Plone Classic and Plone Volto: Comparing apples to slightly different apples

Plone Classic and Plone Volto are like Golden Delicious and Pink Lady apples: Both are apples, but they taste and look different. One makes a great apple pie, the other is better eaten fresh.

Ok, that sounds delicious, but back to Plone.

Let's take a step back and first ask: What exactly is a front-end, or user interface (UI)? It's the part of a system you see and interact with directly – like the buttons, menus, and screens you use when editing your site. If you’re a Plone Editor, this is where the magic happens.

Up until August 2024, we built sites mostly using Plone Classic. As a site editor, you’d recognise this screen:

Just a quick refresh, what is Plone: it is an open source Content Management System (CMS) built in Python, that lets non-technical people create and maintain information for a public website or an intranet using only a web browser.

From September 2024, Juizi now offers Plone Volto as well. It is a more intuitive “what you see is what you get’’ (WYSIWYG) interface, and this is what it looks like:

Why have these two versions?

Here are 3 main differences between Plone Classic and Plone Volto:

• WYSIWIG: Volto is more WYSIWIG so you can see what it will look like to your audience as you edit. Classic is less WYSIWIG, so it is best to keep an eye on the audience view in another window as you update.
  
  
• Page Layouts: Volto page layouts are more customizable by the Editor - pages aren’t as limited to a specific content type the sky's the limit. Classic is less customizable - handy if you know you want to keep to a fixed format but have multiple editors who might go rogue if not locked into a specific layout. The Classic UI page setup has specific fields that the editor completes to add a new piece of content.
  
  
• Learning curve: Volto is more intuitive - If you’ve never worked with any version of Plone, there’s less of a learning curve with Volto for new editors than there is with Classic UI. New users can usually dive right in, and is especially handy for new clients, or clients who’ve never updated their own sites before.
  
  

Juizi now offers both Classic and Volto

We are excited that we now offer Plone Volto alongside Plone Classic, both built on the same hardworking CMS. Both offer the security, extendability and flexibility of Plone that you (and we) know and love. The foundation remains as solid as ever.

If you’re used to Classic, switching to Volto might take some adjustment, but that’s what we’re here for. Not every change feels like a holiday, so if you prefer Classic, no worries! Plone Classic is still fully supported and will keep evolving alongside Volto.

So both these apples are definitely from the same orchard. Both are appealing, both are good for you, and both will offer you the same Plone benefits you’ve heard about or know about through your current site.

Curious to see both in action?

Try the Volto demo site now. Use username: admin and password: admin. 

And let’s chat - we’ll help you decide which one suits your needs best.