8 Most Popular Content Management Systems and What You Need to Know About Them
Owning a website is often a necessity for people who want to do business. It can reach potential customers, generate leads, or simply provide information. But it takes more than signing up for a hosting service and choosing a domain name to get your site off the ground. You'll need to maintain, organize, and update the content of your website.
Traditionally, you would have to code your website from scratch or hire a web developer to do it for you. Every time you want to update the content or make changes, you would have to pay for the developer's expertise once again. Thankfully, this is no longer necessary.
Content Management Systems (CMS) provide an easy-to-use interface that lets any skill-level user create and manage a website with minimal effort. This article will discuss the eight most popular content management systems currently available.
What Is a CMS?
A Content Management System (CMS) is software that makes it easy to create, manage, and update content on your website. The user-friendly interface of a CMS enables non-technical users to upload content without going into the back-end code. Users can usually also have and assign different permissions, such as author, editor, and administrator.
The platform handles all the complex infrastructure and scripting. For example, publishing a blog post on a WordPress website simply involves typing the content into a text editor, adding images, and clicking “Publish.” Likewise, uploading a product to an ecommerce store requires only a few clicks, with the CMS handling the legwork behind the scenes.
8 Most Popular Content Management Systems
The wide range of content management systems available can make deciding which is best for your website challenging. Depending on your business model, requirements, and budget, one might suit you better than the others. As such, we’ve collected a large amount of user data to see which are the most popular among all available CMSs and their different use cases.
1. WordPress
Classic Editor of WordPress
The undisputed king of content management is WordPress. It’s the most popular system on the web, with a 43.2% market share, it powers nearly half of all websites worldwide and offers a structured interface that lets you create and manage content without any coding knowledge.
It's important to note the distinction between WordPress.com and WordPress.org. The former is a hosting service, while the latter refers to the actual CMS.
WordPress is free, open source, and highly versatile. It supports various plugins and themes, allowing you to create a unique website tailored to your needs. WordPress has by far the biggest ecosystem of plugins and themes available, making it as flexible as it can get for PHP.
WordPress is ideal for beginners who need to quickly get their website off the ground. It requires minimal setup and offers many features that let you customize your site however you want.
Flexibility
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Create any kind of website you desire. Plenty of website builders are available for WordPress, and with plugins like WooCommerce, you can even set up an online store. Plugins can turn your site into a membership platform, and other tools can help you create a portfolio site. The options are endless.
Large community
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The fact that WordPress is open-source means that there are a bunch of talented developers creating plugins and themes and offering support for them.
SEO-friendly
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WordPress is considered one of the best platforms for SEO, allowing you to optimize your website for search engines in the finest detail.
Responsive
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Most themes are optimized for mobile devices, allowing you to create a website that looks great on any device.
Free
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WordPress doesn't cost you a dime. It’s up to you whether you want to pay for additional premium plugins.
Pros
Block editor
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WordPress uses a block-based default editor that can be difficult to use for beginners. It's not as intuitive as other drag-and-drop page builders, so you’ll likely need a plugin like Elementor.
Security
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The open-source beauty of WordPress is a double-edged sword. Anyone can view the source code, so hackers can find vulnerabilities in websites. They may also create malicious plugins or find vulnerabilities in existing ones that can compromise your site.
Update issues
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The frequency of updates can be an issue if you use many plugins and themes. Minor conflicts can arise between the various components, so you must keep an eye out for any possible problems.
Cons
WordPress is a self-hosted platform, meaning you need to find a hosting service and manage the technical aspects of your website.
However, there are also packages like the ones from Elementor, offering the pro version of the plugin plus hosting in a managed environment. For beginners, this is a great deal to get started since you receive all the website-building functionalities you’ll ever need without having to pay for everything separately.
2. Shopify
Shopify takes a different approach than WordPress by only providing an all-in-one ecommerce solution. With Shopify, your monthly payment covers hosting, support, and the tools you need to create an online store.
Shopify is designed specifically for ecommerce sites and offers powerful features such as integrated payment processing, automated tax calculations, inventory tracking, and a lot more. It also gives you access to their website builder, which lets you customize the look of your store.
