ModX
Hosting

MODX is the CMS for designers who want to write their own HTML. That sounds reductive but it really is the platform's defining feature. Most CMSs make decisions about your front-end markup: WordPress wraps your content in classes you didn't ask for, Drupal renders fields with default markup that takes work to override, even Craft has opinions if you don't actively reach for them. MODX has no opinions. You write your HTML, you tell MODX where to put your content, MODX gets out of the way.

I host a few MODX sites for design-led agencies in the UK and one for a freelance designer who built her portfolio on it about ten years ago and refuses to switch. The pattern is consistent: the developer or designer who picks MODX values output control above almost everything, has built their own template starter, and finds WordPress's markup output borderline offensive.

What works well: full template control. Resource-based content modelling, where every URL is a resource with custom fields, is intuitive once you've done it twice. Template Variables (the MODX name for custom fields) are well-implemented. The package marketplace covers most common needs (forms, gallery, news listings, search). Performance with MODX's built-in cache layer is good.

"MODX is what you pick when you genuinely cannot stand the markup another CMS forces on you. The platform respects your front-end work in a way nothing else really does. For the right designer, that's the whole game."

Mark McNeece, Founder, 365i Hosting

What's annoying: the community is small and has been declining slowly. Documentation is good but not always current. The package marketplace has gaps and several once-popular packages are no longer maintained. The admin UI is functional but not as polished as Craft or modern WordPress. Onboarding a new developer takes longer than WordPress because the conceptual model (resources, chunks, snippets, plug-ins, template variables) needs explaining.

Hosting notes: MODX runs comfortably on our shared hosting from £5.99/mo for design-led editorial sites under 30,000 monthly visits. PHP memory at 256MB is plenty. MySQL 8 handles the resource tree and TV tables fine. The MODX cache directory is critical for performance and needs to be writable. Cron is supported for scheduled publish dates and email queue processing. We've never seen MODX exhaust unlimited LVE resources on our shared platform.

For agency client work or higher-traffic MODX sites, the application benefits from our managed cloud servers from £9.99/mo with OPcache and dedicated database resources. The MODX cache plus OPcache gives genuinely fast page renders, good enough that most MODX sites don't need a separate full-page cache layer.

If you're a designer or design-led agency and you've never used MODX, it's worth a weekend of evaluation. Spin up an install, build a simple template, give yourself the freedom to write the markup you actually want. You'll know quickly whether the platform fits your way of working. If it does, it tends to stick. If it doesn't, you've lost a weekend, and there's a Craft CMS or WordPress option waiting.