Guide to Craft CMS for Modern Websites

Craft CMS is a pow­er­ful and flex­i­ble con­tent man­age­ment sys­tem designed for busi­ness­es and orga­ni­za­tions that need a scal­able, secure, and user-friend­ly solu­tion for man­ag­ing con­tent-rich websites. 

If you’re a tech­ni­cal deci­sion mak­er and are cur­rent­ly eval­u­at­ing CMS options for your project, below is a detailed list of what you should con­sid­er and know about Craft CMS. 

Why Should I Choose Craft CMS? #

This is why you’re here! 

I’ve been train­ing devel­op­ers on Craft CMS and mod­ern web devel­op­ment since the first beta of the CMS. I’ve also built count­less web­sites with Craft CMS via my agency Pine Works. So, I have a few well-informed opinions.

Craft CMS stands out among oth­er CMS plat­forms because it was built with the con­tent author and devel­op­er in mind. Devel­op­ers enjoy build­ing with it and con­tent authors and site man­agers love using it to pub­lish con­tent to the site. That’s impor­tant because if peo­ple don’t enjoy using the soft­ware, they’ll avoid it, and your web­site will suffer.

But that’s not enough. It still has to be a good choice for oth­er rea­sons. Here are some oth­er impor­tant aspects:

• User-Friend­ly Inter­face: The clean and mod­ern con­trol pan­el allows con­tent teams to man­age con­tent effi­cient­ly, reduc­ing train­ing time and oper­a­tional costs. It works on all devices!
• Flex­i­ble Con­tent Struc­ture: Unlike rigid CMS/​blogging plat­forms, Craft CMS pro­vides pow­er­ful con­tent mod­el­ing tools that allow busi­ness­es to adapt their web­sites as needs evolve. No need to jam your con­tent into a 2006 era blog post par­a­digm. Get the site you want, not the site that fits the software!
• Per­for­mance and Secu­ri­ty: Built on Yii2 PHP frame­work, Craft CMS is opti­mized for speed, reli­a­bil­i­ty, and secu­ri­ty, mak­ing it a sol­id choice for enter­prise appli­ca­tions. Every­thing from a vast law firm web­site focused on pub­lic edu­ca­tion or even an e‑commerce sub­scrip­tion site like CraftQuest.
• Cus­tomiza­tion & Exten­si­bil­i­ty: With a strong plu­g­in ecosys­tem and GraphQL sup­port, you can tai­lor the CMS to meet your spe­cif­ic needs with­out unnec­es­sary com­plex­i­ty. Build your own plu­g­ins, inte­grate with your exist­ing appli­ca­tions and APIs, what­ev­er you wish! Craft CMS can be extend­ed to do just about any­thing you want.
• Mul­ti-Site and Local­iza­tion Sup­port: Ide­al for busi­ness­es man­ag­ing mul­ti­ple brands, region­al sites, or mul­ti­lin­gual con­tent from a sin­gle installation.

What Else Should I Con­sid­er About Craft CMS? #

When select­ing a CMS, orga­ni­za­tions like yours should also con­sid­er the ease of deploy­ment, scal­a­bil­i­ty, and long-term sustainability.

1. Deploy­ment and Setup

Craft CMS can be deployed in var­i­ous envi­ron­ments, from on-premise solu­tions to cloud-based host­ing providers. Its Com­pos­er-based instal­la­tion ensures stream­lined updates and ver­sion control.

2. Con­tent Man­age­ment Efficiency

A CMS should empow­er non-tech­ni­cal users to man­age con­tent with min­i­mal devel­op­er inter­ven­tion. Craft CMS achieves this through:

• Intu­itive Con­trol Pan­el: Reduces the learn­ing curve for con­tent teams.
• Struc­tured Con­tent Mod­el­ing: Sup­ports com­plex busi­ness require­ments while remain­ing easy to use.
• Cus­tom Work­flows & Per­mis­sions: Ensures prop­er gov­er­nance and secu­ri­ty for enter­prise con­tent management.

3. Cus­tomiza­tion & Scalability

Unlike tra­di­tion­al CMS plat­forms that impose rigid struc­tures, Craft CMS enables busi­ness­es to:

• Adapt con­tent mod­els as dig­i­tal strate­gies evolve.
• Inte­grate seam­less­ly with third-par­ty appli­ca­tions and APIs.
• Scale effec­tive­ly with increas­ing traf­fic and data demands.

Craft also has a mod­er­at­ed plu­g­in store where you can browse and install free and com­mer­cial plu­g­ins that will help you con­fig­ure Craft to work with your busi­ness require­ments. There’s almost any­thing you can think of already there but if not, you can always extend Craft with a plu­g­in or mod­ule.

4. Secu­ri­ty & Compliance

Craft CMS includes built-in secu­ri­ty fea­tures, mak­ing it a trust­ed choice for orga­ni­za­tions han­dling sen­si­tive data. Secu­ri­ty high­lights include:

• Reg­u­lar updates and patch­es from the full-time, ded­i­cat­ed Craft CMS devel­op­ment team. It’s not run by a group of rotat­ing contributors.
• Role-based access con­trols and permissions.
• Secure authen­ti­ca­tion options, includ­ing Passkey support.

5. Cost Considerations

While Craft CMS has a licens­ing fee for the soft­ware and any com­mer­cial plu­g­ins used, it still offers sig­nif­i­cant val­ue in terms of reduced main­te­nance costs, effi­cient con­tent work­flows, and long-term flex­i­bil­i­ty com­pared to open-source alter­na­tives that may require exten­sive cus­tomiza­tion and secu­ri­ty enhancements.

And, there’s also the peace of mind know­ing that there’s a team of paid pro­fes­sion­al devel­op­ers who are work­ing every day to keep the CMS updat­ed, secure, and bug free. That’s worth pay­ing for. Don’t cheap out on the wrong stuff!

If the infor­ma­tion in this arti­cle wasn’t enough to help you decide on whether Craft CMS is the right fit for you project, please don’t hes­i­tate to get in touch!

I’ve been teach­ing Craft CMS devel­op­ment since it was in beta, and build­ing com­pli­cat­ed con­tent projects with Craft CMS for just as long. Let me know how I can help you get to a deci­sion that makes sense for your team or project!