CMS Platforms: Top 10 Options

A content management system (CMS) is nothing more than web-based software that allows you to create content-oriented websites such as blogs, e-commerce websites, portfolios, and more.

These types of platforms are unpredictable when regularly adding content to a website, in part because they allow you to maintain complete websites without needing to be a knowledgeable or expert in the field.

Based on this, we have taken a look at more than 30 of the CMS platforms most popular to find the best one. So keep reading and find out which ones are the most recommended today.

What are the best CMS platforms for websites?

The goal of any web CMS is to present content to a website's audience. Most CMSs have a back-end (administrator-facing) and a front-end (user-facing). The back-end is where you add and manage content, adjust the website's appearance, and expand functionality. The front-end is what your audience sees when they visit the site.

Some CMSs, called “headless” CMSs, forgo the interface in favor of providing an API that feeds content into an existing website. These require a lot more expertise to set up, as you often need to build your own interface.

For our roundup, we focused primarily on traditional CMS platforms in the pursuit of ease of use. All of the platforms we evaluated allow you to create, publish, and manage text, photos, and videos, and embed other content or features.

Other important factors we consider:

• User Management
• Plugins and extensible feature sets
• Themes

There are hundreds of different CMS platforms available on the web, and many of them provide very similar functionality. This roundup favors easy-to-use platforms that are within reach of the average web user. Our picks are based on each platform's unique appeal.

Top 10 CMS Platforms

As we mentioned, we prepared a list of the 10 best CMS platforms currently available, so take note of each one and put them to the test.

1.- WordPress.org

Wordpress WordPress.org is the most popular CMS by quite a margin, with about a third of all websites powered by WordPress. WordPress.org is the free and open-source variant, and rose to fame thanks to its famously simple installation process.

It is the simplest CMS out there. Having so many users has resulted in a plethora of plugins and themes, both premium and free. Both plugins and themes can be browsed, tested, and installed from the admin area.

Due to the immense popularity of WordPress, it is doubly important to keep the software up to date and safe from potential hackers.

Over the years, WordPress has added more and more features. For that reason, it's not necessarily the most lightweight CMS you'll ever use, but it's still one of the best.

2.- WordPress.com

If you like the look of WordPress but don't know where to start, it might be worth it iTry it with WordPress.comThis is the commercial arm of the WordPress project, providing users with pre-hosted WordPress blogs, which function in the same way as the self-hosted version. However, unlike the self-hosted version, WordPress.com locks some functionality behind a paid system.

You can sign up and blog for free, but you'll need to subscribe if you want to do basic things like add a custom domain name, heavily customize the design, or monetize the site. To install plugins and themes or remove WordPress.com branding, you'll need a commercial subscription.

Support for multiple users is possible by inviting other WordPress.com users to your team. There are dozens of free themes available, or you can upgrade to Premium and choose from unlimited premium themes. No technical knowledge is required at all, and users on the Personal plan and above get technical support via email.

3.- Drupal

Drupal WordPress is one of the main competitors, although it is often used in different applications. It is free and open source, which means you will need to host it yourself on an Apache server running PHP, connected to a database.

Drupal is primarily used by developers to create enterprise-grade digital experiences, especially for high-traffic websites.

Drupal's Enterprise CMS version specifically addresses these needs, providing everything in the core Drupal package along with ready-to-use modules for multi-site setups, content moderation workflows, plus document and asset management capabilities.

Drupal uses “blocks” to add content to its interface and “modules” to add more functionality to your site. Taking a bare-bones approach to development allows you to add only the features you need, rather than including features you won’t use and which can slow down your site (WordPress is guilty of this).

There are over 40.000 modules to choose from and the number of applications is huge. Add modules to improve URL routing, install a new WYSIWYG editor, view analytics from the backend, and much more. Over 2500 themes available eliminate the need to code or design your own using a theme framework like Bootstrap .

Remember that Drupal is a complex tool with a steep learning curve. If you're a developer who knows what you're doing, or have a team of developers at your disposal, Drupal can be amazing. For small blogs and personal projects, it may be overkill.

4.- Ghost

Ghost Ghost was founded in 2013 based on a successful Kickstarter campaign, making it one of the newer CMS platforms around today. You can download and install Ghost on your own server if it meets the requirements, or you can pay for a Ghost (Pro) subscription and save yourself time and hassle.

It's easy to customize almost every aspect of your website on the back-end, with a modern built-in theme gallery. The user interface is clean and responsive, and you can access all the important stuff with a single click, from posts to static pages, tags to organize content, and other contributors who will be using your site.

Ghost uses “integrations” to refer to what other CMSs call plugins or extensions. These allow you to connect other products like Zapier, Slack, Disqus, or Google’s Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP) to your site. Google with a few clicks.

Despite Ghost’s somewhat limited appeal as a publishing platform primarily, it allows you to greatly expand your possibilities through integrations with services like Shopify (e-commerce), Intercom (customer support), and Mailchimp (newsletters).

The self-hosted version of Ghost is much harder to set up than a tool like WordPress. It's much easier to opt for Ghost (Pro), though be aware of the limitations. The basic package offers 100,000 visits per month for up to two users, which may limit the scope of your project.

5.- ButterCMS

ButterCMS is a headless CMS, meaning it has no interface. Its main goal is to simplify the process of adding a CMS or blogging engine to your existing website. That means you'll have to build your website from scratch or have someone help you do it. The CMS then pushes your content to your site.

Implementing ButterCMS requires a few lines of code that can be written in Ruby, JavaScript, PHP, C#, and other languages. ButterCMS offers you a headless CMS, allowing you to add content to an existing website.

