Comments on: What is a Flat-File CMS (& Should Freelance Writers Use Them?) https://freelancewritingpros.com/flat-file-cms/ Advanced Marketing & Business Tips for Experienced Freelance Writers Tue, 02 Sep 2025 14:40:22 +0000 hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.8.3 By: Jennifer Mattern https://freelancewritingpros.com/flat-file-cms/#comment-276 Tue, 08 Aug 2023 15:20:19 +0000 https://freelancewritingpros.com/?p=38120#comment-276 I’m disappointed to have to post this, but while I still love flat-file CMS alternatives in general, and while they could be good for freelancers not looking to set up frequently-updated sites, my testing with Grav has disappointed. I’d hoped for a while to share a case study here of setting up one of my “quiet sites” using Grav. But the project stalled because I just didn’t like working with it.

You have to remember I come from a dev-heavy background. I’ve mostly built on WordPress, but I can also quickly code up a simple HTML/CSS site in hours. And now with AI tools and a solid prompt structure, I can get the base code out and on my server in literal minutes.

Because of this, the in-between nature of Grav just doesn’t work for me. Because I haven’t used it much, it took more time than either WordPress or hand-coding a site, and definitely longer than using AI assistance. So I’d moved on with other projects and let that test case sit because I simply didn’t enjoy the process, and it didn’t make sense to adopt the tool in my particular case.

If you’re looking to get off database driven CMS options, still check out Grav and other flat-file CMS alternatives, especially if you’re not looking to code sites from scratch. It’s still a good in-between, even if it’s not for me.

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