Craft CMS Developer Benchmark Results 2023

The results are in.

We're so pleased to have been able to conduct the Craft Benchmark survey again. This year we’ve had 282 respondents from 35 countries – responses were down 5% from last year respectively, whilst the number of countries remained the same.

We think that's probably on us for being late to release the survey, with a bit more time we think we could have topped last year. Alas, we'll try again in 2024.

We did this benchmark to:

Give insight into the Craft CMS developer community
Give ideas on how to use Craft CMS better
Give ammunition for pitching Craft CMS to clients

We created this because:

We're Craft CMS developers
We believe the report will be helpful for the community
We wanted to learn and get better at what we do – and hope you do too

And just to clarify – we have no association with Craft CMS or Pixel & Tonic.

Let's go!

Part 1

Who's working with Craft CMS

This section explores who the Craft CMS community is made up of, how they work, and what makes them tick.

What describes you best?

Craft CMS is popular among agencies and freelancers.

I work at an agency

116 resp.

41.1%

I'm a freelancer

77 resp.

27.3%

I run an agency

64 resp.

22.6%

I work for a non-agency

23 resp.

8.1%

Other

2 resp.

0.7%

What size is your agency?

Craft CMS seems to be the most popular in smaller companies of fewer than 20 employees. Perhaps this is because smaller teams are more able to adopt a less well known platform.

9 resp.

4.4%

2-5

48 resp.

23.5%

6-10

37 resp.

18.1%

11-20

52 resp.

25.4%

21-30

6 resp.

2.9%

31-40

10 resp.

4.9%

41-50

8 resp.

3.9%

50-100

18 resp.

8.8%

100+

12 resp.

5.8%

Other

4 resp.

1.9%

What is your job?

This is a new question for the 2023 benchmark, as we wanted to get to know who’s filling in the survey so that we can have more context about the rest of the answers.

Developer

249 resp.

54.6%

Designer

82 resp.

17.9%

CEO/Manager

89 resp.

19.5%

Content author

22 resp.

4.8%

Other

14 resp.

How much of your job is development (coding)?

100% development

59 resp.

20.9%

Mostly development

173 resp.

61.3%

A bit of development

45 resp.

15.9%

No development

5 resp.

1.7%

How many years of professional coding experience do you have?

Craft CMS developers tend to skew towards developers with more experience, rather than those just starting out.

I don't have any professional coding experience

3 resp.

1-2 years

6 resp.

2.1%

3-5 years

19 resp.

6.8%

6-10 years

76 resp.

27.4%

11-16 years

71 resp.

25.6%

16+ years

102 resp.

36.8%

How long have you been using Craft CMS?

Looks like a few more people this year have achieved Brandon Kelly status. 🤔

Less than 1 year

3 resp.

1 year

10 resp.

3.5%

2 years

21 resp.

7.4%

3 years

21 resp.

7.4%

4 years

23 resp.

8.1%

5 years

44 resp.

15.6%

6 years

36 resp.

12.8%

7 years

23 resp.

8.1%

8 years

30 resp.

10.6%

9 years

32 resp.

11.3%

10+ years – I'm basically Brandon Kelly

38 resp.

13.5%

Are you (or is your business) a Craft CMS Partner?

There’s been a ~8% increase in businesses registering as Craft CMS partners since last year.

115 resp.

40.8%%

Yes

167 resp.

59.2%%

Nope

How important is being a Craft CMS Partner for your business?

6 /10

Not important at all Extremely important

At an average rating of 6.3/10, the importance of being a Craft CMS partner is unclear. We also asked what would make being a Craft CMS Partner more useful. The responses broadly fell into the following categories.

Lead Generation

Many respondents mentioned not feeling that being a Craft CMS partner was creating many leads for their business, with some also noting the lack of prominence and visibility through on the partners directory.

It was also noted several times that being a partner lacks any analytics such as profile views and conversions, so it’s difficult to know whether being a partner is creating any value.

Communication and networking

Partners want more direct communication from Pixel & Tonic and involvement in the development of new Craft CMS and marketing features.

Many indicated a request for newsletters with roadmap updates, partner events, and more networking evenings.

Discounts and Incentives

A lot of responses suggested that being a Partner would be more obviously beneficial if they received discounts on various items such as DotAll tickets, license fees, and Craft Cloud hosting.

Quality Assurance and Services Definition

It was noted by a few respondents that being a partner would feel more meaningful if there were some sort of quality assurance.

Many also noted that a dedicated space to define a business’ services would be good.

In the last 12 months, how many new Craft CMS projects have you worked on in total?

5 resp.

1.7%

1-2

48 resp.

17%

3-5

87 resp.

30.8%

5-10

91 resp.

32.2%

11-20

37 resp.

13.1%

21-50

10 resp.

3.5%

50+

4 resp.

1.4%

What percentage of your new projects were built with Craft CMS?

Great to see that nearly 60% of respondents' sites were almost or were exclusively built with Craft CMS.