You can use ButterCMS to manage an entire library of content of any type, or simply as a blogging engine for an instant branded blog optimized for SEOThe system supports posts, static pages, and content collections that can be customized to your needs.

There is also a solid media library to make images, audio files, PDF and other downloads are available for your audience.

As a full-featured CMS, Butter provides a wealth of advanced features including custom page types, a content delivery network (CDN) for assets, localization support, a staging environment, webhooks, and multisite support.

It's not "extendable" in the same sense as WordPress or Drupal, but it already comes with many of the features that users would turn to extensions for.

Despite the obvious technical skill required to build a front-end, ButterCMS has one of the simplest back-ends of any headless platform. It is aimed at users who value the flexibility of a CMS or blogging engine who don't want the hassle of setting up and maintaining a CMS themselves.

6.- Grav

grav is a lightweight CMS that uses a flat file architecture. That means you don't need a separate MySQL database or similar to use Grav. Everything is stored in a single file on your server.

This makes Grav one of the easiest CMS platforms to install and configure, as you just need to unzip and go. It also greatly simplifies the process of backing up your CMS. Grav stores everything as a single file, making it incredibly lightweight.

Due to its flat file nature, Grav is best suited for smaller projects. databases Flat file formats can become unwieldy and inefficient when handling large amounts of data. Grav is so lightweight that even its back-end admin dashboard is optional.

The developers designed the admin panel to be intentionally limited so as not to overwhelm less technical users. It's an easy way to interact with Grav, but developers and advanced users will still want to get more hands-on with the code.

The CMS uses the storage in smart caching to achieve a high level of performance, although this also depends on the hardware from your server.

Grav comes with a media library that natively supports most image, video, and audio formats out of the box. An image processor running within Grav makes it easy to resize, crop, resample, and add effects and filters to your images. There is an extensive plugin gallery at the heart of the CMS, and a well-populated theme gallery.

In addition to being easy to implement, Grav is also a pleasure to use thanks to its accessible approach to back-end UI and content management.

7.- Webflow

Do you want to design a website with integrated CMS but don't know how? Webflow is a tool that will guide you through the entire process. Start with a template or blank canvas and build your website using the visual editor. Select website elements from the sidebar, then place them into your design.

One of those elements is the CMS. With the tools available, it's easy to design your CMS around the content you need to display. Define custom fields yourself or choose a template to get started.

You can even create dummy content to test your CMS before populating it with real content. At any time, you can press the button preview at the top of the screen to test your site.

You can invite contributors to add content to your CMS without giving them access to the site designer. There is no unified media library, but it's easy to add images while designing your site or creating content.

It's all very easy to use, but there's an element of hidden depth here that developers will love, such as access to the Webflow API and the ability to create custom code blocks.

It's even possible to edit content directly on the live site, as long as you're logged in. Webflow also integrates with other services like Zapier, Mailchimp, and Typeform for expanded functionality.

8.- Squarespace

If your main goal is to get a website with integrated CMS online as quickly as possible, try SquarespaceAnother all-in-one package, Squarespace speeds up the process of building your website with its rich library of customizable templates.

You can choose your template based on the type of website you're creating, including eCommerce, business, a professional portfolio, a community site, or a basic blog.

You can also customize these themes to your liking by changing the layout, color, branding, and more. You can even add custom CSS if you need to make more drastic changes. Despite its reputation as an instant website builder, Squarespace functions as a CMS platform.

It supports multiple users with a robust permissions system, allowing you to review collaborators' content before it is published instead of sharing credentials.

Squarespace is also the only CMS on this list capable of adding content from native mobile apps to iOS y AndroidIt also integrates with Unsplash to provide an instant library of images to use as you wish. There's no local media library to speak of, and it can't host videos, but you can embed them from sites like YouTube.

9.- PageKit

PageKit It has the look and feel of a premium product while being completely free and open source. It’s probably the most user-friendly CMS in this entire roundup, and it’s thanks to the crisp responsive design that permeates both the back-end and the front-end.

Being a free project, PageKit requires you to host it on your own Apache server running PHP, with a MySQL database.

PageKit has a built-in marketplace, offering free and premium extensions and themes. You can expand PageKit's capabilities with extensions such as form builders, analytics tools, and galleries. There are around 30 themes to choose from, most of which are free to download and use.

10.- Textpattern

text pattern Textpattern can be used to create a wide range of websites, portfolios, business websites, product showcases, and blogs. It's not particularly suited to e-commerce out of the box, but there are around 1,000 mods, plugins, and templates available that greatly expand what Textpattern can do.

Since Textpattern is a free download, you'll need to host it on your own Apache server running PHP with a MySQL database.

There is also a file manager to manage the downloadsUnfortunately, there is currently no way to easily search for themes, but a dedicated Textpattern theme website will be available soon which should make finding and applying themes fairly straightforward.

For more adventurous projects, Textpattern provides complete control over all aspects of HTML and CSS. It's also multisite ready and comes with robust templating options to display your content however you want, as long as you know what you're doing.

Conclusions

All of the platforms we include allow you to set roles or privileges that define what each user can do. This means that if you're running a blog, you can set appropriate privileges to prevent contributors from posting content directly. You can then assign permission to editors to review others' work and publish content live on your site.

Since a CMS is web software, some expertise is required for initial setup. Typically, this is little more than checking that you meet minimum server requirements, setting up a database, and running a script installation. For those included in our summary, no webmaster or special experience should be required to use or maintain the CMS.

Ultimately, the most suitable CMS will depend on the content you present and your skill level. The best advice is to figure out what you want to achieve and then tailor the tool to your skills.