Why I Use Kirby CMS

So you might have noticed that this website is powered by not as well known CMS software called Kirby CMS, so in this post I will try to explain why I chose Kirby and why I continue to use it even when it costs money.

So what's Kirby CMS?

Kirby is a developer-friendly Content Management System (aka CMS) that allows you to manage posts, products, pages and a lot more in one universal UI called "Panel". Compared to other CMS solutions, Kirby allows developers to configure everything in the panel to their liking, from Page Input Fields and user permissions to custom panel sections and helper plugins. Making Kirby very adaptive to almost any use case from Personal Portfolio to Mobile App Backend, which is their main selling point and motto: "Kirby is the CMS that adapts to you".

Why did I choose Kirby?

As said above, Kirby has great adaptivity so I can add anything to my site at any time without spending 2 weeks figuring it out. From my developer perspective, "IT JUST WORKS". My old site used WordPress and the WordPress API is just a pain to work with undocumented functions and unfriendly community, Kirby on the other hand has Great documentation (And even a Video tutorials) and even greater community that is willing to share their knowledge of this system. I once had an issue with page creation field, and they quickly pointed out why it didn't work the way I thought it worked and suggested how to do it better.

Why do I continue to use and pay for Kirby?

Yes you read it right, Kirby CMS is paid ¹ software with 3 year (non-recursive) subscription ² similar to Affinity Designer licence style. So why do I still use it even when It's paid? Well in simple terms "I got addicted to it" meaning the simplicity and usability of this system is worth the cost and I just couldn't find any other CMS that could compete with this level of adaptivity.

Let's talk about negatives.

Every software has drawbacks, and Kirby is no exception. Let's highlight some of these drawbacks so that developers may find it less appealing. These drawbacks don't affect me, but it might affect you, so better read them before buying and if you have any additional questions I recommend you to visit their Discord server or contact them through email.

Kirby Licence is for 1 domain only...

This means that if your site has multiple domains, you must redirect all domains to one main domain or pay for each domain. In my case I own 3 domains that point to this site, so I went with the redirect option.

Kirby License does not include subdomains...

Same thing as above, any subdomain that loads your Kirby instance needs to be paid separately which can greatly increase your expenses which might not be acceptable by your company. So again you might need to do redirects to compensate for this. (For example shop.example.com will redirect to example.com/shop/)