10 standard Statamic features you need a plugin for in WordPress

Statamic, our favourite content management system (CMS), has a lot of built-in features that make website development and content management a breeze.

While WordPress remains one of the most popular CMS, its downside is that is requires numerous plugins to match Statamic’s out-of-the-box functionality, and these often come at an additional cost.

Here are ten features Statamic offers natively that typically require 3rd-party plugins in WordPress:

1. Fieldsets and Blueprints

Statamic provides a flexible fieldset and blueprint system for customising content types. This allows for highly flexible and structured content management, and allows content managers to create consistently laid out content.

Creating custom content types and fields in WordPress requires plugins like Advanced Custom Fields (ACF) or Pods. These plugins offer similar functionality but can be complex to set up and maintain.

2. Multi-Language Support

Multi-language support is built into Statamic, making it easy to manage content in multiple languages from the get-go, or to provide regionalised content in the same language.

WordPress requires plugins like WPML or Polylang to handle multiple languages. These plugins add overhead and can be tricky to configure correctly.

3. Forms

Statamic includes a native form builder that allows you to create and manage forms without needing additional plugins.

To build forms in WordPress, you need plugins like Gravity Forms, Ninja Forms, or Contact Form 7. These plugins offer extensive features but come with added cost and complexity.

4. User Roles and Permissions

Statamic has a flexible and detailed user roles and permissions system built-in, allowing for precise control over who can do what on your site, right down to allowing specific users to only perform a single task.

While WordPress has basic user roles, advanced control requires plugins like User Role Editor or Members. These plugins extend WordPress’s capabilities but add extra steps to user management.

5. Static Site Caching

Statamic has built-in static site caching, which significantly improves speed of your site by serving static versions of your pages.

WordPress relies on caching plugins like W3 Total Cache or WP Super Cache to achieve similar performance improvements. These plugins are effective but require careful configuration and maintenance.

6. Customizable Control Panel

Statamic’s control panel is highly customizable, allowing you to tailor the backend interface to your needs. This includes displaying list of content, form submissions or other tools.

Customizing the WordPress admin interface typically requires plugins like Admin Menu Editor or White Label CMS. These plugins offer customization options but can complicate the admin experience, and don’t necessarily remove the clutter of WordPress admin that can be overwhelming.

7. Flat-File CMS Architecture

Statamic operates as a flat-file CMS, meaning it doesn’t rely on a database. Content is stored in files, which can be easily versioned and managed in GIT, however should you have the need for a database you can migrate your content into the database with a simple command.

WordPress is database-driven, so achieving a flat-file setup requires plugins like WP Static or StaticPress. These plugins convert your dynamic site into a static version, but they can add complexity and limitations.

8. Version Control Integration

Version control is built into Statamic, allowing you to track changes and revert to previous versions seamlessly.

WordPress does not offer native version control. Plugins like VersionPress or WP Pusher are needed to integrate Git version control, but they can be challenging to configure and maintain.

9. Custom Error Pages

Statamic allows you to create and customise error pages directly within the CMS.

WordPress requires plugins like Custom Error Pages or 404page to create custom error pages.

10. Static Site Generation

Statamic can generate a static version of your site natively, which is great for performance and security.

Static site generation in WordPress requires plugins like WP2Static or Simply Static to achieve the same result.

Statamic’s comprehensive set of built-in features provides a powerful and streamlined CMS experience, reducing the need for additional plugins.

In contrast, WordPress’s flexibility comes from its vast plugin ecosystem, which, while extensive, often leads to increased complexity and maintenance challenges, not to mention additional avenues for hackers to compromise the site.

These reasons are why at Mity we use Statamic for all our CMS driven projects. We believe it gives both the users (content managers) and us as developers the best possible experience.