There are many CMS to choose from. They all have their pros and cons, but which one is right for you? To help you decide, we have compared the three main ones.
Wordpress: Widely used = good?
Wordpress is the most widely used CMS out there - which makes it easy for businesses to find developers. Many marketers who will be using it primarily are therefore already familiar with it. The plugin ecosystem is huge and there is a solution for almost every use case. It is also easy for developers to work with the framework. This makes it the perfect solution for small businesses that need a lot of different features, but don't have the money to develop everything individually.
The positive aspects are also the biggest drawbacks of Wordpress. Sites built with Wordpress tend to be unstable. Reasons for this include plugin support, security issues, feature overload and database overload. The widespread use of Wordpress also makes it an easy target for hackers. That's why Wordpress sites require a lot more maintenance than other CMS systems.
Wordpress: Pros & Cons
👍That's what we like about Wordpress:
Good documentation.
Huge community. Support for emerging issues is easy to find
Large plugin repository for add-ons.
Low requirements
Backwards compatibility (not always a good thing).
Free of charge
👍We find this less good:
Testability in a Wordpress context is virtually impossible
Not suitable for large applications
Wordpress core too slow for some applications
An attractive target for automated attacks
Too insecure for enterprises with higher security standards
Difficult to deploy automatically
No out-of-the-box package management
Statamic: New and simple?
Statamic is perfect as a small CMS system. It integrates multilingual support / asset management / user management / customisation right out of the box. Its biggest selling point is its integration with a Laravel application. There is no need for another solution to be integrated into the Laravel application. Everything that is available in the Laravel application can also be used in Statamic.
Statamic: Pros & Cons
👍 That's what we like about Statamic:
Good documentation
Laravel as core
Ideal to have an application with a part of CMS functionality
Management of packages
Automatic deployment
Not as monolithic as other CMS systems. I.e. practically any part can be replaced
Easy testability
Easy to use / flat learning curve
Designed with security in mind from the start
👎 We find this less good:
Not free (core requires a license, as do most plugins).
New player
Custom templating language (but can't be omitted).
Small plugins repository as of now
Storyblok: Less is more?
Storyblok is a data first headless CMS system. It is the perfect solution when CMS functionality is the main component of a project. Its API approach means that it is also implementation independent - the same data can be used on different platforms (e.g.: web, apps, internal tools).
However, since Storyblok's only role is to host the CMS data, it lacks basic functionality for most websites. Storyblok cannot send emails, process data inputs, or apply business logic. Customization capabilities are severely limited. The platform's functionality can only be extended to a very limited extent. It was also not designed for use by larger teams.
Storyblok: Pros & Cons
👍Here's what we like about Storyblok:
Application independent (only the data is stored, where it is used is up to you, e.g. app, website, intranet).
Ease of use
Speed of implementation
CDN integrated with Storyblok
Intuitive image service
Only front-end skills required to implement a website
Provides a great visual editing experience
👎 We find this less good:
Small community (still)
Licence required
Difficult to use in a team
No way to handle application logic (e.g. sessions, automated jobs, emails, queries, etc.)
Data storage and retrieval only possible from one source
Fragmented system where each part works independently
Cannot yet handle large amounts of data efficiently
Limitations due to features supported by the Storyblok platform
Our conclusion?
None of the existing CMS systems is perfect. In the specific case, you should weigh up exactly which advantages you don't want to miss and which disadvantages you can put up with. In the end, choosing the right CMS system is never easy, but hopefully, with our comparison a little clearer.
We will find the right CMS for you!