Strapi vs Traditional CMS: Which One Should You Choose?

Over 70% of the top 1 million websites today leverage the capabilities of cutting-edge CMS infrastructure to deliver the latest features to their customers, reaping benefits such as higher traffic and more revenue.

So, if you rely on the internet to attract even a small part of your customers, a Content Management System is critical to your operations.

And if you’re also interested in adopting a CMS-powered approach to content delivery, the first question is: which CMS should you choose? While you have several interesting options, such as WordPress, Wix Strapi and Contentful, all of them fall into one of two categories: traditional or headless CMS.

In this post, we’ll help you choose your content delivery ecosystem between the two most attractive options: Strapi or a Traditional CMS Model.

Let’s dive in!

What is a Traditional CMS?

A content management system is a platform that helps you deliver content to your customers. For example, say you run a boutique and want to open an online storefront.

A content management system will help you manage how your customers view and interact with your products. So, a content delivery ecosystem manages everything:

• The catalog of your products,
• The images of the products,
• Customer reviews for your products,
• The order and inventory management system,
• The cart and payment interface for customers,
• And more!

Similarly, whether you run a giant eCommerce platform, a university learning management system or a SaaS enterprise, a CMS helps you engineer the demand side experience for your customers.

So, a traditional CMS like Wix or WordPress can help you create an immersive user experience for all your products and services.

What is a Headless CMS?

A headless CMS takes content delivery a step further.

Say your sales and marketing personnel want to add 50 new product lines to your website before your competitors do the same. However, they lack the technical expertise to manipulate the traditional CMS.

Here’s where a Headless CMS comes in.

It separates the back-end processes from the front-end processes of a content delivery system. So, even non-technical users can manipulate and add to the catalog of a headless CMS platform.

Strapi CMS development services offer you the chance to integrate several cutting-edge content delivery features with your content delivery infrastructure, such as:

• Search Engine Optimization to improve visibility and boost traffic,
• Seamless access for non-technical users,
• Multi-platform delivery of the same content,
• Microservices integration and omnichannel content delivery,
• Scalable content delivery for an expanding base of users,
• Robust security and access management capabilities.

Strapi vs. Traditional CMS - Choose Your Warrior

So, how should you choose between Strapi, the leading headless CMS, and a traditional CMS like Wix or WordPress??

Here are the five factors that can help you answer this question:?

1. What Industry Do You Operate In?

Traditional CMS, on the one hand, and Headless CMSs like Strapi, on the other, have very different applications.?

So, if you want to build a static website or application for declarative rather than interactive purposes, traditional CMS might be the right option.?

This could include blogs, journalistic websites, event-specific websites, learning management systems and more.?

But as soon as interaction is a crucial part of your content delivery requirements, we recommend you switch to Strapi.?

It lets you seamlessly integrate multi-lingual content delivery, multi-option payment interfaces and AI chatbots, which are at the heart of an unforgettable interactive experience.?

2. How Technically Adept Is Your Content Creation Team??

Any CMS will require maintenance and regular upkeep, without which even the most cutting-edge system will start lagging.?

So, the next question is: how technically adept is your content creation team??

Can it skillfully manipulate the back-end of a CMS without impacting its front-end? Or, from a different perspective, can your team manage the consequences of back-end development on the front-end side??

If the answer is no, we recommend that you go for Strapi. It is extremely easy to use and will help you increase the productivity of your content creators and developers without requiring a massive exercise in upskilling or reskilling.?

3. How Much Time Have You Got??

Another important factor that can help you choose between Strapi and a traditional CMS is the dimension of time.?

A traditional CMS can help you get a website or app up and running quickly. If your database is relatively small, it can even be done in as little as a day!?

However, this isn’t without its disadvantages. While initial development is extremely simple in traditional CMSs like WordPress and Wix, Agile integration is equally complex.?

Once configured, the traditional CMS backend requires extensive reworking to accommodate new features. So, let’s say that today, your CRM team can meaningfully solve queries by itself. But tomorrow, it needs to deploy chatbots to accommodate more users. This will require expansive DevOps work.?

Strapi works in the opposite way. Although the website's launch might require up to a month of DevOps, post-deployment modifications are very simple. Plus, your non-technical team will be able to contribute to the development of features like AI chatbots.?

So, consider your short-term business priorities and long-term organizational goals.?

If the former is very important, a traditional CMS platform should do just fine. But if the latter outweighs the former, we recommend using Strapi.?

4. What’s Your Development Budget and Scale of Operations??

The cost of doing business is often an important factor in determining the choice between Strapi and traditional CMS.?

And it has good reasons. The initial development of Strapi-powered web infrastructure might require more resources than a traditional CMS-powered ecosystem.?

However, while Strapi development may be time-consuming in the beginning, it will yield huge returns as your enterprise and its operations scale up.?

On the other hand, a traditional CMS can also accommodate all these features. However, since the back-end of a traditional CMS is linked with the front-end, it will require a significant amount of downtime.?

So, if you have a project that is limited in its scope, operations and goals, a traditional CMS will perfectly suit your needs.?

However, if you have a vision with long-standing goals and far-reaching objectives, a Headless CMS Development Company can help you implement it by harnessing Strapi’s future-proof features.?

5. Do You Already Use a CMS??

If you are one of the 76 million enterprises that already use a CMS, we recommend that you give Strapi a chance.?

Existing CMSs have a myriad of challenges:

?? Some of them are simply not scalable, which can be a problem if your enterprise is growing rapidly.?

?? Further, several CMSs are not compatible with the latest features, such as cloud-based content storage and delivery and microservices integration.

?? Some CMS platforms also lack the capability of performing smart analytics on large databases.

?? Security is another challenge that traditional CMSs face. The recent CrowdStrike shutdown is an example of how security is critical when it comes to content delivery.?

So, if you’re facing any of these challenges, we recommend that you migrate to Strapi.?

Decisions, Decisions…

Now, we come to the moment of decision.?

Both traditional CMS and Strapi have their own unique strengths and weaknesses.?

A traditional CMS can help you develop a seamless content publishing pipeline and deliver vivid, unforgettable user experiences. However, re-engineering it is a hassle.?

On the other hand, Strapi offers you everything that a traditional CMS can and goes several steps further by equipping you with the flexibility required by an ever-changing marketplace.?

Our Strapi CMS Development Services can help you craft a content delivery infrastructure that fits hand-in-glove with your business objectives and growth goals.?

Connect with one of our Headless Development experts and discover which CMS platform is the best fit for you!