Here are four examples of websites built using CMSs. In this article well also go over different criteria that you should keep in mind when selecting one for your company and explore various platforms until finding one which meets all of your requirements.
What to Look for When Choosing a CMS Platform
No need to create your site from scratch when the right tools provide fast and straightforward solutions that offer seamless experiences to users and visitors alike.
Tools used for building websites fall into two main categories: CMS platforms and website builders.
Both offer pre-designed templates and extensions to quickly customize a customized site; however, their approaches differ substantially in building and maintaining websites read below to discover which option best meets your website building and maintenance needs!
CMS vs Website Builder
Website builders provide both website-building tools and hosting under one umbrella, making the transition simpler for users who require both.
A website builder enables you to personalize the appearance, purchase domains and add advanced multimedia elements like animations or scrolling effects; all while hosting providers take care in maintaining security measures including backups.
By choosing website builders over CMS platforms with advanced features and customization options, users must give up some flexibility for ease of use.
Website builders are ideal for users such as agencies, artists or restaurants wanting to quickly build image-rich sites quickly.
CMSs allow for greater customization and advanced features, giving you greater control of how you customize and run your website.
They enable you to fully personalize the look of your site completely, incorporate multimedia in posts, categorize/tag content accordingly and manage multiple users and edit underlying code with greater ease compared to conventional approaches; though setting one up takes more time initially but over time youre capable of developing complex sites more easily than ever.
The Criteria For Choosing A Cms
Attune your CMS platform with your companys goals and needs is of great significance, from ease-of-use and customizability, through security, pricing and market presence (which brands use it).
An expensive platform may meet all your functional requirements but may cost significantly more. A cheaper platform that requires ongoing maintenance or modification to fit into your requirements might not be optimal either.
Easy of Use
An effective CMS should be easy for everyone on your team to use; its usability has a profound effect on workflows and adoption rates.
A platform designed with user friendliness in mind will make all members happy!
Content marketers and developers both need access to your CMS backend for daily work tasks, so ideally your CMS platform should offer both WYSIWYG editor for creating quick content creation quickly, as well as Modules so developers can add code quickly.
Customizability
CMS Hub offers both ease of use and customization - the two key factors when looking for the ideal CMS solution.
With tons of flexibility available at any moment in time, CMS Hub can meet both demands perfectly!
Look at the customization features of your CMS dashboard and its extensions; as well as whether or not editing code can be enabled.
Most platforms allow for theme customization if limited development resources exist while web developers often can add advanced features as needed to your branding experience.
The Security of Your Own Home
As its essential that your website, its content, and users remain safe, it is crucial that the platform chosen provides adequate protection.
Consider what role this platform will play in protecting your site as well as how you can contribute towards this effort - manually backing up, upgrading software/addons with enhanced security features or purchasing an SSL certificate should all help in keeping things safe.
Here are a few key considerations when comparing CMS systems: If you dont yet know the best ways to secure your website or have limited time available to devote, searching for one with advanced security protocols might be best.
Pricing
Budget plays a pivotal role in every business decision, which means your CMS should meet both expectations and needs while fitting comfortably within your budget.
Upgrade options provide further opportunities to tailor it specifically to the way your business evolves - like customizable features they allow the CMS to grow alongside it.
Presence on the Market
Filter CMS platforms further by looking at their most successful clients, both major brands and competitors in your sector.
If reputable firms in your industry utilize one CMS, chances are its features could benefit both credible businesses as well as your own company as it grows over time. Maybe your current CMS doesnt meet all your needs or you would simply like more insight into other brands CMS strategies; perhaps by exploring websites or platforms used by these competitors you might gain some ideas for content strategy planning within your own sector.
These criteria may appear in different order to you when selecting a CMS solution to support and expand your business.
Below we take a closer look at some of the leading systems with respect to ease-of-use, customization capabilities, security provisions and price in order to help make an informed decision when making this choice.
What Is The Best Content Management System To Choose?
WordPress
WordPress was initially developed as a blogging platform but has grown into one of the worlds most widely-used CMS.
Thanks to its open-source nature - featuring article and blog publication features like this! - and intuitive website themes, WordPress makes an excellent option for small businesses that may lack design experience but nonetheless want their presence online.
WordPress offers web editors and developers numerous customization options, tailored specifically towards those without programming experience.
Through the dashboard, WordPress users are easily able to personalize their websites settings for permalinks or edit its appearance as needed - or add blog posts.
Gutenbergs drag-and-drop interface enables you to build media-rich web pages quickly without depending on plugins or custom code for creation.
In order to extend WordPress further - for instance to display random posts in your sidebar - however you will still require installing and configuring plugins or adding code manually into files in your files - although developers might find this solution ideal as it impedes their ability to develop complex sites with advanced functionalities.
WordPress boasts one of the widest selections of themes and plugins for customizing website designs, offering more than 57,000 plugins in their official directory and 31,000 themes from third-party marketplaces and the repository.
When installing these extensions onto your site, make sure theyre updated, compatible, and current; otherwise they could pose security threats that are best avoided!
