Is Contentful a WordPress alternative?

There’s never been a better time to be a digital marketer. 

We’ve got so many content management tools to choose from, so many possibilities when it comes to creating experiences for our audiences, that the sky’s the limit. Contentful was designed with that ambition in mind: our platform is a launchpad for brands that want to keep their audiences engaged, entertained, and on their toes with fresh, exciting, unique content experiences. 

But while we’re in an age of digital plenty right now, that wasn’t always the case. Back in the early 2000s, when people still glanced at the sky when you mentioned “cloud,” and the phrase “content management” could draw blank stares, there were far fewer quality solutions available to help brands create and publish content online.  

WordPress is one of those legacy solutions. Launched in 2003 as a blog publishing tool, WordPress has grown to become a globally popular content management system (CMS).

Popularity doesn’t necessarily translate to usefulness and, while WordPress clearly appeals to a huge swathe of internet users, is it effective at delivering the kind of dynamic, engaging experiences that modern content teams now need to create, on a daily basis?

Let’s find out.

In this post, we’re going to line the WordPress content management system up against Contentful, and ask the important question: Is Contentful a viable alternative to WordPress?

Spoiler: The answer is “Emphatically Yes.”

Understanding WordPress

It’s worth saying, upfront, that WordPress has moved beyond its origins as a blogging platform, and is a quality CMS that does the job for thousands of brands and businesses around the world. It’s a legacy CMS (as we mentioned earlier), so it's well established, and if you move in digital-marketing circles, you’ve almost certainly heard about it. 

For those that haven’t heard of WordPress, or perhaps haven’t ever properly looked under the hood of the platform, let’s talk about what legacy CMS means. 

A jack of all trades

Legacy CMSes, like WordPress, were launched as “all-in-one” content management solutions. That means WordPress aims to be a jack of all trades, providing every feature and functionality that brands need to build and launch websites or online stores, and manage content effectively for their audiences and customers. 

It achieves that by packaging a tightly coupled back end and a front end, and a database in which to store content — essentially, all the components you need to run basic content operations on a website or online store. 

That package makes WordPress ideal for certain businesses and brands. It’s particularly useful for small businesses and brands that have limited resources for their digital presence, that want to maintain a small or limited web presence, or that want to launch a website or online store as quickly as possible. 

WordPress alternative or alternative WordPress?

We should note that there are actually two different WordPress CMS products: WordPress.com and WordPress.org. 

WordPress.org is the self-hosted option. You can use whatever hosting you want, install WordPress themes for your front end, and access plugins which offer workaround solutions for things like security, search engine optimization (SEO), and so on. Most businesses run their websites or digital products on WordPress.org, and use plugins to create new CMS functionality or to patch over any gaps or shortfalls.  

WordPress.com, on the other hand, can be installed and used free of charge. Unlike WordPress.org, you can't install plugins and you don't have to organize your own hosting — although you can add minor customizations like a custom domain name. WordPress.com is typically best suited to smaller projects, like personal blogs and it’s comparable to other website builders like Squarespace.

WordPress limitations

The all-in-one, out-of-the-box functionality that WordPress (.com and .org) provides has made it one of the most widely used CMSes in the world. But that prepackaged, monolithic functionality can also limit WordPress — and may mean that businesses can’t scale efficiently when they need to grow. 

That’s because WordPress is monolithic (like most legacy CMSes) in the sense that its back and front ends are tightly coupled with little or no flexibility to adjust its prepackaged content features and functionalities, or explore customization options — at least, without a bit of extra effort (more on that later).

That lack of flexibility causes problems for modern content teams because it's difficult to adjust frontend content experiences for the changing needs and expectations of their customers. It also makes it difficult to publish content to different front ends — if brands want to launch, and publish content to an app, for example, they’d need to copy and paste that content over to a separate CMS, taking on all the tedium and potential for error that entails. 

Monolithic CMSes also create problems for brands that want to grow or expand to new territories. The more complexity you build into your content ecosystem by launching new pages, new campaigns, or even new, more complex websites, the harder it becomes for individual brand teams to exert close control over specific frontend experiences and cater to the needs of specific audiences. 

In that environment, content can quickly become duplicated, fragmented, and inconsistent — confusing audiences, damaging engagement, and hurting bottom lines.

The headless alternative

The solution to the monolithic limitations of CMSes like WordPress is to opt for a headless CMS, like Contentful.

In this context, going “headless" refers to a CMS shipping without a prebuilt front end — or "head." This decoupling from the back end gives brands the flexibility to design and develop their own custom front ends, explore customization options with advanced features and third-party tools, and, in doing so, shape their own unique digital experiences.

API integration 

Headless CMSes leverage application programming interfaces (APIs) to handle communication between their back and front ends. APIs are essentially a communication layer that enables the secure transfer of data between components in a tech stack, and the seamless integration of those components with each other. 