100% 💪

84 resp.

30.3%

Almost 100%

81 resp.

29.2%

Around 75%

56 resp.

20.2%

Around 50%

34 resp.

12.2%

Around 25%

7 resp.

2.5%

Less than 25%

15 resp.

5.4%

In the last 12 months, what types of websites have you built with Craft CMS?

Marketing sites

251 resp.

41.9%

eCommerce Sites

120 resp.

20%

Member Sites

110 resp.

18.3%

Headless / API Systems

93 resp.

15.5%

Other

25 resp.

4.1%

As well as the main categories above, Craft CMS has been used for a huge variety of projects this year, including:

Government sites

Non-profit sites

Educational websites

Online magazines

SaaS platforms

Charity and fundraising sites

Real Estate websites

Intranets

In the last 12 months, what other CMSs have you developed with?

Surprise suprise, WordPress takes pole position, whereas no-code website builders have also proved popular. Webflow takes 3rd place with 14.7% of respondents having used it, along with Squarespace at 12.5%.

ExpressionEngine suffered a blow, being knocked down from 2nd place to 4th.

91 resp.

49.5%%

Wordpress

54 resp.

29.3%%

Shopify

27 resp.

14.7%

Webflow

23 resp.

12.5%%

ExpressionEngine

23 resp.

12.5%%

Squarespace

22 resp.

12%%

Statamic

15 resp.

8.2%%

Kirby

11 resp.

6%%

Strapi

What CMS is your agency / company / personal website built on?

Similar results to last year’s survey, but in a surprising twist we’ve got more personal websites being built in Expression Engine.

186 resp.

67.4%%

Craft CMS... duh!

42 resp.

15.2%%

No CMS

12 resp.

4.3%%

WordPress

11 resp.

4%%

ExpressionEngine

What kind of projects would you not consider using Craft CMS for?

This one was super interesting to read about. Here are the main thoughts our respondents gave for not using Craft CMS.

⚙️ Very technical projects

Projects requiring substantial backend customisation or large-scale data operations might benefit from dedicated frameworks.

🛍 Complex ecommerce projects

While Craft Commerce exists, some prefer specialised platforms like Shopify for robust features and cost-effectiveness.

🙃 Headless projects

While Craft offers headless capabilities, other solutions like Contentful might be more dedicated and efficient for purely data delivery.

🙂 Simple projects

For simple, static sites, building with HTML/CSS or tools like Astro might be easier and lighter.

💸 Budget projects

Very small projects with minimal content or updates might not justify the CMS overhead and licensing cost.

In the last 12 months, what versions of Craft CMS have you worked with?

Craft CMS 1

2 resp.

0.3%

Craft CMS 2

55 resp.

8.9%

Craft CMS 3

233 resp.

38%

Craft CMS 4

277 resp.

45.1%

Craft CMS 5

46 resp.

7.5%

In the last 12 months, have you upgraded a Craft CMS 2 site to Craft CMS 3 or 4?

👍 Yes

112 resp.

39.7%

👎 No

170 resp.

60.2%

How smoothly did it go?

There were mixed feelings on how easy it is to upgrade a Craft 2 site. This is understandable since Craft 3 was a huge shift to composer.

7 /10

👎 It was horrible It was lovely 👍

We asked how this process could have been better - here are the main thoughts:

Better documentation

More detailed instructions, compatibility information, and upgrade path guidance, especially for major version jumps.

Specialised upgrade tools

Consider features like single-click upgrades, automated plugin updates, and deprecation code detection.

Plugin compatibility

Address legacy plugins or offer migration assistance for discontinued ones.

Composer errors

Improve error messages to be more user-friendly and actionable.

In the last 12 months, have you upgraded a Craft CMS 3 site to Craft CMS 4?

👍 Yes

239 resp.

84.7%

👎 No

43 resp.

15.2%

How smoothly did it go?

Developers had a much better time upgrading from Craft 3 to Craft 4.

8 /10

👎 It was horrible It was lovely 👍

Here are the main suggestions to improve this going forward.

Plugin compatibility

Lack of upgrade paths for some plugins caused downtime and rework.

Documentation

More detailed information on breaking changes, plugins, and migrations.

Migrations

Some complexities and unexpected issues during data migration.

User-friendliness

Simplify composer.json updates, upgrade process steps, and error messages.

Specific elements

Address revamp in Commerce and potential pitfalls with custom modules.

Automation

More automation (e.g., single-click upgrades, automatic code checks).

Deprecation warnings

Better deprecation warnings and early adoption opportunities.

Plugin support

Improved plugin support and communication from developers.

Part 2

Technology

This section explores the various ways developers use Craft CMS, covering how they kick off a new project, technology they use, and various other decisions.

Which operating system do you do your Craft CMS development on?

Like last year, most developers use an Apple Mac.

246 resp.

87.5%%

Mac

35 resp.

12.5%%

Windows

24 resp.