Hackers and malicious users have the capability of attacking any CMS, with those featuring outdated code being particularly susceptible.
As evidenced, 49% of all infected WordPress websites used an older version than 2018s update; plugin vulnerabilities also increase vulnerability further - being responsible for over half of known hacking entry points!
WordPress, as an open-source software application, is free for download; however, domain registration, hosting fees and premium themes/plugins that are added can cost between $100-400 annually to maintain and build upon - according to Website Build Expert an average website costs $200 with monthly management fees between $11-40 being required depending on complexity.
WordPress is an extremely popular Content Management System (CMS). Many popular blogs utilize it; TechCrunch for example regularly posts articles and videos pertaining to tech on its WordPress-powered site, with one large story sitting prominently at the center and text headlines for other pieces scattered about.
In addition, its layout offers space for ads.
WordPress CMS excels at content creation, delivery and caching - hence why 25% of websites run off WordPress today.
Honestly speaking: our team simply cant compete against such an enormous community as that surrounding it!
Drupal
Drupal is an open-source CMS intended for marketers, developers and agencies, designed specifically to address high traffic or large amounts of data sites.
While Drupal may offer powerful CMS capabilities for marketers and agencies, only developers with experience using HTML, PHP and CSS will have access. As it requires additional time for setup than its WordPress equivalent does.
Drupal comes close to matching WordPress when it comes to its impressive selection of templates and add-ons, boasting 46,000 free modules in their repository and thousands of themes available for download.
Drupal modules and themes can also be configured according to individual preference - unlike many WordPress themes or plugins which cannot. As long as you possess sufficient coding expertise, then using these resources you can build your site quickly.
Drupals 40-member community group releases security and bug fixes every month as well as larger updates every year, but these do not happen automatically for website owners to keep pace.
If they forget, malicious users and hackers could target any outdated areas not maintained adequately resulting in cybercrime attacks on these poorly protected assets. As with WordPress, Drupal open source code is free for download; however the costs involved with building and managing a Drupal website tend to be greater for those without technical know-how.
Drupal is a platform created specifically to facilitate developers. If you want a Drupal website designed and developed for you, an agency or developer must be hired; ADCI estimates the costs can range between $15,000 - $42,000 depending on its size.
ADCI also estimated costs associated with customizing and implementing websites can range between $14000-44200 depending on their complexity and implementation costs can go as high as 45% depending on its scope and scale of customization/implementation for businesses of varying size.
Joomla
Joomla was developed to fill the void between Drupal and WordPress as an open-source CMS, offering both flexibility and usability in equal measures.
Joomla offers more features out-of-the-box than many open source CMS. You can create and manage custom post types with templates or themes; configure website settings; alter banners; or manage menus and articles easily all while being managed from one centralized interface.
Your website requires constant backend work to function, making the learning curve of Joomla more difficult for newcomers than it might initially appear.
Experienced web designers may build more complex sites from day one thanks to Joomlas robust set of built-in features or one of over 6000 extensions available from its official directory that add functionality and greater control - or both!
Joomlas main vulnerabilities lie within its code, where flaws allow attackers to inject shellcode and gain administrative privileges.
Joomla has released regular security patches over time; however, due to an incomplete automatic update functionality there remains more opportunity for hackers to exploit known vulnerabilities; Sucuri reported that 90% of infected websites in 2019 ran an outdated version of Joomla.
Joomla websites are much like other platforms in that you need to pay for domain, hosting, theme and upkeep expenses - however these costs tend to be slightly more costly on Joomla compared to WordPress but less than Drupal.
Overall, CMS2CMS data shows that operating a Joomla website will cost between $700 and $6,500.
Shopify
Shopify is an ecommerce hosted platform designed to assist online merchants manage and set up an entire store with ease.
Utilizing Shopify makes running an e-store just as straightforward as running one through WordPress, though with less control over appearance or appearance as desired and various security/management features available to merchants.
Shopify can be an ideal option if you are just getting into business or dont want to devote the resources or time necessary for designing every aspect of your site.
Shopifys features can quickly set up your shop: these include blogging tools, customer reviews and payment options that are ready and waiting. Plus it features recovery of abandoned carts, analytics web traffic data management as well as product data - with regular software updates automatically handled as part of managing it daily!
Shopifys code is proprietary and cannot be modified; thus limiting customization options; however it offers over 5,700 apps including 70 themes; this limited selection contrasts starkly to CMS platforms offering thousands.
Your store must meet PCI Compliance in order to sell online and accept Visa, Mastercard, American Express Discover credit cards.
With Shopify you dont need to invest time and money obtaining PCI Level 1 compliance as its stores are PCI compliant by default - plus security concerns are handled automatically, website backup is managed manually and software stays up-to-date automatically! Shopify offers three paid plans starting from $29 monthly that include web hosting, SSL certification and subdomain (yourname.shopify.com); while custom domain names will incur extra charges.