And, because APIs handle communication, headless CMSes make it very easy to integrate new content management tools and functionalities into the stack — so brands can scale and grow their content ecosystem without having to worry about whether their CMS will be able to keep up. 

Can WordPress do what headless CMSes do?

Yes and no. 

While you can, with a certain level of expertise, customize WordPress to build in workarounds and third-party plugins that give it some of the customization options you’d expect from a truly headless CMS, it’s important to remember that it wasn’t built for that — which can make that process complicated and pricey. 

For example, if you want to add a product information management (PIM) tool to WordPress you’ll need to find a compatible third-party option, at the right price, then build an interface for it, and then create the relevant product pages for it, and make sure that they’re also compatible with the other pages in your online store. You’ll also need to find a developer with the skill and expertise to do that work for you, which means allocating more time and resources to the project. 

And that’s just for one module. 

On the other hand, it’s true that WordPress can be adapted into a platform that resembles a headless CMS. In fact, WordPress even released its own REST API to accommodate advanced features and push it closer to headless-style functionality. However, that workaround typically requires additional development effort, which can add complexity for nontechnical users and, ultimately, complicate content workflows for brands that need to be agile in fast-moving markets. 

Compare that complexity to a headless CMS, built with an API-first design philosophy so that you can just connect a PIM, or a DAM, or a personalization module, or a translation module, or SEO tools, or any new tool effortlessly, without any need for specialized expertise, and without worrying about coding compatibility. 

That efficiency creates a meaningful difference, including fewer headaches for your development and marketing teams. 

Why Contentful?

Is Contentful an alternative to WordPress? Well, if your brand needs to move beyond the limitations of its monolithic content management solution, or you know that you’re going to need to scale to meet growth goals, or be nimble with your content marketing, then the answer (and sorry for spoiling it earlier) is yes. 

In fact, it’s more than an alternative, it represents a natural progression on the digital marketing journey you’re on: You need to do more things, for a bigger audience, without losing control of your workflow efficiency, and without compromising your brand voice. 

But how does Contentful help you get to that point on your journey? Let’s look at the specifics.

Content-agnostic architecture

Unlike WordPress, which was built for website-only, page-based publishing and typically stores content as HTML, Contentful is content (and platform) agnostic. That means that, in Contentful, content can be stored in a completely composable, machine-readable format, and published to any front end in your digital ecosystem without risk of formatting errors or code incompatibility. 

Basically, Contentful enables you to reuse your content anywhere — on websites, mobile apps, store displays, AI chatbots, and so on. 

Scalable content operations

Contentful’s cloud-native architecture means that markets can seamlessly and speedily ramp up content production to support new campaigns, markets, or channels. You won’t need to rebuild or tinker with your CMS to accommodate the added demand, or add plugins or new CMSes to manage new touchpoints. 

Structured content

Contentful’s headless architecture supports structured content. Your content can be broken down into its component parts, and then put back together, like building blocks, to create new pieces of content. 

That means you could build new product pages, for example, by grabbing headers, descriptions, images and other components, from other parts of the ecosystem, and reassembling them to spin up the new content in minutes — rather than creating all that new content from scratch, or tediously copying and pasting between tools.

Extensibility

Where WordPress locks brands into the all-in-one functionality of the platform, Contentful’s headless architecture is extensible, which means brands can build out their front ends with exactly the features they need, leveraging APIs to ensure compatibility between SEO tools, marketing tools, or any third-party integrations they choose to add.  

API-first design

APIs aren't an afterthought in Contentful, they’re foundational. That API-first approach means that a brand’s developers can integrate with any front end or service, and marketers can publish content to any touchpoint seamlessly, all from a single source of truth.

Enterprise-grade workflows

Contentful is designed to support content operations across multiple regions, websites, channels, and brands. Our CMS puts innovative tools in the hands of content teams, empowering them to deliver outstanding content experiences without relying on developer intervention. 

Native features such as AI Actions, for example, takes the manual complexity out of content publication with an array of automation tools, while the Workflow feature, enables brands to closely control their content output from ideation through to review, and publication. 

Go further with Contentful

Hopefully, you're closer to understanding how and why Contentful stacks up as a true Wordpress alternative (and not simply an alternative WordPress). 

When you’re wrestling with legacy content management tech, it’s always useful to understand your options. If you’re a small brand with a handful of pages, no need for third-party integrations, and a publishing cadence that doesn’t cause (too many) headaches, then WordPress, or another legacy system, may well continue to provide value.

If, on the other hand, you’re a growing brand with one eye always on the horizon, it might be the right time to start thinking differently. Or, more specifically, thinking differently about how you work with and publish content, and create unique, engaging digital experiences for your customers over the long term.

Contentful can help you take that next step. 

We work with some of the world’s biggest brands to deliver outstanding digital experiences. To learn more about our platform, explore our latest feature releases, read tips on making the move from WordPress to Contentful, or discuss details with our sales team.

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