We have built and run websites on a lot of platforms over the years. The one we keep coming back to, for our own sites and for client work, is Grav. This site runs on it. So does the community website we maintain for Jacobson, Minnesota. So do most of the client sites we have migrated off WordPress over the past eight years, more than ten of them so far.
That is not an accident, and it is not nostalgia. Grav fits the way we think websites should work.
What Grav is
Grav is an open source, flat-file content management system. There is no database. Pages are Markdown files in folders, configuration is plain text, and the whole site is something you can read, copy, back up, and move without special tools. It is free to use, and it is actively developed, with Grav 2 now out alongside the long-running 1.7 line.
The features we actually rely on
Speed without effort. With no database queries behind every page, Grav sites are fast by default, and its built-in caching makes them faster. Visitors feel that, and so do search rankings.
An admin panel clients can use. Grav Admin gives non-technical editors a normal, friendly interface: pages, media, and settings, without exposing them to the machinery. Most of our clients update their own sites. That is the point.
Blueprints and Twig. When a site needs a custom page type, a business listing, an event, a staff directory, we define it with a blueprint and the admin panel builds the right editing form automatically. Themes are Twig templates, which stay readable years later when someone else has to maintain them.
A real plugin ecosystem. The Grav Package Manager (GPM) installs plugins and themes from inside the admin, the way people expect. The ecosystem is smaller than WordPress, and we consider that a fair trade: fewer, better-understood moving parts, and far less of the plugin sprawl that breaks sites and opens security holes.
Portability and honest backups. Backing up a Grav site means copying files. Restoring means copying them back. Moving hosts is an afternoon, not a project. For small organizations, that simplicity is a feature most platforms cannot match at any price.
Where Grav fits best
In our experience, Grav is the right answer for:
- Small and medium business websites, especially migrations off WordPress where the client wants lower cost and less upkeep
- Community and nonprofit sites run by volunteers, like JacobsonMinnesota.com, where the editor is not a developer
- Event and conference sites that need to go up quickly and come down cleanly
- Blogs, documentation, and information sites where content is the whole job
- Brochure and marketing sites for firms like ours, where speed and control matter more than a giant app platform
Where we would not use it, said plainly
Grav is not the tool for a large online store, a site built around thousands of user accounts, or a web application with heavy custom logic. Those need a different platform, and we will tell a client that up front rather than force a fit. Knowing where a tool stops is part of why we trust it where it works.
The short version
We choose Grav because it is fast, open, portable, and honest about what it is. It respects the people who own the site: their content stays in files they can read, their costs stay low, and their site does not depend on a database or a vendor staying in business. That is the same posture we take with data, and it is why Grav has been our default CMS for years.
If you are on WordPress and paying for upkeep you do not need, or starting a site and want to own it outright, we are glad to talk about whether Grav fits. And if you already run Grav, take a look at the open source projects we build for it on our Projects page.