Comparison
Contensio vs. WordPress
WordPress powers 43% of the web, but that number hides a painful truth: most of what makes it usable costs extra. Contensio ships the essentials in core — no plugin subscriptions, no sprawl.
The real cost of WordPress
WordPress core is free. But multilingual support? That's WPML at $99–$299/year per site. Custom fields? ACF Pro at $49/year. An editorial approval workflow with email notifications? PublishPress at $99/year. A redirects manager, a roles editor, basic SEO fields — more plugins, more licenses, more attack surface.
For a single-language blog with no editorial team, WordPress is fine. For anything more — a company site in multiple languages, a team of writers, a structured content type — the plugin stack becomes a recurring tax.
Contensio is a Laravel package, not a standalone application. It installs into
your existing project with composer require contensio/contensio.
Multilingual, custom fields, custom content types, SEO, redirects, and an editorial workflow are
all in the package — no extra subscriptions.
Feature-by-feature
| Feature | WordPress | Contensio | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Custom content types |
Plugin required
CPT UI plugin or custom PHP code required |
Built into core
Create types from the admin panel — no code |
WordPress has no admin UI for content types. CPT UI is the de facto plugin. |
| Custom fields |
Paid plugin
ACF Pro — $49/year per site |
Built into core
12 field types, translatable, repeaters, relationships |
ACF became ubiquitous because WP core offers almost nothing here. |
| Multilingual |
Paid plugin
WPML — $99–$299/year per site |
Built into core
Per-field translatable flag, translated slugs, language switcher |
WPML is effectively mandatory for multi-language WordPress sites. |
| SEO metadata |
Plugin required
Yoast SEO or RankMath (free tiers, paid Pro versions) |
Built into core
Meta title, description, OG image per content item per language |
No plugin needed for the basics. |
| XML sitemap |
Plugin required
Generated by Yoast / RankMath |
Built into core
Auto-generated per content type and per language |
|
| Redirects manager |
Plugin required
Redirection plugin |
Built into core
301/302 redirects with hit counter |
|
| Roles & permissions editor |
Plugin required
User Role Editor plugin |
Built into core
Per-content-type permission matrix in admin |
|
| Editorial workflow |
Partial
Pending Review status only — no reject, no notifications |
Built into core
Submit → approve / soft-reject / hard-reject with reviewer notes |
WordPress Pending Review is a status flag, not a workflow. |
| Reviewer email notifications |
Paid plugin
PublishPress — $99/year |
Built into core
Reviewers notified on submit; author notified on decision |
|
| Content approval audit log |
Not available
Not available |
Built into core
Append-only log table — who did what and when |
|
| Database bloat from revisions |
⚠ Known issue
60–80% of wp_posts rows are revision copies |
✓ Solved
Autosave only — one snapshot per user, no accumulation |
WP stores a full copy of content on every save by default. |
| Contact forms |
Plugin required
Contact Form 7 or Gravity Forms |
Plugin required
Pre-installed with the starter project |
Neither ships the form builder in the core CMS. |
| Auto-updates |
✓ Available
Admin panel |
✓ Available
Admin panel |
|
| Developer stack |
—
Custom WP APIs, WP_Query, get_posts() |
✓ Solved
Laravel — Eloquent, Blade, Artisan, service providers |
Contensio is a standard Laravel package, not a proprietary framework. |
| Distribution |
—
Standalone zip download |
✓ Solved
Composer package — installs into any Laravel app |
|
| Open source license |
—
GPL-2.0 |
—
AGPL-3.0 |
Both copyleft. AGPL requires source disclosure for web-served software. |
Where the difference shows up in practice
Starting a multilingual site
WordPress: install WPML, configure it, assign languages to content, add a language switcher widget, buy the String Translation add-on, maintain the license year after year.
Contensio: go to Settings → Languages, click Add Language, done. Every content item has translation tabs out of the box.
Adding a custom content type
WordPress: either write register_post_type() in a theme or plugin, or install CPT UI — then install ACF on top to add fields.
Contensio: go to Content → Content Types, click New Type, name it, tick the features you want (categories, featured image, comments), click Save.
Setting up an editorial team
WordPress: Contributors can submit for review but reviewers receive no notification email. Rejection means trashing the post (the contributor can't see it). PublishPress ($99/yr) fills this gap.
Contensio: enable the workflow in Settings, assign content.approve to reviewer roles. Done — emails, rejection notes, audit log included.
For Laravel developers
WordPress: WP_Query, global $post, functions.php, wp-config.php. A parallel world that doesn't interoperate with modern PHP tooling.
Contensio: Eloquent models, Blade templates, Artisan commands, service providers, Composer packages. It's a Laravel package — everything you already know works.
FAQ
Can I import my WordPress content into Contensio?
A one-click WordPress importer is on the roadmap. In the meantime, content can be migrated via script using the WordPress XML export file. See the migration guide for examples.
Will my WordPress URLs still work?
If you used the /%postname%/ permalink structure, most URLs map directly. Date-based URLs (/2024/03/15/my-post/) need 301 redirects. Contensio includes a redirects manager — add them in the admin panel.
What about WooCommerce — is there a Contensio equivalent?
Contensio Commerce is planned as a separate Composer package. It is not available yet. If your site is primarily a shop, Contensio is not the right choice today.
Is Contensio harder to host than WordPress?
It requires PHP 8.2, Composer, and a database — the same as any Laravel application. Any host that supports Laravel works: Forge + a VPS, Ploi, shared hosting with Composer access, or cloud platforms. There's no requirement for WordPress-specific managed hosting.
What about plugins — can I find a Contensio plugin for everything?
Not yet — the plugin ecosystem is newer than WordPress's 20 years of history. The strategy is to ship more in core (so you need fewer plugins) and grow a Composer-based marketplace. Common needs like contact forms, SEO, and multilingual are already in core.
My team knows WordPress. How long does the switch take?
The admin is familiar for non-technical users — content editing, media, menus, and settings work the same way. For developers, the template hierarchy and hook system map almost 1:1 (the hook functions are the same). Expect a day or two of orientation, not weeks of retraining.
Ready to skip the plugin stack?
Install Contensio in minutes. Multilingual, custom fields, editorial workflow — all there on day one.