Wagtail CMS: What WordPress Could Be If You Removed Everything That Annoys You

Introduction

For over a decade, WordPress has been the default choice for websites. It’s everywhere—powering everything from tiny blogs to enterprise-level platforms. But let’s be honest: if you’ve spent enough time with it, you know the pain. Bloated plugins. Security holes. Clunky page builders. Slow performance. Random conflicts after updates. It’s a patchwork CMS held together by duct tape and wishful thinking.
Now imagine this: a clean, lightning-fast, enterprise-grade CMS that gives your developers full control while giving your marketers a content editing experience they actually enjoy.

That’s Wagtail.

Gregory Rutecki, CEO

gregory.rutecki@cosmonauts.dev

(PL) +48 602 171 579

1. WordPress Is a Legacy Frankenstein—Wagtail Is Built for the Future

WordPress started as a blogging platform. Everything else—eCommerce, multilingual support, SEO, page builders—was bolted on through plugins. That legacy shows. You end up with 20–50 plugins, each doing their own thing, often written by developers with very different standards and goals.

Wagtail is different. Built in Python and Django, it’s structured, modular, and opinionated in all the right ways. Instead of gluing together plugins, Wagtail gives you a clean development base to build the exact system you need—with full backend control, no technical debt, and zero plugin hell.

If your brand cares about security, performance, and scalability, WordPress is a ticking time bomb. Wagtail is the bomb shelter.

2. Wagtail Speaks Developer—Without Ignoring Your Marketing Team

Business owners are often stuck between developers who hate WordPress and marketers who rely on it. Wagtail solves this conflict. Your devs get the power of Django, ORM, migrations, API-ready architecture. Your marketers get a beautiful admin panel, image library, drag-and-drop StreamField blocks, and live preview.

You no longer need to choose between:

• A powerful system that developers respect
• And a CMS your marketing team can actually use

Wagtail gives you both.

This makes Wagtail ideal for scaling businesses: startups with real funding, mid-sized brands going global, and enterprise marketing teams who want full control without begging developers for every landing page.

3. Page Speed, SEO, and Technical Debt: Why WordPress Is Killing Your Growth

Let’s talk money.

Google has made it clear: slow sites don’t rank. Technical SEO matters. Page speed matters. UX matters.

But WordPress—with its plugin soup and theme spaghetti—makes it almost impossible to achieve top scores in Core Web Vitals or Lighthouse. You end up hiring developers to “fix” your site every few months, chasing scores while bleeding time and budget.

Wagtail, by contrast, is:

• Fast by default (Python backend, no unnecessary code)
• Custom-coded (no third-party plugin drag)
• Clean (SEO-friendly from the start)

No more patching, debugging, and paying for bloat. With Wagtail, you start clean and stay fast.

4. Real Security, Real Peace of Mind

WordPress is a prime target for hackers. It’s open-source, widely deployed, and full of third-party plugins that are often poorly maintained.

If you’re running a serious business, you know the risks:

• One vulnerable plugin = full system compromise
• One brute-force attack = lost customer trust
• One update gone wrong = hours of downtime

Wagtail and Django take a fundamentally different approach. Security is central, not an afterthought. Your developers control every layer. Updates are controlled, tested, and don’t break your stack.

You gain peace of mind—knowing you’re building on one of the most secure web frameworks in the world.

Dependable Subcontractor

All work was delivered on time and according to best coding practices. Reliable execution, clean handover, and no missed deadlines.

Case study →

Dariusz Tomoń

CEO / Owner
ecomplus.pl

Marketing Platform That Performs

Cosmonauts.dev built a custom influencer marketing platform with campaign workflows, approvals, and real-time collaboration. It reduced our coordination time by 60% and significantly improved delivery.

Case study →

Grzegorz Miller

CEO / Owner
millermedia.pl

Precise Web Delivery

Every feature we requested was implemented as expected. The team overdelivered on technical functionality and UI quality.

Case study →

Piotr Arent

CEO & Owner Arent Capital Holding/
Artimex S.A. / Agro Artim Sp. Z o.o. /
YPOer
artimex.pl , artimex.eu

Odoo Automation That Scales

Cosmonauts.dev delivered a full Odoo implementation tailored to our business and market. Manual tasks were automated, freeing time for growth. Our brand and sales have scaled up.

Case study →

Jakub Drożdż

Brand & Sales Manager at MOVO Training
movo.training

Fast Impact on Performance

Within days, cosmonauts.dev delivered a high-performance server setup that boosted our store’s speed and capacity. Clear, focused execution.

Case study →

Piotr Maroszek

Head of eCommerce at Maro Home
marohome.pl

Consistent Business Growth

Thanks to the tools built by cosmonauts.dev, we expanded our interior design reach and attracted more customers. Their solution supported our digital growth exactly as planned.

Case study →

Aleksandra Wachowicz

CEO / Owner
aleksandrawachowicz.pl

Reliable Execution Partner

Cosmonauts.dev delivered our web project on time and as specified. They proved to be a stable digital partner with zero delays.

Case study →

Mikołaj Zdunek

CEO / Owner
duneko.pl , ladiesgym.pl

150% Conversion Growth

Our new store boosted mobile conversions by 150% and cut bounce rate by 63%. The UX is intuitive, especially on mobile – customers flow naturally through the funnel.

Case study →

Oskar Chrzanowski

CEO / Owner
movo.training

WooCommerce at Scale

Cosmonauts.dev handled our large WooCommerce setup with ease. They clearly understand how to build scalable, stable eCommerce infrastructure.

Case study →

Mateusz Salamon

CEO / Owner
sklep.msalamon.pl

SEO-Ready Code Delivery

Cosmonauts.dev delivered a website with perfect technical scores: 99/100 Mobile, 100/100 Desktop. Their development meets the strictest SEO/SXO standards.

Case study →

Łukasz Rogala

SEO/SXO Visioner & Strategist
verticalseo.io

5. The Hidden Costs of WordPress: Why Wagtail Wins Long-Term

At first glance, WordPress seems cheaper. But count the hours spent:

• Troubleshooting plugin issues
• Paying for performance optimizations
• Fixing broken themes after every update
• Debugging SEO problems and tracking dropped rankings
• Managing conflicts between plugin versions and PHP updates

Then factor in the reputation damage from downtime or slow loading. The technical debt that builds up. The agility you lose because your devs avoid touching the mess.

Wagtail doesn’t just save money. It saves momentum. You stop firefighting and start building. You ship faster. You grow faster. You sleep better.

Conclusion: Your Website Shouldn’t Be a Liability

If your website is the foundation of your brand, sales, and marketing—then why settle for something that constantly fights you?

Wagtail is what WordPress could be if it dropped all the legacy baggage. Clean. Fast. Developer-first. Marketer-friendly. Secure. Scalable.

That’s not just better technology—it’s better business.

Whether you’re a marketing agency tired of wrestling with plugins, or a growing brand ready to scale without tech chaos—now is the time to move.

Ready to escape the WordPress trap?

Let’s talk. We help brands migrate from WordPress to Wagtail with zero downtime, full support, and measurable results from day one.