Why should I choose Perch over something else?

We sometimes get emails asking what would make Perch a good choice over other content management systems. Often, the person asking the question has been tasked with researching a big list of CMSs and has been asked to report back which is the best.

Truthfully, it’s very hard in the general case to say what would make Perch better than many of the perfectly good options available in the market today. Choosing a CMS is about finding the right fit for the project in hand, and taking into account the people that system needs to serve.

What we can do is tell you some things that people like about using Perch and Perch Runway, and point you towards what actual customers have said after using Perch for multiple projects.

What makes Perch different?

There’s lots of features, methodologies and idealogies that make Perch different. Some of those will be shared with other systems, but it’s the unique combination that makes Perch what Perch is.

We’re content-first, and believe deeply in using structured content forms, not big WYSIWYG pits. This keeps content editors focused on content rather than presentation, and enables the content to be reused with different representations in the site and beyond the site.

Perch doesn’t mess with your front end code. We hate the concept of ‘themes’ that have to be undone before you can move forward with your own code. You won’t find massive marketplaces full of off-the-shelf themes for Perch because it’s the antithesis of what Perch is about. Perch is for professionals who want control over what they produce.

Perch is built from the ground up with performance in mind. Your sites should be fast by default and shouldn’t fall over if you get an unexpected traffic spike. If something isn’t fast, you can be sure that’s a red flag and we’ll be working hard to rearchitect it as a priority. Fast sites don’t happen by accident, and you can’t patch speed on at the end – it needs to be built in from the core, which is something we’ve focused on.

Our control panel is straightforward and easy to understand. Our customers find they don’t need to schedule long training days as part of a site launch like they’ve had to with other systems. A quick tour around and clients seem to get it.

Our aim as a company is to help your company be successful in delivering websites. That means charging a fair price, offering good support when you need it, and enabling you to turn around successful website projects quickly and profitably.

Our People Love Perch section has some first-hand accounts from our customers who use Perch to deliver real client projects.