Shopify's Content Editor
It uses a drag-and-drop page builder to help you create beautiful pages quickly. With an ever-increasing list of integrations and tools, the company is one of the best ecommerce platforms out there.
Everything included
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Shopify doesn’t miss anything when it comes to taking your online store live. From the domain setup to designing and managing your store, you can do everything from within the interface.
Easy payment setups
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Shopify supports a wide range of payment solutions, including PayPal and Apple Pay. Customers can easily purchase your products with just a few clicks. You can control everything from shipping and taxes to discounts and currencies in the settings.
24/7 customer support
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Shopify offers various levels of customer service, ranging from email and chat support to premium concierge services. They also provide phone support, which is quite rare.
Robust product management
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Shopify makes managing your entire product catalog easy, from creating new products to setting up discounts and coupons. You can also bulk import and export products as needed.
Secure platform
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Shopify is PCI-compliant, which means that it meets the highest standards for data security. Your customer data is encrypted, protecting it from hackers and other malicious actors.
Pros
Costly plans
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While the basic plan starts at just $29/month (billed annually), Shopify's more advanced plans can be pretty expensive but are usually only needed for big stores where money shouldn’t matter anymore. That's not counting the extra fees for add-ons and plugins, which often require an upgrade to be used to their full extent. Depending on your needs, you may need a couple of them.
Rigid storefront
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Shopify uses a proprietary theme system powered by its own liquid language. Most beginners will be just fine by choosing a theme and using the drag-and-drop editor for the final polish, but if you require advanced customizations on the theme itself, it is more difficult to customize the look and feel of your store by yourself and requires specialized developers.
Cons
3. Magento
Magento's Content Dashboard
Another open-source CMS platform, Magento (today Adobe Commerce), is suitable for ecommerce businesses of all sizes. It's most popular among mid-sized to large companies as it provides a comprehensive suite of features and tools. The company behind Magento is none other than Adobe, who acquired the platform in 2018. You can get started for free with Magento or opt for their more advanced enterprise edition.
In terms of flexibility, Magento is nearing the top of the pack. With a huge selection of add-ons and plugins, the customization options are nearly endless. It also supports multiple languages, currencies, and payment gateways. Unfortunately, Magento is quite far from a no-code solution, as it requires a developer with programming knowledge to customize the platform.
Flexible ecommerce platform
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Magento is one of the most sophisticated ecommerce platforms available. The platform offers numerous features, such as detailed analytics and insights, promotional tools, product management, and more.
Scalable
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Magento is suitable for businesses of any size. It can easily handle high traffic and large catalogs, making it ideal for ambitious projects.
Backed by a big company
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Magento is now owned by Adobe, one of the largest software companies in the world. This gives Magento more credibility and gives users extra assurance that their platform will be supported for many years.
Pros
Pricey
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Magento can be expensive when upgrading to the paid version, which includes managed hosting, additional features, and optimized security standards.
Developer scarcity
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It takes a lot of time to master the Magento platform. As such, it's not easy to find developers who know how to customize the platform with all its features and integrations.
Loading times
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Magento can have slow loading times compared to other CMS platforms, which is also a reason why larger companies go for Magento Commerce (the paid version).
Cons
4. Joomla!
Joomla! is a middle ground between a rather simple option like WordPress and a complex one like Drupal (which we'll discuss next). As such, it doesn't do anything better than either of those two platforms, but it does provide a good compromise.
Joomla's Control Panel
Joomla is an open-source CMS platform that's easy to use and customize. It provides features such as custom fields for content and modules for users to extend the functionality of their websites. The platform also offers a range of official and third-party extensions that can improve the platform's features.
An abundance of variety
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From menu items to modules, there are plenty of options to choose from when customizing your website with Joomla. The platform is an excellent choice if you want to create a unique look.
Caching tools
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Joomla comes standard with caching tools that can help speed up your website's loading time.
