CMS

A content management system is a tool for creating and managing content for your company’s website and establishing an online presence without coding. It helps you seamlessly add, edit, and optimize content on your website, meet site visitors’ needs, and comply with SEO principles.

In this article, we’ll unveil why you should use a content management system and provide you with key features to look for in a CMS. We’ll also review the 10 most popular CMS platforms.

Why should you use a CMS?

A content management system is a useful tool for anyone related to creating and distributing content across online channels, including websites and social media. Bloggers, educators, entrepreneurs, and developers can take advantage of this platform without any code knowledge. However, these are not all the reasons for considering it for your business. Let’s find out some more benefits.

• Cost-effectiveness. A content management system saves you the hassle and expense of hiring developers. It's designed to be user-friendly, so you don’t need any programming skills to manage it. This means you or your team can easily handle updates and optimizations without incurring extra costs. Making content changes and keeping things fresh is simple when you have the right tool at your fingertips.
• Scalability. The right CMS can adapt when your business expands. Over time, when you add more and more content to your website, you can handle all the pages and posts without affecting the performance. If your company grows, a CMS enables you to add plugins and modules to manage a bigger content volume smoothly.
• Seamless collaboration. It allows your teams to communicate properly with each of your coworkers and lets them create, edit, or manage content simultaneously. This is due to multi-user access. You can assign different roles to your team members and ensure content quality.
• Built-in analytics. Some content management systems provide their users with analytics to monitor and analyze their content performance. Visitor stats, page views, and engagement are the areas you can control with the help of this tool. Additionally, there are some content management systems that support integrations, including Google Analytics for a deeper understanding of your articles, blog posts, social media posts, etc.
• Responsive design. With the majority of content management platforms, you can ensure that your website is mobile-friendly. A CMS guarantees that your content adapts to the website’s layout and screen size. Before publishing your blog posts, you can always preview them to find out how they look on different devices.
• Flexibility. When you choose the right platform that meets your expectations, you’ll be able to add all the necessary extensions and plugins. For example, Joomla integrates with Akeeba Backup Core to create a site backup, Convert Forms to design forms, JSitemap to manage SEO, and many more. WordPress also has lots of plugins you can take advantage of, including an All-in-One Video Gallery to embed videos to a website, Print My Blog to let users easily print your PDFs, Two-Factor for two-factor authentication, etc. All these customizable features will help you attain your goals by creating and optimizing content for your website. You can add contact forms, e-commerce capabilities, or social media integration.

Now that you understand the pros of using a content management system, it’s time to unveil the most essential features your CMS should have. They will ensure great content performance.

9 Key Features to Look for in a CMS

To identify the perfect solution, you have to understand which features are crucial. We’ll cover them in this section.

• Intuitive interface. The first thing you should pay attention to when choosing a content management system is its ease of use. Consider selecting solutions that offer an intuitive dashboard to create, edit, and manage your content seamlessly. Many platforms don’t require you to have any coding experience, making it so much easier for your team members. With a drag-and-drop editor, you can optimize your content and publish it on your website in minutes.
• Integrations. When you need analytics, you should always check a CMS for it. For example, platforms like Shopify, WordPress, Joomla, Drupal, and Magento provide such an option. Analyze platforms for integrating with third-party platforms based on your requirements, including marketing tools, email marketing services, and payment gateways. Additionally, your CMS should have API access. It allows you to connect with custom applications or services.
• Customization. If you want to communicate your brand identity to a wide target audience, you should search for a solution that offers customizable templates and themes. This tool should help you create different content types using various formatting and visuals.
• Roles and permissions distribution. Find out whether a platform allows you to assign permissions based on roles. Since your team members manage different tasks when they access CMS, you need to provide permissions to different people. It allows you to control all the work they do. To ensure the security of your content, you can provide the right people with the tasks they will be responsible for.
• Mobile-friendly design. When you choose a platform, you should ensure that it is suitable for different screen sizes, including smartphones. Since increasingly mobile users explore content, you need themes and layouts that automatically adjust to their devices. To provide a seamless experience for site visitors on different devices, you should preview your content before publishing it. With a CMS’s help, you’ll be able to make sure that everything looks perfect, even on small devices, before making it available for everyone.
• SEO tools. Search engine optimization is necessary to rank high in search results. For this purpose, a content management system should have built-in features for optimizing meta tags, URLs, and alt text. You need to check whether a platform integrates with advanced SEO plugins or tools. It is also important for high rankings and better online visibility.
• E-commerce functionality. Ensure that a platform allows you to create, edit, and organize product pages with details like images, descriptions, pricing, and inventory levels. You should also have payment getaway integration. To accept payment through your website, you need to add main payment gateways like PayPal, Stripe, Square, and credit or debit cards. Additionally, ensure that you have a simple checkout process without asking for too much information.
• Multilingual support. If your content is in a language other than English, it’s necessary to check if this content management platform provides this option. Determine whether you can create, translate, and manage content in multiple languages.
• Security. Security is very important when it comes to your content. To prevent your information from being stolen, you need features like two-factor authentication, SSL support, and automatic backups.