8.5%%

Linux

2 resp.

0.7%%

Other

WSL

What browser(s) do you primarily develop Craft CMS websites in?

Most developers use Chrome, no change from last year. Other mentions include: Arc (16 users), Safari Developer Edition, Thorium, Blisk and Netscape (likely a joke).

196 resp.

69.8%%

Chrome

105 resp.

37.4%%

Firefox

61 resp.

21.7%%

Safari

24 resp.

8.5%%

Brave

15 resp.

5.3%%

Edge

4 resp.

1.4%%

Opera

2 resp.

0.7%%

Vivaldi

22 resp.

7.8%%

Other

What IDE / code editor do you use for Craft CMS development?

The top spots of VSCode and PHP Storm have remained pretty similar to last year’s results, with Coda's replacement, Nova joining the top 4.

166 resp.

59.3%%

Visual Studio Code

118 resp.

42.1%%

PHPStorm

27 resp.

9.6%%

Sublime Text

21 resp.

7.5%%

Nova

What are your top 3 VS Code extension recommendations?

We thought VS Code would be a popular choice, so we also asked respondents to list their favourite VS Code extensions. Here are the most popular:

Twig Language 2
(syntax highlighting, formatting, IntelliSense for Twig templates)

Tailwind CSS IntelliSense
(autocomplete, linting, class definitions for Tailwind CSS)

PHP Intelephense
(advanced PHP language support, IntelliSense, code completion)

GitLens
(enhanced Git integration within VS Code)

Twig Language 2

Tailwind CSS IntelliSense

PHP Intelephense

What local environment software do you use for developing Craft CMS projects?

DDEV is now well established as a top choice at almost 65% of the vote.

We’ve still got 3% of users on Nitro, down from 15% last year.

181 resp.

64.6%

DDEV

70 resp.

25%

Docker

46 resp.

16.4%

MAMP / WAMP / XAMP

What local environment tool do you use for working with databases on Craft CMS projects?

Sequel Pro has fallen down a place since last year, the third spot now being taken by PHPMyAdmin.

101 resp.

36.6%%

TablePlus

92 resp.

33.3%%

Sequel Ace

53 resp.

19.2%%

PHPMyAdmin

When starting a project how do you download Craft CMS?

86.4% start their build process with Composer. Many of the custom answers mentioned a boilerplate repo, which may well also use Composer too.

With composer

241 resp.

86.3%

Manual download

9 resp.

3.2%

Other

29 resp.

10.3%

💡 Craft Tip

It's down 3% from last year, but there's still 4% of respondents get started on Craft CMS projects by manually downloading it.

Check out the helpful docs on the Craft CMS site for using the Composer method.

Do you use a Craft CMS 'boilerplate' for starting new projects?

Of the ~15% of developers who use a public boilerplate repo, here are the most popular:

CraftQuest craft-4-starter (3 mentions)

statikbe/craft (2 mentions)

Craft on DDEV by kerns

nystudio107/craft

Yes – I use my own, which I built from scratch

162 resp.

57.4%

Yes – I use my own, based on an existing repo

32 resp.

11.3%

Yes – I clone someones else's

11 resp.

3.9%

No – I start from scratch each time

77 resp.

27.3%

What database do you use for Craft CMS projects?

No change here from last year - PostgreSQL adoption has been slow.

234 resp.

83.6%%

MySQL

126 resp.

45%%

MariaDB

27 resp.

9.6%%

PostgreSQL

Where do you define custom routes?

In config/routes.php

171 resp.

46.3%

In Admin → Settings → Routes

92 resp.

24.9%

In a custom module

63 resp.

17%

I don't

39 resp.

10.5%

Other

4 resp.

Where do you define image transforms?

In the templates

141 resp.

42.8%

In Settings → Assets → Image Transforms

101 resp.

30.6%

I use a plugin

87 resp.

26.4%

How do you optimise and compress your images?

Using Craft's native transformer

150 resp.

53.1%

Using a plugin

66 resp.

23.4%

Using a third party service

52 resp.

18.4%

I don't

8 resp.

2.8%

Other

6 resp.

2.1%

What plugin do you use for image optimisation and compression?

The two titans of image transformation are Imager X (44 mentions) and ImageOptimize (22 mentions), with almost no other plugins being mentioned.

These were also the most popular plugins mentioned for image optimisation and compression.

44 mentions

Imager X

22 mentions

ImageOptimize

3 mentions

Image Resizer

How do you optimise and compress your images?

Using Craft's native transformer

150 resp.

53.1%

Using a plugin

66 resp.

23.4%

Using a third party service

52 resp.

18.4%

I don't

8 resp.

2.8%

Other

6 resp.

2.1%

What service do you use for image optimisation and compression?

Imgix is a very popular service among Craft CMS developers. Second in line is Servd’s image optimisation service. The other tools mentioned were manual tools such as TinyPng and ImageOptim.

Do you implement Eager-Loading in your templates?

