Craft CMS and why it's great

Here's a look at why Craft is taking the CMS world by storm and why it's our recommended option for managing your Marketing Website's content.

Hannah Lewis
by Hannah Lewis, Brand Strategist

If you’re wanting to update your website yourself you’ll need an admin area or Content Management System (CMS).

The world of admin areas has been pretty limited; often they’re clunky, ugly and generally not very nice to use.

You’ve probably heard of WordPress, right? It has dominated the content management market for years.

Clients often come to us with WordPress websites and frustrations about how they find them difficult to update yet they struggle through and accept it.

Some clients even come to us wanting a WordPress site - asking for it specifically. To us, this is completely backwards!

I’ve often wondered why people are so loyal to WordPress, but I’m realising it’s because WordPress was the only option they were given.

People like what they know; they trust names they hear a lot and might have even used a WordPress site before. They’ve got used to it; frustrations and all.

For a number of reasons, we knew WordPress wasn’t the right fit for us so would always recommend an alternative.

We’ve tried and tested several different CMS solutions.

When we started Club, ExpressionEngine was our CMS of choice but it still wasn’t quite right for what we knew clients needed, so we waited ...and boy did the wait pay off.

Enter Craft CMS.

Since its birth in 2012, we have closely followed the progress - and as soon as we tested it, knew it was the right fit.

Craft CMS is now the only CMS we offer - that’s how confident we are in its flexibility and power.

The benefits to both developers and clients are so impressive that it's an all-round hit.

Here are just a few reasons why:

Intuitive and Responsive Control Panel

You can use the admin area wherever you are on whatever device you have - it’s fully responsive.

It’s also really easy to use.

Just last week we were writing a set of admin area instructions for a self-confessed technophobe client (who we recently moved from WordPress to Craft CMS).

In the time it took us to write out the steps, the client had found the page she needed in the admin area and was already adding content.

Not surprising really given how intuitive it is to use but if we needed confirmation that Craft CMS is a keeper, that was it.

Club Craft CMS Responsive CP
Craft CMS responsive control panel

Live Preview

Without a doubt, this has sparked the biggest reaction from our clients.

They (and we) love Live Preview.

It allows you to preview the changes you’re making to the website before committing your edits to the live site.

Not only are the edits easy to make but you can see exactly what your changes look like before pressing ‘save’.

Craft CMS also saves changes along the way, so if you want to revert back to a previous version, it's simple.

The image below shows an example: you edit the content on the left and see the changes update live on the right.

Club Craft CMS Live Preview
Craft CMS Live Preview

A Clean Slate

With Craft, there’s no bloat.

It’s a totally clean slate meaning we add only what is needed, ending up with a website and admin area that is lean, bespoke and fully fits the brief.

We don’t use themes, we don’t hack together half-built sections of other websites to make one, and we certainly don’t let the CMS choice dictate how a site should look or function. Craft CMS offers complete flexibility.

The Community

There’s a real glow around Craft CMS at the moment. People are realising the potential and are really getting behind it.

The team who make it (Pixel & Tonic) are always interacting with the community and making constant improvements.

When updates to the CMS are available, you simply install them with one click from within the admin area. Easy!

Please get in touch if you would like a demo. We love it and we reckon you will too.

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