Brief Non-Wordpress CMS'es review

I was using a few tools/frameworks to manage the content of the websites: Contenful, AdminBro, Strapi, Webiny. Basically, I tried to achieve different results with some of these tools. Some of the use cases were beyond simple content management.

Contentful

At first, I just wanted to dip my toe in a JAM Stack and I found Gatsby framework that seemed to be quite cool. To test it, I decided to make a personal website, a good opportunity to learn something new and have something possibly useful. I browsed documentation and examples, cloned one of the starter packs. In the installation guide was a mention about Contentful, so I checked the pricing before creating an account. It's free for a small website, so this is what I am using for my personal website now. 😎

AdminBro

Another time, I was making a customized e-commerce platform. As a frontend developer making full-stack, I was looking for a shortcut to make a backend and database. I choose node.js (obviously) with the Postgres database. I used to work with Django admin, but as a user, not a developer. The first thing I found on google was AdminBro, read the tutorial clone repo, install and run an example. I was kind of happy because it's a project made by the Polish team that specifically mentioned Django admin. Seemed to be fine. The tutorial is very extensive, but unfortunately, few versions of the library are mixed in different tabs. I tried to customize icons and landing page following instructions in a tutorial, but it didn't change anything, no icons, and default landing page. Another thing that was not straight to configure, was a one-to-many relationship. After googling StackOverflow a few times, I finally accepted the fact, that it's still not a production-ready library and I get back to searching.

Strapi

Next in the line was Strapi. I have found it before, while I was making research about Contentfult alternatives. Its downside is a limited free plan, especially when you expect to have many writers or content contributors. What I like, is a very simple relations design tool. I keep Strapi in that project until it's end.

Webiny

What I found very recently is Webiny. It seems to be another full-stack starter. I can't be integrated later in your project. The main point is developer experience. Tutorial and core team support only AWS deployment. This was the limitation that prevents me from further exploring and get me back to the beginning.

What was the point where you started looking for an automated backend and wouldn't be easier and faster to connect everything by yourself? Anyway, at this moment I feel confident to choose Contentful or Strapi in the next project. Contenful, if I don't need backend at all, and Strapi if I need CMS and backend that is easy to modify.