Upgrade to Shopify for $79 per month if you require additional seats, advanced features like gift cards or additional reports and analytics capabilities; upgrade further for $299 and unlock additional seats, analytics features and payment processing discounts - prices: $29, $79 or $299 monthly respectively
Magento
Magento from Adobe provides store owners who understand technology almost limitless possibilities when building online stores.
There are two versions: Magento Open Source and Magento Commerce; below we focus on self-hosted Magento Open Source as its very similar to Drupal: highly flexible with plenty of customizability to help create the site you need; although taking time to understand all its features might take more experience in web development than initially.
Imagine you have explored Magento and want to expand upon its features for your own website. Magentos Extensions Marketplace makes this possible; any one of its 3,800 available add-ons can be integrated or installed easily using this resource.
Furthermore, Magento releases patches regularly that fix vulnerabilities found within its source code; with their Security Scan Tool alerting your dashboard of these fixes as soon as they become available.
Patches and updates must be manually installed, making this an arduous process for site owners with little time and resources to devote.
Research reveals that website owners with insufficient time or resources expose their stores to hackers; 87% of Magento websites were outdated at the time of infection; their open-source version can be downloaded free; however premium themes/apps cost more than WordPress counterparts due to Magentos complexity making customizing and setting it up more challenging than WordPress solutions.
These variables determine the total cost to build and manage a Magento Store, with basic stores starting from $20,000 up to $40.000 in basic Magento hosting; enterprise versions such as Magento Commerce cost an annual subscription of $22,000 annually for fully hosted premium hosting; the typical custom website development or redesign costs around $20,000.
Magnolia
Magnolia is an all-in-one, headless system designed to manage multiple sites, languages and channels of digital experiences across a range of mediums.
Magnolia buyers have two service delivery options to select: client hosted or cloud service. Cloud options enable companies to rapidly launch projects without devops assistance while client hosted options enable companies to develop Java integrations on their own infrastructure.
Magnolias interface may be easy for beginners to grasp, yet is less intuitive than other CMSs like WordPress. Magnolia provides tutorials to assist newcomers get up and running as quickly as possible and cloud hosting will often prove the more intuitive solution when used by individuals without technical know-how.
Magnolia stands out as an impressive solution due to its flexibility. Adapting to various business requirements with plug-and-play option being ideal for beginners while organizations that possess developer resources or wish to experiment will find many ways to customize Magnolia site using Java customization capabilities allowing workflow customization, server filter creation and customized user interface design; plus integrations with React, Amazon S3 and Google Analytics as a whole!
Magnolias security relies on Java Authentication and Authorization Service standards designed to standardize authentication and authorization practices.
Every time someone accesses any webpage, document or data source they will always be checked against this list to see who has permissions and access. Magnolia provides a security application which helps manage permissions and give access. In terms of optimal protection it recommends running Apache Web Server or another proxy prior to running an application server for best performance and results.
Magnolia CMS uses a quote-driven pricing system tailored to the unique requirements of your business. In order to receive one, please speak directly with them for a personal consultation session.
Atlassian used Magnolia CMS extensively when they launched and rebranded their international website utilizing features like its built-in translator and template features as well as editing campaigns without developer assistance prior to publishing content directly onto a platform like Magento CMS.
Optimizely
Optimizely is best known for their A/B testing features; however, their suite of tools for marketers has expanded since they acquired Episerver last year.
Episerver acquired Optimizely to form their Optimizely cloud tool which empowers content editors with creating visually appealing articles quickly for sharing to others while developers use this method for quickly creating sites or pages quickly.
Optimizelys visual editor is simple yet effective, using WYSIWYG technology like Magnolia to display exactly how the website will appear to visitors while editing page elements with just two clicks.
Plus, its headless and flexible nature means it supports an endless number of platforms, designs and devices! Optimizely is perfect for supporting an infinite range of platforms, designs and devices!
Optimizelys feature flag makes launching new website-wide features with one click quick, but should the launch be unsuccessful you have options such as killing switch.
Rollouts can target either specific audience segments or your entire target audience and optimizely tools allow for the creation and customization of projects of all sorts; whether brand new launches or testing an existing one. Transport Layer Security encryption secures communications between Optimizely users; an incentive program exists for reporting security problems related to its product.
Optimizelys employees must also utilize two-factor authentication and single sign-on in order to gain access to any information your company stores with them, providing double protection from external as well as internal threats.
You may select from various packages but please reach out directly for pricing - although all features of each package work together harmoniously but may not meet every need you might have.
Absolut opted to switch from Content Cloud to Optimizely in order to eliminate server maintenance costs, reduce launch times and become more flexible with its Content Cloud technology, as well as launch websites more rapidly by managing all content centrally within one platform.
Optimizelys Content Cloud enabled both marketing and development teams to easily manage all their assets within a central hub while simultaneously launching websites faster with limited resources required for deployment.
Conclusion
Your company can select a Content Management System (CMS) best tailored to its own specific requirements; no "best CMS" exists that would suit all websites equally well.
An ideal platform should provide all of the tools your team requires in managing content efficiently while ultimately offering visitors an enjoyable website experience.
