From Craft CMS to Storyblok

We are the Craft CMS to Storyblok migration experts

Challenges with Craft CMS

Key pain points

The elephant in the room is PHP. Craft requires a traditional LAMP-style hosting setup with PHP 8.2+ and MySQL or Postgres, which immediately rules out the serverless and edge-first hosting that modern JavaScript frameworks thrive on. You're managing servers, configuring OPcache, tuning database connections, and dealing with all the operational overhead that comes with self-hosted PHP applications. For teams already working in the JavaScript ecosystem, this is a hard sell.

Major version upgrades are genuinely painful. Craft doesn't support skipping major versions, so migrating from Craft 2 to 5 means stepping through every version in between. Each jump brings breaking changes to Twig templates, PHP requirements, and plugin compatibility. We've seen agencies spend weeks on upgrades that should have been straightforward. The Team tier starts at $279 per project and the Pro tier costs $399, plus $99 annual renewals for both. A free Solo tier exists for single-user projects, but costs still add up for agencies, especially when you factor in plugins and the recent trend toward stricter licence enforcement in the control panel.

The community, while passionate, is relatively small compared to WordPress or even newer headless CMS platforms. When you hit an edge case or need help with a niche plugin, you may find yourself digging through GitHub issues rather than finding a ready answer. And while Craft Cloud exists as a managed hosting option, it's still maturing and doesn't yet match the deployment experience you'd get with platforms like Vercel or Netlify.

PHP hosting requirements

You need a traditional server with PHP 8.2+, MySQL or Postgres, and proper configuration. No serverless, no edge deployment, no modern hosting shortcuts.

Painful major version upgrades

You can't skip major versions, so upgrades mean stepping through each release with breaking Twig, PHP, and plugin changes along the way.

Smaller community and ecosystem

The community is dedicated but small. Finding answers to niche problems often means digging through GitHub issues or waiting on forum responses.

Licence costs add up

The Team tier is $279 per project and Pro is $399, both with $99 annual renewals, plus paid plugins on top. A free Solo tier exists for single-user projects, but costs add up quickly for agencies managing multiple client sites.

Learning curve for non-developers

Craft assumes your team includes developers. Content editors coming from WordPress or simpler tools will need time to adjust to the more structured interface.

Twig templating limitations

Twig is clean but limited compared to modern component frameworks. Complex UI logic gets awkward, and you're locked into whatever Twig version Craft supports.

Benefits of Storyblok

Key advantages

If you’ve ever tried explaining “headless” to a content team and watched their eyes glaze over, Storyblok is your peace offering. On the surface, it appears to be great. For instance, its visual editor makes you feel like you are finally living in 2025. But start digging, and you’ll find some gremlins in the codebase and the pricing page. Their APIs are still missing some basic functionalities like fetching child or sibling pages.

Still, if Storyblok is your choice, we can make it work. Our team knows how to set it up cleanly, dodge the common blockers, and keep your build from turning into another “looked nice, aged badly” project.

Visual editing capabilities

Yes, you read that right, you can do real-time, on-page editing. Make a change, see it instantly, no staging limbo, which means you can stop “guess and publish.”

Component-based approach

You can build a component once and use it everywhere. You can also update a button or banner in one place, and the entire site fixes itself.

Efficient content structuring

Your content stays clean, organised, reusable, and not scattered across 40 pages. Developers work with structured data, editors drag-and-drop pieces like Lego. Everyone gets to stay sane.

Robust multi-language support

One CMS, many languages, zero chaos. Localise content without duplicate pages, messy exports, or spreadsheet archaeology.

Collaborative environment

Writers, designers, and editors can all jump in at the same time without breaking each other’s work. Add comments and approvals. View version histories for teamwork without the headache.

Highly customisable

If your design system can imagine it, you can use Storyblok to model it. There are custom fields, workflows, and logics that can bend to your stack rather than the other way around.