CMS Stands for “Content Management System“. A CMS is a software tool that allows you to create, edit, and publish content online easily without the need for much, if any, web development knowledge. While early CMS software was used to manage documents and local computer files or post simple blogs online, most CMS systems are now designed exclusively to manage content on the Web.
So what are the top CMS platforms?
Below we have listed out our top CMS platforms for 2020.
BigCommerce
BigCommerce is a System as a Software (SaaS) CMS geared toward e-commerce companies such as Skullcandy and Toyota ust BigCommerce.
BigCommerce provides 12 free responsive templates and over 120 paid templates to choose from to build your online store, you can then further customise these using HTML and CSS. You can also customise the checkout page and mobile UI.
BigCommerce lets you add and manage new products, process orders, manage inventory, integrate with various payment providers, set up a blog, and integrate email marketing platforms. BigCommerce also enables you to sell your products on eBay, Amazon, and Google Shopping as well as integrate with social media, allowing you to sell across multiple platforms furthering your reach.
BigCommerce has gone quite head-on with Shopify in terms of its pricing. Its essential price plans range between $29.95-$299.95 per month. For pricing regarding enterprise requirements, you can get in touch with them.
Shopify
Like BigCommerce, Shopify is an e-commerce platform. As well as being able to integrate Shopify with other platforms such as WordPress, it also has its own CMS for e-commerce sites.
Shopify offers a web domain, SSL certificate, and web hosting services with all their plans. Shopify provides free and premium themes that are categorised according to the inventory size, layout preferences, and your company niche. You can also edit these with HTML and CSS.
You can set up your blog, integrate social media platforms, manage inventory, optimise the website from the SEO perspective, and integrate Google Analytics to track the store’s performance.
The plans range between $29-$299 per month, and you have to get in touch with them if you have enterprise-level requirements.
Joomla
Joomla is a widely used free and open-source CMS. Over 2.5 million websites use Joomla as its CMS.
Joomla is a powerful CMS if your content strategy involves a diverse content mix. The CMS is mobile-friendly as a default, supports multilingual websites, provides multi-level user permissions allowing you to give your employees access to edit only certain aspects of the website.
Joomla provides a vast set of features without the need for third-party integrations/extensions.
When comparing to WordPress and other CMS such as Squarespace or Wix, Joomla comes with a steep learning curve and is not beginner-friendly. It does however, provide comprehensive documentation and video training classes if you’re willing to go at it on your own.
Wix
With Wix, you can either build your website from the ground up or pick a design from their collection of 500 readymade theme templates. The VIP plan offers a custom domain name (Free for the first year), personalised email, web hosting, analytics, contact management, and an SSL certificate and up to 50BG storage.
One of the strongest aspects of Wix is its large range of features that make it easy for almost anyone to set up a website. For instance, an online store can accept payments via multiple methods, provide coupons and discounts, and track orders in real-time. Similarly, restaurants can create menus, set up online ordering, and let users book a table through the website.
Umbraco
Built upon Microsoft’s .NET Framework, Umbraco is a completely free, Open Source CMS.
You’re in good company with Umbraco CMS. There are over 500,000 websites powered by Umbraco CMS, from startups and charities to global brands and fortune 500 companies. The likes of Carlsberg, Sony and Heinz all use Umbraco.
Umbraco can be hosted on any Windows Server but if you’d prefer to remove the stress of managing and setting up your own website hosting then Umbraco offer an amazing hosting solution called Umbraco Cloud.
One of the main advantages of Umbraco is the ability to manage multiple websites within one Umbraco installation.
WordPress
WordPress started as a blogging platform and has now grown into a full-blown CMS platform to the extent that 35% of the active websites now use WordPress. In 2016 alone, nearly 600 million blog posts were published and over 450 million amounting to a staggering 117 billion words published on the platform.
While WordPress offers a variety of free themes, you can also buy third-party themes or build your own from scratch, given that you have the coding knowledge to do so. WordPress lets you use plugins to help you extend its feature set and integrate different applications with the website to automate the workflow.
One key concern with WordPress is that it has been notorious for its security vulnerabilities. Therefore, if you choose to go with WordPress, make sure that you update the CMS and plugins regularly. There are also security plugins such as Wordfence which offers great WordPress security, including an endpoint firewall and also malware scanning.
To close off
These are just a few of the many great CMS platforms available on the market. Some of the unmentioned include Drupal, Magento and Squarespace.
Which one you choose depends on what you require it for and the level of CMS/code knowledge that you already have.
If you have any questions about choosing the right CMS platform for your business, send us a message on Facebook or email us here.