Around 84% of developers are implementing full or partial eager loading in their templates. With 4% of respondents not knowing what it is.

We recommend you check out the docs - eager loading is a great way to make your database queries more efficient and speed up your website.

Yes – Some things get eager-loaded

155 resp.

55.3%

Yes – Everything gets eager-loaded

79 resp.

28.2%

No – But I know what it is

36 resp.

12.8%

No – I don't know what that is 🤔

10 resp.

3.5%

How do you structure your Section Types (Singles, Channels and Structures)?

Every content type has its own Section

212 resp.

75.9%

Everything is in one Structure with different Entry Types

26 resp.

9.3%

Other

41 resp.

14.6%

What forms of caching do you use to improve the performance of the Craft CMS sites you build?

There are lots of different tools we can use to improve the performance of our sites, usually by reducing PHP and database work, ranging form native Craft tools, to plugins, to server-level enhancements.

Popular responses from the ‘other’ option include: Servd static caching, Litespeed cache, Next.js Incremental Static Regeneration and Server-level caching.

Craft CMS's native cache tags

178 resp.

34.2%

Static page caching using Blitz

150 resp.

28.9%

Edge caching using a CDN such as Cloudflare, CloudFront, etc.

120 resp.

23.1%

Static page caching using FastCGI, Varnish, etc.

39 resp.

7.5%

I don't use caching

16 resp.

Other

16 resp.

What libraries or frameworks do you use to add reactivity to the sites you build?

143 resp.

51.8%%

Sprig

121 resp.

43.8%%

Alpine.js

105 resp.

38%%

Vue.js

40 resp.

14.5%%

htmx

How do you update Craft CMS?

From the Terminal

216 resp.

77.4%

From the Control Panel

61 resp.

21.8%

I don't update Craft CMS

2 resp.

0.7%

Do you use Craft CMS's Project Config?

Almost 95% of respondents use the project configuration either all the time or most of the time. That’s up by 5% from the 2022 survey.

We think it’s one of Craft’s best-selling points and couldn’t imagine #devlife without it.

Of the people who don’t use it, we’d love to know why. Maybe we’ll put that in the questionnaire next year.

Yes – Always

227 resp.

81%

Yes – Mostly

22 resp.

7.8%

Yes – Sometimes

16 resp.

5.7%

13 resp.

4.6%

I don't know what it is 🤔

2 resp.

0.7%

Do you (usually) allow config admin changes on production

The Project Config works best when clients can’t make changes on production, so it makes sense that there’s a strong correlation here about permissions. There’s a slight increase in Nos since last year, up by around 5% - which is the same as the increase about using Project Config in general.

233 resp.

87.9%

Yes

31 resp.

11.6%

I don't know what it is 🤔

1 resp.

0.3%

In 2023, what Javascript Libraries/Frameworks/Tools have you typically use with Craft CMS?

jQuery is slightly less popular than our 2022 survey, but all the top spots remain the same.

Nuxt.js was the most popular “other” mention, so we’ll be sure to include that in the options next year.

React has fallen to 6th place, from 2021’s 4th.

Backbone and Ember got 0 votes.

145 resp.

52.3%%

None – Vanilla, baby

112 resp.

40.4%%

Alpine

105 resp.

37.9%%

Vue.js

66 resp.

23.8%%

jQuery

In 2023, what CSS frameworks have you typically use with Craft CMS?

Tailwind still has a very strong lead, with “roll your own” dropping down from around ~40% to ~23%.

At Honcho we love Tailwind and can’t imagine life without it.

185 resp.

67.3%%

Tailwind

88 resp.

32%%

SCSS

63 resp.

22.9%%

None – I roll my own

51 resp.

18.5%%

Bootstrap

How do you handle SEO functionality on your Craft CMS sites?

SEOmatic is clearly the most popular SEO plugin, followed by ~18% of developers who roll their own solution.

We asked respondents who roll their own solution to elaborate, and the custom solutions fall into two categories - custom fields in the CMS, and hardcoding metadata within the templates.

We use SEOmatic

177 resp.

63.2%

We use a custom solution

50 resp.

17.8%

We use SEO Mate

22 resp.

7.8%

We use Ether SEO

20 resp.

7.1%

We don't add any SEO to our sites

6 resp.

2.1%

We use another SEO plugin

5 resp.

1.7%

Have you ever used Craft CMS as a headless CMS?

Yes

126 resp.

44.8%

123 resp.

43.7%

Not yet – But plan to within the next 12 months

31 resp.

11%

I don't know what this means 🧐

1 resp.

0.3%

Part 3

Client and authorship experience

This section covers how developers work with the clients, in terms of creating the best experience for them.

Do you give your clients' full Admin accounts?

Most people here opt for never or occasionally, clearly erring on the side of caution.

Yes – Always

23 resp.

8.2%

Yes – Sometimes

75 resp.

26.7%

Yes – Occasionally

59 resp.

21%

No - Never

119 resp.

