Software Alternatives, Accelerators & Startups

GraphCMS VS Craft CMS

Compare GraphCMS VS Craft CMS and see what are their differences

GraphCMS logo GraphCMS

The GraphQL Headless CMS

Craft CMS logo Craft CMS

Content management system built on Yii PHP Framework
  • GraphCMS Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-03-19
  • Craft CMS Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-10-22

GraphCMS features and specs

  • GraphQL Native
    GraphCMS is designed around GraphQL, allowing for flexible and efficient querying of data and improving developer experience.
  • Headless CMS
    It serves as a headless CMS, separating content management from presentation, providing flexibility in delivering content to multiple channels such as websites, mobile apps, and IoT devices.
  • Scalability
    GraphCMS offers scalable architecture, capable of handling large volumes of content and high traffic, making it suitable for enterprise-level projects.
  • Content Modeling
    It provides advanced content modeling capabilities, allowing users to create complex and custom content structures tailored to their specific needs.
  • API-first Approach
    GraphCMS uses an API-first approach, facilitating easy integration with other tools and services within your digital ecosystem.
  • Extensive Plugins and Integrations
    It supports a wide array of plugins and integrations, enhancing functionality and streamlining workflows.
  • Real-time Updates
    Supports real-time updates, essential for applications that require most updated content without delay.
  • Multilingual Support
    Offers robust multilingual support, allowing content creators to manage and deliver content in multiple languages seamlessly.

Possible disadvantages of GraphCMS

  • Pricing
    Compared to some alternatives, GraphCMS can be relatively expensive, especially for small businesses or individual developers.
  • Learning Curve
    The GraphQL-based approach might have a learning curve for those unfamiliar with GraphQL, potentially increasing the time needed to onboard new developers.
  • Complexity for Simple Projects
    GraphCMS's advanced features and capabilities might be overkill for simpler projects, where a more basic CMS could suffice.
  • Dependency on External Services
    Being a cloud-based service, it requires a reliable internet connection and can be dependent on the service uptime and performance of GraphCMS infrastructure.
  • Limited Built-in Marketing Tools
    It lacks some built-in marketing tools that other CMS platforms might offer, requiring additional integration for comprehensive marketing functionalities.

Craft CMS features and specs

  • Customizability
    Craft CMS offers extensive customization options, making it ideal for complex and unique projects. Developers have full control over HTML and can use Craft's robust content modeling features.
  • User-Friendly Interface
    The admin panel is intuitive and user-friendly, which makes content management easy for non-technical users. The experience is smooth and modern, enhancing productivity.
  • High Performance
    Craft CMS is designed to be fast and efficient, offering excellent performance even with complex and data-rich websites.
  • Security
    It offers strong security features, regularly updates for vulnerabilities, and has built-in protection against common threats like SQL injection and XSS attacks.
  • Support and Community
    Craft CMS has a strong community and excellent support. Users have access to thorough documentation, a vibrant forum, and a Slack channel where they can get help and share knowledge.

Possible disadvantages of Craft CMS

  • Cost
    Craft CMS is not free and can be relatively expensive compared to other CMS options, especially for smaller projects or businesses with limited budgets.
  • Development Skills Required
    While it's user-friendly for content creators, setting up and customizing Craft CMS requires development skills, which might not be ideal for users without technical expertise.
  • Learning Curve
    For new users, particularly those without a background in web development, there can be a steep learning curve to fully utilize Craft CMS's features and capabilities.
  • Limited Plugins
    While the plugin ecosystem is growing, Craft CMS has fewer plugins available compared to more established CMS platforms like WordPress. This may limit functionality out-of-the-box.
  • Hosting Requirements
    Craft CMS has specific server requirements, and not all hosting providers may easily accommodate them. This can limit hosting options and potentially increase costs.

Analysis of GraphCMS

Overall verdict

  • Yes, GraphCMS is considered a good option for those looking for a headless CMS solution with strong API capabilities and flexibility in content management.

Why this product is good

  • GraphCMS is often regarded as a good choice for handling content management solutions because it combines the flexibility of headless CMS with powerful GraphQL APIs. It allows for efficient content querying and management, offers scalability, and provides a smooth user experience with a modern UI. Additionally, its integration with various technologies and platforms makes it adaptable for different development environments.

Recommended for

    GraphCMS is recommended for developers and companies looking for a scalable and flexible content management solution, particularly those who prefer working with GraphQL APIs. It is ideal for projects requiring complex content structures, such as e-commerce platforms, large-scale websites, and applications needing customized content delivery across different channels.

GraphCMS videos

GraphCMS + eCommerce

More videos:

  • Review - GraphCMS x Next.js | Working with getStaticProps, getStaticPaths and GraphQL

Craft CMS videos

What is Craft CMS 3?

