While I don’t think WordPress is going anywhere anytime soon (despite Matt Mullenweg’s best efforts!), its worth knowing that there are some really good alternatives on the market, and dare I say, in some cases better CMSs.
With all the recent WordPress vs WP Engine shenanigans, which I suspect most WordPress users are blissfully unaware of, I thought it would be fun to explore some CMS alternatives. You might be surprised to know there are plenty of options when it comes to “Content Management Systems.”
Let’s keep it fair, though, by focusing on CMSs that share a similar setup process to WordPress—something you can download, pop onto a standard web server, and log into within minutes. So, we’ll skip the more advanced API and Git-based systems, as those take a bit more setup.
While we haven’t tried every option on this list, each of these has great reviews and brings an interesting take on what a modern CMS can be. Let’s dive into some of the more well-known alternatives.
Kirby CMS
Kirby has become a fan favourite, stepping in where Perch Runway left off. When the creators of Perch stopped supporting it meaningfully, that community was left scrambling. Kirby seems to have filled that gap nicely.
Craft CMS
Craft is geared more toward a commercial audience with complex content needs. We’ve used Craft on some of our projects and enjoyed the developer experience. It’s highly customizable, making it a great fit for more advanced setups.
Statamic
Statamic, built on Laravel, is another one we highly recommend. We love how scalable it is—start with flat files for a simple brochure site and move to a database when your data structure grows. Super flexible.
ClassicPress
ClassicPress is essentially a fork of WordPress before it leaned into the JavaScript-heavy block builder we know today. While we haven’t used it, it seems perfect for those who miss the “good old days” of WordPress.
Others worth mentioning…
- Ghost offers a sleek, modern experience aimed squarely at content creators.
- Indiekit is file-based but still requires a database, which is an interesting twist.
Most of the CMSs above come with a price tag, which often leads to the inevitable comment: “But WordPress is free!” Yes, WordPress itself is free, but once you add Jetpack, Advanced Custom Fields, a backup solution, forms, SEO plugins, and more, you can easily rack up a hefty annual bill. Sure, you could code these features from scratch—but this will increase your upfront costs!
On the flip side, CMSs like Statamic include many of these features out of the box, so you could argue it’s just being upfront about costs.
So, what do we use?
We do things a little differently. Our go-to is Strapi, a headless CMS, meaning the backend is completely separate from the frontend. And hosted separately. While the front end is built using Astro. This setup is secure and lightning-fast because what you end up with is essentially a static HTML site. We chose this method for the flexibility and freedom it gives us. A draw back is that you require a slightly different hosting setup which can put customers off.
For customers who really require a CMS, with great support and flexibility we'd typically recommend Statamic and love building solutions with it. You can have the block builder experience that WordPress utilises whilst retaining the design control.
While I don’t think WordPress is going anywhere anytime soon (despite Matt Mullenweg’s best efforts!), its worth knowing that there are some really good alternatives on the market, and dare I say, in some cases better CMSs.