42.5%

Other

4 resp.

1.4%

Do you customise the Entry column views in the Craft CMS Admin?

Craft CMS allows you to customise which columns are displayed in which entry sections in the CMS, to only show the relevant data to your clients.

We love this feature and apparently so do most respondents.

256 resp.

91.4%%

Yes

21 resp.

7.5%

3 resp.

1.1%%

I didn't know you could

Do you add your client's logo to the Craft CMS Admin Login page?

We find a nice way to make a web project feel polished is to add the client’s logo to the login screen.

230 resp.

82.1%

Yes

48 resp.

17.1%%

2 resp.

0.7%%

I didn't know you could

What do you do with the CMS Dashboard?

What to do with the dashboard has long been a question in the Craft CMS community. Around 65% of users either do nothing with it or hide it.

Nothing – It’s left as the default

145 resp.

51.6%

Customise it with standard widgets

62 resp.

22%

Hide it

39 resp.

13.8%

Customise it with custom widgets

28 resp.

9.9%

Other

7 resp.

2.4%

Part 4

Craft CMS Plugins

This section explores how Craft CMS developers use plugins.

In the last 12 months, what Craft CMS plugins have you usually included when starting a new project?

This gives some interesting insight into what plugins developers feel are an essential part of any web project.

The most popular plugins that tend to be in developer’s starter repos are:

NYStudio107

SEOmatic

👍 115

Verbb

Super Table

👍 95

NYStudio107

Retour

👍 77

Pixel & Tonic

Redactor

👍 74

Verbb

Formie

👍 68

Put Your Lights On

Blitz

👍 65

Space Cat Ninja

Imager X

👍 48

Spicy Web

Neo

👍 46

2023 was a great year for Blitz, Feed Me, and Field Manager who all made their way into the top 10. Typed Link Field (11th place) has had its vote split between the new Link field on the block - Hyper (13th). Sprig and Vite were in the top 20, but didn’t make it to the top 10 like they did last year.

What are some plugins you want to use but haven’t tried yet?

We often read about new and exciting looking plugins, but don’t always have the ability to try them out due to time and cost pressures.

Here are the top plugins on the wishlist.

Blitz

👍 14

Sprig

👍 9

SEOmatic

👍 8

Formie

👍 7

In the past 12 months, have you written a Craft CMS plugin or custom module?

Yes – Published on the Plugin Store

48 resp.

15.2%

Yes - Privately

190 resp.

60.3%

No – Not in the past 12 months

53 resp.

16.8%

No – I’ve never written a plugin or mod

24 resp.

7.6%

Part 5

Craft Commerce

Craft Commerce is the first-party eCommerce plugin for Craft CMS.

It’s a powerful plugin but can be a difficult sell for clients to entrust their business to a less well-known name.

In the last 12 months, have you worked on a Craft Commerce project?

👍 Yes

139 resp.

49.2%

👎 No

143 resp.

50.7%

Why did you choose Craft Commerce?

We wanted to get a bit more insight into why teams are choosing Craft Commerce over other platforms. Here are the main takeaways.

Integration with Craft CMS

This was the most common reason, with users appreciating the seamlessness, familiarity, and ability to leverage Craft's strengths for both content and commerce.

Flexibility and customizability

Craft Commerce allows for creating bespoke experiences and functionality beyond what many other platforms offer.

Client preference

Many chose Craft Commerce because it was the client's request or fit their specific requirements.

Easy to use

Simplicity and ease of use for developers and clients.

What could Craft Commerce do better?

Documentation and ease of use

Improve documentation clarity and completeness.
Simplify and streamline example templates and boilerplates.
Address UI and UX pain points, especially checkout and order management.

Feature improvements

Refine shipping functionality for better understanding and configuration.
Enhance international currency support and conversion accuracy.
Offer more flexible and user-friendly discount options (e.g., "buy two, get three").
Improve variant management for complex products with multiple options.
Consider including some features currently requiring plugins (e.g., gift certificates).

Stability and performance

Reduce breaking changes and ensure smoother release transitions.
Address reported performance issues for speed and responsiveness.
Improve bug resolution responsiveness and address critical issues faster.

Multi-store and advanced functionality

Prioritize development of promised features like multi-store and multi-currency.
Enhance reporting capabilities and data visualization options.
Provide better support for subscriptions and complex product types.

Competing with other platforms

Consider lowering the license price for wider adoption.
Offer features similar to competitor platforms like Shopify (e.g., one-page checkout).
Improve plugin ecosystem and provide best-practice examples or modules

In the last 12 months, have you used any other eCommerce platforms?

Shopify and WooCommerce remain the dominant Craft Commerce competition, which probably won’t change given Craft Commerce now has a first-party Shopify integration.

110 resp.

43.7%%

None

99 resp.

39.3%%

Shopify

42 resp.

16.7%%

WooCommerce

14 resp.

5.6%%

I built my own

Part 6

Services, SASS and Hosting

In this section, we’ll look at the results around what external services and tools our respondents use.

