SilverStripe vs Craft vs WordPress - which CMS is right for your NZ business?

A content management system (CMS) is what lets you edit your own website - change text, add pages, publish news - without needing a developer every time. Choosing the right one matters, because you’ll live with it for years.

Here’s an honest comparison of the three we build on most often.

WordPress

The world’s most popular CMS, powering a huge share of the web.

Great for: Most small businesses. It’s cost-effective, familiar, and has a plugin for almost anything.

Watch out for: It’s only as good as how it’s built. Cheap WordPress sites are often bloated, slow and a security risk. Built lean and kept maintained, it’s excellent.

Craft CMS

A premium, designer-friendly CMS with a beautifully flexible way of modelling content.

Great for: Content-rich, design-led brands that want full creative control and a clean editing experience without plugin clutter.

Watch out for: It has a licence cost and a smaller pool of developers than WordPress - though the quality is high.

SilverStripe

New Zealand’s own enterprise-grade CMS, widely used across government and large organisations.

Great for: Organisations needing structured content, fine-grained user permissions, strong security and long-term stability. A natural fit if you value local, open-source software.

Watch out for: It’s more than many small brochure sites need - but exactly right when you need that robustness.

So which should you choose?

If you want…	Consider
Cost-effective and familiar	WordPress
Design freedom and a premium feel	Craft CMS
Enterprise structure and security	SilverStripe

The honest truth: the best CMS is the one that fits your content, your team and your budget - and that’s built and maintained properly. We work across all three and will recommend based on what you actually need, not what’s easiest for us.

Talk to us about your project and we’ll point you in the right direction.