It can be difficult to know what the rightcms for your website is. After all, you’ve likely heard about at least one popular CMS and/or are considering using one. But before you decide which one to choose, it’s important to understand the different types of cms and how they might fit into your business. This guide will help you determine whether a specificcms is right for your business, as well as give you some tips on how to choose the bestcms for your needs.
What is a CMS?
A CMS is a software program that helps you create, manage, and run your website. There are many different types of CMSs, but the most popular ones include WordPress, Joomla!, Drupal, and Magento.
What are the Different Benefits of Using a CMS
Some of the benefits of using acms include:
– Reduced Costs: Acms can help reduce your costs by creating an automated system to do all the work for you. This can include designing your website, managing its content, and setting up payment options.
– More Efficient: Acms can be used to create more efficient websites. By using a common template or template files that are already created for other websites, you can save time and money on construction and design tasks.
– Faster Sites: With acms,sites can be built much faster than without it. This often leads to improved user experience and faster site completion times.
Best CMS for a Web Hosting Company
1. Joomla
Joomla is an open-source CMS that powers over 2% of all websites. Compared to other CMS platforms, Joomla’s core software offers more functionality right away, such as its multilingual features. However, the initial setup can be challenging for non-technical users.
Pros:
- Manage a site with hundreds of sub-pages efficiently.
- Use 2-factor authentication to avoid break-ins.
Cons:
- Web development terminology featured in the control panel is not beginner-friendly.
- Lack of compatibility between different modules, extensions, and plugins.
Best for:
Joomla is best for professional websites managed by multiple people. Take the official website of the international tennis player Roger Federer as an example. This website displays not only his portfolio but also a news platform and a shop.
Pricing:
Just like WordPress, Hostinger has Joomla Hosting plans that come with a free domain:
- Premium Shared Hosting for $2.99/month.
- Business Shared Hosting for $4.99/month.
Key Features:
- Banner management tool. Create advertising campaigns to monetize the website.
- Multilingual setting. There are more than 70 languages available for the websites using the platform’s core software.
- Search. Help visitors find the appropriate information on a site using a built-in search tool or smart search feature.
2. WordPress.org
WordPress.org is our number one choice for the best CMS platform. It’s the world’s most popular CMS software, and it powers around 43% of all websites on the internet.
It’s important to not confuse WordPress.org with WordPress.com. WordPress.org is a free open source CMS originally designed for blogging, but now it’s used by all sorts of websites / online stores. WordPress.com is a blog hosting platform.
If you’re not sure about the difference between the two, check out our detailed comparison of WordPress.org and WordPress.com.
Note: When we talk about WordPress on WPBeginner, we normally mean WordPress.org. We specify WordPress.com where appropriate.
You need to host your WordPress site yourself, which means finding a suitable WordPress hosting provider.
Pros
- WordPress offers you the flexibility and freedom to build any kind of website (online store, auction site, membership site, etc).
- It does not require any technical skills or coding knowledge. The WordPress block editor makes it really easy to create great looking pages on your site.
- You have complete freedom to make money online from your website in any way you want.
- There are thousands of WordPress themes and plugins available, both paid and free. These let you add all sorts of useful extras to your site, like contact forms, photo galleries, and much more.
- WordPress is really well designed for search engine optimization (SEO). It’s easy to create SEO-friendly URLs, categories, and tags for your posts. You can also choose from plenty of SEO plugins to help you do more.
- There’s a huge and supportive community around WordPress, as it’s an open source CMS. You can join groups like the WPBeginner Engage Facebook group to get help with any problems you run into.
- WordPress offers a lot of extensibility which is what makes it an ideal CMS platform for both beginners and developers alike.
- WordPress lets you download all your content in XML format, making it easy to move to a different system in the future if you choose to do so.
Cons
- You’ll need to set up your hosting and domain name, and you’ll be responsible for managing things like security and backups.
- Because WordPress offers so many options and so much flexibility, it can sometimes feel a little daunting when you’re getting started. This is why many beginners use drag & drop page builder plugins for WordPress.
Pricing
WordPress itself doesn’t cost anything. However you’ll need a domain name (around $9 – $15 per year) and a hosting account with a web host that can run WordPress (normally from $7.99/month).
We have a special deal with Bluehost where you can get WordPress hosting for just $2.75/month which includes a free domain and free SSL.
3. Magento
Magento is one of the best eCommerce platforms out there. The CMS software focuses on security, SEO, and customization to optimize all types of eCommerce sites. As it caters to bigger online stores, the platform is powerful enough to feature a high number of products and orders.