Now that you know the essential features, it’s time to explore the platforms that offer them. These are good tools in terms of pricing, ease of use, and integrations.

If you want to manage your content effectively, you should find a proper content management tool. Since there are many options, we’ll provide you with a list of platforms with the best features, pricing, and integrations.

Adobe Commerce

Best choice for: large-scale e-commerce businesses.
Key features: generative AI tools, A/B testing, real-time click data, 360-degree view of each customer.

Adobe Commerce is a content management platform for creating commerce experiences encouraging conversions for B2B and B2C businesses. With the service, you can seamlessly create and publish real-time content, boost productivity, and improve performance by using AI for personalized site searches, product recommendations, and browsing.

The tool is intuitive and customizable, making it easy for you to add all the necessary third-party integrations. Its page builder lets you create and share eye-catching content on your site and ensures smooth shopping experiences without developer support.

Pricing: You need to contact the company’s support team to get full information about pricing based on the package you choose.

Joomla

Best choice for: entrepreneurs striving to build complex websites and applications.
Key features: menu and cache management, publishing tools, responsive designs, tags, and custom fields.

Joomla is software for individuals and businesses who want to build powerful websites and share valuable content with a wide audience. The platform is flexible, allowing users to access thousands of verified third-party extensions, custom layouts, language overrides, custom CSS, and more. Its editor enables users to create a blog, business website, intranet, or community website of any complexity level.

Joomla has all the needed features to edit and publish content. Its editor allows you to modify content without any coding skills or knowledge. Content versioning saves all the necessary versions of your articles and all the changes you bring to your site. Besides, you can give individual and group permissions to people who are responsible for adding and editing content on your blog.

Pricing: The price for the service varies depending on the number of websites you want to create. It might cost you between $99 and $399 yearly.

Squarespace

Best choice for: creative professionals, portfolios, and small businesses.
Key features: analytics, free custom domain name, free templates, scheduling, logo maker, and a business name generator.

Squarespace is a content management platform suitable for those who are just getting started with their brands and those who have established businesses. Its easily customizable templates allow you to build e-commerce websites that cater to customers’ needs. You can also use AI to generate product descriptions and page copy and improve productivity.

The platform has powerful analytics. It allows you to understand how users navigate through your site, where customers come from, and what keywords bring visitors to your brand. Thus, you can gain insights into site visits, unique visitors, and page views.

Pricing: The company offers a 14-day free trial. After it expires, you’ll need to choose between its paid plans, which range between $16 and $52 monthly. The pricing depends on the features, analytics, payment options, and other factors.

WordPress

Best choice for: blogs, small businesses, and large websites.
Key features: intuitive dashboard, full customization, built-in SEO, e-commerce capabilities.

WordPress software helps you create a website for your business and expand to new geographies and niches. With its block editor, you can use drag-and-drop tools to organize your content based on your requirements. To kickstart the development of your website, you can choose one of the pre-built templates and customize it to match your purpose. The service enables you to add videos and other types of media in good resolution to satisfy site visitors.

With the platform, you can assign individual and group permissions to specific articles and blog posts. This way, you can let specific team members add and edit content on your website. You can easily specify who can read, write, modify, and access articles.

Pricing: WordPress offers a free plan that users can access after registration. The platform also offers different paid plans, which vary depending on business size and pricing. The cheapest plan for personal needs is $4,12, while an e-commerce plan costs $46,40.

Craft CMS

Best choice for: mid-sized and large businesses, NGOs, and eCommerce companies.
Key features: multiple authors, bulk inline editing, live preview, asset and user management.

Craft CMS is a content management system that suits beginners because of its intuitive interface and customizable backend. With the service, you are not limited in the number of people who access content because you can have multiple authors. Additionally, it provides inline editing of all visible elements. You can give individual and group permissions to specific articles and blog posts. When you create and edit content in Craft CMS, you can use the live preview option. It helps you get a preview URL and see all the progress.

With the localization feature, you can translate and localize content for the different languages your site customers speak. This applies to entire projects. It results in better customer experiences and higher satisfaction.

Pricing: The service is free for individuals. However, if you have a large team, it will cost between $279 and $399 per project.

