← Back to home
Comparison · Mkt Auto

Craft CMS vs Customer.io

A side-by-side editorial comparison of Craft CMS and Customer.io — release velocity, themes, recent moves, and the top alternatives to consider.

Craft CMS vs Customer.io: at a glance

FeatureCraft CMSCustomer.io
SectorMkt AutoMkt Auto
Velocity score6.37.5
Sparks · 30d10
Top themescms, laravel, ai-assistant, mcpgeofencing, push-notifications, workflow-triggers, llm-actions
Last editorial update2d ago3mo ago
WebsiteVisit →Visit →

What is Craft CMS?

Craft 6 reaches beta with an AI assistant that edits content through its own MCP tools.

Craft CMS 6.0.0-beta.1 ends the alpha series on the Laravel foundation. It adds Ask AI, a chat panel beside every control panel screen that uses Craft's MCP tools as the signed-in user and proposes changes the user reviews and applies, plus a Ctrl/Cmd+K command palette, a side-by-side Compare screen for drafts, revisions and sites, and copy/paste of field values. The 5.12 stable line gets only single-fix patches.

Read the full Craft CMS trajectory →

What is Customer.io?

Customer.io spent the summer pushing messaging off the screen and into location, time, and the lock screen

The summer release cycle put more than ten features into the product, and the coherent ones are about context rather than content: geofences trigger workflows when someone enters or leaves a physical location, live notifications render as iOS Live Activities and Android Live Updates, date triggers now read attributes on custom objects, and a notification inbox retains pushes. Around that sits infrastructure work — SMS via Sinch, Infobip and Vonage, multiple mobile apps per platform in one workspace, send-rate controls on automations — and an LLM actions surface where knowledge sources can be attached once and reused across prompts. The most recent entry is editor ergonomics in Design Studio.

Read the full Customer.io trajectory →

Craft CMS vs Customer.io: editorial side-by-side

C
Craft CMS
MKT AUTO
6.3

Craft 6 reaches beta with an AI assistant that edits content through its own MCP tools.

◆ Current state

Craft CMS 6.0.0-beta.1 ends the alpha series on the Laravel foundation. It adds Ask AI, a chat panel beside every control panel screen that uses Craft's MCP tools as the signed-in user and proposes changes the user reviews and applies, plus a Ctrl/Cmd+K command palette, a side-by-side Compare screen for drafts, revisions and sites, and copy/paste of field values. The 5.12 stable line gets only single-fix patches.

◆ Where it's heading

The alphas rebuilt the control panel on shared Inertia/Vue components; the beta uses that base to add editor-facing features, with AI assistance and version comparison at the center. Ask AI runs on the same MCP tools and permissions as the user, so Craft is treating AI as another way to operate the control panel rather than a separate content generator.

◆ Prediction

Further 6.0 betas fixing plugin and UI issues are the likely next step, with Ask AI's scope and model settings the area to watch. No release date for 6.0 is visible in the entries.

Customer.io logo
Customer.io
MKT AUTO
7.5

Customer.io spent the summer pushing messaging off the screen and into location, time, and the lock screen

◆ Current state

The summer release cycle put more than ten features into the product, and the coherent ones are about context rather than content: geofences trigger workflows when someone enters or leaves a physical location, live notifications render as iOS Live Activities and Android Live Updates, date triggers now read attributes on custom objects, and a notification inbox retains pushes. Around that sits infrastructure work — SMS via Sinch, Infobip and Vonage, multiple mobile apps per platform in one workspace, send-rate controls on automations — and an LLM actions surface where knowledge sources can be attached once and reused across prompts. The most recent entry is editor ergonomics in Design Studio.

◆ Where it's heading

The platform is expanding the set of things that can start a message and the set of places one can land, which is a different axis from the segmentation-and-copy tooling most of this category competes on. Geofences and live notifications both take work that previously required a specialist vendor or custom device code and make it a workflow primitive. The LLM actions work is following the same instinct — reusable knowledge sources are the beginning of prompt infrastructure rather than a prompt box — but it is the least developed of the threads. Meanwhile send-rate control and multi-app support read as enterprise deployment blockers being cleared.

◆ Prediction

Expect the location and live notification surfaces to gain the operational controls that continuous device features require, and the LLM actions path to keep accreting reusable pieces. Design Studio is receiving steady editor polish, so a broader component authoring release is plausible.

Alternatives to Craft CMS and Customer.io

Other Mkt Auto products tracked by Sparkpulse, ranked by recent ship velocity. Each card links to a full editorial trajectory and lets you pivot into a head-to-head comparison with either Craft CMS or Customer.io.

See all Craft CMS alternatives → · See all Customer.io alternatives →

Recent activity from Craft CMS and Customer.io

Latest ship moves from both products, interleaved chronologically. ⚡ = editorial spark.

  1. 3d agoCraft CMSCraft 6 beta adds Ask AI, a command palette and draft compare ⚡
  2. 10d agoCraft CMSCraft 5.12.0.1 fixes duplicate icons in icon pickers
  3. 1mo agoCraft CMS5.11.5.1 restores editing of third-party nested elements
  4. 1mo agoCraft CMSCraft 6 alpha.20 moves more editors onto shared Vue controls
  5. 1mo agoCraft CMSCraft 6 alpha.19 adds inline editing and exports to indexes
  6. 2mo agoCraft CMSCraft CMS 6.0.0-alpha.18
  7. 3mo agoCustomer.ioDesign Studio: new and improved canvas editing experience
  8. 3mo agoCustomer.ioControl how fast your automations send messages
  9. 3mo agoCustomer.ioGeofences: message people when they enter or exit a location ⚡
  10. 3mo agoCustomer.ioSet up SMS with Sinch, Infobip, or Vonage
  11. 3mo agoCustomer.ioAdd reusable knowledge sources to LLM actions
  12. 3mo agoCustomer.ioCustomer.io’s Summer Release: Meet your customers where they are

Frequently asked questions

What is the difference between Craft CMS and Customer.io?

They serve adjacent needs but don't currently overlap on shipped themes. Customer.io is currently shipping more aggressively (velocity 7.5 vs 6.3), with 0 editorial sparks in the last 30 days against 1. See the at-a-glance table above for a side-by-side breakdown of velocity, recent sparks, and editorial themes.

Is Craft CMS better than Customer.io?

Sparkpulse doesn't pick a winner — we score release velocity, not feature parity. Customer.io is currently shipping more aggressively (velocity 7.5 vs 6.3), with 0 editorial sparks in the last 30 days against 1. For your specific use case, the alternatives sections above list other Mkt Auto products to evaluate alongside.

What are the best alternatives to Craft CMS?

Top Craft CMS alternatives in Mkt Auto are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "Craft CMS alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/craft-cms for the full list with editorial commentary on each.

What are the best alternatives to Customer.io?

Top Customer.io alternatives in Mkt Auto are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "Customer.io alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/customerio for the full list with editorial commentary on each.