My take on Statamic's future

Published at Oct 18, 2024

Recently, Jack McDade (creator of Statamic) started a discussion on the future of Statamic. I have been using Statamic for a while now and I have some thoughts on the future of Statamic.

You are currently on a Statamic website. Statamic is great, especially if you are a developer, even more if you are a Laravel developer.

Flat file is awesome

I like writing my articles in Markdown. I use the control panel to create and manage my content, but I write the content of my articles in PHPStorm. I'm a developer, so writing my articles from my IDE feels like home. I have my shortcuts, my plugins, my themes, my settings, my everything. I even use GitHub Copilot when I don't remember a word.

That said, for the future, and to make it more accessible to non-developers, I think Statamic should run on SQLite by default.

Antlers is cool, but...

It had never been properly supported in my IDE, and it becomes unreadable and broken every time I try to auto-format it. Autocomplete will also help me learn the syntax. When I use a package or framework, there are a lot of functions I never read the docs for; it's just in my IDE, and I understand what it does by reading the function signature.

I have never tried to make a Statamic website with Blade, but I understand there are some limitations, and the documentation recommends sticking with Antlers, so that's what I do.

I'm in between; I think it's cool, but I'm kind of frustrated by it.

Pricing and market needs

I remember the first time I heard about Statamic. I did go to the website and I saw the price and said, "No way it can't be that worth". I judged it without even trying it.

And today, I think the price is totally fair!

I don't pay for Statamic (sorry, Jack 😬). I don't need the pro features except for Git automation, and I use a basic bash script with a cron job for that. I may have purchased a license if there had been a no-brainer $99 license that included Git automation and multiple users. Soon enough, I will purchase a license for an upcoming multilingual website I'm working on.

From what I see of the WordPress market in France, it's split like this:

  • Non-tech people using WordPress to create their websites because family and friends told them to use WordPress. They use a hosting service that provides a one-click install of WordPress.
  • Independent designers who create websites for small businesses. They use web hosting services that provide a one-click install of WordPress and customize it through themes, plugins, and FTP.
  • Web agencies that create websites for medium to large businesses. They have their own servers and customize WordPress beyond its original capabilities by connecting it to other services, creating custom themes, and plugins.

So my point of view is:

  • Free should be pushed more to the front page
  • $99 for Git automation and multiple users
  • Hosting service with monthly subscription

Statamic should definitively have cloud hosting

This is a no-brainer, there is a market for it. It's even been in my Trello of ideas to create a Statamic hosting service. Even a simple one to start that basically only does what Forge does for Laravel: a one-click install.

But I also think it should go a little further:

  • It should have its own starter kit to start a blog, a portfolio, a company website, etc.
  • It should be easy to install addons from the control panel (curated by Statamic)
  • Themes should be editable from the control panel for non-developers
  • It should support static caching and be enabled by default

TL;DR

I think Statamic should:

  • Run on SQLite by default
  • Improve Antlers support in IDE
  • $99 for Git automation and multiple users
  • Hosting service with monthly subscription

If Jack reads this or anyone else really: I will be happy to discuss or develop any of these points with you in person Laravel EU or on any of my social networks.

#statamic #laravel

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