3 minutes reading
In a nutshell:
- 1.1 Background information
- 1.2 Overview of key data - advantages and disadvantages
- 1.3 Who is Craft CMS for?
- 1.4 What sets Craft CMS apart from the rest?
In this article, we take a look at the Craft CMS platform, its capabilities and potential, and discuss which companies can use it effectively to run their online business. We analyse maintenance costs, scalability and SEO optimisation on this platform. We will also compare Craft CMS with other content management systems to see what makes this platform stand out.
What is Craft CMS?
Craft CMS is not an e-commerce platform per se, but it can be transformed into an online shop with the right plug-ins, such as Craft Commerce. It is an extension that adds full e-commerce functionality to Craft CMS, allowing you to manage products, baskets, orders, payments and many other elements typical of online shops.
Basic information
| Software type | Open-Source |
| Country of origin | USA |
| Year of issue | 2013 |
| Access to source code | Yes |
Overview of key data - advantages and disadvantages
| Price | ❌ (0$ to 299 $) |
| Hosting included in the price | ✅ |
| Safety certificates | ✅ |
| Integration with payment systems | ✅ |
| Possibility of selling virtual products | ✅ |
| Technical support | ✅ |
| SSL certificate | ✅ |
| Implementation of promotions and discounts | ✅ |
| Mobile friendly | ✅ |
| Editing of URLs | ✅ |
| Automatic sitemap | ✅ |
The pros and cons of having a shop on Craft CMS in terms of:
Maintenance costs: Craft CMS is available in several variants.
-
- Free version - Ideal for small projects and developers wanting to test the system.
-
- Pro - It costs $299 per project and offers advanced features suitable for professional sites.
-
- Enterprise - For large organisations, the price is set individually.
SEO: In order to fully customise the site for SEO, it is necessary to install the relevant plugins or edit the code. The plug-ins enable:
-
- Edit titles and meta descriptions for each sub-page.
-
- Generation of an XML sitemap and robots.txt file.
-
- Adding structured data (schema.org) and optimising social media links.
However, some advanced SEO features will require manual adjustment of the site code. Compared to WordPress, Craft CMS is not as well integrated in terms of SEO.
Business scalability: Craft CMS is a good choice for growing online shops. However, growth comes with increased maintenance costs.
Who is Craft CMS for?
| Shop up to 1000 products | ✅ |
| Shop up to 10 000 products | ✅ |
| Shop up to 100,000 products | ✅ |
| Shop 100,000 products and more | ✅ |
Craft CMS is a platform suitable for online shops of all sizes.
What makes Craft CMS stand out from the rest?
What sets Craft CMS apart from its competitors is the adaptability and freedom it gives to developers. It focuses on flexibility and independence. For companies that want to build a unique brand, such personalisation is key.
Simple and intuitive administration panel - It allows quick and easy content management, even for those without technical experience.
Built-in functions - Advanced content editor, management of categories, tags and image sizes, which in other CMSs often require additional plug-ins.
Security - Regular updates and features to control access to different parts of the site.
Examples of websites built on Craft CMS
Before you make a decision, it is worth looking at examples of sites created on the Craft CMS platform. This will give you a better picture of how it works and the available features. Below, we present selected realisations.
Is Craft CMS worth choosing: our opinion
If you want flexibility, security and complete control over the appearance and functionality of your site, Craft CMS is definitely worth considering. It is particularly suitable for projects requiring unusual solutions and where scalability and high-quality design are important.
However, there are some important points to consider. Craft CMS offers less SEO support compared to WordPress, which means that additional plugins or code editing may be required to fully optimise the site for search engines. Although Craft CMS allows SEO configuration, including editing metadata, generating a sitemap and controlling indexing, this requires additional work, especially for less experienced users.
Craft CMS does not have ready-made themes, which can be a disadvantage for some users, as it forces the creation of a website design from scratch. In addition, the prices of the paid versions of Craft CMS increase as the shop grows.
Despite these issues, Craft CMS remains a solid choice for those who need advanced and personalised solutions.