Pros:
- Manage multiple stores in various locations, using different languages and currencies.
- Content management is responsive to mobile devices.
Cons:
- Complicated initial setup.
- Customizing design and listing products is time-consuming.
Best for:
Magento is great for medium to large-scale eCommerce stores. One example of a large eCommerce store using Magento is Olympus, which sells cameras, audio equipment, and binoculars.
Pricing:
Magento’s three different versions influence the cost to use the platform. The Magento Open Source platform is free but requires a web hosting provider and a custom domain. Hostinger’s Cloud Hosting plans are recommended for Magento and they come with free domains:
- Cloud Startup costs $9.99/month.
- Cloud Professional costs $14.99/month.
- Cloud Enterprise costs $29.99/month.
As for the premium editions Magento Commerce and Magento Commerce Cloud, customers need to contact sales for pricing.
Key Features:
- Checkout. Secure payment gateway using Worldpay and Cybersource.
- Touch-friendly features. The back-end admin dashboard is touch-sensitive, making it easier to make edits.
- Catalog management. Showcase products virtually using inventory management, including immediate product creation and dynamic pricing.
4. HubSpot CMS Hub
HubSpot CMS Hub is a fully integrated content management system that is specifically designed for marketers and business owners.
Because it is built on top of HubSpot’s CRM platform which includes all sorts of marketing automation, sales, service, and operations tools, CMS Hub is an ideal solution for growing businesses as well as large enterprises looking for an all-in-one system to manage their website.
Pros
- HubSpot website builder is easy to use even if you have little to no technical skills. Their drag-and-drop editor, built-in SEO tools and contact attribution all makes it easy to create and optimize your web content.
- They have smart content features to personalize your website page to specific visitors or larger segments.
- For developers, there are serverless functions, flexible theme options, and command line tools, so you can make changes and customize assets faster.
- CMS Hub comes with built-in security features — including a global CDN and Web Application Firewall along with a dedicated security team to keep your site safe from DDoS attacks, hackers, and other anomalies.
- HubSpot CMS seamlessly integrates with their email marketing tool and sales CRM, so you can streamline your operational workflows.
Cons
- There is no free version, but they do offer a free trial.
- HubSpot CMS isn’t as well suited for e-commerce websites. The good news is that it easily integrates with WordPress and WooCommerce.
Pricing
CMS Hub comes in three tiers: Starter, Professional and Enterprise.
The Starter plan is $25/month and has all the features you need to build a fully-functioning website. The higher tiers are better suited for building more complex web apps with dynamic personalization and internal processes.
5. Drupal
Designed for professional web developers, its flexible API architecture supports different digital platforms. Compared to Joomla and WordPress, Drupal optimizes its built-in features for better performance and security. It’s also worth noting that Drupal’s websites get higher web traffic than other CMS software.
Pros:
- Less vulnerable to security threats as the CMS software conducts security tests regularly.
- Built-in modules help to expand the functionality of a site.
Cons:
- Requires coding knowledge of PHP, CSS, and HTML.
- Managing the platform, such as upgrading to a new version, can be time-consuming.
Best for:
A good CMS platform for advanced users with great technical knowledge to create large-scale and complex sites. For example, the official website of the City of Los Angeles uses Drupal to give updates and information about the city.
Pricing:
The pricing for Drupal depends on the web hosting and the domain name. Here are Hostinger’s Drupal hosting plans that offer both:
- Premium Shared Hosting for $2.99/month.
- Business Shared Hosting for $4.99/month.
Key Features:
- Multilingual. Automated language translation supports over 100 languages.
- Personalization. Create a personalized customer experience using data from geolocation, browser history, device type, and behavior taxonomies.
- Marketing automation. Create automated marketing campaigns to increase reach.
6. WooCommerce
WooCommerce is the most popular eCommerce platform in the world. It’s really flexible and it’s easy to manage.
WooCommerce isn’t technically a CMS platform itself. Instead, it runs as a plugin on WordPress, so you’ll need to have WordPress on your site in order to install WooCommerce.
If it was a CMS platform, though, it’d have 5.8% of marketshare, according to W3Techs. That’s the percentage of all the websites in the world that use it.
Pros
- WooCommerce is available as free software, but you’ll need WooCommerce hosting and domain name to get started.
- There are lots of WooCommerce themes available, which makes it really easy to get your site looking exactly how you want.
