Coming from WordPress
Many Craft developers have come from a WordPress background. They hit stumbling blocks when they started off happily with WordPress, thinking they could do anything and then later realising that there has to be a better way. With pages and posts being baked in and fundamental to WordPress’s structure, many hit limitations with that content model. WordPress is undoubtedly a hugely successful product; you can do a lot with it, but it still has it spine with a blogging platform in mind, strangled by pages and posts. If you build simple blogging-like sites with one single news/blog channel and a few other pages, then WordPress may just do the job for you. Many developers feel there must be a better way with more freedom of content and not having to look for a plugin when they want to do something outside of that single post's restricted structure. Fortunately, there is a better way, and that’s when Craft development comes into the picture.
Previous skills?
I highly recommend you start off with a non-Craft site if you are beginning your web design journey. To come into Craft without having built a single website probably isn't the best decision. I’d get very familiar with HTML & CSS first, and then try WordPress, build a few websites in it and then you will really appreciate what Craft can do for you. Skills in HTML and CSS are absolutely mandatory coming into Craft; you will be dealing with both, mixed in with Twig.
Twig is straightforward to pick up and powerful, but it has a slight learning curve. If you are anything like me, you will enjoy learning Twig; there is a lot you can do with it alone, without reaching to plugins like you would when building with WordPress.
If you have PHP skills, then these will be useful when coming into the Craft world. You can build sites without knowing PHP, but it’s useful to know how things work under the hood.
Like PHP, MySQL, and database skills will help you on your Craft journey, you don’t have to know databases inside out, but when looking into issues, these skills will help you enormously.
You will need to learn how to use the command line for installing Craft, running updates and installing plugins. If the command line sounds daunting to you, I can assure you, you will become comfortable with it in no time. It’s really not something to fear, and you will realise that after you have used it on a few Craft sites.
Become familiar with plugins.
There is a lot you can do out of the box with Craft, but as your ambitions grow, you will likely need to reach for plugins. Plugins extend Craft enormously and really do help, without reinventing the wheel. It’s a good idea to become aware of the popular plugins and why they are used. If you are talking about SEO, there is nothing stopping you coding all that by yourself, but a plugin like SEOMatic saves you a lot of time and worry about getting all the tags correctly in place.
Craft is technical but not that technical.
In terms of web development, Craft is technical but not that technical. I remember reading a survey a few years back saying that 45% of Craft developers have come from a design background. That’s them, like me, starting off very visually with Photoshop, and having learnt some code and then got into Craft. I’m not saying that Craft is necessarily easy, but with some perseverance and effort, pretty much anyone can become proficient in building Craft sites.
Build simple sites to start off with
My advice is to start off with HTML and CSS sites, then move into WordPress, and then you will really see where Craft comes into its own. Rome wasn't built in a day, but going down this route, you will be building experience with areas fundamental to how all websites are built. Tinker away with HTML, ftp, some CSS and JavaScript, maybe some WordPress and only then start off your Craft journey. It’s worth it Becoming a Craft CMS developer is a rewarding journey. I personally thoroughly enjoy working with the platform. It has allowed me to build powerful, flexible sites that are easy to use by the client. Start off small, and you will be building fabulous Craft sites in no time.
Good luck.
Written by John Macpherson