Craft CMS is built by the good people at Pixel and Tonic. Over the past year it has been gaining in popularity and for good reason. A quick search on Google for Craft CMS reviews and you'll see what I mean.
There are many reasons why I love building websites in Craft. But in this post I will highlight some of the features I like the most both from a clients perspective and from a developers perspective.
What follows is feedback that I have had from clients as to why the like Craft. Normally if a client is unsure about using Craft a quick live demo of the backend is all that is required to convince them
Craft doesn't make any assumptions about the type of data you have and how you want to organise it. It is up to the developer to construct data structures using any of the native Craft field types or those provided from third party plugins. As a result, from the clients perspective, they get a very bespoke look and feel. Pixel and Tonic have also put a lot of work into the look and feel of the UI which is incredibly intuitive to use and looks really professional.
Whilst editing in the backend you can see a live preview of what the changes you are making look like on the front end. This is a great feature and helps bridge the disconnect between the front end and back end of a website.
Not got time to finish the changes you are making? Want to get a second opinion or approval from a colleague? No worries, just save what you have been working on as a draft and pick up where you left off later.
Don't like the change you've just made? No problem, Craft can keep a backup of all the changes you've made and can roll back to a previous version with a click of a button.
Want to make sure employees can only write blog posts and not change the site navigation for example? Craft has got you covered.
Need a site in more than one language? Its baked into the Craft core.
Since adopting Craft as my go to CMS there has been a direct correlation with how much I enjoy my job as a freelancer :) It has also meant I can say "Yes I can do that, no worries" to clients and it is not going to cost you an arm and a leg. Here are some of the features I like the most:
Craft makes no assumptions about what code is output on the front end. In fact, why should any CMS dictate whats goes on the front end? Instead, in Craft you can access data from the templating layer through a very intuitive and easy to learn api.
On the subject of templating Craft uses Twig. Twig has got to be one of the most powerful yet easy to learn templating languages I have used. One feature I particularly like is the ability to pipe your data through multiple filters. Twig is also easy to extend.
By regular a mean really regular. Like, every week regular. Applying the updates is a cinch, just click the update button and your done. No hassles.
At first this might seem strange to list the license fee as a feature I like. But think about it for a second. I am much happier knowing that Pixel and Tonic are turning a profit because that means they are working on making Craft better everyday. It also means they can offer fantastic support if you run into any problems.
Craft has a very strong community of highly talented developers behind it. Got a problem you need some help with? Just head on over to the Craft CMS Stack Exchange where there is already a wealth of information and community members ready to give you a hand.
I could go on, there are many more things I like about Craft but you get the idea. It is not that other CMS don't offer these features, but what Craft has managed to achieve is to identify all the necessary features and pain points from the outset and bake them right into the core. The end result is a CMS with a really solid foundation and a very bright future.
If you'd like to arrange a demo of Craft CMS please get in contact.
If you think I would be a good match for the project you have in mind or if you just want a friendly chat please send me a messsage.
Copyright 2015 Dave Coggins Web Development