In the last 12 months, where do you usually host your Craft CMS project repo?

182 resp.

66.2%%

Github

78 resp.

28.4%%

Bitbucket

41 resp.

14.9%%

GitLab

In the last 12 months, where do you host your clients' Craft CMS sites?

2023 was a good year for Servd, which has just beaten AWS as the second most popular hosting platform for Craft CMS. Keep up the great work Matt and Joe!

Krystal (the company behind DeployHQ) came up a few times in the “other” answers - we’ll be sure to add them to the options next year.

115 resp.

42.8%%

DigitalOcean

62 resp.

23%%

Servd

55 resp.

20.4%%

AWS

24 resp.

8.9%%

Hetzner

In the last 12 months, where do you host your Craft CMS site Asset volumes?

It’s pretty even for images being stored locally or on an AWS S3, just like in 2022.

At Honcho we like to use an external storage because it makes local development smoother.

140 resp.

53.2%%

Local web server

134 resp.

51%%

Amazon S3

52 resp.

19.8%%

DigitalOcean Spaces

47 resp.

17.9%%

Servd Object Storage

How do you deploy your Craft CMS sites?

Using a deployment service

158 resp.

56%

Custom scripts

73 resp.

25.8%

Manually via S/FTP

36 resp.

12.7%

Other

15 resp.

5.3%

Of those who use a dedicated deployment service, here were the most popular

Laravel Forge

👍 45

DeployHQ

👍 32

Ploi

👍 28

Buddy

👍 26

Part 7

Business Time

Here we’ll look at the internal operations of the respondents, relating to contracts and pricing.

What's the average price for one of your Craft CMS websites

Free

3 resp.

1.1%

$0 - $3,000

16 resp.

6.3%

$3,001 - $5,000

35 resp.

13.8%

$5,001-$10,000

42 resp.

16.6%

$10,001 - $20,000

63 resp.

24.9%

$20,001 - $30,000

34 resp.

13.4%

$30,001-$40,000

18 resp.

7.1%

$40,001-$50,000

13 resp.

5.1%

$50,001-$75,000

16 resp.

6.3%

$75,000 +

13 resp.

5.1%

What percentage of your clients are on maintenance contracts?

100%

44 resp.

15.6%

Around 75%

68 resp.

24.1%

Around 50%

56 resp.

19.8%

Around 25%

33 resp.

11.7%

Under 20%

21 resp.

7.4%

None – We don't offer maintenance

12 resp.

4.2%

I don't know

23 resp.

8.1%

N/A

16 resp.

5.6%

Other

9 resp.

3.1%

How often do you run maintenance on your clients' Craft CMS sites?

Once every week

15 resp.

4.6%

Once every month

106 resp.

33.1%

Once every quarter

100 resp.

31.2%

Once every 6 months

19 resp.

5.9%

Once every year

13 resp.

Ad-hock

58 resp.

18.1%

Never

0 resp.

Other

9 resp.

2.8%

What percentage of your clients are on support retainer contracts?

100%

14 resp.

Around 75%

40 resp.

14.3%

Around 50%

47 resp.

16.8%

Around 25%

32 resp.

11.4%

Around 20%

40 resp.

14.3%

None - We don't offer retainers

47 resp.

16.8%

I don't know

34 resp.

12.1%

N/A

20 resp.

7.1%

Other

5 resp.

1.7%

How do you train your clients to use Craft CMS?

In person training

158 resp.

30.5%

Live video training

140 resp.

27%

Written documentation outside of Craft CMS – eg: Google Docs

93 resp.

17.9%

Pre-recorded videos

69 resp.

13.3%

Written documentation inside of Craft CMS – eg: Using something like the 'Guide' plugin

34 resp.

6.5%

We don't

17 resp.

3.2%

Other

6 resp.

1.1%

How do you find selling Craft CMS to clients?

Easy – There's rarely any push back

74 resp.

26.6%

Medium – It takes a bit of convincing but they usually go for it

98 resp.

35.2%

Hard – It's almost not worth that effort

6 resp.

2.1%

We don't have to – they usually already know about it and want Craft CMS

7 resp.

2.5%

We only build sites in Craft CMS – so clients like it or lump it! 👋 🎤

51 resp.

18.3%

N/A – I'm not involved in that

40 resp.

14.3%

Other

2 resp.

0.7%

How do you handle Craft CMS and plugin licence fees?

We buy them and pass the fee on to the client

121 resp.

43.6%

We absorb the fees into the website / maintenance cost

66 resp.

23.8%

The client buys them directly

60 resp.

21.6%

N/A - I'm not involved in that

25 resp.

Other

5 resp.

1.8%

Do you use Craft Console’s “Organizations” to organise your licenses?

A relatively recent addition to Craft Console is the concept of Organizations. This can be great for agencies dealing with multiple clients, so that all licenses and billing info can be handled by the client directly.

156 resp.

