Verakis Food Academy
Craft CMS + Astro, headless
Asked for: Lower running costs for their Webflow site.
Webflow, Make, Seatable and Mailersend replaced by Craft CMS, an Astro front-end and a CRM module.
~50%lower monthly costs
For content-heavy and multilingual sites
Craft CMS development for websites that need to grow.
You've chosen Craft CMS, or you're considering it, and you need someone who knows it well enough to build it properly. I've built multi-site platforms, multilingual editorial sites, research portals connected to external APIs and custom plugins. For institutions and teams directly, with or without a designer, or white-label for studios.
Fixed-price projects and focused Craft CMS development
How a Craft CMS project works
01
Discovery and content modelling.
Content types, relationships and how editors will work. The most important phase.
02
Design.
From your designs, or mine if you don't have a designer. The content model and the design are done together, so editors and visitors get the same system.
03
Build.
Content architecture, templates, custom modules for integrations, control panel configured for editors.
04
Migration.
From WordPress, Webflow or another platform, mapped into the new structure.
05
Launch and handover.
Deployment, editor training, documentation, 30 days to correct defects.
When Craft CMS is the right choice
When the content is the hard part: several languages or sites, lots of related content, editors who publish every week, integrations with other systems. If your site is ten pages and a contact form, I'll probably tell you to use something simpler.
Webflow when the marketing team wants visual control and the content model is simple. WordPress when you already have it and it works. Craft CMS when the content model is the project. The article below goes through the cases where that was true.
What I build with Craft CMS
- Multi-site and multilingual setups
- Large editorial sites
- Integrations with external APIs
- Custom plugins and modules
- Migrations from other CMSs
- Upgrades and rescues of existing sites
Craft CMS work can be a focused integration or module, a build from approved designs or a complete editorial platform. I quote the work after reviewing the content model, workflows and dependencies. Indicative project budgets are on the pricing page.
Pricing & ProcessProof
Craft CMS projects
NCREP
Designed by Major
Asked for: Major's designs, built as designed.
Two sites from one Craft CMS platform, in two languages, with a custom plugin.
2sites from one platform
Center of Portugal
Five languages
Asked for: An easier way to run their website, in several languages.
A tourism platform in five languages, designed and built as one system.
2,000+articles in five languages
CIICESI
ORCID integration
Asked for: A website for a research centre that didn't have one.
A research portal that takes its publications from ORCID instead of by hand.
3,200+publications from ORCID
I've worked with Frederico for several years on multiple projects and he's consistently one of the best developers I've collaborated with. His technical skills are exceptional, but what really sets him apart is his professionalism: meticulous, reliable, pragmatic, great communicator, and always delivers quality work even under pressure. Highly recommended.
Agency or freelance designer?
If you're an agency or designer with a Craft CMS project and no developer, I can build it white-label or alongside you. If you don't have a web designer either, I design it too, or recommend someone. Everything stays in your client's accounts.
How I work with agenciesFAQ
Answers before you get in touch.
Do you work on Craft CMS sites you didn't build?
Yes, if I can assess the platform and the work required. Sometimes I can quote a defined change directly. If the code or dependencies need investigation first, I propose a review before committing to the build.
Do I need an agency or an independent developer?
A larger Craft CMS agency can be useful when you need a broad team around strategy, design, content and delivery. I'm a better fit when you already have those pieces covered, or when you work with a design agency that does.
Can you migrate Webflow to Craft CMS?
Yes. It's increasingly common as organizations outgrow Webflow's CMS limits or find multilingual hosting costs too high. I did it for Verakis Food Academy.
Can you migrate WordPress to Craft CMS?
Yes, including restructuring the content into proper relational models.
Where is Craft CMS hosted?
On standard PHP hosting. I usually deploy to managed platforms like Servd or Fortrabbit, or to the client's own servers.
Is Craft CMS free?
There's a free Solo edition for a single user. Teams need a Team or Pro licence, a one-off fee per site plus a yearly fee for updates after the first year. Prices are on the Craft CMS pricing page.
Do you design too?
Yes. If you have designs, I work from those. If you don't, I design it too.
Can Craft CMS run a site in five languages?
Yes, that's one of the reasons I recommend it. Center of Portugal runs 2,000+ articles in five languages on Craft CMS. See Multilingual websites.
Which Craft CMS versions?
Current versions, and upgrades from older ones.
Where are you based?
Lisbon, same time zone as London.
Next step
Have a Craft CMS project coming up?
Send the context and I'll reply, usually within one working day, with a few questions.