Ecommerce functionality
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Joomla has its own ecommerce system, known as J2Store. It can be integrated with the platform to provide an easy way for users to sell products online and has many of the same features as WooCommerce and other ecommerce systems.
Pros
Few extensions
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Compared to WordPress or Drupal, Joomla has a much smaller selection of both official and third-party extensions. This limits the platform's capabilities when building.
Slightly more complex than WordPress
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Although Joomla isn't as complicated as Drupal, it still requires more technical knowledge than WordPress. Non-developers will get by, but learning the platform might take a bit more time and effort.
Resource-intensive
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The RAM and CPU requirements for Joomla can be demanding. It's something to consider if you're on a shared hosting plan or have limited resources.
Cons
5. Drupal
Drupal is a powerful and complex CMS platform. It's designed for developers, businesses, or organizations that need to build large websites with a lot of custom capabilities.
Drupal's Content Editor (Gin Theme)
It can be used to create almost any type of website, from small blogs to large ecommerce stores. However, it's not an out-of-the-box solution like WordPress or Joomla. It requires significant technical knowledge and expertise to manage and customize it fully. The backend requires knowledge of HTML, CSS, and PHP.
Open Source
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Free to use and customize, you can get started with Drupal quickly and easily.
Secure
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Often considered the most secure CMS, Drupal provides a safe framework to protect websites from malicious attacks. The security framework is internal and doesn't depend on third-party plugins.
Mobile-friendly
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Drupal is mobile-friendly and responsive by default, meaning your website will look great no matter what device it's viewed on. The available themes and modules also help to create a great design.
Customizable and complex
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There are certain limitations to drag-and-drop builders, and Drupal isn't limited by them. It's designed for complex websites that need a lot of custom features.
Pros
User Interface could be improved
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Non-developers will likely need help navigating the backend of Drupal. The UI is a bit outdated, and several areas could use some improvement.
Steep learning curve
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Drupal is a complex platform with plenty of features, and it takes time to get familiar with them all. Learning how to properly configure the system can take days or even weeks.
Cons
6. Webflow
Webflow has constantly been growing in popularity in the CMS world. It's a great solution for small businesses and designers who need to create custom websites. Small teams can collaborate and design beautiful websites easily, while developers can customize their designs using HTML and CSS.
Webflow's Visual Editor
The Webflow editor is used to add elements to a website, such as images and text. You can also use it to create custom forms and integrate them with other services. The platform comes with hundreds of responsive themes and templates, so you don't have to start from scratch. However, Webflow is the designer's dream due to all of the different styling functionalities you get, which results in most people starting from scratch after all.
Perfect for web designers
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You can customize every inch without the need for any code. A designer can enjoy maximum flexibility, feeling like they are using their regular design program.
Page load speeds
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Webflow has excellent page load speeds, and since it's hosted on the cloud, you don't have to worry about server management or hosting.
Autosave and backups
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Webflow has an autosave feature that automatically saves your work as you go, and it backs up all of your data. You can also go back to a previous version of your website at any time.
Pros
CMS, forms, and traffic limits
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Your monthly traffic, CMS items, and form submissions are limited on every plan. Luckily, they are quite generous. However, if you go above, you’ll have to upgrade or arrange a custom plan with Webflow.
Average blogging capabilities
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Webflow's blogging capabilities are not great, and there are no special features to enhance your blog.
Limited ecommerce features
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Webflow doesn't offer many features for creating an online store. There is no abandoned cart tool, multi-currency support, or point of sale (POS) integration, among other limitations.
Cons
7. Wix
Last but not least, we have Wix. As one of the most heavily marketed systems, you've likely heard of them before. It is a true all-in-one platform that offers everything you need to build a website. You don't have to be a developer or designer; Wix takes care of all the technical aspects for you.
Wix is primarily used by small businesses and bloggers who want an easy way to create a website. It heavily relies on pre-made templates and designs, so you can build your website in a matter of hours.
Wix's Templates
You can also add extra features such as contact forms, email marketing integrations, payment gateways, and more. The platform is constantly being updated with new features to make it easier for users to create their own websites.
