In this article, we’ll explain why Statamic is our CMS of choice, why we opt for it over WordPress, and how it benefits both our website development process and our clients.
A quick overview: Statamic vs WordPress
Statamic:
Statamic is a modern, flat-file CMS designed to give developers complete control over their website’s architecture. It doesn’t rely on a database; instead, it stores content in simple text files.
This approach eliminates many of the complexities associated with traditional CMS platforms and offers superior speed and security.
Statamic is also highly customisable, making it ideal for complex, bespoke projects that require tailored solutions.
WordPress:
WordPress is the most widely used CMS globally, powering over 40% of all websites.
With its extensive library of themes, plugins, and an easy-to-use admin interface, WordPress is incredibly versatile.
It’s often the preferred choice for beginners, bloggers, and small businesses, but the platform’s reliance on plugins and a database can lead to scalability and security challenges in the long term.
Why we prefer Statamic: The developer’s advantage
As an agency that focuses on delivering high-quality, performance-driven websites, our primary concern is always the backend architecture and how it affects the user experience, scalability, and long-term maintenance.
Here's why Statamic consistently wins over WordPress for our more complex projects:
Performance:
Speed is a top priority in our development process. Statamic’s flat-file architecture provides faster load times compared to WordPress, which relies on a database to serve content. This is a key factor in achieving good Google Core Web Vitals performance metrics to ensure a great user experience.
With Statamic, we avoid the bottlenecks that come with database queries, meaning our websites load faster and perform better, particularly when dealing with high traffic volumes.
This out-of-the-box performance boost is one of the reasons we recommend Statamic for performance-sensitive and search optimised sites.
Simplicity and flexibility:
We value flexibility in the tools we use. Statamic offers a clean and web developer-friendly environment where we can easily implement custom functionality.
From custom fields to advanced templating systems, Statamic allows us to mould the website to the client’s exact specifications. We are not confined by the limitations of a theme or pre-built structure as we often are with WordPress.
WordPress, while flexible, tends to rely heavily on plugins and third-party themes, which can result in conflicts, slowdowns, and long-term maintenance challenges.
Security:
Security is non-negotiable, especially for enterprise-level clients or sites handling sensitive data. Statamic’s flat-file architecture inherently makes it more secure than WordPress.
Without a database or a reliance on third-party plugins, the attack surface is dramatically reduced. WordPress sites, on the other hand, are frequently targeted by hackers due to its popularity and the security vulnerabilities that arise from plugins and outdated core files.
Scalability and long-term maintenance: Statamic outperforms WordPress
When it comes to scaling a website and maintaining it over time, Statamic holds a clear advantage.
Database-free simplicity:
Because Statamic stores content in files rather than a database, scaling becomes much simpler. Although the platform also provides the flexibility to swap to a database if it’s required.
As websites grow, WordPress sites can become slow and unwieldy due to database bloat and the need to regularly optimise queries.
Statamic doesn’t suffer from these issues, offering a cleaner and more sustainable way to manage increasing volumes of content.
Statamic allows us to version control an entire site, enabling us to roll back to any previous state and work on any additional requirements without impacting the live site.
Low maintenance:
WordPress requires constant updates to its core files, plugins, and themes to maintain security and functionality.
As a web development agency, managing these updates for multiple clients can be time-consuming.
Statamic, with its minimal reliance on third-party dependencies, requires much less ongoing maintenance. Once a site is built, it’s more stable and less likely to experience compatibility issues over time.
Custom solutions, not plugins:
While WordPress relies heavily on plugins to extend functionality, Statamic allows us to build everything from scratch, without relying on external code.
This reduces the risk of plugin conflicts, improves performance, and gives us full control over the website’s features.
Because Statamic is built on Laravel - a highly secure and well-maintained PHP framework renowned for its robust architecture and powerful tools for building modern web applications - it is ideal for clients with complex needs or unique functionality which require a reliable, tailor-made solution.
Statamic’s SEO and content management capabilities
For any modern website, SEO and content management are critical factors in ensuring long-term visibility and success.
Statamic offers built-in features that make these processes straightforward:
SEO optimisation:
Statamic makes it easy to create clean, semantic HTML and customise meta tags, URLs, and alt text for images.
As web developers, we can control every aspect of SEO implementation through the code, ensuring optimal SEO performance from day one.
While WordPress offers SEO plugins like Yoast and Rank Math, we often find that these plugins introduce unnecessary complexity and overhead.
Statamic provides a more streamlined and code-driven approach to SEO, which we believe is more efficient for high-performance sites.
Content flexibility:
Statamic’s content management system is designed with developers and content managers in mind.
The flexible content structure allows us to set up custom fields, content types, and taxonomies, creating a tailored experience for content creators.
This is particularly valuable for clients who need more advanced content structures than what WordPress typically offers out of the box.
Client-focused benefits: Why Statamic is the right choice for our clients
Our goal is always to provide the best possible solution for our clients, which is why we believe Statamic is the right choice.
Speed to launch:
While both Statamic and WordPress offer quick setup times, Statamic allows for faster delivery of performance-focused websites.
Without the need for plugins or a complex theme structure, we can focus directly on building the website according to the client’s specifications.
Stability and longevity:
We want to deliver a solution for our clients that will stand the test of time. Statamic’s flat-file architecture means fewer moving parts and a lower likelihood of future issues with compatibility or updates.
WordPress sites, which depend on third-party plugins and themes, can be prone to conflicts or breakage with future updates.
Security and peace of mind:
For clients who prioritise security—especially those in industries like finance, healthcare, or e-commerce—Statamic’s database-free structure provides an inherent layer of protection.
With fewer vulnerabilities and a smaller attack surface, our clients’ websites remain safer over time.
WordPress sites, on the other hand, require constant vigilance and patching to maintain security.
The Laravel framework, which Statamic is built on, provides a solid foundation with features like advanced security measures, robust architecture and extensive community support.
The bottom line: Why Statamic is our CMS of choice
As a web development agency that prioritises performance, security, and scalability, we find Statamic to be the better choice over WordPress for many of our projects. It gives us more control, faster performance, and greater security out of the box. For clients who need a bespoke, long-lasting solution, Statamic is the ideal CMS that aligns with both our development philosophy and our clients’ goals.
As a Statamic Partner and web development agency with over 25 years experience under our belts, and (coincidentally) 25 sites built on Statamic in the last 2 years, we understand the importance of using the right tools for the job. Statamic empowers us to deliver better, faster, and more secure websites that align with our clients' needs.
If you’re ready to take your website to the next level, we’re here to help you build a custom Statamic site that meets your goals. Let’s build something exceptional together.
Call us on 01484 302010 or send us an email on hello@applieddigital.co.uk.
Applied websites built on Statamic include:
