Perch vs. a Custom CMS

Why try Perch instead of an in-house solution?

If you currently deliver sites based on your own CMS, why might you move to Perch?

Perch came from the needs of a custom CMS company

Our background as a company was in creating custom CMS solutions. We originally created Perch when we were looking for something to fulfill the needs of smaller projects, where rolling out a custom build didn’t make financial sense. We’ve come full circle by creating Perch Runway for larger sites, much more of a framework for custom things than Perch.

Basing some or all of your future projects on Perch could be a smart move. The basic Perch product is ideal for those smaller projects you work on if, like us, you have clients with projects that don’t fit well with your in-house solution. Perch Runway provides a solid base for content driven sites, leaving you to concentrate on the truly custom parts of the application you need to deliver.

Build using our API

The Perch API allows the creation of complex and complete applications that live within the Perch interface. You can take advantage on our work in terms of templating and the core system but still build out custom solutions for your clients. All of the first party Perch apps are built on the API.

If you make an App for your own use, you could even consider selling it to other Perch customers - we have a large customer base of people who are happy to pay for well implemented software.

Perch is highly customizable. You can use a range of different WYSIWYG plugins, Markdown or do away with that type of editor altogether - it’s up to you. The Admin UI can be branded as your own company solution, or to match the client website theme. You can create your own Field Types, add extensive help information and much more. Perch can become your in-house solution, freeing up developer time for the custom work that will really add value to your projects.