ClassicPress, a WordPress fork, emerges as a strong contender in the CMS space, focusing on stability, security, and community-driven enhancements for professional websites.
There is a great deal to be proved by ClassicPress being a newcomer fork of WordPress.
WordPress has been the ruling CMS as it has been powering over 42% of all active websites worldwide. WordPress recently integrated the so called Block Editor to core (initially introduced as Gutenberg plugin), which attracts lots of users wanting a more visual editing experience.
Since WordPress 5.8 the Block Editor now is also used on the so called “Widgets” page in WordPress.
ClassicPress launched without the Block Editor, as one of the major reasons for ClassicPress to be established was the discontent of thousands of former WordPress users over the Block Editor.
ClassicPress is less avid to make new improvements every fixed amount of time, thus avoiding disastruos updates where partially untested features get pushed to user sites, just because it is “release time” or some decision upstream is made to push a new product/idea (like it is the case with WordPress in many occasions, the Block Editor being just one of them).
ClassicPress of course maintains bug fixes and security fixes and keeps a backwards compatibility with WordPress 4.9 in its Long Term Support (LTS) branch 1.x.
ClassicPress uses SemVer 2.0, thus once it breaks backwards compatibility it willl release under version 2.x.
However the LTS will not just stop working, instead, continued support will be provided.
After looking at all of these differences, I think we can see how ClassicPress can become one of the best options for professional websites. Below further factors contribute to how ClassicPress is a better option for business and professional websites towards many other similar tools (not only related to WordPress)
So, Let’s dive in:
Open-Source Opposed to Proprietary
The Open-source CMS (i.e., ClassicPress, WordPress, and Joomla) allow you to do whatever you want to do with the software on the hosting platform you wish to use. On the other hand, proprietary solutions mostly offer their off-the-shelf solutions and that too on their hosting platform.
Though proprietary solutions (i.e., Wix and Squarespace) would be a better choice for certain types of business and professional websites, their limitations can prove them to be a poor selection.
ClassicPress is 100% open source and community lead.
WordPress is also open source, but it is practically controlled by a multinational, multibillion Company: Automattic. Automattic is the Company “behind” WordPress, and is owned by the very creator of WordPress. Even if officially WordPress is an Open Source project, the decisions of its path are not. They are made behind closed doors and pushed downstream without further consulting the end users.
ClassicPress chose the more “community driven” and “democratic” path, where every user has a voice, and no decision will be taken without a broad discussion and agreement.
ClassicPress – while being fully community driven – also has a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization under United States law – the ClassicPress Initiative – to promote and support the ClassicPress project. Thus any donation made for ClassicPress is tax deductible and serves directly, and solely the ClassicPress project.
Security
One of the biggest strengths of the major modern CMS’s is the flexibility of using plugins, but these plugins increase the security risk.
Also, poorly designed plugins can become the reason for conflicts with the current features of the site.
However, Open Source also means that everyone can see, read and contribute to the source code, and it is vetted by the community, thus, risks are discovered earlier, and can be fixed by anyone in the community.
ClassicPress also has a security team (volunteers) who improve the security aspect from it’s “Parent” WordPress towards a more secure platform, consequently making ClassicPress the best choice for business websites. Not only limited to ClassicPress itself, but also the plugins and themes developed for it.
Flexibility and Extensibility
The potential to improve the capabilities and leverage the flexibility that open source CMS provide has been proven as a major benefit by the simple fact that so many website are powered by the Open Source CMS WordPress.
This freedom and flexibility can be used by any skilled developer to make a website as per the business needs because the software can be modified, and it is independent from any hosting company.
Platforms like Weebly and Wix (Propiertary CMS) do not belong to the open-source CMS group; therefore, they do not offer any modifications that any developer could deploy.
Even if there is no skilled developer, ClassicPress (and WordPress) can easily be used by novice or intermediate users, as it allows the use of numerous plugins offered by the community, consisting of various features, along its “core” User Interface which makes Content Management so much easier.
After WordPress drops the active maintenance of the Classic Editor Plugin (which disables the new Blocks Editor), most of the WordPress plugins will stop working with the known “Classic Editor”. This will destroy part of that flexibility known to WordPress, and passion for ClassicPress can be seen amongst developers oriented towards a more stable and persisted CMS, as well as amongst users who dislike the blocks editor (5+ Million Installs of said Classic Editor Plugin should say a lot).
The Blocks Editor of WordPress is nice for novice users who quickly want to set up some posts and pages.
It is not the tool of choice of people who want more control over the source code, such as developers, but also companies and more advanced users.
It is also not the tool that seems to cope with large, heavy customised Websites, typical to businesses.
Developer Availability
Both professional, as well as business organizations require good and skilled developers. Competent developers are more likely to be hired for their services. The block editor in WordPress is React.js based, and hardly any WordPress developer is well versed with it till now.
On the other hand, all the developers that worked for years with WordPress while it was not based on React.js, will automatically feel at home with ClassicPress, thus if you use ClassicPress, your chances of finding a Developer who really understands its job, is higher than if you use WordPress.
Ease of Use
The real purpose of CMS has been to provide the ease of updating content quickly to the owner of the websites. WordPress has been successfully providing this ease to its users for years. After a few proprietary platforms introduced drag and drop features, WordPress came with the “Gutenberg plugin”, ensuring a flexible and fun editing experience for users. But any serious business’ goal is never “fun in editing”, instead the timely completion of tasks and the future stability of said goals.
ClassicPress keeps the classic editor and is also committed to improving its V1.0.0
Thus, ClassicPress can be a better choice for the businesses using CMS as well as professional organizations.
SEO Support
The strength of the SEO of the website depends upon the person who is managing the SEO of the website.
Not only SEO is needed to strengthen the position of the website, but also content production plays a crucial role here.
SEO strategies will be of no use in the absence of content or if the quality of content is poor.
WordPress and ClassicPress provide good SEO plugins to content producers acknowledging their performance and helping to improvise SEO.
Isn’t it better to evaluate the SEO score and manage the content simultaneously to complete the task in a shorter time?
With Open Source tools like ClassicPress (or WordPress) this is much easier than with many propiertary tools.
If you plan to work with ClassicPress – it has you covered with an in-house SEO solution, read more about it on the ClassicPress Plugin directory
Plans for Longevity
Just like WordPress, ClassicPress also has the approach of making consistent improvements, however with the focus to make the best CMS platform available for businesses and professional organizations.
WordPress became the best by innovating features that not only provided the ease to add content but also provided the flexibility to use plugins offered by third parties.
And this ease is what ClassicPress aims to provide to its users through consistent improvements, without breaking backwards compatibility and keeping a task oriented approach.
Final Thoughts
ClassicPress is not only providing ease of use but is also looking forward to creating a healthy system that would suit the maximum needs of the users and simultaneously looking for innovations.
The goal is to be the best choice of CMS in professional and business organizations.
With each site launch and every plugin that ensures consistent support, ClassicPress is on its way to being the best CMS for professional and business organizations.
Undoubtedly, it will be a challenge to compete with all other CMS, but ClassicPress is ready to take it and ensure a completely flexible, versatile, strong, and secure Content Management System Software to its users and is already on its way to becoming the best choice for business organizations.