57.1%%

Yes

92 resp.

33.7%%

25 resp.

9.2%%

I don't know what that is

How do you charge clients for the work you do?

By the hour / Time & Materials

191 resp.

45.5%

Fixed price per project

183 resp.

43.6%

N/A - I'm not involved in that

34 resp.

8.1%

Other

11 resp.

2.6%

Do you ask your clients for feedback on Craft CMS?

We’ve done some thinking about these questions since last year, and we want to make sure the “Client Feedback” questions are fair and representative of clients’ actual opinions - otherwise we’re just baking in our own biases.

It’s a pretty even split on respondents who do and don’t ask their clients for feedback.

118 resp.

42.9%%

Yes

116 resp.

42.2%%

41 resp.

14.9%

N/A - I'm not involed in that

How do your clients generally find the Craft CMS content authoring experience?

They love it ❤️

108 resp.

39.2%

Good

139 resp.

50.5%

19 resp.

6.9%

Bad

2 resp.

0.7%

I don't know, I've never asked

7 resp.

2.5%

From your clients' feedback what would you say are their top 3 features of Craft CMS?

Answers given in the “other” column include mobile authoring experience, data exporting and focal points.

177 resp.

66.3%%

Authoring Experience

161 resp.

60.3%%

Live Preview

81 resp.

30.3%%

Matrix

What are your clients' general feelings towards using Craft CMS?

8 /10

😠 Hate it It's amazing 🥰

Part 8

Learning, support, and community

This section explores some aspects of who the Craft developer community is made of, covering business and demographics.

What resources do you use to learn Craft CMS?

Craft Quest has overtaken Stack Exchange from last year’s survey.

222 resp.

80.4%%

Official Craft CMS Documentation

176 resp.

63.8%%

NYStudio107’s blog

162 resp.

58.7%%

CraftQuest

161 resp.

58.3%%

Stack Exchange

What do you think of the Official Craft CMS Documentation?

The results here have hovered around the same mark as last year’s survey, but at least nobody this year thinks it should be ripped up and started again.

👍 It's ok, could be better

160 resp.

67.5%

🙌 It's great, nothing to improve

65 resp.

27.4%

👎 It's bad, it needs improving

12 resp.

Where's your first port of call when you need Craft CMS support?

Similar results to last year here, though as above, Stack Overflow/Exchange has dropped one space in the ranks.

A few respondents in the “other” answers mentioned checking the vendor folder directly.

Craft CMS Docs

130 resp.

46.9%

Discord

44 resp.

15.8%

Google

37 resp.

13.3%

Another developer

34 resp.

12.2%

Stack Overflow

18 resp.

6.4%

8 resp.

2.8%

Craft CMS Support Services

3 resp.

Other

3 resp.

In the last 12 months, have you used the free Craft CMS Developer Support Services support?

We adjusted this question from the 2022 survey to be only in the last 12 months. This will make for interesting data over the years so we can track trends.

95 resp.

34.8%%

Yes

74 resp.

27.1%%

Phhfff... No – I don't need support

104 resp.

38.1%%

No – I didn't know it was a thing

Nearly 40% of respondents didn’t know there was free support available. Pixel and Tonic offer free support with every Pro license. Find out more information over on the Craft CMS website.

In the last 12 months, have you used the paid Craft CMS Developer Support Services support?

Yes – the $75 per month one

22 resp.

7.9%

Yes – the Enterprise one

3 resp.

No – But I know about it

202 resp.

73.1%

No – I didn't even know about it 🤷🏽‍♀️

49 resp.

17.7%

In the last 12 months, have you attended a Craft CMS Meetup and which ones?

We’ve had a drop in the Yesses here compared to 2022, but we did reword the question to “in the last 12 months” instead of “have you ever”, so it’s not surprising.

Belgium are holding a strong lead here with over 50%! A few “other” answers mentioned Vienna, so we’ll be sure to add that to the 2024 survey.

18 resp.

52.9%%

Belgium

4 resp.

11.8%%

London

3 resp.

8.8%

Nottingham

2 resp.

5.9%%

Portland

1 resp.

2.9%%

Amsterdam

1 resp.

2.9%%

Charlotte

Did you go to the 2023 Dot All Conference in Barcelona?

We did 🥰. Watch our 3 min highlight video here 📹.

56.5% of respondents somehow got the Dot All content - either in person, watching remotely, or watching the recordings.

Yes – In person

51 resp.

18.3%

Yes – Watched live stream

13 resp.

4.6%

No – But I've watched the recordings

93 resp.

33.4%

121 resp.

43.5%

Part 9

Artificial Intelligence

2023 was a big year for advanced in AI technology, so we added a few questions about what tools people are using so we can all learn from each other.

Do you use AI tools to complement your development work?

Yes - All the time

38 resp.

13.4%

Yes - Sometimes

88 resp.

31.2%

Yes - A little bit

57 resp.

20.2%

99 resp.

35.1%

Around 65% of respondents use AI tools to complement their development work.

