Which CMS should I use for my website?
Website is an essential part of a business and it involves everyone in the company to create digital content for the site. It sounds like a lot of work and is time-consuming, so how do you create a website that allows everyone to access and add/edit content efficiently? Also, if they do not have technical knowledge, how are they going to work on the website?
Answer: Use a Content Management System (CMS).
What is a CMS?
A Content Management System (CMS) is a software that helps users create, manage, and modify content on a website without the need for specialized technical knowledge, according to Kinsta.
Normally, websites are written in codes and the most common types are HTML, CSS and JavaScript languages. This means that you will need to learn how to code in order to build a website. However, with CMS, it allows you to build a website without having to code from scratch.
How does CMS work?
Essentially, a Content Management System is made up of two parts:
The Content Management Application (CMA): This allows users to add, edit and work with content directly on the website.
The Content Delivery Application (CDA): This is the back-end process that takes the content you have added in the CMA, and displays it for visitors to see.
Together, they make it easy for you to create your own website.
4 Types of CMS
Here, we will discuss 4 popular content management systems that we have tried and tested before.
Wordpress.org
WordPress is one of the most popular CMS and it powers around 35% of all websites. It is an open-source software and it's free for anyone to use. However, do not confuse Wordpress.org with Wordpress.com. They are two different tools; Wordpress.org is a free open-source CMS designed for blogging but it's used by all kinds of websites and online stores now. Whereas Wordpress.com is a blog hosting platform. You can look at the full list of differences here.
In terms of benefits, Wordpress.org allows you to customize your website according to your own needs and they have loads of themes and plugins for you to choose from. This means that you do not have to hard code it. It is also SEO-friendly and is one of the most affordable options out there.
However, you have to set up your own domain and hosting separately and find a hosting provider that is suitable for your website. This might be a hassle to some because, for those who do not know anything about creating a website, they would not know where to find the hosting provider. Plus, hosting is done on different platforms and is harder to manage than having it on one platform like Webflow, Squarespace and Wix.
Wordpress.org works best for big companies as it is easier for them to hire someone to manage their website. Also, they tend to customise their website a lot so this will be the best option for them. Relatively, WordPress is suitable for all so if you enjoy the freedom of customising your website, you can definitely try it out!
Webflow
Webflow is another popular CMS that is used by many creatives and corporate companies. As shown on the website, the software empowers designers to build professional, custom websites in a completely visual canvas with no code. Their purpose is to eliminate the need to code a website while uncompromising on its capabilities.
Webflow gives you more design flexibility and its animation capabilities makes your site look interesting and engaging to viewers. It also offers thousands of free templates that you can choose from. Another benefit is that it lets you modify and customise your site to different screen sizes easily. This will be beneficial to you as most people view websites from their mobile devices nowadays.
Although there is a learning curve when you are first exposed to the software, but once you are used to it, it is pretty intuitive and easy to use. Also, the plans are quite pricey so please choose wisely!
If you want the same design flexibility WordPress offers (such as creating your website design from scratch completely) but want to see how your site looks while you build it without having to code, Webflow is the one for you. It is best suited for UI/UX designers, agencies, startups, micro-sites and front-end developers.
Squarespace
Squarespace used to be one of the top content management systems that allows you to build a website easily. But, with Webflow and Wordpress as their competitors, they have not caught up with their own capabilities and design flexibility.
As a drag-and-drop website builder, the tool is very beginner-friendly and gives you the ability to add pre-build elements of the website based on the theme of your choice, for instance, adding an extra blog section at the bottom of your site. They also offer plenty of design templates for you to choose from and hosting is also included on Squarespace when you subscribe to their plan.
But, it has less freedom in customisation in terms of adding and shifting elements around, as compared to Wordpress and Webflow. It is also not easy to customise the look of your website on mobile screens.
All in all, Squarespace is more suited for those who want a professional look for their website but do not want to spend loads of time on building it.
Wix
Similar to Squarespace, Wix is also a website builder that lets users create a website easily. It has customisable templates and features that are relevant to different industries. It is also a cheaper option and lets you try it out for free.
Though Wix is a great tool for beginners, its lack of flexibility to customise the look and feel of the website for mobile screens is one of its biggest downsides. According to Statista, about half of web traffic worldwide comes from mobile devices and this is why you should go with a CMS that allows you to customise the look and feel for all screens easily. From our past experience with clients' websites that are being built with Wix, their loading speed tends to be slow and this has caused users to exit the website instead of waiting for the website to load. Its drag-and-drop function can also limit your creativity on the design of your website.
Overall, Wix is suited for small businesses, creatives and beginners so you do not need to have technical knowledge to build a website, you can just use Wix.
In conclusion, our go-to CMS are WordPress, Webflow and Squarespace. All the CMS options we talked about are great softwares to use with plenty of features, ultimately it is still up to you to decide which CMS is suitable for your site. You can explore the different options with the free trials and have fun!