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Comparison · Mkt Auto
Craft CMS vs Drip
A side-by-side editorial comparison of Craft CMS and Drip — release velocity, themes, recent moves, and the top alternatives to consider.
Craft CMS vs Drip: at a glance
What is Craft CMS?
Craft 6's alphas keep converting the plugin API, one removal at a time
Craft is running two lines with very different energy. The 5.10 maintenance branch ships one-bug releases hours apart and nothing else. Craft 6 is in its seventeenth alpha, still migrating onto Laravel: alpha 17 removes Plugin::settingsHtml() in favour of a settingsForm() built on the Control Panel Form system, replaces the Pane.vue component with a craft-pane web component, and moves another management command onto Laravel's schema API.
What is Drip?
Two-month digests that keep circling the same theme: get your data out of Drip and into your own stack.
Drip publishes a bi-monthly release digest rather than per-feature notes, and the feed carries only the opening paragraph of each — so the specifics are off-feed and what's readable is the framing. That framing has been consistent through 2026: access to and visibility into your own data. April and May were about pulling campaign metrics into external reporting stacks and product-level visibility; June and July extend that to connecting AI tools directly to Drip data, plus deeper campaign performance reporting.
Craft CMS vs Drip: editorial side-by-side
Craft CMS
6.3MKT AUTO
Craft 6's alphas keep converting the plugin API, one removal at a time
◆ Current state
Craft is running two lines with very different energy. The 5.10 maintenance branch ships one-bug releases hours apart and nothing else. Craft 6 is in its seventeenth alpha, still migrating onto Laravel: alpha 17 removes Plugin::settingsHtml() in favour of a settingsForm() built on the Control Panel Form system, replaces the Pane.vue component with a craft-pane web component, and moves another management command onto Laravel's schema API.
◆ Where it's heading
The pattern established at alpha 14 has not changed shape, only advanced: every alpha retires another Yii-era extension point and re-lands it on the new stack, with craftcms/yii2-adapter carrying the compatibility burden. Alpha 17 adds an Inertia-native slideout system that renders any CpScreenResponse as an in-page panel, which is the control panel moving from a legacy JavaScript layer to a genuinely Inertia/Vue one rather than wrapping it. The long fix list — stale permission trees, autosave firing on unchanged values, provisional drafts created on page open, queue jobs stuck reserved — reads as the cost of that churn being paid down alpha by alpha.
◆ Prediction
Expect further alphas that remove specific Yii-era plugin APIs with adapter fallbacks, and the 5.10 line to keep shipping single-fix patches until a Craft 6 beta absorbs the team's attention.
Drip
2.5MKT AUTO
Two-month digests that keep circling the same theme: get your data out of Drip and into your own stack.
◆ Current state
Drip publishes a bi-monthly release digest rather than per-feature notes, and the feed carries only the opening paragraph of each — so the specifics are off-feed and what's readable is the framing. That framing has been consistent through 2026: access to and visibility into your own data. April and May were about pulling campaign metrics into external reporting stacks and product-level visibility; June and July extend that to connecting AI tools directly to Drip data, plus deeper campaign performance reporting.
◆ Where it's heading
The arc across the last four digests moves from operational polish (Shopify triggers, WooCommerce accounts, email deliverability visibility) toward treating Drip as a data source other systems read, not a destination that owns the data. Connecting AI tools to that data is the newest step on the same line. Cadence is slow and steady — roughly one digest every two months — so each one bundles a quarter's worth of small changes rather than announcing anything on its own.
◆ Prediction
The next digest will likely detail what the AI-tool connection actually is, since the feed excerpt announces the capability without naming the mechanism.
Alternatives to Craft CMS and Drip
Other Mkt Auto products tracked by Sparkpulse, ranked by recent ship velocity. Each card links to a full editorial trajectory and lets you pivot into a head-to-head comparison with either Craft CMS or Drip.
Joomla
Two security releases ship the same day, and 6.2 finally clears alpha
Buttondown
Buttondown ships almost daily, and most of it is someone else's bug report closed.
Flodesk
Flodesk just moved its analytics out of the dashboard and into Claude and ChatGPT.
Formidable Forms
Formidable widens MCP compatibility and locks down signature files
Mailtrap
Mailtrap is assembling a full email operations platform, one category step at a time
See all Craft CMS alternatives → · See all Drip alternatives →
Recent activity from Craft CMS and Drip
Latest ship moves from both products, interleaved chronologically. ⚡ = editorial spark.
- 12h agoCraft CMSAlpha 17 retires plugin settingsHtml and adds Inertia slideouts
- 8d agoDripJune & July 2026: connect AI tools to Drip data, deeper campaign reporting
- 13d agoCraft CMSAlpha 16 fixes double-required migrations and a widget gap
- 13d agoCraft CMS5.10.13.2 fixes a SQL error on empty Categories fields
- 14d agoCraft CMS5.10.13.1 restores rendering of sanitized SVGs
- 14d agoCraft CMSCraft 6 swaps its image pipeline to intervention/image and libvips
- 27d agoCraft CMSCraft 6 alpha 14 breaks plugin providers and lifecycle hooks ⚡
- 3mo agoDripApril & May 2026: campaign metrics for external reporting stacks
- 4mo agoDripFeb & March 2026: email visibility and behind-the-scenes reliability
- 6mo agoDripEarly 2026: smarter Shopify triggers, cleaner WooCommerce accounts
- 10mo agoDripOct 2025: Embedded Forms return with full CSS control
- 1y agoDripJune & July 2025 product updates
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between Craft CMS and Drip?
They serve adjacent needs but don't currently overlap on shipped themes. Craft CMS is currently shipping more aggressively (velocity 6.3 vs 2.5), with 1 editorial sparks in the last 30 days against 0. See the at-a-glance table above for a side-by-side breakdown of velocity, recent sparks, and editorial themes.
Is Craft CMS better than Drip?
Sparkpulse doesn't pick a winner — we score release velocity, not feature parity. Craft CMS is currently shipping more aggressively (velocity 6.3 vs 2.5), with 1 editorial sparks in the last 30 days against 0. For your specific use case, the alternatives sections above list other Mkt Auto products to evaluate alongside.
What are the best alternatives to Craft CMS?
Top Craft CMS alternatives in Mkt Auto are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "Craft CMS alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/craft-cms for the full list with editorial commentary on each.
What are the best alternatives to Drip?
Top Drip alternatives in Mkt Auto are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "Drip alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/drip for the full list with editorial commentary on each.