Head to head

Craft CMS vs WordPress

Two PHP content management systems built for different people: one free with the largest ecosystem on the web, one commercial and built around a developer's content model. What each is genuinely good at, and where each will frustrate you.

Which to choose
  • Choose WordPress if the build needs its plugin ecosystem, editors who compose their own layouts, or a talent pool the client can hire from.
  • Choose WordPress if the budget is close to zero.
  • Choose WordPress with WooCommerce if you are selling online on a budget. Craft Commerce is the first-party option if you are already on Craft.
  • Choose Craft if you are a developer who wants a structured content model, Twig templates and fewer plugins.
  • Choose Craft if you want GraphQL, localization in core, or a free site with one editor.
  • Choose Total CMS if neither fits because you want no database, no plugin stack, ordinary hosting and a one-time license.
Checked 16 primary sources The longer answer Spot an error? Tell us

A note on who wrote this. We make Total CMS, which is neither of the two products in the title. That is still a conflict of interest, so we have kept our own entry to the end, marked it as ours, and priced and checked everything from each vendor's own pages. Craft and WordPress are both good software. Most readers of this page should end up on one of them, and the "How to choose" section says which.

The two are less alike than the comparison suggests. Both are PHP and both need a database, but they are built for different people. WordPress is free, GPL-licensed software that runs on nearly any host and lets editors compose pages from blocks, with the largest plugin and theme directories in the industry behind it. Craft is commercial software for developers: you define the content model (sections, entry types, fields), write the front end in Twig, and editors fill in the structure you built.

The short version: WordPress if you need the ecosystem, the talent pool, the lowest starting cost, or editors who build their own layouts. Craft if you are a developer who wants a clean structured content model, Twig templates, and fewer plugins to assemble. Total CMS if neither fits because you do not want a database at all.

At a glance

Three worth your time.

The products in this guide, with price and who each suits
ProductPriceBest for
1. Craft CMS Free Solo (one user) / $279 Team / $399 Pro per project, then $99/year for updates Developers who want a structured content model and Twig
2. WordPress Free (GPL); you pay for hosting and any commercial plugins Sites that need the ecosystem, the talent pool, or editor-built layouts
3. Total CMS Ours $195 Standard / $395 Pro, one-time per domain Sites that should not need a database or a plugin stack

The options

Each one, with its tradeoffs.

  1. Craft CMS (opens in a new tab)

    A developer's CMS: structured content you model, Twig templates, and a free tier for one editor.

    Price
    Free Solo (one user) / $279 Team / $399 Pro per project, then $99/year for updates
    Best for
    Developers who want a structured content model and Twig

    Strengths

    • Solo is free and valid for public production sites, indefinitely. One user account, and it still includes multi-site, localization and GraphQL
    • Structured content modeling — sections, entry types and field layouts you define, so the admin matches the site rather than a generic post editor
    • Templates are Twig, a template language you can hand to a front-end developer
    • GraphQL on every edition, including free Solo, and closed by default until you authorize a schema
    • Project Config writes sections, fields and settings to YAML files you commit, so schema changes deploy with your code instead of by hand in each environment
    • Licenses are perpetual: when the update year lapses you keep using the version you have, and you are never charged for gaps in renewals
    • License problems show only in the control panel; Craft states the front end of your site is never affected
    • A dated support policy — active support to the end of 2030 and security fixes to the end of 2031 for the current major version
    • First-party options for the jobs WordPress handles with plugins: Craft Commerce for e-commerce, Craft Cloud for hosting, and wp-import for moving a WordPress site's content across

    How Craft compares to Total CMS →

    Tradeoffs

    • Needs a database (MySQL, MariaDB or PostgreSQL) and lists Composer as a requirement, so it suits a VPS or managed host better than a basic shared plan
    • Past one user, it is paid per project: $279 Team (up to five users) or $399 Pro, each with one year of updates, then $99 a year
    • The plugin store is substantial but far smaller than WordPress's, and so is the pool of developers who know it
    • E-commerce is a separate purchase: Craft Commerce Pro is $1,199 per project, plus $299 a year for updates after the first
    • The queue runs off web traffic by default; time-sensitive background work wants a cron entry or a daemon on the server
    • The next major version rebuilds Craft on Laravel and raises the PHP minimum to 8.5. It was in alpha and marked not ready for production when we checked, and the current version is supported for years — but plan for a framework migration, not a routine update
    • Content lives in the database, so Project Config versions the schema but not the content itself

  2. WordPress (opens in a new tab)

    Free, GPL-licensed, and backed by the largest plugin ecosystem and talent pool in the industry.

