Statamic vs Joomla
If you’ve been checking us out, or know us already, you’d see that over the last 18 months we have been super excited about working with a new (to us) CMS called Statamic, and also that for many years prior we specialised in Joomla websites - but what’s changed?
In August 2021 Joomla finally released the long-awaited version 4 - now when I say long-awaited I mean it. It was released 4 years after they announced it, and 7 years after it was first talked about.
It’s not us, it’s you
Now we know that good things take time, but to be honest, Joomla 4 was underwhelming for us (and our clients) - for the majority of websites it brought with it zero new features, and seems to have shifted focus to be more of a CMS for the EU market.
Where as other platforms on the web had evolved and grown, Joomla 4 stayed in its roots with a more complicated underlying framework (where simple custom developments become complex to achieve) and a "new" user interface that took a step back in usability and aesthetics. We felt that it was not the right platform for the needs of our clients.
Because of this we looked at alternatives - one that would bring new features, a platform that was a joy to design for and develop with and a better overall experience for us as developers and our clients as content managers - enter Statamic.
You can read more about Statamic in a previous post, but below we have put together a comparison of some key features outlining why we think it’s a better choice.
| Statamic | Joomla | |
|---|---|---|
|
Framework
|
Laravel
|
Joomla Framework
|
|
Requires database
|
But can use one, if a site needs to
|
|
|
Templating experience for developers
|
Easy, performant and managable
|
More complex, often requiring overrides, and inconsistent coding styles
|
|
Multi-site
Manage a main site and sub-sites (such as product-specific landing pages) from the one CMS
|
|
|
|
Multi-language
|
Using multi-site
|
|
|
Authoring experience
Out of the box authoring experience
|
Flexible, user friendly, easy
|
Simple HTML block per page
|
|
Content block builder
The ability to create unique page layouts
|
|
Requires 3rd party extension
|
|
Extendable with commercial add-ons
This includes both paid and free options
|
|
|
|
Custom development experience
What is it like to build something cool for a specific site, or to create as an add-on for others
|
Easy
|
Difficult
|
|
Custom user permissions
How easy is it to manage multiple user access levels throughout the site?
|
Easy
|
Difficult
|
|
Native forms
Support for forms out of the box - like a contact or enquiry form
|
|
Requires 3rd party extension
|
|
Uses modern development stack
What's happening under the hood to make your developers really happy?
|
|
|
|
Frequency of updates
|
Fortnightly
|
Monthly
|
|
File management
|
Advanced
|
Basic
|
|
Image management
Including mobile friendly resizing and modern image formats
|
Includes responsive focus point cropping
|
|
|
Git version control
Deployment and management with full baked-in git love
|
|
|
While no one CMS is going to do everything that everyone wants, a CMS like Statamic gives us as developers much greater flexibility and control over providing a better and more user friendly content management and authoring experience, and more creative, dynamic and flexible page layouts for your site’s visitors.
Why not check out some of our Statamic projects, or drop us a line if you’d like to have a chat about how Statamic can work for your site.
Michael Scruse
Michael brings his technical, web and sales expertise to every project, backed by almost 30 years’ experience in the IT industry.
In 2018, Michael became one of Australia’s first Certified Joomla Administrators.
Michael is also a qualified chef, although cooking is now in a domestic kitchen. Michael is a bit of a history buff and is currently researching his own family history.