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Migrate from Craft CMS to SolidStart

Complete guide to migrating your Craft CMS website to SolidStart. Leave Craft CMS's smaller ecosystem behind and get solidjs fine-grained reactivity. Free migration tool included.

20-40 minutes
Medium
100% Free
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TL;DR

You can migrate from Craft CMS to SolidStart for free using LeaveWP. Enter your site URL, choose SolidStart as the destination, and download your content — posts, pages, and media — in minutes. No API keys, passwords, or CLI tools required. Difficulty: Medium. Estimated time: 20-40 minutes.

Why Teams Leave Craft CMS

Developer-focused PHP CMS with elegant content modeling. Agencies building bespoke sites with complex content requirements, but these limitations push teams toward modern alternatives.

Smaller ecosystem — fewer plugins than WordPress or Drupal

This is the most common reason teams migrate away from Craft CMS. SolidStart eliminates this issue entirely.

License costs for multi-user projects

With SolidStart, solidjs fine-grained reactivity — updates dom without virtual dom diffing.

Requires PHP/MySQL hosting infrastructure

Modern architectures like SolidStart are designed to avoid this from the ground up.

Fewer community resources and tutorials available

After migrating, you'll no longer need to worry about this — SolidStart takes a fundamentally different approach.

What SolidStart Brings to the Table

Full-stack framework for SolidJS with fine-grained reactivity. Built with JavaScript/TypeScript (SolidJS), it's performance-focused developers who want react-like syntax without virtual dom overhead.

SolidJS fine-grained reactivity — updates DOM without virtual DOM diffing

Top benchmark performance — often faster than Svelte

JSX syntax makes it approachable for React developers

File-based routing with SSR and SSG support

SolidStart is open-source and free to use. You own your code and data with no vendor lock-in. Deploy to any host that supports JavaScript/TypeScript, or use managed platforms like Vercel and Netlify for zero-config deployments.

Craft CMS vs SolidStart at a Glance

Side-by-side comparison based on real platform characteristics

MetricCraft CMSSolidStart
Ease of Use⭐⭐⭐ 3/5⭐⭐⭐ 3/5
Performance⭐⭐⭐ 3/5⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 5/5
Flexibility⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 5/5⭐⭐⭐ 3/5
Cost⭐⭐ 2/5⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 5/5
Scalability⭐⭐⭐⭐ 4/5⭐⭐⭐ 3/5
Ecosystem⭐⭐ 2/5 1/5
LanguagePHP (Yii framework)JavaScript/TypeScript (SolidJS)
PricingFree solo / $35+/mo for teamsFree (open-source)
Open SourceNoYes

Ratings are based on publicly available data, documentation, and community consensus as of 2026. Individual experience may vary.

What Gets Migrated

A detailed breakdown of how your Craft CMS content maps to SolidStart

Content Types from Craft CMS

  • entries
  • categories
  • tags
  • assets
  • globals
  • matrix blocks

Technical Details

Export Method
Element API or GraphQL endpoint
Source Language
PHP (Yii framework)
Destination Format
Markdown/MDX files with frontmatter, organized by content type
URL Handling
301 redirect map generated automatically to preserve SEO equity

What may need manual attention

Custom server-side logic, third-party integrations, and platform-specific plugins will need equivalent solutions in SolidStart. The core content (text, images, metadata) transfers cleanly.

How It Works

Migrate your content in three simple steps

1

Connect

Enter your Craft CMS site URL — LeaveWP connects automatically.

2

Configure

Select SolidStart as destination and choose content options.

3

Export

Download your migrated content or preview it in your browser.

Is Craft CMS to SolidStart the Right Move for You?

Migrating from Craft CMS to SolidStart makes the most sense if you're experiencing smaller ecosystem — fewer plugins than wordpress or drupal or outgrowing Craft CMS's architecture. SolidStart is best for performance-focused developers who want react-like syntax without virtual dom overhead.

You should migrate if: your Craft CMS site is slow, your hosting costs are climbing, you need developer flexibility, or you want to adopt a modern JAMstack architecture.

You might want to stay if: your Craft CMS site benefits from excellent content modeling — build any structure without plugins and you don't have JavaScript/TypeScript developers on your team.

The migration itself is straightforward with LeaveWP — enter your Craft CMS URL, select SolidStart, and download your content. The more important question is whether SolidStart's architecture fits your team's skills and your project's long-term needs.

Frequently Asked Questions

How long does it take to migrate from Craft CMS to SolidStart?
Most migrations from Craft CMS complete in 20-40 minutes. We pull content via Craft CMS's Element API, then structured for SolidStart. Complex sites with extensive custom fields may take longer.
Will I lose my SEO rankings when migrating from Craft CMS?
No. We help you set up proper 301 redirects from your old Craft CMS URLs to preserve search rankings. SolidStart actually tends to improve Core Web Vitals scores, which can boost rankings over time.
What Craft CMS content can be migrated to SolidStart?
Craft CMS content types like entries, categories, tags, assets are all migrated to SolidStart. Content is converted to Markdown/MDX files or structured for your chosen headless CMS.
Do I need JavaScript/TypeScript experience to migrate?
No coding experience is required for the migration itself — LeaveWP handles the export and conversion automatically. However, customizing your SolidStart site afterward will benefit from JavaScript/TypeScript (SolidJS) knowledge. For teams without that expertise, the generated code is well-structured and documented, making it approachable for developers of any level.
How much does it cost to host a SolidStart site after migrating from Craft CMS?
SolidStart sites can be deployed to Vercel, Netlify, Cloudflare Pages, or any Node.js host — often on generous free tiers. Compared to Craft CMS's Free solo / $35+/mo for teams pricing, static SolidStart sites can be hosted for free on Vercel or Netlify (up to generous bandwidth limits), which is significantly cheaper than running a Craft CMS instance.
Can I migrate Craft CMS custom fields and metadata to SolidStart?
Yes. Custom fields, metadata, and taxonomies from Craft CMS are preserved during migration. In SolidStart, these become frontmatter fields in your Markdown/MDX files, which you can extend or restructure to fit your content model.

Related Migration Guides

Explore more migration paths from Craft CMS or to SolidStart

Craft CMS to SolidStart Guides

In-depth guides and tutorials to help with your migration

Ready to Migrate?

Start your free migration from Craft CMS to SolidStart today.

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