More videos:

  • Review - A Tour of the Craft CMS

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to GraphCMS and Craft CMS)
CMS
31 31%
69% 69
Blogging
35 35%
65% 65
Blogging Platform
29 29%
71% 71
Developer Tools
100 100%
0% 0

User comments

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Reviews

These are some of the external sources and on-site user reviews we've used to compare GraphCMS and Craft CMS

GraphCMS Reviews

34 Headless CMS That Should Be On Your Radar
GraphCMS allows you to develop a hosted GraphQL back-end for your application where you can define relations, structures, and permissions of your application data. It also comes with a number of tools to create and manage your content, including text editors, asset management, workflows, user roles, and multi-lingual support.
Source: www.cmswire.com

Craft CMS Reviews

Top 10 Web Content Management Systems
If you are not satisfied with non of these options, I encourage you to check out Craft CMS. An open-source powered all-in-one CMS, with highly active community for your needs. Cloudzyโ€™s Craft CMS hosting, is a go to solution for all web admins and content publishers who are willing to manage their website with Craft CMS.
Source: cloudzy.com
34 Headless CMS That Should Be On Your Radar
Craft CMS features custom fields, drag-and-drop layout management, multi-site management, localization, asset management, live content previews, and a built-in image editor. Each user can also attain their own customizable dashboard.
Source: www.cmswire.com
9 Reasons I Think Craft is the Best CMS on the Market Today
Craft CMS is simple, minimalistic, agile and has every capability a modern CMS framework needs. Over the past ten years we have worked with every CMS you could think of (Wordpress, Drupal, Rails+ActiveAdmin, Ghost, Weebly, DjangoCMS, Jekyll, Joomla, Tumblr, Squarespace, Expression Engine, Statamic, Blogger)โ€ฆ here are the reasons why weโ€™ve landed firmly with Craft as our โ„–1...
Source: hackernoon.com

Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, Craft CMS should be more popular than GraphCMS. It has been mentiond 33 times since March 2021. We are tracking product recommendations and mentions on various public social media platforms and blogs. They can help you identify which product is more popular and what people think of it.

GraphCMS mentions (19)

  • Build a Task Manager CRUD App with React and Hygraph
    Hygraph, formerly known as GraphCMS, is a backend-only content management system (i.e., a headless CMS) that uses GraphQL to query data and perform mutations (or updates) to the content, making it accessible via a single endpoint (API) for display on any device without a built-in frontend or presentation layer. It allows teams to use a single content repository to deliver content from a single source to endless... - Source: dev.to / over 3 years ago
  • free-for.dev
    GraphCMS - Offers free tier for small projects. GraphQL first API. Move away from legacy solutions to the GraphQL native Headless CMS - and deliver omnichannel content API first. - Source: dev.to / over 3 years ago
  • Generate Types for Your GraphQL Schemas in 5 Minutes
    I'm building an app using GraphCMS (super awesome, by the way) but the only gotcha is it doesn't offer a plugin to export your schema types. Since I can't function without TypeScript, that was a big problem the second I tried to write mutations or generate static pages using my schemas. - Source: dev.to / about 4 years ago
  • Serverless blog with 11ty, GraphCMS and Firebase
    In comes GraphCMS, a competitor of the beloved DatoCMS. It lacks some features - like repeatable blocks and the UI is a bit too cluttered, but has a generous free tier. For a blog, this will do just fine. - Source: dev.to / over 4 years ago
  • Using GitHub as a CMS
    I found most people were happy to recommend other headless CMS services like Strapi, Sanity, GraphCMS, etc which did seem to do the job I wanted of providing a platform for me to curate & manage my content without having to redeploy. But most of them had the same issues that I didn't like. - Source: dev.to / over 4 years ago
View more

Craft CMS mentions (33)

  • 16 Best CMS Platforms for Websites in 2025
    Craft CMS is a flexible and developer-friendly platform that focuses on custom design and structured content. Itโ€™s best for agencies and designers building tailored websites, offering complete control over content modeling and front-end rendering. - Source: dev.to / 12 months ago
  • Matt Mullenweg Asks What Drama to Create in 2025, Community Reacts
    There was a whole rash of them a few years back. I'm not sure if any of them took off or what. https://ghost.org/ https://strapi.io/ https://getgrav.org/ https://craftcms.com/. - Source: Hacker News / over 1 year ago
  • Different flavors of content management
    The most typical approach is having a CMS admin panel sit somewhere on the server; everyone with an account uses this. This is a very convenient approach, especially when working with a team. This way, many people can work on different articles simultaneously without worrying about potential conflicts or overwriting stuff. The only con is related to security - everyone can try to get inside, and if you forget to... - Source: dev.to / almost 3 years ago
  • Go with PHP
    PHP has a lot of top tier CMSes. IMHO bunch of them are even better than Statamic. Craft CMS (https://craftcms.com/) is a lot more mature database based CMS. Kirby (https://getkirby.com/) is better at flat-file and has a lot better admin interface. Twill (https://twillcms.com/) is better integrated in Laravel and is fully open-source. Statamic mostly feels like it's sitting besides Laravel and they call themselves... - Source: Hacker News / about 3 years ago
  • Stack to build and deploy a fully functional personal blog?
    You're basically looking for any CMS that supports headless mode. E.g. Strapi (https://strapi.io/, NodeJS based), CraftCMS (https://craftcms.com/, PHP based) or countless others. Source: about 3 years ago
View more

What are some alternatives?

When comparing GraphCMS and Craft CMS, you can also consider the following products

Contentful - You don't need another CMS. You need a better way to manage content โ€” unified, structured, and ready to deploy to any digital channel.

WordPress - WordPress is web software you can use to create a beautiful website or blog. We like to say that WordPress is both free and priceless at the same time.

Strapi - Manage any content. Anywhere. The leading open-source headless CMS. 100% JavaScript / TypeScript and fully customizable.

Drupal - Drupal - the leading open-source CMS for ambitious digital experiences that reach your audience across multiple channels. Because we all have different needs, Drupal allows you to create a unique space in a world of cookie-cutter solutions.

Prismic - prismic.io is a web software you can use to manage content in any kind of website or app. API-driven.

Statamic - Build better, easier to manage websites. Enjoy radical efficiency. It's everything you never knew you always wanted in a CMS.