What API development services do you offer?

We offer REST API development, GraphQL APIs, third-party API integration, Laravel API development, and API security implementation. We also provide DevOps services including AWS infrastructure and CI/CD pipelines.

Where are you based and do you work with clients across the UK?

We're based in Leeds, West Yorkshire, but we work with clients across the entire United Kingdom including London, Manchester, Birmingham, and beyond. We work remotely with businesses throughout Britain.

What technologies do you specialise in?

We specialise in Laravel and PHP for backend development, along with RESTful APIs, GraphQL, Node.js, AWS, Docker, Kubernetes, and CloudFlare. We also work with MySQL and PostgreSQL databases.

Do you provide ongoing support after project completion?

Yes, we offer ongoing support and maintenance packages to ensure your APIs and applications continue running smoothly. This includes monitoring, updates, security patches, and performance optimisation.

CraftCMS - Why We Love It and Why You Should Too

When businesses come to us looking for a content management system, the conversation almost always starts with WordPress. It is the most well-known CMS in the world, and for good reason - it powers a staggering number of websites. But familiarity does not always mean it is the best fit, especially when you need something more tailored, more flexible, and more enjoyable to work with on both sides of the screen.

That is where Craft CMS comes in. We have been building with Craft for years now, and it has become our go-to recommendation for clients who want a website that genuinely works for them - not one that fights them at every turn.

What is Craft CMS?

Craft CMS is a content management system built by Pixel & Tonic. Unlike WordPress, which started life as a blogging platform and has been stretched and extended into a general-purpose CMS over the years, Craft was designed from the ground up to be a flexible, content-first platform. It does not assume your website is a blog. It does not force you into a predefined content structure. Instead, it gives you the tools to model your content exactly the way your business needs it.

Craft is used by some impressive names too. Organizations like Netflix, Salesforce, and the BBC have all turned to Craft CMS when they needed a CMS that could keep up with complex content requirements.

Flexibility that actually delivers

One of the biggest frustrations we see with WordPress projects is the plugin dependency. Need a custom post type? Plugin. Need custom fields? Plugin. Need to restructure your content model? Good luck. With WordPress, you often end up stitching together a patchwork of third-party plugins just to get a content structure that makes sense for your business.

Craft CMS takes a fundamentally different approach. Its custom fields and section types are built right into the core. You can define entries, categories, tags, globals, and completely custom field layouts without installing a single plugin. Need a "Projects" section with fields for client name, project date, gallery images, and a related team members field? That is all native functionality in Craft.

This matters because every plugin you add to a CMS is a potential point of failure - a security risk, a performance concern, and a maintenance burden. Craft keeps things lean by building the essentials into the platform itself.

The developer experience

As developers, we spend a lot of time inside the CMS codebase, and the developer experience matters enormously. This is one of the areas where Craft CMS truly shines.

Craft uses the Twig templating engine, which provides a clean, readable syntax for building templates. If you have ever tried to decipher a complex WordPress theme built with a mix of PHP, shortcodes, and page builders, you will appreciate how refreshing Twig is. Templates are logical, maintainable, and easy to hand off between developers.

Craft also has a first-class GraphQL API built right in. If you want to use Craft as a headless CMS and pair it with a modern frontend framework like React or Next.js, you can do that out of the box. No additional plugins, no configuration headaches - it simply works. For us at The API Guys, this is a massive selling point. We build a lot of API-driven applications, and having a CMS that speaks GraphQL natively fits perfectly into our workflow.

Version control is another area where Craft excels. Craft stores its configuration as YAML files in a config/project directory. This means you can track every change to your site structure in Git, deploy configuration changes reliably across environments, and roll back if something goes wrong. WordPress has nothing comparable to this out of the box.

The content authoring experience

A CMS is only as good as the experience it provides to the people who actually use it day to day - your content editors, marketing team, and administrators. This is arguably where Craft CMS pulls furthest ahead of WordPress.

The Craft control panel is clean, intuitive, and purposeful. There is no clutter from plugin advertisements, no confusing menu structures, and no overwhelming options panels. Everything is where you would expect it to be.

Craft's Live Preview feature lets content editors see their changes in real time, side by side with the editing interface. Authors can write, format, and restructure content while watching exactly how it will look on the live site. WordPress has improved in this area with Gutenberg, but Craft's implementation feels more polished and reliable in practice.

The Matrix field is another standout feature. It allows content editors to build flexible page layouts by combining different block types - text, images, quotes, calls to action, embedded content - in any order they choose. Think of it as a page builder, but one that is controlled by the developer to ensure everything stays on-brand and consistent. Your editors get creative freedom without the risk of breaking the design.

Multi-site support is also baked into the core. If your business operates across multiple brands, regions, or languages, Craft handles this natively. You can share content across sites, localise entries, and manage everything from a single control panel.

Craft CMS vs WordPress - the honest comparison

We are not here to say WordPress is bad. It has its place, particularly for simple blogs, small brochure sites, or projects where budget is the primary constraint and the client wants to self-manage everything from themes to plugins.

But when we are building something more substantial - a marketing site with complex content requirements, a multi-site setup, an API-driven application, or a platform where the editorial experience genuinely matters - Craft CMS wins every time. Here is a quick comparison of the key differences:

Content modelling: WordPress relies on plugins like ACF for custom fields. Craft has this built into the core with a far more powerful and intuitive interface.
Security: WordPress's massive plugin ecosystem is its biggest security liability. Craft's smaller, curated plugin marketplace and reduced dependency on third-party code mean a significantly smaller attack surface.
Performance: A lean Craft installation will typically outperform a WordPress site loaded with the plugins needed to achieve the same functionality.
Editorial experience: Craft's control panel is purpose-built for content management. WordPress's admin, even with Gutenberg, carries the weight of its blogging heritage.
Headless capability: Craft has native GraphQL support. WordPress requires plugins like WPGraphQL and additional configuration.
Version control: Craft's project config system is designed for modern deployment workflows. WordPress has no equivalent.

The future of Craft - and why we are even more excited

As if Craft CMS was not already compelling enough, the future is looking incredibly bright. Craft CMS 6 will be built on the Laravel framework, replacing the Yii framework that has powered Craft since its early days.

For us, this is huge. Laravel is our primary framework for building APIs and web applications. The move to Laravel means that our existing expertise translates directly into deeper Craft customisation, better plugin development, and more seamless integration between Craft-powered websites and the bespoke applications we build for our clients.

It also means that the massive Laravel ecosystem of packages, tools, and community knowledge becomes available to Craft developers. This is a forward-thinking move by Pixel & Tonic that aligns Craft with one of the most popular and well-maintained PHP frameworks in the world.

Who should consider Craft CMS?

Craft CMS is an excellent choice if any of the following apply to your project:

You need a content structure that goes beyond simple posts and pages
You want your content team to have an intuitive, enjoyable editing experience
You are building a headless or API-driven application
You manage multiple sites or need multi-language support
Security and performance are priorities, not afterthoughts
You want a CMS that fits into modern development workflows with version control and staged deployments

Let's talk about your next project

If you are considering a new website or thinking about migrating away from WordPress, we would love to chat. We have helped businesses of all sizes move to Craft CMS, and the feedback is consistently the same - they wish they had made the switch sooner.

Get in touch with us at theapiguys.co.uk to discuss how Craft CMS could work for your business.