    Price
    Free (GPL); you pay for hosting and any commercial plugins
    Best for
    Sites that need the ecosystem, the talent pool, or editor-built layouts

    Strengths

    • Free, GPL-licensed software — download it, run it, modify it, no license fee for any number of sites
    • Modest server requirements (PHP and MySQL or MariaDB), so it runs on almost any host, and WordPress.com offers hosted plans from free upward
    • The largest directory of free plugins and themes in the industry (more than 8,000 free themes alone)
    • WooCommerce for e-commerce: free and open source, with paid extensions where you need them
    • The block editor lets editors build media-rich page layouts themselves, without a developer
    • The deepest talent pool of any CMS. Whoever inherits the site will find help
    • A read-and-write REST API in core, and an official MCP Adapter plugin, published by WordPress.org, for connecting AI agents
    • Core security is strong: of 11,334 WordPress ecosystem vulnerabilities reported in 2025, only six were in core

    How WordPress compares to Total CMS →

    Tradeoffs

    • Needs a MySQL or MariaDB database, so a backup is your files plus a consistent database dump
    • The real cost is in what you add: a typical commercial build carries several plugins with their own release cycles and, often, their own annual renewals
    • That is also where the risk sits — 91% of 2025's ecosystem vulnerabilities were in plugins and 9% in themes
    • Plugin and theme auto-updates are opt-in, plugin by plugin and theme by theme, so someone has to own updates
    • Themes are PHP with full code execution rather than a constrained template language
    • Free-form block layouts are a strength for editors who want them and a liability when a client should not be able to rearrange the design
    • Multi-language content is not supported out of the box; it comes from plugins

  3. Total CMS

    Ours — we make this

    For readers neither one suits: a commercial CMS with no database, on ordinary PHP hosting.

    Price
    $195 Standard / $395 Pro, one-time per domain
    Best for
    Sites that should not need a database or a plugin stack

    Strengths

    • No database at all. Content is JSON or Markdown files on disk, so a backup is a copy of a folder and content can live in git with your code
    • Runs on any PHP 8.2+ host — no Composer on the server, no framework to maintain
    • Twig templating with 130+ custom filters and functions, like Craft
    • Editors fill in the fields you modeled, so a client cannot dismantle your layout
    • The MCP server, automations, SEO and REST API are part of the CMS rather than plugins to assemble (Automations, external API access and full MCP access are Pro)
    • One-time license per domain, with two years of updates included, and support direct from the developer
    • Ships a WordPress importer that reads a standard WordPress export

    Everything Total CMS includes →

    Tradeoffs

    • Proprietary and paid; there is no free tier, only a 45-day trial. Craft Solo and WordPress both cost nothing to start
    • The smallest ecosystem and the smallest talent pool of the three, by a wide margin
    • No GraphQL, which Craft includes on every edition
    • No e-commerce, where WordPress has WooCommerce and Craft has Commerce
    • Multi-language works through locale-keyed fields (Pro) rather than separate content per locale
    • No published end-of-life dates, where Craft publishes a dated support policy
    • Not suited to very large or heavily relational datasets — that is what a database is for

How to choose

The longer answer.