Easy to use
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Wix offers by far the easiest way to create a website and get it live in no time. While Weblfow offers more advanced design features, Wix focuses on simplicity for everyone.
Truly no-code
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Wix is one of the few truly no-code platforms available. You don't need to touch a single line of code to create your website.
Affordable
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The simplicity of Wix is reflected in its price. It is one of the most affordable website-building platforms out there that still includes hosting.
Good security
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Don't be fooled by the low price – Wix has good security features that protect your website from hackers and malware.
Pros
Strict storage limits
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Wix has strict storage limits but unlimited bandwidth on higher plans. In other words, you can have a lot of traffic on your website but not as much content.
Limited functionalities
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While a CMS like WordPress has a huge plugin ecosystem to enable endless functionality, Wix is much more limited and also reaches its limits in terms of design more quickly.
Not optimal for larger companies and blogs
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The price-performance ratio is perfect for very small websites but not optimal for everyone else.
Cons
8. CMS Hub
Powered by HubSpot, CMS Hub is a cloud-based Content Management System (CMS) that helps you organize and manage your website's content. It comes with powerful features such as drag-and-drop page building, SEO optimization, custom domains, and more. Its user interface is easy to use and has a modern look.
CMS Hub's Page Builder
With its built-in marketing tools and automated workflows, CMS Hub makes it easy to manage your website's content and sales. Typically recommended to larger companies and B2B service companies that generate high ticket sales per customer, CMS Hub is a great choice for those looking to scale their business from different angles.
A lot in one
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HubSpot is primarily known for its CRM and sales tools. Since everything is integrated and partially included with the CMS Hub you are getting way more than just a CMS which makes it great for companies that actively want to create sales with their website.
Smart features
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You can use smart tools to personalize the user experience on your website. For instance, you can automatically display the most relevant content based on a user's location or previous visits.
Security
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Protect your website from DDoS attacks, hackers, and other malicious events with the platform's built-in security features and WAF.
Pros
Learning curve
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CMS Hub is less intuitive than some other CMS platforms. Learning the platform and its features may take some time, especially if you're a beginner. Customizing the code also requires knowing the Hubl language, which is used for building templates and modules.
Expensive
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CMS Hub plans are far more costly than other CMS platforms. Using the platform's advanced features and integrations can cost upwards of $360 per month.
Locked ecosystem
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HubSpot is renowned for its marketing and sales automation capabilities. However, if you want to use any other third-party tools for these matters, it makes little sense to use CMS Hub.
Cons
Making the Right Choice
As you can see, there is no one-size-fits-all CMS. Each system has its pros and cons, and you'll need to find the one that best suits your needs. We recommend taking some time to research the different systems and learn more about their features before deciding. When weighing your options, consider the following factors.
Design Options
How much control do you need over the design? Does the CMS offer pre-made templates, or can you create a fully custom website from scratch? Most ecommerce stores will benefit from a custom design, while bloggers may get away with using a premade template. If your desired features aren't standard, verify that they can be added through an add-on or plugin.
Ease of Use
If you don't have the resources to hire a developer, you'll need to find a CMS that is easy enough to use. Consider the user interface and whether or not it is intuitive. Trying out a demo version of the platform is always a good idea.
Cost
Finally, consider the cost of using the CMS. Some platforms are free to use, while others charge a fee. Make sure you understand what is included in the price and if there are any additional charges for plugins or features. If you need to add hosting, this should also factor into the cost.
Conclusion
No matter what website you build, a suitable CMS can make all the difference. The eight most popular content management systems discussed in this article offer unique features and advantages for different groups of people/businesses. Think about your needs so you can properly rank the pros and cons to make a thoughtful decision.
Are you completely new to building a website? Take the best shortcut and use our Finder Tool for the perfect start. We will guide you to the best website builder in just a few steps.
And if you've already decided and just need a web host, make sure to visit our page on the best web hosting services.
Software engineer with a weakness for collecting too much data. I live for web hosting and cloud computing. If I’m not online, I like to go fishing and create weird things with my 3D printer.