- WooCommerce has lots of available extensions (known as WooCommerce plugins) that let you add extra functionality to your site.
- You can sell physical or digital products using WooCommerce. You can even sell affiliate products through affiliate links.
- You can fully manage your inventory through WooCommerce, making it easy to keep track of what you have in stock.
- WooCommerce comes with PayPal and Stripe payments by default. You can also add any other payment gateways through extensions and add-ons.
Cons
- There are a lot of different options in WooCommerce, which can be a bit daunting when you’re new to setting up a website.
- WooCommerce technically works with any WordPress theme, but you may want to stick with themes made specifically for WooCommerce for extended support.
Pricing
The WooCommerce plugin itself is free, but you may need to pay for extra plugins and extensions for your online store.
You’ll also need to pay for a domain name and a web hosting account. Bluehost is a great web host to pick as they’ll install WooCommerce and the Storefront Theme for your site for you.
Best Cms For Developers
1. Contentful
Contentful allows you to manage content in the cloud and deliver it to all channels with powerful APIs. This headless CMS platform is great for developers who want to use open-source software to power their web apps but avoid the unpredictability of maintaining their own server. Contentful enables you to organize your content by topic and make it easier for visitors to find whatever it is they’re looking for. It also allows visitors to submit comments on your articles, which makes social media integration easy!
2. WordPress.org Content Management System
If you have ever remotely looked into creating your own website or hosting your own blog, the name WordPress has likely stood out. By all accounts, WordPress is the most widely used CMS platform in the world – and with plenty of good reasons.
Around 75 million WordPress.org sites exist around the world, with an estimated 500 sites being added daily. Compare that to Shopify, which gets around 70 new websites per day, and you can start to understand just how popular WordPress is. Search Engine Journal has a great piece discussing the statistics of Content Management Systems in 2021 that gives a decent breakdown by percentage of usage.
3. Kontent by Kentico
Kontent enables content managers to create, manage, and publish websites without having to know about HTML, CSS, or JavaScript. Kontent delivers an intuitive user interface for non-technical users, yet still offers advanced capabilities for developers. It frees them from having to worry about the core technologies associated with content management systems. They can focus solely on creating engaging functionality for their users instead of bogging them down with complex implementation details.
4. Drupal CMS Platform
Many web developers will tell you that Drupal is the best choice for developer-centric content management systems, though that topic is hotly debated. In terms of overall popularity, Drupal falls far behind WordPress, with an estimated 1,000,000 websites relying on the CMS platform. According to W3Techs, which monitor the usage of technology on some 10 million websites, Drupal accounts for just over 2% of CMS usage. That may not seem like a lot when compared to WordPress’s impressive 65%, but you have to keep in mind that – after WordPress – the next closest CMS in popularity is Shopify, which tops out at between 5% and 6%.
5. Agility CMS
Agility CMS is flexible enough to meet the needs of large enterprise companies while also being simple enough for anyone in your organization to use. This content platform gives developers all of the flexibility they need to get things done faster. Agility CMS includes a lightweight, server-side JavaScript framework that allows users to add and remove content from the browser without refreshing the page. You can use it in single-page applications where user actions such as adding and removing items from a list are updated in real-time.
Choosing the Right CMS for Your Website
One of the most important decisions you make when choosing acms for your website is what type of website you want to build. There are many different types of websites, each with its own set of needs and requirements. To find the right cms for your project, start by understanding your needs and then researching different cmss that may be a perfect fit.
Find the Right CMS for Your Needs
Once you’ve determined which type of website you want to build, it’s important to find the right cms for that specific task. Different cmss have different abilities and features that will need to be accounted for when building a website. For example, if you want a simple website that doesn’t require any advanced features, then an all-in-one cms like Drupal may be a great choice. However, if you want a more complex website with features like video content management or social media integration, then a more complex cms such as WordPress would be a better choice.
Subsection 2.3 research different CMSs to find the best fit for your needs.
Before concluding that acms is the right choice for your project, it’s also important to research different options available on the market and determine which one offers the best value and performance for your specific needs. By doing this research, you can ensure that you select the rightcms for your project and avoid any potential problems down the road.
Conclusion
A CMS is a software that helps you build websites. The different types of CMSs available today can be sorted into two categories: those which are focused on developing single-page applications and those which are more comprehensive in terms of abilities. While there are a number of other factors to consider when choosing a CMS, such as your specific needs, the research discussed in this guide should help make an informed decision.