Are you searching for the perfect Content Management System (CMS) for your website? Look no further! As a Premium verified partner of both Craft and Hubspot, we're here to provide you with an in-depth analysis of these powerful systems. Having worked with Craft for over 5 years and Hubspot for 3 years, we have gained a deep understanding of their capabilities.

Hubspot: More than Just a CMS

Hubspot takes CMS to a whole new level with its seamless integration into the Hubspot ecosystem. This integration allows you to share and manage data across various channels and departments like sales, marketing, and finance. This enhanced connectivity offers unrivaled efficiency in handling your business operations.

Craft: Open Source CMS

On the other hand, Craft is an open-source self-hosted system, which puts the responsibility of website security, maintenance, and performance squarely on your shoulders. While Craft has been our loyal companion for many projects, we must admit that as websites grow larger, building and maintaining high-performing Craft websites can become increasingly challenging and costly. 

The Marketing Edge: Hubspot's Advantages

When it comes to meeting the dynamic needs of modern marketing teams, Craft CMS falls short in some key areas. Hubspot excels in offering essential features like Multi-variant testing, AI writing, personalized content, and more, empowering marketers to engage and captivate their audience effectively.

One of the many reasons why we have come to prefer Hubspot CMS is showcased in this powerful video that demonstrates the remarkable capabilities of Hubspot CMS + AI.  After spending years developing Craft and completing over 100 projects, we have found that Hubspot CMS is the preferred choice for our clients, particularly those in the marketing field. The seamless integration and advanced features of Hubspot make it a favorite among marketers, allowing them to effectively engage and captivate their audience.

Dependency and Cost Concerns

Craft relies heavily on third-party plugins, much like WordPress. This reliance can lead to added expenses and complexity in maintaining your website. For instance, important features such as Forms, Caching, SEO, Navigation, and Advanced content blocks require additional plugins in Craft, increasing the overall cost of running the system.Furthermore, Craft lacks an out-of-the-box SEO module that can offer content managers valuable insights and tips. While SEOMatic, one of the most widely used SEO modules for Craft, tries to bridge the gap, it still falls far behind the intelligence and capabilities of the native SEO module found in Hubspot.

Performance, Security, and Scalability

One of the remarkable benefits of Hubspot CMS is its cloud-hosted nature. This means top-tier performance, scalability, and security are managed for you, freeing you from worries about website downtimes due to hosting issues or code-related glitches. Hubspot's automatic caching further boosts page loading speed, which positively impacts your website's SEO and Google Pagespeed rankings. 

Ease of Use and Flexibility

Hubspot's CMS offers a high level of control over the UI and user experience. With its in-page editing feature, you can see exactly what your website will look like as you edit and create pages. This intuitive approach makes the process seamless and allows you to make changes effortlessly. On the other hand, Craft primarily relies on a separate CMS view for page editing, with the option for a live preview but no in-page editing. While both systems have their advantages, Hubspot's in-page editing offers a more user-friendly and interactive experience for website management.

Craft CMS heavily relies on the expertise of your development team to code and structure your CMS. However, in many cases, developers may not have the best understanding of user experience (UX), resulting in complex and challenging Craft CMS systems to manage.

In contrast, Hubspot CMS offers a more user-friendly and interactive experience for website management. With its intuitive in-page editing feature, you can easily visualize and make changes to your website, without relying on separate CMS views. This simplicity, combined with the exclusive features offered by Hubspot, truly makes it a champion in the world of marketing CMS.

Hubspot's Marketing Powerhouse

Beyond the general advantages, Hubspot CMS boasts several powerful marketing features that set it apart from the competition. A/B and multi-variate testing with AI capabilities allow you to optimize page elements and achieve your objectives effectively. Moreover, Hubspot enables personalized content based on first-party data, GDPR-compliant, allowing you to tailor content to individual visitor needs and preferences.

A/B and Multi-variate testing 

On of the more powerful features in Hubspot is the ability to run A/B and multi-variate tests natively and out of the box.

Personalised content

Hubspot's powerful feature of anonymously tracking visitors using first-party data (GDPR-compliant) allows for personalized content customization based on visitor actions. For instance, if a visitor has already downloaded the yearly report for governments, they can be presented with a compelling call-to-action (CTA) to connect with someone from PR. This level of customization enhances the visitor's experience and increases the likelihood of converting them into valuable leads or customers.

Build Pages without the need of using a developer

Hubspot offers a powerful 12-column grid page builder that empowers marketers to create their desired layouts without relying on developers. This feature provides marketers with extensive control over the layout, making it ideal for those with experience in building high-converting web pages.

For individuals seeking a more user-friendly option, Craft CMS offers a wide range of ready-made content blocks that can be easily dragged and dropped onto a page.

Conclusion

While Craft CMS has been a loyal companion for many years, Hubspot's feature-rich ecosystem and marketing prowess have won us over. Its seamless integration, enhanced marketing capabilities, and ease of use make it an ideal choice for businesses looking to thrive in the digital landscape.

Join us on the exciting journey of discovering the boundless potential of Hubspot CMS.

Unlock new possibilities and elevate your marketing strategies to new heights!