Cassette CMF vs Carbon Fields

Carbon Fields is the closest comparable package to Cassette CMF, our new content modeling framework for WordPress. And we totally respect what they've built: a solid, developer-focused, and Composer-native custom fields library. 

If you're currently weighing your options, here's a quick breakdown to help.

The Core Differences

Carbon Fields: custom fields library, build using fluent method chains, support for Gutenberg blocks.

Cassette: content modeling framework, build using config arrays or JSON, no support for blocks.

What’s the difference between a custom fields library and a content modeling framework? The latter includes the former but also allows you to create your entire content model. In our case, you can create custom post types, custom taxonomies, and settings pages from a single array and single method call. 

Even if Carbon Fields added CPT registration tomorrow, this would still be the difference. It's about how you define things.

Take a look:

Carbon Fields 

Container::make('post_meta', 'Book Details')
    ->where('post_type', '=', 'book')
    ->add_fields([
        Field::make('text', 'isbn', 'ISBN'),
        Field::make('text', 'author', 'Author'),
    ]);

Container::make('post_meta', 'Book Details')
    ->where('post_type', '=', 'book')
    ->add_fields([
        Field::make('text', 'isbn', 'ISBN'),
        Field::make('text', 'author', 'Author'),
    ]);

Cassette 

Manager::init()->register_from_array([
    'cpts' => [
        [
            'fields' => [
                ['name' => 'isbn', 'type' => 'text', 'label' => 'ISBN'],
                ['name' => 'author', 'type' => 'text', 'label' => 'Author'],
            ],
        ],
    ],
]);

Manager::init()->register_from_array([
    'cpts' => [
        [
            'fields' => [
                ['name' => 'isbn', 'type' => 'text', 'label' => 'ISBN'],
                ['name' => 'author', 'type' => 'text', 'label' => 'Author'],
            ],
        ],
    ],
]);

Carbon Fields may be the right choice if …

• You prefer method chains
• You need battle-tested today
• You only need fields and/or Gutenberg blocks
• Bundle size doesn't matter

Cassette may be the right choice if …

• You want CPTs + taxonomies + fields together
• You prefer config arrays
• Bundle size matters
• You want to help shape something new

If you do try Cassette, we’d love your feedback! You can contact us or reach out on github.