EmDash for brochure sites: where Cloudflare’s new CMS fits

In April this year Cloudflare announced EmDash, an open-source content management system it described as a spiritual successor to WordPress. Since then it has come up in more than one conversation about new websites. It’s a fair question, and the honest answer is “possibly, for the right site, with your eyes open”.

The short version: EmDash is promising for simple brochure sites that don’t change much and don’t need many plugins. For anything that relies on a mature ecosystem of add-ons and developers, WordPress is still the safer choice for now.

What EmDash is

EmDash is a CMS written in TypeScript and built on Astro, a web framework known for producing fast, mostly static pages. It’s released under the MIT licence, so anyone can use, change and host it. Cloudflare has been clear that it isn’t built on WordPress code; it borrows ideas, not software.

A few things set it apart:

• It’s designed to run on Cloudflare’s serverless platform, and can also be deployed to a standard Node.js server.
• Plugins run in their own isolated sandbox and can only do what they’ve declared they need, which aims to stop one bad plugin from compromising the whole site.
• Themes can’t touch the database directly, which separates design from content more firmly than WordPress does.
• Sign-in uses passkeys by default rather than passwords.
• It includes a built-in importer for WordPress content, and tools that let AI assistants manage content through an approved interface.

It began as an early developer preview and reached its first stable release at the end of September.

Why it appeals for brochure sites

A brochure site is the classic small organisation website: a home page, a few service or program pages, an about page, a contact page and perhaps some news. It changes occasionally and doesn’t need much more than good content and solid foundations.

For that kind of site, EmDash has some genuine strengths:

• Light pages. Astro’s approach of sending as little JavaScript as possible fits well with keeping a site within a sensible page-weight budget.
• A smaller attack surface. Much of the security upkeep on a typical WordPress site comes from plugins. Sandboxing them is a thoughtful response to a real problem.
• Low running overhead. On serverless hosting there’s no traditional server to patch and tune, which suits small teams without technical staff.

Where WordPress still fits better

WordPress has two decades of plugins, themes, hosts, tutorials and developers behind it. That depth matters more than any single feature.

WordPress is still the better fit when:

• You need things like an online store, bookings, memberships or complex forms that rely on established plugins.
• Your editors already know WordPress and you don’t want to retrain them.
• You want lots of choice in who maintains your site, now and in years to come.
• You need a particular integration that only exists as a WordPress plugin. WordPress plugins and themes don’t run on EmDash.

A WordPress site can also be kept light and secure with care, as we covered in keeping a WordPress site light and easy to edit. Moving platforms isn’t the only way to fix a slow or fragile site.

What’s still young

Being measured about new tools is part of our job. A few things we’d want any client to weigh:

• The ecosystem is small. There are far fewer themes, plugins and experienced developers than for established systems.
• It’s moving quickly. Frequent releases are a good sign of active work, but they also mean more changes to keep up with.
• Some features lean on Cloudflare. The plugin sandbox is built around Cloudflare’s own runtime; on other hosts it needs extra setup, so check what you’d be giving up before choosing where to host.
• Its direction depends heavily on one company. The open-source licence means the code stays available whatever happens, but Cloudflare started the project and sets its direction for now.
• Editors will be learning a new admin screen, and support resources are still growing.

None of these is a reason to dismiss it. They’re reasons to choose it deliberately rather than because it’s new.

Our rule of thumb

We’d consider EmDash for a client when:

• The site is a straightforward brochure site with little need for plugins.
• There’s a developer, us or someone else, who is comfortable with modern JavaScript tooling and will look after it.
• The client is happy to be an early adopter and understands the trade-offs.

If any of those is a “not sure”, we’d usually build on WordPress and revisit EmDash as it matures. Our earlier note on choosing a CMS covers the wider questions to ask, and our note on a website care plan applies whichever system you pick.

Where to start

If you’re curious whether EmDash would suit your site, or you’re weighing it against WordPress for a rebuild, we’re happy to give you a straight opinion, including when the answer is “stay where you are”. Have a look at our websites and content management work, or tell us what you’re working on.