Drupal

Best choice for: marketers, designers, and content creators, large, complex, or enterprise-level websites.
Key features: seamless media integration, ready-to-use content types, built-in forms, and automatic security updates.

Drupal is a user-friendly CMS that empowers businesses with all the necessary tools to ensure excellent digital experiences for their customers. This fully composable, open-source, API-first service helps you create, edit, and organize content quickly with its ready-to-use content types. You can freely choose between its field types, including text, image, media, link, and address. Its fully customizable themes allow you to create a website that matches your company style and business purpose.

With this service, collaboration between teams is easy. You can set up customizable approval processes, monitor changes, and seamlessly save multiple drafts. In case someone accidentally deletes something, Drupal allows you to retrieve content.

Pricing: Contact customer service for more details about the platform’s pricing.

HubSpot CMS

Best choice for: marketers, SaaS companies, e-commerce, startups, and medium-sized companies.
Key features: premium cloud hosting, flexible themes, website analytics.

HubSpot CMS is a reliable software that allows creators and businesses to add content, drive website traffic, and bring new readers and customers. The platform offers premium cloud hosting, high-quality security features, in-depth analytics, and other content tools that ensure seamless customer experience. Its drag-and-drop editor, along with flexible themes, helps you add content to your website and organize it as needed. Creating a professional website is worry-free with HubSpot because it doesn’t require you to have coding skills or hire developers.

With the service, you don’t need to contact third parties to understand your website performance because it offers built-in analytics. This enables you to make well-thought-out decisions and encourages business growth.

Pricing: This CMS is free. However, if you need additional features, you’ll need to pay for them. The price starts at $15,46 per seat monthly if paid annually and rises to $1,515 for enterprises.

Contentful

Best choice for: large enterprises, e-commerce platforms, startups, and publishing companies.
Key features: composable content, personalization, built-in roles and permissions, AI content generator.

Contentful is a unified content management system with all the tools for creating and managing content from anywhere. With its help, you can build content models and collaborate with your editors and team members for revisions and content optimization. Since the platform is AI-powered, it means that you can launch your website quickly, create web content in minutes, and optimize your storefront for higher productivity.

A composable structure of this software allows you to create content and use it for multiple channels after repurposing. Besides, the service helps you personalize your content for site visitors without having to code.

Pricing: The platform offers a free plan covering 10 users, 2 roles, and 2 locales to explore how everything works. When you have a small team and want to manage projects and digital content, you’ll need a paid plan starting at $300 monthly.

Shopify

Best choice for: e-commerce businesses.
Key features: stock photo library, free subdomain, QR code generator, image resizer, custom domain, business name generator.

Shopify is an e-commerce platform that allows you to sell products online without boundaries locally and internationally. Whether you sell individually or as a business, the service helps you create a professional website based on your requirements. Shopify's free design themes are easily editable, meaning that you can add as many products and content as you need to cater to customers’ needs. Its WYSIWYG, a no-code builder, ensures that you can build a website and add content to stand out from the competition, all without any complications.

When you are just starting with your business, Shopify’s free tools, including Business Name Generator and Domain Name Generator will help you identify the perfect custom domain name and web address. You can do it all within one platform and prevent searching for additional services to do it.

Pricing: Shipify’s services cost $24 monthly for solo entrepreneurs. For enterprises, the platform costs $2,300 monthly because of its premium features, including custom reports and analytics, 200 inventory locations, priority 24/7 phone support, localized global selling, and more.

Ghost

Best choice for: individual content creators, bloggers, startups, small companies, and enterprises.
Key features: private content, premium themes, native SEO, paid subscriptions.

Ghost is a powerful content management system suitable for publishers, creators, businesses, and developers. This modern software allows you to build a custom website and set it up to match your branding. You can enrich your content by adding image galleries, GIFs, video, audio, products, info boxes, downloadable files, etc. The service provides SEO tools that prevent you from adding additional extensions or plugins. It has built-in XML sitemaps, canonical tags, optimized URLs, Google AMP pages, and more.

Ghost allows you to seamlessly publish and share everything you like, whether it’s photography, videos, podcasts, articles, blog posts, or any other type of content. With its powerful editing workflow, you can assign specific tasks to editors and authors. This way, your authors will be able to create new pieces of content while editors will add them to your website.

Pricing: The pricing for the paid plans varies between $9 and $199 monthly. It depends on the number of users, members, integrations, and more.

Overall, choosing a content management system is essential for seamlessly creating, editing, and publishing quality content for your website. With its help, you can monitor the performance of your articles and blog posts and optimize them for better results. Hope that our list of the best platforms will help you make the right choice.

Last Updated: 20.02.2025