Service 03 / 03 · Statamic
I built this very site on Statamic, and I can build yours too. Custom Antlers themes, version-controlled content, and an editorial workflow that doesn't need a database for you to babysit. It's a really good fit for businesses and agencies who'd love WordPress-class content tooling without all of the WordPress weight that usually comes with it.
onward
Statamic isn't going to be the right call for every project, and I'll always be straight with you when WordPress is genuinely the better answer for what you need. It comes into its own when the content workflow, version control and out-of-the-box performance matter more to your team than having access to a vast library of plugins. Here are three of the signals I tend to look for.
Content matters but a database-backed CMS is overkill.
Marketing sites, documentation hubs and content-rich brochure sites where the full weight of WordPress is honestly more than the work itself justifies.
You want a fast, secure site that holds up under SEO scrutiny.
Static-grade page speed, a really tiny attack surface, and Core Web Vitals scores you don't have to wrestle with after launch.
Your team values version-controlled content.
Content lives in flat files right alongside the code, sitting in Git so it's reviewable, deployable and restorable. Editors get a properly polished control panel, and developers get their sanity back.
Discovery
Build
Aftercare
Statamic builds tend to move along nicely once they get going. There's no database to worry about, no plugin sprawl creeping in, and noticeably less update overhead, which means more of the time is spent on the work that actually matters to you. The bands below are typical, and every project gets a proper written proposal once we've talked.
Marketing site
Typically 5 to 10 weeks.
A custom theme, a sensible content model, a proper deploy pipeline and training for the team. The right shape for most company websites.
WordPress → Statamic migration
Typically 8 to 14 weeks.
A proper content audit, the migration scripts to bring it across, a design refresh where it's wanted, a careful redirects map, training for your editors, and a measured cutover so nothing gets lost on the way over.
Ongoing support
Retainers from one day a month.
Maintenance, smaller features and advisory time. Statamic sites usually need less ongoing care than the equivalent WordPress site, and the retainer pricing reflects that honestly.
Reference build
The site you're reading right now, dantemple.co.uk, is built on Statamic. It uses a custom Antlers theme, blueprints shaped properly around the content, a Vite asset pipeline, and a deploy-from-Git workflow. It's the same approach I'd take to any client build, nothing fancy, just the right tool used properly.
If you'd like to see what a Statamic build actually feels like in production, you're already on one. Have a look at the page load times, open the source, and have a poke around at your leisure.
Related reading
A longer-form take on which CMS is the right choice, when, and why. It's a useful one if you're weighing up the two for a real project on your desk right now, or trying to make the case to a colleague that "just use WordPress" isn't always the right answer.
It works well read alongside this page if you'd like the full picture. The article is in plain English and it reflects what I'd actually say in a real client conversation.
New client Statamic builds will be the next pieces of work I publish here as full case studies. If you'd like to be the first one written up properly, with real before-and-after numbers behind it, please do get in touch.
Statamic is a modern, Laravel-based CMS that stores your content in flat files rather than in a database, giving you a clean editorial control panel, fully version-controlled content, and the kind of out-of-the-box performance and security that's honestly really hard to achieve on a vanilla WordPress install.
For most marketing sites, Statamic comes out faster, more secure and considerably less work to maintain over the years. Editors end up with a properly polished control panel, and developers get to keep their content in Git. The honest trade-off is a smaller add-on library, which is exactly why I'll recommend WordPress instead when WooCommerce, a particular membership plugin, or a specific integration is genuinely the right answer for what you need.
Genuinely, yes. You get static-cached pages, a fast time-to-first-byte and excellent Core Web Vitals out of the box. Add SEO Pro (which is the de-facto SEO add-on for Statamic) and you've got schema, social cards, sitemaps, redirects and on-page analysis all baked straight into the editor. Editors get a clean SEO panel to work with, without having to install and configure five different plugins to get there.
Yes, and this is common work for me. The migration covers a proper content audit, the migration scripts to bring all your posts and pages across cleanly, a design refresh wherever you'd like one, and a carefully built redirects map so nothing important regresses in Google Search Console. Training for the editors is always included.
For most Statamic sites, Forge running on a small DigitalOcean or Hetzner server is honestly more than enough, because Statamic is lightweight by design. For higher-traffic builds, the static-site cache means you can serve from a CDN and barely touch the origin server at all. I'll handle the setup of all of that, and document it properly for whoever's looking after it on your team.
Honestly, less time than you might expect. Statamic itself is really well maintained, has a very tiny attack surface, and updates cleanly. Most of the retainer time tends to go on building small content tools, adding new sections, working through integrations and advisory time, rather than firefighting plugin conflicts at 11pm on a Friday night.
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