Is grav the right solution for a heaily tag-reliant website?

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1

Hi, I love Grav, and have been playing with it locally for a while. Now, I would like to use it in production for my website - architectural design & education tutorials - which is currently running wordpress.

What I am not quite sure yet about is how the flat-file structure works with getting/sorting tagged content and the speed compared to a dynamic CMS.

Here is the structure of the website:

  • portfolio - with finished projects, each having a tag (eg. competition, freelance work, residential, commerica, etc)
  • weekly blog posts with works in progress - the intention here is that within the blog posts there are sections, each being tagged with a relevant project for example
  • education section with paywall - with videos hosted on other platforms, as well as articles

In terms of amount of content, initially there will be less than 20 portoflio items, about 40 or so education items, and then the weekly work will built onto itself.

2

I can tell you that Grav will not be your primary bottleneck. Are you running into performance issues in testing? The amount of content you’re describing is tiny. Flat-file will be faster almost by definition because you cut out all the database calls. Grav caching works great, and you can enhance it further.

Obviously if you’re moving from a hosted Wordpress install where scaling is managed for you to a self-hosted Grav install, then you’re comparing apples and oranges. The hosting environment is the primary bottleneck.

3

Thank you. Your answer helps. Currently, it’s a self hosted wordpress site, and I have played with some other CMS packages before. I have become frustrated at the complexity of getting a wordpress site just to look right, and the premium themes have too many options that add significant overload that I am not interested anymore. Whereas Grav seems friendly enough for someone with basic html and css knowledge to get it to look right.

4

You are right that Grav gives you direct and transparent control of the theme. But you do have to be willing to get your hands a little dirty. And don’t forget to inherit the theme before customizing.