TYPO3, Kirby or WordPress? How we choose the right CMS for your company
Sep 22, 2026 · by Christoph Lang
“Can’t we just do that with WordPress?” A fair question — but the wrong one if it comes right at the start of a project. Choosing the right content management system often decides for years how much joy or friction your website causes in day-to-day work.
A content management system is like the foundation of a house: you barely see it later, but every extension, every renovation and every move depends on how solidly it was laid. That is why every web design project of ours starts not with the system, but with your requirements — the system follows after that.
How we plan and build websites is on our Webdesign München page. Here we stay with the system choice behind it.
Why choosing a CMS is a strategic decision
Many companies pick a CMS because they have heard the name before or because a previous agency used it. The result is sites that are either hopelessly oversized — an enterprise system for a handful of pages — or so constrained that every extension becomes a technical ordeal.
The right choice does not depend on which system is best known right now, but on how your company is structured, who maintains the content and where you want to grow. That is what we clarify in the concept phase, before the first design decision.
The three systems at a glance
WordPress is the world’s most widely used CMS — known for its huge plugin landscape, many ready-made themes and a broad developer community. It suits companies that want to start quickly and tap a large pool of extensions.
TYPO3 is an enterprise system originally built for complex, multilingual, multi-level sites. It ships with a thoughtful rights and roles model — ideal when several departments or locations work on one website together.
Kirby is a lean, file-based CMS from Germany that needs no database and adapts unusually well to custom designs and structures. It is our preferred system for tailored websites where design and structure should not be forced into a ready-made corset.
Five criteria we use to decide
- Maintenance effort — How often and by whom is content updated?
- Individuality — How far should the design depart from the standard?
- Security & upkeep — How much responsibility does your company want to carry itself?
- Scalability — Will the site grow with more languages, locations or sections?
- Budget — Build and ongoing operations: hosting, updates, plugins — and with Kirby, the licence.
Only when these five points are clear can we say seriously which system is right — not the other way around. Why standard templates often get in the brand’s way is covered in Maßanzug statt Konfektionsware.
When WordPress is the right choice
WordPress plays to its strengths when you need many standard features (newsletter, booking, shop extensions) and want to benefit from a large ecosystem of ready solutions. For smaller and mid-sized companies with manageable editorial effort it is often the most economical option — provided security updates are applied consistently, because WordPress’s popularity also makes it a frequent attack target.
When TYPO3 is worth it
TYPO3 shows its strength in complex structures: several languages, several locations, different user groups with different rights. For larger mid-sized firms, institutions or companies with several brands under one roof that is a decisive advantage — which comes with higher setup effort and training needs. TYPO3 is rarely the right choice for a lean company site, but often indispensable for complex digital ecosystems.
One example from our work: the website for Magnet-Schultz — brand and site with TYPO3 for an internationally positioned industrial company.
When Kirby is our preferred system
For most of our projects — from practices to institutions — Kirby is our first choice. The reason: Kirby does not force us into ready-made layout structures; it can be built exactly around your site’s needs. That means an individual design for you as a client, without compromises to a builder’s technical defaults — and an editing interface tailored to your editorial workflows.
On projects such as Praxisklinik Dr. Dr. Hariolf Fakler or Islamberatung in Bayern, that approach has proven itself: individual design paired with a system that is easy to use day to day. How complex offers are structured for conversion is in Intelligentes UX-Design — and how forms steer conversion in Der unsichtbare Türsteher.
Our recommendation in practice
There is no objectively “best” CMS — only the system that best fits your company, your team and your goals. That is why we never recommend a system before we understand who will maintain the site, how often content changes and where the company is heading. That advice is part of every web design project for us — whether WordPress, TYPO3 or Kirby ends up in use.
To plan the next step, start on our Webdesign München page.
Frequently asked questions
Yes, a CMS switch is possible, but it takes effort — especially migrating existing content and protecting SEO. That is why it pays to choose carefully from the start rather than switching later.
WordPress itself is not insecure by default, but its wide use makes it a more frequent attack target. Regular updates, a thoughtful plugin set and professional maintenance reduce the risk clearly.
No. Editorial maintenance needs no programming skills — we set up the backends and train you so you can update texts, images and pages yourself.
TYPO3 has multilingualism as a core feature and suits complex international sites especially well. Kirby can also be set up multilingual and is often the leaner option for a manageable number of languages. WordPress can cover multilingual setups via plugins — depending on scope and editorial effort, we check whether that route fits your project.
We factor that into the concept already. Kirby and TYPO3 can be extended modularly; with WordPress we check whether planned features work reliably via plugins or whether a more individual system is wiser.
Fame is not a quality mark for your individual project. Kirby lets us tailor design and structure to your brand instead of compromising with ready-made templates. For companies that care about individuality, that is often the decisive advantage.