Pick on who will run the site and who will edit it, not on feature counts. In practice one of these usually decides it:

  • If the budget is close to zero, choose WordPress. Core is free, hosting is cheap and everywhere, and the free plugin directory covers a great deal. Craft Solo is also free, but it allows one user account and still needs a host with a database and Composer.
  • If editors need to build their own page layouts, choose WordPress. That is what the block editor is for, and Craft deliberately works the other way.
  • If the build depends on a specific plugin — memberships, a learning platform, a niche integration — choose WordPress. It almost certainly exists already.
  • If the client must be able to replace you, choose WordPress. The talent pool is the largest in the industry. That is a real protection for the client, and it is worth saying so in the proposal.
  • If you are a developer who wants structured content and Twig, choose Craft. You model the content, editors fill it in, and the design survives the client.
  • If you want GraphQL or a free single-editor site, choose Craft. GraphQL is on every edition, and Solo is free for production indefinitely.
  • If you need multi-language content in core, choose Craft. Localization is included on every edition; WordPress needs a plugin for it.
  • If neither fits because you do not want a database or a plugin stack, look at Total CMS. It runs on ordinary PHP hosting, keeps content in files you can commit, and is a one-time license per domain. It is a smaller product than either, so read its tradeoffs first.

If the database question is the one that matters, we have written it up separately. If you build client sites for a living, see WordPress alternatives for freelancers, and for systems with no database at all, the best flat-file CMS.

Questions

Common questions.

Is Craft CMS better than WordPress?

For some jobs, yes; for many, no. Craft is the stronger tool when a developer wants to define a structured content model, write Twig templates, and give editors fields rather than a layout canvas. WordPress is the stronger tool when you need its plugin ecosystem, its talent pool, the lowest starting cost, or editors who build their own pages. Neither is better in general.

Is Craft CMS free?

Craft Solo is free and valid for public and private use indefinitely, limited to one user account. It still includes multi-site, localization and GraphQL. A second editor moves you to Team at $279 per project (up to five users) or Pro at $399, each with one year of updates and then $99 a year. WordPress itself is free for any number of users and sites.

Can I run Craft on the same hosting as WordPress?

Sometimes. Both need PHP and a database, but Craft also lists Composer as a requirement and asks for 256MB or more of PHP memory, and its queue works best with a cron entry or a daemon. Many shared plans that run WordPress with one click will not suit Craft comfortably; a VPS, a managed host or Pixel & Tonic's own Craft Cloud will. WordPress runs on almost any host.

Is Craft more secure than WordPress?

It is fairer to compare surface area than products. WordPress core has a strong record: of 11,334 WordPress ecosystem vulnerabilities reported in 2025, six were in core. Ninety-one percent were in plugins. We found no comparable published figures for Craft, so we cannot give you a like-for-like number. The practical rule is the same for both: the fewer plugins you install, the less there is to patch, and either one kept updated is a sound choice.

Can I move a WordPress site to Craft?

Yes. Pixel & Tonic maintains wp-import, a command-line tool that brings posts, pages, media, categories, tags, users, custom post types and taxonomies across through the WordPress REST API, including a listed set of Gutenberg block types and ACF field types. It needs a small helper plugin on the WordPress side. Expect to rebuild the theme in Twig; templates do not transfer.

Which works better with AI agents?

WordPress has the clearer first-party story right now: an official MCP Adapter plugin published by WordPress.org that connects agents to its Abilities API, still pre-1.0. We found no first-party MCP server from Pixel & Tonic for Craft; several community plugins exist. Total CMS builds an MCP server into the CMS — public read on Standard, full access on Pro.

You make Total CMS. Why should I trust this page?

Trust it exactly as far as you can check it. Every price and claim about Craft and WordPress comes from their own pages, linked below, and our entry is marked as ours and lists what both of them do better — a free tier, GraphQL, e-commerce, a far larger ecosystem and talent pool. If you find something inaccurate, tell us and we will fix it.

Sources

Where these facts come from.

Checked . Software and pricing change, so check each product’s own site for their current details.

Craft and WordPress details verified from each vendor's own site on 24 October 2026:

Craft CMS is a trademark of Pixel & Tonic. WordPress is a registered trademark of the WordPress Foundation. We have no affiliation with either. If anything here is wrong or out of date, tell us and we will correct it.

Keep comparing

Head to head, or zoom out.

Put it on your shortlist, then test it.

45 days, every Pro feature, no credit card. Install it next to the others and decide with a real site in front of you.

Start Free Trial See pricing