Prismic vs. Wordpress

A lot of articles like this will start with the company trashing their competitors and proclaiming themselves to be the one true solution. That isn’t how we work.

We know that there are a lot of great options out there when you are choosing your CMS. We know that there is a reason why roughly 30% of the internet runs on Wordpress. But we also know that we are really good at what we do.

We wouldn't be here without Wordpress. They have very much lead the way in the development of the CMS landscape. Their product has helped millions of people to create websites and we have tremendous respect for what they've done.

Their product is adaptable and reliable and the ecosystem that surrounds it has lead to the development of a world of plugins that help people to get more out of Wordpress - but that doesn't mean that there isn't space for new solutions that have learned from what they have done.

Wordpress changed the landscape, but one of the downsides to getting there first is that you get pulled in every direction. Their extensive ecosystem is great and all of the plugins make it extremely adaptable and versatile, but it also makes it slow and unwieldy to manage.

That is where we saw our niche - providing a CMS that allowed developers to use whatever technology they prefer, right out of the box, without having to manage a host of plugins. With Prismic you get to choose your technology, framework, and language. You have access to a dedicated support team. You can count on high SLA's, a secure platform, and a writing room that has been designed with creators and marketers in mind.

Wordpress might be right for your needs. A non-headless CMS might be easier for you, but all we’ll ever tell you to do is to just ask yourself one question:

‘Why did we choose this CMS?’

If your answer is something like…’well, because everyone uses Wordpress, right?’ then this is probably the moment that you’re realizing that you should be putting more thought into such a big decision.

You wouldn’t put such little thought into decisions that are far less important, so why choose your CMS just because you can go with the default option?

So, this might be a good time to think about your CMS, consider an alternative to Wordpress, and look at how Prismic can help you with your projects.

What do we offer?

So even though we have a huge amount of respect for what Wordpress have built, we started Prismic because we saw key areas and features where CMS's could be improved. Our aim is to make life easier for everyone involved in website development and management. Building a website is a team effort that requires developers, designers, and content creators to work in tandem, so we wanted to build a CMS that allows each team to work independently whilst still being able to easily coordinate. Sounds tricky - and it is - but we've designed specific features for each role.

We’re technology agnostic, so DEVELOPERS get to choose whichever technology, framework, or language that they prefer to use when building their site (React, Vue, Gatsby, Next, PHP...it truly is up to them). After that, our API pulls content as JSON and displays it on your page just the way that you want it to. This means that you can use React, Vue, Gatsby, Next, PHP...whatever you prefer.

DESIGNERS aren’t restricted by rigid templates and get to actually design the website that their talents allow, not the site that their tools limit them to. They can also manage their workflow better by designing reusable components that content creators can use to create great looking pages without having to ask their developers for help each time.

And, finally, but maybe most importantly, CONTENT CREATORS and MARKETERS are able to take full ownership of the website. They can create, edit, and update pages, articles, CTA’s and whatever else they need without having to rely on developers or designers. The writing room makes it easy to create unique pages using the components and designs that your developers and designers have created without feeling as if you are just using the same old template for each page.

Not only that, but we've developed features that specifically help users to get feedback, edit, translate, and save time (but there's more on that later).

So, just think about it. You build the website that you want, how you want, and then allow non-technical users to manage it. Your developers are free to focus on your product. Your content creators and marketers can do their job without having to wait for someone else to help them.

We’re offering you more of the most valuable resource that your company has: time.

So, how does it work?

Well, our founding principle is that we’re a tool for developers built by developers. The starting point for any website or app will be the technologies and frameworks that you use to build it – so we let you use whatever you prefer. Gatsby, Now, Next, React, Node…whatever you choose it is entirely up to you.

Our product is future-proof and constantly evolving. We love technology and our community, so we’re committed to building the product that we would want to use.

So, you won’t just have to use the coding and CSS format and structure that we've chosen. Because you don't have to constantly patch things, your code won’t get bulky and you won’t have to rely on third-party plugins to get things to work.

And, most importantly for us, there’s a human face behind the company. We want our community to interact with us. We want to create content for them that they want – not just about us, but about the tech landscape as a whole. Oh, and we also have 24/7 support where you can speak to the people who actually built the software that you’re using.

And what about the features?

We can talk endlessly about how we want to make every one of your teams feel ‘freer’, but we also know that you choose software because of the features that it offers. So here are a few of our favorites:

Slices

Slices are one of our most popular features as it allows non-technical users to create pages without having to rely on designers and developers. Slices are reusable components that can be arranged on your site however you need them. Think of them sort of like building blocks for your content and pages.

Once you’ve designed and defined the components that you want, content creators will be able to select and order the Slices that they want when creating a page. This makes creating pages easy and it is one of the main reasons that content creators using Prismic don’t have to rely on developers or designers when they’re working on new pages.

You won’t just be limited by the couple of themes or rigid templates that you managed to create. You’ll actually be able to arrange your page around your content, not your content around your page structure.

Edit Button

We’ve all been there. You notice a typo on your site, or you need to update a term or figure and you suddenly realize that the process is going to involve going to your CMS website, finding the right content, and then updating it.

It’s slow. It’s long. It’s off-putting. So, we made it easier.

Anyone with access to your Prismic account will have the Edit Button displayed on every one of your pages. From there they can edit and update content in just two clicks.

It really is that simple.

Previews

We don’t just want to help you correct typos we also want to help you avoid them. Our Previews feature does just that.

With Previews you can generate shareable links and see exactly what your page will look like before you publish it. Not sort of what it will look like. Not what the content will look like without the footers or the headers. EXACTLY what your page will look like.

What’s more, you can simultaneously generate links for however many pages or pieces of content that you want and share them with colleagues and contributors – even if they don’t have access to Prismic.

This means that you can get input and feedback on what your finished page will look like before…well…before it is even finished.

These links will also automatically update to reflect any of your latest changes. So you won’t have to keep re-sharing a link each time you change something.

...and that's just an overview of a few of our most popular features. There are a lot of other ways that Prismic can help you to improve your workflow, website speed, SEO, translation, and just about everything else that will help your website and content to perform better.

Have you asked yourself that question yet?

So I hope that you understand that we aren't saying there's anything wrong with Wordpress, we have just chosen to focus on some particular needs and problems that might resonate with you.

If some of the problems sound familiar or the features sound useful we can give you a full custom demo where we can show you just how Prismic could help you with your projects. But, even then, we’ll tell you if we don’t think we’re the right solution for you.

Don’t believe us? Just try it.

Wordpress might be right for you. Some other CMS might be right for you. Just make sure you have asked yourself that important question:

‘Why did we choose this CMS?’