site. Tools like WPScan for security and PageSpeed Insights for performance provide baseline metrics. This data helps justify migration costs by showing potential improvements.

Consider a phased approach. Instead of migrating everything at once, start with a new section or microsite in Craft. This lets your team learn the platform while maintaining your existing site.

For Developers Learning Craft CMS:

Focus on understanding content modeling first. Unlike WordPress's post-centric approach, Craft lets you create exactly the content structure you need. Spend time planning your sections, fields, and relationships before writing any templates.

Learn Twig thoroughly. While it's simpler than PHP, Twig has powerful features like template inheritance and macros that make development faster once you understand them.

Use environment configuration from the start. Craft's 

.env

 file approach makes deployment across development, staging, and production environments much smoother than WordPress's database-stored settings.

For Agencies Evaluating Platforms:

Consider your team's strengths. WordPress's massive community means finding developers is easier, but Craft developers often have stronger programming skills since the platform attracts developers who want more control.

Look at your typical client needs. Agencies building marketing sites for small businesses might stick with WordPress. Those creating custom applications or serving clients with specific compliance needs often prefer Craft.

Factor in support and training. Craft's smaller community means fewer Stack Overflow answers, but the official documentation is excellent and the Discord community provides quick, high-quality help.

Conclusion: Making the Right Choice for Your Project

The shift from WordPress to Craft CMS reflects changing needs in web development. Projects require better security, faster performance, and more flexibility than ever before. While WordPress remains an excellent choice for many sites, Craft provides the control and reliability that complex projects demand.

The key points to remember: Craft offers superior security through fewer dependencies, better performance through lean architecture, and complete control over your content structure. WordPress provides faster deployment for standard sites, a massive ecosystem of themes and plugins, and lower barriers to entry for non-technical users.

At Rollin, we work with both platforms because we believe in choosing the right tool for each project. Your choice should depend on your specific needs, not on following trends or picking sides in platform wars.

Considering a switch from WordPress to Craft CMS? We can help you evaluate whether migration makes sense for your specific situation. Our team can audit your current WordPress site, identify potential challenges, and create a realistic migration plan that minimizes disruption to your business. We'll help you understand the real costs and benefits, not just the marketing promises, so you can make an informed decision about your web platform.