The most popular were:

ChatGPT

👍 122

Github Copilot

👍 90

Bard

👍 7

Phind

👍 7

Do you use AI tools to help with SEO and/or content creation?

For SEO / Content AI use it was a little lower at around 42%, however that’s likely due to the respondents of this survey being mostly developers (around 80%).

The only AI tool mentioned more than once was Chat GPT (125 mentions).

The other tools included Bard, Zimmwriter, Midjourney, copy.ai, Octopus, SiteGuru, Koala Writer, Claude, and TypingMind.

Yes - All the time

18 resp.

6.3%

Yes - Sometimes

47 resp.

16.6%

Yes - A little bit

52 resp.

18.4%

165 resp.

58.5%

How concerned are you that AI will negatively impact your job within the next 2–3 years?

A pretty even set of responses here, with an average of 4.2.

The responses to the question on whether AI will negatively impact jobs in the next 2–3 years are diverse. Many express concerns about AI lowering the bar for entry, devaluing the work, and clients expecting cheaper and faster solutions. Some highlight the need for human creativity, strategic thinking, and the irreplaceable role of human interaction. Others emphasize the potential for AI to streamline workflow and complement human work, especially in handling repetitive tasks. There's a consensus that AI might affect certain aspects of web development, particularly low-level tasks, but won't fully replace the need for skilled developers. Skepticism about the current capabilities of AI and its potential impact on the job market is evident, with varying opinions on whether it will be a positive force, a tool, or a threat to the industry.

- Chat CPT 🤖

4 /10

🤣 Not worried Very worried 😱

Part 10

Your views and feedback

A couple of free-for-all questions to get some opinions on aspects of Craft more generally.

What are your top 3 favourite features of Craft CMS?

141 resp.

51.5%%

Templating / Twig

130 resp.

47.4%%

Developer Experience

120 resp.

43.8%%

Content Modelling

Are there any Craft CMS core features you've not used yet?

122 resp.

57.8%%

GraphQL API / Headless Mode

104 resp.

49.3%

Developer Support Services

25 resp.

11.8%%

CLI Actions

What's one killer feature you wish Craft CMS had that it currently does not?

By far the features most mentioned in the responses are matrix-within-matrix and reusable fields, both of which are coming in Craft 5!

Other popular mentions include:

Native link field

Native form builder

Native SEO

Conditional fields within matrix blocks

Is there anything specific that you do not like about Craft CMS?

The most mentioned dislikes are:

1. Too complicated

Setting up projects, especially for smaller sites, can be complex and time-consuming. This includes project configuration, managing updates, and dealing with composer conflicts.

2. Performance

Performance issues become more pronounced on larger sites, with slowness affecting both the control panel and element queries.

3. Authoring experience

While Craft excels in content modelling, the authoring experience can feel clunky and outdated compared to more visual editors. Lack of support for reusable fields and nested Matrix fields further hinders content creation.

4. Documentation

While comprehensive, the documentation is criticised for being dense, lacking real-world examples, and not providing clear guidance on extending Craft.

5. Pricing

For smaller clients, Craft's initial price and ongoing licensing costs can be a barrier to entry compared to free or cheaper alternatives like WordPress.

What are you most excited about for Craft CMS 5?

No surprises here that almost every answer mentioned matrix-within-matrix and entrification.

Other answers included 2FA, performance improvements, and Craft Cloud.

How confident do you feel in Craft CMS's security practices?

8 /10

Not Confident Very Confident

How likely are you to recommend Craft CMS to another developer / agency / business?

A slight fluctuation from last year’s 9.3, but in any case Craft still comes highly recommended and the Pixel and Tonic team are clearly doing an outstanding job.

9 /10

No Way Yes Way

About the

Craft CMS community

What is your gender?

Male

248 resp.

91.8%

Female

14 resp.

5.1%

Non-binary, genderqueer, or gender non-conforming

5 resp.

1.8%

Prefer not to say

2 resp.

0.7%

Other

1 resp.

0.3%

What's your age range?

19 or under

0 resp.

20-29

28 resp.

10.3%

30-39

108 resp.

40%

40-49

104 resp.

38.5%

50-59

27 resp.

10%

60-69

3 resp.

1.1%

70 or over

0 resp.

Prefer not to say

0 resp.

What country do you live in?

The countries represented are highlighted in white.

🎉 And finally...

Any final thoughts about Craft CMS?

"Craft CMS for life! When we were just a small team of two developers, it allowed us to outperform our competitors by a huge margin. All without sacrificing stability or performance."

"Best. Platform. On. The. Planet."

"Why I discover this CMS only 3 months ago? From now on, I will use it forever. 😍"

"It's awesome. Excited about Craft Cloud."

"Great product and community. Thanks!"

"Love it, keep it up guys."

Thank you! 🙌

To everyone who took the time to fill in the survey. I hope you found it as interesting as we did.

Wanna take part in next year's survey?